Andrew Looses a Tooth!

See something missing out of that already toothy grin? Probably not but...Andrew lost another tooth.

(SPOILER ALERT!...the real identity of the Tooth Fairy is revealed!)

Andrew doesn’t believe in the Tooth Fairy. His first step out of fantasy land went something like this….One night, during the summer when Andrew was staying with his dad, he lost a tooth. Bedtime came and they thought he was asleep, but he wasn’t. His Dad’s girlfriend said that she was going to the store to get some money for the Tooth Fairy. Well, Andrew heard her. When Andrew tried to clarify the comment with his dad the next morning, his dad denied it and tried to fashion some cover story. When I picked up Drew, Andrew asked me point blank if the Tooth Fairy was real. After much conversation and assessment on my part……I told him the truth. He was really bummed and asked for proof. I showed him his old teeth. I tried to soften the blow by changing the tradition, altogether. I told him I would create a treasure hunt based on clues where he would find a prize at the end…..”Sooooo much cooler than just finding money under a pillow,” I said with great conviction. So, the next time he lost a tooth, I stayed up late and created a fun, rhyming treasure hunt. The prize included a dollar and his choice of Yummy Cake. He loved it! The tradition lives on in Hoonah. This time, Andrew put Steve in charge of crafting the treasure hunt. Steve, from Anchorage, emailed me the mission and it is fun. Drew woke me up this morning at 6 am ready to go....he completed his treasure hunting tasks...a series of cleverly written mathematical rhymes that had him all over the house with giggles and snickering...he found the treasure with ease....two dollars and a pizza dinner at the Galley. Andrew said it was the best treasure hunt he had ever had!

Steve Travels to Anchorage

Steve left for Anchorage, Wednesday. He will be gone for three weeks, attending back-to- back conferences; one for the School Board, one for the Education Commission and one for Career and Technical Education Department. He called on Thursday to inform me that it was a sunny, blue-sky day and from where he was standing he had a great view of beautiful Denali mountain range. Andrew and I were going to join him, but we really need to save our pennies. So, as he boasts about the great Anchorage weather and majestic views, I sit and pout, hoping that our sacrifice will pay off someday in the form of a fun tropical vacation.

November Book Club Choice

I finished reading “Catfish and Mandala”
I have mixed feelings about this book. I love his writing style, truly lyrical .He is gifted man. He paints incredible images and tells his story the best way imaginable. I enjoyed learning about the war from his perspective. The escape of this family to America was thrilling. His detailed account of how his family managed to “thrive” in the states, despite incredible prejudice and poverty, was very enlightening. He had a very messed up family, but his wonderful honesty about his own issues and that of his family, allowed me to feel connected to him. Regarding the actual bike trip…I got weary of hearing about the all the towns he went through…by the end I found my self skimming the pages describing the landscape and outlandish poverty. It felt like the same note over and over. His recollection of familial or acquaintance conversations always included foul language and the reoccurring descriptions of his bowl movements were too much for me. This is my first time reading something like this. I have no idea how it compares to others, but overall, I learned a lot; writing wise and culturally speaking.


We have begun our next book… “Infidel”
This is memoir written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who shares her first-hand experiences and criticisms of Islam. Her style is much simpler in comparison to “Catfish,” yet in her defense she has no one to confirm or clarify her memories, because her entire family has disowned her. Four chapters in and already I am appalled and disgusted by the barbaric way women are treated in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, one example, female circumcision. Also terrible, is the way her grandmother and mother treat her in the name of religion or Allah; beating, cursing, and berating her all the time. This is not an uplifting read but an important one. Even with her life in danger she continues to fight for the rights of Muslim women. Her reason for continuing the dangerous quest, “…some things must be said…there are times when silence becomes and accomplice to injustice.”

Math "Notes"

Thursday evening the school hosted Family Math Night. Even with a bear lurking in the neighborhood, Andrew and I went (with bear spray in hand) to have fun with math.

There were six different stations. This is a picture of Andrew with his friend, Kaloni. For an hour, kids built 3-D shapes with graham crackers, frosting, marshmallows and toothpicks. They created origami boxes, tangrams art, tessellation patterns and played shape Bingo. The time flew by and we all wished it could have lasted longer.

Math at Home...It is so fun listening to Andrew remarks while he is doing his math home work, “This is cool….hey mom did you know…?” and “Ooooo, I like this one.” He has always liked math, but most so far, in his school career, the subject matter hasn’t been very challenging. Now that he is doing fourth grade math he is actually learning something and enjoying it.

Music is very mathematical and I am pleased to observe that his reaction to piano is the same as it is with his Math studies. He has arrived at the point where he is playing hands together. This union makes him so excited. He no longer has to think about the note names and his moving through his theory and the lesson books at a nice pace. He practices twenty minutes a day and never (knock on ivory) complains about it.

Steve and the boys go to Sitka for Renewable Energy Conference

Southeast Alaska and Wood Energy

Alaska continues to present itself as the last frontier. This is evidenced by the many people throughout the state that exemplify that character and completely embrace the opportunity; such is the case relative to those making changes on the local energy production front. The Tongass Futures Roundtable just this past week hosted the Southeast Alaska Wood Energy Workshop in Sitka. Among the sponsors were; The Nature Conservancy, The University of Alaska, Sitka Conservation Society, Denali Commission, and Sealaska Corporation. The workshop was a two-day give and take of great ideas and testimonials of what is and is not currently working across the country. Panels consisted of the likes of The Alaska Energy Authority, US Forest Service, Sitka Electric, Headwaters, Pacific Log and Lumber, Juneau Economic Development Council, USDA Rural Development, National Renewable Energy Laboratory from Colorado, WOW Pellets from Oregon, and the Tlingit and Haida Central Council just to name a few. Interestingly, these folks have been in the business for a while now and admit that the application of wood heating on a large scale is just now coming into its own, which may have something to do with the $5/gallon costs related to fuel up here! Judging by the audience at the workshop in Sitka, wood energy as a fuel source has found a home!

How the Hoonah School District fits into this picture is pretty straightforward. Like most of the districts here in Rural Alaska, ours is financially strapped. As I came into the dist ric t, of the first things I needed to do was find a way to keep things operating. As is typically my style, I looked hard at what might be available on the innovation front; low and behold, here was the Alaska Energy Authority announcing that they had some grant dollars to spend on alternative energy projects! Once the ball started rolling, I found a great deal of support “out there” as I spoke with the various entities that I listed above. One thing led to another, and soon there was a Hoonah group established and meeting to discuss how to move forward. We held our fi rst meeting in late September and are now well into the phase two and three portions of the 4-phase process. Four of us from Hoonah attended the Sitka workshop, and it proved an extremely worthwhile adventure. As it stands now, should things develop according to plan, which of course we know they will, our school district stands to not only save at least 50% of the fuel costs, but will allow us to add two or three very viable and authentic vocational education programs to our school. While it was said in jest at the conference, there is a lot of truth to it on many levels: Wood is a great heat source, it heats you five times – once when you cut it, once when you split it, once when you stack it, once when you load it, and finally when you burn it. I believe that I can find equally as many ways to use this project to benefit our district, and I look forward to reporting to you just how well things are going.

Tricia the Substitute

To be a substitute teacher in a rural Alaskan district, you don’t need a teaching credential. With a thorough background check, anybody can run a class. This week it was my turn.


Mr. Hutton, the music teacher, had a conference in Haines. I was the natural pick to help out because of my music background. For this first timer, he made the lesson plans very easy …Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the 6th, 7th and 8th grade class were going watch the Broadway musical “Into the Woods.” I knew the show by heart and planned to briefly talk about the differences between straight plays, musicals and operas. Easy. The lesson plan for the high school student was to watch a PBS special on Jazz. To accompany the video, Mr. Hutton had made up a very detailed study guide for them to fill out. In theory it sounded great.

Sunday night I fantasized about my dynamic interaction the students, the new found joy for musical theater and Jazz in their eyes…they would be inspired by the music to contribute to the greater good. Steve calls this my “bubble.”
Monday morning I got up, excited, humming Little Red Riding Hood’s song from “Into the Woods.” I picked out my favorite suit, did my hair, gathered my Google research, and looking professional, feeling filled with purpose, I headed to the school thirty minutes early. I carefully preset the chairs for perfect video viewing, I tested the DVD player, I lowered the shades, I set the attendance folder in an accessible spot, and waited, with a skip in my step, for the students to arrive. They came alright…hammering on one of three pianos, pounding on the drum set, tapping the solo snare drum and moving all the chairs around the room. One well-meaning student really wanted me to teach him the beginning of Beethoven’s Fur Elise. I was able to get the others off the instruments except one piano. I then showed the one student the notes to the piano song he wanted to learn. Meanwhile more kids came in thrashing about the room. This was not a good start.

Mr. Hutton gave me a behavior guide to follow, a system of negatives and positives points…but I did not have the magic touch and so many things happened so fast I couldn’t tell who was doing what. I felt like an untrained police officer sent to the front lines. They chewed gum when they weren’t supposed to chew gum. They used their cell phones when they weren’t supposed to use their cell phones. Every five minutes a student desperately had to use the bathroom or get a drink of water. I had to separate kids for talking. I had to wake one for sleeping.

My high school class wasn’t much better. One of the wrestling team members was drawing on his bicep with marker. Four girls giggled in the back row and then had the audacity to ask me for the answers to the first five questions of the study guide. One student sat through half the class then told me she didn’t even have a study guide. I am supposed to mark them down if they forget a pencil, well; three-fourths of the class forgot their pencils. Good luck trying to get that marked down. .

The next two days I was less enthusiastic, but stilled arrived overly early and dressed professionally…heals and all. The performer in me knew the show must go on. I kept the class room door locked until the first bell sounded, my solution to warding off the over zealous instrument pounders. I let them set up the chairs, informed them that there would be no leaving to go to the bathroom or getting drinks. After a quick review of the subject matter, I launched directly into the video. I still had some issues with talking during the video, but overall it was a better day. In the high school class though, it was worse. I had one student that was reading a mystery novel, refused to fill out his study guide, threw a penny at my feet and then balanced his writing board on his head.
For three days in a row, two hours a day, I was on duty. I tried my best, but found that even with such easy lesson plans and familiar content, I still had a headache when the last bell rang. I don’t like being the police, always correcting or monitoring for the bad behavior. I like to think the best of people. That is impossible when the odds are 23 to 1 and 23 are trying to break the rules.

I have always known that teaching was not in my blood. This experience confirmed it. I am a one-on-one person; Tricia teaching one voice student, Tricia talking to one black camera, Tricia singing to one music-loving audience. That is my comfort zone. I will substitute again, to help out, but I certainly know that teaching is not my calling. I’ll do the performing and I leave teaching to the stronger of spirit.

Nothing but Sweet Stuff

This year’s Halloween fun was a two day event. Thursday, Andrew’s class celebrated with a Halloween party. His teacher, Mrs. Bidiman, went all out with crafts, home-made caramel apples, Bingo and goodies bags. Plus, all the elementary school students participated in a costume parade in the gym. Ghosts, goblins, witches, princesses, fairies, Batmen and Star Wars characters strutted their stuff for the judges. One award-winning costume was presented by a 6th grader. He cut in half and fused together a McCain mask and an Obama mask, wore a suit and held a sign that said “Vote!” It was a great message and took some creativity. Andrew dressed up as Jango Fett with a one-of-a-kind jet pack from Start Wars and won most original costume for his class.

This was the first year that I didn’t catalog order or store-buy Andrew’s costume. Two reasons; the costume he wanted was $67 and cost and extra

$30 to ship to Alaska (ha!) and the second reason – the only outfits a person could buy in Hoonah involve rain boots and hunting vests. He wanted to be Anakin from Star Wars. I was going to attempt to make something Star Wars- esque from the extra material that Chris had at the Boys and Girls Club. Thankfully, Andrew was saved from my not-so-crafty talents. Chris’s nephew had a Jango Fett costume that he let Andrew barrow for Halloween. (He's the one in the blue) The costume was two sizes too big…but with all of his snow gear underneath, it fit him perfectly. My creativity was challenged when the night before school party, Andrew showed me a picture in his Stars Wars Encyclopedia of the “real” Jango Fett and his “really cool” jet pack. So, like a mom in training form the Bond School of Gizmos, the next morning I got to work fashioning a jet pack from, a backpack, two empty milk cartons, coffee filters, foil, baseball bat, cat leash (don’t ask), jump rope and a hefty amount of scotch tape.

Friday was in-service, so Andrew and I had fun playing. After a lazy morning in bed, we got up and made two pumpkin pies, melted caramel over yummy apples and finished Harry Potter book four. We had a paper airplane war and carved

scary faces in our own huge pumpkins. (Steve arrived safely home from Sitka and joined the In-service.) That afternoon the Boy’s and Girl’s Club had a Costume Party. For practicality sake, he swapped his Jango Fett down-insulated costume for camouflage gear and played the afternoon away as an Army guy. That night Steve, Andrew and I cruised the streets in the rain, Andrew eagerly ran from house to house quickly filling his bag. He was so taken with his prospects of candy gathering he said, “Wow, this is great weather.” I love his perspective. When we made it home, Andrew excitedly poured his five pounds of loot all over the kitchen table. I carefully looked it over and it was green light. Andrew proceeded to gorged himself with treats. We ended the evening by watching old re-runs of “Tool Time” and the “Cosby Show” and awarding our own Trick-or-Treaters with candy. Andrew fell asleep, after a good teeth brushing, in a sugar induced stupor mumbling about all the fun things he did that day.

Bear scare-
There was a bit of a scare this week. Two huge bears were seen in town. It is close to hibernation time and they are desperate for food. Reports say that neither of these black bears was afraid of people. On Wednesday, one bear was located and had to be put down. On Halloween night other was still roaming. We don’t have a local paper, T.V. or radio station. News has to travel by word of mouth. One of the local store owners told Steve that the police caught the second bear yet another source thought it was still out there…it is a very strange, scary feeling to be trick-or-treating knowing that any minute a 1500 pound hungry black bear could be rounding the corner looking for a sweet snack.