Week 3 of Teaching in Alaska =)

What a week. I took TONS of pictures this weekend. Before I get to them, I'll talk a little bit about my week:

This week of teaching went very well. I had a few moments of frustration, but I looked back at what went wrong and asked myself, why? Once I figured out the why, I came up with some new strategies and I found success! My main problem is I like to have fun when I teach. I know that does not sound like a problem, in fact, that sounds like a GREAT thing...and it is, when the students can handle it. I am all about combining fun with learning, but when the fun becomes a distraction, it is time to eliminate it from the equation and just focus on learning; since that is the reason we are all at school in the first place. I LOVE using learning as a reward...so I always keep a few fun and easy pieces of music in the students' folders so at the end of the day, if the students were well behaved, we get to play the fun stuff! The students LOVE to play this music and I can still find teachable moments during this section of rehearsal. Attention to details, such as correct rhythms, intonation, and dynamics, are just as important in the fun & easy pieces as they are in the challenging concert literature.

The school week ended with the first "Social." A social is kind of like a dance...well, it is a dance. There was a DJ in one room, open gym for basketball and other sports in another, and in the commons area (basically the cafeteria) there were stands that sold many items full of nutritious high fructose corn syrup. It was about 2 hours of 7th and 8th graders consuming as much sugar as they could afford and running around like wild chipmunks...it was fun =)

Now for the pictures:
On Saturday, I went for a drive to photograph some of the changing colors. There are trees EVERYWHERE in Alaksa...unlike Southern Saskatchewan:






After my drive, I went back to my apartment and sat on the steps. I was waiting for one the many ground squirrels to come by and pose for a few pictures, but they were a little shy. However, I did take some cool close up shots of random things next to me. I have been enjoying sitting in one place and looking for photograph-able things. You can find beauty everywhere if you just stop and take the time to look for it =)



(this one would have been much better if the A.B.C. gum was not in the picture..oh well)




(I love this one. It is simple, but for some reason I think it is very cool. It is currently the background on my computer)

Well, there are some pictures...I am actually going to put up another post right away with another story and more even pictures from another "Saturday Adventure." I was going to put it all in one big post, but I didn't really think they flowed together well. I hope everyone scrolls down far enough to read this one =)