Inservice in Bethel

As a new teacher, we go to Bethel once a month for new teacher inservice.  This weekend we all gathered in Bethel to learn about a classroom management program.  There were about 40+ people crammed into a small meeting room.  I learned a lot, but I have no time in my life to implement any of it in my classroom.  Maybe some day soon I'll catch up....

We flew into Bethel on the mid-day flight (around 2:00pm) on Friday.  I got to skip out on the afternoon work day on Friday afternoon to wait for the plane to arrive in Nightmute.  It was only 40 minutes late... Our plane had to stop in another village before we got to Bethel.  We flew to Newtok and picked up 3 more passengers, then flew into Bethel.  There were 8 people total on our flight.  Our plane was bigger than the one we took back in September.  

Here is a picture of the plane we took to Bethel for the September inservice.  I was smushed in the very back of the plane with all of our bags.  The pilot forgot to prop up the back of the plane, so it kept tipping back as we were loading all of our stuff.  That was a lot of fun... Luckily our flight this time was much better. :)

Many of the new teachers had to sleep at the District Office, however I was lucky to stay in a dorm.  I actually had a bed to sleep in rather than a cot in the hallway of the DO.  :)  I love being able to catch up with all my new friends who teach in other villages.  I get to hear their "horror stories" and it makes me feel better about my class. 

The district was nice to provide dinner for all the new teachers on Friday night.  After dinner, we started a game of Catan.  There were so many of us playing that we didn't get to finish our game before we had to go back to the dorms.  Hopefully next time we can finish our game.  

The best part about going into Bethel for inservice, is being able to go shopping.  Sarah and I always bring back 2 or more boxes full of food when we go to Bethel.  The prices are still expensive, but they are better than in Nightmute.  

Sometimes, we borrow a cooler from our site administrator (principal).  We forgot to borrow the cooler this weekend, so we just brought 2 boxes back instead.  

We always get bread, frozen meat, cheese, and milk.  We should have gotten 2 milks right away.  We are almost out already.  I really miss milk...

I make sure I always get a very large bag of m&m's.  You can never have too many m&m's. 

(Especially when the Nightmute stores don't have them.)