Day 1: Kincaid Park

 
Ladies and gentlemen, Write Alaska is officially underway! As in previous years, Write Alaska is being joined again by Science Alaska. However, this year our little family has grown a bit- we're also welcoming Math Alaska into the fold. Sure, they only had two students yesterday, but from small beginnings… something, something.

Anyhow, we started out in the classroom. Things went pretty smoothly, if I do say so, myself. They went as smoothly as first Monday mornings are going to go, at least. Sure, I forgot that people needed Google accounts to contribute to this blog, and that their ASD accounts won't work. We'll get that figured out soon. Students were able to take a survey and the data shows that they are just insanely excited to be a part of this program. Really. 100% of students responded that they thought this class would be "Awesome!" It just warms my heart.

So, class was pretty awesome. We read a poem, we wrote about nature. It was very indicative of how the next two weeks will go. One thing we learned is that there are people who think it's alright to bring eggs to a picnic. We also had a meeting in the board room. It seemed like we spent most of the time being moved from one table to another. 

After a nice little bus ride we reached Kincaid Park. Lunch was running a little late, so we had a little activity time. First everyone made a circle and did this weird thing with their feet. It was probably awkward and uncomfortable for them, but it was great to observe from the outside. After this little activiy, we played another game. This one was called "Big Booty." Basically, the point of the game was for Kili to get embarrassed and never win. It just so happened that I was unbeatable. I really never set out to accomplish this great task, but I can't really help myself if I'm awesome.

Lunch finally arrived and it was worth the wait. I just kept eating until I started to get sick. After a month of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pizza and salad were a welcome break.

We ate then we started our real activites. There were four stations spread out around the park. Students rotated between the Human Knot, Native Youth Olympics, volleyball, and our perennial favorite Otter Steals the Fish From The Fisherman. Once again, I pretty much dominated. Others were enthusiastic, but none matched my ninja skills. By the way, we used my hat as the fish and it took a pretty hard beating. 

That was just about it for the day. We did go back to the school and reflect on our experience. Years from now, though, it will be my mad otter skills that people will be talking about. Will others rise to similar greatness in the coming two weeks? Probably not, but we'll see.