Walker Alaskan Ranger: Teacher Trip for In-Service

This week, some men from Oklahoma were in Marshall to shoot a moose so they could mount the rack. Basically, they had too much money and time on their hands. After they shot two moose, they gave one to the family that guided them and one to the teachers. We got to trim the meat off the moose and keep it! I, Molly Walker, trimmed meat off of a moose leg. I am still in shock. I have a HUGE fear of raw meat... guess I am over that!

For my birthday, the staff and teachers got together at the school for a meal consisting of moose meat, potatoes, carrots, cornbread, and cupcakes! It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with everyone. The students usually wear a crown when it is their birthday. The crowns are yellow with dinosaurs, balloons, and confetti on them! I wore that crown with glory all day (because my students were begging me to) and it said: "I'm Having a Dino-mite Birthday! I am 22 years old today!" Lol!

From Wednesday afternoon until Friday night, the teachers all went on a trip to Mountain Village for in-service. If you are a teacher, have you ever had to fly to a district-wide training? I have! It was a lot of fun getting to see all of the teachers I met in Anchorage again! I took a course on computer programs for students and a course on the Intensive Phonics program. The classes were exactly what I needed to improve my teaching and help my students~ Phonics is a difficult thing to teach in my opinion. I feel better equipped with all of the ideas I got from the classes!!!

The first night we arrived in Mountain Village, I met up with some teachers in the gym for some basketball. I am 5'2'' and have NEVER played basketball. So, they helped me and taught me how to hold the ball and shoot. The next night, we played a game of Street Basketball as they called it. It was Marshall vs. Russian Village. Marshall consisted of two 5'2" girls, two 5'10" guys, and one guy that was over 6 feet tall. Russian Mission consisted of 4 guys well over 6 feet tall and one lady who had played basketball forever and she was about 5'4" tall. Safe to say the odds were not in our favor. The game was this: anything goes unless the ball goes out of bounds and the first one to 25 points wins. The game was close. Russian Mission- 21 to Marshall- 22. After running up and down the court for over an hour straight and debating whether or not my legs would fall off before or after my lungs collapsed, Team Marshall pulled through and won with a 3 pointer from our 6 foot tall player! The crowds went wild! (Just kidding- we were the only people in the gym; however, I felt as though we were in the NBA.) I scored two baskets for the team- Who knew?! It was a lot of fun!!!

Getting ready to trim a moose

EWWW!!!! Moose legs!!!

Yuck~ We had to transport the moose legs from the truck to the cafeteria

Learning how to trim meat

Mary and Cody starting to trim their moose leg

Susan passed

I am successfully trimming moose meat without throwing up!

This was heavy... and gross.

The moose meat we had for my birthday dinner!!!

My birthday cupcakes from one of the kitchen staff ladies!!!

My crown!!!

Blowing out the candles

Muffins made from scratch with the berries we picked from the tundra!

Cody's b-day cake~ we used matches because we did not have any candles...

SMARTboard lesson with Sam!

State Trooper truck at Mountain Village

Store in Mountain Village- I bought a normal size bag of Cheetos here and a 16 ounce Coke and it cost $11.62. I wanted it though because I have not had either of those since I was in Arkansas (2 months ago). After eating/drinking just a little bit, I felt SO sick.