About Me

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My journey with the Alaska Gateway School District began in the fall of 2012. For the first two years, I was teaching the kindergarten through 2nd grade groups in Tetlin. For the next two years, I taught the same ages at another village school in Northway. In the fall of 2016, I transferred to Tok School to teach 4th grade for two years. This year I requested the third grade, as I always enjoy taking on a new grade level of students. Before moving to Tok, my background consisted of four years living in Botswana, Africa, with my husband where I taught mostly English as second language learners in grades kindergarten through fourth. Previously, we were long time Alaska residents. Most of our years in Alaska were spent living in the interior bush community of Galena, where I taught an alternative program for teens, 7th and 8th grades, Title 1 reading, and kindergarten. For a number of years before obtaining my teacher certificate, I was part of the classified support staff in addition to serving on the local school board. It has been great to be back in Alaska, and Tok has been a good fit for us.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Week 5

Weekly Greetings!

Last Friday, we ended the week watching a fun movie with grades K-5 on the events leading up to the creation of our countries Constitution using the Peanuts characters to help narrate. After the movie, everyone student got a red, white, and blue snack to help commemorate our remembrance on Constitution Day.
Leading up to the Friday event, our class studied the early Americans and the conflicts that arose from the taxation of the colonists. On Tuesday, we even did a simulation using M&Ms as currency and a King that kept heavily taxing the others with the help of a Parliament member.
 Every time taxes were increased, a tax collector went around and took more currency away from the others. If you look closely at the pictures below, you can see how unhappy the group paying taxes got over giving up their currency. Hopefully, the simulation will help the class understand how the colonist felt, and why they declared a need for independence.
The students are getting much better about staying on task when doing assignments during the day, which allows them to have some enrichment time before going home. It also gives students that have been absent, or need more time to complete work, a little time during the last 25 minutes of the day. I snapped a few pictures the other day as students played Yahtzee, worked on beading projects, and had computer time on PBS for kids. These are just a few of the enrichment choices they can choose.
Almost all the students have completed their "All About Me" posters and we all have really enjoyed each presentation. There is just one more to be finished, and then we will share the posters out in the hallway for others to see.
This week, we will continue in the Treasures reading program with the unit focus of "Growing Up". In Science we will focus on Ecosystems to prepare for our field trip to Deadman Lake on the Tetin Refuge this Thursday. Please make sure your child is on time that day, so we can leave just after breakfast. Students will also need their running shoes for the Cross Country meet in Northway that day.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

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