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, January 22, 2017

Week 23

 Weekly Greetings!

What a busy schedule we had last week! In addition to the regular curricular expectations, we were able to fit in a few extracurricular events.  The week began with the bi-weekly visit from the school councilor prompting the students to think about careers. As you can see by the photo, the group really enjoys the visits.
On Tuesday, the class competed in the district Battle of the Books competition. There we three groups of three, though one student came late and another had to compete by a computer connection as he was in Anchorage. I was very proud of all the students, and one group even took second place.
We have been fortunate to get a professional art class on Wednesdays twice a month, and last week the class worked on blending backgrounds for a new painting project. For art in class, we have also been working on a poster to enter in the Migratory Bird Calendar contest through the USFW Service.
Using contractions was one of the concepts addressed in our grammar lessons last week. As a movement activity to reinforce that concept, we had some contraction action using balloons. After tossing balloons around the room, each student had to find a contraction match to a balloon with two words on it.
 Then students shared their matched pair.

 When they were done sharing, everyone had fun popping their balloons.
In Science, the class has been studying about the inner and outer planets of our solar system. For fun on Thursday, they made their own solar system mobile to hang at home.
We will continue our focus on the universe this week and the class will also be participating in an AK Teach activity with the Scientists in Action program on Tuesday. The focus is going to be Fires and Infestation with scientist Jenny Briggs. Being part of the interactive session through the Denver Museum seemed relevant to life here in Tok, when fire is such a concern in the summer season.

 Now that the second semester has started, the class will be spending the remainder of the year studying about Alaska in Social Studies. When spring arrives, I hope to tie in some field trips into this unit.

Wishing you a warm and productive week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

 
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