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 29, 2017

Week 24

Weekly Greetings!

It was great to start last week with Parent/Teacher conferences and thank you for making the time to attend. As the week moved on, it was rather quiet in our classroom with a number of students absent. Despite the low numbers, those that were in attendance pressed on academically. This week, it will really be important to have your child well rested and at school on time. Starting on Wednesday, the winter MAP testing will start for 3rd grade on up. The test will not be a part of your child's grade, but it does give a wealth of information on the progress of each student.

On Friday, we will also be having a celebration for the 100th day of school. Please send in a snack item that can be counted out for each child to have 100 pieces. If we have ten different items, then the items will be put together as a trail mix. That means 100 pieces of each item times 10 for each student. Some suggestions are: raisins, Cheerios, peanuts, M&M's, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, pretzel sticks, popcorn, or any other small snack food you can think of that can be counted.  Now for a few highlights from last week!

On Tuesday, we participated in an AK Teach virtual activity that explained how wildfires affect huge areas of forest every year and how outbreaks of insects kill millions of trees and other plants.  We joined Jenny Briggs of the U.S. Geological Survey as she explained her studies in the mountain environment of Colorado and discovered how she works with other agencies to help understand and manage forest health, fire, and wildlife. Sometimes, these changes can be damaging or scary, and other times, they have positive effects on our ecosystems. The class seemed to really enjoy talking with the scientist and the students had some good questions to ask.
The class also started our Alaska Studies unit by doing a couple scavenger huts. The first day, they hunted down basic facts about our state, and the next day they were on the search for key geographic features.
When Friday arrived, we took a few minutes to take a movement break and toss foam Frisbees around while music played in the background. The students love it when I bring out those Frisbees to celebrate their hard work.
With the start of a new month, I have decided to reduce the homework to just math facts and spelling each night. There were only a few students that kept up with last month's assignments for various reasons. Many have sports practice, or have been traveling and just choose not to do it. For that reason, I have dropped the Language Arts page as I would like to see them at least work on math facts and Spelling rather than toss it all in the trash.

I hope you have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown


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