This past month has been very busy for Gail and me in the resource room. We have been working on many different skills with students from preschool through high school.

In addition we have started preparations for the Christmas program. Gail has a group of students who have begun practice on a very special presentation that will be most entertaining. Those who attend the program will be surprised to see the special guest star who will appear with Gail's group.

The last week of November I was able to take a group of Special Olympic Athletes to Anchorage for the State Bowling Tournament. These students did a great job and made wonderful representatives from our district.

In math, the Kindergarten students are exploring numbers 0 through 5. They are also starting chapter three in Houghton Mifflin's, The Mathematics Experience.

They have been practicing their Christmas Program, songs and poems beginning from the first day of December. I hope they do well in front of the audience and that they are especially loud enough for all to hear.

The freshman and sophomore English class just finished reading another book written by James Houston, entitled "The White Archer". The story is about a young Eskimo boy in Northern Canada who escapes an attack by Indians who kill his parents and kidnaps his sister.

The students are currently reading "Akavak" which is also authored by James Houston. Students are assigned to write a summary of up to three pages, depending on the length of the book.

The junior high class just finished reading a story entitled "Shoes for Hector." It is about a young boy who is unwilling to wear his uncle's shoes to his graduation because his parents can't afford to buy him new ones. He is worried that the other kids will tease him. His parents convince him to wear the shoes, and no one says anything negative. The lesson learned is that we sometimes worry about things unneccessarily.

The high school shop class students are busy with various individual projects. Several nice box-joint boxes have been made by students.

The junior high shop class is also making boxes and some gun racks. The students learn how to use hand tools and the value of their math lessons on fractions.

The 7th and 8th grade students have been decorating the classroom with multicolored snowflakes and paper Santas as the holiday spirit begins to grow. The 7th graders are studying fractions while the 8th graders are learning about operations with positive and negative integers. In Geography the Jr. high is doing research on Latin American countries in preparation for an oral presentation.

The high school Pre-Algebra students are studying percents while the Algebra I students are solving rational algebraic equations. The Human Biology and Health class is examining effects of smoking on the respiratory as well as the circulatory system. Presentations by the students have helped increase the knowledge of their classmates in the areas of the circulatory system, nervous system, skeletal system, and respiratory system.

We have been working in school and have been good. We are good readers. We do lots of work. We like to get 100% on our papers.

We have a Christmas tree in our classroom. Our tree has bubble lights, angels, bells, ginger bread boys, a paper chain and singing lights.

We are going to sing a Christmas song for the Christmas program. We have been practicing our song everyday.

Our classroom plants are doing good. They are growing really big. Some of them have flowers. We have five different kinds of plants in our room.

Today we made a cloud in our classroom. We put warm water in a jar and ice on the lid. The water evaporated and then it rained down in the jar.

Written By the 1st and 2nd Grades

Too busy to meet the deadline. But they are busily preparing for the Christmas program.

Janice's Classes

Things were too crazy to meet the deadline, but they too are crazily preparing for the Christmas program.

In Language Arts we have finished our novel, Last of the Breed, and are now doing a unit on the Alaska short story. We have read Charles Keim's Change and are now reading a story by Ted Kerasote. Other authors we will read are Margaret Murie and Barbara Kingsolver, among others. We have also finished our unit, Fish Fire and Water, and are publishing our book with the same title.

In World History we are studying China and are now on the Chinese Revolution.

Journalism includes work on the December school newspaper and a consideration of the novel in journalism. We are reading Deadline, by John Dunning, which is a story about the life of an investigative reporter.

In Russian we are studying Time and aspects of the various cases in Russian grammar.

Willie Duny is the new basket ball coach here at Marshall School. He volunteered because he wanted a new challenge and a new experience in coaching instead of just playing for City League. He has never coached before, but he says he has been coached by the best (Nick Isaac and Nick Duny).

This year Willie plans on coaching the boys to play aggressively on both defense and offense. He is also going to have them do a lot of running to condition themselves.

So far the boys who are definitely going to join high school basketball are:

Walter Tikiun, Willie Paul Fitka Ill, David Andrew, Joel Isaac, Jackie George, Jonathan Boots, and Richard Boots. There is a problem with eligibility, however. A lot of the students are not eligible. Willie has came to the school to ask the teachers how the would-be players are doing and what they need to catch up on.

The other people who wanted to coach were Victor Shorty, Wes Pitka and Maureen Fitka. The only two who actually showed up for the interview were Willie and Victor. After being interviewed by the ASB, Willie was picked to be coach.

He thinks that as long as the boys keep up there eligibility, this year's team will do alright.

Maurice Turet

Gail A. Fitka is once again the High School girl's basketball coach. Gail has spent two years coaching basketball, one year as elementary coach with Wesley Pitka and last year with the high school girl's team. Gail applied for this job because she wanted to see what it was like to coach high school girls. Besides being the coach, Gail is a Special Ed Aide and the owner of Art's Video Rentals.

Gail has six girls that plan to join the team and she plans to train them with pride, scholarship, discipline, teamwork, and practicing all the drills they need to be successful.

Gail says that there is a new schedule in process and she is guessing that she and her team will be playing about ten games. "Last year the girls were a challenge and they were fun to work with," she said. "I think the girls can do better if they think they can. And I know they can if they stay eligible and come to practice on time."

A new addition to the team is Nastasia Sergie who is a freshman. Also, Charlotte Alstrom is back. She injured her leg in the middle of last season and now she is back to boost our team. Gail also says that hopefully they will be getting new uniforms in black.

The girls will be having practice five hours a week and Gail's advice to them is, "Do your work to stay eligible and come to practice on time. Practice is just for one hour a day and, by coming to practice and being in basketball, it helps you to stay in school and gives you something to do. High school basketball will be one of your most memorable times in high school. Later in life, you'll wish you could still be in high school, 'cause all the fun was during that time. Only you can make it fun by showing up on time. Basketball is like a job to go to besides school. It also helps you with references for yourself if you want to pursue something beyond high school. Part of being in basketball is to teach you to be a responsible person. So I hope all goes well this year. If it does we will all have fun."

Pondered thoughts of confusion and hurt
race through my mind,
desperately wishing that things would work out,
or possibly even unwind.
I feel the tension and worries in my heart pound
and echo far and wide,
with nowhere to turn and nowhere to hide,
I secretly tremble and cry inside.
I wish I could turn back time to when worries
were small,
when I believed someone would catch me
if I were to fall.
Hoping to find the answer, I reach inside myself,
but I'm hollow.

I feel like a lost sheep with no one to follow.
With no soul inside of me, and no one to guide
me,
I just want to wither away
like a rose on a cold winter's night,
not caring what anyone would say.
I wish that this tragedy were a dream,
but I suddenly see a beam
of bright light shining down as I lay,
assuring me that everything will be okay,
reminding me that someone will always be there,
and telling me in my heart that someone really
cares.