ENI Contest Announcement

I hope you all had a chance to watch the video that my students created. 

The winners were announced yesterday on ENI's School Net Web site. The international prize, a two-week trip to Italy, for best work was awarded to a school in Tataouine, Tunisia. Their video, I must admit, is very good! You can watch it here. Scroll to the bottom and click the filmstrip. I know that those Tunisian kids must be ecstatic about their upcoming trip to Italy!

Although my students are disappointed that they didn't win the grand prize for best work, they automatically won the national prize, since the middle school in Barrow is the only school that represents the U.S. in the contest. The middle school received several mini iPads as well as a new video camera for the computer technology department.

They are also excited about having won the award for best video. That's exciting considering the fact that seven countries participated in the contest -- approximately 1,000 students. I'm pretty proud of my kids! They worked very hard on this project.

The Festivities of the Iñupiat

For the past four months, my co-worker Nancy and I have been sponsoring a student-led video project that will be submitted to an international contest hosted by ENI, an Italian energy company that operates throughout the world. 

Twelve students from my school participated in the contest. They spent their afternoons and Saturdays at school researching history, writing essays, interviewing people, and documenting two main festivities of the Iñupiat people -- Nalukataq and Kivgiq.  Needless to say, it was a ton of work, but the final product turned out wonderful.

The video is almost 19 minutes long, and I hope you get a chance to watch it. My students did such a great job, and I'm so proud of them.

May 27th is the day ENI reveals the grand prize winner. The students who win will receive a free two-week trip to Italy in the fall.

I'll keep you posted!

And here's a funny blooper from my students...

From Barrow to Seattle

Frozen ocean.

Open water in the distance.

how I feel about lesson planning

Who is Sisyphus? Click here.

innasiġaq | to keep doing this

Church.

This is the church I've been attending for about a year now. Sometimes I skip church for a week...or four.

It's not a perfect church, which is great for me, since I'm the worst when it comes to perfection. See if you can find me in the picture... à la "Where's Waldo?" Instead of being told "Say cheese," we were told, "Don't look religious!" My church is of the camp that differentiates between religion and relationship -- the camp that condemns religion and blesses relationship.

A lot of people criticize that distinction. I really don't care. It's a matter of semantics. We're all saying the same thing. The point is: have a real faith. Call it religion. Call it relationship. Two sides of the same coin.

Okay, now the church can move on to more pressing matters.

Current Stats:
Sunrise: 4:08 a.m.
Sunset: 12:39 a.m.
Temperature: 9 F
Wind Speed: 9 mph SE
Wind Chill: -4 F
Days Till Summer Break: 13

Music: Sigur Ros, Takk

Quyanapak, Father, for...

sleeping in

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