"Where the tree tops glisten... and folks, dressed up like eskimos"

Ah, so this is what a teacher's day off feels like! Pretty nice indeed! Well, as you've guessed the David School is closed today, the 12th of December, due to what the local news crews are calling "extreme weather". Heck, the public schools canceled yesterday when the first snowflakes began to fall. Yet there was little to show for it this morning as little of that snow accumulated. It turns out that the concern was focused on the freezing rain as a few years prior a school bus en' route over ice covered roads slipped over the side of a mountain sending it's valuable passengers to an unthinkably early demise. Since then schools on this side of the state have been hyper conservative in canceling classes.

Although we were very fortunate to avoid such a catastrophic event this year, we have had our share of accidents. In early October a car containing several of our seniors collided with a Floyd County school bus on their way to the school. Although no one was seriously injured, it proved to be a taste of things to come. Living on a road frequented at all hours by coal trucks weighing in at over 51 tons, Newton's law of inertia, coupled with the fact that drivers are paid by the load have proven to be a nasty mix as numerous trucks have flipped over bends in the road famous enough to be given names such as Dead Man's Corner. Only about a week ago I was rounding this same turn after a late afternoon house grocery run to see the hazard lights of two vehicles flashing. As I approached, I saw a large pickup truck flipped on it's side in a deep ditch between the road and mountain side. It was a fortunate situation as the other side of the road was a 40-50 foot drop. Ironically two of the trucks passengers were my students at the David School and there mother had been driving. After assessing the requisite bumps and bruises inflicted by the wreck, I provided a ride home after the tow truck was called. It was a lucky break for my students as I hear about far worse accidents on the local radio station each morning. Only last Tuesday night I was returning home from the college town of Pikeville, about a 40 min drive, to encounter a traffic jam on Hwy 23. As the highway was my only way back home through the mountains I found myself at the mercy of those in front of me. I only later found out that what I experienced as an annoying three hour delay was caused by a three car pileup that resulted in the death of two men in their 40s and a 7 year old boy. Four others were injured in the crash which was caused by an SUV that crossed to median hitting an oncoming truck. The other car was damaged by debris. And finally in the week leading up to Thanksgiving two of my close friends from CAP were hit by a drunk driver as they returned from work. The accident totalled both pickup trucks, but both girls were miraculously saved from serious injury. Hearing about the incident on Thanksgiving definitely gave me much to be thankful for!!!


Until I write again, thank you for keeping up with me on my Kentucky adventure and God Bless all of you this Christmas season!!!

Mike

WOW!! It has been way too long since I've last posted on this blog! This fact was recently expressed to me by one of my aunts back in Wisconsin last week and so I feel it's high time I dish out some info on my ongoing work in Kentucky.

Since my last post, the trees on the mountains around my home have fallen and the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows of October have given way to the grey and brown hillsides of December. Uncharacteristic lake effect weather all the way from Lakes Erie and Huron have given us several early season snows and even caused a few 2 hour school delays (which are even more fun for teachers!). Weather typically craps out in late January into February I'm told, so it's safe to say that a fair number of the locals are freaking out at the prospect of "real" winter weather for a change.

Looking back over the last month and a half, several interesting developments warrant description. First would be "Fright Night", the school's Halloween fundraiser that brought in several hundred brave souls to our hollow. They were treated to a trip through a series of spooky themed classrooms modeled after various horror films including Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. As the week leading up to fright night involved a group of college students from Notre Dame University staying with us and helping out at the school, it was the perfect ending to an exciting week to have their involvement in the night's festivities. My room was in close competition for top honors and involved the science room being converted into the stage for a production similar to the movie Hostel including a reception desk, three creepy hallways, a hidden sound booth, and an elaborately built operating/torture "suite". In all we had 10-12 folks staffing the room complete with a realistic kidney removal, live brain lobotomy, and numerous power tools, blood pumps, screams, and a surgeon in a trap-door jumping out to select his next victim. All this from someone who hates haunted houses!

Towards the end of October I was treated to a visit from my parents as they brought down a car to replace my father's Suburban which I had originally brought down in August. Coupled with dropping gas prices, the cars gas mileage meant that I could finally afford to drive around here! Although our visit was short, my parents were able to meet the staff and some of my CAP (Christian Appalachian Project) friends as well as explore the area a bit. We even went as far as the Virginia border to do some hiking at the Breaks Interstate Park, once dubbed 'the Grand Canyon of the Southeast'. Although my parents only stayed a couple of days, I was fortunate to make the long drive back to Wisco last week for Thanksgiving and was able to see a great number of my friends and family. The only downside was a short-lived cold that I had from Tuesday through Thursday, but fortunately I was feeling OK to drive up and back.

As our school ends for the year on the 17th, I look forward to spending more time during the holidays with friends and family in the days to come! It is interesting to reflect on the changes that have occured within me and how I view the world and what I feel is actually of importance or just unimportant. The prospect of living on a small stipend in a foreign place was once daunting, but now I find myself living very comfortably with a tremendously supportive group of friends. On my recent trip home for Thanksgiving I was asked more then once about how things were for me and those I serve down here and I found the answer a difficult, if not impossible task. I tried, mind you, to put into words the impoverishment, hardships, and lack of opportunities present in this often overlooked region of our nation, and failed. I found myself describing the statistics, and quite frankly, numbers fail to express the true nature of the conditions here. Donations to the school itself were so low in the last month that our stipend was paid late and there was talk among some of a possible closure. Yes, we often hear about villages in Africa of South America where large numbers of people are uneducated, or don't have reliable sources of drinking water, but it seems that when stories of these things occurring in the U.S. reach those Americans living outside of Appalachia, we push the reality of the situation away, perhaps out of our own ignorance, apathy, or some kind of unconscious national pride that wants to hold to a belief that we are a global super power that doesn't really have such gaping inequalities in how our fellow citizens live. On my trip home I spoke to many about my time in Kentucky, but only one or two of the dozens I spoke to were concerned enough to ask what they could do to help. Now that number is again probably due to my inability to express the need in the area, but in this age of uncertain economic times, it seems sad that those who have been living in a recession since the Great Depression are those that are now more then ever so easy to forget.

Signing out. God Bless You!

Mike

Getting out!

No, I'm not leaving Kentucky anytime soon, but in the last week and a half I have been able to do more in the area. And, in the process, I've gotten to know some very interesting individuals.

To begin, about two weeks ago I took part in the Apple Festival 3K trail run at Paintsville Lake State Park (~35 minutes north) and although I took away a small trophy, I also met the local bike shop owner who invited me on the shop's bike club's ride later that morning. Suffice to say I went on that ride and I enjoyed myself immensely. This part of the state draws few true cyclists and it was fun talking to people that appreciated my love of the sport. This past week there was a 50K bike race in town and, although I pinched a nerve in my back on a 1 mile climb at the midway point, I still finished close to the second group. After the ride I met a local podiatrist and osteopathic physician who told me about the best (i.e. cheapest) clinic and a good chiropractor in the area. Timely for sure.

Active sports aside, one area that I have been missing in my life here was the companionship of people my age and 2 weeks ago I met a group of young people at church that changed all that. The Christian Appalachian Project, or CAP, is a volunteering organization operating in about five different counties in the area and two of their volunteer bases are located less then a half hour drive from where I'm living. After having lunch with a few of the volunteers that Sunday
after mass, I found a group that shared my devotion to service and sort of a second family here in KY. So far we've gone to town festivals, shared movies, and last Sunday drove over an hour and a half to West Virginia to check out a corn maze (which only toke 30min).

All being said, I'm starting to really meet some interesting and enriching folks that help me to not think so much about what I'm missing being here in KY, but rather what an awesome place it can be through the right eyes.

Love to write more, but I'm off to go grocery shopping before the weekend. On Sunday a big group of college students will be arriving from the University of Notre Dame and I'll be tied up with them for a week. They will be learning about the area and helping with the teaching process. I'm felling a little burned out, so this change to the usual daily grind will be a nice change.

Until I write again, God Bless you and keep your prayers coming this way!

Peace Out!

One day at a time

Hello! I first must apologize for the delay in posting. It's been quite a while since I've had the time, or should I say made the time to sit down and put fingers to keyboard and update the outside of my status in Kentucky. Well, here I am!



Exclamation points aside, it has been a challenging experience thus far and I am still searching for that illusive feeling of having everything under my complete control. My preconceived ideals concerning the big picture of being both a source of knowledge and a role modal to these kids sustains me each day, and I must say that the ability to shrug off the little annoyances and instead of over-reacting or freaking out has given me at least a superficial sense of calm in this nontraditional setting. Calls back home and occasional visits with friends and relatives in Ohio have given me inner strength although that to is not always easy. For example, driving back to David from Cincinnati, Ohio a few weeks ago gave me a harsh lesson in handling severe weather as I had to contend with the combined force of that bad storm which hit Chicago and fallout from Hurricane Ike. Together they combined to create one of the worst windstorms Kentucky has ever experienced, with Gail force cross winds and occasional rain playing with the nerves of all drivers on I-75. Driving the truck was a challenge and what normally would have been a 3.5 hour drive lasted almost 5 hours.

Since that experience I have done a little exploring and have checked out local state parks, lakes, bike shops, and random small towns in an effort to better familiarize myself with the area and escape the relative isolation of the school. For example yesterday I checked out the Apple Festival in the town of Paintsville. Although the "festival" itself was less interesting then I had been lead to believe, I did get some grocery and hardware shopping done at Lowe's and Walmart. However, since Paintsville is located in a dry county, procuring any type of libation was not possible. But fear not, I'm working on that. :)

Classes are going well for the most part with industrial arts being the most entertaining of my six periods. The students have already completed several projects including boomerangs, bird houses, bird cutouts (to protect birds from flying into the school windows), and several laminated cutting boards. Current projects include a bat house, several speaker boxes, and a host of folding walnut and canvas camp chairs that would make a wonderful gift for a loved one this holiday season (hint, hint!). It's great to end the day with smiles on the kids faces, all my fingers, and a dusting of sawdust. A day well spent!

Until I write again... God Bless!!!

Mike

I LOVE weekends!!!

After my last post, it may seem as though I was struggling in the dark, but I've come to see the light at the end of the tunnel. No, I'm not more then a full week into the year, but the weekend has given me the time to pull back and assess what I'm teaching and how I'm delivering the material to a degree that has given me a fresh outlook on the semester ahead. After almost totally reworking my 9 week lesson plan I'm finally able to see what I can realistically accomplish and what I need to brush over. For example in chemistry I'm lecturing less and implementing more active learning activities such as POGIL to help students take an active role in the learning process. Algebra II is moving slower then I would like, but by golly it's MOVING in the right direction and I have some stand out students who are getting involved and helping others. This just makes my job that much easier. Integrated Science is also progressing slower then I would like, however, I was able to get the students outside in the woods surrounding the school for some experiments in their Earth Sci. component.

Altogether the four other teachers and myself have really begun to jell well together and slowly, but surely I'm getting a pulse for who my students are and what they're truly capable of. This is good since I'm going to be working with them for the next 9 months. Yikes! That seems like such a long time, but all I can do is take it one day at a time. Sometimes that's easier said then done, but definitely necessary.

Until I write again, God Bless!!!

Mike


P.S. If any of you know were I could get my hands on an old digital projector, let me know. It would really help us out!!!

Lonesome volunteers are paid in hope and faith.

Dictionary.com defines "lonely" as a feeling of being: "affected with, characterized by, or causing a depressing feeling of being alone; lonesome." That pretty much sums up the last few days.

To someone on the outside it may at first seem ironic that being surrounded by dozens of students a teacher would feel this way, but my time so far in David, Kentucky has been one marked with lingering feelings of disconnection with the outside. The world outside of the mountains and valleys I have come to call my home. Besides the fact that, to reach civilization, it requires a 20-30 minute drive to "civilization" consisting of a small cluster of franchise restaurants and bulk retailers such as Walmart and Save A Lot, compared to the mainstreet independent coffee shops, bakeries, and bookstores that those such as myself are accustomed to congregate in. Yes, there is Internet at the school and cable at the volunteer house, but that form of communication and entertainment is far from what I'm used to. Although I've only been in Appalachia for about 1 1/2 weeks now, I haven't seen many folks in my age bracket, let alone those that share my eclectic interests... yet. I'm assuming those in the know choose colleges outside of this area or spend much of their time working, perhaps in the dozens of coal mines surrounding David. Who knows.

On a lighter note, today marks my third full day of teaching. Teacher. It still feels weird using that title. Although the last few days have been some of the most difficult days of my life for several reasons, I have received supportive comments from my fellow teachers and just getting through each day's six classes feels like summiting a new mountain. Incredibly exhausting, yet leaving me with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Perhaps more then ever in my life I feel I have the potential to make a real difference in the lives and futures of others. Yes, I know that is the idealist in me coming out, but it is what is getting me through each day.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. It makes it worth writing. :) Thank you all for your support and prayers! Love to share more with you now, but alas, three folders of assignments to grade and no one else to do it! I'm off!

God Bless you!!!

A Day of Rest

Narrow mountain valley road outside of David, KY

Sunday arrived bright and early this morning and signalled a welcome opportunity to take a break from the preparations being made for the new school year which begins this Tuesday. Due to limited staffing, the school staff and faculty have been working together to cover all the bases including that of cooking for the students as we are currently without a full time cook. On Friday the absence of a predetermined kitchen staff necessitated a shopping trip to stock the kitchen for the students' arrival. As a new addition to the staff here at the David School I was quick to volunteer my services and have an opportunity to explore the area a bit. As it turned out, we filled eight shopping carts (or as the locals call them: "buggies") and pretty much an entire Chevy Suburban. Walmart pretty much had to restock all the shelves after we left.

Yesterday I had time after work to get a decent run in and was able to make it up over the nearby mountain pass behind the school. Altogether about 500 feet of a climb and then a thigh burning decent that mad the climb worth the torturous ascent. Later in the afternoon my house-mate James and I ended to day with a trip to the town of Paintsville to see the movie Babylon AD. Forgettable movie, but I'm starting to get my bearings and I spotted a Lowe's Hardware store that I'll need to stop at next week for shop supplies as I'm the school's new shop instructor.

Today Jill, Steven and I made it to the Catholic church, St. Martha's, in Prestonburg for mass. The fact that the Priest and most of the parishioners were largely ex baptists made for an interesting service and I was welcomed back for next week. It's nice to make those local connections.

Until I write again, God Bless!!!