“Living” at School

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

It’s been a few days since my last entry. Since Saturday I’ve been setting up my classroom and preparing for the important day that is tomorrow, the first day of school. As some of you were wondering, especially to anyone who is a teacher, you must be wondering what my school looks like. Well....its pretty much a big cold igloo where the students sit on the floor while you teach. Ok, just kidding. Actually the school looks much better than I had thought, with a lot more resources than I had imagined. There are about 250 students in Arnaqjuaq School, ranging from K-12...one class for each grade. In the inside, the school is a rectangular loop with one end of the school being elementary while the other end is secondary. From the inside, the school is arranged just like any school you would find in the south. South...it’s funny how we (the southerners) refer Ontario as “the south”. The first time I walked into my classroom I was amazed how  decorated it was. The walls were not bare! Bulletin boards, borders, and posters were still left up from the pervious teachers. Going through the shelves and cabinets, there were tons of stuff left over that teachers did not use. Posters, holiday props, prizes, office supplies, and  teaching resources were all there! However, it still took me 3 days to physically set up my classroom! LOL

 (I think that says Arnaqjuaq School in Inuktitut?)

 (back of the school)

 (my classroom)

 (primary/junior hallway)

 (one of the school's murals)

 (they love Toronto teams here lol)

One very important aspect of teaching has been lingering in my mind since the day I got hired. How about the curriculum? How do I find it? What am I suppose to teach? Prior to my arrival, I was told to not worry about curriculum until I arrived as John was still unsure where it can be found. Found??? Being from Ontario and having the curriculum documents so accessible either online or the hard copy, this was not the case in Nunavut. It isn’t as simple as typing in “Nunavut Curriculum Documents” in Google and having it magically appear. This is mostly due to the fact that Nunavut does not have their own curriculum! Nunavut borrows curriculum from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Northwest Territories (and possibly more). It wasn’t until yesterday, two days before class starts, that I had managed to find the document that tells you which document to find the curriculum for each grade. Confusing, right? Trust me, it was pretty frustrating. Anyways, I found everything I needed.

I’m teaching 12 students, all ESL. In Nunavut, from K-3 students are taught 100% in Inuktitut, whereas in Grade 5, students are immersed into English instruction 100% of the time. Since I’m teaching Grade 4, this is the transition year which means that my students will be taught in English 50% of the time (with me) and 50% in Inuktitut with their Inuk teacher. Even though students have been exposed to English, since it is widely spoken in the community and students have had ESL support in previous grades, I know that my students will not be at the Grade 4 level that I had prepared for prior to coming here. It just made me wish that I had brought more appropriate resources from home.

Since my grade is the organized differently, I will only see my class in the afternoons for Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and some Gym and Computers. In the morning, I will be giving support to students with special needs throughout the class. Pretty amazing deal I think! 

Anyways, that’s my update for today. I was at school for over 12 hours today. :S