Stones and Bones

August 28, 2012

I bought my first stone carvings from one of the carvers in town. There are a few good carvers in town, and luckily one lives right across from us. Unlike at home, Hall Beach does not have any stores (other than the Co-op and Northern grocery stores) so when carvers have completed their work, they simply sell them the old fashion way....knocking on doors. Since we live close and Jennifer is a frequent buyer, there`s a higher chance that Simon, the carver, will stop by at our house earlier. The carvings differ everyday. You never really know what he has in store until he`s done and at your door. Sometimes carvers also sell their work at the school, going from teacher to teacher. Today I bought two small carvings made from green stone and bone (walrus, I think). One is of an inuksuk with a bird on top, and the other one is of a seal sitting on a rock. I`m looking forward to expanding my collection with some more local art. 

Chilling with Father Quang

August 26, 2012

Earlier this week, Father Quang from St.Francis Catholic Church (one of two churches in Hall Beach) had welcomed us to Hall Beach at the school and invited us to come to service on any Sunday. I’m not the religious type and definitely not Catholic however I’m always up to experiencing new things so it was intrigued to see how a church service would be in an Inuit community. This Sunday was a special service to teachers, especially the new ones in town, in which Father Quang wanted to officially welcome us to the community and bless us for a good school year. So the whole gang and I all went today. We were told to bring a snack for after service refreshments at the church.

The church is very small outside, but cute. It kind of looked like something you would see in the middle of a small town in the countryside. 

When you walk through the front door, there was a small foyer where people would hang their coats and refreshments would be served after the service. On the left were the doors leading to the church part of the church (not sure what the actually room is called :S). This room was not very big. Maybe there was about 6 rows of chairs. The service began with some singing in Inuktitut. We were given the bible in English and another book of prayers and songs in Inuktitut. Luckily the Inuktitut was written with English letters rather than syllabics.I tried my best to read along. Keep in mind that one word in Inuktitut could be about 20 letters long! Anyways, there were three people on stage giving the service, Father Quang, an Elder, and another gentleman. The service lasted an hour and a half (apparently much longer than usual) and about 20 people attended the service, many of them being children, including a baby who cried almost the whole time. Most of the service was not in English and even Father Quang mostly read in Inuktitut. Father Quang is originally from Vietnam and had spent some time living in different parts of Canada before moving to Hall Beach 3 years ago. Even though at times his English was difficult to understand, I wonder if his Inuktitut was any better. Even so, he’s such a kind hearted person, who you can tell is really passionate about his beliefs and job.

After the service finished, everyone enjoyed some cookies and hot tea/coffee in the front foyer. As the local people started to leave, it was just us teachers left. Now the party begins. Father Quang invited us to his house for lunch...the room to the right of the foyer!  With some thai noodles, spaghetti, green tea, and lots cookies, this was a party. 

(this was our “funny” picture but I’m sure you can tell who was trying. Left to right, Father Quang, Cassandra, me, John, Pat, Jennifer, Ashley)

Wet & Slimy

Saturday, August 25, 2012

So remember that fish I bought the other day? Well since its been in the fridge for two days, it was time to cut it up...something I have never done in my life. This fish was HEAVY! If I ate it myself, it would be good for 8 meals. Thanks to Ashley who assisted me with the cutting, I was able to cut and even fillet the char. It was messy, slimy and bloody. Good thing it was gutted already. I think next time I’m gonna ask Jimmy if he could cut it up for me. 

 

(Ashley cleaning out the fish for me)

TGIF

Friday, August 24, 2012

I felt like this has been the longest week of my life...and it school didn’t start til Wednesday! Today was a pretty smooth day at work. I’m feel that my students are starting to get use to the routine and some of my rules. One thing I have noticed is that the students may not be as mannered as other students. I think it is partly because English is their second language. I had to give a quick lesson to my fourth graders on the proper way of asking to go to the washroom or getting a drink. “Lynette, I go pee”,  “Can I go pee?” or “Can I go water?”. After realizing that many students were asking these questions incorrectly, I had to explain to the class that “pee” was not the appropriate language to use when asking to go to the washroom. After saying and writing it, modelling it with them and even correctly the odd student, I think they got the point. Mission accomplished.

 (a more up to date photo of my class)

So yesterday I found out that part of my teaching schedule involved teaching Grade 1 ESL three times a week. I don’t mind. It’ll be different teaching such young students...and on top of that, they are just so adorable. However, my biggest concern was walking into a class and realizing they knew no English. When I walked into the class of 15, I introduced myself and told them I would be their English teacher. I told each student to tell me their names. I can be really bad at names sometimes. Being in such multicultural classrooms in Mississauga, I sometimes would have the worst memory when it came to remembering names. I thought I would have the same problems in an Inuit community. I kinda assumed the people in Hall Beach would have “traditional” Inuit names. Well I was wrong. Almost all of the students had “English” names, which really makes it easy for teachers like myself to remember. Now back to the first graders, we sang the ABC song (which they knew), and I asked them about colours, numbers and animals, which they also know. However, from what I gathered that period, they didn’t know how to write the letters of the alphabet. At least I have a starting point with them.

 

Inuktitut teacher in training

Thursday, August 23, 2012

There’s this new student in my class who is also new to the school. He is not from Hall Beach but he has lived in Nunavut, and other provinces in the past. Since the fourth graders are taught in Inuktitut in the first half of the day, it was a challenge when this student told the teacher he did not speak a word of Inuktitut. Since there isn’t a program at school that helped English speakers who are new to community to learn Inuktitut, it was going to be hard to immerse this student in a language he was not familiar with. He showed frustration and refused to listen (or “try to”) to anything that was happening in class. Even though I was physically present in the class, I was on my planning time and realized that their Inuktitut teacher (she was even hired for that position that same morning and had no time to prepare) needed some guidance. She had written his name in Inuktitut and told him to practice writing his name. For any of you may not know, the Inuktitut script, syllabic, has an alphabet system that uses symbols. Some symbols resembled a triangle, the letter “d” and a lightning bolt. Anyways, I told the teacher I would help him one-on-one while she continued her teaching. I helped him trace the symbols that made up his name and even referred to the alphabet diagrams posted in the classroom. After about 10 minutes, he was able to write his name in Inuktitut. I felt like that was the most foreign teaching experience ever. Makes me want to learn the language myself. 

I bought a fish today. Arctic char fresh from the Arctic Ocean. Being in a small community surrounded by water, I’m not use to men offering fish to me on the road or even in the school hall. Yesterday, I ran into a local outside of the Co-op. It’s hard to forget him since he only had 3 upper teeth. Jimmy, his name, asked me if I was interested in getting any fish. Having just had char the night before since Jennifer bought a fish from one of the custodians, I really wanted to buy a char for myself. $20 for a fish that would probably be good for at least 8 meals. How could you say no to freshly caught fish for $20 when it would be $20 for a small fillet at Red Lobster? Lol He said he caught one that was about 3 feet long too. I told him I was interested in buying a smaller one and suggested him to just come to my room in the school to drop it off. Sounds strange, right? Since its a small community, everyone seems to know each other and many locals visit the school to sell their fish or stone carvings (which I have yet to buy).

Jimmy didn’t come back until today. He told me he was busy yesterday day and sold all his fish. He remembered me and caught some more this morning and brought it to my class. Happens to be that his son is one of my students! Anyways, I loved how I was able to buy fresh food without having to leave my class. 

First Day of School

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

My first official “First day of school” as a teacher is finally over. Even though the schedule was shortened (all classes were condensed into the morning) and the afternoon was filled with games and crafts for the students, I hope not every day is this long. The day started with a whole school assembly. I have never seen an assembly so disorganized (I think mainly because students were not taught assembly etiquette in the past?). Walking in, children were running around the gym, students were listening to iPods, wearing hats and chewing gum. According to the staff, there seems to be no school wide rules. Any rules you want to enforce is up to you. That aside, some teachers and I tried to get all the students to sit down on the floor so the assembly could start. We were successful with the primary students however with the senior students, they continued to stand in the back half of the gym while still wearing their sunglasses, and baseball caps. Even though some things as simple as hats and gum is so strictly enforced back in southern schools, I guess we should be happy that they were even at school to begin with.

Before I continue, you have to understand that schools in these communities have one major issue that has only gotten worse over the years...and its definitely evident in my school. Attendance. As we were told, today is the only day when most students show up. To put it in more concrete terms, attendance at my school was at 68% 15 years ago and as each year went by, that number only got worse. Last year it went down to 51%! So for an average class of 20, it is almost impossible for students to be in the class all at the same time. As the year progresses, more and more students will stop attending and even drop out. This is obviously more evident in the higher grades, which by the end of the school year, you could only have 10 students left in your class. This is one of the biggest issues in education in Nunavut. Imagine planning lessons to only having half your class show up? Luckily, fingers crossed, I’ve been told that the attendance for my class is fairly consistent and that most of my students are regular attendees.

Overall, I got a pretty good impression of the students in my class. Some quiet ones and some not so quiet ones, but still well behaved and had caught on quickly on some of the procedures and routines I was trying to enforce. Having given them a short writing task that involved listing some of their favourite things (food, book, colour, things to do, etc) I was evident the students who had difficulty with English. Even though for most of the time their spoken English is understandable, many had trouble spelling words. For example, words like fish, pizza, and soccer were some words students needed assistance from me with spelling. On the opposite end, some students had no problems finishing that writing task. This is definitely a mixed ability group...one that consists of students far below grade level and some not far from grade level. I wish I bought resources more appropriate for the Grade 2-3 level. That put aside, the students were all smiles, enthusiastic and excited to learn. Even though there were times when they seemed quiet or shy to participate in class, I’m sure they will eventually open up to me in class. Just like how they have no problems coming up to me outside of school to strike up conversations.    

“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