September 16th
Hello. It has been great to hear from so many of you in the past couple of weeks, thanks for taking the time to write back. As for me, a couple of weeks ago, found me enjoying the last weekend of nice weather on Labour Day weekend. I finally got out fishing as part of a hiking/ATV/kayaking expedition. I caught 4 River Char in about 2 hours, which apparently was rather on the slow side for the particular spot that we ventured to.
Today, I am home from work sick, I caught a nasty cold/cough last weekend and it finally got the best of me, though I am starting to get better. As I look out the window there are a few inches of snow on the ground, its about -6, and between -15 and -20 with the windchill, needless to say I’ve already had the parka out! Sometimes as I sit in my house, on the really windy days, I can feel the whole house sway back and forth. I’ve also grown a beard and an “umik” (moustache) as it is called in Inuktitut. It seems like all the kids always want to touch it, along with the hair on my arms.
School has been busy with trying to finish off year plans and trying to get some more routines and boundaries established with my students. Some moments I am elated that something finally seems to be working, while at other times it seems nearly impossible to get my student’s attention to focus on anything and nothing seems to go right. All part of the joys of a beginning teacher I am learning! So, while I struggle with feeling inadequate at times and wondering what on earth I am doing teaching, let along being in Nunavut, there are a lot of other great moments too! I am trying to establish a Current Events program with my class where we watch/read the news together, and while there are moments where I’ve wondered whether it is worth the effort, it is exciting to see it reinforcing other learning that we have done or making the students more aware of the world beyond Gjoa Haven and Nunavut as we read and learn things in other subjects. At least a few things seem to be sticking at least. I also continue to enjoy cooking with my junior high cooking class. In the past couple weeks we have conquered Taco Salad and Pancakes, Sausages and Scrambled Eggs. It was fun to help and watch the students make Taco Salad, something completely foreign to them, and they definitely ate it all up after being a little cautious at first.
I also continue to enjoy basketball a lot! We are trying to get a new athletics program started in our school that incorporates attendance and attitude at school with the sports. I enjoy working with the guys, who while they have their moments, tend to be much more mature than my grade 7s. I will likely travel with our under 17 team in a month or two to a regional tournament with the possibility of qualifying for the Artic Games, which are in Alaska after Christmas I believe. While we have made our team, we have continued to encourage all the guys to come out, both for the development and participation, the sense of belonging to a team, and also in case our selected team members don’t qualify based on their attendance and behaviour. It is interesting though, our school doesn’t have any cut off for age, so there are students at our high school that are older than me, and I find myself coaching usually about 18 guys between the ages of 14 and 22.
For those of you who have asked if I get any trips back during the year, I hope to come back over Christmas holidays for about 2.5 weeks, unfortunately we don’t get our way paid in and out, so I am trying to sort out the travel details, but hope to spend time in both Kelowna and on Vancouver Island.
Until next time,
Nick.
