All In A Week & A Half

King George V Mountain

The fun and exciting return-of-the-sun celebrations were suddenly overshadowed by another death in the community.  The father of Inuujaq School's secretary, a respected Elder, passed away on the night of February 6.  Naturally, school was cancelled the next day.  I spent the day sleeping in, preparing lessons, and notifying local services that I now had a working telephone at my residence.  The funeral took place in the school's gym on February 11 in the afternoon.  Classes during that time were cancelled.  The funeral roughly followed the same format as the previous one:  hymns were sung, passages from the Bible were read, a sermon was delivered, and family members & friends were given a chance to bid a final farewell.  The town is home to two churches: Anglican and Full Gospel.

            

A Line of Houses

Internet installation at my residence occurred at the end of the week and was easier than I thought.  First, an account is created and registered with Qiniq, the service provider, and then a modem is purchased.  Registration and paperwork was handled by Jack, the local Qiniq employee.  Due to its configuration, the modem can only work in the northern territories.  Acting as a beacon, the modem creates a wireless link between your computer and the Qiniq satellite dish, located next to the power plant.  The modem does not need to be plugged into a phone or cable line.

            

With the Internet working at home, I set up my Arctic Bay blog.  Because of the delay, my entries would be published 2-3 weeks after the events took place.  I promised myself to find ways not to fall further behind.

            

Ice Trails

I attended my first staff meeting on February 13 and was formally introduced to the staff of Inuujaq School by the principal in English and the vice-principal in Inuktitut.  After thanking them for their greetings, I addressed the entire staff, saying that I looked forward to working with them.  The vice-principal translated my English greeting because several Inuit staff are unilingual.  In the communities, Inuktitut is the dominant language.  When I was teaching at Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit, all staff meetings were conducted in English.

            

The staff meeting focused on a number of upcoming events in March: the Scholastic Book Fair, midterm report cards, and the science fair.  The only item for February was next week's Professional Improvement (PI) Week.  For the week of February 18 - 22, teachers would complete an activity/course that would benefit them in their teaching professions.  Students would have the week off from school.  (More on this in a future blog entry).          

            

By the time Friday, February 15 arrived, I was well accustomed to the routines of a school day.  I no longer received curious stares, but greetings from the staff & students.  To combat shocks of static electricity, I first touch a metal surface with my keys to get rid of the discharge.            

In English class, we finished studying the novel Speak and moved on to literary elements and short stories.  I find it more effective to combine the two because I can point out where & how authors use the elements in their stories.  Similar to my students in Iqaluit, many of them, at first, did not want to read out loud.  But after several days of encouraging them to try, they slowly took up the challenge.  I choose readers at random because when you select in a specific order, the students who aren't reading are not paying attention.  They're just counting people to see which paragraph they'll get stuck with.  I also encouraged my students to read more than one paragraph.

            

In Socials class, we finished studying Arctic Sovereignty and began on a new unit titled Staking the Claim: Dreams, Democracy, & Canadian Inuit.  This grade 10 educational resource, published in 2009, looks at the history of Inuit land claims from the 1970s to the early 2000s.  It also includes a background chapter on what life was like for the Inuit before the arrival of Europeans.  I made sure to read as much as I could before starting the unit because this was my first time teaching it.  The module comes with: teacher's guide, student books, and two DVDs.  The DVDs contain documentaries, interviews, newspaper articles, and study guides.

            

I kept my promise to my guitarists and found several of their favourite songs on guitar tab.  I simplified the melodies and rhythms so that it would be easier to learn.  I also included classic rock, hip hop, and Johnny Cash songs.  When you know how to transpose from one instrument to another, anything is possible in music.  I also taught my guitarists five basic chords: E, A, D, G, & C. 

            

And finally, the cadets of 3045 Army Corps spent a lot of time working on their drill and uniforms, in preparation for a special event on the evening of February 18.  A special guest was coming to town and a request was made to have the cadets as an Honour Guard.  After watching them go over the drill routine several times, I concluded that they would be ready for the real thing.  All they had to remember was to have their dress uniforms clean & pressed, and their boots polished.  (Details on this event will be forthcoming).