Potluck, Final Exams, & Christmas

Christmas was in the air at Inuujaq School, as early as the first week of December.  The hallways were adorned with decorations.  One display had all the staff’s names written on stockings.  Decorating the school is one way to keep everyone happy during dark season.  The sun is long gone and night occupies the day.  Well, mostly.  Arctic Bay still gets a little sunlight at lunchtime but it appears as dawn or dusk.  This only lasts for about 25 minutes and then the darkness returns.

          

The staff held its Christmas potluck dinner on the evening of December 13.  The staff took over the high school science room and turned it into a dining room.  The tables were covered, and decorated with Christmas tree cut-outs.  Green & red streamers hung from the walls and the school’s Christmas tree was brought in from the staff room to serve as the centrepiece.  Extra chairs were borrowed from nearby classrooms.

           

Staff were allowed to bring whatever they wished, minus a few things because of allergies.  You also had to bring your own dishes & cutlery.  My contributions to the diverse menu were expensive cheeses and crackers.  It’ll take too long to list all the items the staff brought so I’ll just say there was more than enough food for everyone.

           

The dinner began at 5:30pm with the blessing of the food by an Elder.  Everyone lined up with plates in their hands.  I filled my plate with ham, turkey, salad, and other things.  The food was delicious.  The potluck ended with staff playing Secret Santa.  A portion of the staff played Secret Santa for the second week of December.  At the potluck dinner, the participants take turns guessing their Secret Santa.  They have three chances and if they don’t succeed, their Secret Santa reveals their identity and gives them their final gift.  (You still get your final gift if you guess correctly).  The potluck ended at 7pm.

           

High School final exams were held on December 12, 13, & 16.  I administered two written exams for my English & Social Studies classes and a final performance test for my drummers.  I started reviewing at the beginning of the month.   The English exam covered the novel study, feature film, oral pieces, and media literacy.  The Social Studies exam covered the First World War and Ultranationalism.  Answer keys made it easier to correct & grade the exams.  I spent the weekend after the potluck, writing my report cards.

I previewed the final cut of the media film project my previous Grade 10 English students worked on in the spring.  The only things I added were music and sound effects.  I used a music program filled with royalty-free sounds & loops.  I also came up with the film’s title: Swings, Sticks, & A Magazine.  Those three items stand out in the short film so I decided to use them as the title.  The students previewed the final cut and gave their approvals.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  I told them the video would be uploaded to the school’s Facebook page over the Christmas break.

Christmas Concert Audience.

Emcee Geela.

The school’s annual Christmas Concert was held on the evening of December 18 at the community hall.  Frank lent me one of his pickup trucks to transport the drums & equipment to the hall in the morning.  The show featured 12 acts.  Doors opened at 6:30pm and the hall was overflowing with people by the time the show began at 7pm.  The Student Support Assistant Geela was the emcee.

Pre-School.

Kindergarten.

Grade 1.

The concert began with the preschool children recreating the Nativity Scene.  The Kindergarten students performed the folk song, “Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed.”  The Grade 1 students sang the Inuit song, “Aittaa Uvanga”.  The Grade 2 class performed a skit titled, “Visitors For The First Time”.  The Grade 3 class sang “Silent Night” in Inuktitut & English.  Their teacher sat onstage and provided instrumental accompaniment on the accordion.  The Grade 4 class performed a square-dance routine to pre-recorded music.  The Grade 5 class performed a skit, titled, “Grandma’s Story.”  The students made a large background canvass to resemble the interior of an igloo. 

Grade 5.

Grade 6.

Grade 6 performed “Cups”, a version of the 1931 Carter Family song “When I’m Gone” using plastic cups and their hands.  They based their performance on the way Anna Kendrick performed the song in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect.  The audio from that scene was played over loudspeakers and the students played along while sitting in a semicircle.

High School Inuit Drummer & Inuit
Culture Teacher.

The Grade 7 class performed a Christmas Facebook Memes skit involving many colourful props & posters.  The memes were written on the posters while the props represented emojis and the Facebook Like button.

The high school Inuit Culture teacher and one of her students performed an Ayaayaaq, a traditional Inuit song.  She sang and he played the Inuit drum.

High School Drumline.

My drummers and I played four pieces as a group.  The four pieces were: “Double It”, “Navigator”, “Sick!”, and “Bumper”.  “Sick!” was written by Alan Keown and the other three were written by Cassidy Byars.  I simplified parts of the pieces to make it easier for my drummers to play.  I didn’t want them to feel overwhelmed during their second concert.  I played bass drum for this performance.  My students appeared confident but I detected some nervousness.  I was nervous too.  Our group performance was well received by the audience.  I was very proud of the drummers.

Two students and I played solos.  The students did a duet on quad toms and I played solo on a snare drum.  My quad students did an excellent job.  I’m certain I made a few mistakes but I acted like nothing bad happened and played all the way to the end.

When the curtains closed, I shook the hands of my drummers and we quickly moved everything off stage.

Christmas Concert Audience.

The school staff finished the concert by doing the “Chicken Dance”.  When the music stopped, the staff wished everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.  I waited until the audience left before loading all the instruments into Frank’s truck.  Two drummers helped me put everything back in my classroom.  I drove them home and then parked the truck at Frank’s place.  I walked home.

The last day of the semester was December 19.  Everyone was congratulated over the PA system for doing excellent performances at the Christmas concert.  The students helped the teachers clean the classrooms.

Carolling was held in the gym after morning recess.  I set up a projector to show the lyrics on the wall for everyone to see.  Doing this saved paper.  I had scanned the lyrics, written in English & Inuktitut, into my computer, several days in advance.  A few high school students also helped me set up the portable sound system.  Carolling lasted until lunch time.

High school students received their report cards after lunch.  Santa came by to visit the younger grades and to give out gifts.  (Santa was actually a staff member in costume but don’t tell the kids that).  Everyone was dismissed early at 3pm.  School would reconvene in the new year.

See you all in the new year & decade!