Norman Wells

Scott and I are in Norman Wells, NWT for the week. It is gorgous here, snuggled in a valley between two ranges. Its remarkably clean, the weather has been warm but breezy, and beautifully sunny. From the Mackenzie Mountain Hotel where we are staying we can enjoy the view of the beautiful Mackenzie River beyond that is the Mackenzie Mountain Range. There is lots of trees, mostly evergreens and brich. So far the sun has yet to beat me to bed - while it sets between 10 and 11, it is still light out around 12:30 at night... its so easy to loose track of time. We've been hanging out with Matt and Marie tonnes, its been really great to see them.

We are here for the Sahtu Divisional Conference - 3 days of professional development workshops that have for the most part been really great. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming... so far its been a really positive experience. On Thursday we fly up to Fort Good Hope, I'm looking forward to settling, checking out the school and our new community.

New Adventures Begin...

Yes Laura and Jess, I BLOG AGAIN!

As some of you might know (while some of you might not) myself AND Scott are headed up to the Northwest Territories (RIGHT NOW!) as I start a new teaching position at Chief T'selehye School, found in Fort Good Hope. As I type, Scott and I are (unexpectedly) in a hotel in Edmonton. Tomorrow we will be catching an early flight to Yellowknife, and then onto Norman Wells for a 3 day conference before the school year begins.

I applied to this same school board last year, however at the time they were looking for "teaching couples," and since I applied solo (Scott was finishing his last year of his undergrad) I was unelegable for a position. This year I got a great amount of help from a great friend of mine from university, Marie, and her fiancee Matt, who are and continue to teach in Coleville Lake, NWT, in the same district. Marie mentioned my name many times to her supervisors and I was granted an interview. A few days later I had a position teaching grade one. Scott is now done his undergrad and taking a year off from his studies to do some supply teaching at Chief T'selehye, and whatever other jobs in Fort Good Hope that may come his way.

Scott and I spent much of our summer prepping for this move. As part of my contract, the school board helps by paying to send up our stuff. Scott and myself are light packers and the house we are moving into is already furnished, so we used the vast majority of our pound allowance to send up as much food as possible for the year. We racked up a hefty bill at Costco and The Bulk Barn, but it will save us A LOT of money in the long run - all of the food in the north has to be flown up and thus the cost of living is extremely pricey, especially "fresh" produce. Matt and Marie helped us a lot by giving us an idea of how much food we would need for 10 months. Also on the shopping list was super warm clothing (I think I got off pretty easy in Kash!) - lots of heavy duty wool socks, long johns, sweaters and army issue hats and gloves. And of course, I have to spoil my grade ones with dollar store buys.

Like I said, we are currently in Edmonton, about to head down to the hotel bar for the last few beers we will have until Christmas. Our day today has been long. Our flight left from Toronto at 9am (which meant leaving London at 5am - thank you mom and dad!)... or should I say it was supposed to leave at 9, however there was a little burnt out light on a wing which delayed take off for 45 minutes. Its times like this when I think about how one little thing can lead to such a long string of events that throws so many other things off course.... We were told in the air we would be landing in Calgary at 11:45am... the exact time our connecting flight to Yellowknife was supposed to depart. When our plane landed at 11:35 in Calgary we literally ran to our gate - and we would have made it - but Air Canada had sold our seats, thinking that our flight was not going to get in on time. As such, we were booked onto a flight to Edmonton and we now leave for Yellowknife early tomorrow morning. I wasn't too impressed, even less so when we got off in Edmonton and our bags hadn't followed us as promised. I was excited to see Yellowknife, our "gateway to the north," but calmed down after Air Canada treated us to a dinner, a hotel stay, transportation to and from the hotel and breakfast tomorrow morning. And our bags did make it here eventually, too.

I just reread my blog entry from this time last year when I was moving to Kashechewan, about to enter my first year of teaching. While it is always sad to say goodbye to the people I love spread between London and Peterboroough, I feel so much more relaxed about this decision, so much more prepared and excited! In large part this is due to having Scott with me, I'm so excited to live together. Marie and Matt have been great resources and have told us alot about what to expect, and we are excited to beable to see them on a somewhat regular basis! The school has also been extremely accomodating and generous. My grade 3 class from last year, godblessem, pretty much prepared me for anything, too. It just feels like the "right" move for us right now, and that makes me pretty happy.

Will post pictures soon!

beers

Break from school and Albany River Break-up

I just got back into Kashechewan yesterday after 3 weeks of being "home" in Southern Ontario. As some of you may already be aware my sister has been sick since late November, and things got worse at the beginning of April, so I decided to come south before the Goose Break began to be with my family in Toronto in the hospital where my sister was being treated. She's slowly on the mend so I felt good enough to come back in time for school to start up again, although my thoughts and prayers are with her and my family always.

As always leaving and coming back to Kash was an adventure in itself - the weather and somewhat unreliable communication of the small airlines led to me almost not leaving Kash the first week of April. Timmins got hit hard by a snow storm the day I was scheduled to leave, and my flight from Kash to Timmins was inevitably delayed, meaning that I would miss my connecting overnight bus to Toronto. So I called upon a friend up here with some good connections, and he got me on a small cargo plane (carrying "pop-chip" into Kash) leaving the same day to Moosonee. From there I took a train into Cochrane, stayed in a small motel overnight, and then traveled 12 hours on the train from Cochrane to Toronto the following day. I don't usually think about how far away from friends and family until I'm traveling and it takes more than a day...

My break was spent mostly in Toronto at St. Micheal's Hospital with my family, although I did manage small visits to Peterborough and London. Coming back was also stressful. Scott and I planned to take the overnight bus from Toronto to Timmins on Sunday night – due to a oversight Scott was scheduled to get into Timmins 5 minutes after his flight to Kash left the tarmac. After frantically attempting to contact the airline to try to get them to delay the flight slightly, or trying to get Scott on another flight (but his ticket was non-refundable or non-transferable) we ended up taking the overnight bus but got off a stop early and took a cab straight to the airport. Scott JUST made his flight. Happily, he is here now in Kash with me for my remaining two months. He will be working with NAPS (the police) and also volunteering at the school while completing a .5 university credit course. He says, "hi" to readers :)

Kashechewan has undergone some large changes while we were away – most noticeably is that almost all of the snow has melted, leaving in its wake (literally) A LOT of mud, A LOT of water, and A LOT of garbage. I look forward to helping organize a town clean up with the school. Also of note is the "break-up" of the Albany River. Scott and I and some friends took a drive past the airport to see the river breaking up – ice chunks piled high upon ice chunks as the river quickly shifts. A flood warning is in effect and so school was cancelled today, and until further notice. If we have to evacuate it needs to happen quickly, and therefore school authorities can't risk having 400 kids away from their families. It's pretty neat to see, and hear – overnight you can hear low rumblings of the ice sliding against itself, louder noises of it cracking, too.

Northern Lights

About a week or so ago I was able to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights with a few teacher friends. While these photos are extremely fuzzy, the lights were very clear, boldly swaying in the sky. Shortly after taking these pictures a bunch of us jumped into the bed of a pickup truck to escape any light pollution coming from nearby streetlights. As we drove towards the outskirts of town the lights began swirling, like a large slow moving green tornado. Unfortunately, being in a moving vehicle I wasn't able to take any photos. Beyond the dike the lights began to fade fast - and it was too dark for my camera's sensor. Hopefully next time I'll be more prepared with a tri-pod and something warm for my hands so I'm not trembling so much. Hopefully there will be a next time - the northern lights are absolutely breathtaking.

Professional Development (aka Ice Fishing)

This past Friday St. Andrew's took a P.D. Day. Down south, P.D. Days means workshops for staff on assessment, evaluation, management, literacy, numeracy... we got to go ice fishing instead! Teachers jumped on a bus around 9:30 and took a ride 20 minutes or so north of Kash, heading towards Apawatiskat on the winter road. Our bus stopped at a small fiver crossing and we all piled out. I wish I could say we had a grand adventure – but it was more or less a very quiet day on the river. Everyone drilled a hole in the ice (at least 4 to 6 feet thick), tied a hook and some bacon to a stick and set about trying to catch some pike. I was a little cold without something to sit on, but I surprised myself by really enjoying fishing, for the most part the peace and quiet! Moose stir fry, bannock and boiled dumplings were served for lunch. A traditional tea made from water, lard, flour, black tea and sugar was also served. It's pretty sweet and supposedly very filling… however I'm striving for a beach body (Cuba in 3 weeks!) so I didn't indulge too much, only had a few sips! The snow around the river was extremely deep, up to our waists in some spots. I enjoyed snowshoeing along a few trails and through some brush. Like I've mentioned before, I've come to really love winter since being up here – perhaps that's because I don't need to drive here… but cross country skiing and snow shoeing have really been highlights for me.

It's been extremely icey here, so much so that school was cancelled Wednesday afternoon. Boys can strap on their skates and skate down the streets with a puck and hockey sticks. This upcoming week is the Winter Carnival – which means spending only mornings in our classrooms, and the afternoons outdoors, playing snow games with the kids. The week following I have my second evaluation, and come April 8^th we fly out for two glorious weeks down south. Scott, Jill, Zach and I have already paid for a trip in Cayo CoaCoa, Cuba, and obviously I can't wait for that!

Great Moon Gathering and visit from Scott

Last week started with Valentine's Day on the Monday. Luckily students didn't bring the tonnes and tonnes of candy and sugar and cards until the afternoon and we were able to get a bit of math work completed before the full afternoon party. We decorated paper bags with dollys and paper hearts and hung them from our desks to collect the many many Valentine's Day cards - reminded me of when I was in primary school. Its kind of neat to repeat these memories with my own students. Tuesday was also a shortened day due to a funeral (the whole community usually attends funerals held in the afternoon, so school is often cancelled). On Wednesday we were also granted an early dismissal so that all teachers could get out of Kashechewan for noon. We had an EXTREMELY bumpy 3 hour ride on the winter road to Moosonee, bags and butts flying around the back of the bus. On the train I ran into an old friend Mark who is a grade 8 teacher in Appawatiskat (a community north of Kashechewan, also on James Bay). I met up with Scott at the Cochrane train station, and we headed to the North Adventure Inn - a small hotel on the outskirts of town - with the rest of the St. Andrew's School crew.

The Great Moon Gathering was held in an old high school that hadn't been used for about a decade. The workshops I attended were really great - the highlight was meeting and speaking with the creator of Rabbit and Bear Paws, a series of graphic novels based on the Seven Grandfather Teachings of the Ojibwa. I learned alot about how he started his comic, what inspires him, and just how much work goes into each frame and page. Check it out - its good work. I attended a few workshops on literacy and math, and Olena and I learned how to square dance. It was great being in Cochrane (its about an hour north of Timmins) - we went to Tim Hortons and Giant Tiger (yippee) and even the LCBO. Its amazing how excited teachers on reserve get at discount stores - the place was packed after the workshops - just imagine what the LCBO looked like.

Our trip home is well worth sharing. We got back on the train (Scott too) to head back to Moosonee on Saturday morning at 9am. Within the first few hours, rumours were being muttered throughout the isles that the winter road was closed due to a large blizzard that had hit hard in Kash and Fort Albany. Five hours later we were stranded in Moosonee - the keys to the bus were in Kash and with the river closed due to snow drifts we'd have to spend the night in Moosonee. Local teachers stayed with family and friends, the rest of us were put up in a church hostel or in the army barracks. The next morning we found out that the tide was high on the Albany River and therefore wet and uncrossable, it looked as though we would be spending another night in Moosonee. Eager to get home, 6 of us decided to spend a little to fly. We chartered a 6 seater from Moosonee to Kash.

A 6 seater is really a 7 seater - 5 of the seats are in the back, and the pilot and co-pilot's seat making up the remaining two. Scott found his way into the co-pilot seat and immediatly began joking with the pilot that if he happen to find himself tired, Scott would take over for him, no problem. Jesus. 20 minutes into the flight the plane starts banking left and right and left again, up and down. Scott's flying the freaking plane! I'm clenching the arm rests while Scott's having a hell of a time. At one point the tiny plane did an unexpected little but quick nose dive and I had a bit of a panic attack as my butt lifted off my seat. I think Scott wants to be a pilot now...

We had a good few quiet days here in Kash, watching movies, going outdoors, planning the summer and the year to come, and playing Scrabble. We officially booked a trip to Cuba for April! Neither of us have been to a resort before, and coupled with the fact that Jill and Zach are coming along, we are super excited!

Scott's currently on the train headed back south. Its business as usual again at St. Andrew's. March will be a busy month. Unit plans and report cards are due, and I have my second evaluation at the end of the month.

"I can teach but I cannot force"

January was a very strenuous month. After returning from 2 weeks of vacation I had to readjust to the slower pace of reserve life, meanwhile my students have been extremely reluclent to do much work. February hasn't been much of a picnic, either. Students have been very untrusting of eachother and of me lately - quick on the defense, and a lot of attitudes forming. Staff attendance has also been down with alot of teachers on sick leave and my assistant has been pulled from my class most days for the past few weeks to supply in those teacher's classrooms. As a result, its been extremely difficult to address every student's needs, and they are a very needy bunch. I've changed desks around and our daily agenda, am using even more visuals than before, while attempting to incorporate more group work to encourage cooperation and independant work. I'm trying to be more consistant with consequences for inappropriate behaviour. This job is so exhausting. I've never been so tired, and I feel pretty unappreciated at the end of most days, just happy I made it through. I'm making mistakes, which is to be expected I think from most first year teachers, but I face-palm myself every so often, rethinking my actions or reactions to situations.

Harbour flew out today on ThunderAir. He's gone to stay with the people of Moosonee Puppy Rescue and might already have a place to call home. I gave him one Gravol before he was put on the plane, but I guess it didnt work and he was whining from Kash to Timmins (a half a Gravol usually is enough to put me under!) While he chewed a bit much for my liking, he's a really great dog, love to cuddle and play fetch. I miss him already. It was nice having a dog around again and am glad I got that little fix that I needed. I hope to recieve updates about him.

I've been undeniably homesick here, however I'm finding that I am appreciating winter like I never have before. Its so unbelievaly white here, and there is no need to worry about driving or shoveling. Olena and I tried our hand at snowshoeing last week and I really enjoyed it. We took off across the frozen river to set some rabbit snares (didnt catch anything). The snowmobiles make good hiking trails through the woods and I enjoyed finding new paths while walking Harbour. While it is super cold, its nothing another layer of clothing and some good long johns can't handle.

The entire teaching staff is headed to Cochrane on Wednesday for professional developemet workshops called the Great Moon Gathering. After a half day at school we are piling into a bus to Moosonee, a 3 hour drive via the winter road, and taking a chartered train for another 5 hours to Cochrane. Looking forward to getting out of town for a little while, getting some Tim Hortons and cheap food in restaurants, seeing a movie, and most excitingly seeing Scott who is traveling to Cochrane to meet me!