Over Already?

I know I'm a little late writing my final post... but the past few days have been a complete whirlwind for me!  Last thursday was my final day at the school.  Everyone was so kind all day.  In the afternoon, our class had a little party with cake and everything.  I passed out gifts to all of my students: nova scotia postcards with a personal note written on the back and a pencil.  The class surprised me with a present as well: a book of all their drawings, showing me their favourite things to do in Kimmirut.  It was very sweet and I'm going to keep it in my future classrooms to share with my students.  At the end of the day, we took a few group pictures, which was really nice!  The principal even came up for a visit to wish me well.  My teacher from MSVU, Nick (who made this trip possible) also stopped in to visit my room.  He flew into the community that afternoon, to speak with the satff about the experience.  We all had a fun afternoon together and I was sad to see 3 o'clock roll around.  Some of the students stormed out quickly to avoid the goodbye, while others clung to me.  I will miss them all very much; they were a special group of kids!

My trip home went smoothly.  I flew out of Kimmirut around 10:15am and touched town in Halifax around 10:30pm.  It was a long day, but I was happy to be home!  My sister picked me up and commented about how cold it was out (-10).  I laughed, with my jackey unzipped, and said it was nice out!  I'm enjoying being climatized for now... I can enjoy the mild spring weather, now that I truly know what cold IS! haha
I've been very busy ever since getting back.  I drove home to Amherst on saturday to visit my family.  Then, I had to drive back to Halifax early monday morning for classes at the university.  We are in our final week of the B.Ed program... very exciting!
As this is my final entry on my northern experience, I'd like to thank everyone who followed my experiences on here.  I've enjoyed reading your messages of support and knowing that you were thinking of me.  I found this trip to be a very valuable learning experience, that I don't think I will ever forget!

My Last Week...

Sorry for not writing over the weekend!  There wasn’t really a whole lot to report.  The weather wasn’t the greatest, so we spent all of our time inside.  It was very windy and snowy, especially on Sunday. 

Today was the beginning of the end: my last week with the kids.  They knew this was coming and have started their “campaign” of begging me to stay.  It’s kind of cute right now, but I’m sure it will make for a sad last day on Thursday. 

Everyone had a blast outside at recess today.  There was at least 5-10cm of fresh powdery snow from the weekend.  Kids were jumping into drifts, sliding down the hill, or just sitting in it and smiling.  It was a really fun atmosphere and kind of felt like Christmas all over again!  Haha, not really the nice spring weather I’ve been hearing about back home.

The kids and I also had a great afternoon together!  I taught another lesson, this time on using positive and encouraging words (rather than hurtful words and bullying, which is a common occurrence in our class).  The kids all decorated their own envelope to place on their desks.  Then they wrote one line about every other student in the class; something positive that would make them feel good.  Then, kind of like on Valentine’s Day, the kids went around the room delivering their positive comments to each other.  I was soo happy with how well they responded to this activity.  No one wrote anything mean or nasty, and they were very excited to read what others thought of them.  I told them that they could take their envelopes home and save their special comments, to read whenever they were feeling down.  For some, this could be a useful coping mechanism for tough times. 

I made an envelope for myself too, because they kids wanted to write things to me.  I read them after school and couldn’t help but smile.  Some examples of what they wrote are: Tracy – “you are very talented at everything”, “you’re so beautiful”, “you are a special person” and “thank you for teaching me and have a special trip back”.  Very sweet thoughts that I will definitely hang on to!  :) 

The Northern Lights!!!

Last night, it finally happened!! :) :)   I went into my room to read before bed (like always).  I was just about to turn on the lamp when I thought, 'I should check out the window first... ya never know!'  Lol, I've been doing this pretty much every night lately, hoping to catch a glimpse of something interesting.  Well, I was sooo shocked when I looked up at the sky and saw colour! I immediately ran to the back door and stuck my head out for a better view.  There they were, the northern lights... up close!  I dont even think I can do them justice by trying to describe it on here.  They filled the whole sky... it was a huge light show!  They were bright green against the black sky, and they moved in a slow, hypnotizing way.  I must have stood there shivering for at least 5-10 minutes, just watching.  It kind of reminded me of a lava lamp or oil in water... the shapes made by the light would move and blend into each other, creating new shapes.  It was really really amazing!  Now I understand why everyone says you HAVE to see them for yourself.  The only downside to this sighting was that I was all alone!  Lol, I was soo excited but had no one to share it with but the dog!  So I grabbed my camera and tried taking a few photos, and even a video... but I checked this morning and everything just came out black.  Ohh well :(    After the show was over, I jumped on the internet to report my big news!  It was after 10 by then, but I was too excited to get ready for bed!  This is definitely another huge highlight from a trip of a lifetime!

Culture... Up Close

 Let me start by saying: today was soo cold!!  I was enjoying the relatively warm weather we’ve been having, but today was definitely a sharp reminder that it is still winter up here!  It was a chilly walk to and from school today.  However, I did manage to catch a few new sights along the way.  There were two different places where men were outside working on carvings.  It was neat to see them at work… I snapped a few pictures, but only from far away because I didn’t want to interrupt. 

Today was a really enjoyable one at school!  I taught a math lesson this morning and it went pretty well (total opposite to my health lesson yesterday that absolutely bombed!  Haha, ohh well, it was a learning experience).  The students have started asking questions about when I have to leave and if I’ll be back.  They are so cute… it’s going to be very hard to say goodbye!  Some of the staff members have been asking similar questions.  There is certainly opportunity for employment up here next year; it has definitely given me lots to think about!

This afternoon was lots of fun at school as well!  I spent the last two periods of the day visiting in the grade 3/4 class. It was great timing, because it allowed me to observe their Inuktitut class.  This is a class the students have everyday, taught by the elders in the community.  They teach the kids how to read and write in their own language.  They also spent some time today singing songs.  The kids seem to really enjoy this time, and I was happy to be a part of it!  It was so interesting to see how, through their culture, so much can be communicated without words.  As I've seen in my class, and others, students can answer "yes" or "no" without ever opening their mouths.  For example, in the morning when serving breakfast, I'll ask the kids if they want some.  They will either raise their eyebrows ("yes") or scrunch up their nose ("no").  These movements are very small and could easily be missed if you didn't know what to look for.  I think its really neat though, because everyone from the really young to the elders uses this form of communication. 

Email Connections

I was so proud of my class today!  I had planned to teach a writing lesson with them this morning, but was unsure of how successful it would actually be.  These kids resist doing a great deal of writing and it can sometimes be painful to pull any ideas out of them.  However they totally proved me wrong!  I showed them some pictures of my previous practicum class (from West Highlands School in Amherst) and told them all about what I was doing before coming north.  I asked them to help me write an email to send home to these kids.  My grade 6 class here came up with all kinds of topics to write about and were excited to share a bit of their lives with someone so "far away".  We spent about an hour total (before and after recess) coming up with ideas and actually writing the letter.  It was exhausting at times, but the kids stuck with it and we got it done!  At the end, they asked to have a class picture with me too (because they saw that I was in the pictures with the kids back home).  It was cute and I jumped at the chance to snap a few group pics!  :)

Here is the final version of the email which I will be sending tonight.  I hope the kids back home enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!!
"To: Grade 6 Students,
Kimmirut is a small community in Nunavut.  There are no trees at all and it is very cold.  At night we like to watch scary movies and on the weekend we like to go ice fishing for cod fish.  In school, we like to do art work and singing.  After school, we go skating at the arena, sliding on the hill, or play after-school sports.  We see animals almost everyday!  When we go hunting, we see rabbits, caribou, fox, walrus, whales, polar bears, ptarmigan, seal, geese, wolves, and dogs.  Our favourite country foods are caribou and seal meat. 
Nakumik! (that means thank you in our language, Inuktitut)
From: Our Grade 5/6 Class"

...and then there were two!

Today is my first week up here without my roommate.  Rosalie got the exciting opportunity to go out on the land for the week with the high school kids.  The group left this morning and won't be back until friday.  I'm sure they'll have a blast though: hunting, fishing and camping!  This means that its just me and Sakku for the week.  This isn't a problem though, since we get along great!  She'll be a great guard dog for me if I get nervous at night and I guess I'll be a playmate for her after school.  :)
Today was a fairly calm start to the week.  I expected more of a chaotic day, especially after our long weekend.  But for the most part, the kids seemed happy to see us and had some fun stories to share from their weekends.  I also got the exciting opportunity to visit another classroom in the school this afternoon.  Cindy, a teacher from BC who is teaching in the north for the first time, invited me into her grade 7/8 class for the last two periods of the day.  I was actually a little bit anxious about this visit, because the room has a reputation for being quite challenging.  However, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed my time with them.  There were only about 6 students present, but they were all friendly towards me and worked hard on their assignments.  I really like getting into the other classrooms, because it allows me to introduce myself to more people and get to know more names and faces!  :)
One last thing, before I forget (again), I have to mention my newest obsession that has developed up here.  Reading though my previous blog entries, I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet.  I am on a MISSION to see the northern lights before I leave!  Everyone keeps telling me that they're fairly easy to see this time of year, but they must just be hiding from me!  I've been poking my head out the back door most evenings, and was scoping out the sky on the walk home from dinner saturday night, but all I've been able to spot so far are stars and the moon.  Beautiful, yes... but not what I'm searching for.  I only have 11 nights left to score a sighting, and I'm gonna be staking out the skies every night until I do!!  haha

Weekend #2

Well, do you want the bad news first or the good news?
Bad news: I got a bad case of the stomach flu friday night. :(  I woke up around midnight feeling sick, out of the blue... and I was running to the bathroom every half hour between 12 and 5am.  It was a long horrible night.  Because of this, I spent all day saturday in bed sleeping! I started to feel a little bit better around 3, but still had stomach cramps for the rest of the day.  Not fun!
Good news: My teacher Lester, and his wife Phyllis, invited Rosalie and I over for dinner saturday night.  I still wasn't feeling 100% but it was nice to get out and socialize for a while.  Phyllis is such a great cook too!! She made homemade hummus for an appetizer and also had some caribou meat for me to sample!  For dinner we had lasagna, garlic bread, and salad.  It was soo delicious and everything was made from scratch.  She even baked a cake for dessert!  We had a great meal together and had lots of fun visiting afterwards.  They shared stories about their family and their life back in NFLD.  We alos listened to some of their favourite music and looked at some of her artwork.  It was a great night. 
Today (Sunday) has been pretty relaxing for the most part.  I've been doing laundry and some planning for the upcoming school week.  I've also been making my weekly phone calls home, which is always a highlight to the day! :)  Rosalie has been busy packing... she is going out on a land trip with the high school kids for the whole week!  So it will just be me and Saku at the apartment this week.