B Boutilier: Bittersweet

Today was my last time in a classroom as a student teacher. This brings about sentiments of both joy and sadness - I’m that much closer to my teaching certificate but I will no longer be a student teacher. Having such a small student and staff population for the last lag of my practicum is exactly what I needed. The tight-knittedness and sense of community in this school is what I am looking for in a future career. I had a grade 11 student that was both in my science and math class come find me after school today to tell me not to forget him. He didn't have the best attendance but he sure tried his hardest when he was there. Today was also the students’ last day of classes before their spring break next week.

This week was March Madness for the Junior High students which means they got to participate in either a basketball, ping pong, or just dance tournament for the afternoon yesterday and today. The basketball skills were up there! Most of the junior high showed up for a nail biting final game. An award and medals were given tot he winning team, who were very proud of their feat. It's great to have these types of activities to show students there are fun things that happen at schools, get them active and interactive with peers, and build their self-esteem. We also started off the day with a school wide bacon, egg, and pancake breakfast put on by the student council. Elders were invited to the breakfast and a prayer was said in Inuktitut before anyone got their food.

On the topic of Elders I sat in on a presentation given in a grade 9 science class by an Elder about why animals live where they live. I was able to get a few words here and there but was mostly intrigued by the contentness of the students. I had never seen them so quiet and attentive. I'm not sure if this would happen for every class if an Elder came in, but for this class is was definitely a positive experience.

For staff tomorrow and next week is given for professional development. Some are heading south for this and others are sticking around to learn how to sew parkas and crochet a so-called Pangnirtung hat. These hats used to be called an Inuit hunting hat but have now been recognized as Pang hats as they are currently the biggest distributor of them. I had asked a student where I could buy one but she said the best is town are made by a lady who is swamped with orders.

Also my grade 7 students made a pretty amazing antismoking ad to submit to a contest… AND they made through to the voting round!!! All you readers should check out the video here and vote for “Inuk Cowboay” here. It was filmed in the dark season (before I got here) but kudos to them for making the most of the light they had! Also if you're bored, you should vote multiple times - I told students I would get people in the land of no monthly internet restrictions to help them win.

Annnddd some unrelated pictures… the little things.