Fall Updates

Then

Just weeks ago things were still relatively green here. But over the last few days the temperature has been holding below zero and it's been snowing constantly. Once the ground freezes it won't be long before we are able to walk to the Northern. 

Now

Last week while it was still warm I went for a hike and made it all the way out to the quarry. I really wanted to find another one of the trails that Felix showed me last year so I detoured into the woods. The peat moss is so thick here that it came up to my knees in places. I got a bit turned around in the woods close to one of the interior lakes... and then it started to rain. 

The Quarry

Ender and I had some pretty great classes this week. For science the kids are working with microscopes and looked at plant cells, animal cells and protists. 

In my class we are making monsters masks for our haunted house fundraiser. The kids drew designs of their masks and now almost all of them are finished the papier-mache stage and will begin painting next week. I'm really impressed with their designs can't wait to see what he final products look like.  

And finally this is probably one of the most adorable dogs/ luck dragons I have ever seen. He's a favourite among many of the teachers here and I think he 'belongs' to the high school Home Economics teacher and her family. 

Camping

Last week Ender and I went camping on one of the many islands in Island Lake. We couldn't have asked for better weather then we set out; the sky was clear, the air was warm and we had perfectly calm water. While most of the larger islands in the area have names (some are Cree names but most are English), the one we camped on was little more than a rock with some moss and trees so I doubt it has an official name. 

When we left the next morning the wind had picked up and the water was much more rough. The largest stretch we had to cross took between 20-30 minutes of hard paddling against the waves and wind. We likely won't camp again this fall (it snowed today!) but we might take the canoe out again to get to the store on Stevenson Island.

First Full Week Back

It's impossible to start a fire and not have a swarm of kids show up.

It’s the weekend, and other than the tell-tale throat tickles and headaches, Ender and I have survived our first full week of teaching grade 6 together. Our classrooms are beginning to shape up (though my supply closet is still a mess and I haven’t even started on the filing cabinets. This week in art we made chalk letters to display this year’s art quote:

Thanks Degas

Many of my students have a hard time articulating their thoughts and feelings. For some it’s because they aren't as comfortable with English, and others just aren't used to being asked. Art is a great way to communicate ideas without having to speak, and sometimes it’s easier to talk about a piece of art you made than it is to just say what your feeling.

We also started some torn paper animals. I like this project because it’s deceptively easy. Starting with a contour drawing, students need to try and fit their torn pieces together like a mosaic to fill in the shapes making up their animal. The really successful ones consider the negative space and how everything fits together. It’s a project that’s really hard to rush and have something that makes sense.

 

Ender and I tried to find the trail leading to the cranberry patch we visited last year this morning. While we were able to find a path and what looked like what might be where the cranberries were last year, we were unable to find any actual berries this time out. It may have been that we were looking in the wrong place, or it just might be that we came too early or too late, or that this year there aren't many berries at all. Still it was nice to get outside while the weather is still relatively warm.

We have one more week till ‘Traditional Week,’ and I am excited to use the break as a chance to regroup, get my classroom and lessons in order and get one camping trip in before the cold weather hits.

Return to Eden

 After two months of family, friends, good food (and beer!) and art making, summer is officially over and Ender and I have returned to Garden Hill. We miss everyone back home terribly, but are happy to be back at work and teaching. This year we are both grade 6 teachers at the elementary school. We will share two classes, Ender will teach Math and Science and I’ll be teaching English, Social Studies and Art. This first week we moved into our new unit, set up our classroom and welcomed our students.

Our living conditions have been upgraded this year. It’s a smaller unit but has a much nicer kitchen and three times the storage. Because we now know what to expect and most of our things stayed here over the summer, the move was relatively easy (though half unpacked boxes remain in corners throughout the house). Having towels and sheets this time around was wonderful! Another major change is the 17’ canoe that is hanging above our couch. We’re both excited to take it out once the initial back-to-school business is under control.

There was a high turnover of teachers this year as well. I think it will be nice to have some new faces and new ideas in both the high school and the elementary.  Alex and I were disappointed to discover that very few of the teachers were given the guide we wrote in the spring (the ones who did receive it found it very helpful). There is a tendency here not to communicate helpful or necessary information from the Education Office down to the teachers. We had precious little contact with the Education Office all summer. Things haven’t gotten better now that we no longer have an acting Education Director. We are also waiting to have several positions filled in both the elementary and the high school, including the two in grade five and one in grade 6 (our hallway). 

While administration is a bit of a mess, we successfully completed our first two days of teaching this week and so far I love grade 6! My students are talkative and excited to be in school, which is a big change from last year. I also have my own office which is slowly being transformed into an art supply and prep space. We began rotation this week and so far it has gone well and we have already started reading our first novel of the year, “Bridge to Terabithia.” We also brought a number of books up with us to add to our class libraries. We are trying to build a decent collection of books and comics for our student so any suggestions of new titles are always welcome.

I’m going to try and update every weekend (she said with naive optimism), as well as try to take more photos this year. Alex and I have also promised ourselves that we are going to set aside time each week, starting in October, for our personal writing and art. With all the teaching, outdoor activities, taking and ABQ and art/writing it’s going to be a busy year!

Winter Styles and Summer Heat

His and Hers

Two more weeks till summer break and it's all report cards and packing for us in Garden Hill. Ender and I are moving into another unit which is smaller but also has a far superior layout and should be much more secure than our current unit. If you recall earlier in the year our unit was broken into and our 'front' door was broken beyond repair. We have since sealed it up, but it will be nice to have our stuff locked away in a unit that has only one entrance that can be seen from the road.

For my first attempt at beading I tried something simple.

Little Beaded Link

I'm also just finishing up a pair of moccasins for Ender. Since March Break the High School has been running a beading workshop on Wednesday evenings. I've been learning how to bead and sew my own gathered toe moccasins. I finished a pair for myself a few weeks ago but now that the workshops are no longer being held I've been slacking a bit.


Recently I ordered this book by Christi Belcourt, a Metis bead work artist, which I am very excited about. Next year I want to do some kind of art project with the kids that involves bead work designs and pointillism. The book also comes with a folio of images from the book that can be assembled to make a larger image that might make for good classroom wall decoration... depending on how much wall space I end up having.

I don't think I'll be writing another post about Garden Hill till the fall. Ender and I will be spending our vacation visiting family and friends. We are also doing an art residency at Spark Box Studio in Picton. Ender will be writing and I will be printing and we are both very excited to have some time to work on personal projects.

Have a lovely summer!

Ice Fishing

It's been a while since I've felt like writing. Spring has been taking it's sweet coming to Garden Hill. This is the first weekend that I would call warm and there is no longer any snow on the ground. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it's nice out yet. The ground is very muddy, so muddy in fact that the buses were not running for THREE WEEKS in April and the beginning of May because of road conditions. We just had our first full week back and it's clear that the both staff and students are ready for the summer break.

All the mud and lack of school has made for poor picture conditions so I don't really have much to post lately. However, back in March a few Elders from the community took the grade sevens ice fishing. I went with my class to find out how it's done and to take some pictures which I neglected to post. Here are the results of that day:

First you need to re-break the surface of the ice. 

The class was invited out to bring the lines in for the last time this season. The ice fishing and trapping season ends in March, likely because you can't guarantee cold enough weather beyond March. At the time the ice on the lake was around 14" thick.

This man introduced himself as Soc. He's pulling out the rock that weights the line down.

The net is set up under the water by cutting a whole into the ice using an auger or chainsaw and then running a jigger under the ice. A jigger is a floating board with a metal lever that can be pulled using a rope held by the operator. When the rope is pulled the metal tip of the lever digs into the ice and propels the jigger forward, pulling the line along with it. You can hear a tapping as the jigger moves along so it's easy to know where it is. Once the length of the net is reached, another hole is cut and the jigger and trailing rope is retrieved. This rope is used to then pull the net under the ice between the two holes.

Pulling the nets out.

Fingers crossed for fish!

The nets are left over night and then pulled up the next day. Unfortunately the wrong kind of net was set up so we told it was unlikely we would catch anything...

A jack fish!

Norman holding our prize.

We caught a single jack fish which the elders kept. It was kind of a let down when we found out our lunch was hot dogs and not fried jack fish. But the kids didn't seem to mind too much.

Oh winter, how I do not miss you.

The Final Stretch

Peggy's Cove

For our March break Ender and I decided that instead of going home to Ontario for a week - spending our vacation madly trying see everyone we love and inevitably coming up short - we would go somewhere new and try and visit just one person. So we headed East and spent the week with our friends Sarah and Max who we have not seen since our wedding in August. He have never been to Halifax before and we liked the novelty of visiting both coasts in the same year.

Theodore!

Sarah and a scorpion

Unfortunately Ender and I got pretty sick near the start of the trip and were couch ridden for several days. Our plan was always just to catch up with friends over good food and drinks, but stomach bugs didn't allow for that until the later half of the week. I recovered a bit faster and spent my time exploring the parts of the city within and hours walk of Sarah and Max's house. I got lucky and was able to see NSCAD's "March of Prints" show where I picked up an etching by print student Hayley O’Byrne. It's really interesting to see another school's atheistic and I'm glad I got a chance to check out the college while I was there.

Ian and Ender

Ready for warm food and a change of clothes.

Our friend Ian also lives in Halifax and he took us to Peggy's Cove for an afternoon. It was a rainy and windy and we had a lot of fun climbing around on rocks, getting soaked with rain water and Atlantic air. Apparently a fair number of people are swept off the rocks each year because they venture too close to the unpredictable surf despite numerous warnings. After exploring, we had some warm apple cider and seafood chowder with great big pieces of lobster.

Now that we are back in GH it's the final stretch till summer. Temperatures are still well below zero and we expect the ice road to Stevenson Island will last for at least another week or two. The days are getting longer though (the sun sets at 8:30pm!) so at least we aren't living in darkness anymore. My attendance has also dropped considerably which is a bit disheartening. I've tried calling parents in the past but that has yet to produce results, and if the parents don't feel they can make their children attend school (they can) then there isn't much I can do other than teaching the ones who do attend.

Tortoise!