Piliriqatigiiniq Conference

It's almost all said and done now. Closing ceremonies tonight, one last session tomorrowand we'll be off to our home in Sanikiluaq. As promised, here is my awful picture meeting my idol, Dr. David Suzuki.

Yay for Dr. Suzuki!!!!

Here's me, outside Inuksuk High School. The rib bones are from a bowhead whale that the community caught this fall.

And of course, the inuksuk that gave its name to the school.

It has been a busy, fun, at times frustrating but always exciting week. My own presentation went extremely well, and I will put on more the next time. As I said at teh start, one last presentation tomorrow and then off to the airport and home...to get snubbed by the cat, no doubt!

TTFN from Iqaluit!

Terri of the North

There's always a hiccup in the north, LOL!

So, the best schemes plans o' mice and men gang aft agley! To whit, we were all set to head to Iqaluit. Oops...blizzard warning...ONLY for Iqaluit! Weather was clear in the ENTIRE remainder of the territory yet Iqaluit got socked in. So. Our flight was first rescheduled as First Air has a plane go mechanical and our flight was diverted on a rescue mission. We were rebooked onto Air Inuit. By the time THEY were ready to head out, the blizzard had hit and we were stranded. So. Grr. But we are much more fortunate than many other towns. Some had only one shot at a flight and will not make it out at all. We are scheduled to leave at 10:00 this morning. To put things into perspective, even Dr. David Suzuki did not make it into Iqaluit.

So, I have my camera at the ready, and I'm all packed and ready to go. YAY!!!!!

TTFN, and I'll write from Iqaluit and the big Piliriqatigiiniq Conference! Oh, and I get to stay at the Frobisher with its fitness centre and movie theatre and restaurants and convenience store and BAR!!!! And I DO plan to raise a glass or two, LOL!

Terri

Just too, too busy...

Sorry, all, I have not posted for a bit. It is CRAZY busy here. My AQ takes a lot of my time, and with report cards, pancake mornings, planning for the conference, registration night and so forth I have not had time to have a second think coming, LOL!

Just one quick post today. I got a pic from Nicky, grade 5, as the town people were chasing the polar bear away from behind the school. Just thought you all might like to see it!

You might need to zoom in a bit, or right-click to save it and view in your "pictures" folder where you can enlarge it. But, cool nonetheless.

One week til Iqaluit and the Piliriqatigiiniq Conference! (And yes, I can pronounce that, LOL!)

TTFN!

Terri

So what's new...

Not too much is new up here, but it is worthwhile keeping the folks at home updated on the happenings in the life of their inveterate arctic explorer.

I have registered for an Additional Qualifications course, so I will be as busy as blazes for the next three months. Since I am teaching Math, I thought it might behoove me to become qualified as a Math teacher! The qualifications requirements are not as stringent here as they might be in larger population centres. The thought is that if you have learned HOW to teach, the WHAT you teach becomes immaterial. Good point. I always felt that, given a text and a curriculum, I could manage my way through any subject. It is reassuring to see that belief reflected in my employer!

I have talked to the boss with regard to moving into a more permanent contract as soon as one comes available. He is delighted! The words were something to the effect of "hitting the jackpot" when I was hired. Yay! Way to make the employee feel appreciated! Colour me a happy Northern camper! :-D

I am also up to my elbows in plans for my seminar presentation at the Piliriqatigiinniq Conference for all Nunavut teachers this February. I plan on running them through many of my hands-on classroom activities, such as my homemade clinometers to show the special tan ratio for a 45 degree angle, my "key" understanding activity for Math "Sign" language, using pizza fractions to have conversion races from improper to mixed fractions, as well as a variety of games like MULTO, Math Snap, Krypto, and the Area game. It will be a very active 90 minutes!

Not like I haven't already planned for enough work to fill the next few months, in addition my roommate and I are busy planning a two-day Winter Carnival for March, complete with Inuit games, an igloo-building competition, ice fishing, scavenger hunts and other fun activities for the two schools. No set date, as it is very weather-dependent and we have certainly had our share of blizzards this year with another one predicted for tomorrow...number 10? 11? I have lost count...I must take a picture of some of the huge snow piles and drifts!

I have re-embarked upon my exercise plan. I am recording my activity and nutrition information on a very helpful site at http://www.fitday.com/. I highly recommend it, as it calculates calories for you, tracks how well you are meeting basic nutrition requirements, and even has a mood and body journalling section. I am using teh gym at lunch to walk/run/stair-climb for 20 minutes each day. Yesterday I did 2 walking/3 running laps for 30 minutes. It felt GREAT!!! (Oh yes, the arthritis medication has arrived, see previous post, LOL!)

And once again, I am already hard at work planning the Science Fair. When we had the grand opening of Paatsaali School, CBC North and APTN News were in attendance. They were fascinated by my magnetic levitating globes and I asked if they would be interested in covering the Science Fair. They said that they would be VERY interested, so I must set a date and get Sanikiluaq into the news in the best possible way, with students having a great time learning how much fun science can be.

I think that this summer, I am going to curl up in a ball and hibernate for two months, LOL! For those who think teachers get too much time off, let me say this: we have put in the extra time busting our behinds for 10 months working crazy hours, so we have definitely earned it! And I definitely enjoy it!

TTFN!

Owwww.....

You know, there is something to be said for the notion of taking it easy in your advancing middle years, which are advancing a lot faster than I planned! I have restarted my exercise program in preparation for the ordering and delivery of my new treadmill. My roommate and I are both planning to watch our eating and put in some serious exercise as we both try to shed pesky, persistent and problematic poundage. I hope to train for a 5K this year, 10K next year, and 20K the year after. So this necessitates my actually getting off my fanny and moving.

Here's where the "Owwwww" comes in. I have, again, forgotten to call and reorder my prescriptions in a timely manner. The arthritis medication can now only be ordered 30 days at a time. I cannot quite seem to coordinate my brain around this fact. So my medication bottle rests empty at my bedside. I have, naturally, decided to push ahead anyway and start working out daily for 20 minutes at lunch time. Stephen and I go into the gym and are doing walk/jog splits as a way to ease back into running. My head is crying, "Yes, yes!" My body is crying, "WHAT IN THE #!**!#! ARE YOU THINKING??!!??" I can barely move today, LOL! I'm determined, though, and have hopes of the 5K/10K Toronto run in August if the school schedule permits.

Who knows? In a few years, I may get to run that marathon after all!

Painfully yours,
Nanook of the North

It isn't always fun and sun...

Life up here has many challenges. Usually they are taken in stride, but some days you just want to scream and take the first plane home...

It has been a week of overnight blizzards. Lots of wind and snow, but gone by morning leaving you walking into a 70-80 km west wind. BRRRRRR! Then the Honda didn't want to start. I finally got it going and it ran out of gas. Got it stuck repeatedly in the couple of feet of new snow from last night. The water machine at the Northern has been broken and we are on our last couple of cups before the dreaded tap water must be used. And today, our sewer pipe broke. They only knew it was going for the last two weeks, but hey, why be proactive?

The place smells like an outhouse. We have no water. No toilet. No way to wash dishes. Nothing to drink. No toilet. No way to get clean. No toilet. And the earliest they can hope to fix it is Monday. And did I mention we have no toilet? Oh HUZZAH!!!!

Colour me a washed-out winter blue today.

TTFN.

Busy busy busy...

It has been a busy few weeks. I got back from the gallbladder surgery only to run like crazy, prepping the work for my sub for the 10 days when I went to Iqaluit for training! It was a series of full weekends and 11 hour days copying, writing notes, getting supplies ready and organizing all of the material.

The trip to Iqaluit did not start off well. We were supposed to leave on Monday with a rest day in Montreal. Unfortunately, we were fogged in and could not leave until Tuesday, which we did by hopping onto a cargo plane to Kuujjuarapik and then joining a connecting flight to Montreal. A brief sleep and back north to Iqaluit.

The Professional Development/Union training was very informative and we worked right through the weekend when everyone else enjoyed a rest. We also took suicide prevention training which was a very emotional and difficult course, but worth it. Our days began at 6:00 am and didn't end until about 7:00 pm by the time we had dinner. So we did little else except watch a bit of TV before heading straight to bed. I did buy two little carvings, one in a pale jade green soapstone and the other in a blue-grey colour. Lovely!

When we got home, it was right into report card writing. The weather here has been wild with a lot of snow and wind, so the drifts are huge. I tried taking the Honda to keep the battery charged, and got stuck four times. Luckily, the community always has someone out and about and they were all willing to help push out the crazy qallunat teacher, LOL!

Today I am baking up a storm. It is right before month end and "rent day" for my grade 10 and 11 classes, and I always try to suck their money out like a good business person would before they pay their bills. If they buy too much, they can't pay their rent and get "evicted" from their desks. A good lesson in budgeting! I may even offer a "credit card" to them, and charge them crazy interest...what a great way for them to learn how to handle credit!

I am now a confirmed presenter at the Nunavut-wide Professional Development Conference in February. This will be my first "official" training session and I am very nervous! I just hope someone can pick up some useful tips. Tim, my principal, is naturally delighted that I am doing this as it makes our little community look very good. I just figure that I would appreciate the tips from others, so why not share a few of my ideas that seem to work well?

Anyhow, off to the oven to rescue my banana cupcakes. Oh, my poor students and their about-to-be-emptied bank accounts, LOL! I'm so devious!

TTFN!

Terri of the North