HELLLO SPRING!!
G'day Readers! We’re about to start the third week of teaching, YAY!
We’re excited to update you all on what we got up to this past week. We've really gotten into the swing of things with teaching, and living life in Prov. It's been such a fun adventure so far! We taught the grade 6/7 and 4/5 classes several times this week and focused on topics such as : Sleep, personal hygiene, healthy relationships, substance abuse, exercise and nutrition. Wednesday we were given an opportunity to teach health while integrating aspects of the creative arts. So in an effort to get crafty, we spent the period working on healthy living posters with the students in the 6/7 class. (See our example below!)
On Friday, we taught the 8/9 and high school class for the first time. We started with the topic of healthy relationships, and received some great feedback in the question box. We plan on discussing mental health, dealing with stress, sexual health and substance abuse with this age group over the course of the next few weeks.
During our 8/9 class on Friday, the event we were all eagerly awaiting suddenly occurred – THE ICE BREAK! In the springtime, the ice covering the Mackenzie river breaks up. This event, known as the ice break, is eagerly anticipated by the community-especially the students! We’ve been told that it doesn’t matter if it occurs at 2 am, everyone goes outside to watch! In the middle of our Healthy Relationships lesson, one student noticed the ice moving outside of the classroom window. The next thing we knew, the whole class had run outside to watch! So, without a class to teach…..We joined in! The whole school including teachers watched as the ice flew down the river.
This week, we’ve spent a lot of time bonding with the students and getting used to life in Prov. Since the warm spring weather is upon us, we've noticed a new trend of shorts and flip flops here in the NWT. We aren't quite ready to whip those out ourselves, but we have been enjoying the weather nonetheless. Since it is beautiful outside, playing soccer and hanging out on the playground is where you’ll find most students after school! We’ve been introduced to a new style of soccer called ‘World Cup’, where each player is their own country and has to score to move on to the next round! Another favourite pastime for most kids is ‘Quadding’ (riding on ATV’s). It’s not uncommon for us to get stopped on the street by the kids on quads asking us to GO FOR A RIP!
Tomorrow we begin attending Spring Camp, where each grade spends the school day out on the land for a week. In the mornings, we will be teaching the grade 2/3’s and then returning to Deh Gah in the afternoon to teach the older grades.
With so many classes to teach, we spent this weekend wildly lesson planning. We’ve made jeopardy boards, PowerPoint presentations among other activities to keep learning fun and engaging! Luckily, we were also able to take advantage of the beautiful 22 degree weather. On Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed exploring and soaking up the sunshine. We borrowed Shanna’s pup, Paddle, and took him for a walk (and little photo shoot too!).
Hope all the mothers out there had a joyous Mother's Day & happy spring to all !!!
xoxo,
M & E in Fort. P
