Warm welcomes

Can't believe it's almost been a week in Fort Providence!!

After our lovely overnight stay and a day of sight-seeing on our own in Yellowknife, we did our big grocery run before getting picked up by Lois, the Principal of Deh Gah Elementary and Secondary School. Lois is recognized and respected member of the community with lots of information to share about Fort Providence and the surrounding communities during our 3 hour drive. When we arrived at our new home, we were surprised with a generous box of groceries from the community to get us started. Excited but exhausted, we crashed in our warm beds right away.

Thursday and Friday were professional development days for the teachers and no school for the students! This was an amazing opportunity to meet the staff at the Deh Gah School and community members and start to prepare our lessons for the next six weeks. Our second night in town, we were invited for dinner at the “Church Ladies”, missionaries from the local church that often hold fundraisers for the school and the community. We were treated with a delicious dinner (they even sent us home with an extra plate and a bag of homemade rolls!) On Friday, we spent the afternoon meeting with the nurses and workers at the Health Centre and the RCMP to learn as much as we could about Fort Providence. Both were great resources to help us tailor our health curriculum to the community!

The weekend was relaxing and quiet with many families out of town for the long weekend. Both of us spent a lot of time reading, working out, napping and lesson planning. We have also been setting our alarms at odd hours of the morning (1:30AM last night) to try and catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Unfortunately we haven’t had any luck yet, but we’re hoping this will be the week!

First day of school!! Yesterday we woke up bright and early to arrive at the school for our first staff meeting! Throughout the day, we introduced ourselves to the Grade 4, 5/6 and 10 classes and even got to join the Grade 4s on a walk later that afternoon. We got some great feedback from the students about health topics that they were most interested in and it was awesome to finally meet the students and hang out with them both inside and outside class!

This week, we will be focusing on Physical Health and will be teaching Healthy Eating, Sleeping and Fitness. Today, in our younger classes, we used the NWT and Canada's food guide to guide the students into drawing their own healthy plates. Our older classes learned about reading food labels and nutrition facts for the first time. We ended with a fun Jeopardy game to wrap up our lesson. (Fun fact: Did you know..Our body is made up of 60% water??)

This week has been full of surprises and warm welcomes. Earlier today, Margaret, an elder in the community and school community counsellor, took us on a lovely tour to check out the Friendship Centre and Headstart programs in the community and to the Deh Gah Bridge just out of town. We are both really looking forward to continue teaching and getting more involved in the community! Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week, so stay tuned as we will be teaching all about mental health and hopefully running some after school activities!

Running late for All Women Boot Camp at the school gym tonight so until next week!

All the QHO love,

J & C