Teaching at Minus Fifty - Part Three

Teaching at Minus Fifty - Part Three

Out of quarantine and back in the saddle. Our ten days in COVID purgatory ended on Tuesday, so Wednesday we were free to exit our home and go take a peek at the neighbourhood.

Before I went  into work I promised I'd take Thy to the COOP store right across the street and do some shopping. It was an eye opener. The supply was reasonable, the prices were what we expected to encounter and the people were cautious but friendly. We had some young kids, maybe 7-9, glom onto us and follow us around the store. Freaked Hunter out a little bit, but that'll change soon enough. They were polite and engaging us in those first tentative steps of ESL - "Hello. What's your name?" - followed by run-away! HE SPOKE TO ME. =) Seen it all before, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, now Salluit; not too surprising.

The walk to work is like five minutes - I cannot remember if I have ever been able to walk to work in less than twenty minutes - right: 2003, for about three months. Hell more likely schlepp it in via the car or, more likely, a local bus. And I can come home for lunch every day if I want... I haven't done that since elementary school, some fifty years ago. Now that is a welcome change.

The school. Still finishing up the renovation, the building is a really interesting set of winding hallways and little nooks and crannies... it'll take a little of getting used to.

The school. The people in the school are amazing - friendly, funny, gracious, helpful; really, you just want to hug them all. From the principal to the Inuktitut cultural leader (she is AMAZING) to my remarkable co-teacher - hell: they are all amazing and remarkable. Like I said in an earlier post: no question they will turn over every stone until the answer is found. I can only imagine what it will be like to be in their classrooms - I cannot believe my good fortune to be here.

I come in with one pronounced weakness - my French is simply not up to speed. That is a goal for this first year: study, listen, embarrass myself on occasion, but try and then try again. Thy wants to learn as well, so it will be in a joint effort. Hunter, too. Inuktitut is another thing entirely, but I am going to start with the basics, hello, goodbye, please and thank you. Although they don't have a word for please, so I will have to work that out. Worth learning as well is AMESLAN/ASL/Handspeak - there is a serious problem with middle ear infections leading to hearing loss throughout the North, so learning this is a very good thing.

Maybe this will be the year of languages.

Long story, short: there is a lot to learn but so much of it is going to be so worthwhile. Life is meant to be an adventure, right?

More to come. Love you all...