Adeventures in the North: The Goose Break Reprieve

Well, I have been on Holiday since April 21, and the end of my holiday home is drawing near. Tomorrow after 1Pm I will be on the flying cigar tube back to the Web. I am curious to see what the warm weather has done to the ice on the river.
For those of you that don't know anything about Webequie we are an island surrounded by Winisk Lake and the  Winisk River flows around us.

When I left there was about 3 or 4 feet of ice. However, while we were busy having the snow and cold days Webequie, oddly enough, was enjoying the temperatures well into the double digits. Normally the ice remains for a good long time. My first year teaching in the Web the ice did not leave the bays until the first week of JUNE!
The picture above is a winter picture, although we still had 4 feet of ice on the lake, there was virtually no snow when I left, on the 21st of April. i am sure i will still need my rubber boots to walk through the clay like mud but it won't be long till i can sport my sandles outside the school as well as inside. Just to let you know, I have been wearing my sandles since the first week of April, but only in school and out on the playground at recess.
Goose Break is a cultural activity that many of the people in Web take part in, "The Goose Hunt"! They pack up and head out on the land and build blinds, in anticipation of the return of the Geese to the far North.  Normally it is a 2 week hunt, but this year it was cut back to one. Perhaps one day when I am feeling adventurous I will go on the hunt.
It will be nice to get back to the students and begin the dash to the end of the school year. One week for EQAO testing and then complete the last few units and our thoughts will turn to pondering about report cards and ah yes where we will teach next year, will I be in the Web for year 4, or will I choose another reserve. Who knows but the adventure will continue one way or another!

I don't really beleive it is snow!

As I woke this morning looking forward to spending time getting my gardens ready for planting when I return for May Long weekend, I was not surprised to see the thin blanket of snow covering everything. However, I have decided to deny its existence and continue my day as if it were not there.
So I went to the basement and gathered the planting trays and began to label each pot for the seeds. I set up a nice area in the kitchen at the window where they will sit and grow over the next 4-6 weeks. Now these will not find a spot in the garden until June, but it will be nice to see them as a promise of things to come.
I then spent time watering the new grape vine I brought and the two new blackberry canes. Then I got to wondering where Canada Post was with my blueberry plants and my new dwarf cherry tree.

So I managed to ignore the existence of the snow and was delighted when Travis, upon a return from his many trips to have the dogs do their business outside, announces that the snow is melted. I am extremely delighted that my methods have worked...I only wish that ignoring my weight will make it also melt away...

But I figure that once the weather turns nice and the roads are dry in the WEB, I can then go for some walks and maybe get an upper hand with the battle of the bulge. As well the fruits of my labours (literally )

...will  be part of my weight loss program, after all there is nothing like fresh veggies from the garden to add to that delicious steak I will be grilling this summer on the ole' BBQ. All this the looking forward, the planning the day dreaming, it all makes the isolation of the reserve a bit more bearable. So if you are thinking of teaching away from home, just remember the power of this forward thinking and day dreaming can have, its helped me through 3 years and counting (lets hope)

Is it really a rest?

I have been at home now for 4 1/2 days for my Easter Vacation/Goose Break. I have been going at break-neck speed to put in as much activity as I can while here. I have raked and burned the back yard, fenced the rose garden, put up tyhe trellis' for the grape vines and climbing veggies I plan to plant this year. I have been on 3 shopping sprees and I am presently planning to leave for my Spring trip to Vandrewees greenhouse to get my topsoil, manure and any other seeds i need. But that is not the end.
I Also plan to start my pepper, tomato, eggplant and squash seeds indoors, I have a massage at 1PM and then I need to take a walk to M&M Meats, and my favourite nutrition store. Yet I still have another trip to make to the grocery store and I have to prepare 12 individual pans of Super Nachos for Travis so he idn't eating the unhaelthy bags of sodium and fat filled snack foods that are indeed tasty but not a good choice to eat.
So there is so much yet to do and I only have a few days left, since on saturday all my food must be packed and taken to Wasaya cargo to be shipped to the Reserve.
And, what was my original question? Well, I must ask myself is this a rest, a vacation, a chance to get it away from it all, or am I stuck on a new hamster wheel, spinning and spinning and getting nowhere. Not to mention, I have a reserve dog here as well and she had some specail needs after surgery.
But, my answer is I am at rest, I enjoy the planning and craziness that comes with the prep of the yard for summer. I thrive on the planning that goes into my garden each year, and it gives me something to think about when I am away and longing for home.I am exhausted , but its a healthy kind of exhaustion. I can sit down and look around and see all I have completed and I feel a great deal of satisfaction. The second wave of satisfaction will come when I open my freezer and see my frozen veggies, or to check the hallway pantry and see my canned spaghetti sauce made from tomatoes from my on garden. So although I am tired and have been going nostop since I arrived and will be going full bore until I am at the Airport Sunday afternoon, but I will not complain just smile a satisfied and be glad I had the time to be here and run myself ragged!

Ya this is living

So we have had 3 days of Cultural activities at school this week. I found myself, being fed, enjoying a few afternoon of Ice Fishing, roasting marshmallows, making dream catchers, and walking stick. The only thing missing from this week was a hammock I could crawl into and have an afternoon nap.
There are a lot of places I would love to be, like home with my kids, and enjoying my Friday night glass of wine.

But, at least here, telemarketers are not calling, or my mother for that matter ;) there is something to this peace and quiet thing. Its almost like being retired.
Of course after the Goose Break and classes resume on May 2nd, there will be a price to pay for all this slack.

Yes, I will be racing at break-neck speed to get the curriculum cover and somehow manage to fit in the EQAO testing too...oh and write report cards....I am even too scared to count the number of days that are actually left in out school year....but I did....35 ...EEEEEEEKKKKKK! So enjoy now and pay the piper after!

Fantastic Friday

Yes we all do enjoy the weekend. Normally if i were back home in Thunder Bay i would be filling my weekend off with trips to the mall, the beauty parlor, a massage, maybe dinner at the Keg or something like that.
Here in the Web, I look forward to sleeping in, a walk to the airport, foraging in the bush with my friend RJ to cut down a sapling so i can spend my weekends, whittling a walking stick.
Who knew that a city girl could find so much excitement from very simple pleasures. Okay, I am not a true city girl. I long for the day when I can buy my house in the country and spend my days digging in the garden and growing roses.
The students seem equally to be as excited about Fridays and yet they almost seem to long for  it to be Monday again. They too yearn for the simple things, a ride on their bike, a hike through the woods, a candy from the Lillian Store...hmmmm...perhaps I am experiencing a new childhood! Or perhaps I simply never grew up to begin with? I will ponder that as I sit on me steps on Sunday and begin my whittling....LOL.

It's All In How You Look At It

Sure there are times when you ask yourself..."why am I putting through this?" and think that being so far from home and isolated from the familiar things like sidewalks, or 24 hour Walmart stores. But in reality if you sit back and see what this job entails you really begin to appreciate the job.
Take today as an example. There i was teaching the grade 3's all about multiplication and the Principal walks in. She said oh your entire class is going camping next week for Cultural week. Only one student is staying behind. so my huge choice was did my student and I want to go Rabbit snaring for the day or Ice fishing.
Okay how mnay of you working in a regular school have those kinds of choices to make....ya I knew it...well just know that on Tuesday the note on my classroom door will read..."Gone Fishing!"

Ya so after looking at it this way I think I love this job!

Learning Goes Both Ways

As we teacher's were making our way home from school today, amidst the treacherous frozen ice and equally frozen globs of mud. A few of us stopped outside the Board office to chat with our Financial Officer Paul.
It was at this time one of the high school teacher's mentioned how randomly community members will come up to you a teach you something about the culture or language.
The other high school teacher informed me that the issue of dogs and the Oji Cree word for it (An-imoush) would be a great topic for my blog.
However, I declined giving the same langauge and cultural lesson that Johnny gave RJ and we will leave it at the fact that Ani-moush can have more than one meaning like many words in the English language. I think we laughed more because the alternate meaning brough a bit o blushing to some and left RJ somewhat speechless. Yup! The community is always ready to expand our learning any chance they get, so be careful if you are the shy type....

I will  leave it at that for now and say be glad there were no gestures involved in my explanation and hope that where ever you are. I am dang sure it is a heck of a lot warmer than here today! So long now from the very cold North

The Adventures of the Drill Sargent Part 2

 Well I guess the morning's sleepiness had wore off while the kids were enjoying the blast of -28 C air on the playground, because the day was about to get interesting. One of the boys asked to go tot the bathroom, and had been gone for quite sometime. After 20minutes Stanley, our school security guard came back with the lad saying he had been hiding in a closet in the Grade 3 classroom. I thanked Stanley, told the student the behaviour was not acceptable and went on with the day.
Now a few other things occurred that were in keeping with this "wildness" of the Grade 4 class, and yes I did stop the behaviour announce it was unacceptable and moved on. Honestly i did not for the life of me believe that they would just behave because I told them so. I grew up with 3 brothers who could have been easily been mistaken for a group of monkeys on a rampage, and I also had 2 sons, not quite as bad as my brothers but had their moments as well. I knew though that I had nothing to "take" from them if they behaved badly. There had to be something worth losing that would hopefully make them think twice before they did something out of line.

The only thing I had was the class Christmas Party. So the second day of school, I went over what we would be doing for the class party, the food we would have, the movie we would watch and the games we would play.I had taken the 2 computers that had been locked away since the previous teacher high-tailed it out of there. I showed them the stack of computer games (all learning games by the way) that I was installing on the computer. Then I placed the letters P.A.T. (personal activity time) next to my daily schedule and put 10 inside to indicate they were starting with 10 minutes. I told them good behaviour would earn them more minutes and bad behaviour would cost them minutes. I also let them know if they wanted a movie on a Friday afternoon they would need to earn at least 120 minutes of PAT minutes.
I then began the lesson, if someone stepped out of line like poking another student, getting out of their seat, I would walk over as i continued to teach and erase the minutes from 10 and write 9. Usually the bad behaviour stopped. Once the lesson was over I told the class if they worked quietly for the next 20 or so minutes they could earn 10 minutes. This allowed me time to work one on one with the lower students in the class.
This wasn't a completely smooth operation a few times I had to subtract minutes, but after the first week. I could leave the room and go to the staff room to photo copy something and come back to find the students still in their seats and working quietly.
My next hurdle walking in the hallway to go to gym. The first day I tried to take them to the gym, you would think the hallway was on fire the way the ran screaming down the hall to the gym. But I remained calm and stood in the gym indicating, they were to walk back to class and try it again. We tried to line up in the class quietly 2 or 3 times, and when they were not doing so, I simply had them sit at their desks with their heads down and erased the Pat minutes back down to 10. They had no gym that day. But the next day we had gym, they lined up and walked to the end of the hall and stopped as I had directed them, giving me time to lock my classroom door and join them. Then they walked to the gym doors and stopped until I told them to proceed..
To be honest I did not think this was any great feat, I assumed they had behaved in the past and that they were just out of practise. It was then end of the first week when the Principal came to thank me, saying I had the class under such great control, and that for a few days she was surprised to see how much work she was getting done, as she had not had to go to the class and deal with any of the students.
Wow! she said she could not believe that they listened so well and that she was surprised on Thursday when they were walking down the hall on their way to gym, she had to take a second look to be sure it was the Grade 4 class. But she admitted, they are good kids, they were looking for someone to come in and give them their boundaries.
Okay don't think "Oh my God in one week she did it, she is a super teacher" Not by a long shot there would be other moments of learning for me and my class and new ways to encourage and to inspire some. There would be struggles and I would be surprised at what things would come up and how I would find new ways to deal with them. Mainly it would be 2 students I will name A and B for now. The tales of A & B will follow! Cheers!

The Adventures of the Drill Sargent

Monday morning came early, I was awake at 5 AM, what's up with that. I never get out of bed till 7 back home, so why was I lying in my bed now, eyes wide open, and sleep a distant memory.
Well I didn't bother laying there trying to figure this out. I got up started the coffee maker and headed for the shower...Whoa! sure needed a bath tub mat it was a slippery experience and almost landed on my but in the tub. A note to self remember to buy a rubber mat for the shower. Okay now my heart was pounding and I was definitely awake and ready.
After a quick breakfast I went over what my plans for the day would be. I grabbed my bright pink backpack and made my way to the school.
I stepped out on the back steps of my house and was hit with a blast of icy air. I took a deep breath, and could smell the rich smell of wood smoke in the air. I always loved that smell, it reminded me of my carefree days as a kid out a camp every summer. well it was definitely not summer now and this was definitely not camp. I proceeded off the steps and began my 3 minute walk up to the school.
I was joined very quickly by a few of the Reserve dogs ( there is a few interesting stories about the dogs i will tell later.) They escorted me to the school and then disappeared into the dark morning.
I was the first one in and the quite was relaxing, as I "set my stage" preparing for the battle with these out of control Grade 4's.
One by one staff came in, they made their way to my room and introduced themselves, if I had not met them earlier. It was a blurr of names that the moment they said them were gone from my memory, ( Now this is a concern for me as i always worry about my memory as 3 members of my family had Alzheimer;s) But not to worry I eventually memorized names and a whole lot more.
My neighbour in school was the Grade 5 teacher who was also from Thunder Bay and we were also on the Supply list for the catholic Board in thunder Bay. I'll refer to her as Miss L. Miss L was a tall amazon of a girl, and when i met her I had a feeling she was something of a stream roller of a personality, and I'd discover this to be true as time went on.
Before I knew the bell began to ring, and very very slowly the students began to wander into the school. I was a bit surprised at how slowly he students moved, but in time I would discover that everything in the Web, moved at a "relaxed" pace.
However, all my students were in the classroom by 9:15, oh and the bell rang for those 15 minutes as well.
I handed my students a worksheet as they passed me at the doorway and allowed them to work quietly before I began to speak.
I introduced myself and told the students a little bit about myself, starting with the story I always used at St. Edward's school. "Good Morning Grade 4 My name is Miss Merritt (oh the Miss Merritt would disappear as I remembered when I worked in Sturgeon Falls, culturally first names were more acceptable) I am better known in the Thunder Bay Schools as The Drill Sargent. I want to take this time this morning to let you know I will not tolerate any of the behaviour you displayed to your previous teacher, or for Susan who filled in until I was hired. My voice was low, it was firm and as my sons will tell you, when i talk to them in this tone they take it very seriously. Then I pinned them al with the "CHURCH STARE".
The Church Stare" was a gift learned from my mother. When we were young and in church and not listening, my mother would not say one word, she would get our attention and give us this stare, one that said with out words "when i get you someplace where no one can hear you will be sorry for this behaviour" It was the most frightening stare there is and it worked on my sons and it seemed to work on the Grade 4's now. They all looked very serious, and they bowed their heads and continued with the worksheet I had given them as they came in.
Now as far as my class went I think they were trying to figure out when they could go wild. They were quite good that morning, but what was a real surprise was the other students from other classrooms would walk into my class and try and hide in the closets, or sit at vacant desks. It was a chore to try and get them out of the classroom. It was clear the drill Sargent would not work in this case, and seeing how extremely shy the students were ( i will mention it was mainly the boys who did this) I would say the moment the door opened or when the stepped across the threshold of the doorway..."oh look class someone came for a hug," and I would get up and walk toward them....this would of course cause them to leave immediately.
Well that was the first part of the morning and it seemed to be okay, until recess. I had never in my life seen such unbridled energy displayed in such inappropriate ways. Yard duty was more like being a referee at Ultimate fighting. This was going to be something i had to approach a bit differently than i did the classroom.
The bell rang and hardly any students lined up they continued to do whatever it was they were busy doing. So i stood at the back doors and waited. The kids wandered in, and stood in a group waiting to go inside. I continued to just stand there. One student asked me "Can we go in?" I said "Nope, not until there is a line" they made some kind of movement, but nothing that resembled a straight line, so i just stood there string off toward the Band Hall and waited. (Interesting even at recess the bell rings for at least 8 minutes) The bell stopped and we were still standing there, and I then said "I think that at your age you should know what a straight line looks like, and until you get into one we will stand here." it took seconds for them to get into that line and stand quietly. Then I smiled "Good, and so that you all understand, you will not step one foot into the school unless you are lined up and quiet just like this."
This was the very first success. From that day on my class was usually the first lined up and waiting after the recess bell. But i had just scratched the surface of the behavioral issues in this class.
Just a note as i close this story today, this class was an incredible group and it was a rewarding expereince to work with them and i enjoyed my 8 months with them, don't think for a moment this was abad expereince, it was one of the most rewarding ones of my career. (Part 2 coming soon)

Where on earth is Webequie Ontario? (Part 2)

Okay, you arre saying..."Hey its 2011, why is this story happening in 2008?"
Well I am here in the Web now, but my story began in 2008, so I felt I had to give the background, so bare with me for the next few posts.

I was now in my little house no bigger than a large Hotel room, but it had everything, bedroom, bathroom, laundry area and a living room/kitchen area. So I had everything I needed, heck it was far easier and quicker to clean than my 3 bedroom 1 1/2 story home back in Thunder Bay. It was alright, and it had a satellite dish all i needed to do was buy a receiver. But for right now I had nothing to watch on television, you guessed no cable, not even off cable channels. i had brought my potable DVD player with its own screen and a stack of movies, So I hoped that would help me survive. I had also bought a Netbook computer and that would be my connection home. My son had installed "team speak" something similar to Skype, so I hooked everything up and nothing happened...there was no signal, the internet was not working in my house. Thank God for wireless, and I was bale eventually to piggyback off the Principal's connection. She lived next door to me. But it wasn't until almost 8PM that I was able to talk to the boys. I was really nervous about leaving them alone, but then they were 16 and 18 and the most trustworthy kids a mom could ever have.
So we chatted and I told them everything was great and that as soon as i could I was calling Bell to get the phone working in my house.
Now you would think that was easier said than done. But I was soon to find out that things don't go as quickly as it does back home. I had emailed Paul and asked for the previous phone number for my unit so i could give Bell the info and then I could be hooked up. Well just so you know I never did get the phone line until after the Christmas break.
It is interesting how you don't realize how much you rely on technology until it is no longer there. It was also funny that I had brought my cell phone with me, thinking they over the massive expanse of land between Thunder Bay and the Web I would actually get a signal.
Well it was a long 4 weeks as i had arrived the last week in November and would be teaching till Christmas break, when I could go home for 2 weeks.
Monday was coming fast and I was eager to get to meet my students. I spent Saturday and Sunday creating lesson plans and putting my classroom in order. I was excited more than most because I was teaching my dream Grade. Yeah sounds crazy but Grade 4 was the dream Grade, They usually can read independently and with some fluency, there is no EQAO prep to worry about and they are mature enough to behave properly and young enough to have a healthy respect and a bit of fear of the teacher.
As I prepped my room the other teachers came in and introduced themselves, each providing me with the horror stories of the 14 students that made up the Grade 4 class. They were an unruly bunch that literally would climb up on the window sills swing from the curtains, run from the room and go into other classrooms to disrupt the learning, some would take off at recess and of return the rest of the day.
I was a bit thrown at this point and was sitting in my house that Sunday night thinking back to my Classroom Management class in University, I remembered one thing that Dr. Haines had said "It is better to be tough when you come in and soften up over time, because if you come in a softy you can't become tougher, the kids won't buy it. So that was it, "The Drill Sargent \" was going to be in that classroom Monday Morning. Just so you know, "The Drill Sargent" was a nickname the students at St Edward's school in Thunder Bay had given me, because I was the only teacher who could handle the tough students that went there. And so, the adventures of The Drill Sargent will follow, stay tuned!

Where on earth is Webequie Ontario?

I was really excited about getting a teaching job up North on a remote fly in reserve. However, I had no idea where I was actually going, I knew it was North but north of where. I checked google maps and it had a general location, and boy it seemed pretty far.

Now just let me mention I am from Thunder Bay Ontario, so I am already in Northwestern Ontario, so if you look at the map Webequie is Northwest of that....a lot further north. I had asked one of the community members if we were far from James Bay, to which he said it was a two day canoe trip from the island.

Yup, we are an island, Webequie Ontario is up in the Ring of Fire, where all the mining excitement is happening. The only way to get there is by plane, or winter road. (I have a few stories about the winter road too). Driving takes about 16 hours, flying is about an hour and twenty minutes if you are on the direct flight. Oh and the plane is not what you would expect, its essentially a flying cigar tube and everyone gets a window seat and an isle seat at the same time.
When I first came to Webequie in November 2008, I was on a plane that had 5 people on it and the cargo hold was just the area behind my seat, everything held back by a nylon netting.We left Thunder Bay and flew about hour and some to Fort Hope. It was here i discovered I had to wear long underwear even on the plane. Because as the pilot and co-pilot got out and had to retrieve baggage the opened the side of the plane to do so, and that opening was right next to my seat. Now like I said I am from Thunder Bay and I am use to cold winters, but man I had no idea how cold it could be when you are in the FAR NORTH, the temperature was -32 C. BRRRRRRRR!
Well after about 10 minutes we were off agin and this time the flight was about 20 minutes until we landed at Landsdowne House or the proper Oji-Cree name Neskandega (Nish, can, de gaw). Another blast of sub zero temps, athen back in the air and 15 minutes more till we landed in Webequie.
Now i will mention that I have been to Reserves before, there is the Fort  William First Nation Reserve in Thunder Bay, and I had visited my friend Darlene on the Nipissing  Reserve in North Bay Ontario. So i thought I knew what to expect.
As I stepped from the plane the co-pilot directed me to the "terminal" just ahead of me was a wooden shack that some one had put a painted sign, I think it was a joke, that read "Webequie International Airport". i chuckled and walked toward the building. It was about this point that I was thrown for a loop. Outside the airport were 2 outhouses, their doors banging on the strong November wind.
It had not occurred to me that there would be no indoor plumbing, and a million thoughts raced through my head, but most importantly how was I going to survive if I had to use an outhouse at 3 AM when the temps were -40 or more. Oh I had thought to myself I was not going to make it.
My distressed must have been fairly obvious, a native  woman who had boarded the plane in Fort Hope put her hand gently on my shoulder and reassured me that the houses all had indoor plumbing.
Well that was a relief, I began to look around and wondered who would be coming to bring me to my residence. Of course I was the only white girl on the flight, so it was obvious I was the new Grade 4 teacher. A small man with bright brown eyes and a deep smile approached me. He said "You must be Carroll, I'm Morris and I will be taking you to your house."

The plane was now unloaded and he grabbed my 13 boxes of stuff and my 2 suitcases and placed them in the back of the truck and headed into town. as we drove he pointed out the Northern store, and the Post Office, telling me that on Sundays everything was closed. Then down the road to the Teacherage, which is just a grouping of individual residences reserved for teachers.
Morris unloaded my stuff gave me my house key and the keys for the school and wished me a good day.
I stood in the tiny house, about the size of a large Hotel room and sighed deeply. I was here, and now what?
(Part 2 to follow)