Nunavut Quest 2009: And They're Off!

Today, all of the teams left Arctic Bay heading to Pond Inlet. And what an event it was. We all went down from the school around 1:15pm to watch the mushers and their support teams head off on their four day "cross-country" journey.

And it was a beautiful day out today too! Sunny (I'm even starting to get a tan on my face, as was pointed out to me today by a co-worker, siting the racoon-eye effect that is going on ... and yes, it does look like I've got coon eyes forming too), -10 with no wind! I could have stayed out there ALL afternoon.



The support teams left about half an hour before the mushers did so that they could be well ahead of them and to the first check point to set up camp before their musher arrived.

While mushers waited for the start time, I busied myself with nabbing picutures, chatting with mushers and other locals. It was pretty neat learning about the teams, the dogs and their ages. Average age of the dogs is about 2-3 years .. and most only "run" for an average of 3-4 years before they "retire".


Here's me with a wonderful team of dogs - oh how cute and cuddly they all were! Some of the friendliest sled dogs I've come across while in the North.

Mushers began leaving Arctic Bay at around 2:10 with two minute intervals between departures (so that there is not a huge bottle-necking of sleds and dogs as they leave Arctic Bay and head around the Point.





As usual, I spent my time down on the ice juggling several different cameras that all served a different purpose - why oh why can't DSLRs have video recording capabilities??!!

I'm currently uploading pictures and editing video so stay tuned for those!

Nunavut Quest 2009: From Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet

For the past couple of days, town has been a little more "crowded" as teams and spectators from Northern Baffin have been arriving here in town for Nunavut Quest, which is set to kick off on Monday. Racers this year will be traveling by dog sled from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet.

This weekend, there has been a wave of activities to help celebrate NQ-09. Last night there was a dance held in the gym, and today there were games on the ice as well as a mini-race for the racers (they went out around the point, out the inlet and hung a right as far as I know and then went on for a couple of kms before looping back to Arctic Bay).

I hiked on down to the ice to see what was going on and to snap some pictures of the activities and dogs for all to see. The dogs were quite anxious to get out and running and we were quite anxious to see them off for their mini-race.



After the teams set off for their mini-race ... we all headed off to play some games... until the teams came back.



After a couple of hours outside in the cold (-10 my *** .. once ya add in the windchill, were back down to -23) I decided to head on back up the hill home as a) I was frozen and b) camera was frozen.

It was a good day outside through, soaked in as much sun as I could while there .. and now I'm hoping for good weather tomorrow as there is going to be a tea party out at the iceberg .. and I'm hoping for even better weather Monday as we (the school) are all going down to the ice for the afternoon to watch the race begin and play games.

Nunavut @ 10

Last week, on April 1, 2009 we had a day filled with games at school in celebration of Nunavut's 10th Anniversary. A great time was had by all of the students and teachers who organized the games and by the community who participated.



More Photo's of the Day's Events.

More Adventures from the Classroom

Some days I just want to bang my head against the door in my classroom while teaching my grade 10 English class. There are days where I seriously wonder if anything stops and stays in their brain long enough for it to be absorbed. And then there are days like the past couple that I just sit there and wonder 'what did you do with my students ... and can you make sure that they don't return?'

In my English class I am supposed to do a full length novel study (eventually). Before getting into it though, I figured might as well test the waters with a short story that we will analyze and answer questions like we would with a novel. Well, after many days of reading I finally decided upon Farley Mowat's "Walk Well My Brother" from The Snow Walker (a book full of Inuit / Northern themed short stories). I wasn't too sure how my class would react to the story. It is a very well written and easy to understand story (bonus) but .. some of the views from the main characters POV on the Inuit (or 'Huskies' as he calls them throughout the story) I was a little wary on. But, I figured I would deal with it when they brought it up.

So, Tuesday, I introduced the story to the students and read the first couple pages to them (as I find that although my students know how to read, they don't quite pick up on the nuances of the language) and then we worked through the questions together. At times I had to pull answers out of them and direct them to a page or paragraph that held the answer ... but we made out ok. At the end of the class one of my students looked at me and asked "Isn't this a movie?"

Wednesday we continued on, and they were much better at finding answers in the text and recalling information (yeah!) but we were still having a little bit of an issue with putting the answer in our own words.

Thursday ... well.. I lost my voice. Yeah for colds. So I figured, we've read about 1/2 the story, maybe this is time to start the movie that was made based off of Walk Well My Brother - The Snow Walker. It was pretty rewarding watching my students react to the movie. "That was in the story!", "They didn't mention that in the story", "Who are those guys.. they aren't in the story". Thus began the conversation about movie adaptations and that some times when stories are made into movies, the movie has to add filler to fill in the gaps in the story that become apparent in a movie.

Today, we continued on reading the story (and as an added bonus, we actually watched the part of the movie that matches the text yesterday). One of my students even surprised me as he had taken his story duo-tang home, read the next section (the one that we were working on in class) and did the questions as homework - with out me asking or assigning it! [there is hope!]. And of course, today we worked more on putting the answers in their own words ... which was a long drawn out process .. but we made it through. And to my amazement, once we were done our questions my students asked if we could continue watching the movie to see 'where we were in the story'. And of course, they began pointing out things that weren't in the story ... I then had to remind them that we weren't done reading the story yet either .. but to keep these things in the back of their minds as we finish the story.


And of course, I can't forget my little kids. My grade 1 and 2 classes were fantastic to me these past couple of days (Weds - Fri) as I was not only battling a cold, but also suffering from laryngitis and had no voice. Wednesday I squeaked and squawked my way through a little "Counting to 100" mini-book with my grade 1 class (thankfully there was only 5 of them present) .. but we had fun. Thursday I had no voice, but my grade 2 class was golden for me (maybe they were taking pity on me?) and we finished watching The Cat In The Hat - you could have heard a pin drop in that classroom. And if course today, my grade 1's were supper-beings again, as we finished off Madagascar.


Sometimes my students just amaze me.

Arctic Bay Space Program: The Graphic Novel

For more pictures of the launch and video head on over to Clare's at The House and Other Arctic Musings.

Arctic Bay Space Program

Arctic Bay's Space Program had a successful launch early this afternoon. Space Exploration Program Head Clare and Astronaut-in-Training Travis successfully sent their rocket into orbit this afternoon. The rocket soared high into the sky before it's parachute ejected allowing it to safely float back down to the recovery site. The rocket was recovered successfully by the recovery team for a second launch.

Traditional Inuit Clothing Day

As Darcy has already pointed out (as he beat me to the posting race) today at school was Traditional Inuit Clothing Day (er .. afternoon) as part of the celebrations of last weeks Inuktitut Language Week.

This afternoon everyone (well, for the most part) came decked out in their favorite traditional threads for a "fashion show" that was being held downstairs in the gym.

Burp of Arctic laughing gas is no joke

Maybe this explains why I feel so loopy after running the tundra ... and this ... well... this just explains other 'things'

Living Traditions: North American Indigenous Games

The Living Traditions: Museums Honour the North American Indigenous Games is a site maintained by the Virtual Museum of Canada on North American Indigenous Games.

The site includes information on a variety of NAIGs, its history, as well as online flash activities and a teachers corner that has many ideas, activities and links to information that teachers can use in the classroom.

Hockey Afternoon in Arctic Bay

This afternoon we all (everyone in the school) went down to the arena to watch a Teacher/Staff/Community Member vs. Students (the boys hockey team - Midget I think .... grade 9+) hockey game.

Both teams 'fought' hard on the ice to claim the title of 'King of the Ice' as the school and community cheered on.





I have no idea what the final score was (and not that it really matters) as I was out in the arena lobby trying to get feeling back in my hands as I was snapping pictures during the game.


***[things that I learned while taking photos of the game: 1) I definitely need mid-range focal length lens as the ones I have were either too limited or way too much for what I needed; 2) a flash would have been pretty useful as the lighting in the arena isn't the best; 3) my camera is not the best for sports / action shots ... looks like I might be looking at investing in a Nikon in the future]

Sunrise in Arctic Bay

Here is a glimpse at the sky a good three hours before the sun 'officially' rises in Arctic Bay - although, we still won't see it here in town for another five days as it doesn't quite make it above the mountains that surround us here.

According to environment Canada, sunrise will be occurring at 12:20pm and sunset will be occurring at 13:28pm for a grand total of 68 minutes of 'sunlight'.

The things photographers go through for the perfect picture

Today while walking home from school, in up in the twilight above the mountains that surround us here in AB was the wondrous sight of the New Moon and Venus. I booted it home and ran in to get my camera and tripod to set it up in the dark behind my unit, the unit across from me and over behind Clare's (as it was nice and dark over there).

Well, I got my ever so excellent picture of the New Moon eating Venus (looks like PacMan chasing after a dot) ... but in the process I managed to not only freeze up my tripod but my hands as well (even though I had my nice and warm gloves on with me).

Once I get my bandwidth back I'll be posting on up photos of the afternoon sky here in AB... but for now, you can head on over to The House and Other Arctic Musings to get a glimpse at what is hovering above us here in AB.

Inuksuk and Polar Bear Carvings

Extra Extra - Read All About it!

Last week Darcy, Clare and myself were interviewed by Nunavut News/North as part of an article on the upcomming Nunies.

Paper copies of the article have made it here to Arctic Bay (finally) ... I still don't have my hands on a copy though, but was able to read it while over the other side of town at the Arctic College instructor's house (as a group of us got together for a spagetti supper - yum!). I'm going to have to make a special trip to the Northern tomorrow to grab a copy.

It's a two page spread about the Nunies (founded by Clare) and us blogggers here in Arctic Bay (head on over to Darcy's if you want to see part of the article.

I was hoping to find the online version as sometimes Nunavut News/North does put up whole articles .. but alas, no. I did make the "front page" of the website! Thanks to Clare and Daron I now have the link to the article!

First Week Back Wrap Up

The first week back to school was a crazy one. Things started out pretty rocky right off the bat with some unexpected events at school ... but we all pulled together and made the best of it. Wednesday, the kids came back to school - excited and happy to be back at school ... but oh so exhausted as their sleep patterns are still all topsy turvy from the holidays.

My classes are going well ... they keep getting larger each day. Soon, I really am going to run out of space in my classroom. It's pretty tricky fitting in 31 high school students in a classroom. We have to go on a chair hunt each day and steal chairs from other high school classrooms (usually Darcy's) as during my English class (the last period of the day) I have about 40% of our registered high school students in it. We are having fun though, being crammed into my classroom.

This afternoon during the last 30 min of school we held our second Staff vs. High School Students volley-ball game. It was a fun and challenging game, with us teachers diving and ducking to avoid being beamed in the head with a volley-ball at times. Our high school students sure can hold their ground in sports.

Tonight, everyone is laying pretty low as were all pretty wiped out after this first week back. It's always a struggle getting back into the groove of teaching after a lazy holiday.

Airplanes and Waterfalls

Well, most of our southern staff that went out for the holidays (minus the Northern Newfie, our SST and our grade 4/5 teacher) made it back to Arctic Bay today .... slightly delayed, but back. So, we of course can start the new term since we have a) enough teachers and b) enough supply teachers to cover for the missing teachers.

However .... someone / something out there (Murphy's Law perhaps?) decided to grant us an extra day off. Some time during the last 24 - 36 hours, one of our sprinkler pipes decided to burst, flooding the elementary wing. I haven't seen the 'damage' yet, but our custodial staff is working hard to get things cleaned up so we can open school as soon as possible. I think I'll be heading down tomorrow to clean up (or at least see what the 'damage' was to) my classrooms. I'm hoping not too much.

At least I get one more day to get my body back on a proper sleeping schedule so I won't be a walking zombie when the kiddies hit my classroom. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll probably still be a walking zombie. "Brains ..... brains.... need to find brains....."

Quick New Years 2009 in Arctic Bay Overview

New Years in the North is a pretty amazing sight. Starting at 5:00 pm Dec. 31 and running until the wee hours of the morning on Jan. 1 there were activities all around.

At 5:00pm there was a feast in the gym followed by some games and the New Years Eve church service.

At 12:00 am everyone (that has a skidoo, quad, truck....) goes out onto the ice out towards the point to organize themselves into a long parade of vehicles that snake across the ice in huge 'S' patterns. Then there is the parade around town where everyone who was on the ice rides around town.

After the parade, games and dances continue at the gym. And this was just amazing to watch. I do have video footage, and I'll get to editing it soon and get it posted up for everyone to see some traditional dancing up here in the North.


So, how am I spending my New Years Day? I'm currently curled up on the couch waiting to be put out of my misery - as some one either a) sent me the flu or b) gave me the flu. At least I'm getting it out of the way before school starts up again .... although, a couple of days off with the flu wouldn't be a bad thing either :-P

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years Readers!

Yes, 2008 came in strong and went out strong .. and in good fashion 2009 is coming in strong too. This is just a little note for now as I am beat - just got back in from the gym where we were brining in 2009 just like if we were partying as if it were 1999. It's now 3:45 am and they are still going strong down at the gym. I was nodding off and turning into a walking zombie so I packed it in and headed home.

So here it is, 2009.

More on this mornings events later on today (when I am capable of typing with both hands again).

Taima

More Christmas Games

Tonight after getting my door knob replaced (yeah!) myself and another teacher who is staying up here for the holidays ventured down to the Christmas Games at the gym. Tonight, the Northern Store was 'hosting' the games ... and there was prizes, candy and toys flying all over the place.



In the Knot untying game, if you rolled a one on the dice you got to run to the middle and untie one of the knots in the rope. Who ever unties the last knot wins the game.



In this game, we had to roll a two to be able to run to the middle and un-tape a nail before hammering it into the chunk of wood. Who ever is the lucky one to hammer in the last nail wins the game.

Oh, how I loathe my Door

Oh, door knob?
Why must you hate me so?
Freezing up and locking me outside is not acceptable.
Neither is locking and then not unlocking.

I have tinkered with you to no end,
Trying to make you work nicely,
Alas, you choose not to work completely.

So I have called the handyman again
and they are going to bang you around until you work.


So yes, yet again, my door knob is on the fritz . I don't know what it is with door knobs these days and me. Sigh. With any luck it will be fixed in a little bit (this is only the fourth call to housing today to get it repaired. Let's see if the fourth time is the charm :-) )

What is my next step? Probably calling up Holmes on Homes and pleading my case for his need to come up North (I know, I can dream and wish).