The second week of the semester was busy but also short. There were a lot of activities crammed into the schedule meaning not a lot of time could be devoted to classes. For starters, it was Nunavut Language Week (NLW), meaning there would be an activity for all period 2 English classes (including mine) to complete for everyday of the week. These activities were designed to encourage students to use the Inuktitut language and to raise awareness about Inuit culture. Next, on Wednesday, was the planned radio contact between the high school and the International Space Station, followed by a presentation on the northern lights (more on that in the next post). And finally, there would be no classes on Friday because of all day parent-teacher interviews.
The NLW activity on Monday was to have the students select an Inuit skill and write as many words that relate to that skill. The words had to be written in Inuktitut; English translations were optional. Then the words had to be organized into a word web. My Grade 11s chose hunting. For the activity, I lent them the Inuktitut phrase book I had purchased at Arctic Ventures because it contained a glossary. As an added bonus, the students taught me how to say & write my first name in Inuktitut: Atuian. The Inuktitut syllabary was created by the Anglican missionary Edmund Peck in the 1870s. He based it on the Cree syllabary which was devised by the missionary James Evans in the 1840s. When they had a sufficient amount of words, my students wrote them on large orange cards and stapled them to a display board in the hallway in front of the class. It looked quite nice.
On Tuesday, the activity called on students to find the meaning of a word that was given in Inuktitut over the school's intercom. The class that could correctly guess the word would win one free item from the canteen. It was easier for my students because they spent the period in the computer lab writing up their short story assignments, meaning they also had access to the Internet. But I can't remember if one of them correctly guessed the word.
I didn't get to teach all of my Grade 9s because of the schedule changes, but from the few I did see, we moved on to notes on the second string. The textbook I'm using has a few songs that use the first two strings and for my first assessment of the semester, my Grade 9s will have to learn how to play one those of those pieces by the end of February. The classes I did not see this week will get an extra week to prepare.
My Grade 10 musicians were coming along nicely. From the sounds they were making, actual notes were beginning to appear. Now they just needed to sound in tune. In an interesting reversal, one of my drummers spent more time on learning drums & music theory rather than fooling around and questioning my authority. I think it was because I jammed with him on the piano, playing pop songs that went along with the drum beats he had just learned. Now I had to focus on motivating my other percussionist. At the request of one of my trumpet boys, I switched him to clarinet because he found the trumpet too hard. Naturally, he squeaked his first few notes until I showed him how to properly play the notes and how to breathe. Trust me, you do not want to breathe too hard into the clarinet, otherwise you will pass out. What was also good to see were students signing out their instruments and books to practice them at home. Unfortunately, the attendance of a few was still sporadic, mostly because they were on the fence on whether to drop the course or not.
As for my senior musicians, I expanded their repertoire to include another jazz piece and concert piece, bringing the total to six. More will be added in the future so that when they are called upon to perform, we can pick & choose. Since there's only nine senior musicians, I play along with them on the piano or drums.
Friday was more of a quiet day despite it being entirely devoted to parent-teacher interviews. Since I was new and replacing Mary for the next year, I couldn't answer any questions parents had about last semester. Thankfully, only one parent had those questions, and I gave her Mary's contact information. I had only met about 4 parents who came in to see who I was and what I was like. Hopefully, I made a good impression. In between these brief meetings, I spent my time tuning the guitars, and practicing clarinet and piano. When Friday came to a close, I reflected that my second full week in Iqaluit went by faster than the first. I patted myself on the back and looked forward to the weekend.
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