The
previous week was probably the shortest week of the entire semester. There were several events that made it so
brief. For starters, there was no school
on Monday (May 21) because it was Victoria Day.
I used the extra day to sleep in, prepare classes, and teach my cadet
drummers at the squadron building.
Tuesday got off to a good start and
I spent the first period teaching & testing my Grade 9 guitarists. I only managed to test a few because the
majority needed more time to prepare. It
wasn't until the second period that things got derailed. My Grade 11s were watching Stand & Deliver again because
several students had missed several key scenes.
During the repeated viewing, the electricity suddenly shut off. The students cheered and the teachers
groaned. With no power to the
SmartBoard, we couldn't continue watching the movie. Teachers & students were informed to stay
in their dark classrooms until further notice.
Near the end of the period, we were
informed that much of Iqaluit had lost power, including the airport, and that
classes would be cancelled for the rest of the morning. I passed the time in the staff
room, sharing previous power outage stories with other teachers. Since power was not restored to the high
school by 1pm, afternoon classes were also cancelled.
The town continued to suffer from
rolling blackouts until 4pm. The power
shut off twice in the apartment complex where I reside. Naturally, the problem arose from the town's
only power plant where the four main generators are undergoing repair &
maintenance. The generators are around
40 years old.
Alternative sources of electricity
are being discussed and researched by the government. Hydro, solar, and wind are the main contenders. Wind power sounds like an obvious choice but
the northern winds may be too fierce for the tall spinning structures.
The other unforeseen event happened
on Thursday morning, ironically during my second period English class. This time the fire alarm went off. Everyone evacuated the school in under a
minute and we waited under the bright sun in our designated areas. I was glad that this unplanned fire alarm
happened in the spring because I was still wearing my dress shoes. While the fire department searched the high
school for the cause of the alarm, I and several other teachers kept the
students at bay. I found this peculiar
because during classes, students act like they want to get out of school. Now they were acting like they wanted to get
back in. Teenage behaviour is hard to
comprehend. After a few more minutes,
the all clear was given and everyone returned to their classes. There would be no more interruptions for the
rest of the school day. The cause of the
alarm was traced to a sensitive smoke detector in the cafeteria's kitchen.
Only Wednesday & Friday were
regular days and those flew by really quickly.
Despite the events listed above, I was able to get through most of my
lessons. With Stand & Deliver behind us, my Grade 11s will be revisiting
English grammar and paragraph writing.
As for my junior & senior musicians, they're continuing to prepare
for their final performance exams.
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering,
Arctic Ventures has now added the works of Gilbert & Sullivan to the list
of tunes they play to keep loiterers away from the front entrance. Trust me, the comic operas of G&S are
really annoying.
The
original plan called for the inclusion of the cadet Annual Ceremonial Review
Parade in this post but I realized that it would have made this entry too
long. The ACR will be covered in a
separate post, which is coming up next.
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