A great start to a hectic end

We finished our projects with Veera's grade 6s this morning.  My group (which turned into one student working and the other two taking photos with someone's camera) made a line graph of their pyranometer data.

Lydia erasing the pencil marks on our graph.

Next we headed across the school to Pat's grade 1 class where we made a pictograph of the sky conditions (sunny, sunny with clouds, cloudy, rainy, or snowy) they saw when recording their measurements.  We gave each of them an observation sheet (which had one of the sky conditions circled) and a piece of construction paper to draw on.  One little boy started drawing clouds, despite the full sun picture being circled on his observation sheet.  Anthony went over to help and asked, "What picture is circled on here?"  The boy replied, "Rainy!"  Anthony encouraged him, "It's not rainy.  Point to the circled picture."  The boy sat for a moment, obviously thinking.  With his orange marker, he circled the rain cloud on the observation sheet, pointed to it, and repeated, "Rainy!"

Pat's grade 1's sky condition pictures.

After our break, we made a sky condition pictograph with Jeena's grade 2s.  When we arrived in the classroom, many of the students were huddled over a dot on the desk, no bigger than a quarter--a warble.  These squishy grubs (yes, I poked it) lay their eggs on caribou.  As larva, they dig themselves under the caribou's skin and travel to the caribou's back, where they stay until the summer (when they break through the skin).  When this warble moved, it looked like a slowly compressing and elongating accordion.  Jeena said they can sting like a bee and it hurts quite a bit.

Grade 2 students huddled over a warble.

A warble from the side.

A warble from the front.

Before lunch we finished with Darlene's class.  They taped their coloured thermometer and wind blade pictures from yesterday together for us, so today we made a really long sky condition pictograph.  We made sure to include the temperature and wind speed on all of the pictures and glue them down in chronological order.

Darlene's grade 3's wind speed and temperature pictographs.

Darlene's grade 3's sky condition pictograph.

We spent an hour after lunch with Yvonne's grade 5 class.  The two boys in my group came back to school late (the girl didn't come), but they made great progress on their bar graph!  I was thoroughly impressed with both of them!  We still have a half hour tomorrow to finish it up.

Next we went to Keriann's grade 4 class for a full hour; usually the grade 3s and 4s are broken into half hour sessions, but this was the best way to fit everything into the schedule.  They were wild!  While the supervising teacher was out of the room, some of the students were well behaved and coloured like we asked, others were completely lost and wandered around the room aimlessly, while most of the students made noises that I have never heard before as they half ran around the classroom.  When the teacher came back, she flashed the lights on and off and they calmed down a fair bit.  But I have to admit, I think all four of us were glad when the hour was up!

We ended the day in Caleb's grade 7 class.  When we broke off to start projects in Caleb's class last time, there were only six students, so we split into two groups.  Anthony and I took three students and Ashley and Jonathan took the others.  Today there were 12 students, so our group doubled in size.  At first it lead to chaos.  Anthony and I trying to get six grade 7s to focus was comparable to training cats to heard sheep.  Dave, the gym teacher who was supervising the class during our time, tried to help, but I feel like he didn't want to step over Anthony and my authority.  So I made a quick decision; split the work of our trivia game into two parts, then assign three students to Anthony to make questions and three to me to make the board.  It turned into a more manageable situation until one of my students ran out of paper to cut.  He started snipping the scissors near my hair.  "If you cut my hair," I warned, "I will personally escort you to Clyde or Dean" (the principal and vice-principal, respectively).  The student continued to snip the scissors in the air, but not near my hair.  Dave left momentarily, and shortly after returned with Dean.  Immediately all of the students swapped to their best behaviour.  It was an amazing transition!  Dean walked around the room and interested himself in each project before leaving.  We managed to get the trivia questions done (not with any answers...) before the home bell rang.

Caleb's grade 7's pyranometer trivia, mostly about clouds.

After school, Jonathan and I went grocery shopping for the dinner we are making Dave (the music teacher) and Pete tomorrow night.  Ashley, Jonathan, Anthony, and I met up for supper and a couple rounds of Rummy before swapping photos and heading back to our rooms.
I really wanted to see the inukshuks up close and we will likely be busy all of tomorrow, so I went for a walk.  Along my way I saw mountains in the distance.  They looked so close! The inukshuks are covered in graffiti, but they are still marvellous and huge--my shoulder only reaches the top of the second rock!

Mountains in the distance.

Tantalizingly close, yet so far.

Snow covered mountains in the distance.

The middle inukshuk.  My shoulder reaches the top of the
second stone from the bottom on the right hand side leg! 

The left hand side inukshuk,
looking towards the town.

The right hand side inukshuk,
looking towards the town.

The three inukshuks, looking away from the town.

The middle inukshuk, looking away from the town.

Looking away from the town, the left hand side inukshuk.

Standing guard over Igloolik.

Starting to finish projects

This morning was our last session with Leah's grade 5 class.  My group and I finished drawing pictures of clouds that they saw during the project.  Jolene drew cirrus clouds, Amelia drew nimbostratus, and I drew altocumulus.  Afterwards we headed to Jeens's class to make a temperature pictograph.  While Ashley was talking to the kids, Jonathan sat in one of their little chairs.  He looked so silly it made me laugh and I had to take a photo to share.

Jonathan sitting in a grade 2's chair.

Grade 2s attaching their coloured thermometers to a string.

Jeena's grade 2's temperature pictograph.

 In Darlene's class after our break, we coloured in thermometers and wind blades so that we can put together a couple pictographs tomorrow.  We then went to Meeka's energetic grade 4 class where we finished making the pictographs and coloured a banner to title their display.

Meeka's grade 4s making a wind speed pictograph.

More of Meeka's grade 4s colouring letters for the banner.

 After lunch we finished up our projects with Tamie's grade 6s.  My group wrote a paragraph about collecting data.

Writing out the good draft of our paragraph.

We spent a half hour with Caleb's grade 7s, trying to come up with a project, before heading to Pat's cute grade 1 class to finish making the temperature pictograph and colour letters.  We ended the day off by starting a project with Veera's grade 6s.  Today ended 20 minutes earlier than we expected; it turns out the grade 6s have a shorter school day than grade 7s.

We planned on going to a community sing-a-long this evening at 7, but my 20 minute nap turned into 2.5 hours, waking up hungry at 6:30 with a really bad ear ache.  We ate supper, took some DayQuill, and played a few games of Euchre.  Ashley amused us with card tricks for a bit before we decided to retire to our rooms.  I am a little upset with myself for not going out into the community more this trip, however, I am hoping that staying in today will give my body the strength it needs to fight off whatever it is I caught.

Saved by the bell

Last night I made sure to set two alarms; one for 7 AM and one for 7:30 AM, just in case I wanted to sleep a little longer.  This morning I woke up to a knock at my door.  I slid to the edge of my bed and tried to hop out, but the blankets wrapped around my legs didn't fall loose and I stumbled into the wall.  I managed to kick my feet free and answer the door (after a second knock) in my cereal-box t-shirt and pyjama shorts with dishevelled hair.  It was Ashley—wearing her coat and ready to go.  “Hey,” she said as she looked me up and down.  Instantly knowing it was time to go to school, I told her I’d meet them there.

I quickly got ready and grabbed a couple slices of peanut buttered toast to eat on my way to school.  I hung up my coat, grabbed my indoor shoes, and rushed over to Vera’s grade 6 class.  I got to class just in time to stand (wearing one shoe) for O Canada and their prayer.  Since this was our first time with the class this trip, we did the category activity.

In Pat's grade 1 class we coloured thermometers to represent each day of data they had.  We will string all of the coloured thermometers together to create a pictograph.  The students thoroughly enjoyed colouring.  With Meeka's grade fours we coloured panels for a temperature pictograph as well as a wind speed pictograph.

Pat's grade 1's coloured thermometers.

Meeka's grade 4's coloured thermometers and wind blades.

 Before lunch we headed to Darlene’s grade 3 class.  They were very eager to see us again and show us some of their other school work.  They are doing a unit on fish right now, so they made a mural with 3D fish and each student made a 3D shadow box with fish swimming around.  They also really enjoyed our project—when we asked them what they wanted to do with their book of data, they shouted, “Do another one!”

Darlene's grade 3's mural.

Darlene's grade 3's shadow boxes.

After lunch we did the categorizing activity with Yvonne’s grade 5 class; the last new class.  Then headed to Tamie’s grade 6s, Leah’s grade 5s, and (a different) Yvonne’s grade 7s to start working on their projects with them.  A lot of the classes are starting to blend together in my mind because they are doing such similar things.  My group in the last class is drawing a picture of them making a measurement.  Before we left the school, we found a map with Igloolik and Avvajja on it to illustrate where we went on Sunday.

Sakku, Ronnie, and Qumangaapik's artwork.

Map with Avvajja and Igloolik.

When we got back to the hotel after school we agreed to meet up at 6:30 for supper.  I decided to take a short nap before reading.  At 6:40 I woke up to Ashley knocking on my door for the second time today, asking if I would like to eat supper with them.  After supper, we quickly went through the remaining data and prepared for tomorrow.  I think the guys have gone off to work for a bit, but I am going to head to bed—I can start to feel a tickle in my throat and I don’t want to be sick for the rest of the week again!

Back in school

Today was a new low for me—I only took two pictures the entire day!  We got to school this morning around 8:30 AM, a half an hour before school started.  We were warmly greeted by familiar faces around the school as we prepared for our first day.

We started in Leah’s grade 5 class, just like last year.  I remembered a lot of the students’ names, but didn’t necessarily match them with the right faces.  They were fairly forgiving when I mixed up their names and politely corrected me.  With Leah’s class we reintroduced ourselves (and introduced the guys); talked about their data, the data collection process, what they were measuring, problems they ran into along the way, and what they wanted to do with the data they collected; and then broke off into groups for an activity.  We gave each group a stack of pictures and had them group the pictures into various methods of sharing data with others: plotting graphs and charts, drawing visualizations/pictures, talking, and writing.

Ashley telling Tamie's grade 6 students about the four presentation methods.

After an hour with the grade 5s, we went into Jeena’s grade 2 class.  As I entered the room, the grade 2s shouted out a resounding “Hi Mel”.  It instantly spread a smile across my face.  We talked with the grade 2s about their temperature data and did an individual activity.  Everyone was given a map and a bunch of small photos of plants and animals.  If the plant or animal was native to Igloolik, they glued the picture in the north end of the map, otherwise (it was native to Southwestern Ontario) they glued it to the south edge of the map.

After our ten minute break we repeated the map activity with Pat’s grade 1s and the categorizing activity with Meeka’s grade 4s.  We headed back to the inn for lunch—cheddar broccoli soup with grilled cheese—which felt really good to eat (especially in comparison to chicken nuggets and poutine).  After lunch we did the categorizing activity with Tami’s grade 6s, Yvonne’s grade 7s, Keriann’s grade 4s, and Caleb’s grade 7s.  This time around it is a lot of repetition because everyone is analyzing their data regardless of the type (temperature, wind, or solar radiation).

After school I took a nap and read for a bit before eating supper and practising my pointe work.  Around 9 PM Ashley, Jonathan, Anthony, and I started to go through the students’ data and organize their observations to make the next few days run smoothly.  We finally finished around midnight!

Skidoo to Avvajja

I woke up this morning just before 8:30 AM, the time we planned on meeting.  No one else was awake, so I ate breakfast and read a paper.  Everyone got up a few hours later and our vague plans from last night began to take shape.

Joshua and one of his friends, Jayson, (two of the Inuit) rigged a komatik to the back of a skidoo and took us out for a ride.  We started out behind the hamlet and crossed over the ocean to Avvajja.  We drove through some of the blue slush on top of the sea ice.  The guys told us it is there because of the tides (and not the ice melting).

Igloolik from behind.

Blue slush on top of the sea ice.

Driving through the blue slush.

From left to right: me, Anthony, Ashley, Jonathan, and Jayson on the komatik.

 The land looked snowy at first and got progressively more rocky.  We stopped the skidoo a few times and walked around.  From the top of the hills I felt like I was on top of the world and had difficulties believing that what I was seeing was real and not on a t.v. in front of me.

Land, mostly covered in snow.

Land, with some rock showing.

Looking out from a "hill".

Looking out a different way.

Standing on top of the world.

Driving between rocks.

Joshua brought the komatik part way up one hill while we looked around and took pictures.  When we were ready to continue on, he unhitched the komatik from the skidoo and we rode it down the hill like a toboggan!   We saw more than just rocks and snow!  In some patches there was grass, moss, and lichen.  We also passed by the Avvajja Catholic Church, built well before Igloolik existed!  I think I recall Jayson saying it was built in the early 1900s.  To get inside the church, we crawled through the window holes.

Grasses, mosses, and lichens.

Poking out through the snow.

Avvajja Catholic Church.

Inside the church.

Joshua offered us to drive the skidoo, but with all the bumps, I wasn't going to try (despite Joshua trying to convince me it was mostly flat on the way back).  Anthony, however, was more than thrilled at the opportunity.  He drove so fast, Jonathan laid down on the komatik to avoid the wind.  Ashley shouted out, "Slow down."  Not really thinking about the situation, Anthony suddenly slowed to a crawl as the komatik quickly shortened the gap.  "Speed up!  Speed up!" all of us shouted from the back.  It was quite entertaining!  On our final stretch back, we passed by the iconic inukshuks that I am slowly starting to fall in love with.

Anthony driving the skidoo with Joshua on the back.

The Igloolik inukshuks.

When we got back to the hotel, I warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate.  After supper, Ashley, Anthony, Jonathan, and I discussed our classroom plans for this week and the details for tomorrow.  All of us were pretty wind swept and tired, so we retired to our rooms for the evening.

Tour the town

This morning started rather late.  After an 11 AM breakfast (where they told me they didn't have bacon, sausage, or ham, then proceeded to bring me a ham omelette), we decided to go for a walk around the hamlet.  It was a great day for a walk too; the temperature hovered around zero and the wind wasn't too strong.  First we walked over the frozen bay to the point, where people like to fish in the summer.

Looking east-ish from the point

Igloolik, from the point.

 While we were there, we saw people kiteboarding and cross country skiing.  We found out after the fact that Pete, the person who made us caribou stew last time we were here, was boarding with the purple kite (he claims it is actually black and white).  We don't know who was skiing, but they had some interesting company.  The dogs in the front help pull the skier and the child carriage behind them.  The carriage looks a lot like the ones you would attach to the back wheel of your bike at home, except it had skis instead of wheels.

Pete and a friend kiteboarding.

Cross-country skiing over the bay with some help.

 From the point we walked to the far end of town, then around and behind to get a closer look at the cemetery.  Along the way we met some children carrying the tiniest, most adorable puppy I have ever seen!  He is smaller than my boot!  And you can see for yourself how cute he is:

Girl holding a tiny, cute puppy. 

The cemetery which stands on a hill behind the town.

 From there, we walked to the other side of the town to see if we could show the guys the hockey arena.  Unfortunately it was locked, however, we did pass the "Hamlet of Igloolik" sign and got a closer look at the inukshuks.  We also got a tour of the "mushroom building"--the research station.  There was a huge polar bear skin inside.  I asked Jonathan to stand beside it while I took a picture, to act as a scale.  

Hamlet of Igloolik sign.

The inukshuks between the hamlet and airport.

Jonathan and the polar bear skin inside the mushroom building.

After our walk, we had lunch, did our own thing, then went over to Pete and Dave's place for supper.  Pete made us rice, chicken, and peas with a coconut milk and mild curry sauce.  It was amazing!  In return, Ashley agreed to make them supper on Friday.  Both of the meals we had at their place were incredible.  I don't think we can top them.  Any ideas?

During our walk back to the hotel, Ashley, Jonathan, Anthony, and I ran into some of the children from the school.  I remembered one of the girl's names--Emily--and when I called her, her face lit up!  During our last trip, she was quite shy at first, but was very interested in what we were doing, so she liked being close.  The four of us  finished the night up with a few games of Euchre again and vague plans for tomorrow.