The Classroom: The Nunavut Experience

Yesterday was my first experience teaching a class in Nunavut. I'm starting off slow; this week I will conquer English, next week I will attempt science and the third week I will try math (God help them). I have to keep in mind that these are not like students from the South. They are ESL learners and even though they sound like they can speak English, writing English is a completely different story.

It was hard to assess what level they were at before I started. Donna told me to teach paragraphs so I went to class with a booklet of worksheets I had prepared. I wanted to show the importance of topic sentences. I gave several paragraphs and asked the class to find the topic sentence - no problem. When I moved on to the next activity and asked them to replace the topic sentence with one of their own, my lesson was completely lost. "Why would we write a new one? It already has one?" "Can I just write the topic sentence down again?" "This is boring." So, we struggled through this together until I realized it wasn't going to happen, so we moved on. That was Monday's class.

Today's class was a different story. I am told you can tell when alcohol is in the town by the mood of your class. Beginning late last week, students, who hadn't been in school since December or January, magically turned up. School offers students a safe haven with a routine. Teachers are constantly playing catch up with these students. You need to always be welcoming and be happy that they are there (even if it's a huge hassle because they are so behind in work). So my class that is usually 10-12 students is now 18. So that means that kids who are "new" have been speaking Inuktitut for the last number of weeks, with no supervision, being able to do whatever they want. Goodie.

So I started my lesson on the board. Review: "What is a paragraph?" "What do you need to make a paragraph?" "What does a topic sentence look like?" etc. We moved on to the NEW worksheets. I gave them topics and they needed to create topic sentences, and then choose two of those topic sentences and create paragraphs. Sounds easy? Well I thought so too. As soon as my Co-op teacher left, their respect and obedience left as well. Students were yelling my name, laying on the floor, counting cigarettes, making holes in their desk, asking me for help and then giggling when someone says something in Inuktitut. It's an unnerving experience. My Co-op teacher came back in and saw that they were abusing my kindness and my openness to their culture. After break she was going to set them straight. 

By the end of the day my worksheets were completed and they were told to show more respect for me at all times, not just when my Co-op teacher is around. I didn't take any of this to heart because I know that I'm a new person and that my teaching styles are not perfected in my own province, let alone in Nunavut where I am the minority. 

Things that are hard to get used to or accept:

• Having them talk to each other in Inuktitut. You feel like you are the brunt of all jokes, that they are criticizing you, and that you're missing out. You could never say, "While in my class you must only speak English" because their language is a huge part of their culture, but it is something to get used to.
• Having them work on the floor. Today they abused that privilege, so from now on they will remain in their desks unless they are doing group work. But, sitting in desks is a white man's rule, and it is unnatural to them.
• You need to lie out EVERY single step. That is something that is important in the teaching profession, and I'm slowly learning how to do this. But, in my other practicum’s, most students were able to receive a few instructions and produce the final project - that will not happen here.
• The number of interruptions. Honestly, there are about 20 announcements made over the intercom daily. All are in Inuktitut and I don’t know what they want.
• The social issues that I’m not aware of but need to be sensitive to. It’s hard to make a student write a paragraph about camping when perhaps they were up all night because they had no place to sleep because they parents were up all night partying. 

Please don't feel like I'm complaining. I'm enjoying my time up here. It's new and with that there are a lot of new experiences I will encounter. I haven't decided if this is something I'm interested in doing in September, but I am still open to the idea. If I decide to come here it's because I know that this is the right place for me to be, not because of the limited opportunities in Nova Scotia or the pay increase.