First Day O School

Good day all. Sorry for the gap in posts - we've been running around faster than OJ when he was in his Bronco. That's o.k. to say, right? Meh. Point is - preparing for the first day has been crazy.
First day of school was today. Shawna and I were technically working since Tuesday, but kids didn't come in until today. Our first day (Tuesday) we just had a staff meeting, that lasted all morning! and then we were given the afternoon to get ourselves together with regards to our classrooms, and also for departmental meetings. There is certainly a lot to worry about being a full on teacher. People always told us that teaches college and practicums didn't give you a real idea of teaching, and they weren't kidding! Lead up to first day, reading the records over for the kids, logistics for classroom, health and safety, record keeping ( I SAY THAT TWICE: RECORD KEEPING!!!), keep you running until the first bell goes. But alas, Shawna and I have survived our first day. The kids are pretty great and for the first day of school were pretty well behaved. They try to push you here a bit, but if you push back, they respect you more. Shawna and I have agreed that the kids are like a workplace class back home - focus wise. The only difference, is that up here, when you are stern with a kid and correct them, they don't hold grudges it doesn't seem. That's what other teachers told us here, and we agree - so far! Yesterday was pretty fun - Shawna and I got to go out to our principals cabin on Middle Lake (2.5 miles away from town). All the staff went, and it was pretty fun. Shawna and I were given our Inuk names out there. Everyone has a separate name based on your personal characteristics that is said in traditional language. I can't write mine because it's a word in Inuktitut, but the English translation is Fire Keeper, or Fire Man, or Fire Person ... they named me when I was tending to the fire. It's pronounced something like "Ee-qwa-la". Shawna's name is something like "nig-ling-nook-took", it means loving in English. The phonetic spelling might be a bit off - but I doubt ya mind, haha. You get the idea. We are having a blast up here so far. We're both missing home, but feeling good - probabaly because we are surrounded by so many good people. Days are getting shorter, and a bit cooler. That's all for now.

*********************If you're done reading - you may stop. I'm gonna rant a little.***********************


1. Good advice given by Claude, a Jamaican fellow who is going into his 6th year teaching here.
"You must not be firm like the Oak. When the wind blows the Oak will fall. You must be flexible like the Willow. When the wind blows, the Willow moves with it, and when the wind dies down, you will stand tall again."
Pretty cool, I thought.


2. For you computer people - and those who know me and my dying defense of Windows based computers. (Doug F, I'm looking at you).


DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED. Well, they have.


This whole school is based on Mac. 2 mobile computer labs, macs. Ipad lab. Computer lab, mac. Teachers computers in rooms, mac. Routers, mac - or wait "airport" ohhh, ahhh. Look at me, I'm Steve Jobs and I'm too cool to call things what they do. It's an airport, not a router. Don't be fooled, they suck. I had one in second year - if any of the Bolivar crew is reading - you agree.


I hate macs. I hate, hate, hate, hate them. Okay, fine. I don't hate them, but I don't like them much. WHY THE HECK DO THEY INSIST ON NOT MAXIMIZING WINDOWS???? WHO USES A COMPUTER AND WANTS TO SEE ALL THE GARBAGE IN THE BACKGROUND. I have a splash of ADD, and when there are other things to occupy my mind - BIRD!!! - I can get off task. I know, I know, you can pull the window over and make it big - but I shouldn't have to findangle with the damned thing just to make it screen size. Also: what's with all the floating menus in Office? Like what the heck?? Put you toolbars on the top like every other sensible program. Ef.


I may be wrong, but I'm probably not, the mac basic setup for finding crap is ridic to figure out. It's so cluttered and burried. It's like I've been given some 2 year olds toy to get my work done on. Windows seems to be like a nicely organized tree of stuff. Computer-->Hard Drive --> Users --> Me --> Documents/Pictures/Everything. Maybe I just need more lessons on this thing, but it seems like they don't want you to know what's going on. I want to know what's going on. When you don't let me know what's going on, you remind me of Stalin. Ya, I said it. Mac is equal or worse than the former Soviet Union under Stalin with regard to secrets. I don't know if you're all up on your Soviet history, but Stalin's secrets were bad news. My only logical assumption is mac is hiding things just as bad.


The tool bar. Oh the tool bar. Yes, it's fancy and it has fun little clouds when you delete things, and when you scroll over it gets bigger. Ohhh, ahhh. Okay jerks. For those of us who aren't satisfied wholly with shiny objects, you come to find this jerked off thing (Gord Rivoire term) is just cluttered and poor. Get a tool bar, man. I don't want to open a window to find my applications. And I don't want 40,000 things on my tool bar. Ef.


GET A MOUSE WITH A RIGHT CLICK. HOLY HOCKEY!!! Ya wanna copy something? Can't do that with one hand. Wanna get into the details of something? Can't do that with one hand. Okay, I'll give it to you, the scroll ball is cool. That's all you get.


I have to leave now, or Shawna will get mad for eating too late.


I'm not done with this though.


Feel free to comment. :)

Here's Where to Find Us on a Map

Our town is located on the Boothia Peninsula. If you are on the up and up on your Arctic-ness, you might know the town as Spence Bay. Then again, if you're on the up and up you would probably already know that. Many towns and villages around Nunavut have changed their names to reflect the culture within them in recent years.

If you are not a fan of my ranting about history and junk - you might as well stop reading here. :)

In regards to the name of our blog - I stumbled upon some cool history about the general region around Taloyoak and read that the magnetic north pole was first discovered in 1831 around the Adelaide Peninsula - which is slightly South-West of Boothia Peninsula. Additionally, I found out that magnetic north is not a constant, and it is always moving - hence good compasses have a calibration mechanism (I learned that one from my Godfather, Peter). Below I've attached two pictures. One is a neat looking map circa 1950 of the Circumpolar World, (Circumpolar is a new word for me too. As it literally suggests, it is comprises the countries located around the Arctic Circle and those with shores along the Arctic Ocean). And below that picture is a neat notice I found on a google search milling around looking for info on magnetic north. The notice is for the recovery of John Franklin's expedition to magnetic north which never returned - sometime in the mid 1840s. If you are interested in reading on the North and such, I just picked up S.Grant's Polar Imperative --- it's supposed to be the best overall history of the Arctic world in scholarship right now, try it on.