After reaching what was hopefully the nadir of my experience in the North last week, I have done a lot of soul searching. Sometimes, it can be hard, but we also get to do stuff like this:
I shot this from our front window. That is Sophie skiing. Not five minutes before, she said, "I think I'm going out."
And she went.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Noah's Video Picks of the Week
I tried shooting Noah climbing from several angles, including one from between the spindles on the banister. I thought it would be a good idea to try to look at the viewfinder, and hit my head hard on the second floor. I almost blacked out, and judging by my erratic beaviour in a meeting the next day I gave myself a mild concussion.
Taima.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Batucada
I think it's timewe stop kidding ourselves. Teachers here do a tough job, sure. However, I think we are all fighting what is an unwinnable battle. Moreover, our ostensible goal, namely our students' graduation, may not even be that desirable. We have to change our definition of success, so we can change what we teach, and affect more kids positively.
I don't know what the actual statistics are. Former NHLer Joe Juneau quotes a statistic that 75 % of Inuit drop out of school. I think his statistic includes Nunavut, where the completion rates are higher. Makivik (Nunavik's crown corporation) put out a statistical survey of Nunavik in which something like 65 % of Nunavimmiut aged 20-35 had neither a high school diploma nor a skilled trade (which is a loose designation, we are not talking about journeymen mechanics here, although there are some of those). I don't know how to calculate the dropout rate. What I can tell you is that two years ago, Arsaniq school had one graduate who came from the village. Last year, we had one more. This year, we have none. Each year, about twenty kids go into kindergarten, and 2/3 of one graduates. By my math, that's a 97 % + dropout rate. Next year, we should have some more graduates, which will boost the average, but until they are actually walking on stage to collect their diplomas, I'll hedge my bets.
You can challenge my math, but I hope to make it a moot point. From a regular sector teacher's perspective, from which presumably high school graduation of students is the goal, and a measure of success, we are dismal failures. For me, the frustration has gotten to the point where every conversation I have at a meeting or with a colleague involves some questioning about the purpose of it all. As long as the goal of the school board is to a run a bunch of schools that only nominally recognise just how different life is up here, the school system will continue to fail, and fail miserably.
Let me give you an example. We have what is called "the reform" in Quebec. It is a framework made up by a bunch of academics in Quebec's universities and bureaucrats in Quebec city. The idea is that teachers stop grading on the content of what they teach in each specific subject and grade and instead assess along "cross-curricular competencies" in each "cycle". We are now to approach our teaching thematically, and integrate our different subjects to create more authentic learning environments. In English, that means if we are teaching about Mexico in Social Studies, we should read about Mexico in Language class, and talk about tortillas in our word problems for Math. It's what I did last week (we also went to the kitchen and made quesadillas, and Sophie taught them to dance "la raspa"). For many teachers, this is called "good teaching", and is really nothing new. Except, now, our teaching has to meet 127 specific criteria in order to be considered good. On top of that, its a half-measure. There is still standardized testing and percentage grades, and other things that subvert the philosophy of the "reform", but remain in the program nonetheless. It's mostly because of parents, who had grades, and cannot make sense of the wishy-washy hippie-dippiness of the "reform", like-minded people at our school board's head office, and many closed-minded teachers in the schools themselves.
It's ridiculous. I digress. So, The board has adopted "the reform", but the people at the head office are too thick to realise that many things do not exactly work up North, nor should they be asked to, such as the standardised tests Students are expected to pass the same secondary 5 tests that they have in the South. Sorry MELS (Quebec's education ministry), school is not that good here. It's not. Taima.
However, there are things we can do to get them to attend school and get them involved. Enter batucada:
One of the teachers brought a group of students from Wakeham to Gaspé last summer for a music festival. While there, she planted a seed with one of the band leaders. It grew into this. Students parading around in an arctic winter (-37 C with the wind chill) and drumming. Some of them are my students. We have been going to drumming workshops twice a week for the past three weeks, and my students learned to drum. They may not have learned any Math or Social Studies while drumming, but at least they came to school on time, and listened to some instructions.
So, the kids are now forming a band, and with the help of the animator and a couple of teachers, will hopefully put together a summer music festival and get to travel around to other villages, showing off their newly acquired skills. I'm not sure if the experience of doing this will meet the 127 criteria to be in line with the reform, but certainly, the students will learn more from this than from a couple of missed Math classes. In addition, a progressive, reform minded, or as I like to say, "good" teacher, could incorporate the drumming into their courses.
I'm not saying that we should be teaching the students to drum instead of to multiply. Kids here need to learn how to multiply. However, they do not need a a Southern education. They need something else. It might be drumming, or it might not. But drumming is better than dropping out.
Taima,
J.
I don't know what the actual statistics are. Former NHLer Joe Juneau quotes a statistic that 75 % of Inuit drop out of school. I think his statistic includes Nunavut, where the completion rates are higher. Makivik (Nunavik's crown corporation) put out a statistical survey of Nunavik in which something like 65 % of Nunavimmiut aged 20-35 had neither a high school diploma nor a skilled trade (which is a loose designation, we are not talking about journeymen mechanics here, although there are some of those). I don't know how to calculate the dropout rate. What I can tell you is that two years ago, Arsaniq school had one graduate who came from the village. Last year, we had one more. This year, we have none. Each year, about twenty kids go into kindergarten, and 2/3 of one graduates. By my math, that's a 97 % + dropout rate. Next year, we should have some more graduates, which will boost the average, but until they are actually walking on stage to collect their diplomas, I'll hedge my bets.
You can challenge my math, but I hope to make it a moot point. From a regular sector teacher's perspective, from which presumably high school graduation of students is the goal, and a measure of success, we are dismal failures. For me, the frustration has gotten to the point where every conversation I have at a meeting or with a colleague involves some questioning about the purpose of it all. As long as the goal of the school board is to a run a bunch of schools that only nominally recognise just how different life is up here, the school system will continue to fail, and fail miserably.
Let me give you an example. We have what is called "the reform" in Quebec. It is a framework made up by a bunch of academics in Quebec's universities and bureaucrats in Quebec city. The idea is that teachers stop grading on the content of what they teach in each specific subject and grade and instead assess along "cross-curricular competencies" in each "cycle". We are now to approach our teaching thematically, and integrate our different subjects to create more authentic learning environments. In English, that means if we are teaching about Mexico in Social Studies, we should read about Mexico in Language class, and talk about tortillas in our word problems for Math. It's what I did last week (we also went to the kitchen and made quesadillas, and Sophie taught them to dance "la raspa"). For many teachers, this is called "good teaching", and is really nothing new. Except, now, our teaching has to meet 127 specific criteria in order to be considered good. On top of that, its a half-measure. There is still standardized testing and percentage grades, and other things that subvert the philosophy of the "reform", but remain in the program nonetheless. It's mostly because of parents, who had grades, and cannot make sense of the wishy-washy hippie-dippiness of the "reform", like-minded people at our school board's head office, and many closed-minded teachers in the schools themselves.
It's ridiculous. I digress. So, The board has adopted "the reform", but the people at the head office are too thick to realise that many things do not exactly work up North, nor should they be asked to, such as the standardised tests Students are expected to pass the same secondary 5 tests that they have in the South. Sorry MELS (Quebec's education ministry), school is not that good here. It's not. Taima.
However, there are things we can do to get them to attend school and get them involved. Enter batucada:
One of the teachers brought a group of students from Wakeham to Gaspé last summer for a music festival. While there, she planted a seed with one of the band leaders. It grew into this. Students parading around in an arctic winter (-37 C with the wind chill) and drumming. Some of them are my students. We have been going to drumming workshops twice a week for the past three weeks, and my students learned to drum. They may not have learned any Math or Social Studies while drumming, but at least they came to school on time, and listened to some instructions.
So, the kids are now forming a band, and with the help of the animator and a couple of teachers, will hopefully put together a summer music festival and get to travel around to other villages, showing off their newly acquired skills. I'm not sure if the experience of doing this will meet the 127 criteria to be in line with the reform, but certainly, the students will learn more from this than from a couple of missed Math classes. In addition, a progressive, reform minded, or as I like to say, "good" teacher, could incorporate the drumming into their courses.
I'm not saying that we should be teaching the students to drum instead of to multiply. Kids here need to learn how to multiply. However, they do not need a a Southern education. They need something else. It might be drumming, or it might not. But drumming is better than dropping out.
Taima,
J.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
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