Earth Day!

What did you do for Earth Day? My school made teams and had a town trash pick-up! We also planted trees and had a bbq at Ehattesaht the band office! My team totally won...well not really...but we tried! We had some stiff competition. I think we called a tie.

Celebration of Life

A celebration of life in Nuu-Chah-Nulth culture is different from what I know one to be. When I think of celebration of life, I think of a funeral-type event. However, here a celebration of life is actually to celebrate that someone survived something that could have been tragic! How cool is that?!

I was recently invited to attend one. A toddler fell into the ocean and was found unconscious, but was saved by his uncle performing CPR. The family decided to hold a celebration of life!

I didn't take pictures because I wasn't sure if it would be respectful to do so, but I was fully engaged in what was going on. They held a potlatch dinner at the community hall (I brought apple pie) and almost everyone was invited to attend. Above every door there were hemlock branches. I asked one of my students about this and she didn't really know how to explain it. She just said "it's because he survived". We were served, from oldest to youngest, a dinner by the young ladies in the community. There were prayers said by one of the chiefs multiple times throughout the dinner in Nuu-Chah-Nulth. After the dinner the family members of the toddler stood up and individually thanked all the people who were in any way involved in the rescue. The uncle was given money, handmade gifts, and wrapped in blankets. The woman who felt guilty for taking her eyes off the boy before he drowned was also wrapped in a blanket and told by the family that she should not feel guilty and that they forgive her and still love her. Even the paramedics who got to the scene were invited to the dinner and given gifts!

This was a beautiful showing of appreciation and gratitude that I believe more people should practice. Nuu-Chah-Nulth tradition emphasises sharing your wealth and publicly appreciating your loved ones. This is good for the heart.

One of the gifts that was given to the uncle was a hat similar to this. It was handmade for him. The toddler received a matching one.

Bargaining Update

Our members had a strike vote and voted 89% in favour of a strike, but that doesn't seem to have phased anyone in government. No movement has been made at the bargaining table and we will start job action tomorrow. It sucks, nobody likes it, but that's the way it has to be!

Any support is always appreciated!

Nuu-Chah-Nulth Language

Zeballos Elementary Secondary School does not teach French. We teach Nuu-Chah-Nulth instead. I am learning a new language along with my students! There are 44 characters in the alphabet and we have just finished making cue cards for each one. The students are much better at remembering the sounds than I am (young brains)! We have also had one of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Education Workers (N.E.W.) take us on a walking field trip to identify plant names in N-C-N. There is a website that I have been using to help me with this, but we also have a ton of resources in the school computers. My goal is to have them learn a song for the potlatch in Kyuquot next month. Cross your fingers for me!

Check out the website and try some of the sounds for yourself!

http://www.nuuchahnulth.org/language/alphabet/alpha1.html

Community Garden

Our class has a community garden! I am so excited to watch it grow! We bought two boxes across the street from the school.  We needed to weed it, dig it, up, add compost to it, make a sign, and plant the seeds. The watering has been left up to mother nature so far because it has been raining pretty frequently since we planted. This week we will be making little signs to show where we planted each crop. Our crops are: pumpkins, sunflowers, wild flowers, carrots, corn, peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, garlic shoots, and basil. This is something that the students are very in to! It has been very helpful in trying into both science and social studies lessons.

This is the sign our class made. Mitch found the driftwood for me. More pictures to come!

We have also planted some seeds in our classroom as an experiment to see what happens when we don't provide one of the three essentials to growing: light, CO2, and water. We have some plants that are not getting one or more of those three things vs. plants that we are taking care of regularly. So far our tomato plant has sprouted in the classroom! Woo-hoo!

Family Literacy Day

In January we had a Family Literacy Day. We invited family members to come in and read with the students. We had a few parents show up and that was nice to see, but the my favourite part of the day was getting the older students to read with the younger ones.

This is the only photo I have of no faces!

Mt. Cain Ski Trip

Grade 3-7 went on a long-awaited ski and snowboard trip! We had tried to plan it for earlier in the year, but were thwarted by the lack of snow. The snow gods finally smiled down on us in March and we made it happen! This was all planned by the NSOP teacher, so I can't really take much credit for the planning. She did an excellent job, but she plans a lot of trips and this one was a little rushed because we were just so excited for having snow finally! The whole trip just kept having hilarious (in hindsight) problems.

1: One of the teachers didn't confirm if he was meeting us in Zeballos or if he was meeting us on the road....That was up in the air because we have no cell phone service....but it worked out and he caught us before we left.

2: She couldn't find the keys for the bus. Eventually found them.

3: We couldn't find the addresses of the students (We were picking them up at home). We found ONE address and used that student to help us find the rest of the students.

4: We were late leaving Zeballos because of above noted problems.

5: We had to stop and put snow chains on the bus. This was her first time doing it, so she was extremely nervous and stressed that it wasn't working. We were all covered in mud by the end of the day because of those chains!

6: Most of the students do not have their own snow clothes, so we needed to get each student into the NSOP clothes without fights. This went surprisingly smooth.

7: The mountain didn't have enough snowboards for everyone, so a few of the younger students were upset.


However, the students had a great time and all of them participated in the lessons. The Mt. Cain staff said that they were impressed with our students behaviour, which is a huge plus for me! Despite all of the problems, it was a good experience.

This is the only picture that I had without student's faces! It's Sarah, trying to look happy as she struggles to get the chains on the bus. I have so much respect for this lady!

Mathletics

Our class has started an awesome new online program called Mathletics. It is an app/website that the students can access on their Ipads. I love this program! It has lessons, tests, and math games that the students can play. It also lets students from different classes (and different countries) compete against each other, but at their own level. Students gain points from finishing assignments and winning math games, then they can use them to make their avatar look interesting. I can also print out a weekly update of their work so that parents can see how they are doing. This program is my new favourite thing! It is a perfect supplement to go with our lessons. Check it out: www. mathletics.com

Because I have three different grades, and multiple math levels in my class, this program is extremely helpful. I usually teach one level of learners while the others work on their own math. If they don't understand something then they can come and listen to the lesson while they wait for help.

This is what the mathletics platform looks like. However, this particular question is beyond the level of my class. This picture shows a competition taking place.

Ovoids!

In Nuu-Chah-Nulth art (and probably most west coast First Nations art) the "ovoid" is used frequently. It is usually used as an eye, but can sometimes be used for other parts of the image. In my teaching I have been trying to incorporate more Nuu-Chah-Nulth teachings and art is the most obvious start for me. We have started with the basics...learning to draw an ovoid!

 

This is a picture from one of the books we used: Learning by Design Vol. 1 - Raven Publishing. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my students work, but they did a really great job with these.

 

Local artist, Vince Smith has come into the school a few times to help with aspiring high school artists. He does some beautiful work: