My Class

I have come to the realization that I have neglected to talk about both my kids and their classroom environment. It is not that I didn't want to talk about them it was more that they were the most routine part of my day... everything else here is new... it doesn't matter where you go in the world or what culture you become a part of because kids are kids are kids.

My kids just happen to be in grade 4 and 5. This is a new age level for me since I am an intermediate seniour teacher by trade. There are few differences between a grade 7 class and my grade 4/5 class save the obvious education levels. They are still excited about recess, they don't cover their mouths when they cough, they would rather play checkers than do math, and squirting their water bottles in their mouths and at eachother is probably the best part of their day. One of the big "issues" our school is having right now is regarding the waterbottles. The older "cool" kids have started using a tack to pierce a small hole in the lid of their bottle which allows water to be squeezed out at great pressure and therefore incredible distance. The further you can hold the bottle away from your mouth while shooting water into your mouth the greater the feat. I was well aware of this "issue" before it trickeled down to the elementary hallway because I team teach in the grade 6/7 class twice a week. So all of my kids have been warned about the consequences of this type of water bottle and so far only one bottle has been confiscated hahahahahaha.

I have a pretty decent schedule as far as elementary school schedules go. I teach all subjects except Inuktitut, gym, and community living. These subjects take up 10 periods a week... so I consistently have 1 to 2 preps a day. I am often scheduled in another class for teamteaching which works very well for both me and the other teachers because that puts another adult body in the classroom to help keep control and answer questions... and some days just to bare witness to the various happenings because no one would believe otherwise hahahaha. I have excellent support staff in my room in all periods but one every day. I also have two other team teachers that come in for 4 periods a week. So at any given time I have two other adults in my classroom providing support. Compared to my previous experiences in Ontario elementary schools I believe that teachers here have greater opportunity for support in their classrooms and more time to plan.

Grade 4 in Inuksuit is the first year that the students are taught in English. There is a very wide range in ability in my classroom and not just in English. I have found math to be a difficult subject as well. I am currently working out of a grade 2 level math work book and even then I have students struggling. I have got two students that get frustrated and shut down with basic addition. YET I also have a student that is very bright and currently sitting at the grade 5 level or slightly above. To keep appearances up I give her the same work as everyone else as a warm up and when she flies through it in about 5 minutes I give her the levelled work with very light instruction which she flies through. The only barrier that I have found with her is a slight language issue. Math at the grade 5 and 6 levels is quite dependent on word problems which is where she runs into difficulties.

Language poses a problem for all of the kids in my class. Some of the students speak English very well. Others say things like "can I go drink?" BUT no matter the level at which their speech has developed I have to fight tooth and nail to get them to write ANY of it down... or even to answer verbally using full sentences. This originally disoriented me as to how much of the English language they had. But as I thought I was introducing new vocabulary the students proved again and again that they already had those words in their lexicon they just chose not to use them. At first I was self conscious about my teaching being the cause of their reluctance to use language to communicate. BUT as I asked the other teachers at the school in the higher grades I found that they have exactly the same problems except the words that the students DO use in their classes are often more vulgar.

I have 21 student currently enrolled in my class. At any given time I have about 14 kids that show up regularly. There are less kids in the morning than in the afternoon simply because the kids play in the street until the wee hours of the morning and use the morning to sleep off the late night play. I have two kids that cause great ruckus to my class both, I believe, are directly resultant of their home environments. I thought that I had one more but it turns out he just needed his glasses. Glasses here are a novelty or perhaps glasses in any grade 4/5 class are a novelty. The kids try mine on and steal the glasses of others. I am assuming that the glasses I found in my desk were put there to prevent the other kids from taking them. Once the kid had his glasses back he was well behaved, on task, and a treat to have in class. Just holding his glasses up and looking through them gave me a headache, honestly the kid probably couldn't see anything at all near or far. If that were me I would have caused trouble in class too!

There is a lot of review and time spent reinforcing the rules and regulations that are synonymous with school. It is difficult because none of the rules are inforced at home. One of the trouble makers headbutted another student in my class which resulted in tears. When I took the one student aside to discuss proper classroom play behaviour he raised his hand to me as if to smack me because he didn't like what I was saying. He was suspended for 2 days. Even those students that do not have behavioural issues have an edge to them. For example, even with two adults in the room students frequently stand on their desks or crawl on the floor. My only threat is taking away gym class which compounds the problem because then the student is surly in the following classes posing an even greater disturbance. I learn something new every day that I work with these kids.

The culture here is heavily reliant on facial expression as a form of communication. Something as simple as "yes" or "no" are non verbal... and not in the nonverbal southern sense of shaking or nodding your head. "Yes" is conveyed by raising your eyebrows in a shocked or interested expression. Whereas "no" is conveyed by scrunching your nose like there is a foul odor. This takes some getting used to because I will ask a question and get a raised eyebrow but ask it again because I am so used to a verbal response. And, for that matter, all of my teachers throughout my school career demanded that I answer verbally using full sentences and no slang, so I kind of expect the same I suppose.

This place is a fantastic place to learn because there are so many challenges and yet so many creative freedoms.