Missing our former principal

We are into our 2nd week with Annie gone. We are missing her loving presence in the school. For several days there was no one to welcome us as we came to school. Annie was always here shortly after 8 am. I could have a little conference with her about school or a little personal chat. We also did not have our Prayer Circle for a few days. As I have written so many times that was a very inspirational time for teachers and students. Small problems were nipped in the bud .

On Friday I had more students in the Admin office than I have had there all year. In one day I surpassed the yearly record. All these discipline problems happened when my students were in the other school but they are still my class. There was a major loss of pride for the entire class.

Our days are very long right now. It is daylight until after midnight. By three a.m. the sun is back full strenght. The students are not sleeping enough. Tempers are short. There is also the pressure of exams that start tomorrow. And we don't have Annie adding her respected voice to the chorus of "Go to bed early." I hear childish voices all night long outside of my house. I see children up at 6 am. That means they have not gone to bed yet. In the high school it is worse.

We are supposed to teach to the 16th of June. From the first of May to the 16th of June there are few teachable minutes. We teachers continually ask our school board for a longer school day during the time the students do come and are awake enough to teach. . The answer to that was to lenghten the school year and shorten the day. The board tells us that the students need more tim e in the classroom so the school year is extended. What they fail to understand is that there are more days on the school calendar but they are learning less and less.

I have requested a leave for the coming year and it was granted. I don't feel good about leaving my class ( I would have had the same students next year) but I need time away from the north. The stress does not come from the teaching but from living so far north. There are so many stresses I don't know where to start in listing them, so I won't. But it is not the teaching.

The north loses experienced northern teachers. Once teachers have figured out how to deal with the teaching, they are often burnt out from the stresses of living here. We very rarely move out of the teaching circle. We are not welcomed in to many homes here in Salluit. People are kind but they do not include us in their family time, their home time. I have been invited to two homes of my 18 students. The teaching circle is small and with few invitations to Inuit homes we live a sheltered life. We are neither fish nor fowl. We are not even invited to the homes of Inuit who teach with us.

The lack of a social life is not the only reason we leave. I could not have had a busier social life this past weekend and made it to work on Monday. It is more the isolation of being from the south and living in the north. We are not included in the life of the community. The nursing center sees the teachers on an emergency basis only. Also last week we teachers were not told of the funeral of a former Inuit teacher. It was not that we were not welcome to go, but we were not told about the funeral.

It will be sad for me to leave here. I have enjoyed my time here. Very mixed emotions at this time. I will write more about that another time.

Robins are in the north for the second year. I saw some type of sparrow and also heard it's call . What a lovely treat. I have not seen any geese so far. There are three pairs of hawks nesting near the village and it is said the geese won't come near with hawks about. I don't know if that is true but I do miss the sound of the geese overhead. Soon it will time for me to be flying south.