Week 5!

Hello again!Week 5 in Pond Inlet has officially come to an end! We are looking forward to spending another week in this beautiful community but are sad to think that we will be leaving so soon. The past couple days have once again been full of teaching, fun activities and new experiences. On Friday we finished up our Sexual Health Unit and got to use our homemade board game to review with some of our students. After school on Friday we put on an incredible production of the movie Inside Out, thanks to the help of teachers at Nasivvik and some of our students. We set up a giant screen and projector to view the movie. The school has a super cool popcorn machine that you see in movie theatres so we got a kick out of using that! The students seemed to enjoy watching the movie while munching on popcorn. So many students stayed after to help out so clean up was a breeze! On the weekend we participated in the final floor hockey game of the year! Everyone was very tired but we still had a blast!We began teaching our Mental Health Unit this week to grades 7, 8 and 9, starting with an introduction to mental health, mental illness, stigma, and self-care. We have also began to cover topics of stress management, grief management, and suicide awareness. In our high school classes, we have shifted the focus to goal setting and leadership activities, while at Ulaajuk Elementary School we taught another lesson on substances and alcohol use.After school on Monday we were incredibly fortunate to go out on the land with a few teachers and community members. We travelled by qamutiik and got to see incredible views of mountains all around and some local wildlife. Qamutiiks are traditional Inuit sleds designed to travel on snow and ice. The qamutiik ride was very relaxing, though a little bit bumpy at times!Every Wednesday, a group of high school students make bannock, which is still a major highlight for Emma. After a full day of teaching we ended with a girl's night after school. We made sugar cookies, played badminton, volleyball and basketball, and coloured some adult colouring sheets. It was a great, relaxing way to end the day and we are thrilled that the girls seem to have as much fun as we do!As the week comes to an end we are trying to fit in as much time in the classroom as possible! We are hoping to spend some more time visiting the Health Centre and the Library. We look forward to wrapping up our teaching and taking part in all the fun activities in the week to come!Until next time,Emma and Krista