Week One in Fort Providence: Art, Baking, & Ice Breaking!
And just like that,our first week in Fort Providence is over! This week was filled with laughter,learning both inside and outside the classroom, and getting to know thewonderful community here. After a 24-hour travel day, we landed in Yellowknifeand went straight to the grocery store to stock our fridge for the next sixweeks! We then made the trek from Yellowknife to Fort Providence, in a speedy 3hours. On the way, we were lucky enough to take in the beautiful naturallandscape of the Northwest Territories, and we even saw two lynx and somepretty cool birds!
When we finally arrived, we got thekeys to our little home away from home in Fort Prov, and discovered that itfeatures a sauna, which needless to say, we were pretty thrilled about! Afterunpacking and phoning home to let our friends and family know that we made it,we quickly fell asleep before waking up bright and early to meet the wonderfulstaff of Deh Gáh Elementary and Secondary School at 8.30 am on Monday morning.We spent Monday establishing a schedule for our time in each class, and gettingto know everyone we would be working with for the next six weeks. We also wereable to make it to the Health Centre where we had a super informativeconversation surrounding the resources and services it provides.
We began teaching on Tuesday, andover the week we had many successful lessons to kick things off and start toget to know the students from each grade, as well as the health topics they areinterested in learning about! We focused on respect, friendship, and bullyingin the K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 classes. We also taught a lesson on strangers andsafety in the 2-3 class, which we felt resonated very well with the students.We were super excited when they found us after school and reminded us to alwaysbe with a BUDDY when in the community, keep personal information a SECRET, YELL& RUN, TELL a trusted adult, and PHONE the RCMP if a stranger makes themfeel unsafe! Each key word was associated with a finger on their hand to helpthem remember, and we’re so happy this worked! After school on Tuesday, we hada blast playing grounders with some of the students from the 4-5 class.
We focused on self-esteem with the6-7 and 8-9 classes. We were very grateful to participate in an art class ledby the awesome team from TakingITGlobal and Connected North, that focused onwell-being. Artist Miigizi led the workshop via telecommunication conference,which was such a wonderful opportunity for the students and ourselves to beimmersed in. You can learn more about Nyle and his incredible work here: https://miigizi.com/pages/artist-introduction. We wereable to tie the painting into our lesson on self-esteem in the 8-9 class, anddiscuss the importance of self-care! It was super cool to see that the wholeclass was excited for the upcoming Spring Camp, which they all told us was veryimportant for their well-being and self-care! We also had a great time talkingabout sleep (which funnily enough, we were both in desperate need of by the endof the week) with the grade 6-7s! We had students write on sticky notes howmany hours of sleep they get on average, and how many hours they think theyshould be getting to create a visual for them. We also talked about thebenefits of getting sleep and the effects on the body of not getting enoughsleep.
In high school classes, we lovedbeing able to participate in their fitness class each day, and got to know afew of the students while doing some baking in preparation for the art showFriday after school! We are excited to start discussing health with them in theupcoming week, as they indicated interest in so many awesome and important healthtopics!
The highlight of our week washelping set up for an art show happening at the school on Friday night! Theshow was a great experience in which members from the community beyond theschool, including elders and community leaders, and students alike all cametogether for. The show featured art by Fort Providence artist Johnny Farcy, andlaunched an interactive education-based deck of cards that every student wasgiven to promote the Dene Zhatie language and culture, while strengthening aconnection to the land. We loved learning about the Dene Zhatie culture fromour students and guest speakers at this event, and were excited to be invitedto participate in a traditional dance with traditional drumming and prayer!
After the art show we preparedplates with the abundance of leftover baking to give to elders in thecommunity, and headed over to the Youth Centre for a community dinner. We lovedseeing our students after school and hanging out with them for a couple ofhours, while enjoying some delicious dinner prepared by the students and Jason,the Youth-Centre co-ordinator. We also had the opportunity to meet with Jasonon Saturday over some delicious protein shakes after a great workout at the gymin the Centre, and we’re excited to partner with the Youth Centre and Jason topromote health for the remainder of our initiative in Fort Prov!
Throughout the week, we watched theice on the Mackenzie River break more and more each day. We marveled at thedrastic changes each day brought on our walks to and from school! We have also beenable to pet so. many. dogs on our walks to and from school, and had theopportunity one day to take some quick pics on the ice. We’ve only gotten lostonce since we’ve been here, which if you know us, is a huge win! It snowed acouple times this week, and we’re keeping our eyes out for the Northern lightsand a bison that is reportedly wandering around the community! We are soexcited to establish and work towards our goals for the 5 weeks to come! Staytuned for our weekly updates as we continue to talk about health here inbeautiful Fort Providence!
Your favourite FortProv twins/sisters (as the students like to call us) sending all of our love,
Annelise & Emily