On Becoming a Teacher

While perusing through the mass of emails that my inbox netted today, I stumbled across an article written by a young woman who is attending the same module of the teaching program that I graduated from back in 2010 at Simon Fraser University: the Indigenous Perspectives Teacher Education Module (IPTEM). Much of her words resonate with my own beliefs about education--that it needs an overhaul, and that we are all responsible in part for re-invisioning an education system that works for the communities in which we find ourselves.

I'll let you read the article if you're interested before I ramble on a rant that is fuelled more by sleepiness and baked-potato filled tummy than actual in-depth thought. Here's the article. Let me know what you think.

I have lots to say, but I'm going to disentangle my thoughts in a word document that can be read tomorrow before it gets posted.

On another note, we made our own kites today, and they worked wonderfully! I was half-surprised, really, as I seem to be whenever things work out seamlessly. A good way to finish off the Monday of the last week of school!

 Pippa and her Dad flying kites.

Pippa and Liam flying their kites. There wasn't much wind, but 

running was enough to keep them up in the air.

On Wednesday I'm hosting a year-end tea at the community club, where I will hand out some certificates of achievement and plaques to our graduating grade 7s who are off to the high school in Lillooet. I wrote a little speech about the year, and one for the grade 7s farewell, with some parts that people hopefully laugh at. I did make up a list called "Ten Signs that You Live in the Bridge River Valley", and I was laughing at my own ideas, but unfortunately that's never a guarantee since sleep-deprived teachers tend to laugh more easily than the general population.

This weekend was a good one as well. More mountain biking, followed by a big annual party that I was invited to where we played "Redneck Olympics" beside the bonfire late into the night. Events included a cabre toss, which is throwing a log and trying to get it to flip end over end, and rock put, which was throwing a rock as far as one could. It was quite entertaining, and I did pretty well considering it was the first time I have ever actually done either of those things. It also rained up here like it was North Van on Saturday night, but in typical fashion it only lasted an hour, and if you dug the toe of your shoe into the sandy soil it was still bone dry just an inch below the surface.

After work today I finished pulling up wads of grass from what was once a dirt flower bed, but hasn't been tended to since the folks who own the house moved out, almost a decade earlier. The dirt underneath is still fresh and dark--shipped-in dirt, certainly not the kind you could just go and shovel into a pail from the forest up here. I know because I have had my eye out for just such a dirt stash since I moved here in August. Nope. Here it's lava-ash sandy, and I'll probably be in the ground myself before a fallen tree around here will become absorbed into the earth. Not like the rain coast forests, whose moisture disintegrates old logs into dirt in as little as a few years.

I'm making a little garden with some heirloom tomatoes and pepper plants that a friend grew from seeds that she started last year. I'm hoping to start a little greenhouse at the school next year that I will heat with a wood stove in the winter. Gardens are amazing tools for science and math, and I think it's part of my responsibility as a teacher to talk to kids and get them thinking about where their food comes from. There's something immensely satisfying and confidence-booning about growing your own food and then feeding yourself with it. And cooking with kids is another great way to tie in a bunch of social skill practice, team work, time management, and math, without them even realizing it!

A recent hike in Lillooet with my wonderful tomato/pepper growing friends Mindy and Kathleen. I thought the big Douglas Fir tree deserved to be in a picture.

The view from our pre-designated stopping point, "the rocks" that we could see as we edged along the trail through the gap-toothed trees.  Lillooet is in the background, and the muddy river is the "mighty Fraser", filled with effluence from the northern mountains, all the sloughing off of the winter swelling the river cold and murky. Eyeless sturgeon gorge themselves on the ruins of a season in the darkened depths. They are such cool fish, and can live for hundreds of years. Prehistoric fish, relatives of the Jurassic period. I have applied to raft down the entire Fraser River, a three week trip starting in August at the river's birth, Mount Robson in the Rockies, and ending as it reaches the Pacific Ocean in Vancouver. I should find out if I get to go on it this week sometime, so I'll let you know more info if I am part of the ten who will be embarking on the journey. Should be amazing, so wish me luck! Oh okay, if you're just dying to know more check out the link here. Doesn't it sound amazing? It's been exactly 10 years, this September, since I have spent three solid weeks out in the wilderness, and therefore I think I'm past due for a repeat! If not this trip then I have a secondary plan to head out on horses for a few weeks, so it's a win-win. Gosh life is good!

The rain this weekend caused a lot of flooding, and the road up to Tyax Lodge has washed out, meaning tourists have to travel through the Marshall Lake road to get there. There were major forest fires up here in 2007 I believe, and much of the area along the road was burned up, meaning the water just runs off in a slew of muddy debris since there are no thirsty roots to suck it all up. That and the mosquitoes are out with a vengeance. They are tiny buggers, but they swarmed my shoulders as I was climbing to the Carl Creek trail on my mountain bike on Saturday, and my shoulders are now covered with a chicken pock-like blanket of red bumps. Thank goodness they haven't been around much until now!

The darkness is just arriving, and the crickets are out chirping--my cue to scratch out a couple of pages in my journal to empty my brain before sleep. I'm hoping to look through some of my writing to submit some pieces to short story contests and such over the summer. That's a more manageable goal than trying to write an entire novel while holding down a demanding fuller than full time job. I am still working on it though, slowly, day by day, sometimes a little each night before bed, and sometimes I don't tap into an inkling of it for a week or two. No rush though. One thing at a time.

Tomorrow the students and I are off to visit the students in Shalath (at Sk'il' Mountain Community School) for some hip-hop lessons with a pro and some peer-aged social interaction, and then there will just be two more days of school left (with students) and one day of administration before I am freeeeeeeeeeeee...

Almost Summer

My schedule here keeps filling up with amazing opportunities, and I am falling more in love with this place as the weeks pass. It seems that the spring brings the town of Bralorne alive, and I have had no shortage of evening and weekend plans playing rugged par 3 golf, mountain biking, hiking, going to friend’s places for dinner and horseback riding. I feel like I am doing all the activities that I have always wanted while spending more time in the great outdoors than I ever have; living in such a small town has certainly had its challenges, but I am rapidly finding my place in this community and in the mountains here and I am absolutely loving it!

Things at the school have been busy as well! A few weeks ago I hosted a BBQ and School Grounds Clean-Up, which was extremely well attended. It’s a goal of mine for next year to involve the community in the learning and in events at the school, and the turn out at the Clean-Up showed just how many people are in support of our little school. There are about ten kids under five years of age living in the community, so if we can just ensure that the doors stay open then enrollment will be up over the next few years.

Look at all the people who turned out to clean up the schoolyard!

I couple of weeks ago I took the kids out to Lillooet to the Walking with the Smolts event, held along the Frazer River in Lillooet. It was AWESOME! Tons of hands-on learning experiences about the water shed, the importance of maintaining a healthy spawning habitat, and about the life cycle of a salmon and about other inhabitants living in the river and in the area. It fit well with our ecosystems unit in science, and it was great to be with such a small group of kids, because it meant that they stayed more engaged than they probably would have with 25 peers standing crowded around each display.

 Learning about the types of salmon and bottom feeders that live in the water shed habitat.

 Liam holding a snake. There was a snake guy named Ruth there who had a class set of thirty snakes with him! I asked about getting a pet snake for my classroom next year and he is going to get me a rescued snake!!! I've wanted one for years and think the kids up here would love to have one around!

We skipped rocks and dipped our feet in the Fraser River after lunch. We had time to spare because things are much faster with such a small group of kids :)

This past weekend I spent a couple of nights out in the mountains with cowboy Barry and his horses. We each rode a saddle horse and led a couple of packhorses. It was such an amazing experience, although I was certainly glad to have my warm winter sleeping bag and down coat! It’s been FREEZING here! I helped him clean up one of the camps that he uses for guests, and we bucked up some wood that had blown across the trails up to Spruce Lake. I’m learning how to use a chainsaw, which is a good skill to have if one plans on living a rural life. It’s just the start of the busy summer season here, so we were lucky to be the only ones around, other than a couple of mountain bikers who stopped to chat with us at the top. Barry said that some summer days he can pass up to forty mountain bikers and a couple of strings of horses all with the same desire to get away.

Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries very early on in the trip, so I only have a few pictures; luckily these few basically sum up the trip: stunningly beautiful and peaceful.

 Me wearing the chaps Barry leant me, with my saddle horse and pack horse.

Walking through the meadows. It's been so cold here, so the wildflowers are a few weeks late this year.

Looking towards Gun Lake Road, where Barry's ranch is. The view was of the entire valley, except looking the other way there were our horses grazing quietly in the meadow. The flower is a balsam root, one of the first to flower in the spring.

We saw a couple of bears that were eager to get out of our way, and at one point my horse, Tyax, smelled something, and Barry saw a cougar dart across the trail in front of us. Pretty amazing stuff! It was nice to have his dog Bert around at night. It certainly made me feel more comfortable than if I would be camping with just another human being.

In the evenings we fed the horses some oats and turned them out in the meadows to graze. One of them, Molly, wore a bell so that we could hear if she was nearby, and the lead mare, Ellie, was tethered by a long rope to a stake so she wouldn’t stray too far; since she is the leader of the group, the other horses will always stay close. Another horse had to have its front legs placed in hobbles, which is a rope that is kind of wrapped around the legs to prevent the horse from running away. This particular horse has a habit of taking off and last year it resulted in a serious injury to her leg when she was kicked by a horse in another herd. She can still move around well with the hobble, which was my primary concern before witnessing it. She has to hop her front legs forward together and then walks her back legs to catch up, and she does it like a pro!

Today I took my intermediate students in to Lillooet to spend the afternoon at Cayoosh Elementary for their Aboriginal Day festivities. We sampled soap berry smoothy and ice cream, which is whipped soap berry juice frothed with sugar added (delicious!). We also played lahal (pronounced as it sounds, la-hal), which the kids weren't that keen on but I thoroughly enjoyed. It's an aboriginal guessing/gambling game with drums and singing led by my roommate from when I was living in Lillooet who now lives elsewhere. We made sage bundles, carved soap stone, beaded necklaces and key chains, and the kids and I caught up with the students and teachers we have come to know over the past couple of years.

 Sampling the salmon cooked over a fire, as well as wind-dried salmon which is a traditional method of preparation in Lillooet and Lytton, where a hot summer wind blows the racks of salmon along the river dry in a matter of hours. 

Liam and his soapberry smoothy moustache.

It's hard to believe that the year is over next week! We have come so far as a little school family, and being out on the field trip today made me think of just how close I have become with all these kids. I really am going to miss them, and even though that say "yeah right" when I say it aloud to them, I know in their hearts they know it's true, because I'm sure they are going to miss me too... at least a little bit :)

Mules and Shalath Trip

It's been a while—longer than I like to leave between posts—but the beautiful weather has had me outside late into the evenings, and sitting at my computer just isn't as enticing as it is on a dark winter's night.

I’ve been mountain biking every couple of days, and have the bruises to prove it, but I am noticing myself improving slowly with my balance and skill at maneuvering over tricky obstacles.

I’ve also been riding with Barry and his horses each week on Friday afternoons and sometimes on the weekends. Last week we had a run-in with some mules that escaped and followed us down the road. It was quite a fiasco to get them rounded up again. There were three of them, two of whom jumped over a low point in the fence as they followed our horses while we were riding alongside the fence. The third mule we locked up in a part of the yard with a higher fence, and luckily the other two came back to get her and Barry got them into the field the next morning.

A mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey, and they are sterile. Barry was saying that they are exceptionally smart, have tough hooves and can survive on much less food than a horse, and can keep working into their 40s, making them an ideal animal for packing in the bush. Their smarts can make them a bit of a hassle, though, as we found out. The mule that was left kept calling for her friends to come back for her, which I found supremely amusing: part whinny, part hee-haw. Hilarious! If only I had my camera to get the whole thing on video.

Things at the school have been BUSY, as they always seem to be in May and June. A couple of weeks ago I took the kids out to visit Sk’il’ Mountain Community School in Shalath, about 75 kilometers away, among other trips out. We hung out with Mr. K and his grade 5/6/7 class. They took us on a hike to a beautiful waterfall and we got to see the spring flowers in bloom. At the top of the hike we saw where the water is piped from Carpenter Lake through the mountain to the power generators below. Carpenter Lake is the gigantic lake that is cupped in the bridge river valley by a dam that I believe was built in the 50s. The Bridge River is called this because there used to be over 25 bridges over the river that travelers to the area would have to cross to get to Gold Bridge. Now the vast valley is a large reservoir that the snaking highway 40 follows for 45 minutes, and water from the reservoir is pumped through the mountain before generating power and spewing out into Anderson Lake. Apparently the power from this plant used to supply 25 % of the electrical energy to power Vancouver.

My flower book is at the school, and unfortunately I forget the names of these beautiful things. There are SO MANY wildflowers in this part of BC. It's amazing to watch them all come into bloom: orchids, lilies, wild roses, balsam root. More flower pictures to come!

Students at the water fall.

The water that is pumped through Mission Mountain. You can see the power plant--the small grey building at the bottom of the green tubes--and where the water feeds back into the Anderson Lake.

Gold Bridge students and Sk'il' kids pose for a picture.

I’ll post some more pictures and info about the other exciting events that have been happening up here with the little school when I get the chance, but for now I’m off for another ride in the hills.