Finding my way

For this first week of my internship, I've been finding my way around Yellowknife and École William McDonald Middle School.
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I've arrived in Yellowknife for my OISE internship!

United in Celebration sculpture by Frame Lake

The week leading up to getting here is a bit of a blur – literally and figuratively. I handed in my final OISE paper the morning of April 19th and we were in the car on the road to Calgary that afternoon. We made the drive in record time – two days! – arriving in Calgary on Saturday afternoon. This left some time to get a proper night's sleep, vote in the Alberta provincial election, move our Toronto belongings into storage with our Calgary belongings, and visit with family before leaving for the north on the 23rd. 

I arrived in Yellowknife a couple of days before the start of my internship at École William McDonald Middle School (WMS) and was able to explore the city a little bit – my sister took me around to the Yellowknife Public Library, Old Town, and to WMS – so I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get lost on the way to school one day this week. And I still haven't been able to find the Co-op grocery store on my own.... Clearly, I have a terrible sense of direction. (There are actually other incidences where I got lost this week, but I'm too embarrassed to reveal them here.) 

On 50th Avenue

The first weekend in Yellowknife I had to opportunity to visit, with my sister and her friend, Frozen Rock Studio. 

On the way to Frozen Rock Studio (the Yellowknife Islamic Centre is the building in the background).

We met with local artist Jamie Look, who creates beautiful sculptural jewellery from muskox and buffalo horn and sterling silver. 

Local artist Jamie Look makes jewellery from muskox and buffalo horn.

Jamie's work table featuring some of her latest jewelry designs.

Jamie shares the studio with several other artists, so also we had the opportunity to visit and speak with Derrald Taylor, a wonderful carver originally from Tuktoyaktuk. He was working on a polar carving made out of alabaster. It was such a special experience to speak with Jamie and Derrald about their work.


My sister and I also visited the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (PWNHC), the government of the Northwest Territories' museum and archives. I think this is an fantastic place for a lot of reasons – the centre has exhibits, collections, conservation programs, archives, provides financial support to artists and cultural organizations and authorizes archeological studies in the Northwest Territories and you can go there for FREE. Amazing. The day we were visiting, the centre was hosting a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Tea. 

Celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.

On Sunday, I met with my internship site supervisor, the principal of WMS, for a tour and a discussion of my interests and opportunities at the school. This week served as STEP / observation days, where I was busy making connections with teachers, observing classes, getting a sense of the culture of the school and getting to know the students. Faculty have been welcoming and generous with their time and school administrators have provided me with a work space in the office, for which I am ever so grateful.

Ecole William McDonald Middle School - where I'll be for the next five weeks!

There are several highlights from my first week, some of which include:

• helping out with the Morning Wake Up activities (who knew middle school students would love jumping rope so much?!)
• conferencing with grade 6 students about their writing (newspaper articles)
• participating in moderated marking
• viewing grade 8 video assignments where students created television shows for teens through a specific lens / genre (they were terrific!)

This internship is going to be a fantastic experience because I'll be able to explore several interests – language arts, social studies, guidance, library services, and assessment – while I'm at WMS. There is a lot happening at the school, so this first week of observations and conversations has been incredibly valuable. I'm also looking forward to being at WMS because I'll get a good sense of the challenges and rewards of teaching the adolescent learner. Grades 6, 7 and 8 can be such an intense time for young people and I've been thinking a lot about the kinds of support that they need during this time. WMS has several great programs that support adolescent learners, which will be the topic of next week's blog.

Speaking of next week, I'm hoping to create some sort of structure or schedule for my next four weeks at WMS so that I can pinpoint some language or social studies lessons I can help with or teach, to continue my conversation with the school’s guidance counselor and to connect with the librarian. I'll start helping out with the track and field team this week and hope to start taking some photos so I can include them in my next post. Should be a fun week!

(This week, my daily school hours were 8:15 am – 3:30 pm.)