August 27, 2012, again (12 hrs later)

Buck list, Checked!

OMG, me and Rachele saw the Aurora Borealis last night! It was unbelievable.  It was faint, green and a long strip across the dark starry sky.  The Aurora Borealis would fade in and out, and I was not able to take pictures because the dirt road left debris that my digital camera might have been able to capture (probably not).  Buck list, Checked!

Meeting started at 9 today.  Finally saw the school, staff and my classroom! I will take pictures tomorrow and try to post ASAP.  Today was just cleaning and organizing my classroom.  Tomorrow, figure out my curriculum and teaching resources and maybe try to start on building my portfolio and developing my teaching style.  It am interested to put my experience and knowledge of educating in the past 3 years to the test.  My style of teaching will be an amalgamation of 2 years as an English Teacher (ESL), theory (the things I’ve supposively learned at University of Windsor teachers college) and placement (kinda like co-op).  Teaching natives/aboriginals will be interesting because they too are second language learners and will require a mild ESL approach (perhaps only a few).  It’s great, because I have experience and I specialize in ESL (literally I just got my AQ course in ESL part 1).  I think I will be prepare, but still, I am venturing into the unknown world.  After all, Fox Lake TRULY is the natives land/country, environment and culture that I have submerged myself.  I am the guest in their home and will learn to do what the locals do (to a certain extent) in order to enjoy my stay and trouble free.  I like it here already.  

F.R.I.E.N.D.S. J

We are a group of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. , like the show. Except we are short one person but I think someone will turn up later.  That’s how the series went anyways.  Who am I? Well we got 5 people (including me).  For the purpose of discretion and without consent, I will just use the letters of their first name.  M and A are a couple here, so ideal they are Courtney and Chandler, we have B, Phoebe. Then Rachele (her name) is Rachael (J. Anniston).  Makes sense so far? Then, who would I be? Ross or Joey? If you guess Joey because he is funny, always eating, simple-minded (not dumb!) and his love for women, then you are my friend for knowing me that well and guessing correctly. J  Here’s a cookie.

A hunting we will go!

Today Ben, who is my neighbor and the technician invited me to go for a nice ride on his ATV/Quad, with a gun.  I finally had a chance to shoot a gun today. Hooray! It was a 12 Gage Shotgun.  My first target was a can like 8 feet away.  I smoked it! Hahaha, it has wide range of shatter of course and you can’t miss with 40 mini pellets. Hehehe.  Second time around, Ben spotted some chicken and shot one. Came back, gave me the gun and told me get the sitting “duck” in the tree 15-20 feet away.  BANG! She fell off the branch like a dead chicken lol. I am soo happy.  Hopefully, more game meat to come before winter. 

Buck list, Checked!

Check out the new video of place after cleaning.

Mr. T  (Full-Time Teacher)

Aka Al-Pachino (part-time hunter)

Aka Joey (Playah)

PS - check my FB for pics please. 

Arriving to Fox Lake Alberta

Explanation for blogging absence.  I have not blogged in over a year, maybe two, due to the fact life got REALLY busy from working in S. Korea, moving to Windsor to graduate teachers college and now i have moved to Alberta and settled here as the grade 7 teacher.

Now that my life is no longer busy and I am now pursuing a new adventure again, I shall be sharing my experiences once again.  I hope you will stay posted for updates.  I try to aim once a week.

August 27, 2012

Teacher’s Blog: Mr. T’s new beginnings in Alberta

What another adventure I have gotten myself into; teaching in Northern Alberta on a Native reserve.  I will be known as Mr. T, the new grade 7 teacher at JBS Little Red River School in Fox Lake, Alberta.  This is my first Canadian teaching gig picked up right after graduation.  

What is it like? That is the questions we are all still asking ourselves as we step into the unknown environment with feelings of excitement and nervousness. 

Allow me to begin by saying its going amazing. A 4 hour Flying out of Toronto to Calgary at 8AM was smooth sailing.  Arriving at the airport to find Brianne and Rachaele chatting at Chili’s was a sign of joy and a feeling of certainty that I was prepared to venture into the unknown with friends.  From there, we flew on a mini jet (like 50 seats) to Grand Prairie and run into a suspicious ex-addict or of some sort who reminded me of Johnny Depp from Loathing in Las Vegas. We trusted he would taxi us to our bus stop.  If not, I had a defensive kill-the-taxi driver plan running through my mind as me and the girls made eye contact and telepathically sending each other the “this guys is shaddy” stare.  Anyways, I tipped him at the end for not killing us and dropping us off. 

Our Northern Express limo bus going to High Level turned out to be a ghetto mini bus with a small boxed trailer to put our luggage. We had others accompany us on the ride.  We befriended Joaline (forgot her name), a Dj/Dancer/Alliance Sales Rep friendly traveler who all gave us fussy pencils as a present.  There was a scary old dude in the back who cared less.  A little girl traveling on her own, a sarcastic driver and Brenda.  Brenda had overheard of our destination and inquired about our destinations purpose.  Turns out, she was well connect to our school as a safety inspection supervisor who likes to dance, drink and just gave birth.  She was very helpful, and so we will meet her again once a month.  After spending a night at High Level, we met up with the Director and other teachers for another reserve.  Wow, we were making friends left and right!

The landscape is as expected, all prairie and farms.  I thought there would be no civilization or freezing cold weather.  Turns out it was like 25 degrees C above the 57’th parallel.  It’s not completely isolated or winter desert up here as I’d imagine. If there was a big city up here, you wouldn’t know the difference in altitude.  Anyways, you need a 4 x 4 once you reach High Level and beyond, it’s all gravel terrain.  Access to Fox Lake is one way in and one way out on backgrounds with no sign.  The further north you drive, the more the landscape changed. 

We arrived at the barge, it was an amazing view of the clear blue sky and over look of Peace River (view Facebook picture).  Arriving to the other side, we met up with Moe and Alicia and caught up on our travels because they drove like 5,000 KM from Toronto to Fox Lake!!! We saw horses and dogs running wild.  It is like trailer/camp community.

We arrived and settled into a dirty housing, which we I am still spending time to clean and customize to my comfort level.  I linked a youtube video on Facebook, so please do view that.  I will upload a 2^nd video of what the place looks like after.  I will be getting a roommate in a week, but I don’t care.  To wrap up the adventure, because its 1 AM for the meeting tomorrow, Rachaele and I just saw the borealis lights!  It comes and goes, it was green but wow, I can get use to the breathtaking skies here.  Keep in touch and I will keep you posted with pictures and exciting happenings here in Northern Alberta.

Mr. T