09-10-03

It's been over a week since I posted a blog. Not that I don't want to, but I never seem to have any time to do any personal reflections anymore. I'm taking two courses a week and in between the two of them, I have some homework to be done. Most times I don't even have time to do my own projects. I really enjoy knitting for the little kiddies and I feel funny not taking the time to make them something. I'm also really the presence of those little ones. Especially the wildness, laughs and imagination they have. My life is very uncomplicated right now. All I focus on right now are rest, meals, classes, coursework. How boring is that? No time for anything else. Haven't even had time to listen to the regional news yet. I miss listening to the CBC radio programming and so forth. I especially miss my house. My own house.

09-09-24

It's been rough the last few days with so much to do with so little time. Especially when I expect a lot from myself with everything that is thrown at me. The ravens don't help when they start making noise very early in the morning. So, yesterday Brian got some chicken wire and put some on where the ravens like to perch themselves. Hopefully, this time they will make a difference. I need a real good rest.

This morning the moment I opened my eyes, I just wanted to go back to sleep. We've only been getting 2 to 4 hrs of sleep at nights. Not only are the ravens being pests early in the morning, so are some students walking around talking really loud while walking down the hallway after 1:30 a.m. I've been very patient with the accomodation situation, but there comes a point where it really doesn't make sense anymore. Everything seems to be done in a double standard way and it seems there is nothing I can do about it. Just bare it and grin.

Now onto more positive thoughts. Yesterday was my son's birthday and I was happy to hear he went out boating to celebrate his special day. My son is the only boy and he has two sisters. He's the middle child. I remember the day he was born in Winnipeg, Man at 7:24 a.m. He's now a Fisheries Officer for the Government of Canada and he's the manager/supervisor at the Rankin office. He's a well accomplished young man and also raising his own family now. I have the privilege of being his mother.

And the more serious stuff for the day is to participate in the discussion on podcasting. Here is wikipedia's version of what podcast means. Imagine the use of this tool and how it will help the students in the classroom. Another site gives explains "What is Podcasting" and includes articles on how to Make your own Podcast and so on. Overall it seems to be another excellent technology that is useful in a classroom.

09-09-20

Today is Charmaine's birthday. Charmaine is our oldest daughter. I'm sure her family will make sure she enjoys her special day. This is what I thought of the moment I opened my eyes. I'll always remember the time when she was born. Charmaine has turned out to be a independant young woman who's raising a family of her own with her husband Raymond. Happy Birthday Charm.....thinking of you on your special day.

09-09-16

Hmmmm....I'm happy to report that there were no ravens dropping rocks on the vent above the window early this morning. I did make another scareraven and I'm hoping that it worked. This time I stuffed white grocery bags on a old broom stick to make it look like a ukpigjuaq (snowy owl). Brian and I had a discussion before that ravens might be either afraid of snowy owls or they might come around in a big group and attack it. I have yet to see or hear a raven today outside the room. And if this fails in a few days, I have another idea I can try. I don't know why I put brown paper towels on the top cause it looks like a old lady ukpigjuaq.

This morning I did get more sleep and had a weird dream about an older couple from Rankin. So, when I opened my eyes, I was wondering why I even dreamt about them. I hardly ever saw them in Rankin and when I did see them all we did was acknowledged each others' presence by a smile or saying a simple hi. Strange feeling to see them in my dream. Then the next thing I thought of was the alarm didn't go on and I'm late for class. When I checked the clock it was after 7 and realized I didn't get waken up by those annoying ravens. Yay!

As for classes.....today is wednesday and on wednesdays NTEP students have a study day to catch up on assignments. I believe I'm caught up with all the tasks I need to get done. I started reading the chapter on RSS feeds and am impressed with how useful it will be once I learn more about it. Each day of class brings more ways to improves my usage of the internet tools. For the longest time I wondered what RSS feed was and tomorrow we will be discussing it more. Yesterday we learnt about wikispaces and did group work that will be added to wikipedia. So watch from them. It's so much fun to learn something useful everyday. Now to go buy some balloons in case the stuffed bag ukpigjuaq gets swarmed by ravens.

09-09-15

I'm happy to say that this morning we did get to sleep in a bit longer because we didn't get bothered by ravens or maybe this time I just didn't hear them. Someone suggested that we make a scarecrow to keep the ravens away, but some punk pulled it off and threw it to the ground around midnight. I'm hoping it still did the trick because when I looked at the clock when I woke up and it was later than usual.

I was so proud of myself when Brian and I put up the scareraven.

When I opened my eyes this morning.....the first thing I thought of was, "Did I do all the tasks I had to get done before this mornings' class?" I think I did and If I seem a bit confused.....I probably am because of the lack of sleep.

Onto the business of the day....In class today we set up a account on wikispaces.com, then as a group we were collecting information on kakivak, pana, and qarmaq so they can be posted onto the online encyclopedia called Wikipedia. It was another fun day to learn new things especially knowing I can use it for my work project. I am so looking forward to setting up a site where we can collect Inuktitut terminology in our many Nunavut dialects and sharing it with teachers and other groups. My vision is it will become a great resource for students and teachers alike and for curriculum developers to take advantage of. I'm so grateful that Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia came up with this brilliant idea.

09-09-14

Once again we were awaken by a raven in the very early hour of the day. Before there would be more than one raven hanging out above our room, but after I put the empty paper roll wrapped with aluminum and a empty tea box, now there is usually only one hanging around. And it's still very annoying with just one noisy bird out there dropping rocks onto the metal roof. One suggestion I got today was to stuff a jacket and place it where the ravens can see so it looks like there's always someone around. But where can I place it when we're on the third floor? Have to think of something so I can get more sleep eventually.

Now onto other things that are happening in my life. Today I have to set up a wikispace so as a group we will work on Inuktitut terms using the wiki tool to be included in Wikipedia. I came across a blog that talks about wikispaces, so I'll have to take the time to read it and learn some tips and tricks on creating templates and other stuff. I'm excited to learn more on how to set one up so I can continue to work on a project that has been ongoing for a few years now and this is another way to get input from educators who want to contribute.

09-09-13

I'm happy to say that one of the things I put on the bar to keep the ravens away actually worked, it's a aluminum bag taped over a empty paper roll and the box is a empty teabag box to keep the taped aluminum roll from sliding off. But then there's another place where the ravens can sit above the room and still make a racket. Unfortunately that bracket is too high for me to do something about it. Eventually I'll think of something.

After a night of more rest when I opened my eyes I thought of what I needed to get done before classes on monday and made a plan to get the work done before I go anywhere.
But as usual it changed when we decided to get my niece and her children and take them out berry picking. I'm glad I changed my plan of attack and decided to go out to enjoy the land and see what it has to offer. We drove to Upper Base and came across some blueberries and started picking them to eat them because we didn't take any containers to put them in. After a while we were getting chilly so we agreed to go put on warmer jackets and call my niec if they wanted to join us.

Just before we picked up my niece and her family we saw a huge plane landing and thought it was First Air's new cargo plane, but it parked at the northwest end of the airstrip. That seemed unusual so we went to check it out and it was a Delta Airlines passenger jet that made a emergency landing and the ambulance was parked near the steps. When we picked up my niece and her children, we drove back to the side of the airstrip so her children could see the plane. There were some passengers at the top of the stairs looking out and taking pictures, so we waved at them and they waved back. While we were picking berries we saw it taking off approximately couple hours after it made an emergency landing. I'm sure this is what Iqalummiut see all the time, but it was neat to see the big passenger plane.

It was even more exciting to see it taking off. It's not everyday we get to see this so to us it was a sight to see. I wondered where it was coming from and where it was going and why it landed here. My thought for a second was it might be aired on TV through the National tonight, but then again it was a safe landing and wasn't a catastrophe so it probably didn't make it to the news. Maybe it'll be on Nunatsiaq news. I'll have to keep checking the online newspaper all week.


The children had fun while we were picking berries. It turned out to be a better day after all. It also gives me an opportunity to add more flavour to my blog by adding the images that we took during the day. I'm glad we went out to go for a drive. Now, to figure out how to scare those ravens...........so I can get more sleep. Any suggestion is more than welcome.