Yukon Chatter Bug

In order to raise funds for our graduation soirée, our group of students hosted a silent auction at the Boiler Room in the Yukon Inn. It was a bash and a huge success. So, thanks to the following businesses and organizations who supported the Yukon Native Teacher Education Program in our fundraising efforts, including direct monetary gifts:

• Air North
• Clean Choices Carpet Cleaning & Rentals
• Coles Bookstore
• Eagles Landing Log B&B and Historic Cabins – Crag Lake, YT
• Earls Restaurant
• Monica Barr – Feng Shui Consultation
• G&P Steakhouse & Pizza
• Gray Fox Media
• Kluane First Nation
• Mitzi’s Closet Pet Boutique
• First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun
• Pizza Hut
• Shoes R Us
• Shoppers Drug Mart – Main St.
• Starbucks – Chilkoot Centre
• Sundog Retreat Carving Program
• Tokyo Sushi
• Wharf on Fourth
• Wines by Design
• Yukon Inn
• Yutopia Bar & Grill

YNTEP logo designed by
Vernon Asp

Since I’ve been in YNTEP, these are the most common questions I am asked.

1. Do you actually get a degree? YES! You get a Bachelor of Education upon completion.
2. Is it Yukon College that issues this degree? NO. The program is done in conjunction with University of Regina, and that is where you get your degree from.
3. How long is the program? The program is four years long, full-time.
4. How many people from your year graduated? Eight students (out of an original fourteen) graduated, plus one student from a previous group. Two students from our original group are still studying, one still within YNTEP, the other in a different program.
5. Do you have to go out of town for some of your studies? Absolutely not. Students can do the whole four years of studies at Yukon College, plus every practicum here in the Yukon. It is strongly recommended that students do at least one practicum in a community outside of Whitehorse. Also, with special permission, some students may choose to complete some courses at U of R. One student spent last summer on U of R campus.
6. Where can graduating students teach upon completion of the program? Students qualify to receive their teaching certification in the Yukon and Saskatchewan.
7. What level can they teach? The program is K-12 with an emphasis on K-8. Depending on their skill set, some graduates end up at the secondary level, but most work with K-8.
8. I heard that non-Aboriginal students can apply into the program now. Is this true? Yes. As of Fall 2004, there are six (out of fifteen) seats open for non-aboriginal students. Our group was the first!
9. There was so much controversy surrounding the decision to open up seats to non-Native students. Since you were the first group affected by this, how did it go? It went extremely well. In fact, our group was very tight-knit, and students learned a great deal from each other.
10. I guess you applied for one of those open seats? Actually no. I have Métis ancestry, which means I could apply for a regular seat in the program. However, my cultural heritage, the one with which I identify, is French-Canadian.

The biggest time wasters in elementary schools are transitions. Changing from one subject to another, moving from one classroom to another, and coming in and out for recess are some examples of the many transitions that happen in a typical school day. Teachers are always looking for ways to make these transitions go smoothly and get students engaged as soon as possible.

Last week, there was a visitor at our school who literally emptied it in record time. Students rushed so fast out of the school, you could’ve sworn there was a fire. Yes, lights were flashing in the parking lot, but they weren’t from a fire truck. It was the Christmas garbage truck with no one other than Santa at the wheel. You’ve probably seen it around Whitehorse, with the truck decorated with Christmas lights, these stuck on with bright red and green duct tape.

Thank you to “Santa” who made the kids’ day and volunteered his time to come way out to our school to say a big “Ho, ho, ho.” Maybe we should hire him all year long.

Santa’s Garbage Truck

Santa is Leaving

In Arizona, a 13-year-old boy was suspended for for drawing — on paper — a gun on his homework. In 2000, four kindergarten boys were playing cops and robbers at recess using their fingers as “guns”; they were subsequently suspended for three days. These and other stories have led me to wonder whether things are any different in the Yukon. So, I decided to pay a visit to a local school to see for myself.

Upon entering the school, I was immediately threatened by a black-masked figure with a flowing cape, brandishing a long rapier. He wasn’t packing heat, but I’ll bet he’ll be suspended.

Trying to find someone with authority to mete out the suspension, I barely escaped a beheading by a Knight Templar in the principal’s office.

Grateful that I had escaped with my life twice, I decided to stay away from the office and make my way down to the gym, where a flurry of activity got my attention.

Instead of being in class, students filled the gymnasium. In one corner, a crowd egged on two students going at each other with pillows. A bystander was recording the whole incident on his cell phone.

A few feet further, suction-cup guns were being aimed at a boy moving about in a cage-like enclosure. The target was the skull-shaped mask being worn by the kid.

In yet another area, students were wielding hunting rifles, trying for a “kill.” Farm animals were scattered about on a flat board and the ammunition was a coin rolling down a slot on a carved wooden hunting rifle. Thankfully there was a sheriff sitting nearby. Surely he had the authority to take care of these gun-toting kids. But wait! He was the one encouraging the whole thing. Isn’t there anyone in this school that sees this behaviour for what it is?

I’d had enough of this and made my way to the nearest exit, which meant going through the girls’ change room and out the other side. As I hurried through the door, I suddenly heard muffled screams. A grizzly discovery awaited me: the change room was a scene reminiscent of a chainsaw massacre. I found myself in the dark, where flashes of light illuminated walls, ceiling, and floors splattered with blood. Trying to paw my way out of there, something (or someone) jumped out at me from a dark corner. I finally managed to find the exit where I needed a moment to regain my composure. We’re way past suspensions now, expulsion is in order!

By the end of day, the school would have been emptied had suspensions been given out. Instead, everyone had a great time. Kids had been talking about this event from the beginning of school in August and couldn’t wait for this day of Hallowe’en festivities. I’m guessing they’ll be talking about it for a couple of months to come.

Funny thing, I didn’t see any kids fighting at recess, nor any punches thrown. What I did see was a group of kids working the whole day before to set up the gym, and working through recess and lunch the day after to clean up. They were scrubbing walls using lots of elbow grease, while chatting about the day before. Could it be that there is a healthy way of letting kids just be themselves and have a bit of fun? No one condones violence, but could it be that because of news headlines, we have pushed the pendulum to the extreme?

Do students really check their college/university e-mails?

After learning of the devastating killings at Virginia Tech, it seems that an e-mail was sent to students about two hours after the first killing. I wonder how many students were already in class? Also, how many students actually check their college/university e-mail accounts? I can’t speak for them, but I can speak for my own educational institution.

First, students must purchase a computer lab account in order to be assigned an e-mail account. For those who either are unwilling to fork out the cost and/or feel that they don’t need it (use of college computer lab), they don’t get an account.

Second, for those who do get a lab account, their student e-mail is only functional during the term that they use it. This means that during the summer months, students cannot access their student e-mail accounts. Therefore, the last time I purchased a lab account, I didn’t even bother opening my student e-mail once. I already had my home e-mail and my free online e-mail account, so why would I even bother with a third one that was to be temporary anyway? (Yeah, yeah, I know I could’ve had mail forwarded from my student e-mail to my regular e-mail, but I didn’t bother, knowing it was a temporary account.)

Finally, in my first year, I did purchase a lab account and I did use my student e-mail account. However, it was not used by our administration or others as a means to notify the student body of any important information.

When registering for courses, there is an area where students are to fill in their e-mail address. It is anyone’s guess why this is asked if administration are not using this as a means to notify students of important announcements. When I log into Banner, the online system where students can view their academic records, I can also view/change my personal information, such as my e-mail address. Wouldn’t it be nice if, somehow, these e-mail addresses could form a distribution list to which college administration could send important notifications? The onus would be on students to ensure that their current, correct e-mail address is in the system. Surely this is possible in today’s technologically advanced society?

As a college student, books are an unavoidable part of my life, not that I normally try to avoid them. I enjoy reading, and I can easily spend hours browsing in a bookstore or a library.

With the coming of the Canada Winter Games, however, I have had to try and figure out exactly what I need in terms of books for every paper, project, and unit of study for the next few weeks. Why? Because the Yukon College Library will be closed for more than a month because of the Games (Feb 15 – March 19). In addition, students were unable to request inter-library loans (ILL) as of late January; students did receive plenty of notice, however. So far so good! I literally spent hours figuring out what books were relevant and useful for the ton of work I have to do during the month of the library’s closure. (I also ordered ILLs through U of R -[modified on March 2])

So what’s the problem, you wonder? Well, I thought I’d be smart and try to beat the last minute rush for ILLs, so I ordered several books about a week before the deadline thinking I could extend the due date and have the books DURING the Games, the time I’ll be working on the bulk of my assignments. I just found out over the weekend that I could not extend the due dates on these books. Am I mad? You betcha!

Okay, maybe I should have asked prior to borrowing the books, but it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to extend a due date. These things are usually done on-line by the students themselves! [CORRECTION (March 16th, 2007): I've been informed that renewing ILLs online is not possible at the college. ]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset with the library staff at the college. They have been extremely accommodating during this whole CWG mess and have worked their butts off to bring more remote access to students needing library services. Students now can access on-line databases from home, and there are on-line tutorials for most services. Plus, the library staff have been lenient about letting students exceed the maximum limit on the number of borrowed books. The staff at the college library are ALWAYS willing and ready to help out students, and they have certainly gone out of their way for me on more than one occasion. I cannot say enough good things about them. This is not about the library, but about the whole disruption to students due to the Games.

Yes, my gripe is with the whole of the Canada Winter Games. Okay, so we need to encourage our Canadian athletes to pursue their dreams, but why can’t facilities be set up in one city and the Games take place there each time, thus eliminating the need to build new facilities every couple of years? Why do they have to move around and leave cities dry in their wake? Why was so much money spent on building an athletes’ village when the 99 rooms and 2 dining facilities in the Klondike Inn sit empty during the winter? (I found out that they’re open for business during the Games.) Couldn’t some kind of deal be struck there? Why are local businesses being snubbed for contracts pertaining to the Games? Heck, even outside musicians were hired when we have wonderful talent right here in the territory. All of these athletes, officials, and their families will not get a true taste of the Yukon, because the people who will cater to them are from large outside companies. One of the main attractions for cities to vie for hosting the Games is the prospect of increased publicity for the host city, but with outside sponsors and entertainers, there isn’t much left for Whitehorse to promote itself and its citizens.

I was trying to get into the spirit of the Games. Honest! But with everything that is happening, it’s hard for Whitehorse citizens to continue to grin and bear being walked all over. As a full-time student, not having access to MY educational institution’s library for a whole month is ludicrous, and I don’t blame the library staff. They have to grin and bear this along with everyone else affected. See my big smile?

Working in the schools, I had the privilege of meeting one of the north’s favourite mushers, Hans Gatt, and a whole bunch of his sled-dogs. Gatt is a veteran of sled-dog racing, including in the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.

Gatt ended up leaving Atlin, BC (two-hour drive from Whitehorse) later than anticipated, so the planned morning visit had to be postponed until the afternoon. Considering the late time of day and the long drive ahead of them to Fairbanks, Alaska, I was very pleased at Hans and Suzie’s immense generosity in taking the time to stop at the school, take all their dogs out (one student counted 23) and then “pack ‘em all up” for the trip ahead.

The grade six class I was working with were very excited, to say the least. They went around the truck petting each of his dogs, getting to know them and getting answers to tons of questions from both Hans and his friend, Suzie.

Having that many dogs in one place at one time, you’re bound to see EVERYTHING dogs do, all within a five-minute period. And, because sixth graders are, well, six graders, I got a kick out of hearing their reactions to seeing dogs be dogs.

A BIG THANK YOU TO HANS AND SUZIE!!!