Life on the Edge

It feels as though I'm sprinting to Nunavut. It was hard to imagine, back at the beginning of this practicum, that time would slip by this quickly, but it has absolutely flown. It seems like yesterday that I first started getting to know my junior high students and today I'm saying goodbye (it's more of a see you later, truth be told, as I've promised to come back to visit in April and see what looks to be an exceptional play). It's exciting -- beyond that, in fact, and into exhilarating -- to be heading off to a new adventure, but it's also very difficult to leave these classroom communities that have so warmly and enthusiastically welcomed me and made me feel very much at home.

But onwards! My co-operating teacher at Nasivvik High School has been so welcoming and enthusiastic in our email exchanges and I am eager to step back into a high school environment with all these newly acquired teaching skills (thanks, MS1/MS2!) -- although I will certainly be stepping outside of my comfort zone and teaching unfamiliar courses and topics (guidance and esthetics, alongside English Language Arts). And not just into any old high school environment, but one that is nestled in a strikingly beautiful community and promises to help me become a better, more thoughtful, and more creative educator.

This past weekend, I made a trip to the store to pick up all of the small essentials one needs when travelling away from home -- chiefly King Cole tea and Laughing Whale coffee (these are far more important things to bring along than the requisite toiletries that I also picked up; I could make do with any toothpaste, but without my precious Lunenburg-roasted coffee? Ha!). Making these small preparations, doing some minor packing, and preparing my binder of NU-related resources (so helpfully compiled by my wonderful professor and NU program coordinator Nick Newbery) have helped make this impending trip much more concrete.

It still feels a bit like a dream, of course -- like something I've imagined and hoped for but don't really believe would come true. I've been so immersed in my junior high placement that making the intellectual and emotional shift is slow, but I imagine the shock of a new environment and a new school will snap me into the here-and-now (or the soon-to-be here-and-now). And that's a change I'm ready for -- it's a change I'm eager for!

Although, eagerness aside, it will be hard to say goodbye to this face come Saturday:

I will be flying back just in time for his birthday (the big 3!).

But, as I've told my students, it isn't goodbye so much as see you soon with a heaping side of with stories to tell, a heart full of new experiences, and on my way to becoming a better teacher.