February 15, 2025
What’s a guy to do when it’s Valentines Day in Tsiigehtchic, you’re on your own, and almost everyone else has left town for “Chase the Ace” in Fort McPherson? It was initially a toss-up between watching “Notting Hill” for the tenth time, or “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” which has been my......
January 04, 2025
Nothing can compare to the thrill of flying to the North. All the hassle getting through airport security seems to vanish as soon as the airplane is pushed back from the gate and taxis out to the runway. The engines roar to full throttle, and moments later the whole aircraft......
December 23, 2024
I’m flying home, in an economy row seat. Air Canada flight AC100 from Vancouver to Toronto. It’s a few hours into the flight, and we’re somewhere over Saskatchewan. I turned on the in-seat entertainment screen, and found a video stream that shows a live video of our airplane from a......
November 17, 2024
Today’s class did not go well. We’re doing a unit, in English, on advertisements, learning about forms of rhetoric and advertising techniques. There’s an assignment asking students to pick 3 advertisements, then describe them, unpack their meaning, and explain the persuasive techniques the advertiser is using. The class didn’t enjoy......
November 17, 2024
A couple weeks ago we had a teacher conference in Inuvik, NWT. We had to travel across the not-yet-frozen Mackenzie River to get there from Tsiigehtchic. The solution? A helicopter! A few of our staff have already flown to and from Inuvik in the previous weeks. Our new 4-6 teacher......
November 02, 2024
This afternoon, around 2pm, I was getting ready to go out for an afternoon ski. I’d just got out the door, and put on my skiis, when one of the communty elders pulled up in front of the teacher apartment. He rolled down his window. “Do you want some fish?”......
November 01, 2024
Over the past week the community of Tsiigehtchic officially went into Isolation. This happens twice per year: once in fall, and once in spring. Once ice starts forming on the Mackenzie River, the ferry can’t cross anymore, and the ice is too week to support cars and snowmobiles. We have......
October 27, 2024
Huge chunks of ice are flowing down the Mackenzie. The Tsiigenjik River is already frozen over. Only two weeks ago both rivers were open. Imagine you were travelling along the Mackenzie river and still had several day’s journey to go. Already, it’s only a matter of days before the ferry......
October 19, 2024
While I was trying to get caught up on the last few weeks of writing, I looked out my window to a stunning 10am sunrise. A few minutes later, I had my parka, mitts, and boots on, and was walking my way down to the riverside to catch the sunrise.......
October 12, 2024
Time goes quickly! I can hardly believe its already Thanksgiving weekend. Last weekend the other high school teacher and I were invited to join one of the Indigenous language teachers out to her camp, a few hours west of Tsiigehtchic (along the Dempster Highway). I’ll post pictures later today. This......
September 28, 2024
Over the last week we held a number of events. Our students took part in a “shore set fishing” day (I’ll explain what that is), we had an Orange Shirt Day walk on Thursday, and on Friday (yesterday) the staff had a “Cultural Orientation” PD Day. We learned how to......
September 15, 2024
It’s been a couple of weeks in Tsiigehtchic so far. The last two weeks have been overwhelming. When we arrived at school, there was no working internet. Not so easy when a technician is a day’s drive away, and most of the school information (for example, what courses we are......
September 02, 2024
Toronto to Tsiigehtchic (Part 3): Edmonton to Inuvik Edmonton to Yellowknife After the adventure getting out of Toronto Pearson Airport, I was deeply releived to arrive at Edmonton Airport around 11:30pm. My relocation assistance provided an overnight stay in Edmonton. There was a shuttle bus waiting in the passenger-pickup section......
September 01, 2024
The entire relocation to Tsiigetchic was paid for by the Government of Northwest Territories Relocation Assistance. They paid for my flight, meals, and for six pieces of excess baggage (weighing up to 70lbs each). I packed all seven bags carefully the night before, and piled them even more carefully on......
August 28, 2024
A few days ago I started an adventure to the Northwest Territories that will last until next year. I’m moving to the Hamlet of Tsiigehtchic to teach Grade 7-12 Humanities for the 2024-5 school year. Tsiigehtchic is a small community of a hundred and seventy people, just north of the......