We spent the week at Acwsalcta, the band school at 4 Mile between Hagensborg and Bella Coola. What an incredible school. The building and setting themselves were impressive. The morning started with a whole-school assembly, in which all the staff and students arrange themselves in a circle. Announcement are made, songs are sung, and the school starts off the week as a community rooted in the Nuxalk culture. It is a benefit of being a small school that everyone is able to form a circle in which everyone is visible and included. Megan and I were introduced to the school, just one of the ways we were made to feel welcome from the very beginning. This week in the Monday assembly Barry, the principle, passed me the drum and had me drum along in time. Wow. The Nuxalk rhythms are beautiful, though sometimes unpredictable to the untrained ear. I had to be careful not to beat out of time.

I spent the first day in a grade 2 classroom. The classes are generally small in Bella Coola anyway, but it being the end of the year classes were even smaller than usual. There are advantages and disadvantages to tiny classes in terms of what can be accomplished. As well, most of the classes have a TA in them. Imagine! Later in the week I worked in the Kindergarten classroom, which had a full class, but 2 full time TA’s! Amazing! Imagine the possibilities for differentiation! When the students were working on language stations, this meant that they were able to have guidance at 4 of the stations while I was there… someone to help them keep focused and apply strategies when they got stuck. As well, this meant that there were people available for pull-outs. I worked with two students during their Nuxalk language class, pulling them out to work on their letters.

At Acwsalcta they use the ReadWell program, and the teacher I was working with happened to be the literacy coordinator for the school. I have now had a chance to peruse the program’s books and activities as well as observe it being used in the classroom and one-on-one as a reading recovery program. It is thorough, and highly repetitive. I worry, though, that there is not enough kinesthetic learning in the program. There are lots of worksheets, but there do not appear to be a lot of word sorts or tactile materials. Perhaps those thing could be incorporated on top of the program to enhance it. However, one of the major benefits at Acwsalcta isthat the entire school is using ReadWell, which provides consistency for students as well as the opportunity to create leveled reading groups across classes.

Meet Carl, the Kindergarten class pet.

I applied for the kindergarten position at Acwalcta, and so I thought it would be a good a idea to visit the preschool to get to know about where the students come from pre-kindergarten and to meet some of the students who will be moving up into that class. It was delightful. It is such a shift working with this age-group as opposed to my grade 6/7 practicum class, because at that age students are peer-focussed, but in the preschool and K age range they are not even really playing together… just playing near each other. It is fascinating to findthat all of the things I’ve read about the planes of development in psych and education courses are observable in the classroom.

I saw signs of a focus on self-regulated learning throughout the school! The blue, green, yellow, and red zones were a common language throughout the school, which is so beneficial for keeping language consistent and understandable for students. I learned about the zones in a Pro-D conference on self regulation I attended last summer with Stuart Shanker, so it was really neat to see that implemented in the classroom. Even in the preschool there were signs of a focus self-regulation.                 This was the week of graduations. I attended the grade 7 grad, the kindergarten grad, and the preschool grad. They were all beautiful, though the K’s I was with were a bit fidgety through both their own and the grade 7’s grads. The pre-schoolers made their own grad hats, complete with glitter, feathers and yarn tassels. There was drumming and singing, and many proud families attended. For some students, 5 generations of family were there.Today the pre-school children came to the farm we are living at and met the animals. Sadly,  I was in a phone interview for much of their visit, but they were in good hands with farmers’ Pat and Jill.

We have just 2 days remaining at the school, as Thursday is the final day at Acwsalcta. I hope to get a chance to see some more of the valley before I go. There are SO MANY mountains to climb! Also, the museum just opened. Last week we got to see the petroglyphs. You are supposed to have a guide when visiting them, as the area is considered sacred and it is on Nuxalk land. We were accompanied by Dez, a teacher at Acwsalcta who told us some of the stories, including one of my favorites — Raven brings the light.

Oh! As well, tomorrow is the last lesson in the pottery series we are taking with Ernest Hall, a local artist and tourism advocate in the valley. We will be glazing our pots so that they can be fired before we leave. With lifelong learning in mind, we decided to take these lessons when I ran into Ernest on our first day in the valley at the post office. Furthermore, in speaking to rural educators, I am finding that having a diverse skill set is important for creating a variety of programs for students. So, who knows… perhaps I will one day be the Bella Coola ceramics teacher? One can dream.

We were greeted on Monday morning by the teacher who was kind enough to take us on as student teachers. It is a funny time of year to be working in a high school, as everything is wrapping up. After meeting the staff, we spent some time helping out in the senior Alt. Ed. program that Dan (our SA, for lack of a better term) coordinates.

The students who had come to school were working on exam prep, and so we helped out with making and studying with flashcards. Students were working on all sorts of different courses, from Math 10 to First Nations 12. On the bright side, I’ve learned a bit about the FN12 curriculum after writing out and reviewing those flash cards so many times!

Much of the day was also spent touring the school. We spoke with the teacher of the carving classes, check out the garden, the greenhouse, and the library. We were admiring one of the student’s work in the studio when we found out that it belonged to a student we had been working with that morning! Some of his work will be in a show I’m looking forward to this coming weekend. Also, what an incredible location.

There are two public schools in the valley: Bella Coola Elementary (BCE), which goes from K to grade 5 with a strong start program also in the building, and Alexander Mackenzie School (SAMS), which has grades 6-12 as well as junior and senior alt ed programs and an adult ed program. BCE is in townsite, Bella Coola proper, and SAMS is 16.4km up the highway in Hagensborg. Just walking out the backdoor of SAMS there is a beautiful boardwalk in the forest. Almost immediately the elaborate network of trails begins a steep incline and there are hikes up the mountains towards the waterfalls. Megan and I hiked up to one of them on the weekend, and were later told that there had been a cougar in the area. There is an outdoor ed program at SAMS, as there would have to be. I simply cannot imagine having such a wealth of beautiful outdoor space, so many hikes just out the backdoor, and not using it. There is so much potential for courses relating to botany, mycology, conservation, art, and the list goes on. While the valley may not have things like dollar stores or sushi joints, it sure isn’t lacking in its stunningly beautiful natural landscape.

Alt. Ed.

What I noticed about this program right away was how differentiated it was. Each student works on what they need to and the timing of the terms or courses adjusts accordingly. Provincial exams can be written every month and a half or so, and so students who choose to can power through their work and write the exam in the middle of the term. This also helps prevent that end-of-the-year anxiety around a whole pile of exams. This makes a lot of sense, as the cramming and panic around exam time in the regular system often detracts from the validity and reliability of the exams by assessing students’ ability to function under pressure rather than what they know.

To a great extent, this seems to involve teaching to the exam, but in content-heavy examinable courses, that seems to be what happens anywhere. What is missing from this program is the contrived busy-work to get to the end result; nobody is making a poster of their learning, but they’re still learning. Dan monitors the classroom and is ready to jump in with clarification whenever needed. Another benefit of the self-directed nature of this program is that it allows for lots of one-on-one time with the students when it is needed. As well, rather than having one-size-fits-all assignments, Dan manages to integrate high-interest extracurricular learning by designing student-specific assignments to meet the PLO’s. For example, a student might watch a documentary and then write about it as a change of pace.

The backroom of the classroom is full of exercise equipment. Students use this space to take breaks, work out, and socialize a bit. Rarely do students have to be encouraged to return to their work after hanging out in the gym room, but students often choose to use the equipment there. I believe that for some of them this room is part of what draws them to school. I always wished for a stationary bicycle in my classroom for my students to take brain breaks on, though I’d never seen it done. This backroom being available helps to promote self-regulation. It’s awesome.

Also, it being this time of year, we have been attending BBQ’s. The SAMS end-of-the-year BBQ at Walker Island was on Wednesday, and so I spent the afternoon flipping burgers, speaking with other teachers, and getting to know some of the students. While this was not a particularly strenuous day, the benefits of getting to know the community I’ll be working in were great.

I also spent two days at BCE. I worked in the Grade 3 and the Kindergarten classrooms on Tuesday, and then loved it so much that I returned to the Kindergarten classroom again on Thursday. Kindergarten has a wonderful energy. I will be applying for the Kindergarten position when it is posted, as the current teacher is leaving. This week at BCE I got a good recipe for bubble solution that allows you to make GIANT bubbles, I danced like various sea creatures, I read stories to and was read to by students, I played catch the rubber chicken with some K students, I saw the grade 5’s graduate,

A realization that I had this week was about early literacy. I realized that being a child in a household with overfilled bookshelves and two teacher parents who both read to me every day was an ENORMOUS leg up. I won’t say much more than that, but I will not ever underestimate the importance of making literacy a focus in my classroom.

On Friday we walked the picket line. There was a black bear 150m up the road from us for a while at SAMS. #BellaCoolaProblems. We made it down to BCE as well. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, the incredible sense of community that I have witnessed since arriving in the valley persisted. I can’t wait for this whole thing to get resolved and to start teaching in the valley!

We set out early on Saturday morning for Bella Coola. It is tricky packing for a trip on which you will probably climb a couple mountains, work in the garden, teach school, and possibly be interviewed. The expression goes that some people wear many hats, but I’ve always found that a good hat is multipurpose. Shoes on the other hand are highly job-specific, and so upon picking up Megan in Langley and looking at the pile of shoes in the trunk of my car I could only hope that we had sufficiently prepared for our trip.

We took the driving in shifts. I got us as far as Spences Bridge where we pulled over to take a picture in front of the Baits Motel sign. It was worth the stop, though the spelling rather took away the spookiness of it. On we went till we came upon a veritable oasis… a sight so good that the first time I saw it’s glowing open sign at 8:00 on the Cariboo highway I believed I was experiencing a mirage. Right there in the middle of the Cariboo highway is a place that sells proper Quebecois poutine and beaver tails. Is this an important detail regarding our development as teachers? Perhaps not. But, this roadside haven of beautiful log woodworking and perfectly constructed eats strikes me as such a miracle that I cannot help but share the fact of its existence with you. If nothing else, as a halfway marker on the road to Bella Coola, this grubbery is a good omen.

We made it down The Hill without any trouble. The hill down into Bella Coola must be experienced to be appreciated. When you look at the Chilcotin-Bella Coola Highway on a map you may think that it is simply 450 kilometers of … well… highway. Paved, straightish highway. You would be wrong. While the -40C winters are unkind to the highway across the plateau, leaving lumps and dips from the frost heave, the truly treacherous part of the trip is that hill, Heckman’s Pass. Representing only about 40km of the trip, this hill is famous for its terror-inspiring steepness, switchbacks, and lack of guard rails. There are sections of Heckman’s pass where it is impossible for two cars to pass one another. Wikipedia claims that some tourists refuse to drive back out of the valley once experiencing The Hill on the way in. Whether or not the visitors of the valley are as delicate as this claim suggests, The Hill is truly a testament to the historic hardiness of the locals of the Bella Coola valley. Started in 1952 with next to no money and a single tractor, the road was built by locals in spite of government nay sayers. Cliff Kopas, a new school teacher to the region had started the Board of Trade, which was initially funding the project. Eventually a grant was provided, and the locals, at great personal time and financial cost, built themselves a road out of the valley. That road is now maintained as an important connector to the last piece of Highway 20 and is a reminder to those entering the valley that community, hard work, and being willing to wear many shoes can accomplish the impossible.

We arrived at the Yellow House to find friendly faces, bottle feeding lambs, my dog, and a wood-stove full of baking pizza. Unsure of what shoes we’d be wearing in the days to come, this was a comforting and warm welcome. The Yellow House Hostel operates as a kind of community hub where researchers, farm interns, and single newcomers stay when they arrive in the valley.

**History for this post sourced at the Bella Coola Museum website here.**