Takeaways from Prince Rupert

1. Maintain Balance

The go-go-go lifestyle that I was experiencing during my practicum was draining, mentally, physically and emotionally. This past time in Prince Rupert has allowed me to really slow down and start taking better care of myself. I loved getting my physical exercise in each day by being at the pool with students or walking/riding my bike around town. I had down time – such a novel concept after being on my practicum. It sounds so cliché but the low key, laid back attitude here was so relaxing compared to the constant rush of the city. Being here reminded me of the things that I value most and the need for more balance in my life, something I will definitely work to keep up upon my return to Vancouver.

2. The Value of Community

I must say the community in Prince Rupert is really amazing. The other day I was riding my bike home from the pool in the pouring rain and I must admit, I was pretty miserable when I heard from across the street “Miss Woodley! Hiiiiiiiii!” It was a student that I had met only once or twice when I was at Lax Kxeen. I was so overjoyed that they had remembered my name, recognized me on my bike and had wanted to say hi! I waved and yelled back and was immediately pulled out of my rainy bike ride gloom. I loved how quickly the students warmed up to me at Lax Kxeen. Even though it was the end of the school year, there was job action and I was a brand new face in their school, they never made me feel as though I was an outsider. They immediately welcomed me and made me feel at home in their school. Even walking around town I will have students wave at me, it really is nice to be able to see them outside of the school environment, I don’t remember bumping into any of my students during my practicum outside of school. This being said, I think that you can make community wherever you are, seeing it so apparent here though solidified my philosophy that teaching is really about the relationships and rapport that you build with students and the school community.

3. Fast Friends

I made a really good friend, Jessica, another UBC TC. Due to the circumstances of CFE we fast tracked our friendship to the point where we were spending every day together. We had a lot of the same goals and visions for our CFEs and we both wanted to make the most out of our time here, I’d say we were definitely successful! We balanced our educational experiences with community experiences and personal interests which made for a well rounded visit of Prince Rupert. We made a great team and support system and I’m excited to stay connected with her even after this experience is over.

4. Go With the Flow

Too many times to count, as new teachers we have been told in classes or at schools “as a teacher, you need to be flexible.” This was especially true as our CFEs fell right in the middle of job action. After having only one week in our schools we were set loose to find our own experiences in the Prince Rupert community. Luckily everyone here was incredibly helpful in steering us in the right direction and we found experiences that were relevant, worthwhile, and enjoyable. This was a lesson in being self directed and navigating our own path in an unfamiliar environment and being open minded to new experiences – being flexible indeed!

5. Any Experience is What You Make It

While I definitely enjoyed my experience in Prince Rupert there were days (especially those rainy, grey days) when I wasn’t the most upbeat. There were a lot of times when things had to be a compromise – not finding proper supplies, having placements fall through, etc. I learnt to always remember that even some of the disappointing things would be funny a few weeks from now or at least make a great story. (The time we, students teachers, spent 6 hours making fish puppets at the Cannery because only 9 children showed up all day.) ( The day that Jessica and I spent hours at 4 different stores trying to find crafting supplies and then transporting said supplies by bike) Basically, to toss out another cliché – you’ve got to look for the silver lining. This cliché is totally appropriate for a rainy place like Rupert so I don’t feel too bad about using it!

I’m sure there are a multitude of other takeaways from my time in Prince Rupert that haven’t made it on this list but I should really stop before I throw in more clichés. It’s definitely going to be hard to say goodbye tomorrow but these experiences will be something I’ll remember for a lifetime.

Over and out Prince Rupert! 🙂

For our last week, Jessica and I continued to work with Sue, the occupational therapist. I have gained so much more confidence when working with our student, I am far more trusting of him to be capable to do things but still keeping a very close eye on him. He is such a risk taker and wants to be able to do everything in the pool, climb ropes, ride in the boat, etc. I am always a little nervous at first but he can do it. We also worked with a teenager who has a knee injury.  I admire her willingness to participate in everything, as a 15 year old I don’t think I would enjoy spending my afternoons at the pool doing exercises.  Working with Sue and watching the students make progress was so rewarding. It was my first experience working with the physically disabled and it was very eye opening. I learnt to try to balance being hands off enough but also being supportive enough. On our final day working with Sue and the students, we celebrated with an ice cream sundae party. It was a great way to celebrate their success and say goodbye.

On Wednesday, it was another beautiful day and Jessica and I trekked out to the Butze Rapids, a 5km trail just outside of Prince Rupert. We packed another delicious picnic and enjoyed the sunshine. It was lovely weather for our last two days in Rupert which was a wonderful surprise, a great note to end on for sure!

Overall my experience in Prince Rupert was overwhelmingly positive. I love the community there, everything they say about small towns is true, everyone is so friendly. We were lucky that there were many people willing to help us out when the strike happened. Because Rupert is such a tight knit community, we were quickly connected with new opportunities, something that I’m not sure would have happened somewhere like Vancouver.

This week was a bit of a change of pace as because of job action, UBC TC’s were no longer in the schools which allowed us more flexibility to integrate ourselves into the community here. After hiking the Metlakatla Trail on Monday, Jessica and I managed to keep ourselves quite busy this past week. On Tuesday we ventured out to the North Pacific Cannery Museum to look into developing some resources for them. Everyone at NPC was incredibly welcoming and we were able to tour the facilities and learn more about the culture of a cannery in the early 20th century. This weekend was their 125 birthday celebrations so Jess and I created some children’s activities for the celebration happening on site on Sunday. While there may not have been a flood of children visiting the cannery yesterday, the UBC TC’s sure enjoyed playing in our photo booth and creating salmon puppets.

The rest of the week, when not spending time prepping for the cannery celebrations, Jess, Carman and I were fortunate to work with Sue, the district occupational therapist at the pool. Here, we worked with an 8 year old with mobility challenges. He absolutely loves being in the water and is such a joy to work with as he is so outgoing and adventurous.

To round out the week, Aboriginal Day was Saturday, June 21st and we attended celebrations here at the Civic Centre in Prince Rupert. It was a day of dancing, feasting, singing and storytelling. One of my favourite parts of National Aboriginal Day was meeting a woman, Symbia Barnaby, who had started an organization to help parents of children with exceptionalities. In April, there was a tragic event in Prince Rupert in which a mother took her life and her autistic son’s life as she was not receiving the support she needed to care for her son. Therefore, Symbia, who has a child with autism, decided to take action and created a support group for parents of children with exceptionalities for the Prince Rupert area called Parents for Positive Change. She is helping guide parents to resources, empowering them to advocate for their children and is looking into providing respite care for parents. She was an incredibly inspiring individual to talk to and it shows that out of tragedy can come amazing positive changes for a community.

I enjoyed integrating myself further into the community here in Prince Rupert this past week, I can’t believe that we only have a few days left here!

Welcome to the North Pacific Cannery established 1889 and the oldest intact salmon cannery on North America’s West coast.

Some examples of salmon puppets made by the children at the cannery celebrations.

Piles of pilings – the cannery can look eery on a dreary day.

Skeena River and Cannery buildings.

After being here for a week, I quickly learnt that a sunny day in Prince Rupert is not to be spent indoors. Therefore, when today was forecasted to be sunny, Jessica and I jumped on the chance to hike the Metlakatla Trail. The Metlakatla Wilderness Trail is located about a 20 minute ferry ride from Prince Rupert. It was great to be out on the water, even if it was on a ferry. Metlakatla is a small Tsimshian community, home to about 100 people. We were originally supposed to complete this hike with the Prince Rupert Middle School on a field trip tomorrow but because of job action that will not be happening so we headed out there today.

The trail was absolutely breathtaking and the ocean views were fantastic.  I enjoyed exploring the tidal pools featuring crabs, various types of seaweed, and many, many shells. We had packed a picnic lunch which we enjoyed on a pristine beach. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife but heard that people have seen bears, deer, and even whales. The trail was 20 km in total but we only did 16km as we were running out of time to get back to the ferry and didn’t want to be stuck in Metlakatla overnight. All in all it was a wonderful day spent enjoying nature and sunshine!

The view upon arrival in Metlakatla

Ocean view from along the trail

Beachcombing for small treasures

After 16km, it was time for Jessica to take a swing break

Oceanside swings are the best kinds of swings

Metlakatla docks

All finished week one of the Community Field Experience. It was a great week so far, especially as the weather was pretty co-operative and we had mostly sunny days which is a rarity up here. On Wednesday which was the strike day for the district, Jessica and I went to visit the Port Interpretive Centre in Cow Bay. It was super informative and extremely detailed. The Centre also doubles as the tourist centre so we were able to learn more about outdoor activities we could partake in on our days off. On Thursday, I returned to Lax Kxeen and helped out with the Kindergarten graduation ceremony and researched some books in the library. On Friday, Jessica and I had the opportunity to visit the Sensory Room at Conrad Elementary School. This is a really neat room filled with objects that encourage children’s movement and play. It is run by an occupational therapist and it is designed to help students build their motor skills. We were able to observe two students play and learn in the room, it is clear that this is a safe space for students and they love being there.

Today was Seafest! Everyone in the town has been buzzing about Seafest since we arrived. It is a huge festival here and a great way to spend a Saturday. In the morning I met with Jessica and we headed downtown to watch the parade. The parade had so many creative floats by local merchants, dance groups, cultural groups, etc. We then perused the vendors and enjoyed lunch by the waterfront. Later in the afternoon we caught up with the other teacher candidates over coffee before going to our volunteer shift to help take down some of the festivities. Looking forward to more of the events taking place by the waterfront tomorrow which include boat races and a fishing derby.

Cow Bay on a rare nice and sunny day!

Down by the waterfront.

A beautiful sunset – right before I snapped this picture a bald eagle soared by the balcony.

Having spent a few days in town, I am feeling pretty comfortable with Prince Rupert. I’m enjoying my time at Lax Kxeen Elementary school. The students are friendly, amiable and so polite! I start my mornings off in Breakfast Club where students can come and eat a nutritious breakfast at the school. This is my favourite part of the day as it is a nice, casual way to meet and chat with the students. Then for the rest of the day I travel throughout the school helping out wherever needed. For example, I read with students, help them in groups and individually and observe the daily routines of the school. I finish off the day by checking out their after school program which usually involves art or games.

While I had stated that I was enjoying walking everywhere in Prince Rupert in previous posts, it was brought up that if we had bicycles our commutes would be even faster. For whatever reason, I could not get this idea out of my head and having a bicycle became an obsession for me. I had asked around my school if any staff members had an extra bike to rent to me, but no luck, so after school I wandered around downtown looking for an inexpensive bike I could buy. Right when I was beginning to lose hope, I walked into the Salvation Army and spotted a teacher I had volunteered with on the Skeena River Relay and explained I was on the great bike hunt. I was delighted when she told me she had a bike I could borrow for the three weeks and drove me to her house to pick it up, complete with helmet and bike lock. How’s that for small town hospitality! I triumphantly rode across town on the bike, loving the efficiency and dreading the hills. My goal is by the end of this to be able to climb all the hills from Cow Bay to my home stay.

Tonight the other UBC TCs and I ate dinner at a tiny sushi restaurant in Cow Bay and the food was delicious! It was great to meet as a group and brainstorm some activities we would like to do while we are here.

Welcome to Prince Rupert!

Cowpuccino’s Coffee House – The Cutest Coffee Shop Ever.

Cow Bay

Ships in Cow Bay

Today Jessica (another UBC TC) and I ventured from our home stays to Cow Bay. Located right on the water, Cow Bay and is the place to go for little boutique shops, adventure tours, cute cafes and restaurants specializing in seafood. We were happily surprised by the amount of selection in the shops and can’t wait to pick up some handcrafted souvenirs. We then lunched at the local pub and did some grocery shopping. It was amazing to see how quickly the weather can change here, we saw cloudy skies, rain, sun, rain, more clouds then more rain in a span of 3 hours. It’s difficult to be able to dress for the weather as it’s pretty chilly but also very humid. Looking forward to going to my school tomorrow and see more about what I will be doing for the next three weeks.

The day after my long practicum finished, I departed for Prince Rupert in the early morning by plane. Once arriving in Prince Rupert, or more correctly, Digby Island (you bus and ferry into Prince Rupert from here.) I was greeted by my home stay host whose house is luckily not a far walk from Lax Kxeen, the school where I will be teaching. From here I was immediately immersed in Prince Rupert life as we drove out down Highway 16 to volunteer in the Skeena River Relay in which teams of 12 run the 140km from Prince Rupert to Terrace. Everyone was so friendly and the race participants looked exhausted but exhilarated. The drive out to our race checkpoint was the highlight though as it was a beautiful road that winded it’s way along the Skeena river. The mountains here are beautiful and dotted with waterfalls, the way the clouds were gathering on the mountainsides made it all rather majestic.

Just this afternoon, I spotted an eagle and a hummingbird and was promised that there are lots of seals in the harbour and the possibility of spotting bears, deer, wolves and mountain goats. I’m looking forward to being able to explore more of the town tomorrow and really map out a lay of land.

As I start to wind down my ten week practicum I am starting to prepare for my three weeks that I will spend in Prince Rupert. I’m feeling a little nervous but mostly excited as I enjoy adventure and have never been more North in BC than Prince George before. I’m looking forward to getting out of the city and spending some time in a more natural setting. Can’t wait to see what sorts of exploring I can get up to in Prince Rupert!