The beginning of the journey starts from Bay 17, 7:45am in the morning, April 27th, Greyhound Pacific Central Station.
The 8.5 hour ride was intense. I’ve had 4 naps in total on the bus and met a handful of friendly people on the bus. This is a picture of the view leaving the village of Lytton on the way to Williams Lake.
I’ve managed to meet a young boy named Harry whose father runs Gavin Lake and offered to give me a ride to the dorms at Columneetza. Turned out I was the first one to arrive! This is what my room looks like at a glance.
This was our first meal at Williams Lake! When the others arrived, we visited our local Save On Foods branch and cooked up some mashed yams and chicken breast with a side of salad for dinner.
A view of the front of Skyline Alternate School.
This was the cafeteria/food prep classroom within the school.
One of the classes at Skyline where the students in this classroom have low self esteem and motivation levels. I’ve worked with several students in this class and managed to increase their productivity throughout my short stay here.
I’ve taken a picture of this clock at an alternate school site @ Columneetza that Skyline manages and it reminds me of Esther Shalev-Gerz’s exhibition at UBC’s Belkin Art Gallery last year where there was a timepiece that shows time flowing backwards as well as forwards.
One of my biggest successes here at Skyline was helping a student named Elyssa. Throughout this week I’ve managed to reconnect her with music by conducting her through exercises in the Standard of Excellence book. I’ve also helped her start and finish both her resume and cover letter within a 2 day time-frame. On my final day at Skyline, I’ve managed to engage and coach a full class in badminton during a P.E. block.
The principal of Skyline Offsite Alternate School, Mike Franklin, took us to a reserve school in Alkali Lake on Wednesday. This was one of the classrooms that was located on the reserve. The sight of this setting is disappointing because other than myself and the two other teacher candidates in the photo, there was only one student studying in an environment full of disarray.
This was a view of the school on the reserve at Alkali Lake. The main building is located behind the small shed seen in this photo and contains a kitchen, office, 4 classrooms, and a staff room. The amount of students attending this school are at a minimum with two to slightly more than a dozen students in each class.
The name of the reserve school with one of the teachers walking in the background.
Pictured here is the gym building in the background of the reserve school @ Alkali Lake. As well, they have 2 outdoor rinks for hockey in the winter. During the summer it is used as a basketball court.
The reserve has only one local store that serves the community there and has postal service along with a gas station to the side.
This is a picture of Alkali Lake that is situated just outside of the First Nations reserve. Rumours indicate the first teacher who’d taught at the reserve school drowned here.
The conditions worsen as we head further into the remote areas past the Alkali Lake reserve. Pictured here at the bottom left hand corner is an abandoned car that fell to its doom as a result of slipping down the unpaved, country roads.
We have arrived at Dog Creek Elementary, another remote community of the Schuswap First Nations. Pictured here is the old elementary school building before the new one was built.
The teachers of Dog Creek elementary live on site in the dorms pictured here.
The new building of Dog Creek Elementary. Sadly, this entire school only has a total of 10 students who attend.
This is the Pals Room inside Dog Creek Elementary.
This is the library of Dog Creek Elementary
A classroom with computers and students of Dog Creek Elementary.
The Schuswap/ (Languages) room of Dog Creek Elementary.
This is the Dog Creek Elementary School Gym.
This is the science lab of Dog Creek Elementary. At this point, it is very disheartening to see how such a wonderful, advanced, resourceful school is only able to attract such few students to attend within the community.
A view from Scout Island taken after Skyline school sessions.
The first trails we’ve visited after school hours was the River Valley Trail!
The spectacular views of this trail calls for a portrait shot!
Saturday morning: Looked out the window and Surprise! May 3rd, 2014 snowfall!
A view of the snowstorm from my dorm window.
Vitor’s friend took us to a local school hill for some sledding fun. This was the expression TC’s had after the three-person sled down attempt.
