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From August 1998, until June 2000, my wife, Heather Johanson, and I taught in the high arctic community of Pond Inlet, also known as Mittimatalik ("the place where Mittima died and was burried") on the north shore of Baffin Island.  During that time, on April 1st, 1999, Nunavut Territory officially came into existence, covering most of Canada's arctic islands (including all of Baffin Island) along with a large part of the former mainland portion of the Northwest Territories.  The population of Nunavut is in the neighbourhood of 28000, of which about 85% are Inuit.  The population of Pond Inlet is about 1300, almost half of which are school age or less.

Heather and I both taught at the combinded high school and junior high facility.  The first high school built in town, Takijualuk, closed its doors on June 16th, 1999, making way for the brand new facility of Nasivvik High School to open in August of 1999.  Although trained to teach physics and mathematics at the senior high level, Heather was assigned the duty of teaching a combined grade seven and eight class in her first year, and a grade eight class in her second.  Her classes were very pleasant, and worked very hard.  English is a second language to most of the students here in Pond Inlet, and many of their academic struggles are based on that fact.

I taught a variety of subjects in the senior division of Nasivvik High School.  These courses included combined Grade 10 Advanced and General science, combined Grade 11 and Grade 12 Physics, combined Grade 11 and 12 Biology, Grade 11 Chemistry, Grade 11 General Science, a variety of Grade 10, 11 and 12 computer courses, Grade 11 Career and Life Management and Grade 10 General Mathematics.  Many of my students were very hard working.  My greatest difficulty in any of these courses was attendance.  For those who do come, all it takes is steady effort, and the obstacles of language can be overcome.  It was a tremendous joy to be able to see seventeen of my students graduate from the high school in the past two years.

Life is good in Pond Inlet.  It is a good arctic community to live and teach in.  The local people, both Inuit and otherwise, are welcoming and supportive.  Our teaching colleagues are great people, and provide a great deal of support.  Opportunities abound for exploration of the local countryside.  While living in Pond Inlet, we owned a rather large and poweful snowmobile, which I liked to put to good use as often as possible.  Heather came along when her schedule permitted, as long as she didn't mind being bounced around a little. 

The mountains and glaciers here are wonderful, and the sea ice freezes over in late October, making travel to remote areas relatively easy.  Icebergs abound, and every year they're different, in different places.  You can snowmobile right up to the base of them, and sometimes even onto them.  We even got some of our drinking water from them.  It's as clean as it was thousands of years ago, when it was frozen, and it makes for wonderful ice chips to put in drinks.

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