What's My Name?

Today was my second day at the elementary school. It was another observation day. Tomorrow I actually begin to dive into the real work. I am starting a unit with two of the classes on fairy tales. The materials have been provided for me, but I am able to plan whatever I want. It's nice to have that kind of freedom and experience in the classroom. My cooperating teacher and I really work well together.
The kids are still continuing to test me on their names. They have turned in it into a game to see how many I can remember. They don't get mad when I get them wrong, they just laugh and give me hints to help me out. I have been doing pretty good with remembering most of them though. In one class however I am having some troubles. There are approximately twenty children in the class and over half of them have names that start with J. There are two Jeffs, two Jeffereys, a Jefferson, a Joyce, a Joylene, etc. You can see the confusion. The kids are quite helpful. They enjoy not only laughing at my attempts to speak Inuktitut, but to teach me new words as well. Today I learned how to say headband (bando) and polar bear (nanuk). They also taught me how to write my name in Inuktitut. Over the next four weeks they are going to attempt to teach me the salvicks, which is the Inuktitut alphabet. It's surprisingly not as hard as you would think. It's just going to take some practice. Some things I refuse to repeat though. I'm pretty sure some of them have attempted to teach me bad words or have me say something inappropriate. I can always tell when this happens because they giggle uncontrollably and get this mischievous look in their eyes. They are always quite disappointed when I catch on to their scheme. Typical kids testing their limits.
I have quite a few characters in my classes. I am definitely going to gain some laugh lines from this trip. The kids are hilarious. One kid asked me if I was the main girl off of Paranormal Activity. I told her I was not, but she did not accept that as an answer. She now calls me Paranormal and tells her classmates that I am famous. Apparently this is quite a popular movie up here and the Inuk strongly believe in hauntings and spirits. Outside of each classroom is a cut out of a teddy bear. This apparently wards off evil and keeps the Inuk people safe. Another child has developed an obsession for my hair. He says he likes how long and shiny it is. Yesterday he liked to stroke it when I wasn't looking and busy with someone else. Today he upped that. When I wasn't looking he plucked a hair right out of my head. Part of me wanted to be mad because it really hurt, but he is such a sweet and cute kid it was difficult to do. I explained to him that this was not proper behavior, but he just laughed at me and said my long eyelashes are next. Let's just say my eyes are going to be peeled!
Tonight after supper Sarah and I plan to bundle up and head out for a walk around town. We've driven around, got a quick tour and visited the co-op (to see some of the carvings), but have yet to venture out on foot. We want to get some good shots and mingle with the town. I don't know how far we will get, it is pretty cold out. Last I checked it was about minus 34. Also, we are pretty slow moving in our Nunavut get ups. We look like marshmallows waddling around with all the gear we have on. It's the thought that counts though, so we will see.