Elias was the very first KSB PED counsellor I worked with when I came to Nunavik in 2003. He was the PC for science and my workload included 4 periods of biology, which scared the crap out of me at the time since I was a Social Studies and linguistics major, had never taken a biology course in my life.
He visited the school in Sept. and got me started off on the right foot. It quickly became my favourite thing to teach, it was easy to make it as interesting to the students as it was for me. In the beginning, I was a page ahead of the students on any given day, but the function of all the body systems was fascinating to me so I could easily pass on the same sense of awe to the students about the new things I was learning. Thank god we were a school that was one of the first to have an internet connection, as Joe Keelan, one of the students was super eager as well and would constantly bring up excellent questions that I had no clue how to answer, so I would google things every night.
Elias and my paths crossed many times since but our friendship started to deepen after he started working on projects such as pathways and Compassionate Schools. He came to discuss work I had been doing with our applied classroom. Then as we started the Tier 1 of Compassionate Schools at our school, we got to see him more often. We had one evening in GR with a box of red wine and hours and hours of talking about our history and dreams that cemented my adoration of this guy. He has been a great support to me since then. I think he might say the same about me. We've collaborated on a few projects since then and every time it goes forward with ease since we seem to have many very similar life views and values.
On my last visit to Montreal, I also learned that not only is he a genius with programming and organization, but he's also quite the interiour decorator and artist. Looking forward to the next chance I have to sit and one of our heart to hearts
with him.
Song of the Moment: Forgetting You by Nathan Angelo
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