Teaching in a Cold & Windy Place: Change in an Inuit School

Rating:
Summary: Title doesn't exactly deliver what it promises, but still ok
Review: First of all, even though the book was written before Nunavut, most of the cultural elements of the book are still valid. Also, being probably the only book that deals with teaching in an Inuit culture, it stands alone in terms of its significance.

Having said that, however, there are a few problems with the book:

1) It was much, much too short. Tompkins repeated herself quite a bit, which would be acceptable had the book been longer than 130 pages or so. Also, I found that she didn't go into much detail in regards to actual situations; more ancedotes to illustrate her points would have been welcome.

2) The book was written from the perspective of a principal, not a teacher. Tompkins was a very active principal, working alongside her staff, but most of the advice will be useless unless you're actually in a position of authority in a school. Don't get me wrong -- Tompkin's model is *exactly* how a school should work, but as I said, it will help administrators more than in-the-trenches teachers.

3) I realise that there are not as many secondary schools in NWT/Nunavut as elementary schools, but it was a bit of a shock to realise that the entire book was written from the perspective of a worker in an elementary school. Understandably, if you're a primary (or even middle years) educator this will not disturb you as much as it did me.

Being a secondary school planning on teaching in Nunavut, this book was decidedly less helpful than I had anticipated. However, if you match the target audience (principal of an elementary school), don't let the book's brevity disturb you!