 I've told you my niche name, which is Xim-Hiss-Ax, and what it means, literally, is lady laughs. And I have no idea why. I'm like the shyest person, right, Elizabeth? Okay. This is my first year being here fully. When I first entered, was it last spring? I came here as Doug Livingston, my ex-boss, and I had no idea what I was coming for. And I have a partner here that's with me that I would like to come up to share the story, because she was more the beginning part of it, and I came in halfway through. So, Elizabeth, can you come? While we're waiting for her, I had somebody, I just got to share a story. It's part of my Xim-Hiss-Ax name, I guess. I had an SFU shirt on. I know some of you noticed, because you came up to me and said, you have a different shirt on. I was like, yeah, and there you must be getting ready for a presentation. No, it wasn't. Because I had my jogging jacket on, and I'm recently going back to SFU for my masters. And I was so proud, because that's where I got my teaching certificate from, but I had it on. And my son was trying to read my shirt, and he said, FU. My F, the S was missing. And while we get into our story, my past boss is here, so I can't tell you the whole truth. Just kidding, but I'm proud to be here as the first year facilitator for the Nishka District, along with Elizabeth. And I'll let her tell the beginning part of our story, and then I'll take over to explain where we're headed. Thank you, Lillian. Thanks, yeah. I was the facilitator for the Nishka School District last year. I've actually worked with the school district over the last 13 years, not full time, but a lot. So I know the area quite well. And just to give you an idea, because not everybody actually knows very much about the Nishka School District, and you're missing a lot if you don't. It is located in the Nass Valley, which is parallel to Highway 16. The major city or town is New Ianch, which is 100 kilometers directly north of Terrace. It runs then west to the Pacific Ocean, so that the other community at the far end, Kankuloth, is basically a half an hour plane ride north of Prince Rupert. So if you know the northwest at all, that gives you a rough idea where it is. There are only 400 students altogether in the whole school district, four communities, four schools. Last year, simultaneously with this project starting, the Vancouver Island University project was starting there. So a lot of changes were going on in the school district and in the various programs. And so the decision was made to work with the preschool head start programs instead of the primary teachers. The really good thing about it is that there was no problem at all for head start preschool teachers to work with their kids that same way that the primary teachers were. They worked with kids who were three and four years old. The focus was on oral language development and social emotional learning. And also there were many references to families as well. So that was very good. The challenge, which was somewhat specific to the NISCA context in the Nass Valley, but might also affect other preschool head start settings, is that the structure of those settings is extremely difficult to allow for release time. Because there are no people who take over if somebody is not there. There just are not. Plus in our area, they're very small. There's one or two people who are working in those groups. So collaboration is challenging. The early reading advocate was the coordinator of the LISMS Early Learning Partnership. And that person then took on that role. But the structure did not lend itself to group meetings. It just didn't. For all intents and purposes, we really had only one. Enough to let people know what the project was about. But it was certainly enough for them to get a really good understanding of what was happening and what their role was. So they did fill out some of the Sharon's forms, but it was incomplete. But it was just wonderful what they were able to do. We started late because of not being able to find a time to meet, and we didn't finish. Which is a shame, but these things happen. And now I'm going to hand it to Lillian because we're going into the primary for this year. Okay. I'd like to say a positive thing on that note is that built the bridge to connect the early learning with kindergartners and primaries. So I'm really happy for that. Where we're headed now is by June. I knew I was taking over. I was emailing all the principals. And I was asking our four schools to develop a primary group. No response. I tried again. No response. And then I waved Faye Brownlee's name in there. Sharon Jaroski. I was like, these guys are my rock stars. They have to be yours. So I can't believe I'm standing. I'm standing right here. And I just want to hug her. And anyway, so I waved that around. I explained the Aboriginal content that is coming up and about from here. And I tell you still no response, kind of maybe one. But now I have seven teachers, primary teachers that are emailing me, asking me, when do we start?