Wednesday 31 October 2012
Tuesday 30 October 2012
Classroom Rearranged!
I am very lucky to work with some amazing colleagues who share so much of their time and resources with me. As a brand new teacher, I came to grade 2 with literally nothing (all my primary stuff I left in Ontario as I was prepared to come and teach grade 5 before being moved). I had a huge empty room that was previously a small auditorium and I needed to fill it fast!
Teachers from all over the school quickly came to my aid, giving me manipulatives, books, furniture, posters and decor, even a computer and great printer! Teachers are still being so generous, even months into the school year! I previously had hexagon-shaped tables which I loved for group work but it made it hard to teach from any particular part of the room, especially the Smartboard (which I use most of the day, everyday) because at least 4 student's backs were turned to where I was standing at any given time.
Anyways, one of the teachers found that her students (Pre-kindergartens I think) were too small for her super awesome colorful rectangle tables and asked to switch with me!! YES PLEASE. So now I have really cool rectangle tables that all face one way but still allow for easy group activities and cooperative learning. I wanted to stay away from the "lecture" style set up for my primary classroom but I think that this arrangement is a good compromise. Using the Smartboard in my lessons is such an asset and the kids love it so I want to take full advantage of student positioning to get the best out of each lesson.
Tomorrow is back on for Halloween and my class is having their joint party with Stacy's grade 2 class and it should be pretty fun. Given that they will be loaded up on sugar that night, we tried to get as many healthy snacks as possible!
Happy Halloween!
Teachers from all over the school quickly came to my aid, giving me manipulatives, books, furniture, posters and decor, even a computer and great printer! Teachers are still being so generous, even months into the school year! I previously had hexagon-shaped tables which I loved for group work but it made it hard to teach from any particular part of the room, especially the Smartboard (which I use most of the day, everyday) because at least 4 student's backs were turned to where I was standing at any given time.
Anyways, one of the teachers found that her students (Pre-kindergartens I think) were too small for her super awesome colorful rectangle tables and asked to switch with me!! YES PLEASE. So now I have really cool rectangle tables that all face one way but still allow for easy group activities and cooperative learning. I wanted to stay away from the "lecture" style set up for my primary classroom but I think that this arrangement is a good compromise. Using the Smartboard in my lessons is such an asset and the kids love it so I want to take full advantage of student positioning to get the best out of each lesson.
Tomorrow is back on for Halloween and my class is having their joint party with Stacy's grade 2 class and it should be pretty fun. Given that they will be loaded up on sugar that night, we tried to get as many healthy snacks as possible!
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| Our super spooky door! |
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| One of the treats I put in my kid's Halloween gift bags :) |
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| Breakfast program! Healthy and delicious. |
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| Side note: Fifty Shades of Gray for... kids?? |
Monday 29 October 2012
Sunday 28 October 2012
Halloween Wemindji Style!
Halloween came early this year! For real! Halloween has been moved from the 31st to the 30th by the town. Now, this may seem crazy to you but let me explain... sorry I can't, it is just crazy.
Well okay actually they moved Halloween (which has happened before) because there is a hockey tournament out of town on Wednesday and many of the kids would have missed Halloween if they left for the tournament. Hockey is kind of a big deal around here so LOTS of kids play and probably half the town would be gone for this tourney, so it made sense to move it. However, that means that the two PED days we had scheduled to avoid the mess of Halloween aftermath are pointless and we still have to wrangle kids on sugar highs but whatever!! It'll be a fun day of centres on Wednesday ahah!
Anyways, last night I went to the party of the year, the Annual Halloween "Zombies or Survivors" bash thrown by two die-hard Halloween enthusiasts Amy and Peter. They went all out, creepy framed pictures on the wall, brain-inspired foods, awesome decoration and pretty cool costumes. The theme was Zombies or Survivors, you had to pick if you were a zombie or a survivor (duh) and the results were pretty awesome. I went as Zombie Where's Waldo. Amazing if I do say so myself. It almost didn't happen though! I kinda dropped the ball this year on Halloween preparation, that and when you are packing for a place like this in the summer, Halloween gear isn't the easiest thing to find at the local Wal Mart. So I ordered from an online party place last week, my costume arrived on Wednesday, just in time!!
Besides preparing for an awesome weekend, school has been going pretty well. Stacy and I are working hard to meet the expectations of the GVC, my students are slowly improving in their reading and writing skills and math is going pretty well! There is nothing more rewarding than testing the reading levels of your students and knowing where they were before and how far they have come. It makes it worth it. I hope to re-evaluate the PM Benchmarks soon (a reading comprehension assessment) and see the qualitative progress. Even some of my "lower" kids have made great strides, so I can't wait to see how far everyone will have made it by the end of the year!
Anyways I am exhausted and need to make my bed, do the dishes, clean my house, get ready for tomorrow, do my laundry, watch Sons of Anarchy... oh the list goes on!!
Love Aidan
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Well okay actually they moved Halloween (which has happened before) because there is a hockey tournament out of town on Wednesday and many of the kids would have missed Halloween if they left for the tournament. Hockey is kind of a big deal around here so LOTS of kids play and probably half the town would be gone for this tourney, so it made sense to move it. However, that means that the two PED days we had scheduled to avoid the mess of Halloween aftermath are pointless and we still have to wrangle kids on sugar highs but whatever!! It'll be a fun day of centres on Wednesday ahah!
Anyways, last night I went to the party of the year, the Annual Halloween "Zombies or Survivors" bash thrown by two die-hard Halloween enthusiasts Amy and Peter. They went all out, creepy framed pictures on the wall, brain-inspired foods, awesome decoration and pretty cool costumes. The theme was Zombies or Survivors, you had to pick if you were a zombie or a survivor (duh) and the results were pretty awesome. I went as Zombie Where's Waldo. Amazing if I do say so myself. It almost didn't happen though! I kinda dropped the ball this year on Halloween preparation, that and when you are packing for a place like this in the summer, Halloween gear isn't the easiest thing to find at the local Wal Mart. So I ordered from an online party place last week, my costume arrived on Wednesday, just in time!!
Besides preparing for an awesome weekend, school has been going pretty well. Stacy and I are working hard to meet the expectations of the GVC, my students are slowly improving in their reading and writing skills and math is going pretty well! There is nothing more rewarding than testing the reading levels of your students and knowing where they were before and how far they have come. It makes it worth it. I hope to re-evaluate the PM Benchmarks soon (a reading comprehension assessment) and see the qualitative progress. Even some of my "lower" kids have made great strides, so I can't wait to see how far everyone will have made it by the end of the year!
Anyways I am exhausted and need to make my bed, do the dishes, clean my house, get ready for tomorrow, do my laundry, watch Sons of Anarchy... oh the list goes on!!
Love Aidan
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Saturday 20 October 2012
Radisson Weekend!
Well another week has passed uneventfully!
Last night I went to a girl's night at a lovely gal named Katherine's house while the men played poker across town. It was really nice to hang out with some ladies I don't usually get to see often (I, being in the elementary section of the school and most of the others from last night in the high school section).
Today Karen and I set out early in the fog to take a day trip to Radisson where we stocked up on fresh groceries, wine (me) and beautiful gifts for the family for Christmas!
Radisson is a neat littlemining hydro town where the Quebec Hydro Dam is located. It supplies electricity to most of Quebec and some of the states! (thank you Stacy haha) There isn't much to see but what they offer (a real life grocery store, SAQ/liquor store, and really cool native craft store) is quite enticing!! Wemindji is cool and all but when you get sporadic deliveries of fresh food and the most exciting thing to do is watch dogs roll around in sand across the street (I am not really the outdoorsy type if you haven't noticed...) then a trip to some place else - ANY place else is pretty awesome.
The drive was beautiful, a little overcast but we didn't hit any rain which was nice. There aren't maple trees up here so I didn't expect to see many fall colors but there were some types of fir trees and others that were changing to yellow which actually looked quite beautiful! Karen and I set out at about 9 am and reached Radisson at about 11. We had a delicious brunch of eggs benedict (I am a repeat offender!!) and then got SHOPPING. Oh boy I spent so much money but in times like these you really need to stock up on the essentials when you find them. For example, I purchased 21 small zucchinis. I brought them home, shredded them in the food processor and froze 4-cup bags in the deep freezer. That will net me approximately 16 zucchini loafs in the future and I can't get zucchini in Wemindji so badda bing badda boom! I also stocked up on cream cheese (also in the freezer), wine (in my belly) and guacamole power mix because if I don't eat guacamole at least once a week I go coco bananas.
Then we stopped at this awesome native craft store where people from the neighboring communities as well as from across Canada sell their beautiful crafts and artwork. There is something for everyone there and I had no trouble finding beautiful and affordable and authentic Christmas gifts for my entire family. A success!!
On another note, Wemindji has a number of Facebook groups: Wemindji Buy and Sell, Wemindji Announcements and Wemindji Bidding Wars. Wemindji Bidding Wars is basically an auction group where people post items or food they want to sell at auction. They usually post a picture, a starting price, increment amounts and finish time. I check this group hourly because it is so awesome to see what people will sell and how high the bidding will go. I saw a cheesecake for got like, $70 the other week!! So anyways, I was convinced by my lovely co-workers Marsha, Stacy and Carmen to auction off my chocolate chip banana breads, so I did! At first I felt shameful because I didn't want to take advantage but people really liked their baked goods up here so my guilt quickly disappeared when my 3 breads sold for $46!! HOLY CRAP. So needless to say I will be doing this again (apparently it was a slow night because Bingo was on so I can expect a more heated auction next time), it is so fun and making deliveries of my breads with my friends was pretty hilarious.
Anyways here are a bunch of pictures I scavenged from my birthday party a couple of weeks ago, some pictures from the drive today and some of the auction my breads sold on haha!!
Love Aidan
Last night I went to a girl's night at a lovely gal named Katherine's house while the men played poker across town. It was really nice to hang out with some ladies I don't usually get to see often (I, being in the elementary section of the school and most of the others from last night in the high school section).
Today Karen and I set out early in the fog to take a day trip to Radisson where we stocked up on fresh groceries, wine (me) and beautiful gifts for the family for Christmas!
Radisson is a neat little
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| The way in to Radisson |
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| Grocery store! Liquor store! |
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| The other side of Radisson. |
The drive was beautiful, a little overcast but we didn't hit any rain which was nice. There aren't maple trees up here so I didn't expect to see many fall colors but there were some types of fir trees and others that were changing to yellow which actually looked quite beautiful! Karen and I set out at about 9 am and reached Radisson at about 11. We had a delicious brunch of eggs benedict (I am a repeat offender!!) and then got SHOPPING. Oh boy I spent so much money but in times like these you really need to stock up on the essentials when you find them. For example, I purchased 21 small zucchinis. I brought them home, shredded them in the food processor and froze 4-cup bags in the deep freezer. That will net me approximately 16 zucchini loafs in the future and I can't get zucchini in Wemindji so badda bing badda boom! I also stocked up on cream cheese (also in the freezer), wine (in my belly) and guacamole power mix because if I don't eat guacamole at least once a week I go coco bananas.
Then we stopped at this awesome native craft store where people from the neighboring communities as well as from across Canada sell their beautiful crafts and artwork. There is something for everyone there and I had no trouble finding beautiful and affordable and authentic Christmas gifts for my entire family. A success!!
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| Karen spending her life savings |
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| Ah! |
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| AHH!! |
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| Cool clock! |
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| Seal skin gloves |
Anyways here are a bunch of pictures I scavenged from my birthday party a couple of weeks ago, some pictures from the drive today and some of the auction my breads sold on haha!!
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| SOLD! |
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| Sunglasses models! |
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| Congratulations Maquatua Eeyou School graduates of 2012! |
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| My beautiful cake Carmen baked me! |
Love Aidan
Monday 15 October 2012
Bonjour!
Hiya folks!
Well, time really flies up here. I swear it was just last week and now its... this week. Anyways, last week was mild student-wise. I had about 4-5 students away each day which in theory is nice, but when you teach hardcore content every day, you kinda wish your students were all present all the time. As a kid I remember dreaming up every trick in the book to try and stay home from school. Movies at 1pm on City TV, come on!! Anyways, as a teacher I know realize how very annoying it is when students are away and you have to find the time to catch them up. You have to find a happy medium - pick and choose which assignments or what material is skippable and get to the core of what the students who were away need to know.
This week is an incredibly light week for me. Today and Wednesday are teaching days, tomorrow my kids have Bush Camp (where they go and learn outdoor Cree culture and skills with Cree teachers) so I get a planning day, and Thursday and Friday are PED (Pedagogical Education Days?? Pedagogical Days?? WHATEVS) where we have a mix of GVC Literacy Training, other stuff and planning time. Pretty sweet! Then, it's right back into the swing of things the week following. One little golden nugget is the fact that the school has 2 PED days after Wednesday October 31st. Raise your hand if you can tell me why that is AMAZING?
1. No super tired students to manhandle.
2. No hyped-up-on-sugar students to manhandle
3. I get to enjoy a Halloween party on Wednesday (no "morning-after" to manhandle)
Apparently the placement of these PED days was weighed in on heavily by some very smart teachers.
Last Friday I was also treated to a "walk through" by my Principal which went swimmingly!! I have been working hard to apply the expectations of the GVC and the administration in my lessons and daily routines, and I had just enough students away that day for the lesson to go almost perfectly!! Ha!! Anyways, I received some good feedback and I am very happy.
On another note, it appears that the foundations for the new teacher housing have been poured or will be poured soon. WHAT THIS MEANS IS:
1. Teachers high in the teacher hierarchy (teachers with families, teachers with seniority) will have the first pick of the new houses or choose stay in their current dwellings
2. Teachers further down the list have the option to stay or go if there are houses available and desirable.
3. Teachers are the low down dirty dog bottom of the list (single, new - ME) will be able to finally move out of their black-mold-infested, heat-less, only-scalding-cold-water-producing, scary-animal-living-in-the-ceiling, 50-yards-away-from-the-school-therefore-students-knock-at-my-door-all-day-and-night-HOUSES.
Needless to say I am ecstatic at the estimated time frame rumoured for me to move out. Sure I hate to repack and unpack, especially in the dead of winter, and I actually do love my little house, but the mold problem is something I am really concerned about and I don't want to spend a whole year in a place that was supposed to be torn down...
Winter has also arrived here in Wemindji. Last week, much to my extreme displeasure, it snowed - like, every day. Hardcore snow! Well, perhaps I am exaggerating but it snowed in October. Enough said. I immediately chugged 2456 vitamin D pills to expel depression and bad feelings. You can see how well that worked..
Anyways, all is well OH EXCEPT I GOT A FREE HAIRCUT AND ENDED UP WITH A MULLET. Nothing is free in this world, I have learned my lesson. Also I will never cut my hair again. That's it. Seriously.
Love Aidan
Well, time really flies up here. I swear it was just last week and now its... this week. Anyways, last week was mild student-wise. I had about 4-5 students away each day which in theory is nice, but when you teach hardcore content every day, you kinda wish your students were all present all the time. As a kid I remember dreaming up every trick in the book to try and stay home from school. Movies at 1pm on City TV, come on!! Anyways, as a teacher I know realize how very annoying it is when students are away and you have to find the time to catch them up. You have to find a happy medium - pick and choose which assignments or what material is skippable and get to the core of what the students who were away need to know.
This week is an incredibly light week for me. Today and Wednesday are teaching days, tomorrow my kids have Bush Camp (where they go and learn outdoor Cree culture and skills with Cree teachers) so I get a planning day, and Thursday and Friday are PED (Pedagogical Education Days?? Pedagogical Days?? WHATEVS) where we have a mix of GVC Literacy Training, other stuff and planning time. Pretty sweet! Then, it's right back into the swing of things the week following. One little golden nugget is the fact that the school has 2 PED days after Wednesday October 31st. Raise your hand if you can tell me why that is AMAZING?
1. No super tired students to manhandle.
2. No hyped-up-on-sugar students to manhandle
3. I get to enjoy a Halloween party on Wednesday (no "morning-after" to manhandle)
Apparently the placement of these PED days was weighed in on heavily by some very smart teachers.
Last Friday I was also treated to a "walk through" by my Principal which went swimmingly!! I have been working hard to apply the expectations of the GVC and the administration in my lessons and daily routines, and I had just enough students away that day for the lesson to go almost perfectly!! Ha!! Anyways, I received some good feedback and I am very happy.
On another note, it appears that the foundations for the new teacher housing have been poured or will be poured soon. WHAT THIS MEANS IS:
1. Teachers high in the teacher hierarchy (teachers with families, teachers with seniority) will have the first pick of the new houses or choose stay in their current dwellings
2. Teachers further down the list have the option to stay or go if there are houses available and desirable.
3. Teachers are the low down dirty dog bottom of the list (single, new - ME) will be able to finally move out of their black-mold-infested, heat-less, only-scalding-cold-water-producing, scary-animal-living-in-the-ceiling, 50-yards-away-from-the-school-therefore-students-knock-at-my-door-all-day-and-night-HOUSES.
Needless to say I am ecstatic at the estimated time frame rumoured for me to move out. Sure I hate to repack and unpack, especially in the dead of winter, and I actually do love my little house, but the mold problem is something I am really concerned about and I don't want to spend a whole year in a place that was supposed to be torn down...
Winter has also arrived here in Wemindji. Last week, much to my extreme displeasure, it snowed - like, every day. Hardcore snow! Well, perhaps I am exaggerating but it snowed in October. Enough said. I immediately chugged 2456 vitamin D pills to expel depression and bad feelings. You can see how well that worked..
Anyways, all is well OH EXCEPT I GOT A FREE HAIRCUT AND ENDED UP WITH A MULLET. Nothing is free in this world, I have learned my lesson. Also I will never cut my hair again. That's it. Seriously.
Love Aidan
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| Regard le Mullet |
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| o..m..g.. |
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| Lunch time - depression time |
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| Extreme displeasure |
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| Nighttime winter wonderland! NOT |
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| Crying walking home in the snow! |
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| Photo cred: Shelby Issac - Northern Lights sometime last week! Amazing!! |
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| Photo cred: Shelby Issac - Northern Lights sometime last week! Amazing!! |
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| Photo cred: Shelby Issac - Northern Lights sometime last week! Amazing!! |
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| Photo cred: Stacy Clark - This happened today! And no, apparently the plane did not drive into the truck! The truck backed into the plane! No words! |
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| Photo cred: Stacy Clark - Nice one! |
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| Photo cred: Shelby Issac - Beautiful sunset in my beautiful town Wemindji |
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