When in Wemindji...: Sunday Funday

Well, its the end of the weekend and the beginning of a new week. Bittersweet. No wait, completely bitter what am I talking about! Ahaha! Just kidding.

This past week has been incredibly exhausting for no particular reason. Stacy, our classes and I have been working very hard to stay on top of the GVC and it shows. My kids are starting to produce more quality independent work as I slowly begin to release responsibility based on the task. My kids are pretty strong in math and working with manipulatives certainly helps bridge the gap between ability to carry out a task and understanding. Language Arts activities like independent writing has been a struggle and while I am certainly not looking for perfection in these tasks, many of my students lack the inner confidence to trust their own abilities in emergent writing, so that has been a battle. However, I am really proud of how far my class has come! In August very few of them could read, and those who could were miles ahead. the gap was huge and overwhelming. Now all of my students can read and I couldn't be more pleased!! My goal for next semester is to work hard on them with comprehension of text, to make them well-rounded great readers!

We are also working hard on Oral Language skills. Never would you think that MY class needed work on oral language but there it is!! Turns out there is a difference between extremely chatty and social and orally proficient in the English Language. So there you have it. I am taking every opportunity to have the students practice formal oral language skills, whether that be in reading their stories aloud to the class or reciting a weekly poem. The kids get so shy when asked to speak in front of the class yet have NO problem chatting during my ENTIRE lesson. Funny how that works. I can't get too mad because I see too much of myself in these kids, so I have some compassion! It's a work in progress!

This week is a short teaching week as we have 2 PED days on Thursday and Friday. This week we will also be visited by McRel (the company who designed the GVC for the Cree School Board) for observation and more training. Fuuuuuuuuun!

The weather here is still just as cold as ever although we haven't had a school day under -40 for a few days. The nights are something different though and The Weather Network reported Wemindji dropped to below -50 a few times last week!! My block heater plug STILL won't come undone so that has been getting on my nerves BUT - there is light at the end of this frosty tunnel!!! Sometime next week we will have temperatures in the low -10s!!! That means that I MAY have the opportunity to thaw out my cord and unplug my car!!!!!! Oh lord!! I also might be able to chip away at the permafrost later of ice and snow that cover my front steps and turned them into one small snow hill so I can once again walk down the steps instead of leap or slide to the driveway! I will keep you posted.

This weekend has been pretty relaxing otherwise. Since I pretty much refuse to go outdoors until my nose hairs no longer turn into tiny ice daggers when I breathe in, my house has become remarkably clean and I have been cooking some delicious feasts! Last night Carmen, Monika and I tried a Quebec delicacy known as "Pizzaghetti". Now, before you run off puking like Monika, let me tell you that pizzaghetti might be the carb-addict's dream! All it consists of is a plate with both a slice of pizza and a serving of spaghetti, but the combination in one's tummy is DELICIOUS. Never had I ever thought of combining two of my favorite dishes on one plate but you learn many interesting things in a province that sometimes considers itself a separate entity from the rest of the country. Sometimes koo-koo provides great results, look at Van Gogh!!

After a round of Scattergories I was thoroughly pooped (from my day of doing nothing of course) and hit the sack. Now I am headed to Carmen's for some left over Pizzaghetti and then over to the school to put up some new bulletin boards and do some marking!

Enjoy your what is left of your weekend and for those of you who haven't yet read this, it is so perfect and true!!

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU’RE A TEACHER? By Jeff Foxworthy

1.You get a secret thrill out of laminating things.

2.You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.

3.You walk into a store and hear the words, “It’s Ms./Mr. ____________ and know you have been spotted.

4.You have 25 people who accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.

5.You can eat a multi-course meal in under 25 minutes.

6.You’ve trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day, lunch and planning period.

7.You start saving other people’s trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.

8.You believe the Teacher’s Lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.

9.You want to slap the next person who says, “Must be nice to work 7 to 3 and have summers off”.

10.You believe chocolate is a food group.

11.You can tell if it’s a full moon without ever looking outside.

12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, “Boy, the kids are sure mellow today.”

13.You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.

14.You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.

15.You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

16.You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own children.

17.You can’t pass the school supply aisle without getting at least 5 items!

18. You ask your friends to use their words and explain if the left hand turn he made was a “good choice” or “bad choice.”

19.You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils.

20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer.

21.You understand, instantaneously, why a child behaves in a certain way after meeting his/her parents.

Ah I can't turn this around but this was some fine art one of my students made. In a Southern school, perhaps a little scary and perhaps cause for concern. Here, just what these guys do on the weekend!