Home sweet home! After 2 looooong hot days of driving I made it back to Oakville, Ontario from Wemindji, Quebec in one piece! Carmen, Monika, Raquel and Marsha and I left in the early afternoon on Friday and took off for Amos. It was a beautiful day for driving. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, a roasty 25 degrees. I had my good tunes set up, road snacks at hand and a fully packed car (I moved some of Sam and Joel's stuff home to Oakville).
But back to the bugs for a moment. The bugs the bugs the bugs. So many dead bugs. I think I need therapy for all the murdering I did on the drive home. Not that I feel any remorse whatsoever for killing what I would estimate to be about 34 trillion insects with my van, but a small piece of your soul has got to be affected when you take so many lives. The condition of the front of my van was as expected. A literal blood bath. Never before in my life have I seen so many dead bug carcasses. Did you know bugs bleed in all colors of the rainbow? Neither did I. This came as an unpleasant surprise to me. I haven't cleaned it off yet, I'm actually afraid. I think I may need to use an ice scraper or chisel for some parts. The dragonflies were out in full force this drive so needless to say there are splats the size of small birds scattered along the bumper. I'm honestly surprised the airbags didn't go off with the force of impact at which I hit some of these mothers.
So that's that.
Now I am home sitting on my back deck taking full advantage of the incredibly fast Internet. I downloaded a show last night in about 1 minute NO LIE. I choked a little. Downloading an app onto my phone? The little download progress thingy didn't even have time to load before the download itself finished. I'm not used to this. I used to be the best multi-tasker due to slow Internet speeds. Download a show? Perfect time to: do laundry, dishes, cook the weeks's meals, sweep the floor, clean the hamsters, take out garbage, grow a tooth. THATS how long it would take. 66 years my downloader thingy quoted me for a season of True Blood. 66 YEARS. So I guess I'm experiencing the equivalent to culture shock. Call it...civilization shock?
Anyways since I've been home I have already seen some family and friends and slept A LOT. It hit me like this too last year. It's not so much the drive that does me in, although being the only driver in my vehicle it does get tiring. It's the accumulation of a year's worth of constant child-related activity, stress, socializing and other things that catch up with you. Of course teaching is a draining job but I usually manage to hold off exhaustion until the very end. So now it's all catching up to me and I am in a perpetual state of half-asleepness. That's alright though, I'm holding off taking any courses until the new year so this summer is purely reserved for rest and relaxation.
One of the ways I have guaranteed this plan is by buying myself a blowup pool from Walmart today. I pranced through the aisles, selecting the model that would kill the least amount of grass in my mother's backyard and an air pump. I came home, blew it up and stuck the hose in. I am now the proud owner of a 2.5m wide, 20" deep paddling pool. I will be blogging this summer from the comfort of my kiddie pool.
So another year of teaching has come and gone. I have to say I had a fantastic year teaching grade 2 again and I couldn't have asked for a better class. I truly felt like a teacher this year. My kids were capable, inquisitive, responsible and active. They were open to new experiences, faced their personal and academic challenges and overcame them and participated actively in all areas of the classroom life. We had so much fun together, even at the end with all the tons of heavy testing we worked through. These kids knew what was expected and really rose to the occasion and made me so proud. 67% of my class were reading at grade level or above by the end of the year which is amazing seeing as these kids are only in their second year of 80% English language instruction and by most standards are still considered ELLs (English Language Learners/ESL English as a Second Language). All the other students who were below level will definitely soon be at level and had made such incredible strides in their academics already. I couldn't be happier with everyone's progress! I can't wait to see the things they will create and how much they will grow next year!
As for me next year I am pretty sure I am looking forward to a challenging but fun year in grade 1. I have my class list and I am teaching a number of siblings of past students so that is great. I already have a relationship with lots of these parents and I see the kids in the hallways often. My class is definitely going to be rowdy, rambunctious and full of personality but I am up for the challenge!
I am also proud to say I am now a published author! Recently the Wemindji Rocks Nicaragua team asked me to write an update article on their upcoming trip. I was flattered beyond belief that they asked me so I happily obliged. You may notice that I am a bit of a gas bag and can talk/write for DAYS so my article had to be heavily edited for length sadly. Here is a link to the article in The Nation News magazine. Scroll down to page 8 for my bit. No byline, apparently they don't do that for small articles like mine? I assure you it's me though haha.
I will figure out a way to post the entire article I wrote so everyone can hear about the amazing work the students and teachers in Wemindji have done in preparation for this really cool trip.
Anyways that's enough of that for now. I am going to see if the temperature in my pool has risen above arctic yet. Happy summer everyone!!
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