Having just finished the CSB Math exams, my students and I were mentally drained. It was a culturally sensitive test which was cool, but the problem solving aspect was quite tricky. I tried my best to take the pressure off and not make it seem like such a "test" but the kids are wise and knew what the stakes were and were considerably stressed and nervous. This resulted in some of the weirdest math I have ever seen my kids do. So anyways, we tried to keep it light the rest of the time when we weren't writing the test by making fun how-to books on planting beans which we then tried in real life, finishing our self-portrait paper mache masks for art, and a few "early recesses". Overall the week was busy but good. This week they have more CSB testing for Cree Language, I start my units on Fairy Tales and Multiplication and I am doing my PM Benchmarking and CAMS standardized math testing. AAHHH!! However, we will be Skyping with another class from Ontario this week which will be really cool! We will be learning all about them and they will be asking us questions about Wemindji and our school. This is going to be super fun!
I am also working on an article for The Nation magazine focusing on the accomplishments and achievements of the upcoming Wemindji Rocks Nicaragua trip a few colleagues have organized. This trip is amazing, they have a handful of carefully selected students traveling to Nicaragua this summer to embark on a volunteerism trip of a lifetime. The fundraising and organizing has been endless and exhausting and they have finally reached their financial goal and now all they have to do is wait the few short weeks until they hop on a plane and take off! I am proud to have been asked to write for these guys, I can hardly call myself a writer but I am humbled nonetheless and hope that I do a good job!! I am interviewing one of the trip organizers/chaperones my wonderful friend Carmen tomorrow night and hope to have the article finished by mid week! I will definitely have to cut back on my exclamation marks and witty sense of humor as this piece is supposed to remain professional.... Stay tuned!
Otherwise this weekend was really nice. Friday night I stayed in and did some marking, watched a good show, finished my classroom orders for the upcoming year and got an early night. I meant to get up early to attend a walking-out ceremony but I set my alarm wrong and slept through it! Perhaps it was my subconscious telling me I needed to sleep in a little more. I still ended up waking up at 7:45 so that was a bust. Saturday I took a gorgeous walk/mountain climb at one of the popular hiking spots. It was a beautiful day for a walk and I enjoyed the solitary time with just me, my music and my sweaty beastly body. Sometimes you just don't need witnesses for that sort of thing. Luckily my playlist shuffle was cooperating and I was able to keep up a reasonable pace. Stopping only a handful of times to take picture after picture of rocks, I got some good sun on my skin and no longer look like an embalmed corpse! Yay for natural light!! So after that I came home, baked 13 banana breads because for some reason I have about 7654 frozen bananas and no room for such crucial items like ice cream in my freezer. Then I had the ladies over for some homemade pizza and girly drinks and just unwound. Today was foggy, misty and cool but I still decided to get outside. I know I am headed back to heatwave city this summer and if you know me, after mountains of snow, there is nothing I hate more than extreme heat. Basically I have managed to pigeonhole myself into a very select climate that no country can seem to provide. I am never happy. So I wanted to take advantage of whatever non-heatwave buggy weather I could. Then as usual I went into the classroom and did some prep for the busy upcoming week. I am lucky to have Monika's sister Raquel substituting for my class tomorrow as I take the day to PM Benchmark my class's reading comprehension level. Fun stuff!! Then I came home and Skyped with my mom and Auntie Melanie and BOBO and it was really nice to see everyone.
Anyways I'm pooped so goodnight!!
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| Skyping with my precious boy! |
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| Our bean plants! Kinda! |
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| I like think I can hide here in an apocalyptic-type situation. |
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| My attempt at growing new life in my home. Fingers crossed! |
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