30 Thoughts Every Teacher Has While Sick

The night before taking a sick day:

1. Oh this isn't so bad. Cold schmold. 

2. I can make it tomorrow, no problem. I've been doing it for weeks now. What's another week with this stinkin cold?

3. You've got plenty of cold meds, just take a million and pull your socks up! 

4. Cough, sneeze, groan. 

5. Should I take a sick day? No, I can't. I won't. Haven't taken one in forever. No need to start now!

6. Maybe I should... NO! Think of the children! 

7. Take a sick day! Bite the bullet. There is no sense in going to work sick and getting worse! You've got your substitute plans ready to go. It'll be fine. 

8. One day won't stop the earth from spinning....

9. NO! I won't. Early to bed and pump yourself full of medicine. 

...The next morning....

10. Ughhhhhh

11. Ooohhhhhhh

12. Get up. Get out of bed, you can do it! 

13. There's one leg on the floor, now the other. 

14. Watch out for all that Kleenex on the floor! Don't trip!

15. One foot infront of the other, get yourself down to the bathroom. 

16. Okay start the shower. That will help. Mmm warm shower. Zzzzzzzzz. WAKE UP. 

17. Lights on - NO WAIT - scratch that, lights off. Best not to see what I look like right now. 

18. Oh my head. Who put a fishbowl on my head? 

19.  Oh my nose. Did someone poor quick dry cement in my sinuses?

20. My mouth tastes like gasoline. Gasoline, hmm. Gasoline goes in cars. I have to go outside soon and start my car... Ohhhh...

21. Maybe it's not too late to call in sick. 

22. People have climbed Mount Everest with toes and noses fallen off, I can handle a day with 16 7 year olds! 

23. No, I can't. 

24. It's too late. 

25. It's not too late. Do it. Make. The. Call. 

26. It's so much work to be away! 

27. Okay. I'll do it. 

28. It's done. Back to bed. Turn off brain!

29. What's going on in my classroom right now....

30. Maybe I should have just gone in...

Some pictures that accurately describe how I feel at the moment 

Fantastic Flat Tire

Another week has come and gone in the wilds of Wemindji. Temperatures hovered around -20 (not taking into consideration the windchill) and so we made it out for recess a few times this week! Things have been as busy as ever at school and now that we have mastered the alphabet names and sounds, we are really gearing up with learning our sight words (high frequency words such as "the, I, look, at, in, etc.) and how to break down small words into parts and then putting them back together to make them easier to read (blending and segmenting). The kids had a blast learning about 2D and 3D shapes and we will be moving on to subtraction soon (AHH!). 

I'm having a lot of fun using centers as reinforcing tools in the classroom. For some reason (perhaps to maintain classroom control) I gravitate towards the old school style of teaching and planning. Working over the last few years with some inspiring educators, I have learned to embrace the "play based" side of learning and how much fun reinforcing skills through center work can be! I have finally given in and embraced Pinterest and have found so many awesome ideas for teaching tools and way to make learning fun. Disguising learning as fun games and activities has made a huge difference in my practice and teaching style and while I still consider myself a work in progress (as in trying to get away from the old school style) I am fully embracing the fun in learning. I just wish I had full access to Dollarama so I could make all my center dreams come true!!!,

On a personal note, last night I went out and celebrated a couple of friend's birthdays at a pub night! I tried for the first time to make loaded potato skins and I can't say they were all that good. They tasted like nothing. So I probably won't do that again. It was, however, really nice to see friends outside of school and hang out! I'm looking forward to throwing another social event of my own soon as we have now entered the looooooong 4 month stretch of winter with only really Goose Break to look forward to in May. Getting friends together and out of the house is a great way to break up the monotony of winter and Wemindji is famous for it's theme parties so I am sure there will be some good ones coming up soon. 

I also spent a good 3 hours working on my driveway today. The snowblower, while powerful, has a flat tire I have discovered today. So tomorrow I will have to get someone with a portable pump over here to fill it up. I was having a lot of trouble maneuvering it and I think that's why. While it hasn't snowed an incredible amount, the wind has been INSANE the last couple of days. If you know anything about my house by now, you know that I am cursed with the worst drifts of all time. Overnight my driveway can easily go from clear to a mystical winter ski mountain resort. I don't ski. So I had to bite the bullet and shovel like a peasant today in very high winds and bitter cold. I was adequately dressed to the nines in my neon orange hunting overall skipants, my lovely teal winter jacket, my dad's 25 year old purple ski gloves and my balaclava who's face hole is uncomfortably small and tends to shift to the right rendering me partially blind. I also managed to chip away at a lot of the permafrost on my driveway so I could give my snowblower a nice smooth base! I got about halfway done before I threw in the towel and submitted to the wind gods and retreated inside. So while there is still work to be done, I feel like I accomplished a lot today. 

Anyways I'm going to go contemplate the fact that after this post it is apparent that I really have no life and see what hobbies I can pick up!! Ta ta for now. 

Had to take a break to remove the iceberg that sank the Titanic from my eyebrow. 

My front steps. Or, what used to be my front steps. 

Really missing this right now!!

Sadly he has no arms and is therefore useless to me. But thanks anyways Meghan. 

Gross. 

My new weather app which I will promptly be deleting. 

Yep. 

My first attempt last week! Not bad!

Story of my life!

Back to the Grind

Well, I'm back! 

To be home in Wemindji is bittersweet. The nights leading up to and including my travel days I began to get misty eyed at the thought of leaving home in Oakville. I had a great time catching up with friends and visiting with family. Two weeks never seems long enough but I am happy to be back in my home, sleeping in my own bed and back into somewhat of a routine!

I was a little surprised at how much I missed the kids and I was happy to see them Tuesday morning. They seemed to be happy to be back at school and were very excited to tell me about all the things they got for Christmas (basically everyone got an iPad what the heck!) 

The drive back was ACCIDENT FREE. WHAT.  Yep. Accident free. Can you believe it?! I hardly can!!! I left later than planned Saturday morning (I accidentally slept in an hour and a half) after a nice Friday evening with my mom and family.  My mom and I spent the day shopping, hanging out, eating a delicious roast dinner, watching tv and packing up my car. I saw my Nana with my sisters which was really nice and even got to say a quick hello and goodbye to Katherine's family.

As for packing my van, I managed to fit my snowblower (which I found out weighs approximately 3000lbs), a mini fridge (not too mini, think of it more as a medium sized cold storage unit, a full-sized spare winter tire on a rim, 2 hamsters and their crap, all my luggage and dollarstore booty, a dog (Samantha's), a cooler, a fake Christmas tree, a Rubbermaid container full of mega blocks, my bench seat (yay!), all my Costco loot and a partridge in a pear tree.

 

So I drove off Saturday morning feeling a little nervous but overall confident! The weather had been forecast as quite snowy in an area I was driving into but I was prepared to take it slow and be cautious. I also bought new winter tires and got some amazing service at a local tire shop (see pic) as well as a brand new windsheild!!! On my way up in the summer I got twin stonechips from an oncoming vehicle on the JBHWY which then split right across my windsheild on a particularly frosty morning. I got a truly incredible deal on a full replacement and given typical driving conditions, I'm sure I will be back and until then I will wholeheartedly pimp these establishments! 

Anyways the drive was pretty good once I cleared the snowy parts of Ontario. The roads weren't too bad and were actively being maintained by fleets of plows. It was a slower drive than usual but slow and steady wins the race! After meeting up with my friend and coworker Meredith in North Bay, we convoyed together to Amos which was pretty nice! We left Amos not-so-bright but definitely early and after a blissfully uneventful drive I made it through my front door at 4:30pm! Joy!!  I spent that night freezing my buns off as I unpacked my van and got settled. 

This week was uneventful and went by at a usual week's pace. I'm looking forward to locking myself in the classroom tomorrow and taking care of a lot of business. My classroom is so cluttered and full of so much junk, I really want to purge, clean and reorganize - oh and plan of course. 

Other than that, this weekend I am going to clean my whole dusty gross house and test out the new snowblower (with the helpful guidance of a fellow teacher) oh, and SLEEEEEEEEP!

Ta ta for now!

It's pretty cold in my house. 

I miss this lover boy. 

I. Just. Miss. Him. So. Much. 

2014 - A Year in Review

Don't worry, this post won't be one of those long, drawn out ramblings - reminiscing on the events of the past year in detail.  Honestly that's because I really only have so much room in my brain and I have forgotten much of the past year.

What I do remember (or have chosen to retain) is that 2014 was a fairly successful year.  I may not have achieved many hard lined goals, but then again I didn't really set any for myself HA.  I suppose my main focus was to stay alive and functioning in a career that tests my very limits and makes me reach into the far corners of my mind to stay afloat and energized.  I feel like I have definitely done that over the past year and learned a lot about myself in the process.

2014 started off with a bang.  Literally.  Driving off the James Bay Highway on a dark and snowy night on the return after Christmas, the year began with stress but also a hint of adventure.  Teaching alongside my mother for a few months in the North showed me that I have some work to do on myself, and while this is no reflection on my mother's abilities, I needed, and still need to work on patience.  Watching my mother teach gave me a real sense of pride, a feeling that has become more and more prevalent as she has taken great strides this year to further her education and train for a new career.  I hope I can harness that kind of perseverance and determination in 2015!!

My beloved Grandfather died in 2014.  A constant male figure in my life, he was the backbone to our very small family.  My Grandad was a kind, generous and reliable man.  Someone I could look up to, joke around with and listen to for hours (he loved a captive audience ha). He left a legacy among my friends and family that makes me proud to have been his granddaughter!

In 2014 I had a lot of car troubles.  A LOT.  These experiences have taught me to expect and plan for the worst and try and be as prepared for anything as possible.  These experiences have also taught me to keep calm, call my mother and be grateful for the incredible generosity and helpfulness of both family and complete strangers!  While there seems to be so much evil in the world, there are still good people willing to help out complete strangers.  I hope to be able to return the favor some day.

In 2014 I started a new grade with new teaching partners.  This has been one of the craziest, most fun, most exhausting and most challenging things I have done this past year and while I have let it take president over all other parts of my life, I am having a blast.  I really couldn't have asked for a more amazing group of people to work with and I really feel like we are a team!! I love my coworkers, I consider them my friends and family and they make the whole experience of living in the north something really special.

I want 2015 to be a year of change.  I have a lot I want to accomplish this year and I am going to have to be very disciplined and focused.  I don't really like setting public goals per say because I am notorious for giving up.  I will however, outline some vague goals for the new year and see how it goes.

I would like to strike a better balance between personal life and work life.  While at this point in my career I am still finding my way, refining my practice and building my skills - all of which require a lot of time and energy, I find I leave little time for personal endeavours.  I want to work hard but also reserve time for me.  That applies to social life and personal health! I would also like to pick up a hobby.  There is nothing like being asked "What do you do for fun?" and not have much to answer with.  Apparently "sleep" is not a hobby.  Coulda fooled me.

So that's one.

While I am still in a considerable amount of debt (car and OSAP), I would like to start saving for things such as car repairs and  holidays.  My car repairs seem to come at the worst times and I need to have an emergency cushion that isn't a credit card.  Debt is one of the main reasons I moved to the north and to continue to get into it for things like tires and repairs seems detrimental to success.  So I want to save a little every week and see where that gets me! I haven't been on a legit holiday in quite a few years and I would like to see more of the world before I am old and haggard so saving for a trip of some kind has become important to me.  When you work for months straight with 2 hours of sunlight, dreaming of something exotic and faraway can have the most surprising and motivating effect!

While I still want to slow the roll for work, I also want to finish up some professional qualifications for teaching.  Knowing what I am up against with my crazy class this year I knew it would be impossible to take a course and finish with any degree of success so I think I will wait until the summer to tackle that.  Next year I will hopefully be teaching Grade 1 again if I am lucky and then will have a little breathing room and time to do some more professional development.

Anyways, I would love to list all the little things I have accomplished in 2014 but you would seriously think there was something wrong with me.  So I will just say this: 2014 it has been a slice and I am really looking forward to all the excitement and changes that will take place in 2015!!