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.
You're an inspiration and a tough Cookie Aidan! Keep it up.
ReplyDelete