Winter Wonderland

I have learned that in the North, the calendar day of Spring's arrival means pretty much nothing.

March 21st?  Just another number on the calendar.  Just another day of the week.  Spring? What is this foreign notion?  The melting of snow, sun shining, birds chirping, flowers blooming.  A dream, a story, a myth.  Spring is a season I teach my children about and regard the topic with them as if I am teaching the mysteries of ancient Rome.  Yes children, Spring really does exist, somewhere...somehow.  Trust me children, I wouldn't lie to you!!

I sit here in my comfy chair looking out the window to what I would call a blizzard.  It has been snowing since I woke up today and hasn't let up once.  NOT ONCE.  Its a pretty soft snow, brought on by the warming "spring" temperatures.  Overnight it still dips to -20 or so, warming up to around -4 or -5 in the day time.  So the entire of Wemindji is basically an ice field.  I am waiting for my turn to eat it one of these days!

Besides the weather, things have been as busy as ever.  We enjoyed 2.5 PED days last week to take part in some really awesome math and literacy games training from Boxcars and One EYed Jacks.  I learned a TON and can't wait to try some of it in the classroom ASAP!

I was pretty sick all last week too with a cold so it was nice to have the shortened teaching week to catch up on my sleep.  This week is another short week with a 4-day long weekend coming up!!! I am so excited to have 4 full days off with no school responsibilities (aka PED) to worry about.  4 FREE DAYS!  I hope to do some real cleaning and decluttering of my house, organize in the classroom a little and relaxing.  I am hosting Easter dinner this holiday and I will be cooking my first ever turkey!! I am terrified we will all get botulism but hey maybe that will give us a few extra days off! I hope the clinic will be on stand-by. 

Last week my friends and I also treated ourselves to some delicious Chinese takeout!! It was pricey ($20) but sooooooo worth it. 

Last night I also hosted Samantha's birthday dinner which was a ton of fun. She's a fan of rotisserie chicken so we all pitched and got her a rotisserie and a chicken!! Look at the joy. 

Happy Spring Everyone!

Sorta Spring!

Yay! The temperatures are slowly rising in good old Wemindji town and so are spirits! The sun was shining brightly today and with it came a warm breeze that began to melt the permafrost that covers Wemindji for 17 months of the year. Pavement is visible in patches and the thick sheet of ice and snow is slowly sliding off my roof, scaring the crap out of me with every thump as it lands on my deck below. 

Last week was nutso with the time change and busy weekend of tournaments and trips and coming off of a double PED so the kids were loopy and tired. Luckily Grade 1 managed to rock the socks off the kids with the magical "How to Catch a Leprechaun" unit which just about blew their minds. Never have I seen my class so intensely invested in a common goal before. We wrote about catching a leprechaun, designed and then built some surprisingly impressive traps on Friday. These traps included a lot of glitter which I know I will be dusting off classroom furniture for weeks to come. We had a lot of visitors Friday afternoon to witness the controlled sparkly chaos and to be honest it was tons of fun to just let the kids build for hours without interruption. They even vetoed precious recess to keep building! The best part was probably watching a couple of very realistic "caught on tape" YouTube videos of leprechaun-catching attempts which literally drove them bonkers. 

This week is CAT4 testing which is a standardized test the entire school is participating in. It's a little stressful for both students and teachers so we have come up with some super cute inscentives and of course it wouldn't be grade 1 if we didn't have a party to celebrate at the end!! Luckily we are also starting our rhyming/Dr. Seuss unit so our party will obviously serve green eggs and ham (pink pancakes, ham is expensive!!!).

Anyways this week is going to be a busy one but sure to be a lot of fun. I hope the weather will continue to get nicer as I'd like to take a trip to Radisson before Goosebreak! I'm also terrifed to drive my van anywhere outside of town now so we shall see. Ta ta for now!

Friday Freedom!

Its the weekend people, hooray!

What does that mean for me? It means I will catch up on some much needed sleep, get some planning and prep done in the classroom, clean a little at home, possibly/maybe/probably not have some social time and dig out my snowblower. Yes my life is sometimes so exciting I have to slow down and catch my breath. 

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Report cards were due this week and I spent a few days catching some kids up, doing last minute assessments and making sure all my ducks were in a row before parent-teacher interviews took place this afternoon. Administration is trying a few different approaches to getting parents into the school for interviews and so far this was was the least successful attempt for my class. We've tried the evening meetings, late afternoon meetings and now after-lunch meetings. However, today with 2 out of town tournaments, Frozen on Ice in Montreal, various other events taking place and the interviews being held from 1-4:30, it appears turn out wasn't the best. But you have to try something different before giving up completely! I was happy to see some parents who I really wanted to talk to so that was a plus.

Last weekend my friend Shelby held a sort-of northern tax return clinic in my classroom. There are so many little nooks and crannies to consider when filing your taxes in another province and in a northern location, it becomes a very complicated process in my opinion.  I literally had to have my hand held the entire time but came out very successful!! We even found a mistake from last years return which could potentially bring me more money when I fix it so fingers crossed!!! 

This week was a 3 day teaching week since yesterday and today were PED days. Even though it was only 3 days in class, it felt like 3000 and someone definitely played a dirty joke by feeding all the students meth-laced lollipops. While I respect the timing of Goosebreak to honor tradition and that nature really dictates the scheduling of our break, I see the logic in a March Break. This applies to both teachers and students. The term "March Madness" really rings true around this time of year. The kids are loopy and the teachers even more so. To pass time and lighten the mood, my comrades and I resorted to practical jokes this week which more often than not left us laughing until we cried at the expense of our colleagues' sanity. It all began with an online ransom note generator and truly tailspun out from there. Soon we were kidnapping white boards and keyboards, demanding mini eggs in return for our friend's precious possessions. It was seriously hilarious and really helped us get through a few rough days. 

To beat the winter blues I also highly recommend downloading this eerily accurate daily horoscope app. It has been giving us insight and entertainment the past few days although I have been more stressed out by the vagueness of mine than anything else. 

The weather has been unpredictable and as usual, cold but improving! Snowing and windy, my driveway has all but disappeared. I have just enough space to pull in and not much more. Crazy winds this week literally buried my snowblower so I have to dig it out and get to work expanding my parking spot! I have been feeling a renewed sense of hope as now it is getting lighter earlier! No more "2 hours of daylight" business, now I get to school in the daylight and if I'm lucky, leave in the daylight too!! Soon enough we will be experiencing the freaky "sunlight from 4am-11pm" phenomenon and I'll need to dig out my sleep mask. 

Anyways, I'm long overdue for a sleep in and I'm going to get started now. 

Love Aidan. 

Ps here are some photos recently posted from Katherine's wedding! Check out the photographer's website at www.robinrussel.com