Testing Takeover

I am happy to report that my dear class has finished 3 weeks of intense school board standardized testing.  They handled it as well as I expected and it was stressful but we managed to find some ways to have fun in between. The math part was pretty difficult, it had been updated recently after we complained that it was too easy.  Well THAT was a  mistake!!! The Language Arts part was actually not bad and the kids could definitely do most of it quite independently.  I was proud of them!! Now all that is left is to finish up my PM Benchmarks (a reading and comprehension assessment), some curriculum and then the school year is officially over!!

We have almost 2 weeks to go and it is crunch time, both with curriculum and organizing myself in the classroom and packing up.  We usually have 2 PED days at the end of the school year to pack up but we had to move some around this year to accommodate teacher training.  So, now we have one and it doubles as parent-teacher interviews.  That means I really have to be mostly packed up before the last day if I want to be able to devote any time to parents who drop by!  That also puts me in a bit of a bind because I don't want to and can't pack up anything I use on a daily basis (which is A LOT) so I think after school on the Thursday is going to be filled with lots of last-minute packing.  I have done a lot though and try to take home a few boxes of personal teaching materials every day.  My spare room at home is PACKED TO THE CEILING of personal classroom items and to see it all separated from school-purchased/owned materials is actually frightening.  I have spent sooooo much of my own money its not even funny.  I look at it this way though, anything I own I will take with me when I finally return south to teach.  I will have one very well stocked classroom when the day comes let me tell you....

Anyways, things are trucking along with planning the trip to the UK and Paris and I am getting really excited!!! Everything is paid for now and it's just spending money I have to come up with.  Seeing that I heard you have to pay to use public toilets means I have budget quite a lot.... :P

While I spent a few hours in the classroom this weekend packing, planning and organzing, I also managed to have a little fun with friends!! A group of us took a nice little road trip to Radisson to have a meal and do some shopping.  I am sad to report that Chez Mika no longer serves Eggs Benedict which put me into a deep depression but I managed to sooth my soul with a cheeseburger and massive poutine.  Then, I attended a Japanese potluck-style birthday bash which was awesome!! We have a few teachers on staff who taught in Japan before coming to Wemindji, and one teacher's Japanese husband offered up his culinary skill and cooked masses of amazing Japanese fare, and everyone managed to bring something very unique and delicious.  It was awesome!! I hope it will become an annual thing.

Anyways, the sun is shining but it is quite windy and cool.  I try to take advantage of these sunny moments and get Bobo and I some natural vitamin D! It snowed on Friday by the way...