A couple of weekends ago it was Halloween and the kids were pumped and so was I! I decided to go as a skunk this year - easy, cheap, comfy and multi-purpose. I'll be able to use this skunk costume for years to come.. I hope! It was made from some cheap plastic fake fur material though which meant that I was sweating buckets in it and the fur came off inside and at the end of the day my body beneath was covered in a thick blanket of black skunk fur anywhere I had sweat, which was everywhere. Gross!
The staff Halloween party was held at a colleague's house the weekend before the Halloween Monday and everyone did a great job on their costumes! Monday was the big day at school and the kids went all out!! I had two winners alone from the school costume contest in my own class! We had business as usual in the morning and then a fun Halloween party in the afternoon and a school-wide costume parade and contest to finish off the day. It was really fun and the kids had a blast.
Thankfully, our school schedules PED days around Halloween so the next day we had some time to work in our classrooms, some data presentations, and a great meet-and-greet lunch held by the Cree Nation of Wemindji which allowed employees from the Cree School Board to meet and mingle with employees of the CNW and the Cree Health Board! It was a very kind and generous luncheon and a nice opportunity to put faces to names and meet people from the different entities that keep Wemindji running!
The rest of the week was back to normal although the kids were kinda loopy. It is hard to come down from Halloween and a PED day so sometimes it was a struggle. It has been steadily snowing in the past few days as well which has put a whole new spin on things. I, for one, am in complete denial. I refuse to accept that winter is here although the dumping of at least 5 inches on Friday begs to differ with me.
With the days getting shorter and work piling up, I decided to do something fun this weekend and host a bingo night for the ladies only. I made customized "teacher-themed" bingo cards from a generator online and had some friends over for a really fun night of teaching-related bingo and laughs. Everyone had to bring a prized valued at $5-10 to put into a "pot" of prizes and whoever won each game got to pick from the collection! We had some really lovely contributions and a lot of fun. I will definitely host another one soon.
Now that term 1 is over people are definitely feeling the report card heat. I was busier earlier in the month getting everything marked so luckily I am not as rushed to get everything in on time as I finished my marks and entered them last week. Now I am into second term and things are going pretty well! The class's behavior continues to improve and we are enjoying our one free period a week to celebrate our successes in class a tracked by the Class Dojo (I highly recommend this behavior management system to anyone who teaches!!) and the kids are still motivated even after over a month of using it!! I am very happy the system hasn't gotten old and we are still working hard towards good behavior and respect in the classroom.
Today I am holing myself up in the classroom to get some major prep done (hopefully) for the next couple of months. I want to get as much ready leading up to Christmas because it gets so busy with sports, Christmas activities and festivities and November has a lot of PED days and a holiday so there is a lot of teaching time lost leading up to Christmas vacation.
While it is still sort of a dreary day today, I am pleased to announce that most of the horrible snow that arrived last week has melted and I will put off getting my shovel out of the basement for a little while longer!! Also I want to wish my beautiful nephew a very Happy 1st Birthday!!! I wish I was there to celebrate with them but I know Christmas will be extra special and I can't wait to get home to see everyone!!
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| Me shouting at my kids to line up... |
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| Kitty Litter Cake for the Halloween party! |
You must throw the most awesome parties!!! :D
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