Snowmobile Sled Near Death Experience Time!

Holy moly.

Well, today I expected to see maybe a few people here and there as I crossed the street to school and prepped in the classroom.  Who knew that I would be seen by people I respect and value the opinions of in my unshowered and unmade-up (hairy-eyebrowed) state AGAIN!  Something tells me I should start leaving the house anticipating meeting the Queen.  I cannot keep letting myself out doors so unkempt.  That, however is another story.

So as I was working away in my classroom I got an invite to go out with Marsha, JEREMY BROWN, Stacy, Daren, Monika and Carmen on a snowmobile tour! Monika and I practiced "holding on" to one another to ride on an actual snowmobile and decided we'd rather be dragged in GIANT sleds behind snowmobiles which turned out to be hilarious fun.  I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, so hard my "abs" hurt and I cried.  Monika and I were first dragged behind Daren's Ski-do in a GIANT wooden sled.  This thing could fight battle in a war it was so sturdy and SAFE. (Stress on the word: safe).  It was pretty formidable so we didn't go too fast or crazy but it was super fun!

Then, we returned to base where Monika and I switched out and got behind JEREMY BROWN'S Ski-do in a smaller sled that appeared safe at first but once we CROSSED OPEN WATER seemed not to safe after all. Monika and I were pulled behind this Ski-do, driven by the heroic and totally capable JEREMY BROWN all over Wemindji and then along the shores of the James Bay.  It was scenic and exciting and hilarious.  The bumps were like riding a winter roller coaster in a pleasant snow storm...

So after deciding that the new, very wet and heavy snow would not allow us to venture further into the Great White North, we turned around, drove THROUGH FEET OF MELTING JAMES BAY SLUSH WATER and got subsequently eaten by a Great White Shark!

jk

I was thoroughly terrified as you can imagine, but luckily Marsha captured my truly frightened reaction to being pulled through melting ice and open water. JEREMY BROWN swiftly dodged the shark hiding beneath those icy shores, truly a master 'mobiler. Thank you sir, for both endangering and saving our lives.

A jolly good time! FROZEN

I am actually smiling.

Sled #2 - slightly less tank-like

His & Hers Ski-Dos! Stacy and Daren

Trying to protect myself from the flying bullet-like snowballs kicked up by the ski-do

You might have guessed that we actually didn't encounter a great white...

Riding in style! (and safety)

Ski-do parking lot

Adventure time!

THE TANK

Fear

Excitement

...it got a little frosty...

Jeremy Brown and Marsha - ever beautiful couple.

All tucked in and ready to be SCARED TO DEATH!!

stuck.

Just a little stuck..

I believe this might be where Stacy was JUMPING ON THE ICE.

The end result!!

Report cards

It's report card time and I am - lets say - a little behind in organizing my marks.

Not to say I am behind in marking that is! But taking averages and figuring out what I want to use is taking more time than I had anticipated!

They are due on Friday and I predict a late night on Thursday, probably holed up in Carmen's classroom with snacks and hot chocolate, trying to re-navigate a notoriously testy system!

On another note, Carmen and I (only after sending a particular gentleman approximately 14653 emails) finally booked our English Language Proficiency exams that are needed so we can become officially qualified Quebec teachers! We are booked for 8:30am in Rouyan which is a CITY about 9 hours from here. I am very excited for a number of reasons! We scheduled the test and trip around 2 PED days so while we lose the pay for those days, we only miss one teaching day on the Thursday so that's pretty great. We also get to get some maintenance done on our cars which is awesome. Carmen gets her puppy vaccinated and her first visit to the vet, we get to celebrate Carmen's 25TTTHHHHHHH birthday in STYLE aaaaaand SHOPPING! It's going to be a great few days and best of all (if we pass that is) we will come out qualified and our jobs secure for next year!

Also, I have been asked my Karen my old next door neighbor, to join her in planning and organizing a self-esteem promoting girls-only weekend workshop for girls on grades 4-6. We are starting small with 12 girls but we hope the program will grow with popularity in the coming months! We have been approved for a nice budget and based on our planned activities such as arts and crafts, TRIBES self-esteem and community building activities, Viking (edit: LOL to anyone who caught this, I typed this whole blog on my iPhone, autocorrect!!) , yoga and meditation, gymnastics, swimming, nature hikes and outdoor art and much more, we think these girls are going to have a great opportunity to feel good about themselves, stay out of trouble and learn to appreciate friendship and cooperation. The program starts this Saturday and will run 10-4 for 4 Saturdays. Hopefully it's a good turn out for the 4 weeks and we will run the program again until the summer breaks, then next year too!

This weekend I also went to watch the Snowshoe Walking Out Ceremony which is where the children take their first ceremonial steps on snowshoes! It was really nice to see the members of the community dressed in traditional clothing and beautiful hand made snowshoes and the kids looked so cute! They had to walk towards the east in a circle on untouched snow. Afterwards the kids and their families who walked with them shook everyone's hand in a line and share the contents of their hunting bags. 2 dead beavers were strung together and dragged by one of the kids which was a little gross but there was cultural significance so I let it slide haha. A student of mine participated and shared his bannock with me, it was awesome!

Anyways, the countdown to Goose Break is on, less than 8 weeks!!!! I can't wait to see everyone :)

Love Aidan

My attempt at Pinata cookies. I don't want to talk about it.

However, my mini loaf pans work quite well, EVER CUTE!



Human Centipede Beavers.

Oscar Night!

If you know me, you know I love movies.  Sadly I had to leave all my DVD cases in storage at home, thus eliminating my beautiful display of hundreds of movies.  However, I did manage to bring up binders full of DVDs.  When you are too cheap to pay for cable and do not particularly enjoy the outdoors, movies are a single gal's best friend! So tonight, Oscar night, is something I have been looking forward to for ages!  I have seen most of the nominated films (movies are just a little difficult to download over here on Creenet - Magic Mike, 96 days) but I saw the ones I was really interested in! I do miss movie theaters let me tell you that.

This last week has been one for the record books let me tell you that.  Without revealing too much and risking professionalism, I will just say that drama ensued and I managed to come out unscathed (hopefully) and maintained my dignity.  My students on the other hand were awesome, produced almost all-independent short stories and made me feel like I am doing something right after all!  I look forward to the next few weeks and seeing how far we can go!

This week coming up we have an interesting series of events taking place.  The Cree School Board has ordered that all grades 1- Sec 5 (Grade 11) take standardized, multiple choice exams to get a base line standard to measure against the years to come of evolving GVC. Standardized tests irk me 'till no end, but you do what you are told and at least this will not reflect the quality of my teaching.  The particular timing of this CAT test is also frustrating.  I feel that if you must have a baseline of what they are calling "pre-GVC" when why implement the test after we have been using the GVS for 6 months? Why implement a test on students who are not fluent readers and therefore cannot answer the questions (Grade 1, some 2's, some 3s)?  Why implement a test using material that has not even been taught to the students yet? All of these questions boggle my mind but, I will be a good teacher and do what I'm told! This test, while giving the Board a measurable statistic, will not deliver a baseline of any kind because the timing is all off.  It is taking a huge part of the day away from learning and I worry about the stress and test anxiety some of my students may experience.  I reassured them that I would not be mad if they didn't know the answer and not to stress too much! we'll see how it goes!

Anyways, we have been focusing a lot on character building in my classroom lately as the drama with the girls has been NON-STOP. I have abandoned the "can't we all be friends" approach and gone right for the "you don't have to be friends, just be friendly" tactic which may or may not be working, I'm not sure yet haha.  We read countless books on friendship, manners, kindness, sharing and keeping our hands to ourselves. I'll keep you posted on the "dramalicious" details (a term coined by one of the very observant boys in the class).


This week's weather has been crazy too! Today and yesterday the sun was shining and the temperature was a balmy 0 degrees!! Holy crap!! The snow melted enough for me to shovel a path on my stairs and all is bright and beautiful.  I still refused to go outside though ahh haahhaahah.

Anyways, enjoy the Oscars and Red Carpet glam!!

Contraband

This copier is the bane of the entire school's existence.  It is also right outside my classroom door.  The abuse this machine endures is awesome to listen to.

IT ARRIVED!!

This was my door Wednesday morning.  AHH!

Mini doggie, mini muffin!! EVER cute!

Super Sunday!

Well another week has passed!  I survived my cold and according to my mother, my last blog left me sounding "jaded" so... sorry about that aaahhaha! But the point is that I am feeling much better and have significantly depleted my stock of Buckley's Cold and Sinus but it was worth it.  I could not have survived without it! 

Thursday was the Grade 2 100th Day of School/Valentine's Day party which made for a pretty sugar-filled exciting day.  We did all sorts of fun 100's Day-related activities and the class exchanged Valentine's cards which was really sweet.  I was totally spoiled by my class and received lots of lovely cards and treats :)

Last week was also Teacher Appreciation Week and the Cree School Board, MES and Band Office totally spoiled us! Roses, desserts, cards, goodies and a delicious Pizza-Ghetti lunch on Friday's PED day! I felt appreciated for sure and the ladies in the Admin Office worked hard to make us feel so. 

This week I start my second half of Geometry with 3D shapes, should be pretty fun.  The kids are very tactile learners in my class and being able to use cool 3D manipulatives and lots of hands on activities makes learning a lot more fun.  I knew I had to step up my game when the kids kept asking for "fun math" - oops ahha.

So yesterday I was puttering around the house (...walking up and down my 10ft hallway) TOTALLY BORED out of my skull.  I am not really into traipsing around outside in frigid temperatures like many people here and I really needed to get out of the house so I decided on a last-minute trip to Radisson with Monika!  It was a beautiful day, clear skies and not too cold (-20 or something) and I felt I owed it to my car to stretch it's legs!

So off we went into the sunshine.  I won't give too many details as to spare my family back home the horror, but I almost killed Monika and myself.  Inbox me if you want details. LOL! (By the way, I am trying to bring MDR into popular rotation - its the French equivalent to LOL meaning Mort de Rire which I think translates into "death of life" or something.  So yeah, something I do when I LOL I guess.  Hey - when you live in Quebec and you are bored, you get creative/crazy)  Anyways, we survived, had a delicious lunch, shopped a little and made the trek back home.  Sometimes all you need to do to clear the cobwebs is take a 4 hour trip for a burger and some lemon juice and Splenda (which I am in desperate need of Mother**)

Today I limited myself to only a couple hours in the classroom to prep for the week.  I went in my most casual style today, PJ top, sweat pants and indoor/outdoor slippers.  Unwashed hair in a ponytail, no makeup and hairy, beastly eyebrows, I should have really taken more care to look semi-decent because I ended up meeting 3 new McGill student-teachers who arrived today as well as seeing my Principal and a few other teachers who were showing them around.  Welcome to Wemindji, I am a slob!! Anyways, they all seem like really friendly and eager ladies and I am very excited to work with them in some capacity while they are here!

NOTE:: I am in need of mini M&Ms for a baking project.  I don't know if they sell them in Canada anymore which presents a problem but if anyone sees them or knows someone in the States who would be willing to send me a bunch I would be REALLY grateful. Either those or the Mini-Mini Eggs I know I ate a million of one Easter, SO CUTE. Anyways, please help!!

THAT'S RIGHT - PINATA COOKIES! - donkey cookie cutter is in the mail!!!

Ommie Nommie!

100's Day!

FYI: I am still good for cheese - for now.

Sunday (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) Sick Day

Well, I am going to keep this one short as I am feeling quite close to death these days!  Well, I have what I am sure is just a regular cold but it hit me like a ton of bricks and has set up shop in my poor head.  Now, I know I am entitled to a number of sick days but I am a bit of a control freak and the idea of entrusting my classroom to someone else frankly gives me anxiety.  So, I'd rather chug vitamin C, Buckley's Cold and Sinus pills and sleep all available hours until I kill this bug!  I have decided against trying Cold FX again (see: First Teaching Illness Experience) and this Buckley's sure leaves me in a fuzzy yet wonderful mood.  I am not sure anymore if it is my sinuses blocking my ears or if my students are actually quietly working.

I was finally able to transfer some pictures from my phone to my school computer where I then saved them to this blog.  I hope you appreciate the difficulty it now takes me to put pictures on here now that my computer at home is as useful as a typewriter!!!! JK. But anyways, last weekend was the kid's hockey tournament in town and it was fantastic!  I went to see a group of my students play on Saturday afternoon and even though I had no idea what was going on, I was so proud!! I loved seeing them skate around the ice, chasing the puck, determined, organized and focused.  Now if I could only channel that same energy into class work we'd be golden!  I must learn the rules of this magical sport and somehow create a classroom around it.  Instead of time spent in the office, 2 minutes in the penalty box! First one finished their work, a point for their team, goal! Whatever!!

Tomorrow is our 100's Day celebration as well as Valentine's Day.  Stacy and I have a fantastic fun-filled day for the kids, lots of 100-oriented activities like "Draw yourself as a 100-year old Goo-Goo/Gookum (Cree for grandmother) or Joomshum (Cree for grandfather)" which I am sure is going to be hilarious, write 100 words, do 100 math problems, 100 seconds of silence (my favorite), and much more.  The kids are PUMPED and so am I :)

Anyways I am off to bed now (7:23pm) goodnight!!

An older picture of Wemindji, but still a pretty beautiful view of the town.

Snowhill!

Carmen had to eat this one because I dropped it in the sprinkles. Oops!

They stack! Who knew! Stacy's contribution to hockey fundraising.

January birthday's cupcakes.  Alligators, Hippos, Rhinos

The ice at the Wemindji Hockey and Broomball Tournament!

Ever cool! Everyone with glow sticks

Mascot

The players coming out

Wemindji Wolves!

Little collections of confiscated student items

Valentine's cards for the kids!

Sweet silence of Bush Camp

Ahhhh

My first attempt at no-bake cheesecake, DELISH

The meat man!! This dude needs to come back, I have 3 pieces of fish left :|

The epic snowhill in the school parking lot. Notice you can barely see the triplex!

Kid's hockey!

The zamboni broke so out came the shovels and an ATV with a plow!

My Valentine's Day Door

And it's only Tuesday...

Since my life is so hectic, crazy and busy (ha ha ha) I kind of took a weekend off this past weekend.  Actually, that is a big fat lie.  By taking a weekend off I mean I didn't leave the house on Saturday, not even for cake and a chick flick!! I stayed in. cleaned, baked like a madman and relaxed in front of the computer screen and got caught up on some of my favorite shows. 

Friday was a pretty exciting night as it was the opening ceremonies for the Wemindji 30th Annual Hockey and Broomball Tournament right here in town! Teams from all the northern communities came to compete and the town was BUSY. So busy that the ATM ran out of cash, parking was scarce and 3G sucked really badly.  I also couldn't even make a phone call this weekend.  Crazy haha! Marsha and her lovely family saved us front row (ice side? ice front? rink side? ugh) seats which was pretty neat! We got to see all the action (and men) up close and personal!!! The opening ceremonies were touching and proud and we had a great MC.  I saw many of my students there late into the night and they were quite surprised to see me leave at 11 after the second game, even more surprised when I told them it was about 3 hours past my bedtime. Ha! (I am not really kidding..)

As usual I spent Sunday in my classroom organizing, planning and setting up for a new unit on Geometry.  We are continuing with our procedural writing which is producing some interesting and creative results!

Last week my new computer speakers arrived in the mail and I promptly plugged them in.  They work like a dream! No more crackly sound.  However, I plugged them in, used them for a while and then went out to help Stacy bake cupcakes for the tournament.  When I came home none of my things plugged into a USB port worked, such as my KEYBOARD OR MOUSE. So I freaked out a little and turned off my computer, hoping a good night's sleep would solve the problem.  It did not.  Somehow, and I blame the speakers, all my USB ports got fried and I can no longer use my keyboard, mouse, printer or read USB keys.  After some searching I found an "old school" keyboard and mouse that have the little green and purple plug ins and those work but essentially my computer is now a useless piece of crap.  I hope I can get it fixed at Goose Break because there is no way I am spending more money on a new computer.  NUH UH. That is also why I have no pictures this post, I am too lazy to send them to myself via email but maybe if I am feeling generous I might try tonight.

Also, yesterday was a particularly stressful day.  Not because of students or anything, actually I only had 4 all morning because the last game of the tournament went late into the night (3am) and most parents let their children attend... It was stressful because I found out the piece of paper I thought temporarily qualified me for teaching in Quebec is as good as a piece of toilet paper and I essentially have no job security for next year.  My principal assured me she wants nothing more than to have us (all first year teachers from Ontario who have ALL been given bad information) to return, she just cannot guarantee that someone who is qualified and wants my job, if it ever came to that, wouldn't get it.  Basically I need to scramble, take this crazy English proficiency exam ASAP and get the rest of my paperwork in order.  That was fun.  THEN, I was informed I was getting a new student in less than 24 hours.  More scrambling. THEN, I was informed that in the future, no set date, I would be getting back a student who moved away. COOL. What else?! OH YAH, I am being evaluated by my principal tomorrow too!!!!!! So, basically, given the idea that there is a slim chance I might not have a job next year at this school and that I was receiving more students in an already high needs class, and I was being evaluated in a couple of days left me feeling a little overwhelmed. I have had a day to process and get organized and feel good about tomorrow's lesson (review on 2D shapes and attributes) and I have offered the greatest bribe of all to my students for good behavior.  You see, I took away their 100's day party a couple of months ago after a string of particularly bad incidences and poor behavior.  They have been working quite hard to earn it back (they needed 30 "points" - my discretion) to earn it back, we are at 25 and the party is next Thursday.  So I said they could have - oh excuse me, 3 of my students just knocked at my door asking for a ride to the store.  I said, "No, run there you will make heat." Ahahahahaha!! Okay sorry.  So yes basically I said they could earn the last 5 points from me tomorrow if they were on their BEST behavior while our principal was there.  We had a dry run today - they may not be receiving those points...

Well anyways, that is my last few days in a nutshell.  Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly and I can start getting actually qualified for my job and having more students won't be all I am imagining it to be! WISH ME LUCK!