Going, going, GOOSEBREAK!

'Twas the night before Goosebreak and all through my house, not a dust bunny remained, last item packed - a blouse.  Ok corny I know.  Sorry.  I'm just excited!  Goosebreak: the time where I take my pile of things to be mended home to my sweet mother who's needle and thread fixes all the things.

Tomorrow at 3:40:01 I will be picking up Bobo and hitting the access road like a bat out of hell! Goosebreak starts tomorrow and boy has it come at the perfect time.  Don't get me wrong, I love my students with all my heart, but we have had enough of each other I think.  They have pretty much stopped listening to the sound of my voice altogether, tuned me out so to say.  I get it.  I talk a lot but sometimes I see their little eyes glaze over and realize I lost them miles ago.  We have had a TON of fun and hit some real milestones in their learning but we are tapped out.  The next two weeks will be great for them and me.  A chance to relax, take a break from school and come back refreshed and ready to go!  A student asked me almost tearfully who their teacher was going to be after Goosebreak if I was leaving?  I said not to worry, I was only going on holiday and I'd be back to school right along with them.

I am very excited to get Bobo a haircut because he is my absolute favorite with a fresh new trim!! I can hardly see his facial features anymore with that giant dog afro so I am sure he is looking forward to a little pampering.  I will not be getting a manicure this break because I somehow managed to get not one, but TWO fingernail infections which means my nails are literally falling off.  Disgusting, trust me I know.

This Goosebreak I am also loaning my humble abode to a pair of travelers referred to me by a past MES employee.  They are looking to explore the wild and wonderful Wemindji and since I am not using my house, I happily said yes to having them stay.  It's a win-win, they can stay here and I get someone to look after my many plants!!

This week has been a busy one. We had a half-PED day which made it feel like a Friday and very unnatural to come back to school today.  This afternoon the Grade 2s also went swimming which was a lot of fun as usual.  On Tuesday night we threw a surprise pizza party for Meghan's birthday which was amazing.  Meghan's birthday falls right on the weekend we travel home for Goosebreak so we don't get to celebrate it with her.  We did the next best thing and surprised her with a delicious make-your-own-pizza party!! It was a blast and we got very creative.

Otherwise I have been cleaning and packing and getting ready for guests and to travel home so I have been ultra busy.  I am very much looking forward to getting off the James Bay Highway tomorrow night and hitting civilization and clear roads.  Oh did I mention its been snowing for DAYS now and I am completely petrified of the road conditions?? It thawed a little today but basically a snowflake on the road gives me a panic attack now.  So I'll be traveling and a nice, safe speed of about 20km/hr until I reach Amos in mid July.  :P

Wish me luck!

"Tower of Dreams" 

Happy Birthday Meghan!! 

I can't even. 

Pure unadulterated snow rage. 

Oh splendid!! Just in time for my arrival.  Has Trafalgar not been under construction for YEARS NOW?!

The Great Goose Countdown

It's on!  Less than 2 weeks and my trusty companions Monika, Raquel, Jill as well as Meghan and Meredith in her car - will be hitting the good old Wemindji access road and then the glorious pavement of the James Bay Highway and heading home for Goosebreak!

It has been a LONG 4 months up here and time seems to be crawling by.  Tensions are high at times and the stress is palpable but there is a positive underlying buzz of excitement as people are gearing up for a nice two week stretch of time off with family and friends.  I am looking forward to some warmer weather and a chance to take Bobo to the vet, as well as get some much needed quality family and friend time.

The kids are doing really well however, which is a cause for celebration.  We are free writing our own mini stories which is turning out to be a lot of fun, and they are reading like crazy and really progressing in the learning goals we have set.  I couldn't be more proud of how far they have come in such a short time and even in the thick of crazy tournament schedules, long dark days and interrupted school weeks, they have worked so hard and I am pleased with the progress.

This weekend we experienced some "nice" weather, AKA weather with temperatures above freezing!! The snow really melted a lot this weekend and it was lovely to see pavement and even GRASS!! WHAT!  However, that didn't last and yesterday we were hit with cold temperatures again, freezing rain and some snow.  Why do all good things come to an end?  As long as the weather remains stable for the week leading up to our departure, I don't really care what happens between now and then. I just want to get home in one piece!

These are the things I am looking forward to doing when I get home:

1. Opening up my packages of things I have bought online and sent myself
2. Seeing my family (Baby Robin) and friends
3. Sleeping
4. Laminating a huge pile of stuff I have waiting
5. Hoping someone will help me cut out the lamination once I am done
6. Catching up on my shows
7. Sleeping
8. Hitting up Costco
9. Planning the rest of my UK summer trip with my mom!!!
10. Sleeping
11. Getting my knee x-rayed and ultrasounded
12. Getting a carwash
13. Seeing a movie!
14. Getting a manicure
15. Getting someone professional to trim Bobo's nails because he bites me every time I try
16. GETTING A NEW PHONE (still don't have a phone)

Anyways I accidentally forgot to drink any water today so I am going to go chug back a few liters and probably wet the bed tonight.  Wish me luck!!

My usual view on the weekend

Auntie's little bookworm!

Already this kid is too cool for me

I CANNOT WAIT TO SNUGGLE HIM

My extension cord has made a miraculous reappearance!! 

Looks like the frost took my woman sticker clean off.  Also: see #12 on to do list

Along with my extension cord appeared my lost mitten!! Hidden beneath snow mountains for 6 months! 

Something I wish would stay hidden is all the dog poop I have neglected to pick up over the winter...

April's Fool

I am convinced that the world does not want me to be vertical.  The pull of gravity is just too much for my feeble body.  My being craves the ground, and the ground it shall have, over and over again.

Yes folks, I have fallen again.  Fallen not once, but twice again since my great collapse of 2016.

The first time was last week on the pool deck at the sports complex after a group swim with all the Grade 2s.  I was the last out after doing a sweep for kids things and I fell in front of the change room doors.  I recovered quickly and got back up but did hurt my knee a little in the process.

The second time was last Friday, almost 1 week TO THE MINUTE after my previous fall, at the complex too!  This time it was after I stepped off a 3 inch sidewalk, tripped on both my feet and fell flat on my face.  I did not move this time.  I lay there - defeated.  Christine cried out "Oh no!" and Monika knew I had hit the ground.  She rolled me over, checking my beautiful face for scratches and scrapes.  There were none.  She credits my generous upper body for saving my money maker.  I agree.  Anyways, it took a whole host of people to lift me off the ground and this time I definitely hurt my ankle (the one I damaged the first time I fell in Wemindji - also off a sidewalk hmmm) and scraped my bad knee.  I limped to the car, laughing and in utter disbelief that I had fallen again, nearly hurting myself badly again.  I have since almost recovered but my knee still isn't the same.

Anyways besides the fact that my body just wants to become one with the cold earth, things are going along just fine.  Sadly, Christine, my incredible student teacher left us this weekend to finish up her program at Bishops and become a teacher!  It was an amazing 13 weeks working with her and she brought much to the classroom.  It was awesome having such a capable educator-in-training in the room who completely dedicated herself to the student's learning, their emotional well-being, bringing Cree culture into the classroom as well as collaborating with other professionals and totally immersing herself in the community.  It was a wonderful experience for us both and I feel proud to have been her mentor teacher and even more proud to now call her my friend!

The weekend before last was Easter! 4 unadulterated days off sans children.  I slept so much it was glorious.  I also hosted a lovely Easter dinner for 13 of my nearest and dearest which was really nice.  Everyone brought something different and delicious and I lived off leftovers for days!

It has been as cold as ever here.  SO COLD.  Today was about -30 with the windchill and it is WINDY.  To make matters worse, we had a few days of really warm weather (think -2) and it melted a lot of the ice on the roads.  However, with melted ice comes slush.  And with slush and overnight dropping of temperatures below -20 comes ICE again.  There are ice fields everywhere.  There is a huge sharp and dangerous ice monstrosity at the end of my driveway which I wince at every time I drive over it, sure that this time I will burst a tire on the sharp outcroppings.  Also because of all this ice, I am walking at a pace of about -456 km/hr to ensure I do not slip and fall.  This is getting ridiculous people.  Even Bobo, a blind and disabled dog himself, is carrying on better than I am.

Anyways, now I am back to solitary teaching in my classroom.  I took what will probably be my last sick day of the year last week (feeling absolutely dead with a head cold but knowing I could trust my classroom to Christine) and Goosebreak is 3.5 short weeks away!! Look out Southern Ontario, I'm coming for ya!

Under the Weather in Wemindji

Well, my permanent underlying cold that arrives around October and lasts until June is back with a vengeance.  Here I lay tonight, the eve of what is no doubt a very entertaining St. Patrick's Day party, binge-watching House of Cards and pounding back Neocitran instead of dancing jigs and enjoying green beers!!

I suppose I was running on empty after a very busy but awesome week and the moment I could rest, the cold took over!! This past week was full of fun and had me running around as busy as ever.  A full 5-day week with lots of planning and events had me exhausted but excited.  We were supposed to be writing a standardized test last week but the test arrived late and so was rescheduled to this upcoming week.  Our plans were pushed but luckily it helps to have a well-planned student teacher who had material to teach on stand-by!  If there is one thing I can recommend to any new teacher, it's always be prepared.  No matter what tournament or test might be taking place that week, always plan for a regular day, because with attendance like mine, every single child is bound to come to school no matter what else is going on in the community.

Speaking of, Wemindji is currently host to a huge hockey and broomball tournament which has over 300 players from Cree Nation communities visiting and competing.  Players of all ages for hockey and broomball are here playing games back to back since Friday! Some going long into the night and early morning.  This means lots of late nights for the kids and interrupted schedules, but that being said, hockey is a great motivator for most of these students and we teachers find many on their best behavior during tournament time as coaches take the teacher's reports on behavior, attendance and homework into consideration when allowing players to participate.  It is a great incentive for students to try their best in school and also a great card to hold as a teacher!!

So, with the testing pushed to this week, our plans got a little muddled but otherwise it will be a short week with Good Friday off at the end!  Last week we celebrated all things leprechaun and planned and built some incredible traps to catch our sneaky leprechaun Lucky.  We tried very hard last year to catch him to no avail and this year tried even harder but no dice.  That sneaky little green guy outsmarted our class again and fooled us all.  Perhaps next year...

Last week I also organized and hosted Maquatua Eeyou School's first ever Book Bingo!! It was an idea I saw from another community and really wanted to try here.  I planned it before I knew there were about 3 other major events taking place (tournament, confirmation class and another family-involved event) but we still managed to have a great turnout and it was so much fun!  It involved playing sight word bingo with kids and their families in grade 1-3.  Winners were awarded a choice of 4 books, pencils and stickers! I provided refreshments and advertised as best I could and it turned out to be a really fun night despite the competition.  I will host another after Goosebreak and will continue to host more next year.

My articles published in the Wemindji newsletter have gotten some very nice attention.  I have had people tell me in the store and at school how much they liked reading my pieces and I couldn't be more flattered!  It feels great to be able to speak about my experiences in Wemindji so positively and have others like to hear what I have to say.

Last night I hosted a farewell dinner for a dear friend Megan who will be leaving Wemindji to start work down south.  Having just arrived to work at the school and so quickly leaving for greener (literally) pastures, it is bittersweet but I have gotten to know a great person who I know I will keep in touch with (especially since she will be working in the board I would love to relocate to someday).  She leaves behind her sister, ever capable substitute Jill. (NEHH).

This week we also had a visit from native hip hop artist and youth worker David Hodges.  He worked with Cree youth all over the Cree Nation in collaboration for a song titled "N'we Jinan".  He and his crew made a stop in Wemindji on Thursday and the whole school gathered outside to be a part of the music video.  We are going to be famous!!  http://www.nationnews.ca/nwe-jinan-the-story-behind-the-music/ 

Anyways, this week will be crazy busy with testing and finding fun ways to break up the anxiety of filling in hundreds of little scantron bubbles as well as a 4-day Easter weekend!

I am still accepting orders for Cadbury's Mini Eggs.

iMiss my iPhone

Well, according to the way my karma has been going recently, the inevitable has happened.  My phone, my lifeline, my baby, my constant companion - has died.  DIED AND WILL NEVER LIVE AGAIN.  For a while now it has been acting up.  Shutting off immediately after being unplugged, crashing constantly.  Then one day last week, it turned off completely and never turned back on again.  When it was plugged in it would flash screens alternating between the apple screen, the empty batter screen or a red or blue screen.  Dead. All attempts were made to restore it to its former glory but alas it has bitten the dust at the ripe young age of 2 exact years old.

So, my friends rallied around me, supplied me with and iPad to use until I can get my hands on a replacement phone (which is no easy task when your nearest Bell store is ummm a million miles away) and an ALARM CLOCK because since my entire life exists on this phone, I had no way of even waking up in the morning.  Ugh. Luckily I have a landline and truly wonderful people in my life who always manage to help out when a sister is down on her luck.

Otherwise not much has happened.  I had my parent/teacher interviews last week with Christine which went pretty well.  About half the parents came which was to be expected as it took place during the work day.  It did however give me a chance to clean up the classroom and reorganize a little!  My cycle has set some pretty exciting goals to reach over the next couple of months so I am looking forward to putting those into action this week!  We also have a pretty busy week with a standardized test we must administer, building leprechaun traps and somehow working around a hometown hockey tournament!  I am also hosting my very first Book Bingo on Thursday night which I am very excited about! I have invited families and students of grades 1-3 to play games of sight word bingo for prizes of brand new books, pencils, stickers, bags and other neat stuff.  I hope it will be a success despite there being a tournament taking place!  We shall see!

So, things are trucking along as always.  I am going to try going back to Aquafit this week although I still feel pretty shaky on my knee and can't bend it to its full original range of motion but I am going to take it extremely easy and hope that this low-impact exercise will help rebuild some of the muscle I have damaged or let atrophy in the last few weeks.

Well, I am off to get ready for a friend's bridal shower this afternoon which will no doubt be a hoot.

Please note my address is:

2 Paint Hills Road
P.O. Box 308
Wemindji, QC
J0M 1L0

should you want to send me any Easter treats AKA MINI EGGS they are more expensive than gold bouillon up here.

Love Aidan  

PED Day Perfection

This is my 200th post! Who knew I could find enough to write about to fill up 200 posts!  But somehow I manage just enough adventure in my life to warrant some written entertainment for the masses. So thank you for reading and giving me a reason to try new things! The last week has moved in what felt like slow motion.  Wait a minute, it literally did move in slow motion.  I am still healing my poor dislocated knee but am feeling better every day! Mobility is still an issue as I can't bend my knee to a certain degree without pain but even that is getting better.  I'm still incredibly bruised and swollen but otherwise on the mend!  My goal this week is to find some stretches to help with flexibility so that I can put my winter boots on!  (EDIT: Boots can now be placed on feet!!) For now I have been rocking the indoor-outdoor Avon slippers. Monika has been named Mom because she has helped me put my socks on two mornings in a row.  To take them off I have been using a pole with a hook attached.  I'd say I would really like a man to help me at this point but really, who needs a man when you have friends like mine and a pole with a hook??

I decided to take Monday off after a doctor at the clinic advised I try and stay off my leg for at least another day to help reduce swelling.  I happily returned to work on Tuesday to a mass of lovely and touching get well cards from my students and lots of hugs.  I really missed them but knew they were in good hands with my student teacher Christine and capable sub Jill.  Bobo of course kept me good company and we caught up on our stories and rested.

Friday was a glorious PED day which consisted of a great presentation by a fellow teacher on differentiation in the classroom and then our own presentations on some great goals we set and met in our classrooms.  It was really rewarding to see our plans to meet these goals put into action and brag about the amazing growth our students have shown.  We learned a lot from each other as teachers shared strategies and ideas (not jut within elementary but across secondary too!).  It was a great PED day and it brought the school as a community closer together I felt.

The weekend was pretty awesome except I got food poisoning or a tummy bug.  So I won't go into great detail about that.  Saturday I spent the whole day inside not only because of the close proximity to the toilet but also because there was a legit blizzard!  Winds of around 100km/hr, NEGATIVE 5683 visibility and fah-reezing. I watched sadly from the window as my driveway slowly disappeared beneath beautiful but deadly drifts.  I spent my day puttering around the house, cleaning, cooking, doing chores, singing to Bobo and writing!  YES folks I am proud to say that I have been asked to write two quarterly columns for the Wemindji newsletter! I was SO flattered to be asked!! I wrote one for current school events, like a newsletter and one just about meeeee!! My favorite topic!! I chose to write about why I love Wemindji.  When it's published I'll post it on here.

Sunday was of course the Oscars, my other favorite topic.  I LOVE the red carpet fashions and had a lovely evening watching the event surrounded by tasty snacks and good conversation.  The Oscars always go late but luckily today was another wonderful PED day so we didn't have to go in as early as usual and we were sans children! We got some very necessary and useful planning done in our Cycles (grade groups, I'm Cycle 1 Year 2 aka Grade 2) and the Parent Committee planned an aboslutely fabulous afternoon at the Culture Camp for us!!!!!! They had traditional food cooking (moose and goose), tea and bannock donuts, snowshoe races, little mini socks for us as tokens of appreciation and beautiful artifacts around a large structure.  It was a cold and windy but beautiful day and I spent most of it darting in and out of the cabin for photo ops and trying to defrost.  I smell of cooking meat and woodfire and it is delightful.  We ventured onto the ice to take some pictures and then some dude put his foot right through a giant crack in the ice which I then took as my cue to make like an bee and GET OFF THE ICE.  I know how this movie ends.

Anyways, its been a great couple of days and this week is gearing up to be a busy one.  With two days of in-school training while Christine mans the helm back in the classroom, Skip-a-thon, a visitor with some cool Cree artifacts in our classrooms, Science fair and lots of math on the schedule, it is going to be hectic but fun! I will sleep well each night no doubt!! Enjoy pictures from culture camp!!

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation

Photo cred: David Blackburn-Kearns aka The Finest Photographer of His Generation