Five on Friday

1.  Quote:

2.  Linds posted a link to So you're feeling too fat to be photographed this week.  We women are so hard on ourselves, aren't we?  I'm trying to take her advice to heart!  Because it really is true - our family wants to see us in pictures with them!

3.  And then she posted about Learning to make things - which is an awesome article about how the education system could work better!

4.  This "Yarn Bombing" post on Flickr made me smile!  How clever some people are!

Source: RenSandoz

5.  Photo of the week:

 A whole bunch of creating with Meadow today

On Their First Day

Dearest Meadow and Helayna -

Today is the day that you are both starting first grade!  What a great day it's going to be for each of you.  There will be new teachers and new classrooms, new friends and some familiar ones, and a very long day ahead of you.  This is such an exciting year.  You are going to learn so much and do so many interesting things.

I pray that you will have a year full of kindness and encouragement.  I pray that your teachers will be patient with you and remember that you are just little people, on the first step of a lifelong journey of learning.  I pray that they will treasure your spirits and encourage you with every ounce of their beings. I pray that they will love reading and math and that they will challenge you to grow your skills.  I pray that they are curious at heart and encourage you to ask questions and explore your world and its people.  I pray that they will give you high fives and hugs and celebrate your strengths.  I pray that they will know when you are worried or nervous and gently lead you on.  I pray that this year will be spectacular!

I will be thinking of your Mommy and Daddy as they let you go out into the big world tomorrow.  It will be a bit scary for them too but they will be your cheerleaders every step of the way.  They love you so and want you to grow and learn everything you can.  I know they will be waiting at the end of the day to hear all your stories and see all the things you bring home.  Your brothers and sister will be so excited to see you too!

I can hardly believe that just six years ago you were tiny babies!  Where has the time gone?  How did you grow to be so tall and so beautiful, so strong and so energetic?  God has blessed you both and I am absolutely delighted to be your Gramma.  I am so very proud of you and all the things you can already do.  You always make me smile and your hugs are the best!  Thank you for being the best granddaughters ever!

All my love,
Gramma Crystal  XOXOXOXOXOXO

P.S.  I will be waiting to hear all about your day - please call me!

Wordless Wednesday

Sidewalk chalk art by a kindergarten student

Memories of a Band Parent

This afternoon,  my subbing assignment was in grade six and I got to go with the students over to an orientation session at the high school, which they will move to in September.  

We started by spending time in the music room with the band teacher and the high school band played a few selections for us.  Then everyone got to try the instruments (which they loved) and I was reminded of all the good times and memories our girls had while they were in the band program.  

1.  Going on tour - especially to South Dakota and Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal, when I travelled with them.

2.  Band uniforms

3.  Fund raising - everything from cleaning ditches to dinners and silent auctions which paid for busses, uniforms, hotel rooms, instruments, music, etc. etc.

4.  Amazing band teachers who were great models and mentors - and have even become good friends now.

5.  Mastering an instrument - a completely new talent

6.  Learning to be part of a whole and contributing to the whole group by producing the best sound you could

7.  Setting up and tearing down after a performance

8.  Listening to practice sessions at home

9.  Band parents association meetings and all the support they gave

10.  "O Canada" - still my absolute favourite song the whole band ever played!

11.  Making their own recording and producing a cassette tape

12.  Knowing and absolutely seeing that "music makes you smarter"

Ah, the sweet, sweet memories!!

Signs

The crossing guards at school brought in all their equipment after everyone had arrived and then went off to have a well-deserved hot chocolate before class!  And the blizzard rages on outside tonight!  It's snowed alot in the last 18 hours and now the wind is whipping it all up into snowdrifts.  Everything south of Edmonton is experiencing a winter blizzard tonight.

Interference

Seriously - this working all day is interfering with finishing my canning, blogging, taking pictures, phoning people and even reading my email!! Tomorrow is the last day of the week for classes here so hopefully I'll be able to get a few things accomplished over the weekend.

All that being said, I have really enjoyed my time at this school with kids from grade 1 all the way through to grade 5. And the weather has been marvelous - warm and sunny - so even supervision has been fun!

Instead . . . . .

of me going back to school tomorrow, Meadow and I'll



go for walks




and play with rocks




and take lots of pictures!!

Life is good!! And so begins my year long leave of absence from teaching. This totally feels right and I have absolutely no regrets at this point. I will be thinking of my dear friends and colleagues and wishing them a rewarding year - but it will only be fleeting, I know (said with a great big smile!).

Bringing Home the Books

I said I would show you the books that I've packed up and brought home from school.



These are the picture books - yeah, just the picture books - the ones that I think Meadow, Helayna and any other grandchildren we might one day have would enjoy. I left the kids chapter books in my bookshelf for the new grade 4 teacher to use and my teacher resource books (the tried and true ones) are in a box from a microwave oven (yeah, there's a lot of them too!!). If you know me, you will know that I love books and I simply can't bear to part with these right now. There were others (maybe 3 paper boxes full) that I shared with other teachers at school. For now these will go into the basement and when the little ones come, we'll bring them out. That clear container on the left has a stack of Berenstain Bear books, some of which were loved by our kids. Maybe I should start one of those mobile library delivery systems that takes books out to where kids are. There's actually a book in the bottom long clear tub called "My Librarian is a Camel" that chronicles libraries around the world. It's cool - but then again most of these books are cool!!

I promised Nic Howard that I'd give a shout out for her new scrapbooking inspiration book, That's Life. If you go over to her blog, she's giving away a free one to a lucky reader. And then you will get happy mail, all the way from New Zealand! That explains why I like reading her stuff - someday I will get there to visit!!

The Classroom

"The classroom should be an entrance into the world, not an escape from it." John Ciardi

I hope that has been true for the students I've taught over the years. This quote has been like a guiding principle for me as a teacher. I strived to link our learning to their lives and to what they would experience when they went home. I wanted them to connect to things they had seen and also to things they had never heard of before. And then I wanted them to yearn to know more about the people, places and things that were out there just waiting to be explored. I think I did that!

And so today I go back to finish the paperwork (there's quite a mountain of it!) and dismantle the corner of the room that was my 'office'. There's a closet full of binders, books and other stuff, a desk with 4 drawers to empty, and a bookshelf that's about half full of teacher resources. Oh, yeah - and the filing cabinet! 4 drawers of paper - that could take a while! The paper recycling will need to be emptied a few times, I'm sure!! I was there until 10 p.m. last night and sorted all of my children's story books. I knew I had many but not that many!! I'll show you how many tomorrow, okay?!

Quote of the Day

"A great teacher never strives to explain his vision - he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself." Reverend E. Inman

It's Official

I've finished report cards for this year - and for next year too! I've decided to take a leave of absence from my teaching position for next year so I won't be doing any report cards, or other school stuff for that matter. It was a long and thoughtful decision process but now that I've decided, I am looking forward to doing many other interesting things. We have planned a trip to Poland with Mel's Nova Scotia parents, Edward and Linda, to visit Melinda and Tyler in September. We'll come home in time to celebrate our niece's wedding and then Helayna's birthday. There are a few other travel opportunities we would like to take in and of course spending time with our 2 granddaughters is a huge part of what we want to do as well. I will definitely miss my friends, who are more than colleagues, and the professional life that I have at school but I really feel like it's time to step back and consider what I want to be doing with my energy and time every day. So, I have one week of school left and then some packing and giving away of stuff before I begin this new chapter in my life journey! I think it's going to be quite a ride :))

Babysitting

Meadow and I hung out together last night while Na and Jerry went out to a retirement party. We had a wonderful time playing, reading, playing, eating, playing, folding laundry, playing - well, you get the idea!



She's behind the wheel already! The neighbor's little girl left this car at Na and Jerry's and Meadow is in love with it. She sat in it and I pushed her around and around on the deck for a very long time. She was spinning the steering wheel and opening and closing the door just like a pro. It was a ton of fun to hang out with her!




Meadow had so much fun later on when we went to the school playground too. We did a little swinging, played in the rocks(for a long time), and tried out the slides. She was mesmerized when 3 older kids came over to chat and play. Her little eyes didn't know which way to look - she was so busy taking it all in!

And so far today, I've done 5 loads of laundry, organized some recycling, filled the propane bottle (and found out they sell soft ice cream at the local country convenience store!), took the garbage to the landfill, and made 4 cards. Oh, and done some report cards, which is supposed to be my main focus this weekend!!

And Helayna and Heather are going to be here for a visit next week - yeah!!! I'm looking forward to that, hence the push on getting report cards done this weekend. Back to the grind - catch you later, when they are all done!

Baby Chicks

In my classroom at school we have been incubating chicken eggs and they hatched this week. It was great excitement for the whole school, I think! I've brought them home for the weekend and they'll go back for a few days next week so the kids can see the wing feathers begin to come in and realize how fast they grow. Naomi and Jerry came over with Meadow last night so I got to show them to her too.



Meadow loved just standing by the box and watching. Pretty soon her little leg was trying to crawl up the side and then she was leaning over and reaching down into the box. Then she banged on it to get the chick's attention.




Baby animals are so fascinating - should I touch it or not?




The ultimate test - it has to go in my mouth so I can truly experience it! She was so cute when she did this - Naomi and I both cracked up.

At the end of the week

"And life is what we make it,
always has been,
always will be."
Grandmother Moses

The "dreaded of all grade 3 test days" (to paraphrase a TV announcer from years back who always said "The Siberian High - the dreaded of all meteorological phenomenon!")
is over! Our students wrote their language arts writing tests and had 1 hour to write an interesting story using a picture prompt. It's such a hard task to do in such a short time. And I have a whole bunch of other thoughts on that topic but I won't share them here (don't want to scare you off!!) - enough said. I loved this quote when I found it - and I am reminded to be glad that I have students who can think, try their best and enjoy life!!

Go, Grade 3's - have a wonderful weekend!!
Go, Teachers - have a relaxing weekend!!
Go, Families - enjoy each other and the sun, while it lasts!!

Friday Fun

Good things happen on Fridays, I think. Helayna and Heather came up a few days ago and have been staying with Jonathan's parents so we took Chinese food over for supper and had a little visit. Jonathan came up from Calgary after work. It's been a month since we've seen Helayna and she is changing so much! She's stronger, more alert and very interactive. We got to see the airplane manoevers too - so cute!!



Helayna and her family




Playtime!!

We're gearing up for a skipathon at school next month so today we had a jump rope team from Camrose come and inspire us. They were pretty amazing and ever so fast with those ropes. It made me tired just taking pictures!!




Coordination, speed and fun - our kids were pretty pumped!




She's been skipping for 9 years and can do some really amazing, fast tricks!