Christmas parties

Chronological order of work Christmas parties I've attended:

2008: In Puebla, Mexico. No wine or alcohol served. Bad food (I decided not to take the vegetarian option, thinking they'd serve traditional Mexican food, but unfortunately it was steak - I only ate the vegetables and was hungry). There was great entertainment though, singing, dancing, and circus-type dancers on stilts!

2009: In Puebla, Mexico. No wine or alcohol served. OK food (learning from my previous mistake, I opted for the vegetarian option. It was a vegetarian lasagna that left me hungry, whereas my friends got turkey and all the fixings). There were most likely prizes. I know there was a bit of line dancing, but overall, this party does not stand out in my memory. My friends and I most likely did something more fun together afterwards.

2010: Montreal. Lots of wine, great food, the school gym was decorated and the entertainment was awesome. Teachers had dressed up and made us laugh. Dancing was great and a good time was had by all.

2011: Montreal. Incredible decorations including a champagne pyramid, an ice sculpture, carved fruit. The food was also incredible: cheese, shrimp, escargots, foie gras, fruit, salads, deserts! No singing or dancing. Prizes were also amazing: we all received gift certificates and there were more individual draw prizes. Crazy prizes like trips, watches, etc. were given!

Family Christmas parties are different in that they usually involve carolling or singing and musical instruments, traditional Québecois food (tourtières, cassoulet, fèves aux lard, etc.), decorating gingerbread houses, and children running, screaming and playing.

My own Christmas parties I hosted in Mexico included decorating, deserts, music, and Home Alone.

Why am I telling you all this? I don't know, but I feel like each of the parties I attended give an impression of the values the school upheld. If this same statement applies, what does that say about me?

The weather

Yes, I will be talking about the weather. If I wanted to live in London or Vancouver, I would. I have often said I hate winter, but I take it back. I just hate being cold. Winter I actually enjoy now that I know how to dress appropriately and am not worried about looking like a fool with a gazillion layers on. I love the snow, I love seeing my students play, I love building snowmen, making snow angels, skiing, skating, or just walking around. The snow makes everything look pretty. Especially when it's sunny and the flakes are glittery. Ahhh...

Now this winter has to be the worst of the worst. I know technically it hasn't arrived yet (December 21st is the 'official' day as I understand), but usually around Halloween time, we start to get snow in Montreal. We got a bit of snow on November 17th, but it has now melted. What we've had lately is grey, drizzle, grey, rain, and more grey weather. I reiterate, if I wanted to live in London or Vancouver, I would. But I don't. I may have a tad of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) because this grey dreariness makes me want to sleep and just be lazy all day, every day. It's not even that cold, it's just annoying.

Canadians will know that Canada withdrew from the Kyoto protocol this week. I don't know of anyone who can argue that global warning doesn't exist and that we shouldn't do our part to eliminate harmful emissions. I feel like I do my part, as much as I can, by buying locally, recycling, composting, and doing countless little things, but it is horribly depressing when the big guys don't do anything. It makes me feel like the small things I'm doing are just worthless. Now I feel like winter is on strike. It's like it's trying to prove that global warming does exist. I wonder if the big shots hate winter so much they're doing this on purpose and trying to make winter disappear? I could totally make a game out of this with my students: 'Ways to save winter'. Here's hoping for a white Christmas, wiser politicians and for future winters of snow for my students to enjoy!

Winter 2009

Memorable moments

Today's memorable moment was not watching a woman sleep with her mouth open on the train. It was not witnessing a few students and parents argue at the bus stop in a different language. It was not having dinner with just my dad (although it might be a first). Nope, today's memorable moment was realizing that my students are actually learning. They did a little cut and paste activity in order to create a funny face and then we sat in a circle while each child presented their work. And they were ALL able to! I was so proud of them for remembering the vocabulary words we'd just learned last week! Also, on a random and funny note, last week while they were drawing themselves on huge paper (they traced each other's silhouettes), I had one student draw their private parts and another draw poop! These memorable moments are what makes teaching Kindergarten so great!

Fear

This week with my students we talked about fear a lot, what with Halloween coming up and all. We had an interesting discussion about whether fear was in our imagination or whether it was real, and how we could differentiate the two. Fear is totally healthy when it warns us of imminent danger, but when it eats at us and it is all in our heads, how do we control it? My tricks for my five-year-old students were to:
1. imagine you're in a nice place
2. sing really loudly

3. laugh at your fear (this trick is the one used in Harry Potter to scare away Boggarts)
4. turn on the lights
5. look away (if it's a scary movie)

As adults though, we are faced with different kinds of imaginary fears. I often worry about horrible things happening to people if they don't show up on time (maybe they got caught in a car accident, maybe they got kidnapped, etc.). I also sometimes worry about my own inadequacy. These imaginary fears we have as adults are more difficult to control it seems. Staying positive and keeping in touch with reality definitely help, as well as having good people around to reassure you (my husband telling me I'm the best really helps).

What are you afraid of?

You are beautiful

Dear everyone,

This week during my daily train commute to and from work, I had an odd kind of realization. I noticed how beautiful people are. I was sitting across from a woman one day and was thinking, wow, she is really pretty. Next I saw a young girl walk on the train who was absolutely stunning. I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to tell them without sounding like a creepy weirdo. Does this happen to anyone else? Do you ever notice that the people around you are beautiful and may not know it? do you know of any appropriate way to let them know?

From your creepy weirdo friend who thinks you are beautiful.

It's already October! Time sure does fly! I'm still happy and busy at school, though a few students have started acting up, though that's pretty normal for this time of year. They've gotten to know me and each other and are now testing the boundaries. I have to work on not taking their mishaps personally. Usually things run smoothly in my classroom, but then at recess or lunch or other classes, my students will hit others and do 'bad' things. Any experienced teachers out there have a magical trick to stop this behaviour? Or to help me not to take it personally when it's reported back to me? That is something I am working on as a teacher right now.

Thanksgiving is here in Canada and I wanted to do a cheesy 'what I am thankful for' post today. In no particular order, I am thankful for:

1. God, goodness, the 'thing' that interconnects us all and makes us feel one.
2. Nature: the trees, air, oceans, animals, etc.
3. Family. I am even luckier to have more and more people to call family now that I'm married.
4. Friends, the real kind and the we're just getting to know each other kind.
5. My health. I went to the doctor, the dentist and the optometrist yesterday and all around, I'm in very good health. The dental hygienist was amazed that I drink coffee! And I'm getting new cool glasses.
6. OK I'm stopping this now because it's boring and way too cheesy... but I did it anyway. I have my list of things I love and am thankful for and I won't forget. Gratitude is important. I find that people like to complain a lot and tend to forget how blessed they are. If you are reading this and you have a computer, you are already better off than a lot of others.

Sorry I have been MIA - I wrote about the labour day long weekend but am apparently not as good at learning new things as I thought I was and couldn't figure out how to publish my blog with the new layout, and then I lost it. It's not on my blog editing list. Oh well.

Also, I forgot that working made my busy and tired. So blogging gets dropped way down on my list of priorities.

BUT I have a cute anecdote from school today I wanted to share. Two of my students weren't participating in our morning circle and songs this morning, so I asked them to go sit at their tables. Later, I asked each one what happened and why they hadn't participated and these were their answers:

Student #1: "I was still sleeping" (he did arrive to school late)
Student #2: (in a Darth Vader like voice) "My throat just really hurts" (he was absent yesterday)

They both had really good excuses. I felt kind of bad for sending them to their tables, but they definitely were not participating so I can't bend the rules just for them. In general this school year has started out being AWESOME! I have great students and I am just so happy to see them every day. I'm also happy about myself as a teacher, I feel really good and patient!