Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a BIG deal here. All the kids dress up and go trick-or-treating ... even the teenagers.

I'm all set for the kids in costumes. I have 50 mini-chocolate bars: Caramilk, Coffee Crisp, and Crispy Crunch.

I'm also set for the kids without costumes. They get squirt with the squirt gun.

I'd take pictures, but my webcam still hasn't arrived in the mail. If you don't get things sent Expresspost here, you'll never get it. Well, not never, but it will take about a month. That sucks.

My literacy class also carved a pumpkin which I got to keep. It's Scooby-doo dressed as a witch. Pretty complicated for a pumpkin, eh? I'd take a picture ... actually I found one on the internet.

Screech-A-Ros

Ok, that's what they were called in my day. A brand name of them calls then Screech Owls. They're this stupid fire cracker.. but oh wait, fire crackers are illegal in this country, excuse me, fire work ... that is really loud and screams for like 10 seconds. Reeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww!

I hate these fucking things! The person who invented them should be forced to listen to one go off ever 10 seconds for the rest of their existence in purgatory. Last night I was feeling crappy so I went to be early. I lied in bed for an hour because about ever 30 seconds someone would set one of these things off.

I don't know what the preoccupation these things are. My brother LOVED them when he was a kid (he still probably does). They make a really annoying noise. People also hit the end with a hammer and duct tape them to make them just BANG really loud. I walked through the school today on my way to the store, and these things were littering the ground ... along with burnt bottles all over the place.

I just don't get them. I get Roman candles - they make pretty lights. I get most fireworks because I have that caveman instinct sometime too. I'm drawn to shiny objects, especially ones related to fire. But my instinct tell me that when I hear something that makes the god awful noise of a screech-a-ro, I should run, far, far away from it.

But I guess this just proves again, that I am not a teenage boy.

Pedophile Hilton

I got up this morning ... sick again! Fuck, I hate being sick. The worse part is the sore throat. I usually buy a big bag or sugarless candy to suck on to soothe it. But I can't here. They don't sell sugarless candy. So now I'll be sick and on a sugar high.

I turned on the TV, to the music video channel and Paris Hilton's new video was on.



Just another reason for me to dislike her antics. Here she is dressed like a sexy teacher, seducing a young boy! Great, now Paris is a pedophile. How old does that guy look? I think he can't be older than 14 (yet you hear him talk in the video and his voice had changed). I kept watching the video (insert car accident analogy here) and I got confused. Is she a teacher or a student? You see her singing in the cafeteria and then you see her dressed like teacher with a whip. And then at the end the boy asks her "something" and you see them enter the cafeteria together.

Either way, teacher or student (though she's way too old to pass for a high school student), seducing that boy must be highly illegal. And quite sick. Way to reach new heights Paris!

Pole raising

It all started a few days ago. It was during math 10 that I heard the announcement. The principal was doing the morning announcements and mentioned that on Thurdays, the entire school would be going over to the pole carver's house instead of afternoon classes to attend the pole raising ceremony. I got pretty excited. Then the principal reminded the students that they should bring their regalia to school to wear for the ceremony. I was ecstatic. Then she mentioned that there will be a feast following the ceremony, followed by dancing.

The principal finished the announcements and I couldn't hold back my excitement. I started shooting questions to the students. My first was about the regalia. I'm familiar with the term because I've worn some since I've graduated from both high school and university. But I was curious what exactly it was. The students told me it's usually a blanket worn as a cape with a skirt for girls, and a vest or tunic for boys. The chiefs wear headresses too. I was totally excited.

I started gushing about the feast and dancing too. I asked the students what kind of dancing. They replied traditional, of course. I was beside myself. I was so excited to attend! The students were looking at me like I was a bit crazy at first, but the were all grinning from ear to ear at my enthusiasm. I could see the pride in their eyes when I just started gushing about how cool this would be.

It's been absolutely dumping rain here for the last couple of days but for some reason (which I think is beyond coincident) it stopped raining for the ceremony. The announcement was made for us all to head over to the pole carver's house, where each teacher would lead their literacy class.

Directions in this town are all told by where people live. Example: I wanted to go to the video store last week. I was told it was Jaimie's Uncle Charlie's house. Ok, where is that? It's on the south end of town. Ok, how do I get there? Ok you go down to the general store, then hang a left. Head down the street past Martha Joes' house. Once you see Ken Moon's house, you're only two houses away. If you hit Linda Red's house you've gone too far. Hmm, too bad I only know where the teacher's live and like 5 community members. I will learn.

Anyway, needless to say the class lead me to the pole carver's house. Almost the entire community was there. The ceremony started when the chiefs arrived ... fashionably late of course. First, some grade eleven and twelve students carried the totem pole out of the carver's garage and put the totem on some crates in the road. There were some words and then the chiefs blessed the totem by sprinkling eagle down on the pole and by tapping it with birch boughs. All the time while the singers sang and played drums.

The boys carry the pole. Two of them are my students, Eric and Brian.

Once that was done, the boys picked the pole back up and we all headed over to the Elder's Hall to erect the totem. Once there, there were more words said in both English and the native language here. The chiefs did a little dance, and then the boys pulled the pole into place. It was then screwed into place with a trusty Black & Decker electric drill.

The chiefs right before the totem went up

The totem going up

A couple hours later, the community went to The Hall for the feast and dancing. First, all the community members sat down. Members with distinction sat at the front of the hall. I sat in the bleachers with some other teachers. Next, the family of the pole carver entered and sat at the front. Finally, the chiefs came from behind a curtain in the front, and did the Chiefs Dance to welcome everyone. This dance is way cool. All the chiefs are elders and man, can these guys dance up a storm. If you just saw these guys in the village, you'd never know they could move like that! After that, some community members came out carring pictures of family members (two happened to be students of mine) that are no longer with us, who passed away over the last few years. The families of these people were blessed and told that we are all thinking of these members and wished they were with us today.

The Chiefs Dance (I'm in the background of this shot, in the top, left corner)

Next, some of the women got up and did the Ladies Dance. This dance was done around the feast food as a blessing to the food. After that, we all said a prayer (said by the United Church's female pastor). Then we all lined up to eat. The food was amazing. There were like 6 or 7 types of salmon, 3 or 4 types of halibut, deer meat, 4 or 5 types of potatoes, 3 or 4 types of pasta salad, rice and some specialty foods.

The specialty foods include herring roe. This one was prepared by deep frying it and then putting it in a vinegar, soy sauce type sauce. People love this stuff! Everyone couldn't get enough. I tried it. It's really not tasty to me ... at all. But more for everyone else, right? Another dish is a fish eggs and seaweed soup type thing. Again, I tried some off someone else's plate. Not tasty.

The most coveted food item is this stuff called grease. It's a fine delicacy that is very expensive and takes a special hand to make. People love it as a topping for rice, potatoes and fish. I heard it also cures any ailment you have. Let me tell you how it's made. Some sort of fish is left to ferment and rot in a special container. Then once it's nice and rancid, the rotten fat is scraped off the top and mixed with something else (I forget what it is). This is grease. Needless to say, I saved this for everyone else to enjoy.

My student, Eric (in the middle). He is so proud of his culture. He is a singer. He's one of the nicest students I've ever met. He will be a great man one day.

After dinner, I got one of my students to sit next to me to tell me all about what was going on. Thanks Mackenzie! There were a couple of speaches made and then gifts were brought out for the chiefs and the pole carver and then other people who helped with the whole ceremony. People who were key to the event got special vests (normal western ones) in rememberance of the day. They did a dance around the hall to show them off. Next was the money tree ceremony. A blanket was put up over an easel and community members were invited to pin up money to the pole carver for his generous contribution to the community. At quick glance, I saw about $1000 up there. I found out later that the family of the pole carver paid for the entire day, including all the gifts to everyone. They also arranged for all the food to be brought (which is through asking certain people to cook certain foods).

After the money three, the dancing started. Most of the dances are performed by the children and young people of the community. The dances were great. I really enjoyed watching them. The music of all the dances, by the way, is provided by the singers. Most of the singers are men and there is about a dozen or so of them. They sang traditions songs as well as current songs written by people of his territory. I was so proud to see some of my students dancing and two of them were even singers. Half way through the dancing, the kids were all given gifts of community bags with toys and cool little school supplies in them.

The last dance is called Celebration. Here, the singers go to the middle of the hall. This is danced by the dancers and who ever is invited. Mackenzie invited me to dance. She said she hadn't wanted to dance in the last three years but she wanted to dance this one. So we all went behind the curtain. I asked her what the moves are. She said you just swing your hands back and forth and then when the singers say "wooha" you bend to the right, left, front, then back. I had so much fun dancing. I got really into. The second part of the dance was even more fun. I saw one woman dancing with more rhythm so I followed her moves. By this time I had several of my students dancing around me. They thought it was great that I was really getting into the dancing. We were all laughing and having a great time.

I had an awesome time for the entire ceremony. I learned so much about the culture here. I can't wait for the next community event. I hear it's going to be a potlatch next month.

Today at school, one of my fellow teachers was telling me about how the students were talking about me dancing. They thought it was great fun to see me up there getting into it. Mackenzie even told Ms. So-and-So how cool it was and she was gushing about how I was having such a good time.

Totem raising

I just went to one of the coolest ceremonies I've ever been to in my life. A totem was raised today in front of the elders building. It was a neat ceremony. A lot of the kids were dressed in their regalia. I'll write more about it tomorrow since I'm really exhausted. After the totem raising, there was a community feast. All you fish lovers would have been in heaven at the spread that was offered. The food was so good. And then there was dancing. My favorite dance was the clam dance, the dance by the girls.
I had an incredible night. I'm one lucky teacher!

The Secret ...

I found out the secret of how your student will think you're an awesome teacher. Here it is.

Teach badly for a month ... well bad according to the students. Assign them homework every night for the sake of assigning it. Speed through the material so they don't understand and then spend a whole week and a half reviewing and reteaching them what you tried to teach them the first time. By now they should be nice and frustrated.

The next step is to have a class meeting and ask them what they want from you. They will suggest that you do the job properly. That you assign homework after you've done lots of examples, give them time to copy things down from the board, and give them lots of class time to work on their work so they leave the classroom confident that they can do their homework. During class, ask the students lots of questions.

The kicker is to point out to them that you are actually incorporating what they suggested to you. Then, let the compliments fly.

"Ms. Small Town, all teachers should be like you. You actually listen to what we have to say."

"Well students, this is not just my math class, this is our math class."

"Ms. Small Town, you are an awesome teacher!"

"Yeah, Ms. Small Town for president"

"If all teachers were like you, I'd actually like coming to school."

These are actually quotes from the students today. I'm in teaching heaven. It almost makes up from my Health and Career Ed class.

Fart

I've forgotten what it is like to be around grade 8 boys. It's been so long since I have. I forgot one of the biggest deals in an eighth grader's world is farting. I've taught grade 8s now for a week and a day and I've had two farting mishaps.



The first one was while I was talking. A girl started screaming bloody murder in the middle of my sentence. I looked at her worried. "Ahhhh! Rennel just farted!!!" This caused all the kids within a two desk radius to clear away from Rennel. I just looked at the fart screamer, raised my eyebrow and kept going.

The second mishap happened today. We were all standing at the door waiting for the bell to ring. One girl wanted something at my desk which is on the other side of the classroom from the door. When I returned to the door, half the students had their shirts pulled over their nose. I looked at them and Rennel creaped out of his shirt to inform me that William farted. I couldn't smell anything. It's funny, none of the kids scattered away from William though. I guess it's because the alternative was being away from the door and god forbid the students not be out of the classroom by the time the bell stops ringing.

Not that adult don't have to deal with farting. But we have different issues. We don't fart in front of each other for attention or amusement. Well, usually we don't (but we all enjoy a good fart joke every once in a while).

I find the biggest fart dilemma in an adult's life is the farting in front of the girlfriend/boyfriend issue. No one ever wants to be the first to fart in front of their current flame. My rule is that I never do until he's farted at least three times in front of me when we both know he's done it. It's hard to not fart in front of a guy you're sleeping with for a while. I find I have to find ways to leave the room, or else hold it in until it implodes in my stomach. I only farted once in front of Brilliant, by the way. But I'm pretty sure he was asleep. I can't say the same for him to me though ;)

Family Spew

I usually watch Family Feud on my lunchbreak from school because noting compliments a sandwich like the Feud.

A couple of things have changed since the last time I was into it. One, what happened to Richard Karn?



I loved him as host. He would always say totally inappropriate things and make a lot of sexual innuendos. Hmm, maybe I've answered my own question.

Two, is it just me or are family's getting more stupid? People give really bad answers. And the ironic things is that the more moronic the answer is, the more one's family claps and shouts, "GOOD ANSWER, GOOD ANSWER." Example, someone answered " a goat" when the question was, "What does a man look like he swallowed when he has a big gut." I got mad at the TV for this question for another reason. My first answer to this question was a watermelon. The family didn't guess this ... neither did the other family for "the steal" Watermelon was the number one answer by the way. The family guessed "a ball" and the answer on the board was "A big ball". Ok. Two family members later, she asks, "Is a basketball considered a big ball?" D'UH! No, a basketball is small ball, you dumb shit.

This show makes me yell at the TV a lot. I yell at the TV, "BAD ANSWER, BAD ANSWER" all the time. I'm the bomb at this game. Maybe that's why I yell so much. I'm really good at fast money too. I could easily win the 20 grand for my family.

My dream Family Feud team would be my brother (because he's good at this shit), my mom (because she's generally smart), Brilliant (with a name like that, who could not want him on their team ... even though he's not family), and Hot Rugged Soccer Goalie (not only smart but is witty all while keeping a straight face ... but also not family).

GPS Heaven

My co-worker (and vice principal) just bought a GPS of the same name brand of mine. He doesn’t know how to work it very well. I do. So we exchanged favors. I showed him a few things on it and he loaded my memory card with a map of this area. I was stoked! I got the better deal. So now my GPS has all the inlets, islands, roads and ferry routes on it for this area. I’m in nerd heaven!

Something a little funny happened. It looked like it came straight out of a sitcom. He was recovering from a hangover. A teaching couple up here invites the teachers to their house every Friday for drinks and relaxation. When I showed up last night around 9:30, half the people were already pretty drunk, including my GPS buddy.

At one point today as we were loading my GPS chip, I was passing it to him and he dropped it in his lap. Me being courteous, I almost went to get it for him. Then I remembered it’s not a good idea to retrieve things from men’s laps unless you are making a statement. I think he saw me almost reach for it. That was a little embarrassing. Anyway, he picked up the chip, only to drop it on the floor. He went to pick it up and as he was coming back up, he cracked his head on his desk. Ok, not funny haha because it look liked it hurt, but funny ironic because I’m sure it didn’t help his hangover.

I Hate my Ex

Asshole is such an ... Asshole. I’m so sick of his shit. I borrowed $200 dollars from him last fall because I was dead broke. I also borrowed $600 from my sister. I paid her back right way though. I was living very thrifty, not buying clothes, CDs, alcohol nor take-out food. But student loans just don’t seem to cover living in res, tuition, next semester deposits, and basic food.

Anyway, I borrowed it after he broke up with me. He said when we broke up if I ever needed anything I could ask him. I thought eating was a big enough emergency. At first he was reluctant. Then he offered to “lend” me the money for sexual favors, which is retarded because he got those for free when we went out. I told him I rather starve because I’m not a prostitute. Well, d’uh, you break my heart into a million pieces and you still want intimacy, fuck you! Anyway, after I cried my eyes out and threatened to tell his sister of his offer, he lent me the money. I told him I’d pay him back as soon as possible. That was this fall. I contemplated not paying it back because he’s an idiot (for lending it to me?). But I don’t like owing people anything I’m not willing to owe. I mailed him a cheque and I thought that was almost the end of my interactions with him (he parent’s are graciously keeping some of my stuff in their basement which I want to get out very soon). Well, it wasn't.

This summer he moved in with a friend of mine. They were just roommates. It turns out things have changed in his life. I’ve heard both sides of the story and both of them are omitting details. Here are the facts.
• Asshole got fired from his job. He says it’s wrongful termination. Whatever.
• He hates his roommate’s boyfriend. He actually has a restraining order on him. I have no idea what that’s about. I have a theory though.
• He up and left the roommate one morning. He didn’t give notice and he’s not paying next months rent. He says its because she parties too much and the whole restraining order thing. But that’s illegal according to the Residential Tenancy Act.

I actually felt sorry for the guy. I think he’s pathetic. I also though he may need a friend, so I contacted him. As much as I disliked him, I didn’t want him to do anything drastic to himself. I’ve seen how depressed he can get.

What was I thinking? He started harassing me about the money. I was in shock. I sent him a cheque over a month ago and my bank records show that cheque went through. The insults were flying. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry in my life. Needless to say, I now have had to contact my bank and get detailed records and file a potential fraud complaint since Asshole insists he hasn’t gotten it. I hope to God he is not lying to me or this guy is seriously fucked.

I just can’t wait to get rid of this guy in my life. I just want the drama to end. I’m moving on with my life and I want to leave him far behind. I usually don’t just purge people out of my life, but I am here. I can’t believe I actually loved this guy enough to want to spend the rest of my life with him. All I can say is that him breaking up with me was one of the best things to happen to me.

My wish for this posting is that I don’t want comments from my mom or sister. I know what you are going to say and I don’t need to hear it now. I also don’t want anyone I know to be rude to Asshole if they see him in town. He is not worth the effort. I’m also scared he may sabotage the stuff I have in his parent’s basement so I’m not doing anything but be cooperative. My biggest revenge when I get my stuff back is never talk to him again. He’s not worth the effort of being mad at him or getting anyone to do or say anything to/about him. He’s already taken so much of my time. He deserves no more.

America's Stupidest Videos

I'm so tired this week. But I've had some big lessons too. But I'll write about those later.

I get this channel where they seem to have America's Funniest Videos on all the time. I watched an episode of it.



I think this show is stupid as fuck. Most of it's not funny. It's stupid. It's been on for years, I would even guess something around 20 years. I remember when it was hosted by Bob Saget. It's the same stupid videos over and over again. Literally. I've seen some of the exact videos that I saw when I was a kid. Someone gets hit in the nards, some baby does some cute thing, and some pet falls off of something.

Most of the videos look like they really hurt too. I don't want to see some guy hit his head really hard when he runs into a pole. I don't want to see some kid who broke his foot by putting it between the springs of a trampoline.

Does anyone agree with me? Let me know.

Bomb

I have some funny, funny students. My literacy class needed two classes to finish one lesson because yesterday they were on hyper pills. So today, I made over half the class finish the assignment while the "good" ones got to do a word search. When everyone was done, we marked the assignment and then we had ten minutes left. I like to fill that with a game. My two favorite games for smallish classes are Dart Bingo and hangman. The class decided on hangman.

The rules are that I start, and whoever guesses mine gets to do the next word or phrase. My only rule about words and phrases is that they can't be swear words or be rude. One kids guessed my clue with just the vowels (it was Employee of the Month by the way). He forfeited his turn to another kid, Harley, who happens to have a wicked sense of humor. He umms and ahhs until he writes the following spaces:

__ __ __ __


The class and I guess tons of letters: e, i, t, s, r, d, l, u, y, z, x, n, and c. Harley is forced to draw crazy body parts on the hangman like eyes, hair and hands. We are starting to wonder what the word is. I guess B. We get the following letters.

B __ __ B


The class erupts in laughter ... including me. We all just laugh our asses off. But the students are NOT guessing what we are all thinking. I can tell Harley has something up his sleeve. I can also tell the class is waiting for a reaction out of me. Will I get mad? Will I say what we are thinking?

I look at it one more time, while the class is pretty quiet to see my reaction. I guess one more letter: the letter M.

Harley adds the following letter:

B __ M B

Someone in the class screams BOMB! And we all laughed. Harley breaks the ice by saying, "You all thought it was boob, didn't you?" We all laugh again.

I don't know, I thought it was funny.

I'm going fucking ape shit

My MSN is not working again. I get really pissed when it doesn't work. So I'm in a crappy mood.

I don't have much time either. I went to a Settlement Meeting at the hall tonight. What that is is basically a soup night memorial ... that lasts 3 hours. I have some mega planning to do.

But I did get my CDs. Cool! And my teacher certification certificate. Now I can teach for real.

Writer's block

I have blog block already, and I've barely written 50 posts. Usually my weekday posts are about school and then I come up with something profound to say over the weekend.

I was playing with the idea of posting about how men love it when women cook, but then I couldn't really defend it properly nor put a wicked spin on it.

Then I was going to post about how I'm in age limbo because I'm in that stage up here where I'm either too young or too old. I feel like an eleven year old sometimes - too young to be a teenager, too old to be a little kid. But that's the only comment I had there.

I think I'm just distracted. One is from my preoccupation with school and planning and boring, complicated things about how the hell I'm going to teach Health and Career Education (which includes a section on sex ed and drug abuse).

I'm also distracted by my Christmas plans ... already. I'm wondering about Christmas shopping (which will either be online or not at all. I hope my family likes money in envelopes). I'm thinking about my annual Christmas card and coming up with the perfect image. I'm deciding about how I'm getting home, either by ferry or flight. I'm thinking about going to the big city and who I'm going to stay with while there and how long I'll stay and wondering if I'll see all my teacher and res friends.

I'm distracted by waiting for all my packages to arrive. I have two coming from home: 1 has contact lenses, the other is a mystery package. I have one coming from Amazon with 4 CDs. I have one coming from London Drugs with a webcam. I have one coming from Sears with bras, underwear and a winter coat. I have one coming from Brilliant with pink pencils. I have one coming from Robin with new clothes. And then I'm still waiting for all my stuff from Dad to be shipped.

Ok, now that I've written about every little thing in my brain, maybe my next post will be profound. Maybe it's time I do another Ode to someone.

I'm addicted ...

... to giving homework! I can't help it. It's a compulsion! I give it to the kids in case they want to do it. They don't want to do it! They're not sitting at home and thinking, "Gee, I wish I had some extra homework. Wait a minute! I do!"

The kids worked really well today, which is surprising because it's Friday and they're usually crazy. Well, they were crazy, but they worked well. I finally got the students to understand scale in math 10. It was a great break through. I did it with flash cards. Old methods seem to triumph sometimes. We spent the whole class working on this and the kids were excited that they finally understood. I wanted them to practice so they wouldn't forget over the weekend. So I gave them "optional" homework. As if they will do it! And I know they won't. But for some crazy reason I gave it to them anyway. I'm hoping they may do it?!? But then I'm setting myself up for disappointment.

I just read an article saying that the "new wave" of math teaching is not getting results on standardized test compared to Asia. In North America, the trend over the last 10 or so years is for discovery math. This is great for understanding concepts, but basic skills seem to be suffering. For example, half of my student rely heavily on their calculators for simple math. This is apparent when some of my kids have no idea what 8 X 1/2 is. It's half of 8 people!

My math 10 class is applications of math 10. There are a lot of cool optional projects for the kids to do. In fact, the textbook is practically designed around the projects. But I'm spending so much time drilling the basics into them, we don't have time to do the cool projects. I scheduled time to do them in my year plan, but I'm thinking I should scrap them until we get the basic concepts down. It seems the textbook skims over the basics and relies on the projects to reinforce the concepts. Theoretically, this is a good idea, but these kids are so teacher dependent on their learning.

My goals for this course have changed drastically. Not only do I have to teach the government prescribed curriculum, I also have to wean the kids off their teacher dependence, build their basic skills and build their math confidence. It's an uphill battle. It doesn't help that I'm new to this teaching thing either. The one thing that is saving my ass is that I'm awesome at math and I can think on my feet. I can always think of at least two ways to teach something. My big mission is that I want to be consistent and form meticulous patterns so the students can emulate what I'm doing. Math is all about patterns. I think that's the key.

Fall and Deals

I keep seeing picture of the big city of the autumn. I keep seeing lovely deciduous trees changing their colors from yellow to red. We don't have many deciduous trees here - they're mainly evergreens or trees with tiny leaves. Oh well, I can admire the picture I get on the TV.

My grade 10s are not doing their homework. I knew this but it took one kid to really point it out. It was after school and Brian came in to get help with his homework, like he usually does. I was trying to help him but he was super cranky: tired, headache etc. At one point he just sigh and blurted out, "Do I have to do this now? It's not like anyone else is going to do their homework and if I do it now, I'll just be sitting in class bored like I always do because you'll be going over this with everyone else in the class?"

My first reaction, in my head, was, "Yes, because it's homework. You have to do it." But then I thought about it. Brian was absolutely right. I felt like I had just been kicked in the head.

The kids were not doing their homework. Marks were not motivating them. Why weren't they doing their homework? How could I get them to do their homework? So for hours, I researched how to get the kids to do their homework.

Mainly what I found is to be honest with the kids and ask why. So today we had a class meeting. I explained the situation and asked them why they didn't do their homework. I explained to them my point of view of assigning it (so that they'd get practice). I also explained that I really wanted to know the answer because I'm not into assigning homework because it's "good for them" or because "it's fun" because those are just bullshit reasons.

We all had a good discussion. Mainly, it's that they didn't get it and the examples we did in class didn't seem to apply to the homework. This basically means that they really need a lot of baby steps to make the leap from the question to the answer. My work, now, is to give them the baby steps for now and then wean them off of it. Another thing is that I observe that they don't really pay attention until I either call on them in class or I hand them their homework and then they don't know what to do.

So we made a "deal". They need to pay attention in class and I'll try to make sure that they are fully equipped so they can do their homework. That means that sometimes we won't make it through a whole lesson in one class and they may not get homework. But their side is that they have to pay attention. I explained how I try to build the lesson and they were actually interested in how I try to teach them. They were quite attentive when we actually got down to work. They were more willing to actually look at what they had just written down. We'll see how this all works tomorrow.

They have food!

I went to the general store today and they finally got cargo! It's been weeks! You can't image how thrilled I was to get rice milk, vanilla extract, apples, and tortillas. I even picked up some "novelty" items, like chicken burgers, tater tots, and halloween sized chocolate bars. I can't imagine how floored I will be the next time I set foot into a real supermarket. Safeway will look like an oasis to me!



In other news, I'm frustrated by a parent. First off, two kids in the school told me how this parent is a bitch. They just said it off hand too. Of course, I reemed them out for saying such a thing aloud. But i almost agree with them. The family just got back from a three week vacation. The student didn't do much of her homework so she's three weeks behind. I asked her to come by after school so I could start catching her up. The student told me she couldn't because she was grounded and had to go straight home.

I then asked the student if i could call her mom after school to ask the mom to see if her daughter could stay. But it turns out the mom works right across the hall from my classroom in the cultural centre. Sweet, I could ask her myself. And the mom said no!

I'm in shock. Your kid is almost three weeks behind in a class and she can't work with her teacher after school to get her caught up because she is grounded! Where are the priorities of this parent! Is her authority so important that the girls education is in jeopardy? This is strange to me. And it's not like this student is a tyrant. She's one of the nicest girls I've ever taught.

Not Invited

It just dawned on me. My University did not invite me to my own grad. My grad ceremony was last week and I didn't get an invitation.

I'm thinking it may be because I moved. But I've changed my address with the university. But, I didn't change my address with the faculty of education until Friday.



But why isn't there a universal address change then? Why didn't they try harder to get a hold of me if I hadn't responded? Why didn't they realize that they were sending my grad info to an on-campus address which would clearly not be correct since I HAD GRADUATED!!! Why didn't they email the info too?

I'm a bit pissed and disappointed. But it's not like I would have gone though. It would have cost me about $500 to get there, plus I'd missing a day of work.

But still. I would have liked to be invited.

The craziest part about the whole ting is that I just received a lovely email congratulation me on being alumni. That was nice of them.

Fucking Dogs

I've always wanted to comment how friendly the dogs are here. Very few dogs are tied up in their yard or put on leash. Every morning as I check my email, I watch the dogs on the field frolic about with each other. I've never met such friendly dogs. I pet them all when I see them out in the community.

So I'm lying in bed and I hear a big ruckus outside of crows squawking. And it's not stopping. So I haul my dodgeball and jello shooter ravaged body out of bed to check what is going on. I get outside to see that something, most likely one of the community dogs, has somehow knocked my garbage can over. An incredible feat. More so, the animal has gotten the lid off the garbage can and has torn through my trusty Force-Flex garbage bag. Garbage is strewn everywhere- Saran wrap off salmon (no salmon carcass anymore), egg shells, orange peels, Mini-wheats box, Kleenex, NyQuil wrappers, cotton balls, Q-tips, old receipts, carrot bags, tomato sauce jar, etc.. I'm totally pissed. So here I am picking up my garbage in the cold, in my pajamas with a very sore body. As I'm finishing up I came across this:



I realize I had just finished my period (way too much info I know). And I realize I haven't picked up one tampon or maxi-pad.

Then it dawns on me.

It's been two hours and I still can't manage to eat some breakfast.

Worn out yet thrilled

There's a thing called "Indian Time". I've thought about it and it's really not a racist thing. It's real. I've heard the kids here use that term a lot and I've been hesitant to use it but it keeps coming up. Here are few examples of it.

Since fishing season is wrapping up, now is when families go on vacation. As a teacher and someone use to the city, I find this very frustrating. I've now had three kids miss at least a week of school and it's difficult to keep them on top of their work normally. It's an even bigger challenge to catch them up. Of course they ask for a list of work they'll miss, but they don't actually do it on vacation. In the city, it is very frowned upon to pull your kid out of school for a week vacation. In fact, my practicum school made kids and parents sign contracts when this happened so that the kids wouldn't fall behind. Here, everyone just wishes the family a good trip.

Another example is the bells. The bell clock is five minutes slow, on average. But it gets slower and slower as time goes by. Every once in a while, it's gets reset so it's only about three minutes slow. And then it gets slower and the cycle continues. This is frustrating enough, but sometimes the bells don't ring at all. The kids know the bells are screwy. So they are always saying that the bell won't ring to try to get me to let them out early so they can socialize in the hall. I have been very firm about this and I synchronize the clock in my room to the bell clock every few days. But there have been some times that I've kept my kids in and they were late for their next class because the bell didn't ring.

The final example is the Terry Fox Run.



All over the world, the run was last Friday. We, on the other hand, had the run today. It was lots of fun. I was one of the only people in the entire school to run the entire run though. No matter, we still had fun. Lots of parents showed up and most of the group walked the primary route. We all had Kool-Aid after. The school raised just over $1500. To celebrate some of the students and one teacher jumped off the dock. That was pretty fun.

To top off the day of physical activity, the teachers wanted to do something for the high school students on Friday nights to have a fun, safe night. So we opened the gym and played games. We played students versus teachers and we played dodgeball, basketball, and soccer. We all had lots of fun. I did land on my ass twice and managed to skin my knee, but all in all I had fun. I even scored for the teachers in soccer.

The only problem we had was that there was a scuffle outside and one of the kids came in to get an adult. Kids can smell a fight and two thirds of the kids emptied the gym to watch the fight. We got everyone to come back in and we had a discussion that this is exactly what we were talking about in the assembly yesterday. We praised the kids who didn't leave the gym. We reiterated that people should just walk away. That is the courageous thing to do. We also praised the kids who sought to get adult help.

But we lightened the mood again by playing more dodgeball. As the teacher got more tired, some of the students volunteered to play for our team. All in all the night was fun. I'm now going to bed to sleep off my jello shooters ... a nice little way that a couple of us teachers wound our night down with.

Fight Fallout

Here's the fall out from the fight. Both kids are in my math class. Brian, the one I had run into right after the fight, has a swollen mouth and a big, black eye. The other kid, I'll call JC, doesn't seem to have anything really wrong with him.

We had an assembly today and one of the big topics was the concern that us teachers and the community have about the recent fights going on. There have been more fights in the last couple of months than usual. The VP targted the people who crowd around and taunt the fighters. He said that these people are cowards because it's so easy to taunt these people because they're not the ones getting their faces bashed in. He also said that it's pretty disturbing that people find this as a source of entertainment because someone could seriously get hurt. We all know about Rena Virk. My thought is that I've seen what happens to kids in a school when someone dies. It's is not fun.

Anyway, Brian asked if he could address the school. He said that most of us knew about the fight. He also said he wished he hadn't fought. It's not glamourous and it doesn't really solve problems. He also felt bad because he fought because of rumors and heresay. He showed us all his injuries. He then called JC up to the front and appologized again for fighting him and they shook hands.



I was really impressed with Brian's bravery. He wasn't afraid to admit he was wrong and he wasn't afraid to take reponsibility for his actions. I admire this kid for more than that. He's demonstrated a lot of maturity the entire time I've worked with him. I have high hopes that Brian wil make a difference in this community and inthe world.

I'm a great teacher

I had my first evaluation today. Some of my fellow new teachers were a bit freaked out by it. Me, I was as cool as a cucumber. I am, after all, very used to being observed when I teach. I was teaching an intro class to exponential functions. It went very smooth. The students were well behaved, as usual.

I met with the evaluator after the class. The first thing she said to me was, "You are a great teacher."



I was thrilled. I thanked her for saying that. She told me that I had a great rapport with the students, I was animated, I left enough time for them to work, I was supportive, I did great board work, etc. I had given her a copy of my lesson plan and a graphing calculator in case she wanted to follow along. She had never used a graphing calculator, yet she was able to follow my lesson. She even got the right answers for the exponential law questions I put on the board. She said she hadn't seen exponents in 35 years and what I did for the class was an excellent warm-up for even the most rusty.

She told me that when she found out I had been hired, she was a little worried about how I may do because the teacher I replaced was well liked and respected. She thought I may have an uphill battle with the students at first trying to fill his shoes. She was delighted to see that the students were so warm to me already and that they responded so well. Stan is in that class and he loves to talk and go off topic. The evaluator was pleased to see that I was able to keep Stan in check. She said I had been great with him by engaging enough in his banter to let him know I cared, but not engage enough to distract from the lesson.

Anyway, I could brag about myself forever but I'll stop (roll eyes here). The evaluator also gave me some great suggestion of what I can do to prepare myself for the next term when I start teaching another class. I was thrilled with my evaluation. If they all go as well, then I'm well on my way to staying here for a couple more years.

Fight

Last night I went for a walk with a fellow teacher. We were walking by the youth center and I had never seen in it before. So we went inside. As I was peaking in I saw on of my students. He's a really nice kid. He's in grade 12 and quite popular. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw him bawling with a really swollen lip. Of course my heart sunk and I pulled him outside.

I asked him what happened. Through his tears and hiccups he told me that another kid and him got into it. He kept saying how the other kid turned all his friends against him and has had it out for him since day one.



I asked the student if he wanted to go for a walk and talk about it. He was still quite shook up. He declined. My big concern here was to make sure he was safe. I asked if he wanted us to walk him home. He said he didn't want to go home yet because he would get in trouble. He said he would go to the restaurant and talk it out with some people there. We watched as he left for the restaurant.

I felt so helpless. I wasn't quite sure what to do. Was I suppose to take him home? Call the cops, what? I remember when I was a student, I was told I could go to a teacher when I got into trouble like that. As a teacher, I don't know what to do! My instincts told me to make sure the student is safe and if he wanted more help, I would support him. My instinct also told me this was not the time to lecture him about not fighting and using his words not his fists.

As a new teacher in a new community, it's so important that I find out what to do in these situations. I've done workshops that tells me what to do when kids are in trouble at home, but I'm not sure the protocol with kids fighting kids outside school time. How do I know this won't escalate to something more severe? Do I let the parents know?

I overheard what really happened here. Supposedly, the other kid had set up my student to say shit about some kids over speaker phone. And there was also some bebo tampering with gay porn. You know, typically boy bullshit. The one thing that really disturbed me about the whole thing is that the fight is on Bebo. Several kids actually video taped it. That is just sick.

Math and Sex

Here is what the average grade 10 student knows about math:



1. Addition
2. Subtraction
3. Multiplication
4. Division
5. Simple Algebra ... that uses the previous items on the list.





That's it! They don't know exponent laws, ratios, cross multiplication, percents, square roots, cube roots, decimal conversion into a fraction, how many cm in a m, how to find the volume of a shape, or surface area. Sure they were taught all that stuff. But they don't remember it. It's taking me over a month to get through what the text book thinks is 8 lessons... OVER A MONTH! And I see the kids EVERY DAY! Someone needs to tell the textbook companies and the government that grade 10 students remember squat from the last 10 years. Hmm, do I seem a little frustrated?

Speaking of frustration, I'm going through serious sex withdrawal. Sorry to all those who think that's way to much info about me. But it's my blog and I vent what I want. Now I know how people going through drug rehab feel like. This is only the second time in my whole life I've had to go through sex withdrawal, and boy am I cranky. Which doesn't really help if I were actually searching for a fix. And of course it doesn't help that TV has sex everywhere so I see it all the time. I want to say that time will curb my craving, but I know it won't. I just know I stop wanting it really bad and then it will fall in my lap when I least expect it. But that doesn't help now! I would ask for suggestion to help the pain, but I know what kind of answers I'll get.

Tomorrow's a new day. I'll sleep on it and I'm sure I feel better.

P.S. Is it just me or does it seem strange that a blog site's spell checker doesn't recognize the word blog in their dictionary?

Phone Phobia

As some of you may know, I have a phone phobia. I blame it on my mom because she has a bit of the phobia herself, but she's not as bad as me.

I love to talk on the phone, don't get me wrong. But I am absolutely terrified to call strangers on the phone. I have to talk myself into it every time. I've probably only ordered pizza on my own two or three times in my life. I usually get someone else to call for me.

As a teacher, I have to sometimes call parents. I think this is the most dreaded action to do as a teacher. Having the principal in to observe my class, no problem. Have a kid call me a fucking bitch and threaten to kick another student ... I rather deal with that than call a parent on the phone (but if that did happen, I'd probably have to call the parent anyway .... hmm, or maybe that would be so bad I'd convince the principal to call).

Anyway, I have this great kid in my grade 11 class. He's the only one in the class who didn't have to re-write the first quiz. But he keeps forgetting to do/hand in his project. It's almost a week late. I've tried everything – I've written post it notes to put on his binder, locker, textbook, and homework. No project. I've reminded himevery timee I see him in the hall, and that could be up to six times a day. No project. I gave him the option of calling his house to remind him. He's always declined. But he needs to hand that project in. So I did the ultimate threat: if I didn't get the project today then I would call his parents to remind him. I thought that would get him to do it and hand it in. No such luck.

As a teacher, if you threaten a student, you have to follow through. If you don't, you loose credibility, power, etc. So I called his mom tonight. All day I've been planning it out. I'd call around 7 and tell her how I've enjoyed having her son in my class but I need the project. I thought I 'd have to spend an hour talking myself into the call.

But I got distracted. Next thing I know it's 7:48. Shit, I have to call now so I don't seem rude. I had no time topsychc myself up. But I did it. And it didn't kill me ... this time. She was very nice and glad to hear her son is doing so well ... except for the project. Now he gets the wrath of mom. Bwa ha ha ha!

I sometimes I have topsychc myself up to call friends and acquaintances too. So if you don't here from me in a while or you're waiting for me to initiate a phone call, you may be waiting a while. And when I do call, I've usually thought about it for some time and talked myself into it. So it means I really want to talk to you :)

The One That Got Away

Most of us have a "one". It's the person who is number one on the list. It's the person you would drop anyone for if that person said they wanted to be with you forever. You can be in a great relationship with someone else. You could even be married to someone else. And I'm not talking about a celebrity. If you have a "one", you know who I'm talking about.

I can only think of one moment in my post-pubescent life when I didn't have a "one". It was around the fourth year I was with Asshole Andrew (that's the one who dumped me when I thought he was about to propose) to about the time I moved here. Otherwise, I've always had a "one". At one point, when I was dating Alex, Asshole was my "one". For years, my "one" was a guy I was friends with and tried almost everything to get him to date me. For another couple of years, it was this super hot guy I was friends with but nothing ever happened because I was with Asshole and I just couldn't cheat. But I almost did once. That's another story though. I don't think I have a "one" right now and I think that makes me sad sometimes. Weird.

I know lots of people with "a one". I recently found out Asshole has "a one". I was pretty shocked when I found out because I had no idea. Not that I care, because I'm over him. I know this other guy who has "a one". I've never met his one, but the stuff he told me about her, I knew she was his one. He will never be with his "one" because she doesn't like him that way at all. And I told him that she's his "one" ... but not in those words. He got a bit miffed at me, but when she came back from her summer, he told me that he got those "one" feelings when he saw her. he asked me how to get over her. I have no idea how to get over "a one". It may be that you just find another "one". But, I have no clue. I got over my "one" without replacing him.

I have another guy friend who has a "one". He's told me about her (but he may not remember). I feel his is the most tragic of all because he will have this "one" until he finds the perfect girl for him. But he could be married to the perfect girl and still be pining for his "one". But he will realize his perfect girl is actually his "one". But if he never finds the perfect girl, he will forever pine for his "one".

I envy anyone who marries their "one" and that "one" is their "one" forever. That's the kind of love I want.

I wonder if I've ever been anyone's "one". That would be cool if I were.