End of the first week back

 March 3

It has been two weeks now that we have been back full time.  I am having excellent attendance, and for the most part, the children are settling into good work habits.  It is a full time balancing act engaging them, giving them seat work that is meaningful, and trying to provide work that is not too hard or not too easy.  I tend to error on the amount.  Some children are quite able, but some are not.  Keeping in mind the huge difference in ability, it is really a challenge.  I am going to try something new today--timing each segment of lessons--direct teaching, and then seat work.  I need to do this so that I can divide the class into groups.  It worked out!!

So far, the children have great difficulty in working independently.  They act out when someone is not hovering over them.  Today, I am going to talk to them about this, and see if I can convince them it is time for independent work.

Major break through for me--I was invited to a child's birthday party on Tuesday evening.  Why a break through, you say!  Well, first time for house visits, during the Covid, which is pretty much gone  now, and a break in the village--very rare.  The kids were all in my class, and they were great!  The mom made me and the other adults caribou stew, while the kids had pizza.  I really enjoyed meeting the ladies--a tough group of women, but very warm, caring wise.

We recognized suicide prevention week on Tuesday as well.  That was a struggle for me.  I was asked to come up with a lesson--no resources--so I pretty much spent the weekend researching.  Ultimately, I just asked the question, what is suicide.  Everyone of the children know about it--their grade 1 teacher committed suicide, and nearly every child has had a close relative commit suicide.  We came up with slogans about caring, sharing, and chatting about how we need to reach out.  I mentioned the help line, and suggested we put it on a poster.  One child, whose brother died two years ago suggested that he use his phone number on the poster because he didn't want his friends to talk to strangers about their problems.  He said his mom was a good person to talk to.

We have put our new aprons to good use.  We made cupcakes last Friday.  That was my first cooking lesson--worked out great--I got lots of helps from the support staff--I even invited some children from another class--that was a stretch--but was good.

Staff members are dwindling--some are leaving because they feel undervalued, some are leaving because they are having children--so the circle closes, and the pressure mounts on those of us remaining.

Each day continues to be the challenge I hoped for, and each day I try my best to move these little bundles of joy forward.  I thank you all for your continued prayers of support.

I am coming to Comox for the spring break, March 19-26, but I will be pretty busy so I won't get to see everyone.  We will have to wait until the end of May when school is over.

Plans for next year include music making, exercise classes and China!!!

Hugs

Cupcake time

Love the aprons Bodynetix made for us!!

Slogan for keeping healthy.

Helping each other!

Talk!!

Getting to go on the walk in minus 43 degrees.

Having hotdogs after the walk.

At the birthday party.