Saturday April 30

 Hello everyone

Yes--27 more days--nineteen or less teaching days--.  The adventure continues.  At least the weather is warm and sunny today--but who knows, it might be a blizzard tomorrow.  Snow stays right through until July, if you can believe it!!

Covid is surging once again in the village, so very few students are coming to school.  On Friday, I had 6 out of 11.  The high school side had about 10 kids--very discouraging.   They are having last classes on Monday and then they swing into exams.  There are about 60 kids registered in grades 7-12.  Because school has been closed for more then 40 days this year, the students will not be doing the provincial exams, they will be doing the in school exams--if they show up.

On the intermediate side, 3-6, we have about 34 students.  I have the largest class at 13--but I have never had full attendance.  Here in Quebec, they use letter grades, for everyone.  I find this so stupid.

I do my own thing--no surprise.  I do the the 1  does not meet expectations  2 meets expectations and 3 exceeds expectations on every piece of work they do.  I also keep anecdotal records daily, so I have a rich  data base of information.   So important---thankyou Barbara Fudge, Clyde Woolman and Lorna!!

I have enough  data so I can see the patterns, and I can predict pretty much their behaviour, and their success and their failure.  All and all--everything from their attitude,  attendance to academic achievement, there has been huge gains.  

Regarding attendance--it is upsetting, but I roll with the punches.  If there are just a few kids there, I leave the lesson plan, and go to the areas that each child needs, based on my data--the children really respond, and we make gains.  It also drives me crazy when school starts at 8:45, and they wander in anytime all morning.  What to do--when to start?  I put their sticker book on their desk--I cut out the number of stickers they earned the day before.  First job--put the stickers in.  Second job, daily reading, phonics and printing practice--review from the day before.  They can do these things independently---amazing--just took all year for it to happen.  When there seems to be all who are coming, we do a formal lesson-- reading and phonics.  Then--boom--recess.  After recess, snack and while they are eating the snack, I read a story aloud or we watch a fun video that practices basic knowledge such as the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, months of the year, science facts, social studies facts--what ever.  Two out of five days, they go to gym with a gym teacher.  That is it for the grade 3's.  In the afternoon, they go to Inuit studies.  My 5 grade four's come in the afternoon,  everyday for a least 45 minutes.  Sometimes, 90 minutes--but only one child comes regularly.  I created work books for the afternoon--they are the base for what we do, and I supplement with art, hands on activities, and field trips around the school, or outside.

There is a drama initiative from Montreal.  There is a group that is funding a team to come to small communities and involve and train local artists to come into the schools.  The locals are people who have a talent or interest in drama.  We had the team in last week, and it was a good experience for the children.   The locals are lovely people, and will certainly do well--with a little help--I am  coaching the ladies for the next 4 weeks--a good start.  Not like BC at all--so I have to bite my lip, and refrain from saying in BC we......I must adapt to what is--at least an acknowledgement of drama education.  Of course, I have attitude and it makes me cringe when folks talk about drama as being theatre--where are you Dorothy Heathcott!!!

On the home scene..no hot water for 2 weeks.  Finally a plumber came in from Montreal--I had to relocate to another apartment for a couple of days while he worked on the heat, the water and other stuff-fortunately, it is all fixed, so I moved back in yesterday.  The other place was fine, but no cable or internet.

Creating a get well card for a colleague who is sick.

How we feel because he is not coming to cook with us.

The drama.

Local ladies who will be doing the drama.

A blizzard that blew in at 10:30 am, closing the school.  This was a parent driving kids home.  They couldn't make it up a hill, so all kids had to be transferred to ski doo to get home.