26 | September | 2012 | Mama Cormier

…..after 31 years of service

The day started out well. I ran 2.1 k with the kids this morning. My friend P, timed me today. It took me 19:29 minutes to run that distance. I know that it’s not fast but I didn’t stop to walk and I passed 3 students who started with me.

At lunch in the staffroom my principal called on me and one other teacher to stand before the staff where she presented us with our 25 year pins of service for the TDSB. The irony is that I’ve actually worked 31 years for this board. The days of honouring teachers with 25 years of service at a special dinner and a gold watch haven’t existed for a long time. In fact getting the dates right doesn’t seem to matter anymore either. Another teacher on staff who’s been with the board for 27 years hasn’t received her pin either.

In art today my first class finished up their colour wheels. The grade 3s created a their wheels using an outline of their hand and painting the 6 primary and secondary colours around their fingers. Then we had a quick lesson on ‘lines’ and the kids filled in the hand shape with a line design. I think they turned out remarkably well.

After school I had a great yoga session. My yoga partner told me that she thought I was wasting away (in a good way) and she couldn’t believe it when I told her that I’ve only lost one extra pound since starting back to school. Maybe the scale in the morning will show otherwise.

Tomorrow the school is having their Terry Fox run and I’m planning to actually run the course this year. I can’t believe how excited I am about running. I used to hate it.

Life is good. I look forward to each new day.

….doing this everyday will help keep my weight down

Loading this up, keeping it stocked and pushing it back and forth from the library to the class I teach is a bit of a challenge, especially when I have to go outside to the portables and lug buckets of water with me. Should be interesting in the winter.

I love teaching art but this year it’s been a bit of a challenge because I don’t have my own space to teach in and I have to transport all my supplies to the students. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to store some of the supplies in teachers’ classrooms so I’ll have less to move around everyday. In the meantime it’s “art on a cart” and because I’m in other people’s classrooms I have no place to sit so I’m on my feet most of the time going back and forth assisting students. I forgot how tiring art can be but it’s a good kind of tired.

The portables are doubly challenging because they have no water so when we’re painting I’m also lugging water buckets to the classroom and using the caretaker’s room to wash out paint buckets and palettes. Luckily I always have a few students who volunteer to help with the clean-up but I work through the entire recess to leave teachers’ classrooms neat and tidy.

The portable classrooms don’t have wall space to hang art work so I have a gallery wall outside the library where I can display work from all five classrooms. Last spring I hung rope from the ceiling for our Forest of Reading display and it’s come in handy for hanging up art work.

Gallery Wall outside the Library

The first project I did with the students this year is one I call “I’m a star because….” or in French, “Je suis une etoile parce que….”. I ask the students to think of one thing that they are especially good at and then pose for a picture doing something that relates to their skill.

Everyone writes why they’re a star in the middle of a star that I’ve provided and then they decorate it with lots of colour. In the second class, after their photos have been printed the students cut out their bodies and glue them and their stars onto a piece of card stock. The final step is to draw a scene behind the photo demonstrating what they’re good at.

The students love this project. Students who don’t have me for art are asking their teachers when they’re going to do the same project. I’ve posted a couple pictures where the student isn’t recognizable or their name is absent.