Hallowe’en Night at the Book Fair

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….the one I stay open late so that the parents can shop while the children play

Last Friday the halls were decorated with cobwebs, zombies, witches, skeletons and ghosts and several classrooms were set up with interesting and engaging activities for the kids. The party started at 6:30 and 150 children and their parents came dressed in costume. There were scary masks, long wigs, bushy beards, and store bought and handmade costumes.

I took a few pictures of some of the children when they came to the book fair. Posting them is always somewhat tricky but a number of the parents gave me permission to include them in this blog and others are so covered up that no one would know who’s behind the mask or the beard.

Some of the kids are former students who came back to celebrate with their younger siblings. It always amazes me how much some of them grow over the summer. The book fair has been a big success so far and it was definitely worthwhile having it open during the party. Our goal this year is to sell $7000 worth of merchandise. So far, after 3 days we’ve brought in over $4800. Four more days to go. The library will get about 60% of the total sales back in books when all is said and done. Not bad for a week’s work.

Here I am with my talking witch’s hat and my number one ‘go to guy’ at this year’s book fair. Thank you M all your help.

Baking in the BBQ

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..and wheat free doesn’t mean carb free

After reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD, one quickly realizes that eating gluten and wheat free foods doesn’t guarantee weight loss. There are more and more gluten free products on the market than ever, especially in the snacking and bakery sections of the grocery store. If you were to read the ingredient lists you would discover that many of these products are high in sugars, fats and alternative starches and the calorie count is high for what you’re getting.

I was feeling somewhat liberated when I found gluten free flour at Costco and I was somewhat disappointed when I couldn’t find a gluten free banana bread recipe in Dr. Davis’ book. After using a regular recipe and substituting the gluten free flour for regular flour it started to dawn on me that I don’t normally eat bananas, let alone banana bread, even though I love both. I’ve always known that bananas are high in carbs and the bread goes without saying. It was when I added the 2 cups of sugar, the 1 1/2 cups of butter and 6 cups of flour that I started to question what I was doing.

So why was I baking banana bread when I’m still trying to lose weight? It just so happened that we were going to celebrate my friend D’s birthday on Sunday and she suggested that we bake something special. Besides she had some sour milk that needed to be used and I had some very ripe bananas. I went through my cottage cookbooks and lo and behold I found a recipe that used both those ingredients.

As you know from previous posts I don’t have electricity and I do the bulk of my cooking on the BBQ, including any baking that I might do. Over the years D and I have developed a knack for baking muffins, cakes and breads in the great outdoors. One of the tricks is to use smaller pans so that dough cooks through to the middle in a shorter length of time. The bread in the bundt pan was finished first, or so we thought. If you look closely at the cut slices you can see that the middle is a little too soft.

The two breads in the loaf pan took a little longer but were a better texture. One of the differences with using gluten free flour is that the bread was much denser than a normal banana bread and for some reason tasted much sweeter. If I were to do this again (for my friends who are truly gluten intolerant) I would definitely add less sugar and maybe even experiment with some kind of substitute that isn’t aspartame or saccharin. I’ve heard that applesauce is a good replacement for sugar in some baking recipes.

I had one and a half slices of the bread on D’s birthday and I ate one slice for breakfast the next morning. I’ve always found that if I’m going to eat carbs it’s best in the morning and then avoid them for the rest of the day. Maybe I should clarify that when I say carbs I mean breads, pasta and primarily flour products. I still eat lots of healthy carbs in the way of vegetables, some fruit and dairy products along with lean protein and healthy fats.

I’m going to have to read the Wheat Belly book a little closer and try to figure out how to fit it into my daily diet without increasing my carb intake. Maybe some of you have a gluten free, wheat free recipe, low in carbs, fat and sugar that I could try. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The following pictures are of D and D’s birthday/anniversary dinner that they kindly invited me to. Afterwards we relaxed around a beautiful bonfire as the sun set over Christian Island.

Delicious lamb, fresh tomatoes, green salad with avocados and Ontario corn on the cob. Yum!

Happy Birthday, D!

February – A Book Review in August

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..after reading it again for a second time

(I discovered that the library in the village has free WiFi, so I decided to post the two stories that I’ve written since coming to the cottage and not wait until I get home.)

Earlier in the year my book club had discussed the book February by Lisa Moore. It was one of the books that I didn’t finish before our discussion. I had read about half of it and I was having a hard time finishing it. Most of the members of the group really liked the book and I was somewhat lukewarm about it.

I decided to continue reading it to see what I was missing. The funny thing is that I did read some more of it after the meeting but I knew that I hadn’t read all of it. When I brought it up to the cottage to continue where I had left off, I couldn’t remember how far into the story I had read. I went about half way back into the book and started at a random page. It didn’t look familiar but as I continued to read I started to recognize passages that I had definitely covered.

Instead of skipping the following pages and trying to find where I had left off I continued to read, even though I had read these very pages before. I rarely reread a book once I’m done with it but I found that I gained a new appreciation for the story reading it a second time. In the end I discovered that there were less than 20 pages that I hadn’t read.

February is the fictional account of an actual tragedy that occurred in 1982 when the oil rig, The Ocean Ranger, sank off the coast of Newfoundland. All 84 men aboard died. The story is about Helen O’Mara who became widowed when her husband Cal drowns during the storm on that fateful Valentine’s evening.

The story goes back and forth between that tragic night and the present. Helen tries to imagine where her husband was and what he was doing before the rig overturned and she is haunted by images of what could have been. We also learn of the difficulties Helen experiences raising her four children on her own and her struggle to end her loneliness.

I think the first time I read the book I was frustrated by Helen’s on going obsession with wanting to know exactly how her husband died. After reading it a second time I began to appreciate the writing itself. The Winnipeg Free Press described Lisa Moore’s writing as follows: “Moore’s writing resembles poetry…She expertly captures her characters’ physical surroundings in sharp-edge fragments of colour and sensation.”

February is a study of grief and how one woman’s life is profoundly changed by one tragic event. I’m glad I reread the book. I wouldn’t recommend it if you need to read something light and funny but if you are in the mood for an intense and dramatic story, based on an actual event, pick up a copy of February. By the way it was also the winner of the 2013 Canada Reads competition.

Gone for a Week

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….I’m heading up to the cottage for one last long stay

It seems like I haven’t spent very much time at the cottage this summer and the fact is I haven’t compared to previous years. So I’m leaving in the next couple of hours for my paradise up North and as many of you know I don’t have electricity. That of course means that I won’t be posting for awhile.

I will however write articles and save them, paint and take photographs. Hopefully I will have a lot to share when I return next Saturday. If I’m really desperate I could go to the store in the village and pay $5.00 to use the WiFi but I think I may be too busy just laying back and resting up before the school doors open for another year.

Here’s what a typical day at the cottage might look like:

wake up at 7:30 or there about
go for a walk or run along the beach with my camera in hand
make coffee and a ‘wheat free’ breakfast
spend 20 minutes tidying up and filling the water barrel
reading the next book for our book club The Head Master’s Wager by Vincent Lam
rake around the cottage
prepare a salad for lunch and enjoy it
visit with my neighbour and enjoy a game of scrabble
experiment with a new recipe that I can prepare on the BBQ (probably from my Wheat Belly Cookbook)
go for a swim
prepare dinner
draw in my journal or set up for printing or painting
do the dishes from the last two meals
read for a couple more hours
go to bed around 10:30

That’s pretty much it. I’m really looking forward to a week of healthy eating, walking, swimming, reading and exploring my creative side. See you in a week (maybe sooner).

Carol

My Summer Reading

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….I’m way behind and I only have one full week left before I head back to the classroom

As you can see I may have bitten off more than I can chew but some of these books I had started earlier in the year and didn’t finish, some I’m half way through and one was a book club book that we discussed at the beginning of the month. The last one I finished and will discuss briefly in this post.

The first book that I finished this summer is The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson. This is one of the books that I started last year, picked it up again earlier this year and finally finished it in July. It was a struggle. It was the winner of the 2010 Man Booker prize and for the life of me I can’t understand why it won. I went over to Amazon.com to read some of the reviews on this book and discovered that you either loved this book or hated it. I think that some of the best comments that resonated for me included: …..”You might also love it if you’re into angst and want to read many pages about people full of angst, who spend their waking hours worrying about angst, wondering what to do about their angst (or, indeed, whether to do anything at all), asking who’s to blame for all that angst, trying (and mostly failing) to find a meaning in angst, even questioning whether their angst is real or whether they’re imagining it.”……”Reading this book feels like reading an angst-ridden teen’s diary: endless self-indulgent delving into identity. Who am I? How can I know who I am? Why am I who I am? What does it all mean? What if I’m not really who I think I am? Is it okay to be who I am? Should I try to be someone else?….. are you bored yet?”

This pretty much sums up how I feel about this story of three childhood friends, two who are Jewish and one who isn’t, and how they interact with each other later in life when the two of them become widowed. Some reviewers found it brilliant, funny and thought provoking. I tried to like it but the story didn’t work for me.

The next book that I read was Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. I loved this book, as did everyone in my book club. The book was a 2013 Canada Reads contender.

The story is about Saul Indian Horse, an Ojibway man from Northern Ontario, who has to confront his past in order to overcome his drinking problem. Saul’s difficult journey takes the reader through his childhood when he is separated from his family and land and sent to a residential school where he suffers abuse from the nuns and priests who reside there. He soon discovers he has an amazing talent for hockey and he finds brief salvation in playing the game.

The novel was an eye opener for me of the harsh reality of life in 1960s Canada. We don’t often think about racism existing in our own backyard but in this story racism is a central theme and Saul’s spirit is destroyed by the harsh realities of cultural displacement. A must read for all North Americans and Canadians in particular.

An Almost Perfect Day

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..until our guest speaker didn’t show up

Today was the day I was most stressed about. Since January I’ve been running a school wide book club, featuring children’s books written by Canadian authors. The club was open to all students in grades three to five. Initially over 80 students joined the club.

The program is called the Forest of Reading and there are books for all age groups from Kindergarten to high school and beyond. Each age category is named after a tree commonly found in Canada. The primary books are classified as Blue Spruce books, grade 3 to 6 are Silver Birch and the French books are named Tamarack and Poplar.

Every year new authors and books are featured and at the end of April students from all over Ontario vote for their favourite book in one category. There’s a big culminating event in Toronto that students are encouraged to attend to meet the authors and find out who the winners are. It’s like the Oscars of children’s books. A couple of years ago the entire school went downtown to attend this event. It was outside and it was a very cool day and because it took place right next to the lake it was even colder. There were thousands of children there and there were line-ups for everything.

Last year we decided as a staff to host our own special event with the students at our school. It was such a successful day that we wanted to do it again. Unfortunately with the political climate in all our schools this year it almost didn’t happen at all. Earlier in the school year the parents purchased the books for us and I really wanted to proceed with the program. Luckily enough teachers were willing to help out and be expert readers so the program started in earnest in January.

In order to participate in the year end celebration for the Forest of Reading the students had to read enough books to reach a goal of 10 credits. I’m happy to say that 34 boys and girls reached and surpassed the goal. One of my students read 38 books.

Today the successful participants were pulled from class and enjoyed two specially designed workshops. In one session the children worked with a professional actor and did drama activities around one of the books that was featured this year. In the second workshop they learned how to make an accordion book which they could personalize and take away with them. For lunch, we treated them to pizza, juice and popsicles.

After lunch I had arranged for one of the Forest of Reading authors to come to the school and speak to the boys and girls. We were all very excited about this special visit. Unfortunately this was the one feature of the day that did not take place. Our guest of honour had mixed up his dates and thought he was coming to the school tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m not at school so we arranged to do the presentation on Monday morning, so not all was lost.

At the end of the day my colleague and pottery teacher was excited to show me how her Father’s Day gift activity turned out. These wonderful clay trophies mounted on bits of scrap marble were created by D’s grade 1/2 class. I think they’re amazing. What Dad wouldn’t love these works of art?

Book Review -The Imposter Bride

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..by Nancy Richler

I read this book a couple of months ago and last night our book club met at the Runnymede Library to listen to Nancy Richler read excerpts from her novel, discuss her motivation for writing the book and take questions from the audience.

The presentation was part of The eh List Authors Series. This is a Toronto Public Library initiative that promotes successful authors and invites them to come to a designated location and speak to the library patrons in Toronto.

Here is a brief summary of The Imposter Bride, taken from the Toronto Public Library website:

When Sol Kramer sees his intended bride, Lily Azerov, fresh from the Levant and waiting at the Montreal train station, he takes one look and he bolts. His brother Nathan is mortified. And charmed. Nathan steps up and proposes to the beautiful Lily himself. But Lily has a secret. She is not Lily Azerov.

Nancy Richler carefully chose passages from her novel to share with the packed house at the Runnymede Library. Most of the audience had read the book, so she was delighted to discuss the theme, the characters and her own personal connections and experiences that helped her write this wonderful book.

Hearing how and why Nancy wrote this book made it even more special. It took her nine years to write this book. Some of the characters are loosely based on her own family and childhood friends. Having grown up in Montreal in the post war years in the 50s and 60s gives Nancy first hand experience of the broken Holocaust survivors and their struggles to make a new life in a new country.

Most of the book is told in the voice of Lily’s daughter, Ruth. When Ruth was only 3 months old, Lilly abandoned her daughter and husband and disappeared for decades. On Ruth’s sixth birthday she receives a mysterious package from her mother with a stone inside. Over the years Ruth receives several parcels from her mother, each with a new stone inside and each return address is from a different city in Canada. Does Ruth ever meet her mother? You’ll need to read the book to find out.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Busy Day

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..a quick update

The day started with soccer practice at 7:40 to 8:20. After the announcements my principal and I drove across town, through rush hour to check out some used furniture and fixtures for our school. We put our names on pieces that were on the wish lists of the staff. Now we have to wait and see which pieces we’ll be gifted.

When we got back to school I ordered books and supplies that a few more staff members had requested.

Lunch

Art class to my 3/4 class. Worked through recess.

Library class and then prepared for Girls on the Run

3:00 to 4:30 – Girls on the Run. My back was still bothering me today so I didn’t run but I did walk quickly around the course. I did 4 laps for a total of 2k. We have a few girls who need a little extra motivation to keep running so I kept sneaking up on them and bellowing at them to run. It was a lot of fun and it was the most running these girls have done since we started 6 weeks ago.

5:00 drove to Costco to pick up a cake for a baby shower at school tomorrow. Also picked up some chicken and salad for tonight’s dinner.

5:45 prepared dinner and washed up dishes

6:30 drove to book club. We had our meeting at the library where the author, Nancy Richler talked about her book The Imposter Bride. More on that in my next post.

8:00 went for coffee with the girls from the book club. Really enjoyed tonight’s talk.

9:30 drove home

10:00 – checked my emails and watched So You Think You Can Dance

11:50 – should be in bed but decided to quickly post about my day

12:15 – finished this post and plan to head to bed

Good Night!

Is the Library Obsolete?

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. well at least one parent thinks so

Tonight at the parent council meeting people were asking when the wall between the library and the computer lab was going to be removed so that the library could be enlarged. To my dismay one parent questioned the logic of enlarging a library when books were becoming obsolete.

The new library would have tables where students could work and the portable computer lab with the laptops could be used along with resource books to do research. The desktop computers would be moved into classrooms. Some of the better ones would be left along one wall in the new library space.

At the moment the library is so small that there is no room for furniture where students can sit and read. Presently they sit on the floor. Even the superintendent thinks that the library is incredibly small. My principal says it’s a closet. Well it’s not that small but it is tight and difficult to manoeuvre around the book carousels and cases. Teaching a class in this space has its challenges and forget doing writing assignments.

These old computers would be removed and replaced with tables and laptops.

I hope the complaint from this one parent doesn’t go any further. No one else at the meeting supported her views but she didn’t seem convinced when we laid out the benefits of removing the wall. The space could also be used by other teachers to teach French and media classes and I could use it for my art classes as well. No more ‘art on a cart’ and there’s water in the space which I don’t have when I have to teach in the portables.

I know that e-books are becoming more popular but I’m sure that books will have a place in our society and schools for numerous years to come.

Buying Things for Others Makes Me Happy

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..especially when it’s not my money

Every year in the library we host a book fair and all the profits go to buying more books for the library and to support the curriculum across different grades and subjects. I had a nice sum of money from the last two book fairs to spend. Routinely the company that runs the fairs sends me catalogues and flyers of all the products that they sell. When I see something that I think would benefit a class or a specialty teacher I pass it on to see if there is any interest.

Today I actually found the time to order everything that a number of teachers expressed an interest in and the best part is that I still have more than half of my credits left. I’m looking forward to approaching more staff to help me spend the rest of the money. I love children’s books and I know it will feel like my birthday when this order comes in. So far half the order will stay in the library and the rest will go into different classrooms.

I have students that are library helpers and they love helping me unpack new books. Next week when this order comes in I’ll have a group of very happy children.

Yesterday I went to a meeting for girls’ soccer and track and field. The good news is that extra-curricular sports are back in the TDSB and I’ve volunteered to coach soccer again. So on days when I’m not coaching Girls on the Run, I’ll be out with the soccer team. Luckily I have some parents that are eager to help me coach the girls and their expertise and dedication are greatly appreciated.

The third reason to be happy today is that the temperatures went into the double digits today and I was able to wear my spring jacket. We had our best day so far for Girls on the Run until the rain started but we were able to get in most of the run before we had to head back inside. It looks like the rain is going to stay with us for a few days and unfortunately we’re being threatened wit a winter storm warning. Really???????

Anyway, new books, warmer temperatures (even if only for a day) and bringing back extra-curricular sports are in my Happiness File today.

Cheers!