We Lost in Overtime

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….heartbreaking

I knew the minute I saw the other team that this was going to be a close competition.

A few days ago I told you about my trials and tribulations when I took my girls’ soccer team to the West Conference finals. The team easily won their first game and then we had to wait an hour between games before we could play our final game. Little did we know at the time that the other team wasn’t going to show up because they had gone to the wrong location.

After waiting in the hot sun for an hour and a half I had to make a decision. Do we win by default or do we allow the missing team to make up the game in the next two days at our school? After speaking with the team we reluctantly decided to play later in the week.

Finding a time that would work for both teams proved to be difficult. I had the upper hand and basically gave them a time that worked for us. I knew that they must have been under a lot of pressure from their community because the time I gave them originally didn’t work for them and when I told them that we had run out of options (which we had) they found a solution to arrive at that time.

All of this happened late Wednesday afternoon and I then had to run around the school to inform the girls that we were playing at 9:00 in the morning the next day. Unfortunately one of our players couldn’t make it because of an appointment that couldn’t be changed on such short notice.

On the day, we had to scramble to find pinnies that were all the same colour because the boys took the jerseys to play in their West Conference game. They won, by the way, and are moving on to the City Finals. To make a long story short, we started out by scoring the first 2 goals and then they tied it up. We then scored 2 more goals and in the last minute of the game the other team tied it up again.

We had to go into overtime, two 5 minute halves and the first team to score would win the game. It was stressful and in the second half the other team put the ball into our net.

When we congratulated the other team I quietly said to the coach from the opposing team that in the future she should be careful not to miss a game again because I’m not so sure that I or any other team would be so generous, again and agree to play at a later date. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that but she became quite indignant and said that if the tables had been turned she would have definitely ‘invited’ the team to her school so that the girls could play. This is all fine and well to say when you’ve just won your game but she didn’t have to wait for an hour and a half on a shadeless field with 16 girls and a dozen parents who had made the long trip to watch their girls play and then have to inform everyone that we weren’t playing because the coach of the other team hadn’t read her emails. We had been informed about the change in venue a week before the game and there were several emails in between that went out informing all of us about the times and field locations.

In the end I explained to her how the girls had helped me make the decision to host another game so that her players had an opportunity to play. I graciously offered to make the presentation of the banner to her team because the convenors for the tournament couldn’t come to the school on such short notice. In turn she praised my girls for a game well played and thanked them for making the decision to give her team another opportunity to play.

Should I have kept my mouth closed and not said anything to this coach? I’m afraid I’m very much like my father and sometimes blurt out things before thinking it through. The only difference is that I know how to take back or apologize for my words where my father rarely does because he believes that you should be allowed to say what you want and not worry how it affects someone else. As he gets older it seems to get worse, as if age is an excuse for insensitivity.

I would welcome your thoughts on this predicament. Have you ever been put on the spot where you had to make a decision that was literally a game changer? I only wish that there was something in the regulations that deals with situations like this. We have rules for everything else, maybe we need a rule for no shows.

Organizing Timetables for Next Year

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….it took six of us about five hours to pull it off

It’s been a tough day for me, emotionally. The press was very critical of teachers today. Apparently last Friday over 1600 teachers in the school board next door to the one I work for, called in sick and there weren’t enough supply teachers to cover all the absences. We knew that this might happen when the government took away sick days that teachers had saved over the years and cut back the total number of sick days a year that teachers could use. Any unused days can no longer be carried over to other years so as a result many teachers feel that they have to use them up or lose them.

The problem here is that your colleagues suffer when there aren’t enough supply teachers to cover your absence. Library classes get cancelled, MART teachers are pulled from their class and sometimes teachers lose their prep periods to cover these unsupervised classes. Listening to the radio this morning on the way to school and then again on the drive home left me feeling very depressed. Everyone who hates teachers seems to come out of the woodwork when stories like this are written. These haters paint all of us with the same brush. We were described as greedy, selfish, uncaring, liars and dishonest.

I also spent a great deal of time today dealing with the school that didn’t show up for our soccer game yesterday. The time I suggested yesterday didn’t suit them. At this point I really didn’t feel that I needed to make anymore concessions. They wanted me to play through my lunch hour and they even offered to pay for a supply teacher so that the schools could play in the afternoon. I’ve had to leave work for supply teachers in the past and it’s a great deal of work, especially for art. In the end I told them that there were no more options. They finally agreed to come at the time I had first posted.

After school today a group of us stayed behind at school to organize next year’s timetables. Our principal ordered in chicken and salad for dinner. Even though it took us 5 hours it seemed too easy this year. Either we’ve gotten really good at it or we’ve made a huge mistake that will be discovered in the next day or two. Even if it is correct I know that we won’t please everyone. Each teacher has been given the number of prep periods that they are entitled to but we know that some teachers won’t be happy with how they’ve been distributed. Some want them all in the morning, or all in the afternoon or evenly distributed or only in periods 1 or 5 and some people may not like who is delivering their prep or which subjects are being covered. The funny part is that anyone who wants to participate in organizing the timetables is welcome to join us but it’s always the same people every year who do the work.

Everyone is a bit on edge these days. Report cards are due next week and people are struggling to finish teaching the curriculum or marking tests and projects. We’ve just finished the grade 3 EQAO province wide testing and we we’re still preparing for the spring concert.

The highlight of my day today was teaching puberty to the grade 5 students. I actually volunteered to do this because I love teaching this part of the health curriculum. My principal thinks I’m crazy. I also loved my art class where most of my students were completely engaged in creating their Picasso portraits. I can’t wait to share them with you next week.

Cheers!

We’re Half Way There

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….to winning the West Conference Finals

Today I took 16 girls from the soccer team to the Esther Shiner Stadium to play in the West Conference finals. Our first game was at noon and we arrived 40 minutes early so that we could warm up.

It was a beautiful day and the temperature was perfect for playing soccer, warm but not hot. The girls played extremely well and put in place all the skills that they’d been taught over the last 6 weeks. They won their first game easily, 6 – 0.

We have new rules in soccer now that require teams to take a one hour break between games. After the first game we had to wait until 2:00 before we could play again. The winner of this second game would be crowned the West Conference champions.

An hour is a long time and even though the girls were suppose to rest they played on the field and even practised some more of their soccer moves. When 2:00 arrived the other team still hadn’t shown up. By 2:10 the convenor called the coach of the other team and we discovered that they had gone to the wrong soccer field. Now this field wasn’t down the block or a couple of streets over, it was on the other side of town. Before they could get to Esther Shiner we were looking at another 40 minute wait.

We contemplated waiting but then the organizers realized that all the fields were booked at 3:00 and we wouldn’t be able to play anyway. Now the decision was mine. The other team asked if we could play the game at our school later in the week and they would pay for the ref. I could have said no and but I kept thinking about the girls on the other team who didn’t get to play through no fault of their own.

When I got back to school I checked our schedule and discovered that the only time slot that would work for us is Thursday at 9:00. I wrote to the other team about the new day and time which is completely contingent on whether or not we can get a ref at such short notice.

So that is why we are only half way to being the West Conference champions. Unfortunately on the same day that we might play, the boys from our school are headed to Esther Shiner to play in the West Conference finals for boys and they will be wearing the Rosethorn jerseys. One of the parents is looking into getting enough pinnies, all in the same colour, for the girls to wear on Thursday.

I was hoping that would be one more thing that I could cross off my to do list but it wasn’t to be. Tomorrow I have to finalize what we’re going to do for our Forest of Reading Celebration. Today I got a lead on an author who is willing to come to Rosethorn to talk to the children. That would be a perfect way to end our special day.

Till tomorrow, cheers!

Planning for the Summer

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..opening the cottage and buying tickets for flights to Europe

It all seems so surreal. We haven’t done either of the above yet. It’s almost the end of May and my focus has been on school and it continues to be my focus.

On Friday we will be hosting our Jump Rope for Heart activity and then I’ll be collecting and counting the donations and filling in the paperwork in the week to follow. Next Tuesday the girls’ soccer team will be playing at the Esther Shiner Stadium for the West Conference Finals. One more practice tomorrow morning.

Also next week we have two more sessions for Girls on the Run and then on Sunday June 9 we head up to Vaughn Mills for the actual 5k race. On Friday, next week, we have a report card writing day which is city wide. Hopefully we won’t have the usual problems when more than 11 000 teachers try to get on the system at the same time. Two of us are the report card administrators at my school we are in charge of making sure that there are no glitches in the system at the school level. Unfortunately there are always glitches but they are usually easily fixable.

The following week I have to print all the report cards for the staff. Not a difficult task but somewhat time consuming because again every school in the board prints at the same time and everything comes through cyberspace. The following day I have my physical. That reminds me, I have to check what time my appointment is. I can’t remember if I managed a time after school or if I have to take time off.

On the 13th my Forest of Reading student book club is having their big celebration day. Plans are underway and so far we’ve prepared a book making activity and one of my colleagues has confirmed that we have an artist coming in to do a drama workshop with the students. A pizza lunch has yet to be organized and prizes have to be obtained.

Tonight I spoke with my oldest daughter and we’ve set a potential date to open the cottage. It looks like it may be the Father’s Day weekend. I have to contact my friend D and see if she wants to go up the same weekend.

The week following, the school will be preparing for the spring concert. I promised my friend L, who is the music teacher, that I would help her with the organization. There is also a possibility that somewhere in the middle of all of this that the girls’ soccer team could advance to the city finals but I guess I shouldn’t count my chickens before they hatch.

In the last week of school the grade 5 students have their farewell assembly and a special activity day. This will be the first year since I started at Rosethorn that I won’t be directly involved with these activities. That means, however, that I will probably be in charge of an activity for the school wide fun day instead.

Somewhere I have to find time to pack up a wall of library books before we leave for summer vacation. During the summer, construction workers will be coming in to remove the wall between the library and the computer lab.

My husband has applied for his new passport and he’s been in touch with family overseas. He’s going to look into booking tickets for our flights in the next week or two and then we’ll sit down and make plans for our accommodations and planning our itinerary. We’re hoping to meet up with our son and his girlfriend when they go to Dublin for a conference. We’d like him to meet the Irish cousins and hopefully we can plan a short trip to the west coast with him.

I know people who plan months in advance for a trip like this. I’m a little nervous that we’ve left it so late but with my husband’s health issues we can’t plan too far in advance. Even at this stage we’re still waiting for one more appointment before we can make definite plans.

In the end it will all work out. If Europe doesn’t pan out, I still have the cottage and my little paradise in the sun and I will see my son in the fall.

A Day of Soccer, Girls on the Run and School Council Meeting

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….this one’s for you Michele

It was after 9:00 pm when I got home tonight.

It started to pour last night and the lightning kept flashing through my bedroom window. The forecast for our soccer tournament looked grim. The only reason for cancelling a game would be the onset of lightning.

Luckily the rain, thunder or lightning never did appear and we were able to play all four games. The girls were amazing and won every game. We’re moving on to the West Conference finals in June.

At the end of the tournament the skies darkened and I was sure that Girls on the Run would be rained out. Again the rain stayed away and the girls were able to get out and run their laps in preparation for their 5k run. Being out in the sun all day and walking back and forth between the two soccer fields, making numerous trips from the fields to the office and other rooms of the school and doing recess duty and bus duty at the end of the day, left me exhausted. I didn’t run tonight.

After Girls on the Run I ended up staying at school because we had a school council meeting and I am the teacher representative. Michele ordered dinner in for both of us….chicken and salad. Perfect. The meeting started at 7:00 and ended at 8:30. It was pretty uneventful but people sure had a lot to say. Even when the meeting was over discussions continued in the hallway and a couple of parents came down to the library and had numerous questions for me about the upcoming renovation. With a little encouragement from our fearless leader we finally made our way to the parking lot.

I thought I could come and home and relax but M insisted that I had to write something for my blog tonight. This one’s for you Michele.

Cheers!

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!

A Busy Eight Weeks Coming Up

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….we had a staff meeting to set dates for our year end activities

I’m not the best when it comes to writing down dates for meetings, events, birthdays, etc., but a few weeks ago I took out my agenda and started to list everything that was coming up. I’m pretty good at remembering dates or I rely on others to do it for me, however, too many things that I was personally responsible for were coming up so I needed to start keeping track of them.

One of my frustrations is trying to coordinate mutually acceptable dates for tournaments where four or more teams are concerned. This year we volunteered to host the boys’ and girls’ soccer tournaments at our school because we have two large soccer fields. The tournaments have to run on separate days and in case of thunder and lightning we have to set rain dates as well.

The boys got a head start on us and reserved two prime days in May. The Monday of that week was a holiday and on Friday the West Conference Track and Field Meet was being held. The following week all the schools were beginning EQAO testing so any kind of tournament was out of the question. That meant we had to choose a date a week earlier. We chose the 16th but it turned out that one of the schools had already booked a field trip that day and couldn’t change it. So we picked our rain date from the following week and created a new rain date the week after, a day before EQAO testing is to begin.

We asked everyone to reply by the end of the day so that we could send the schedules home. Of course two days later one of the other schools wrote back and said that those dates conflicted with one of their tournaments for the boys because they were happening on the same day and the same teacher was coaching both the boys’ and the girls’ teams.

We were running out of dates so we went to our boys’ team and asked if we could use their rain date for our tournament. I’ve now informed my girls and my parent coach of 3 different dates for the tournament. It doesn’t end there.

Today at our staff meeting our principal told us that she purchased tickets to the Wizard of Oz for all the grade 3s,4s and 5s for May 23rd, the last date we chose for the tournament. When she checked the main calendar we hadn’t posted the final date for the tournament because we hadn’t heard back from all the teams.

So where does that leave us? Well we emailed all the teams again and told them that we had to go back to the 21st and that the team with the double tournament conflict would have to find someone to supervise one of her teams on that day. I hope this is the end of it but I know that not everyone will be happy about it.

Here’s a quick list of all that is coming up this week alone, over and above my regular teaching day:

April 29th – meeting with rep from Jump Rope for Heart, soccer practice in the morning, open report cards on the main computer so that teachers can start inputing comments, assist with school track and field meet throughout the day when not teaching art or giving teachers prep

April 30 – last day for voting for the Forest of Reading and submitting the votes, soccer practice in the morning, retirement workshop at lunch,Girls on the Run after school

May 2 – soccer practice in the morning, concert at Koerner Hall in the afternoon, pottery class in the evening

May 3 – soccer practice after school

I’m sure I’ve missed something but someone’s sure to remind me. Have a great weekend.

Cheers!

Back on Track

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….at least with my eating

The temperature was sitting at zero celsius when I woke up this morning but the sun was shining and there was no wind. I made a great omelet with shallots, mushrooms and spinach. I didn’t have time to eat it so I packed it up and took it to school with me. We had a 7:40 soccer practice. Coach S and I were debating whether we should play outside or in the gym. The field was pretty wet from all the rain yesterday but it had warmed up a bit so we decided to do the drills on the field.

An hour after I made my breakfast I finally got to enjoy it. I filled up my sports bottle with water and took it back to the library and sipped on it all day. For lunch I had a big salad with chicken.

At the end of the school day the weather changed drastically. The temperature dropped again and the wind picked up. We went outside with the girls for Girls on the Run but I didn’t run with them tonight. It was too cold and windy for me and the ground was too soggy.

For dinner we ate the leftover vegetables from a couple of nights ago and we finished the chicken from last night. I had my pottery class tonight so we didn’t have time to prepare anything more elaborate. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty tasty meal.

When I arrived at the class the students and my instructor were still having their pot luck supper. The week before they had kindly invited me to join them but I knew that arriving earlier and with a dish to share would be very difficult with my tight schedule on Thursdays. Nonetheless they asked me to join them and offered me wine and dessert. I passed on both but I did sit with them and got to know them all a little bit better.

In my class tonight I cut the lid way from the pot and finished the edges. It is now sitting on the shelf waiting to be fired. I started a second project. D showed me a simple way to make a plate using a Chinette paper plate as a mold. I rolled out a slab and placed it on top of the plate and then gently pressed it to fit the shape of the plate. To add interest to the plate I stamped designs onto the rim of the plate and I etched a simple design in the middle of the plate. It now also sits on the shelf waiting to be fired.

All in all it wasn’t a bad day. I didn’t get to the gym because yesterday I forgot about my pottery class. Tomorrow we’re taking my daughter and her partner to the airport after we take them out for dinner so I won’t have time to get to the gym. I’ll have to make a point of getting there on the weekend. I did drink a litre of water and ate well today. More of the same tomorrow.

Cheers!

I’m Physically Exhausted

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..arrived at school at 7:40 and left at 5:15

It wasn’t the long hours that made me tired, because I often stay later but more importantly is was what I did in that time. I arrived early for the girls’ soccer team tryouts. At lunch I played floor hockey in the teachers vs students game. I scored the turn around goal. The noise from the fans watching the game was incredible. My ears were ringing for awhile.

Right after the game I went straight to my art class with my grade 2/3 class. It was a very busy class. I introduced transferring a design from paper onto fabric using fabric crayons and a hot iron. Of course I did the ironing. The resulting prints were beautiful and I will photograph them tomorrow and share them with you in the next couple of days. This project was so popular that students wanted to stay in class through recess so that I would iron their print onto a piece of fabric of their choice.

After recess I headed down to my grade 2/3 class that I usually take to the library but today they had a special dance workshop with an artist from Arts Express. For the next 40 minutes I participated with the students and did the warm up activities and learned a few hip hop steps. At this point I’m really starting to feel the exhaustion set in and I still have to do ‘Girls on the Run’ from 3:00 to 4:30.

After the dance workshop I headed back to the previous class and ironed one more print and then went back to the library to read up what I had to do for tonights ‘Girls on the Run’ activities. The girls were particularly excited tonight and it was difficult keeping them focused on the lesson.

After dinner I headed off to my pottery class. Despite a wicked headache I worked on my jar for over two hours, carving a design onto the lid. I took some pictures so that you could see my progress. I’m going to cut it short tonight so that I can get to bed and do it all again tomorrow.

Cheers!

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!