Daily Prompt: Learning Styles

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

Results from a teachers’ hands-on workshop.

What’s your learning style? Do you prefer learning in a group and in an interactive setting? Or one-on-one? Do you retain information best through lectures, or visuals, or simply by reading books?

I learn best through visuals and hands on activities. Long before I learned about different learning styles, I knew that I needed to be shown how to do something or at least have a visual that explained the process.

Many years ago my parents invested in knitting machines to be sold in their wool and fabric store. They asked me to learn how to use the machines so that I could give demonstrations to some of their customers. They handed me a cassette tape. I just laughed. Even then I knew that I couldn’t learn how to operate this piece of machinery by simply listening to a tape. My middle sister, however, jumped at the chance and became very proficient with the machines. She was also a lot better at learning languages than I was. My friend, L, teaches children to memorize words to songs by simply making them repeat the words. I’ve tried but I need that piece of paper in front of me to help me with the process.

Over the years I’ve learned to use a variety of teaching techniques to accommodate different learning styles. What works for one child may not work for another. This week in one of my art classes, I had students come to me individually when they were ready to start a new project. I had pictures and samples in front of me and I explained the process when they arrived at my desk. After showing several students what to do I asked one student if they could see from the examples what needed to be done. He had no clue. He needed to hear the instructions. He was clearly an auditory learner.

As for me, give me a demonstration, a video tutorial or a hands-on workshop. I’ll come away inspired and ready to try something new.

Learning by doing

Rewarded by success!

Cleaning Wins Out Over More Shopping

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..funny how I get the same satisfaction from organizing my space as I do from shopping

Yesterday I wrote that I might attend another craft show today but when I woke up it was bitter cold and there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground. It seemed like a perfect day to stay indoors and work on organizing my clothes.

I got an early start to the day. After a quick breakfast I checked my emails and then closed my laptop. I find I’m spending way too much time on the computer lately. I set a goal to clean out my closet and purge, purge, purge. I stripped all the beds and gathered up all the laundry around the house and from my husband’s car (i discovered that there was bedding still in the back of his car that he brought back from the cottage but didn’t bring into the house).

While the washer and dryer were going full tilt I started to go through all my clothes. I put away the summer clothes, took out the winter clothes and discarded clothing that didn’t fit anymore or I hadn’t worn in years. I folded and organized my 37 scarves (yes 37, not including the 4 I’m giving away or my woollen scarves), I packed three garbage bags with clothes and loaded them into my car and dropped them off at the Good Will store.

I vacuumed, did four loads of laundry, made chicken stock, returned two bags of bottles, cleaned the bird cage, cleaned the kitchen and managed to organize half of my bedroom. Now that the clothes are put away I can start organizing all my paperwork….ugh! A job for next weekend….maybe.

Now that my closet is organized I can see that I don’t need to go shopping for quite awhile. I also discovered some Christmas gifts that I had bought in the summer and had forgotten about. I put all the gifts in one of the blanket boxes at the end of my bed where I’ll be able to find them when I’m ready to wrap them. I’m usually a last minute wrapper but maybe this year I can get a head start on that as well.

I packed my gym bag and will place it in the car so that I have no more excuses for not going to the gym. I haven’t been in months, despite the fact that I’ve been paying for it every month. I need to leave school earlier and get a workout in before dinner. I have one more medical appointment tomorrow right after school and then I’m planning on stopping at the gym. I’ve packed my lunch for tomorrow and will be leaving extra early to get to basketball practice by 7:45. Our tournament is this Thursday.

Did I say I didn’t need to do any shopping for awhile? Hmmm! I forgot that I’m going to a special clothing sale on Tuesday after school. Maybe I’ll find some more gifts for the family.

Cheers!

Day Light Savings – Part 2

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..the downside is that it gets dark earlier

The day seemed exceptionally long but now I’m tired and it’s only 7:00 pm. When I leave work it will be dark outside and it will continue to get darker till December 21st.

There’s always a lot of discussion around whether we need daylight savings time. In the United States, Hawaii and Arizona don’t change the clocks and in Canada, Saskatchewan has opted out of using it. It does play havoc with the body’s internal clock and it takes about a week for some people to adjust.

I think I’m tired because I had a lot on my plate. I got out this morning for a short walk with Lucy. We put our patio furniture away and I cleaned up some of the weeds from the garden. I dusted and vacuumed the living room, cleaned out the jam cupboard, cleaned the fridge, cleaned the bird cage, vacuumed the upstairs, stripped the beds and did four loads of laundry.

I tried a new recipe tonight, cauliflower couscous. My husband and I are trying to eat less meat. I checked out a few recipes on the internet and then gathered up the ingredients I had on hand. After a few modifications I came up with my own version of this tasty dish. If you’re trying to cut down on carbohydrates or need a gluten free recipe you’ll find that this recipe covers both bases.

Carol’s Cauliflower Couscous

1 medium size cauliflower

1 sprig of rosemary

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds

3 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 red apple, skin on, diced

handful of finely chopped chives or green onions

handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 cup golden raisins

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp. cider vinegar

pepper to taste or a splash of your favourite hot sauce

1. In a food processor place the cauliflower flowerets and pulse till the cauliflower resembles couscous.

2. In a flat bottom saucepan pour just enough water to cover the bottom with a sprig of rosemary and 1 tsp of salt.

3. Bring the water to a boil and add the cauliflower couscous. Cover the pot, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. After 5 minutes remove the couscous from the pan and spread onto a baking dish to cool.

5. Add oil to the pan and toast the chopped almonds for a few minutes. Add the celery and cook for another 5 minutes till the celery softens.

6. Add the garlic, chopped apple, chives, vinegar and parsley. Continue to cook just to warm the mixture and season to your liking.

7. Serve warm or cold.

Don’t Let Your Dog Chew Tennis Balls

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……after two hours of surgery they removed the offending piece of ball

Lucy loves tennis balls. G and B don’t buy them for her but she manages to find them in the park all the time. It wouldn’t be so bad if she wanted to play with them, i.e. throw and fetch, but Lucy doesn’t do that. She’d rather eat them. Up till now her special finds are taken from her but I guess she managed to sneak one past her family.

Tonight Lucy underwent surgery to remove the blockage. Part of her small intestine had to be removed as well because it started to perforate. Apparently dogs can survive quite nicely with only half of the small intestine. Currently she is in recovery and everything is progressing as it should.

I’m looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep Lucy and DON’T dream about tennis balls.

Waiting for News…..Any News

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…….took our grand dog to the emergency vet clinic yesterday

I just got off the phone with daughter number one on Saturday when the phone rang, literally seconds later, and I could see that daughter number two was calling me. I cheerfully picked up the phone and greeted G with an exuberant ‘Hello’. My mood turned instantly when I heard her sobs on the other end of the line.

G and her husband, B had made plans to go on a vacation cruise and they were due to leave today. Earlier in the week their dog, Lucy became quite ill and they had made a couple of trips to the vet’s office. X-rays were taken but the vet couldn’t see what the problem was. If she didn’t get better she was suppose to have an ultra sound done but lo and behold she started to eat and every one thought she was on the mend.

All was well till the wee hours of Saturday morning when Lucy took ill again and kept her family awake for hours. With very little sleep under their belts, G and B called a taxi and took Lucy to the emergency vet hospital in their neighbourhood. When G called me she was exhausted and had just been told that Lucy might need surgery.

My husband and I drove to the north end of the city to lend moral and financial support. We sat in the waiting room for awhile and then got some food for everyone. We waited 4 hours before Lucy had an ultra sound done and then another hour to get the news that she required a hospital stay and possibly surgery.

We convinced G and B to go on their trip. They would have lost all the money if they cancelled and B needed that vacation. We signed on as Lucy’s guardians and would be the contacts if Lucy’s condition worsened. Sure enough the worst case scenario happened and Lucy requires the surgery.

Now we’re waiting by the phone. Lucy is in surgery while I’m writing this post and our daughter is thousands of kilometres away waiting to hear from us.

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.

Different Points of View

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….maybe I won’t go there

I try not to be too political on this blog. As my readership grows I am very aware of my audience. Many are friends, neighbours and colleagues but most of them are complete strangers to me. It is not the latter group that I’m afraid of offending. Even though I don’t use names on this blog the people I talk about know who they are.

Change is always challenging. We’ve seen a lot of change at our school this year. With full day kindergarten we have 6 new staff members in that area alone. We have 2 teachers in the primary hall on maternity leave and another on a medical leave so we have 3 long term occasional teachers. Just recently we learned that another teacher is pregnant and will be leaving in March and another teacher is going on an extended leave in November. More changes coming.

Those of us who are considered prep teachers are finding it challenging this year because we’re giving a lot of our prep coverage to the kindergarten teachers. Two of us started our careers in high school and middle school and all three of us were considered junior teachers for most of our years at our present school.

Today in the one kindergarten class where I was giving prep to the teacher I agreed to let the ECE teacher leave for a few minutes so that she could get a cup of tea. She no sooner left when I had an incident with a couple of the boys. Apparently the one boy wouldn’t let the other one use the toilet and consequently he wet himself. I had to call the office for assistance. Luckily we found him some dry clothes.

Tomorrow I’m going on a field trip with the grade 4s and 5s to the McMichael Art Gallery. For the last two weeks I’ve been preparing my classes for the trip with lessons about the Group of Seven and First Nations’ artists. In order to go on the trip I had to make sure that my classes are covered by the prep teachers whose classes are on this trip. Luckily I was able to arrange coverage for all the classes. I was having trouble filling one time slot and one of my colleagues kindly gave up his prep time so that I could go on this trip. I’ll have to come up with something special for him.

I never did talk about those different points of view. Some things are just better left alone.

Breaking into D’s Car

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….it’s amazing what we pick up from TV

As we were packing to go home yesterday, D came to my cottage in a panic because she couldn’t find her car keys. She thought she might have locked them inadvertently in the trunk of her car. She rummaged through the garbage first but to no avail. The only explanation was that she accidentally placed them in the trunk while packing and then closed the lid.

Breaking the window was the last resort so we searched the deep corners of our brains where we store useless information looking for a solution. How many times have we seen TV shows where cars are broken into in mere seconds with the use of a crowbar and a hanger? We found a crowbar and managed to pry open the window just enough to stick a saw blade into the interior of the car. Unfortunately the blades we tried were all too short or they bent when we applied pressure to the lock.

Finally D’s daughter found a long metal rod that did the trick. The click of the lock was like music to our ears. If you know what you’re doing and have the right tools you can break into a car in a matter of seconds. Not that we’re contemplating a career change but it is a bit scary when you see how easy it is to break into one’s car. Now all we have to do is learn how to hot wire a car and we’d be in business; another skill that could have come in handy if the keys weren’t in the trunk, which they were.

Up in the Treetops

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..as for me maybe next year

When I first saw the treetop trekking course I was in awe. I couldn’t believe how high the course was. I found out later that the wires were anywhere from 25 to 40 feet off the ground. This is the first year that Mono Cliffs has offered this amazing program to students. Our school was only the second school group to attempt this course.

Before the students were allowed on the high course they participated in a team building activity where they were encouraged to walk across a low ropes course. The wires and swings were close to the ground so that if one lost their balance all they had to do was step off. It was pretty challenging walking across those wires but I did it. It wasn’t a pretty site as my body wobbled and shook, making my way across.

It was raining and cold the morning my group headed towards the treetop course. The three groups that had already experienced the ropes had perfect weather. Everyone raved about the experience and my colleagues encouraged me to take on the challenge. All of us were fitted with safety harnesses and helmets and then sent to a different low ropes area where we learned how to use the harnesses and transfer our clips from one part of the course to the next. Safety first.

After going across the low ropes I felt much more confident and even allowed myself to hang from the ropes in the harness. I waited my turn to go up the cargo net to the first platform. I cheered on the students ahead of me and praised the two who attempted the climb but couldn’t bring themselves to go any further than the platform. When it was my turn my hands were already numb from the cold but I started the climb up the ropes anyway. It was much harder than I expected. The first platform was 30 feet from the ground and I was about 6 feet away when my arms just gave out. I tried to rest but my experience with anything physical has taught me that when you’re physically spent, pushing yourself can only lead to trouble.

The one thing that I’ve always wanted to experience is being repelled from a significant height. So rather than climb back down I asked if I could be repelled. It was a lot of fun and it inspired the two students who didn’t continue on the course to climb back up and then then experience the same thing. I think they felt a lot better having done that.

As for me, I definitely need to build up my upper body strength before I attempt this again. Losing more weight would also help. I’m actually looking forward to trying this again.

Getting Caught Up

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..99 emails to go

I thought when I went to Ireland I would have trouble keeping up with my emails from my fellow bloggers that I faithfully follow. I did fall behind reading posts in my Reader but I managed to enjoy the posts that come directly to my email.

The problem of staying up to date happened when I went to the cottage. As some of you know I don’t have electricity let alone internet access up there. When I was away for more than a weekend I would write articles, save them and then post them once I came home. Towards the end of the summer I discovered that the library in the village had free WiFi so I went there a couple of times to post some of my writing.

Last week I returned home to open my classroom. I spent three full days at school cleaning up other people’s rooms, and trying to put books back onto the shelves in the library. On Friday I went back to the cottage for the last weekend of my summer holiday and returned Sunday. This morning when I opened my emails I had 99 unread posts.

Should I just delete them and start fresh when new ones come in or do I read 10 or more of the old ones a day plus the new ones that come in? Sometimes I look for the posts that I know are photographs or art work with very little text and I open them first. It’s the longer posts that I’m having trouble getting to. I know first hand how disappointing it is when you pour your heart and soul into your writing and no one reads it. What would you do? Am I making a problem where no problem exists? Help me with my conundrum, PLEASE!

We Have What????????

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….black widow spiders on Christian Island

If I hadn’t seen it for myself I wouldn’t have believed it.

Last week my neighbour at the cottage told me that we had to worry about black widow spiders. At first I didn’t believe her but then I saw the sign that was posted at the library in the village. Apparently they are very dangerous and if you get bitten you have to get to the hospital immediately because the venom can be deadly.

I’m not surprised that the spider has made its way to Canada in shipments of fruits and vegetables from the southern states but I am surprised that they can survive our cold and often harsh winters. It is especially cold on Christian Island in January and February and it would have been the last place that I would expect to find them.

Well last week DM came running up to my cottage to tell me that her brother came across one of these spiders while rummaging through one of his computer boxes in the loft of their cottage. He quickly took the box outside and the spider disappeared under their deck.

I can’t remember if it was the same day or the next but DM came running up to the cottage again, this time wrapped in a towel. Apparently there was another one in the outdoor shower. I went to investigate. Of course I took my camera with me.

Sure enough there was a ‘large’ spider crawling up the inside wall of the shower. DM and her brother were unsure what to do with this massive creature and they certainly didn’t want to squash it. I suggested that they find the insect spray or wasp killer while I took some photographs.

What amazed me was how this thing hissed at me when I came close with my camera. Every time I moved in closer with the camera it literally scurried behind a beam and then reappeared seconds later. The bug spray was useless but the wasp killer did the trick. Well at least we think it did. It curled up and fell to the ground between the wooden slats of the shower stall. I felt badly about killing the spider but I certainly didn’t want to be at the receiving end of its bite.

Later on we found out that it’s really only the females that are dangerous and the one I took pictures of was probably a male. We reported the sighting to the band council and they made a note of the location.

What next? First it was confirmed sightings of 3 black bears and now black widow spiders. One more thing to watch out for.