Highlight of My Week

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……I’ve always wanted to take students to the Daily Bread Food Bank

On Thursday I told you I had misplaced my camera and the two school cameras. Luckily they had been put away for safe keeping in the office as I had suspected and hoped.

Fifteen years ago when I taught middle school I tried to plan a trip to the local food bank so that students could volunteer and experience first hand how the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto worked. At the time, most of my students were underage and not allowed to visit the warehouse. Imagine my surprise this year when one of our primary teachers was able to organize a field trip to the new facility for our grade 3 to 5 students. My principal knew how much I had always wanted to do this so she asked me if I wanted to accompany the students to the warehouse. I jumped at the chance.

On Thursday, Mme M and I, along with four parent volunteers, escorted 29 enthusiastic students to the Daily Bread Food Bank. After registering at the front desk, the kids dropped off 150 pounds of food and then awaited instructions for their next task. A load of fresh carrots and onions had been delivered that morning so our job was to bag the vegetables into net sacks that held five pounds.

The kids couldn’t get over how big these carrots were. The parents thought that a trip to a farm was in order.

I helped bag these onions. We prepared 200 five pound bags. That’s 1000 pounds of onions.

Talk about throwing yourself into your work.

It was dirty work but the kids loved it. Some of them even said it was the best field trip, ever.

After finishing our task we were treated to a snack and given a tour of the facility. In the end, our hard work provided fresh vegetables for 200 families in the Toronto area.

Following Michael Moore

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. walking every night

In an earlier post I promised I would bring you an update on my weight loss journey. Here it is.

I won’t lie and say I was perfect over the holidays. I wasn’t. Far from it but I did manage to maintain my weight loss for most of the month. I say most because my baby sister came for a visit the weekend before I had to go back to work and there was wine and eating out involved. I made pretty healthy choices but I probably ate more than I should have and even though we did a lot of walking, it’s not the same as a good workout at the gym or brisk walk/run through the neighbourhood.

Also that old nemesis, STRESS, has come back to haunt me. As teachers, we didn’t get very good news in the new year and our labour dispute continues. Therefore going back to work brings with it uncertainty and potential conflict.

Consequently when I got on the scale Monday morning I was up 4 1/2 pounds. Now I know that some of that was water and sure enough I was down 2 pounds the next morning.

So I’m back on my low GI eating program but the biggest change I made this week was going out every night for a long walk with my husband. Usually when I get home from work it is already dark and I don’t like walking by myself. K told me about Michael Moore’s walking challenge and how he’s been doing it now for over 42 weeks. I’ve started following him on Facebook and I’m sharing his article on why he walks. I don’t always agree with everything he says but he clearly states what some of the benefits of walking have done for him. He doesn’t share his weight loss in this article because he says that it’s not about that but in a later post he reveals that he’s lost 60 pounds.

Michael Moore on Walking

Last Sunday I promised on this blog that I would make it to the gym on Monday. There were a few hiccups that day and things didn’t go as I had planned. After completing an unexpected task I started on my way home. It was late and it would have been so easy to not to go to the gym. I was about to pass it when I told myself that ‘no, I had to go’. I went in and did 30 minutes on the treadmill.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, K and I went for 45 minute brisk walks. On Wednesday I did a 75 minute yoga class and then went to book club. Today K had an appointment out of town so he got up early and walked without me or the dog. Frances is so tired from yesterday’s two walks that she’s still sleeping. It’s time to get her and me out into the fresh air. After that I’m planning on going back to the gym and do some weight training.

By the way, when I got on the scale this morning it showed that I had lost all the weight I had gained plus and an extra 1/2 pound.

The weight loss journey continues. Stayed tuned for future updates.

Cheers!

A Few New Art Pieces to Share

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….before I send them home with the kids

In grades 4 and 5 we’ve been studying positive and negative space. We started with a Japanese art form called notan where you cut away a positive image and flip it so that the negative space becomes the mirror image and part of the design. I posted some of the students’ creations in an earlier post.

In the next class we studied winter trees and how the branches create Y shapes. On black paper the students had to draw a tree shape using white pencil or oil pastel and then extend the branches onto to a sheet of white paper and fill in the branches with black. This creates an interesting black and white, positive and negative image. The idea came from

http://en.paperblog.com/positive-negative-scratch-tree-335521/

It’s always a challenge to find something that can be started and finished in one art class, especially before Christmas. Field trips, science presentations and assemblies often cut into someone’s art period. When I found this project using ornaments as the focus of the lesson I was excited. It held the students’ interest and most of them finished it in the one class.

In this lesson the students learned how to create reflection of light using watercolour and how to paint, on wet on wet and blend analagous colours to create depth. I think the students in my grade 3/4 class did a great job.

The idea for this project came from http://www.artsonia.com/museum/art.asp?id=16233632&exhibit=465172&gallery=y

A Lot of Walking Today

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. 3 hours on the picket line, 50 minutes on the elliptical machine and 2k to dinner and back

I tossed and turned in bed last night and had weird dreams about being accosted on the picket line by an angry parent.

None of it happened of course, in fact, the day was surprisingly civil and we were met with a lot of positive support. For those of you who are unaware of what I’m talking about, let me explain. In Ontario today, 30 000 teachers walked off the job for a one day legal strike to protest Bill 115. In a nutshell, this bill has taken away our right to negotiate a new contract with our employer, the school board, and gives the government the power to determine our wages, benefits and working conditions without consultation or discussion. The minister would disagree with this statement but she has predetermined the conditions of these so called negotiations.

This strike is NOT about money. We have said that we are willing to take a pay freeze. It is about losing our democratic rights and the erosion of The Human Rights Code and our Labour Relations laws. If you want to take the time to read the following letter, it explains it much better than I can.

A Letter by a Member of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario

The media has said over and over again that teachers do not have the support of the public. After today I’m not so sure. Only one car in three hours gave us the thumbs down while dozens more honked in support. We had so many neighbours and parents come by with coffee, tea, water, soup and treats that our little cart was overflowing with the generosity and kindness of the ‘public’.

More food arrived after this picture was taken.

Even on the radio today, the media was extra tough on the Minister of Education by being more persistent in demanding that she answer their questions instead of side stepping the issues with pre-scripted statements that didn’t deal with the issue at hand. They are starting to put some of the blame for this mess into her court and are demanding that she take some responsibility for it.

I went to the gym today after walking for three hours, to work off the one Timbit, three homemade cookies and the 1/2 cup of hot chocolate I ingested. It doesn’t sound like much but when you haven’t eaten these things in a long time it seems like a huge indulgence. The scale shows that my weight is holding steady at a 32 to 34 pound loss.

We decided to go out for dinner tonight because neither of us felt like cooking. We walked to our favourite Indian restaurant and ordered and shared two vegetarian dishes, a plate of rice and an appetizer of chicken kabobs, nicely grilled and seasoned with lime juice. We had water as our beverage. We took the leftovers home and will probably add some of the sauce from the saag paneer to our eggs in the morning and one of us can probably have a light lunch from what’s left over. We walked home briskly after dinner to add about 2 more kilometres to my walking total for the day.

I have another appointment at the gym tomorrow for my last free personal training session and I also have an appointment for one more acupuncture treatment to see if it can alleviate my occasional bouts of dizziness. I’ll share my experience in a future a post.

Cheers!

The Media Never Gets it Right

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. and the public only hears what they want to hear

It’s never been about the money or more PD time or discontinuing extracurricular activities. It is about taking away years of negotiated benefits at a moments notice, no discussion, no vote….just a quick passage of Bill 115. The ability to negotiate a fair and equitable contract between teachers and their boards has been removed.

In the first meeting the unions were met by solvency lawyers, with no Ministry people in sight. The government was unwilling to discuss rules and parameters for negotiations. As a result, ETFO, the elementary teachers’ union walked away from the table. The attitude was take it or leave it. ETFO always said it would return to the table if there were clear rules and parameters.

Talks between unions and the government are short and problems remain unresolved and yet the minister of education leads the media to believe that teachers are not willing to talk. In recent weeks, a meeting occurred with Ministry people, including the deputy minister but Broten shut that down.

The media has been brutal with the teachers. According to them we are to blame for the province’s entire financial mess. Radio talk show hosts clearly have a ‘hate-on’ for teachers. The scenarios and misinformation that they broadcast to the public is shameful and unprofessional. They whip up a frenzy of hate calls from their like-minded listeners and anyone who supports the teachers is quickly dismissed and their calls are cut short.

At our school we have continued with most of our normal, daily activities, including extracurricular activities. The students and community, up until this past Monday, probably haven’t witnessed any strike action by the teachers and yet according to the media all teachers have stopped offering extracurricular activities, extra help and refuse to write report cards. Not true!

As of Monday we have gone on work to rule and every board across the province is participating in rotating one day strikes for the next two weeks. Of course the media is trying to create a crisis by making it all about the ‘poor’ students. Why then is it all right for parents to take their children out of school regularly for extended holidays, competitions and tournaments? I don’t hear the media chastising the parents for doing irreparable damage to their child’s education when they miss days and sometimes weeks of school.

Don’t get me wrong; I know that for some parents finding daycare for their children will be difficult. Tomorrow the parents in my board will be given 72 hours notice so that they can make alternate arrangements for their children. We as teachers, however, have to take a stand, not just for us but for everyone. If the government is allowed to violate the charter of rights and freedoms act and the right to negotiate fairly under the labour relations act who will they target next?

I know that the media will be highly critical when we walk, especially since we are the largest school board in Canada. I need to stop listening to the radio for a few days. I find myself yelling at the box in the corner when ‘they’ get it wrong. They don’t want to hear the truth. It doesn’t make for ‘good radio’.

It’s Finally Friday

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….it seemed like the longest week ever

I’m sure that the full moon had a lot to do with it. The students were unusually chatty and restless. For the first time it was a struggle to get them to finish their work. Our mayor was found guilty in a conflict of interest case by the courts and stripped of his position. The teachers’ union made work to rule official and is threatening rotating one day strikes across the province. The minister of education is trying to convince the media that the government is putting students first and that the teachers are bargaining in bad faith. City council was caught in the middle of a shouting match between the mayor, with the aid of his brother and a few councillors on issues that turned out to be non-issues. A crazy week, all in all.

So if the mayor’s appeal is denied we might be looking at a by-election and the same judge that found the mayor guilty clarified today that he could run again in the by-election. He’s convinced that he would win again but I’m not so sure and the polls aren’t in his favour at the moment.

I had my fitness test this week and signed up for 24 sessions with a personal trainer and then the next day I found out we are be in a strike position and could be walking the pavement. Yesterday I cancelled the sessions with the personal trainer until things are a little more settled at work.

Last Friday I discovered I have mice in my library office. They’re living under the sink and have been chewing through my paint mixing containers. All week I’ve been throwing away containers that have big holes in the bottom. I haven’t seen them but there’s lots of evidence that they’re around.

I started to mark some of the art projects. I have to use my time more wisely because as of December 10th we have to leave school 1/2 hour after the students leave. This will be a challenge for me and a few other teachers who regularly stay at school till 6:00 most days. After the 10th, no more field trips, sports teams, extracurricular activities, and anything that involves collecting money and administrative paperwork. I marked about 100 projects tonight. Only 320 to go.

Art classes will continue but displaying the work could prove challenging when I have to leave the building early every night. Some of the work may have to stay up longer than it would normally. Here’s what the halls look like at the moment.

Not everything was bad. At the school council meeting this week the parents put my new art cart on the top of the priority list of things to purchase. It was ordered the next day and arrived yesterday. It only has to be assembled.

On Thursday I went to the One of a Kind Show with my daughter and her partner. They made me a great dinner. I had a free pass into the show and parking was free (that’s never happened before).

The weekend looks promising. I’ll start the day with a walk with the dog, workout at the gym and then to an art show opening in the afternoon. My friend’s 91 year old father is exhibiting his work at the Moore Gallery in downtown Toronto. He is a very accomplished artist and has had many shows in his lifetime. Just a month ago he won another award for one of his pieces at the Watercolour Society.

On Sunday we may be taking a trip to the Niagara region and do some wine touring. This is what my daughter wanted for her birthday and it looks like it should be a nice day weather wise. With Christmas just around the corner and winter on our heels we need to make this trip sooner rather than later.

We had a dusting of snow today in the afternoon. By 4:15 it was already dark, partially due to the overcast sky. Of course for the next 21 days it will continue to get darker earlier in the day. How depressing but I can’t let the stress get to me.

Warm vs Cool

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Mama Cormier

……from one disaster to one triumph

Last week I had my first failed art class. Well half of it didn’t work out but the second half was more successful. I was teaching my grade 2/3 class about warm and cool colours. It was a concept they easily grasped. I had seen a great project that involved bleeding tissue paper onto white paper to create a beautiful new paper that was either in warm colours or cool colours. In the following class we were going to cut the new paper into pine tree shapes and create a landscape of warm or cool trees.

Unfortunately I didn’t do a sample ahead of time and I didn’t test the tissue paper we had to see if it would bleed. The colours were steadfast. The boys and girls created a colourful collage of tissue shapes using only water. When they dried very little colour came off the tissue. I’m not sure I can salvage this project.

The second project was somewhat more successful. After the children put their papers away to dry they chose warm or cool construction paper and cut out interesting shapes and created a 3D effect by curling or fringing or folding their papers before gluing them onto a black background. I’m hoping to arrange all the cool projects together and all the warm projects together to create two separate wall murals of warm vs cool abstract design.

The next day I was desperate for a new warm vs cool project for my grade 3 class. In the morning before work I got on the internet and googled ‘warm vs cool lesson’ and the first two sites that came up were youtube clips. The one demonstrated a lesson for painting a warm and cool city landscape. It was excellent. The instructor said it was foolproof and that you couldn’t make a mistake. She was right.

The kids loved this activity. The only part that gave them a little bit of difficulty was drawing in the windows. I had to show them several times how to angle the windows and doors so that the buildings maintained that 3D look.

The Hands are Done…..

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Mama Cormier

… the grade 5s have finally finished their hands and coloured ribbons

It’s not completely their fault that they’re so far behind. I only see each class one day a week in a 5 day cycle. Their first art period was cancelled because it occurred on a zero day, a large number of them were away at the cross country meet, some of them missed class because of other tournaments, a few were on vacation, and then I was off for my surgery (I left the supply teacher an easier assignment).

The bigger problem is that I have a group of students in that class that have managed to keep up and in fact are so far ahead of everyone else that they’ve finished all their assignments. I planned to make the next class a catch up period but what do I do with the handful of students who have finished everything? I guess I could give them a project that no one else will have an opportunity to start later. What do you think?

grade 5 hand and ribbon

These pieces of art focused on creating secondary and tertiary colours from the three primary colours. The students first created a colour wheel after learning how to mix acrylic paints and then they created a second piece, applying what they learned when they added colour to the ribbon. The second focus was on line and shapes and how to create an interesting design with a variety of lines and filling in areas to create shapes.

The next project involved line and colour as well. Students were asked to create the illusion of depth by changing the value of the colour from dark to light as they filled in the spaces. This idea was a little more difficult for some of them to comprehend but the examples below show that some of them are beginning to grasp the concept.

Here’s a sneak preview of the last lesson I gave to my 4/5 class. The lesson was on positive and negative space and I love using this Japanese technique called Notan. Only three students finished (these are the students that I need to find more work for).

Texture

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….looking for examples for my next art lesson

Today on our walk with Frances I was on the lookout for interesting examples of texture that I can share with my students back at school. Texture is all around us, from the rough texture of bark and the thorny, prickly texture of burrs to the soft texture of grasses and seed heads and the smooth texture of leaves.

Peace Banners

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. created by students at my school for Remembrance Day

This is the first year I’ve missed the Remembrance Day assembly at school. I was off recovering from my surgery. Before I left I was able to collect most of the banners and a group of us picked some of the best from different grades within the school. We asked 5 students to talk about their banners at the assembly.

I took photos of the banners that were chosen and of the ones we were considering. One of my colleagues, K, agreed to create a slide show that would play while the students and our guests came into the gym. I also requested that someone take pictures of the gym after it was decorated with the banners. I think the children did a great job. Enjoy!

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