Share Your World 2015- Week 38

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….I don’t know how she does it but Cee keeps coming up with new questions each week

What do you do to make a living or during the day if you are retired. If you are a student what are you studying?

I’ve been a school teacher since 1976. I started out teaching Family Studies to middle school adolescents. I did that for about 15 years and then I did guidance for two years. I was toying with the thought of becoming a principal and I started taking a lot of leadership courses in the evenings. I successfully became a chairperson which is like being a principal’s assistant where you take on a few extra responsibilities while still teaching. For many people this is a stepping stone to becoming a vice-principal or principal. In the end I decided that this was enough responsibility for me and that I liked being in the classroom too much to give it up.

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When I became a chairperson I was transferred to a junior school where I taught grade 5 and sometimes a 4/5 split. Five years ago I took a library course and qualified to become a teacher librarian. One year later the library position opened up at our school and I’ve been the librarian/art teacher ever since.

Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.

Three and a half years ago when I first started this blog I was determined to lose weight. At school I agreed to assist in a program called Girls on the Run and I started to walk/run with the girls twice a week for 10 weeks. At the end of the program there was a 5k run and at the age of 59 I participated in my first serious race. I did the whole thing and ran for most of it but I was so emotional at the end that a dread overcame me and I thought I was going to die. Of course I didn’t and I did the run again the next year. The second time around it was a little easier. Last fall I participated in the Railpath Community Run and I’m doing it again this weekend. This one I did with my daughter.

What is usually your first thought when you wake up?

My first thought is usually to switch my Jawbone Up from sleep mode to wake mode and then check on my phone to see how well and how long I’ve slept.

Complete this sentence: Look out behind you, it’s a …

…it’s your son. I often fantasize that my son and his fiancé pay me a surprise visit. They both live in London, England and I only see them once a year. A few years ago my son did come to Toronto for a convention and I was truly surprised.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a visit from my daughter who now lives in Hamilton. I was especially grateful because she was 38 weeks pregnant and I didn’t think that she would want to make the trip and be that far from home. We went to my older daughter’s house and my good friend L and her mom joined us. They weren’t able to make it to G’s shower in the summer so they anxious to see her and bring her the gifts that they had bought. It was also the first time that L’s mom had seen A’s and J’s house.

Years ago my daughter, A had volunteered to undergo testing and see if she was a good match for L’s dad who needed to be treated for C-dificile. It turned out that she was and her donation ended up saving his life. When L and her mom arrived on Saturday they bought her a gift as well. L’s dad is a very accomplished and renowned artist and they gifted my daughter one of his paintings. We were all very touched.

Later in the afternoon my girls and I went for a walk in the neighbourhood along Dupont street and stopped for lunch at a small Vietnamese restaurant and checked out the interesting little businesses that have sprung up in the last few years.

I’m obviously looking forward to the birth of our first grandchild. We all took bets on when she would come into the world but we were a little surprised when our daughter went into false labour yesterday. She’s fine today and this baby may take her sweet time about making her official appearance. Her actual due date is October 4th.

I’m also looking forward to participating in the Railpath Community run on Saturday but I think this year I may do more walking than running. On Sunday some of my friends from high school are getting together again for another lunch. We’re hoping that CM from Thunder Bay will be able to join us this time.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. The first weekend of autumn looks like it’s going to be especially nice and warm in my neck of the woods.

Cheers!

School’s Out So Why Am I So Emotional?

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….it’s been an exhausting week

The week started with rehearsals for the grade five farewell. I narrated an adaptation of Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss and I emceed the assembly. On Tuesday the actual farewell took place and it was a beautiful ceremony. Many of my favourite students were leaving us for middle schools and of course so were their families. Some of these parents I’ve known for ten years because I also taught their older children as well.

At the end of the day my friend L and I were invited to attend one of the house parties. The children were all playing in the backyard while the adults gathered in the living room. I had a great time. There were lots of great nibbles and wonderful adult conversation.

The next day when I arrived at school I had a meltdown as soon as I entered the school building. I’m not sure why. The grade 5s were heading out for their special activity day (swimming, BBQ and mini golf) and for the rest of us we had a play day at school. I was in charge of the water boot race. I felt completely unprepared but I had all the equipment I needed and all the organization had been done by our amazing PE teacher. I think it probably had something to do with the fact that this was the first time in 16 years that I didn’t go away with the grade 5s.

In the end, my activity was a big hit and I actually had a lot of fun doing it. In the afternoon, students from one of the grade 4 classes helped me sort through all the prizes from Jump Rope for Heart and they delivered them to all the classes. That was a huge help. The final total for money raised this year was just under $9000.

After school we had our staff party. PJ hosted at his place as he does every year. He has a pool and I think there were more people than ever in the pool. It helped that it was a warm humid evening. We said good-bye to two staff members that were leaving to continue their careers at other schools and two teachers are going on a leave for a year.

Today students and parents approached me all day with gifts, cards, flowers and warm wishes in between teaching classes. We also had one final assembly in the morning where we recognized students of the month. All the summer birthdays, including mine were, were announced on the PA and we were given birthday ribbons, stickers and bracelets. It’s strange being wished a happy birthday when it’s still two months away (Aug. 28th). Even my last kindergarten class of the year sang Happy Birthday to me.

As I mentioned earlier I received numerous gifts throughout the day but the one that brought tears to my eyes came from four students who were leaving this year. They were also the same students who have attended the tea party for the last two years. They knew that I have a Pandora bracelet and they purchased a charm, a tiny silver teapot, to add to my collection.

I’m not sure why this year was more emotional than past years. Maybe because I’m getting older and I know that my time as a teacher is soon coming to an end. Whenever I mention retirement, the staff and students won’t hear of it but I know that I can’t go on forever. I’m now looking at one year at a time but I’m pretty sure that in two years I’ll be saying good-bye.

Tomorrow the teachers will be back at school. Our principal is hosting a breakfast for us and then we’re off to clean our rooms. Last year I knew that the library was being renovated and I had a big job packing up books in that last week of school. This year I found out that the storage room where I store all my art supplies is being turned into a new office for the caretaker, so all the paper, paints, art supplies and art carts have to be removed. Guess where they’re going for now? The library. I know what I’ll be doing that week before school starts. Can’t worry about that now. I’ll cross that road when I get to it.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 25

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….. thanks Cee for four more thought provoking questions

What did you or did not like about the first apartment you ever rented?

Our first apartment was a basement apartment in uptown Toronto. We were close to the subway and great shopping and restaurants. I didn’t like being in the basement. Our windows faced the parking lot and driveway so we had to contend with cars rolling past our windows.

What kind of art is your favorite? Why?

My favourite art includes abstract paintings, watercolour or acrylic and collage and mixed media art. I don’t like things that are hyper realistic. I’d rather take a beautiful photograph.

A Ray Cattell painting.

How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order?

I’m the oldest of three girls. When my son was born he was the first male born on my father’s side of the family in 50 years.

The three Winkler sisters.

Complete this sentence: I’m dreaming of a white …. (and no you can’t use Christmas as your answer)

This one stumped me for a few minutes. In fact, I went for a walk and really thought about this question. I’ve already owned a white car and my husband has one now. It wasn’t by choice for either of us but at the time they were our only options. I’ve really learned to appreciate white flowers and one of my favourite bouquets this year was all white.

I’m not very fussy about white weddings or white clothes. I don’t like white food, unless it’s vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream and white walls leave me cold. I do, however, like bright white trim. Therefore, I’m dreaming of painting all the trim in the house white. I also love crisp white sheets and big soft white towels.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a wonderful weekend with the family. We did a double Father’s Day celebration. On Saturday my husband and I hosted a BBQ at our place and our girls and their significant others and two of our best friends joined us. My husband did most of the cooking because it’s what he loves to do. I did all the running around and picked up things that we needed. We also went across the street for a bit to congratulate our neighbour on her retirement.

Our daughter and son-in-law couldn’t keep the gender of their baby secret any longer and they shared the news with us. Unfortunately I promised to keep it a secret for a little bit longer and not share it with the world right now.

On Sunday, we drove to my Dad’s place in Oshawa and celebrated Father’s Day with him. My sister took the train in from Chatham and we all shared a meal at their new apartment. I brought a salad made from the lettuce in our garden and Dad picked up his special treat, KFC.

One other thing that I’m grateful for was a very enjoyable Tea that my friend L and I hosted for four students from school. It really was fun and the kids learned a lot about ‘tea etiquette’ and a little bit more about their teachers.

This week I’m looking forward to the staff party and to the last day of school and the start of our summer break.

Owls, Owls and More Owls (part 1)

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..a real ‘hoot’ of an art lesson

About a month ago I introduced a print making lesson using styrofoam boards. The grades 2 and 3 classes were introduced to a variety of owls and were instructed to sketch several different styles of owl. Then they had to choose their favourite sketch and transfer the pattern onto the styrofoam plate. Once the design was impressed into the foam the children were given water based markers and they filled in the owl shape with lots of colour.

I showed the students a variety of owl prints that I had done using the same pattern but different colours and different papers. Here are some of my examples:

When the students finished colouring their plates they brought them to me and selected the paper they wanted to print on. I sprayed the paper and wiped off the excess water and then laid the plate on the paper. We used a roller to press the paper down onto the plate and finished off by using our fingers to push on the details like the eyes, beaks and feet to transfer the marker onto the paper.

There was a lot of trial and error but we quickly figured out what worked and what didn’t. Too much water and the colours all ran together, not enough and the print was too faint. A plain solid colour worked better than a busy print but newsprint with text on it was quite effective. The paper that worked best was card stock and water colour paper.

In front of the library I put up a forest of birch trees for our Forest of Reading Book Club and the leaves represent all the books that have been read by the members of the club. I asked each student in my art classes to donate one of their owls to place on the trees.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this lesson. I’ll post that in a day or two.

Sticks and Stones

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..make wonderful art

Last week I was assigned a project that involved gathering up bits of nature to create a temporary work of art. After we finished creating we could photograph our masterpieces and then return the bits back to the environment or leave our creations somewhere outside where others could enjoy what we made. This idea came from Lynn Whipple who is one of the artists from Year of the Spark. This is a year long on-line art class brought to us by Carla Sonheim and Lynn. Every month they take turns coming up with wonderful and innovative assignments that bring out our inner spark. Every two weeks we get a new assignment.

I was really inspired by this project and came up with my own ‘Learning Stick’ and a composition of stones and dried foliage and grasses that I turned into a card.

I’m hoping to make more but in the meantime I offered this assignment to my kindergarten class and they ate it up.

Before I arrived for our regular weekly art class, the children took a walk around the school yard and gathered up as many bits of nature that they could find. Between me and the ECE teacher and what the children gathered we had a very nice collection of materials to work with.

I told the children that we weren’t gluing anything down and when their picture was done I would come around and photograph it and then we would take it apart and if they wanted they could make another picture. When we finished with the materials we would return them to nature.

I printed the photographs on my printer at home onto regular sized photocopy paper and then I made one 4 x 6 glossy print to mount onto a card. Here’s what mine looked like.

After we mounted all the photographs onto a black background they were put up outside the kindergarten class for all to enjoy. Today they were moved to a more central part of the school so that more people would see them. The cards that I made will be given to the parents as a special gift on Earth Day.

A Visiti to the Aquarium Inspires This Art Class

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a watercolour wash, crayon resist, and playing with salt

The kindergarten classes made a trip to the new Ripley’s Aquarium here in Toronto. They researched marine life before going on the trip and I brought library books to the class to use as a reference for their fish drawings.

We started with a crayon line drawing of the fish and surrounding sea plants. I showed the class how to make a wash for the background and while the paint was still wet we sprinkled it with salt to give the water an interesting texture. We also used white crayon to create bubbles in the water and some of the children wrote their names with the this crayon. The last step was to add colour to the fish themselves and the plants. I think they did a wonderful job.