A Guys Weekend

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….leaving me by myself in this big house

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that my husband is off for the weekend with one of his best friends. He doesn’t do it often and I’m so happy that he’s enjoying the cottage. Apparently so is the dog. It just feels weird being in this house by myself. K’s gone away before but he’s always left the dog with me so I’ve never felt alone.

I stayed late at work again tonight. Knowing that no one was waiting at home, I decided to unpacked more boxes of books. A lot of the books that the boys and girls were asking for were still packed away so with the help of 3 former students who came back to help me in the library we pulled out the more popular titles. We created some more space by using the top of the lower book cases. I know that the boys will be happy to see Star Wars, Captain Underpants and Wimpy Kid back in the library.

On the way home I stopped and did a little bit of shopping for dinner, picked up some supplies for my budgie birds and bought a lottery ticket for tonight’s draw. When I walked through the front door my husband called from the cottage. He’s having a great time with his friend D. They got some more work done on the staircase railing and they hope to finish tomorrow. They’re eating like kings and the sauna was warming up while we were talking. Frances, our wonder dog, has been in doggy heaven. There aren’t too many people up at Big Sand Bay this weekend so she’s had a lot of freedom. She’s had so much fun that she hasn’t even wanted to eat. She was sleeping when K called. She’ll be one hungry dog tomorrow.

My daughter, A called about an hour ago and we’ve made plans to get together tomorrow. We’ll be heading out to the farmer’s market in the Junction and we’ll see where we go from there. My husband’s birthday is next week so we’ll probably be looking at some potential gifts to buy. Unfortunately my vacuum cleaner stopped working this week so I might also be looking for a good sale on vacuum cleaners.

As I’m writing this post I’m watching the last two episodes of America’s Got Talent. This year’s show has some of the best talent I’ve ever seen. All of the six finalists are winners in my eyes. They all deserve to be there and I will be happy, no matter who wins (or won, seeing that the winner was announced earlier in the week).

I had planned to get some work done around the house this weekend but I think having fun with my daughters and friends is going to take precedent.

Cheers!

Time for a Clean Sweep

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….in my library office

I love a clean, well organized space. If you came into my office in the last couple of months….well lets be honest…..for most of the year you would have been assaulted with a chaotic mess. It’s been a challenge trying to keep my art materials organized and maintaining a school library at the same time. I’m glad to say that the library itself was mostly tidy and organized, thanks to my library helpers and parent volunteer. As for my office, I was able to close the door and put posters up on the class windows to hide the mess.

The end of the school year is always hectic and there never seems to be enough time to do everything that needs doing. On top of that it seems that the art teacher gets to inherit anything and everything that other teachers don’t want. Every time something new was donated to my art program I’d tell the donor to just put it on the counter, table or desk in the office and I would look at it later. Well later didn’t happen for a long time.

This week a few of us returned to school to finish doing things we couldn’t get to before school was out. I thought I could do it all in one day but it took me three days. I’m happy to report that the office looks great and I didn’t just stuff things into drawers and behind closet doors. I actually threw things out and organized materials onto shelves and into boxes.

There are still two carts in the office that contain art supplies, neatly organized mind you, but I’m hoping to clean out the storage room down the hall in August and make some space for most of my art papers and paints. This way the library office can once again be used for library work. The only thing that I need for my art classes is the use of the sink in that room.

It leaves me with a good feeling, knowing that the room if finally clean and organized. I can now enjoy the rest of my summer.

Before After

The Month of June in Photos

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Mama Cormier

Saturday, June 1st – Fun Fair

: Our principal taunting the boys and girls

: Professional griller

: Inflatable slide

: What a good sport!

Saturday, June 8th – High School Reunion

Sunday, June 9th – Girls on the Run 5k

Wed, June 12th – West Conference Girls’ Soccer Finals

Thursday, June 13th – Forest of Reading Celebration

: Finished accordion journals

: …. Luke’s journal

: Drama workshop

: Lunch…..pizza

: Thanks for being expert readers

Saturday, June 15th – Opening the Cottage

: View of the island from the dock

: Enjoying first breakfast at the cottage

: Taking a break after opening the cottage

: View of the cottage from the lane

Wednesday, June 19th – Spring Concert

: Folk Dancing

: Line Dancing

: Shaking those hips

: Modern Dance based on a story that students chose to tell through movement

: Grade 1/2 choir

: ‘Modern Ruins’ dance

: The Junior Choir

The report cards were printed, proofread, reprinted, copied, signed and sent home today. The grade 5s had their farewell ceremony yesterday and today were away for their fun activity day. Today the rest of the school had their Fun Day and a colleague and I spent the morning clearing out the computer lab so that construction crews can come during the summer to remove the wall and enlarge the library.

I’ve returned 90% of all the artwork that students produced in my art classes and students have returned most of the books that they took out of the library. I’ve started removing the books from the shelves that will be moved during construction. Only one more day with the children and then the staff party, followed by one more day of meetings and closing down our classrooms for the summer.

…….busy,busy and only a few things left on my to do list. Phew it’s almost over and then I can start planning for our trip to Ireland.

Another Thing Checked Off the List

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….the end of the school year is fast approaching

Soccer games finished – check

Girls on the Run finished – check

Report Cards printed – check

Invitations for Forest of Reading Celebration made – check

Author and actor invited for the big day – check

T-shirts bought for the concert – check

Track and field finished for this year – check

Timetables organized – check

Money collected and counted for Jump Rope for Heart – check

Things Yet to Do in the Next Two Weeks:

Phone Heart and Stroke to pick up the money collected for Jump Rope for Heart

Proofread report cards

Finish cutting papers for the bookmaking activity

Order pizza for students’ special lunch

Hand out invitations to the students and teachers

Print final copies of the report cards

Plan lessons for the next two weeks

Clear off book shelves in the library for the renovation over the summer

Hand out prizes for Jump Rope for Heart when they arrive

Volunteer Tea

Spring concert

Activity ‘Fun Day’

“Phew, I can do this!!!”

Cheers!

Free University Courses

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. just signed up for a 7 week course in art

Like I’m not busy enough as it is, I signed up for an intense course yesterday that involves reading, taking quizzes and painting. I’ve already done all the reading for last week and taken the quiz but I haven’t started the painting. It’s due tomorrow night. I still have to run a 5k tomorrow morning and I have to finish my report cards.

One of the problems is that the course started last week so I’m already a week behind. When I get this first painting assignment done I’ll be caught up. I’m actually very excited about doing this. The program is called Coursera and it offers hundreds of free courses that are taught by certified professors from dozens of universities, worldwide. Check out the courses here.

What did I learn this week? Well the program is designed for beginning artists so the basics taught this last week were a good refresher lesson for me. This week the focus is on Fantasy art and I learned a lot about Independent Fantasists, such as Rousseau and Chagall, Dadaism, Automatism and Abstract Expressionism. I was also introduced to some Fantasists that I was not familiar with, such as Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray.

Man Ray http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Man_Ray_1934.jpg

Marcel Duchamp http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Marcel_Duchamp_01.jpg/128px-Marcel_Duchamp_01.jpg

Giorgio de Chirico http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Giorgio_de_Chirico_%28portrait%29.jpg

My assignment this week is to come up with my own Fantasy painting using any medium and technique I’m comfortable with. I also have to create an artist statement. Wish me luck. Well I’d better get to those report cards. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Cheers!

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!

Jumping for Joy

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….and raising a little cash and awareness for the Heart and Stroke Assoc.

Today was our Jump Rope for Heart event. This is my 14th year organizing this school wide jump-a-thon. Two weeks ago we had our kick off assembly and last week the pledge envelopes went home. The day almost runs itself.

Our office assistant and her husband set up their sound equipment and provided great music for the kids to jump to. Everyone gets involved from kindergarten to grade 5, teachers, assistants, student teachers and parent volunteers.

It turned out to be a great day. It was pretty warm but there was a nice breeze and the rain held off until later in the afternoon. The donations should start rolling in next week. As of 4:00 this afternoon about $2000. came back to school in the pledge envelopes. I have no idea how much money is being raised on-line but every year more and more families are using the on-line option to make their donations.

That’s one more thing I can cross off my to do list before the end of the school year. Tomorrow is the school Fun Fair and next Tuesday I’m taking the girls’ soccer team to the West Conference Finals. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Cheers!

Thank you!

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. I reached 300 followers

I reached all my goals before the end of April with your help.

Where do I go from here? Here’s what I’m thinking:

150 likes for one post (114 for https://mamacormier.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/a-word-a-week-photograph-challenge-blue/)

200 views for one day (currently sitting at 159)

600 followers one year from today

30 000 views one year from today

300 new posts in the next year

I’m a big believer in setting realistic goals. Looking forward to my second year of blogging and meeting many new friends, worldwide. What are some of your goals?

Cheers!

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!