Math Fun

Today, I got 8 kids hooked on this game. One of them even wants to buy it. It didn't feel like a work day!

We didn't just play the game of course. I taught them some new words - real estate, RV, moat, etc. - and also alternative math strategies to add up their points if there's no calculator around.

The Grade 2 teacher also came up to me and said, "I don't know what you did yesterday but the kids are begging for you to come back to the class."

Being Silly

Supplied for the Grade 2s this afternoon and read a Robert Munsch book. I love doing funny voices. I miss reading picture books to kids.

Renewal

I’ve completely recovered from my cold, so I decided to make a visit to the gym with A. after work. Honestly, it felt good to be moving again. The past two weeks, I’ve been sitting at home a lot. I decided to take it easy and skipped the boot camp class. Instead, I walked on the treadmill for 25 minutes, complete three sets of back extensions and 45-second planks each, then finished with a few exercises on the Gorilla Workout app.

A light workout that left me feeling refreshed.

Sunset in Eastmain

I only managed to snag one shot, since I left the house with a near-dead battery. Lesson of the day, always check your camera a few hours before you head out.

Cooking on the Weekend

I cooked most of Saturday and watched seasons 2 of "Girls" in between. I made carrot ginger soup. It was alright. Don't think I actually like carrot soup.

I also made potato pancakes. Peppers, quinoa, broccoli, onions, Daiya cheese and some egg to hold it together. They were alright. I would probably do it without vegetables next time.

Rainbow Cupcakes and Math

Today was another PED day. There was no school but we managed to get 5 students out. We made rainbow cupcakes with food colouring and cake mix. Town has been pretty quiet as a lot of kids are out of town in La Sarre for a hockey tournament. La Sarre is about 7 hours away and is a pretty "short drive". Hockey tournaments are a regular occurrence, in one town or another. Don't plan big events during hockey tournaments or you will be disappointed.

Only one week left to go in Eastmain. Apparently, I will be going to Great Whale next; this was a last-minute change on the schedule. A bit frustrating as I was hoping to be in Chisasibi, where I have a life - parties on the weekend, badminton every Tuesday and Friday, bootcamp and my own place. In Great Whale, I have no cell service and will be billeting with the science teacher and her two dogs. It's alright I suppose, since I have friends there. It'll be nice to see the little Inuit kids at the gym again. Plus I'm sure I can wrangle my way into some badminton with the other Inuit people. The Cree are more into hockey and contact sports. As for work, I'm dreading it a little - I just find the students a lot harder to work with and their literacy and numeracy skills are extremely low. Mental math skills are near non-existence and adding single-digit numbers are a struggle. Definitely a big challenge. I'll be there for four weeks until Goose Break. 

In other news, my supervisor gave me permission to take Friday May 3rd off to attend the annual Ontario Association of Math Educators (OAME) annual conference in Toronto. It is going to cost me $235. Ouch. But I've been wanting to go for years! I would like to eventually teach math and am hoping to pick up some new and interesting ideas.

Argh!

I should have checked the price. I paid $4 for an avocado!!!

(At least they take care of them, very evenly riped and not bruised)

Pinterest.com

I finally started a Pinterest.com account when I was looking for ways to track goal-setting. Just look at all the ideas! This is also a great way to find innovative math lessons and manipulatives.

Income vs. Outcome

Sunday

Have been sick since Sunday. J. gave me a sore throat even though he wasn't sick himself. Dammit!

Tonight, we went to hang out with the Sec 1 teacher, D., who works at the gym. It was at K. and B.'s house, which has the same layout as the nice houses in Chisasibi. Of course, you notice how badly these houses are built when the siding is coming off and K. tells you the under the shingles is a piece of tarp.

TARP, AS IN THE BLUE PLASTIC SHEET YOU USE FOR CAMPING. I swear, one day, one of these houses are going to collapse and kill someone. I don't know how the training for carpentry works but it's embarrassingly bad. Even I don't know anything about plumbing and carpentry but all the houses up here are a wreck. They look nice but as you look closer, you can spot the problems easily enough.

K. made some pizza for dinner, which was nice. We also brought over guacamole and played Settlers of Catan. My coworker, A., won after 3 hours, which wasn't bad considering it's her first time. We had lots of fun chatting. The group has a lot in common as everyone has spent time in Asia - D. in Japan for 10, B. for 10 and A. for 4 years in South Korea. We've concluded that traveling is an amazing way to see the world, but once you live in a place, you start seeing the issues and the things that drive you crazy (obviously we began whining about Asian culture).

Left at 10 pm so that everyone can get ready for work tomorrow. Sky is beautifully clear and the stars are out. Snow is squeaky.

Good night.

(Sorry, I know I need to start taking some photos again.)

Saturday Supper

My first attempt at apple crumble from this recipe from Epicurious. Not that healthy, as It’s mostly butter, sugar and apples. A. and I were invited to dinner at a teacher’s house – he is making Indian food – and we offered to bring dessert. Can’t wait for our weekend feast.

Heading out the door soon!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Eastmain

Eastmain has been nice so far.

We live right behind the vice-principal, who hails from St. Catherines, Ontario. There are a lot of older female teachers here, but not stick-in-the-mud types. No, they go out a couple nights a week to go to a bootcamp, run by the Secondary I teachers! We went today, the VP let us hop in her Toyota RAV 4 and it was a fun class.

A group of good, strong women who have balanced work and social lives. I don't have enough of those in my day-to-day life.

Good News

The day I left Waskaganish, I dropped off a finished copy of my application with the principal. She told J. that she’d like to interview me in my early April.

Yay! This means I need to start prepping.

It’s already … the middle of March! Wow!

Motivated in Math

Currently in Waskaganish, covering my coworker's vacation. I'm only here for two weeks and move onto East Main this Sunday. 

I've got to say, it's great to finally be in the same community as J. again, even if the time is brief. The last time we saw each other was the first week of January. I've been staying at his place on occasion. Tonight, I made some pad thai and then came back to my work house. Right now, it's a healthy balance. His place is a bit too small for the both of us. 

After school, two girls came out to library, where we're currently running our classes. We played Equate for a little while, then my math lesson on integers with two Secondary 1* students, D. and A., went very well. I used coloured wooded cubes (positive integers) and uncoloured wooden cubes (negative integers) to demonstrate how to add integers**. I'd only used this method once to teach a very bright Grade 6 student down south, but it was exciting to see these kids clicking; they were intrinsically motivated and started seeing patterns. They were totally in flow, even up until the end of our class, and wanted to continue practicing what they'd just learned. These are the moments I work for! 

More amazingly is the fact that a third girl, T., is only in Grade 5. I'd let her in on the condition that she would do work with us, even though she's not in part of our program. T. was picking up patterns faster than the other two. When we played 'Integer War*'** with a deck of cards, she was answering faster than the others. It's just unfortunate she doesn't get the enrichment they deserve. I was lucky that I was identified in Grade 4 and went through the next 9 years in the gifted program, getting the stimulation that I needed to keep me interested and motivated. There aren't the same opportunities here and smart kids here learn very quickly to suppress their intelligence; being a smarty-pants here is absolutely no advantage. Instead, you can singled out because you are too good for everyone. I look at T. and I see that she is definitely is hungry for knowledge. When I let her out of the school, she shyly asked if she could return again. I told her that I was very proud and I would gladly welcome her as long as I was still in the community.

What a great way to end the work day. I'm still wondering whether I should ask to teach elementary next year up here. While I enjoy working with secondary kids, it is draining when they are not motivated in very much at all. Part of me would prefer to have a regular classroom and be able to get the kids here more interested in numeracy and literacy. Of course, I know wherever I will be, I'll still try my hardest. 

*Grade 9 in Quebec. This is the first year of middle school.

**A coloured cube and a wooden cube add up to zero and 'cancel' each other out.

***Assign red-coloured cards as negative integer and black-coloured cards as positive integers (i.e. eight of  clubs is considered +8). Students flip cards from the top of their decks and add the numbers together. First person to state the correct sum wins the cards.