The End of an Era

Second to last day here at RHSS for little Ms. F

I finished my e-portfolio this morning and tested it on my teacher's laptop and desktop to make sure I'm all squared away.  It's a weird feeling not having that project looming over my head anymore - surreal.

After I finished checking over my portfolio I cleared the rest of my desk which just looks desolate now.

The grade 10 class is watching Avatar to learn about the abuse of indigenous people throughout the history of North America and my SA was asking which part they had gotten to while he loaded the DVD.  As the DVD Menu began one student started to freak and yell, "WHOA!  We haven't gotten here yet!"  It was funny...because it was just the DVD menu.

Tonight are parent/teacher conferences - we'll see if I emerge with any interesting stories.

Countdown to Napoleon: 5 days

There's No Way of Knowing

Video Blog - April 18th, 2011

Good English

Here is the scene in the hallway this morning:

It is roughly 10:51 in the morning and students are gathering in the hallway to watch Hurricane Studioworks the high school's video news program.  Today is a particularly exciting day because they are doing a mini feature on ME!  That's right - a tremendously embarrassing string of footage where I tell stories about the ghetto girls in my high school and laugh unattractively for all to see.  Before this however the two "news anchors" for the day delivered the daily announcements.  As the female anchor, a clearly Americanized Asian student, probably grade eleven or twelve, reads her portion with great enthusiasm and cheer one of my grade nine students (we call him "Jungle Boy" for his rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" that he performed at Hansen Idol), he crosses his arms while nodding knowingly and says "She's got good English."  I turn to him - barely able to contain my mirth - and say "Jungle Boy, she's not an exchange student."  His face promptly turned as red as his hair and we all had a good giggle (which later turned into a private laugh-fest for me in my classroom).  This adorably ignorant boy was impressed by her English skills.  Love it.  Now in his defense RHSS does currently have a group of exchange students here from Thailand who were introduced on the program sometime last week - but I still found this brief exchange hilarious.  I mean the girl doesn't even have the trace of an accent!  And this is Canada!  It is not surprising to come across an Asian student!  Hilarious I tell you.

Move in date!

I just wanted to announce that it is official! Napoleon will be moving in on Monday April 25th!
J and I are heading down to visit the family for the Easter holiday and on Monday we will stop to pick up Napoleon!
I will keep you posted about my upcoming week of school which will be my last four days at Hansen.

The ABC's of Teaching

Today I was privileged to be part of a photo shoot done by Rachel Raymond (check out her incredible blog and the rest of the photos here).  My three friends and I had somehow managed to make it through a majority of the school year without a single photo of us, which we rectified this afternoon in front of an abandoned school house (I may have to get a tetanus shot now - there's no way of knowing).  Thanks to Rachel for this fabulous shoot, we have already enjoyed hours of laughter over these photos that are both flattering, character capturing and highly amusing :)

Napoleon Chronicles - Part 1

I forgot my headphones today.  It’s brutal.  I can’t get any work done – so instead I’m just resigned to working on report cards. 

This weekend I met my puppy!  You might remember in my last post how I mentioned moping about how I wanted to adopt this puppy that I would hypothetically name Napoleon.  This week I made the decision that the amount of happiness I would feel over getting to adopt this little guy into my home far outweighs any discomfort I might feel over having to spend money that I don't really want to spend.  So I drove out to Silverdale (a GORGEOUS part of Washington, I loved the pace of life out there).  At one point I drove underneath a bridge with the phrase "Celebrating Nature and Community" and I knew that this was exactly where I want to end up someday.  I traveled down a long road with cross streets named things like "Redfern", "Quiet View" and "Left Wing" until the road ended and a long gravel private drive continued down into the forest.  Just when I thought that I had taken some sort of wrong turn and I would never find their address I came to the home of Brenda and Alan at Cedarmist Cavaliers and they could not have been more welcoming!  The puppies were so cute!  There were originally two litters but Napoleon's brother (now named Mario and living happily I imagine out in Eastern Washington) had gone home the day before so it was just him along with another litter.  They were two days younger than him but noticeably larger.  


I got to meet his mom "True" and her sisters who were all beautiful. I sat on the floor playing with him for almost an hour while he dashed about the room.  He has the smallest little nose and these tiny teeth (when I say tiny you have absolutely no idea how tiny).  He would run across the room and then trip and do a full somersault before hopping up and rushing about again.  As is typical for a puppy he managed to head directly for the computer cord and proceeded to chew on it, so we had to continuously redirect his attention.  Finally he settled down and I took him into my lap and he nuzzled into my shirt and started to nap.  It was the greatest moment of my life.

20 days until he is mine!  

ILoveDisney06

Several rambly thoughts of the day:

1.       I am just not in a phase of my life where I desire children.  It isn’t just that I don’t desire them…I am repulsed by the idea of having little babies running around my house.  I met a woman in the store the other day who described children as “pets that live longer than you!”  Which brings me to the unfortunate fact that educated Americans are choosing more and more often to not have children, while the uneducated Americans continue to pop them out every time they turn around. 

Now I can’t decide whether this information should make me want children MORE or less.  Should I attempt to counteract the growing stupidity in North America by producing my own offspring (who will undoubtedly be brilliant as well as good looking)?  Or should I avoid procreating in an effort to fight global overpopulation?  Who would my child play with?  Who would they marry?  If the statistics are right then the pool of intelligent mates will be even SMALLER than the one I am currently fishing in! (Which brings me to another good point – I may never find a male who appeals to me as a baby daddy).

2.       I have spent the morning marking the unit tests I gave the last week of school before Spring Break and the laughter has not stopped.  Can you tell the difference between a grade 12 answer and a grade 9 answer?

Here are some of my favorite answers (complete with spelling and grammatical structure – and yes, these are all native English speakers):

“People now have a perception on a certical race of people believe that since thens a lot more Indo-Canadias there is going to be a lot more gangs that equel death.”

“Crime has gone upe”

“They weren’t fair Because they didn’t like the FARMERS!”

“Yes, it’s a idea to smart up.”

“Lord Durham was important because he started a rebellion.  He tried to wange the people but failed when the rebellion moved to London he didn’t know what to do which made the Queen angry and embarassed.”

"But when the film was getting to the end there relationship changed jurastically." (And no we were not watching Jurassic Park)

3.       Today one of my students from last semester came in and just sat in my classroom for lunch.  Her best friend’s dad died suddenly last week and so she’s been left alone at school each day with no real companions and I told her she was welcome in here with me.  Today she gave me a cookie.  We talked about cancer.  I shared a bit with her about my mom in hopes that it would help her to find some common ground.  I don’t know if that can possibly be comforting to her but I’m glad she stopped by. 

4.       And finally – I have been attempting to track down my AP scores because I need them to send in to finalize my teaching certification since some of them transferred in as university credits.  Unfortunately I made my collegeboard account AGES ago and no longer have access to the email address that I used so I had no way of figuring out my username or password.  Long story short I called them to track down this information and to get a temporary password.  When I asked them if they could give me my username I experienced this horrific early high school flashback.  What was the username I chose to register myself by in order to sign up for my AP tests and SATs?  ILoveDisney06.

Kill me now.  Just shoot me.

Amusing end to a long day

I have just returned from Night Church where a chocolate chip from my muffin fell into my shirt and melted between my boobs creating a large brown stain on my shirt for all to see.

This following a long day of moping about my lack of finances to rescue this adorable puppy who is the runt of his litter and having a hard time finding a family as a result of that.  His foster parents call him "Stash" because he has a little black spot under his nose that looks like a mustache but I think I would name him Napoleon - big personality in a little body.

Anyone willing to loan me $1,200??  Please?  Think of the puppy!