Snow Pass

I found a brochure about this in a classroom last year sometime (I'm assuming it's still hopefully a program that is going on). Basically, you pay just under $30 and your child (who has to be in either grade 4 or 5) can snowboard at any of the listed places up to 3 times in a 2 year span (assuming they are in grade 4 the year you purchase the pass - once your child hits grade 6 it looks like the pass will no longer be valid).

You can apply on line here and it should list the places where your snowpass would be valid. Manitoba (which is where I live) only offers 3 places so it's only 9 trips to the ski hills total here but if you lived in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, or Quebec there are over 20 qualifying places (in 2017) to ski in each province (which if you do some quick math - 20x2=60 trips to go skiing for just under $30... I don't know how much lift tickets cost but this seems like a really great deal).

Nursing Homes

I had one grade 6 student ask me 

“If you’re an old lady and homeless couldn’t you just live in one of those old folks homes?” 

“Those places aren’t free” I responded. 

“Oh well, that’s where I’m putting my mom” was his response. 

Uh… good to be thinking ahead… I guess?

This Week At School

This week at school I was in a couple of new to me classes

One of them I walked in and saw this....

For those of us that aren't aware... this is in Spanish

I do not speak Spanish

So I did my very first day of Spanish immersion!

Luckily it was grade 1 and 2 and there were only 12 students... so we spoke in English this day.

This isn't my first time "teaching" something that I don't know.  I've been a French music teacher, high school computer teacher, guitar teacher, and violin instructor.

Later in the week I was also a nursery/kindergarten teacher at a school I haven't been at this year yet.

I went back to my old school from last year and taught grade 8 as well.  The kids were not the greatest and I'll often use this as a reason not to come back to that particular class.  BUT, in this case (and likely only a handful of others) I did tell the teacher I would come back.  Why?  Because I've been the one with a class that no one would want to teach that likely would have been nearly impossible to find a sub for (luckily, I never needed one) and so I decided to offer my services again (so long as I'm not already booked elsewhere)... plus I know a lot of those students from last year and I do think they are capable of improving their behaviour.

But to finish things off... I finally was in a classroom with class pets again!

It's been a looong time since I've seen some class pets in a classroom!

Teacher Ranking

A student told me a while ago that in his ranking of teachers I was his third favourite.

I asked who came before me and it was his homeroom teacher and band teacher.

My only question now is... should I be happy with being third place because at least I ranked?

Do I assume whenever a student doesn't tell me their ranking it's because I don't make the cut?