Life as of Now

Hi Folks. I just thought I'd write a quick note to let you know what's going on these days.

So the strike is officially over (since last Thursday) at BU. That means that i am officially a 'student teacher' instead of just a 'volunteer' in the classroom, or as my co-operating teacher put it...you're just a 'guest speaker' who happens to be here for the whole week:) It doesn't look like my life will be altered a whole lot due to the strike. I'm sure my last 3 weeks of classes once we return to the university will be packed as the profs try to stuff the last week of stuff that we didn't get to before the strike into the remaining 3 weeks (but don't worry-we'll figure it out!:)

I"m just starting my 2nd week of my placement. It's going pretty well. Near the end of this week I will be teaching 3 of 4 slots a day so that makes my life pretty busy. I'm trying to get lessons planned and stay ahead of the marking and such. If you don't hear from me too often you'll know that I'm consumed by teaching stuff! The placement is going pretty well. I'm enjoying the teaching part of my days...the planning part is not nearly as much fun! But I'm getting my classes doing some pretty fun activities (at least I think they're fun-they might have ae different opinion) and my co-operating teacher is really helpful and willing to share all of her resources with me. It's really good.

One other note, althought school and lesson planning seems to take up a large chunk of my life, you'll be happy to know that I still have some opportunities to be social! This past weekend my friend Julia, from Winnipeg, came out to watch her sister & cousin play volleyball at the university AND we got to spend saturday together! IT was lots of fun to catch up with her as well as watch a couple of good volleyball matches. BU girls won both games against SFU!!! Way to go ladies:)

So that's about it for me...I need to head off to bed to get my 'beauty' rest...wouldn't want to scare the children tomorrow!!!

I thought this picture was a good role-model for me...don't forget to smile:)!

Good nite folks~

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to share about my fantastic Thanksgiving Weekend. I am so blessed with good friends, family and food! (just to name a few of the amazing blessings and gifts that I have in my life)

I went into Winnipeg on the weekend to see friends from camp as well as have a family dinner with my dad's side of the family. I drove in with my sister on Saturday morning and then met up with family Sunday afternoon.

We had fun catching up with camp friends, going to MEC to marvel at all the wonderful goods in that store, and ate some delicious Chocolate raspberry cheesecake brownie! All before 4pm on Saturday afternoon. We had the delicious cheesecake brownie at this great place called Neighbourhood cafe in the wolsely area of Winnipeg. You should check out the place if you're ever in the neighbourhood.

Saturday evening was spent enjoying a great time of friendship (with conversation that was refreshing and also filled with laughter!) and eventually eating a beautiful thanksgiving dinner with a roast duck as the center piece. Now for those of you who are in the same boat as me, I was a bit nervous about the whole duck thing before trying that bird but let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS! and it looked so pretty. Can cooked meat look pretty? I think so! Seriously, if you have the chance, try some duck! A pleasant change from your usual poultry options (or even red meat options!)

We even had a chance to sleep over with another camp friend and then catch up over a leisurely Sunday breakfast before heading over to my Baba's place to help get ready for the family dinner. It was just a great way to spend a couple of days...friends, fun and food! (family too I guess!)

I've also been able to lay around like a lazy lady today which makes for a great holiday long weekend. Reading, playing card games and catching up on emails. Hooray for long-weekends:)

Tomorrow I start my 5 week student teaching placement (officially) even though the university is still on strike. That's kind of a messy situation (which I could fill you in on if you ask). I'll let you know how it goes! Maybe there will even be some funny stories to share as I get into it. I'm teaching grade 9 and 10's for the first time so they're a little more entertaining than the old grade 11 and 12's that I'm used to teaching:) I'll keep you up to date!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Cake Time

This past friday night, Kendelle and I decided that we wanted to bake something. We finally decided on a cake, but not just a simple cake. Kendelle wanted to decorate it. So after deciding on the kind of cake (a chocolate & white marble slab cake layered with homemade strawberry filling), we decided we would transform that boring rectangle into a delicious sailboat. It was quite an adventure with lots of laughs along the way. With only one little outing to Giant Tiger to buy some whipping cream and icing sugar we got the job done! We decided this cake would be made in honor of Kendelle's 21st birthday which was never celebrated with a cake. We did celebrate it during our canoe trip (with instant cheesecake parfaits) but not with an official cake. I think the cake looked pretty good. Decide for yourself with these pictures...

I'm hard at work decorating this little boat!

This is the finished product...we were sailing the Ethiopian Flag (that's why our little man aboard has chocolate colored skin!) I would like to point out that we even included coconut waves for our boat to sail in, a duck (in the bottom left corner) and a smiling sun! Even though it did end up with pastel colours because we didn't have any coloring paste, I think it looks pretty good!

Here's a close up of the little sailor in our boat!

Happy 21st Birthday Kendelle!

In other news, the strike is still on at Brandon University so there are no classes scheduled for tomorrow. I am taking advantage of this lack of classes to head over to my placement school and start teaching my Ecology unit tomorrow morning. I've designed a 3 week Ecology unit for my grade 10's and tomorrow's the first day. Originally m co-operating teacher was just going to teach the first week of my unit, but now that I don't have classes, I'm going to go in each morning ( it's slot 1) and teach my unit, until the strike is over or until I start officially student teaching after Thanksgiving.

My other weekend cooking adventure included making some delicious Indian Deep-friend onion rings...I don't remember their actual name but I know they were tasty. We made some yogurt & fresh mint dipping sauce to go with them too. Not healthy but rather tasty. We had to buy some chickpea flour and strange spices that I've never heard of before to create this little treat but they were good. BUT we had to buy 2kg of chickpea flour...any ideas of recipes that call for chickpea flour? I'm kind of at a loss of what else to make with the stuff. If you know of something good let me know!

So here's to another new week coming up!

BU on STRIKE

Hey Folks.

So the biggest news in my life these days is that my university faculty has gone on strike. That's right, no school all week! Which is exciting and great but at the same time getting kind of nerve wracking. Last night the mediation talks failed and now we wait to see if the faculty union will agree to the university administration's request for binding arbitration...the faculty union doesn't want anything but negotiations so it could be a length wait.

It's kind of interesting (though maybe shouldn't be surprising) that the story that comes from the administration people is vastly different from the faculty folks. If you only read one story you get a very distorted view...I guess that's probably expected seeing how they couldn't come to agreements in negotiations.

So yeah, I've spent this week trying to get ahead in my lesson planning for my upcoming student teaching placement and enjoying a bit more of a relaxed day.

Had a great phone call from a friend from camp this week which was so awesome. I'm not typically a phone person (but with a few friends it's different). Chatting with good friends that live far away is always good to reconnect but it makes me want to move closer to them even more. It still feels like I don't have any of those 'call them any time, do small little things with them' kind of people in Brandon right now. I've been having some lonely days and longings to just pick up and visit/move to where my friends are. I'm really trying to work on living contently with where I am and who I am with...it's hard!

blessings on you all.