Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Ski Bunny or Student?

Hello everyone on this balmy Tuesday afternoon. I say balmy as according to my weather app, it’s only -4’ outside, which is practically summer in Lennoxville at this time of year. It was a slightly more bearable walk to school today! School so far this semester has been going really well. I am really enjoying all of my classes and all the preparation we are doing for our practicums in March. However, it does sometimes feel like I’m back in grade school, since I have all my classes in the same classroom with the same people. I cannot complain because I’m part of a great group of pre-service teachers. Outside of classes, I am no longer the social media intern, so I have a lot more free time. I miss my job a lot, but it has allowed me more time to focus on Golden Key and to go skiing. I’ve skied more this year than the past 4 combined! It’s shaping up to be a great winter semester!

At the start of the semester, I had 6 classes on my schedule. One of the classes I was registered in I had never heard of before, and despite thinking I had memorized my degree requirements, I accepted that it was there, paid my fees and showed up to class. However, we later found out that it was only made a mandatory class for the incoming students of 2014 meaning no one in my year was required to take. While we were disappointed we did not get to have the profs teaching the course, it lightened the course load a little bit and the profs offered to do the course informally for those still interested. In terms of my other courses, I love them all. For any parents who are reading this, I am sure you have heard about DRA, or Developmental Reading Assessments, from your child’s teacher, and that’s what we are learning how to administer in my Language Arts class right now. Everyone in my class has been paired up with a first-grader at Lennoxville Elementary School and we did the DRA with them today. After we complete an assessment profile, we will be designing and implementing a mini-lesson to pilot with our student and then have a mock parent-teacher interview with our professor regarding our student’s reading progress. This class really makes you feel like a teacher.

In math class, I had a big teacher moment the other day when I bought my math manipulatives kit, complete with tangrams, base-ten blocks, pattern blocks, etc. Since I am hoping to teach math during my practicum, hopefully I can use them in my lessons. I loved math growing up in school, however teaching math is another skill entirely, I can no longer give up when my student does not understand how to perform an operation or does not see why an answer is wrong. We’ve covered place value and geometry so far and each week we have a short quiz on concepts from Grades 1 to 6. A side story for you: Most people know that geometry and spatial sense was never my strong point in school, which is what we covered yesterday in class. Our prof put one of those wooden block puzzles on our table yesterday, the kind with different shaped blocks that you put together to make a cube. The other students at my table put it together in maybe 3 tries or so, but I think I sat and struggled with it for minimum 20 minutes. However, my competitive nature kicked in and I did not give up, and finally, FINALLY, put that darn cube together.

Last Friday, we had CAST, also known as the Conference of Associate and Student Teachers. CAST is where pre-service teachers meet their associate teachers and supervisors for the first time. It was held in the Gait on campus. The conference was really well done and I feel much more prepared for my practicum now. My host teacher and I got right into planning the units I will be teaching while I am there and I already have my first evaluation set up with my supervisor! Scary! Yesterday, I actually went into my school since it was a planning day and got to tour the school, meet the other teachers and staff, and see my classroom. Ayer’s Cliff Elementary is a beautiful school in a very small but nice town. There is one class of every grade, each with about 15 students. All the classrooms are in the same hallway, except for pre-Kindergarten and the resource room. Going to the school allowed me to do better planning, because I could see the resources I will have available and the space I will be working in. I am going to be teaching Language Arts, Math, Art and Drama while I am there. I better start planning!

Outside of the classroom, I have been spending a lot of time outdoors. Vicki and I go skiing at least once, if not twice per week down at Jay Peak. At the start of the year, there still was not too much snow there, but every week, they get a bit more and it is slowly starting to accumulate and make the conditions better. Since we do not have class on Wednesday, we go Wednesdays and Saturdays. We’ve had all kinds of weather so far, from rain to wind to bitter cold to beautiful sunny days. What I really need to do is throw my bathing suit in the car so that when the conditions are not optimal, we can go to the waterpark.



We’ve had some pretty fun weekends this month as well. The first weekend back, my housemates and I went to watch our first Gaiters basketball game. After you take a moment to silently shame us for taking four years to get to a game, please continue reading. We finally made it, and that’s what counts. Gavin came with us too and who knew he was such an avid basketball fan? The following weekend, my housemates and I had a house party here, and the theme was “The Codfather,” an under the sea mixed with Italian Mafia theme. We felt neither theme was ideal on its own, so we combined them (to any of my friends from Wenonah who read this, throwback to WCIT Lord of the Musicals). It was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout of our extended group of friends. Try to guess some of the songs that were featured on the themed playlist.
 
Ahoy mates! 
This past weekend was the best one yet. On Friday, to celebrate 10 years since the release of High School Musical, our friends had everyone over to watch the first movie. On Saturday, Vicki and I skied all day and then came home for the third annual Chili-fest. For those who do not know what that is, three years ago, our friend Sara brought a tradition from home to Bishop’s – a chili cook-off! Different teams each make a chili and they are sampled in a blind taste test to determine a champion. What started with 5 chilis in 2014 grew to 12 chilis this year! The theme was Tom Hanks, so each chili was labeled with one of his movies. In order to be different, Vicki and I made a chilly chili, also known as a dessert chili. We found an awesome recipe online for a dessert that looked like a real chili, made with pudding, brownies, maraschino cherries, shredded coconut, chocolate covered raisins and whipped cream. In addition to our chilly chili, there were traditional chilis, noodle chilis, vegetarian chilis, chilis with meat other than ground beef and a gluten-free, low-calorie chili (aka boiled chili peppers). Craving chili yet? Once all had been sampled (minus mine and Vicki’s), the results were calculated and were as follows:

1) Sleepless in Seattle – Hannah “Returning Champion” McLean
2) Big – Sara “Vegetarians are People Too” Conway and Gaby “The recipe came as a vision in my sleep” Patenaude
3) The Terminal – Gavin “The Newcomer” McGuire

Following the sampling, everyone had a bowl (or bowls) of their favourite chilis, and then Vicki and I served ours. The bowl was licked clean, so I guess it was well received. While we all digested the immense amount of chili we had eaten, we brought out the board games and dance music and had a really great evening at Chilifest 3.0. Thanks to the Delta girls for hosting and to everyone who shared their delicious chili recipes! It was a lot of fun to attend this event for the past 3 years.




On Sunday, Gavin and I went snowshoeing at Mont Gosford, the mountain with the highest peak in Southern Quebec. We left at 9am in the morning and hiked from 10:30 until 4:00pm. Needless to say, I got my 10 000 steps in that day. It was my first time snowshoeing and my first time climbing a mountain in the winter (sans chair lift) and I have to say, it was an absolute blast! Debatably, I liked it better than skiing because there was no sitting around waiting on the chair lift. We walked about 12km or so, and the view from the highest point we reached was beautiful. It was a great day and beautiful weather. We thought it was going to be cold, but within the first kilometer we had removed at least 2 layers of winter clothing. We were a bit ambitious with our first ever climb but now we are hooked and I cannot wait to go again.


After a big day of outdoor activity, Golden Key had our Winter Potluck with Vice-Principal Miles Turnbull at his house in Lennoxville. We just welcomed five new officers on to our executive team so it was great to socialize with them at the event and get to talk with other members. Our faculty advisor Dean Murray was there, as was Dr. Turnbull’s partner Wade. Dr. Turnbull is an amazing chef! He made baked brie, salmon, pork loin, Thai-curried carrots, risotto – and that was in addition to the plates brought by members! Simone was the official greeter and I was the bartender. I made Skor bars for the event, and my plate was clean when I came home, with several requests for the recipe. However, my plate was not empty because Dr. Turnbull let us take home the leftovers! I’ve got dinner for the next week! I want to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Turnbull and Wade for hosting us and to all the Golden Key members who attended. I had a lot of fun, as I always do at our events, and cannot wait to move forward with our other Golden Key initiatives this semester. Speaking of which, we are kicking off our Better World Books drive, so dig out your old books and donate them to our drive!

Tonight, Vicki and I are going to Speaker’s Night to hear from those running to lead the SRC next year. Earlier, I went to ask my housemates if they wanted to go, then remembered that I am the only one who next year’s SRC will affect. Regardless, I am looking forward to hearing from the candidates. In other exciting news, my little sister is coming up for Winterfest this weekend and I could not be more excited! 3 more sleeps until she gets here and the freshly 18 year old Lauren takes on Quebec!

Have a great rest of your day/week!

All my love,

Erica xoxoxoxo




  

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