Recently, I have seen examples of darning where people used clashing colours and, rather than just neatly sewing up the offending hole, they created large areas of stitching. It didn’t appeal to me. Maybe because I grew up with mended hand-me downs, but I thought it was ugly. Surely if you’re going to do obvious … More Darning Yarn
I love the idea of goals. As a teacher, we had to write our long-term plans at the beginning of each school year. Like a little type A student, I would create charts for each subject; colourize them, month by month; set out the books to use and bibliographies I would follow in an alphabetized … More Goal setting: Oh, look, a butterfly!
In these first two months of retirement, I took the advice of another retired teacher and have done nothing. Well, ok, I have not committed myself to a schedule. Instead I have napped, read novels, knitted, watched tv or movies and cooked a bit. Awesomely lazy. In the novel Albatross (Terry Fallis) the subject of … More Sailor…the pen!
June 2019 is the deadline. Retirement from teaching but not from life. I am amazed at how many people ask if I will really retire, as if teaching is such an attractive career that I could never leave it. I love the children, watching them explore and learn, realize they can accomplish all manner of … More Ready to Retire
Since they walked out onto the Canadian stage, Kashtin has been a part of my life’s soundtrack. The Quebec duo sings in Innu, French and English and I find myself singing along, even in Innu although I have to do that phonetically. I chose Kashtin to play in the car as I drove home to … More Kashtin
I am Roman Catholic but was raised in a protestant church so there are still aspects of the Roman church that don’t come naturally to me, like the veneration of Mary. As I pointed out in a previous post, bad principals can make a job miserable and last year, after several years of decent leadership, … More Our Lady of Perpetual Help
What is it that drives people into leadership positions? Some do it because they are driven to become leaders. They have the natural abilities and are willing to get the qualifications to rise to the next level of their organizations. Others are driven by the income higher positions tend to give. They may not have … More Leadership
I teach special needs students that range in age, diagnosis, level of communication, functional life skills, etc. I love it. The educational assistants in my class are my co-workers. I value their input and see their participation as equal to my own. I plan the alternative curriculum, they help implement it through their own gifts … More No Saints here
Recently I visited my favourite city in Canada: Ottawa. I have lived there several times and miss it. I took the opportunity to play tourist and included the RCMP Musical Ride Stables and Shop. Amongst the many items they carry at the shop are a set of retro metal signs with a rugged Mountie in … More We have a Mountie for that…
Imagine your eye is a video camera. It is focused very close on an object that looks like a white wire. Now the camera slowly pulls back, consistently focused, and the wire reveals itself to be the whisker on the face of a kitten. The camera pans down the kitten to the waving tail which … More The things you see
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