Sunday, June 7th
Another Sunday.The girls played with sidewalk chalk after church.
Monday, June 8th
Monday, June 8th
The latest installment of spirit week. It cracks me up that today is candy day. Fiona, all the girls actually, have lots of candy because of the pinata on Fiona's birthday, so candy day it is. (I think Alice had eaten all of her candy already...) I love how creative the girls get with the picture taking some days. Fiona and her doll, Alice and her hair, and Kate being "consumed" by the candy! So fun!
Tuesday, June 9th
I invited Mom to come over today. After realizing how lonely she was, it was just dumb that she hasn't been visiting all along. This morning Emily wanted to know who could go for a hike. So she dropped off Hazel and took Alice and Kate. At first I thought that it would just be Alice going on the hike, but Holden wanted Kate to go. It all worked out and Mom had fun hanging out and being here (Alice and Grandma did get a Scrabble Game in before the hike), Hazel and Fiona loved playing, and even though they got a few bug bites, Alice and Kate had a great time too.
Fiona - her cutie mark is bubbles = she is fun and likes to play (more about our spirit day below).
Today was also the designated day for retrieval of student items. I thought I'd go in their classrooms and take a picture of their desk - but all the stuff was bagged and labelled and sitting above their hook beside their classroom. It was weird but okay. I got to meet Kate's math teacher. Mr. Salvati got a concussion just before March break, and has been off recovering ever since. Mr. Lowing has been Kate's math teacher during the lock down - but he wasn't hired right away. He seemed really nice.
Fiona's room.
Today was Pony Day. I wanted to re-create Kate's pony party from when she was six. We made cutie marks for all the birthday party attendees and it was so cute. The girls weren't super excited about my idea, but with lots of cajoling they finally came around.
Alice's cutie mark is art supplies because she loves to create.
Wednesday, June 10
Today was Magic Day. Alice practiced card tricks on me. I can't remember how many she did, but some of them I got how she did it, and some, no idea - kinda cool!
Thursday, June 11
I needed to go into my classroom today. There was a windstorm last night, and one of the trees near the Stahler's house blew down - crazy, so I stopped and took a pic on the way to school! I took all the stuff that I had brought home back to school today and I got all the kids stuff ready for them to pick up. Usually I get grade nine volunteers to come in at the end of June. They take everything out of the duotangs and staple the contents, and return them to the kids. This year I had to do it by myself. It wasn't going very quickly, but then Lena, sweet sweet Lena, stepped in and helped me get it done. I have worked with so many amazing people at Blue Willow. Today was cuckoo at school and I didn't take any pics. It was go go go the whole time.
Friday, June 12
American Girl Doll Day. Even though we've now seen our friends a few times in the last week, it is officially legal to hang out with them! There's this thing called social bubbles or social circles, the idea being that you have close contact with a group of ten people - no social distancing, no masks. We're going to make that number 11 - my Mom is in the group!
Playing with friends is the best - especially when you haven't being seeing friends for three months. It's been so good for the girls to have social contact with friends that aren't each other! Yay for friends and dolls!
Saturday, June 13
Report cards. Can you say report cards? I can say them... I can do them... EEK! I didn't take a single picture today. Not a single one. I ignored my family all day and I worked on my reports. They are due Monday, and I am determined to get them done on time - oh and when they're due Monday, my assumption is always that Monday ends at 11:59 p.m. Lol. But truly, doing music reports, someone's class is always last, it's the way it goes. Usually teachers let me know that they are anxious to hand them in, and some let me know theirs won't be done on time, so I try my best to make people happy. This week was really busy so I feel like I'm behind, but I'll get them done, I always do!
And a word about reports... it's kind of crazy this year - no really crazy! Our marks for term two are supposed to be based on what students did prior to the school closure. Term two started at the beginning of February. That means six weeks of teaching. I had completed playing tests in most of my music classes - a few were in the middle of testing, but the grade 8s - UGH! We had just started our summative task - writing variations on a theme before the closure. I just kept thinking if I keep strictly to the ministry's rules, I will have no marks for term two for the grade 8s. Add to that that the students didn't get report cards in term one because of the stupid union and that would mean not one single mark for grade 8 music for the whole year. UGH!!!
They did give us a loophole though - professional judgement. So I went with it! Some of the grade 8s worked so hard on their online school work. And a bunch of students completed the variations and other music assignments. I couldn't not give them marks. So I made a decision and I tried to be as consistent as possible across all grades. If I didn't have a mark pre-closure and a student did most/all of the online assignments, I gave them a mark based on that. I feel confident that given all of the evidence that I have it will all be okay - here's to hoping!
