A Crazy Idea...

I have an idea.  It's a bit overwhelming, a bit crazy, and a whole lot of work, but I want to do it.

First Topic:

In my valley (mine!  All Mine!) there are 6 small SDA schools within about 250 kilometres of each other...and who interact very little.  With one exception, all of the schools are just Elementary/Middle schools, and typically it is only students in older grades who get to be a part of multi-school events.  This year I initiated and facilitated The Great Resource Exchange, swapping everything from tables and chairs to textbooks.

New Topic:

In my life I have been blessed to be a part of many choirs who have performed a lot of great music.  One choir that stands out was Auntie Nancy's homeschool choir where we performed the Christmas Messiah for Young Voices and the Easter Messiah for Young Voices.  I was fortunate enough to be able to direct two different choirs in performing the Christmas Messiah, one in Saipan and one in Kelowna.

Third Topic:

I love directing musicals of all sorts...but am rather sick of the somewhat inane performances that seem to be ubiquitous with elementary schools.  So...I thought...

Combining the Topics:

...Let's do an all-school performance of the Messiah!  That's right! Let's do a wee bit of editing to combine the Christmas and Easter Messiah for Young Voices (meaning, I'll do it), get all the schools involved (if they're willing), pick a somewhat neutral location (for several of the schools argue and bicker with great regularity), and just go for it!

The Crazy Idea:
Pick several songs that all schools will do as a mass choir (Hallelujah, For Unto Us A Child Is Born, etc), assign a couple of songs for each school to do individually, assign the speaking/reading parts to students from each school, and have at it!  Pick a Sabbath, have a group church service/potluck lunch, do a quick dress rehearsal (for the mass choir songs, especially), and perform it Saturday evening for all of the school and church families.  Wouldn't that be amazing?  It's my plan for next year (2012-2013), in March, hopefully.

It's crazy, it's a bit overwhelming, but it just might work!

From the Principal's Chair...

Life really does look different from the other side of the "big desk"...the paperwork, the troubleshooting, the being-the-one-who-has-to-be-responsible.  I'm really enjoying it...but at the same time I am bemoaning the fact that, while Being Principal is only 1/3 of my job, it is eating up all of my time so far.  This is the list of things I'd rather be getting accomplished because they have to be done before school and they are more fun than phone calls:

1. Clearing out my new classroom.
2. Setting up my new classroom.
3. Decorating my new classroom.
4. Creating hallway bulletin boards.
5. Getting my course outlines finished.
6. Contacting the families of my distance education students (Grades 3-5, fun stuff!).
7. Finishing setting up my new apartment.
8.  Making the office look less ugly (as I described to my Mom...finding art/decor which works with, yet doesn't clash with, the ugly!).

As you can tell by numbers 1 and 5, the office work is getting really old.

That said, school starts in one week!  Bring it on!  Just...not yet.

Mrs. G: Getting the Point Across

A post from my Mom's blog...you may recognize the premise of this assembly activity from an email which has circulated...but seeing it done has SO much more impact!  I couldn't be prouder of Steve...and don't think that it could have worked any better if they'd scripted the student responses (which they didn't).

Mrs. G: Getting the Point Across: "I have been thinking about what things are important to me as a teacher for quite some time. Leading up to the start of school in September ..."

The Joys of a Small School...

One of the unique things about teaching in a small school, located in a small community, is that teachers have the opportunity to interact daily with many students who are in many different classes. This year, for example, in addition to teaching all subjects to Kindergarten and Grade One students, I also teach P.E. every day to Grades Two and Three and Music once a week for Grades Seven and Eight. I was one of the sponsors for the flag football tournament two weeks ago, which involved 22 hours of driving (round trip), four hours on a ferry (round trip), three hours waiting for the ferry, multiple stops at gas stations/stores/etc, and camping out with the entire team at my Mom's place over a four day period.

*side note* Whenever possible, do long trips with a group of kids who are accustomed to the mantra that "if we miss this ferry we have to wait at least two more hours"...they know to keep their bathroom/snack breaks really fast. Man, that part was easy! Even stopping at the mall with a bunch of teenagers was easy! Nothing like living over four hours away from the nearest big center to really increase the amount of desire amongst everyone for some "big city shopping!" Also, EB Games is a wonderful babysitter. I dropped my collection of boys off there, told them not to leave, and did a ten-minute whirlwind tour of the bookstore, chocolate shop, and Starbucks. Fun times!

*back to the point* The trip was actually very fun, and quite painless, and tonight the football team is having a scavenger hunt party. Sometime in the next hour I expect groups of students to be converging upon my apartment to bake cookies, eat cookies, and deliver cookies to someone else, before heading off on their next task.

Why am I saying all of this? Why am I rambling on with atrociously long run-on sentences? Here's why. I love teaching in a school system where this is all "ok"...where I don't have to worry that someone is going to flip out about their preteens stopping at a teacher's house on a Friday night (with their drivers, of course), and where we can enjoy time spent in and out of school with a variety of people. Don't get me wrong. The system in which I work has it's downsides. Major downsides. The community in which I live has it's downsides, too (*cough* over four hours to the nearest bookstore *cough*). But, I get to bake cookies with the big kids on a Friday night. Awesome!


Now to end with the funniest Kindergarten moment of the week!


Small boy, "E", sticks his juice box and straw in front of my face and says "Open It."

I, obviously, respond with "E! You need to ask me nicely!"

He flutters his eyelashes, looks endearingly at me, and says in his most convincing voice... "will you please open my juice box, Sweetheart?"

I die.

UPDATE:

Grade Seven and Eight students learned that it's not possible to make cookies "bake faster!", and had to be deterred from trying the "turn the oven up to 500 degrees" method...too fun!