Boy, am I ever glad that I am on holidays! The next two weeks will be heaven! :-) Friday was our last day for two weeks and one day to be exact - the teachers go back one day before the kids do. The students weren't too bad on Friday, although James, who is a little different (we think he might have some form of autism), was really 'off' on that day. He tends to want to do things when he wants to do things and doesn't like to be told what to do when if he is not ready to do it. I finally had had enough of his behaviour and so I took three stars off him and he missed his playtime at first break. He was fine the rest of the day. I can see that I am going to have to be much firmer with him once we get back from holidays and that goes for the rest of those 'challenge' children as well.
The 'stars' thing is a classroom management tool which the previous teacher had started. Each day every child starts with three stars beside their name on a chart and every time they do something they are not supposed to do, they have to take a star off the chart. If they lose three stars, they have to miss their recess time. I was talking with my TA, Sam, the other day and told her that I wanted to do something to show those who make good choices that I appreciate them. So, when we get back, I am going to have another chart in the classroom. If a child does not get any stars taken off them by the end of the day, I will let them give themselves a stamp on the chart and when they get so many stamps, I will give them a sticker. I am not really a sticker kind of teacher, but I want to do something for those who always do what they should be doing.
Dad spent the day doing census stuff again. He finished sorting census forms into the seven areas, he read what he had to do to train his collectors and got the stuff together which he will need to use during the training of his collectors. He also unpacked one of our boxes which had the computer tower in it - he wanted to get this done so that he could finally have access to some files which he needed and also to be able to connect the printer to the tower so that he doesn't have to take his laptop into the office every time he wants to print something.
We had take-out Friday night as neither Dad nor I wanted to cook dinner - we just had hamburgers and fries from the local convenience store. We then flopped into our chairs and watched tv for the evening. There's not much on on Friday nights until 10pm when 'Law and Order' comes on, but even though that's one of my favourite shows, I was so tired by about 10:30pm, that I told Dad I was taking myself off to bed.
Yesterday was one lazy day for me - I told myself that I wouldn't do anything school-related yesterday and I didn't. :-) I watched some tv and took a bath and read my book. I was reading a book called 'Midwives' about a midwife who was taken to court when she cut open a woman who she thought was dead so that she could save the baby (the pregnant woman had no pulse). I got about half way through the book and although it was an interesting story, I just found that it went on too long - so I turned to the end of the book to find out how the story ends. Then, I started ready my new book 'Caleb's Crossing' which is based on the life of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College (in Martha's Vineyard in 1665). The book was on a few book club lists, so I am hoping it will be a good read.
Dad went to a census area supervisors' training meeting yesterday from 9am - 3pm. The district manager had to make sure that all of the supervisors knew everything which their collectors have to do. For instance, they discussed how to do the census with people who are on boats in a waterway or those who are in hospital on census day, etc. They were provided with lunch which was buns, cold cuts, cheese, salad (tomatoes, lettuce) and juice which was nice. Dad found that the training was good as there were a few things which were confusing to the supervisors and some of the supervisors were unsure of what to do in certain situations (like what to do if you run into a homeless person).
I woke up with a cold today, but went to church anyway. It was interesting how things turned out. Our Sacrament meeting was on the Holy Ghost, my Sharing Time lesson was on the Holy Ghost and Dad's High Priest group lesson was on the Holy Ghost - I thought that was cool that we were all be teaching or talking on the same subject. :-) When we got home from church, I had something to eat and went straight to bed for a nice, long nap. Dad Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa while I was napping. They are still at the campsite in the interior of BC and loving it. They will be heading back to Surrey this Thursday. Believe it or not, their month of vacation is up. There is no change in Grandpa's health which is good news, I think.
Tonight, we watched the movie 'Lean On Me' - I have seen it before, but I saw it when I was at the library picking up a book I had on hold and picked it up, too. I was just in the mood for a feel-good movie and this is one of them. It's basically the story of how a school principal came into a high school which had gone to the dogs (drugs, etc) and only 33% of the students were passing the basic literacy test. He sent all the druggies, etc, away and within a year 75% of the students could pass the literacy test. It's based on a true story of a school in California in the mid 80s. I really enjoyed it and so did Dad.
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