Toast
So I shall start with Toast. About two years ago a lovely ginger cat showed up at the Bella Bella airport and decided to stay. No one expected him to survive so they named him toast, as in this cat is...
There are a lot of large predators out by the airport, bears, wolves, eagles to name but a few but Toast has survived and I met him today. To my surprise he could be my cat's identical twin, they are very similar. Except that Toast lives out his life at the airport greeting incoming passengers and occupying a place of prestige at the coffee bar. He is a very sweet animal and totally welcoming. Long Live Toast.
Stupid
Someone at the school made an accusation against me, she told our Vice Principal that I had called my students stupid. Never happened. I was pulled into the office by the VP and asked to sort things out with this person. I have tried to meet with them but everytime I try to speak with them they walk away from me. So I am going to ask the Principal to mediate our conversation. This whole situation is stupid and the accusation is so out of character for me. I just wonder what the accuser's motivation was to do this. Ugh. Anyway we meet Monday wish me luck.
Thumper
Some time ago I had posted about my class' grand plans to acquire a class pet. They raised $328.00 and got permission from all of the major forces at the school. All they had left to do was bring in their permission slips. So I waited and waited and finally I gave them a deadline. I said "If we do not have everyone's permission slips in by this Monday, this will not happen and we will find a cause to donate our money to." Well they made it...barely. So I called my most wonderful and patient Mother and said "It is on, bring the bunny." To which she said "They are gone, they were sold while we waited for your class." So I asked her to go and see if she could find us some bunnies in Nanaimo, somewhere! She came through! She found us a lion-headed bunny who had been rescued from a petshop. It was accustomed to being handled and was used to being looked at. So Thumper arrived early Wednesday morning and made his first appearance in class on Thursday.
The students have done an amazing job of preparing for this bunny, they have all signed bunny care contracts and serve as bunny ambassadors. We have a bunny care schedule and the kids adore this fluffy guy, they came in on the weekend to feed him, exercise him, and clean his cage! We make sure he gets his exercise, the kids love grooming him, and we are learning so much about bunnies! Did you know that broccoli makes bunnies gassy? Everyone who encounters my students knows about that now and they also learn that too many veggies make for a bad case of bunny diarrhea, oh the things that grade fours like to share.
I have taken this on with the idea that this bunny is my responsibility, I will take the bunny out of the classroom if I feel he is being negatively impacted but both he and the kids seem very happy with this arrangement so far. He will be getting a bunny buddy soon, right now the students are researching how to introduce one bunny to another successfully.
Thumper is a minor celebrity many other students have found their way to our doorstep this week only to be turned away. We are giving bunny lots of space and while we are going to introduce him to the other classes we will be doing it in a controlled way so that he feels safe because his needs come first.
The Mother Has Landed
As previously mentioned, my Mother has arrived here. She is staying until the end of the school year. I hope she will like it here and find enough to do with her time. I don't want her to be bored. It is strange having someone else in my space. I hear her moving around in the morning and it is something I will have to get used to again. She brought a ton of food and has immediately set herself to work making the place nice. Somehow it just seems cleaner and homier by her presence, she is good at turning a house into a home.
We went over to Shear water last night with some of the other teachers and I showed her my favorite shop, where all of her Mother's Day gifts had come from. We ordered a router, as we currently have plug in internet and that isn't going to cut it for the both of us. We also enjoyed a lovely dinner with six other teachers and looked out into the beautiful marina and enjoyed the early summer evening.
Me.
I have a very funny voice right now. I sound like someone who has inhaled helium and then sand papered their throat. It has been more than a week since I sounded like myself. I am getting better in all other ways which is great.
In general I am very happy here. I have been living under the poverty line for a very long time and I have been dependent on others, (student loans, Mother, Ex) for help financially for a very, very long time. I can not begin to tell you how nice it feels to lay down in my own bed, under my own sheets, in a place I am paying for with the knowledge that I am financially stable and able to help my loved ones out if they need it.
I do miss teaching Secondary school as I do prefer it. I have a huge amount of admiration for those who teach primary, as they all have such reserves of creativity and resourcefulness that they dip into each day. But primary just isn't for me. I will be teaching intermediate next year and I hope to teach high school the following year.
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| Someone else has really settled in here as well, he loves the living room window and the sunbeams that come through it. |
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