Tag: Reading

Making it Work > Reading

A Day at the Lake

Posted on by pioneerintrees

It’s a lovely thing to come to the lake in the winter. We drive as far in as we can then strap on our snowshoes and hike in a couple of kilometers to the Bell camp. This year we didn’t trust the lake so we went by road, dragging a couple of sleds behind us. The girls went ahead, helter skelter, dropping various things off of their sleds with nary a look behind them. Funny how they didn’t notice. By the time Paul and Liam and I got there, we were laden with bags that had fallen by the wayside. Next year, bungie cords.


The lake is dead quiet. Surreal in the lack of wind and waves and birds and children hooting as they get dragged behind a boat.

We hike in the woods when the ice seems too thin for comfort. We wander around our friends’ cottages. There are snow fights and icicle finds. We are overdressed but grateful for it all.

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Inside, it’s so cozy. We all have our books (paper or otherwise) and some have a project – a puzzle, sudoku or a pair of socks to work on. Charades.

Of course lots of great food – and baking is a sure bet with me in the cabin! I get to create all sorts of yummy things – cinnamon buns and cookies and tea biscuits. For dessert tonight is a banana cake. I forgot the ingredients for the topping so I have had to improvise with ice cream bowls, marshmallows, chocolate and pecans. Result? YUM!

All in all, a glorious time at the lake.

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Photo cred @carolbell268

Summer Ruminations

Posted on by pioneerintrees

It’s now August and all Educators begin having school dreams.  (I say dreams, but they are not generally pleasant …). No matter the devices we use for keeping school-related thoughts at bay (travel, trashy novels, alcohol … to outline the obvious), they still come. These trigger subtle changes in our foci. When it’s raining we find ourselves thinking about indoor recess, when we hear a great swear-free song we make a mental note – or even hit Shazam and save it. As a P, I find myself collecting various sized pinecones for the Kindies to sort and birchbark pieces for the investigation. I buy EUC books for classroom libraries from online buy&sell sites (EUC stands for ‘excellent used condition’, FYI). And so it goes. I can’t help myself and neither can any other Educator in the world.

The summer is essentially over for us. We’re becoming serious about buying swearing stationary.

As a P of course I think about (stress about) different things than a teacher or EA or CYW would. We all have massive lists in our heads – they are just different. Mine include Who’s up for a TPA (teacher performance appraisal)? I need to learn about the Core French curriculum. Did I book the Consultant to come in? Oh crap I have a student EA starting on the first day. What about the playground?  Crap, I need to paint the climbers, paint games on the pavement, buy benches & urns for flowers so the parents can chill closer to the school and not feel left out.The teaching schedules need some tweaking. The PA day is looming … must plan that with the SIP in mind – oh Jesus. When am I going to plan that? Oh, and I still have my summer (professional) reading to do. And so it goes.

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And somehow, in the midst of all of this important thinking, pushing on my frontal lobe is that the memo for our first P mtg that said to wear ‘summer casual’. WTF? I have so many questions about that statement.

Best to return to my summer classic. A truly odd book, The World According to Garp, but one that feel obliged to read and makes some sense of before I bone up on proportional reasoning.