victory!

I made it. Essentially anyway. Finals start today (for me) and even with all the marking it feels like a holiday.

it's almost over

ihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingits
almostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihate
markingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmost
overihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarking
itsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostover...

good pd?

An opportunity arose for some PD revolving around assessment for any interested staff. Paid PD! It is true that all PD has a severe chance of being boring, useless, and an extreme waste of time. However, it looked like it had potential, it fit in perfectly with a program I'll be teaching next year, and downtown was footing the bill. If nothing else I would gain two free lunches and two days outside of school.

It was awesome! Between 5 schools, there were only 11 participant, but quality participants indeed. From my limited experience, it is very rare to walk away from a workshop with a drastically improved understanding of the topic addressed. Not only did we discuss many really interesting ideas, controversies and difficulties surrounding assessment in depth, many really good improvements and practical suggestions came out. I left wanting to do things differently AND knowing how to.

Fabulous! I'm very impressed someone pulled this together at the end of the year. Secretly I also hope I will get to count this towards my accreditation...

a very official proof

While having a discussion with a colleague today after our department meeting, she interrupted our highly academic train of thought to ask me, in a rather surprised tone, if I had a black eye. I assumed, in typical me style, I had managed to get pencil, marker, or worse on my face.

Upon closer inspection, requiring two other teachers, it was decided that no, those must just be your veins. Corollary, you must be tired.

WOW.

my favorite time of year...

Finally some sun! I know I live in a bi-polar weather region, but the sun usually sticks it out with us through the mood swings. It's that time of year at school, and the miserable weather so close on the heels of 30 degree very lovely summer weather was enough to turn my classrooms into packs of whiny, unpleasant adolescents. It's hard being 16! The expectation of showing up with a textbook is just plain not fair! ohmygodpleasehelpmenow.

With only 13 actually physical classes left, and even that is best case scenario since there are assemblies, pep rallies, and fire drills that have all been left to the last minute it is serious crunch time. How can I have a full unit left to do, if not two, in all of my classes? That does not include final review, or any of the "fun" stuff I've been trying to incorporate into the geometry units.

On the plus side, in 13 days I don't need to worry about any of it. But who's counting...

(Attempt #1 at fun failed miserably, and by the end of the class they were essentially begging for notes. So much for experiential learning. Attempt #2 goes today...)

WAHOO!

It been very unofficial, on the down low, blah blah blah that I would have a job at my school next year. Not that I was feeling unsure about this, or particularly concerned, I just wish administrivia wasn't so complicated and time consuming.

Today I got the official hand shake with a congrats you're here full time next year! Something about you're a good fit for our school, we like you, good times. What I heard? FULL TIME JOB BOTH SEMESTERS. This means I can pay my mortgage, something the bank enjoys even more than I do. Also, I'll be teaching essentially what I taught this year. All these good ideas I've been having lately won't go to waste.

I WIN!

29.75 sleepathon?

Yipes, life is hectic! It's the long weekend and I have no plans. Don't really want any either. A big thanks to queen Vicotria though, Monday is going to feel like heaven.



Due to working at school that never stops with the activities, unfortunately my Human Rights group had to organise their annual 30 hour famine for the long weekend. We also had to change the name since we are not sending the money raised to World Vision, so the 29.75 hour famine is born. I'm guessing it would never be a particularly easy task to get supervisors for such a big block of time (it is broken down into 2 hour shifts), the long weekend made it essentially impossible. Being the only advisor without other life commitments, I agreed up front to supervise the deathly 1:15am to 5:15am block. I also was feeling generous enough to sign Big Red up to assist me in my supervising.

As doom time approached, I was feeling less and less keen to force myself to stay up with 25ish hyperactive teenagers when my body was making it abundantly clear it really wanted to be in bed. I did go however, and was totally unprepared for what I found.

Upon arrival, I was a little confused that the two supervisors we were replacing were sitting completely removed from the kids, they appeared to be supervising a couple of chairs and a table in fact. The door to where the crazy should have been coming from wasn't even open. I congratulated them on their clearly superior supervising skills. Anything could have been going on in the auditorium, and here they were, making sure the table didn't move. That is dedication.

This is when they informed me that they were all sleeping, and had been since just shortly after midnight. WHAT?! I knew I was risking waking them all up, thusly creating 25 energetic since we just had a great nap students, but this was something I could not believe without seeing it. But it was true! No whispering, no fidgeting, just sleeping. What kind of teenagers are these? I was secretly dreaming that they would choose to at least try to sleep at around 3ish, but sleeping at midnight? In a large group of their peers? On the Friday of the long weekend? The bizarro situation almost made me want to go wake them up just to explain how my brain could not handle them acting in such an atypical fashion.

I didn't. Big Red and I then proceeded to sit for 4 hours, in a school without heat, never hearing a peep from anyone until our replacements showed up. I'm not even sure there were students present.

mmmmuffins!

I ran into Xtina today, and as was bound to happen, we made fun of other people. This always happens, it's what we do. Not in a "we're totally evil bitches and we're going to hell because we say these things behind people's backs" kind of way, but in a "we're totally evil bitches because if they were present we would say these things to their faces" kind of way.

So I make fun of Xtina's lululemon pants, she makes fun of herself, segueing nicely into making fun of someone else, and while I'm laughing I hear her refer to someone as a "muffin-top." I had to stop her mid-sentence to repeat "muffin-top" for me. Of course she looks at me like I've lost it, muffin-top being choice vocabulary to describe a common affliction I need to comment on all the time.

Gold! It's the perfect description for a condition so rampant I've almost stopped complaining about it. I've replaced it with "why are you not wearing pants?" on my list of fashion faux pas to complain about if you were interested. Anyway, muffin-top! The condition where for reasons unbeknownst to other humans, girls insist on wearing pants 3 sizes too small. These girls typically aren't particularly large, but when forced into eeensy pants, their non-existent bums are forced up and over the waistband of their pants making them look totally ridiculous and much fatter than they actually are. The big mystery to the muffin-top is WHY do you want to make yourself look fatter? Buy pants that fit people! Do you have any idea what a pair of proper fitting pants can do for your bum?

While I would like to wage a war on the muffin-top, I'm sorta scared of strange girls. They could beat me up. So instead, I would just like for us all to bask in the glory that is the term muffin-top. It is up to all 10 of you who read this thing to spread the love and teach your friends. Hopefully, it will make it into the Webster's 2009 edition.

you want me to what?

A little while ago, the other GSA advisor was approached by one of my former students to present a session on homophobia at a Western conference they were hosting in town. Originally, my partner in crime had agreed to do it solo - apparently she does the conference thing fairly regularly. Then, slowly - and without my forcing I might add! - she realised we should get our youth involved. Yay! Then she wanted me to present as well. What? I've done the small group session at a conference before, but never the lone person at the front of a huge room. The thought was intimidating to say the least. I mean, sure they are just teenagers, but there was going to be one hundred of them!

By the time we had gotten the youth presenters committed, we only had a week before the conference. So in a very focused planning session over a noon hour, we banged out what we wanted to do. Working with other advisor was interesting as when I work with youth I tend to get them to do everything (Totally a cop out for me, but also the way it should be. Convenient eh?) and other advisor loves to talk cause she doesn't want anything she thinks is important to get missed. Watching her brain acclimatise itself to giving over responsibility was really interesting. Not that she was overly resistant to it or anything, it just made me realise how much work needs to be done in changing the way adults think of working with youth. Her brain just wasn't used to thinking "the kids can do that, and that, and that..."

The conference itself was awesome. The kids did a great job, I didn't talk too fast and just may have pulled off sounding articulate, and other advisor's love of talking came in handy when we had a few extra minutes to fill. The kids in attendance, for the most part, asked intelligent questions and participated as well as could be expected after a full day of conferencing. The reason we were asked to come was very recently one of the youth in Saskatoon's Jewish community came out and they were looking raise awareness and tolerance. I thought this was so fabulous on the part of the organisers - opinions on homosexuality in the Jewish faith are mixed so for them to step up and be over the top accepting is really wonderful.

I'm guessing now that word is out there that we do public presentations there will be more requests, but I'm all for some revisions and letting the kids run it all!

doomed to be a crazy cat lady

Why is it that groups of people (teachers) love to sit around complaining about how things don't work, yet treat you as if you have severely advanced dementia when you propose a solution?

boston, part deux

After a very early starting and busy day one in Boston, we allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in (9:30!) while making sure we still hit up the free continental breakfast. The one free meal of the day is a pretty important one when you are traveling on a budget.

The it was back to Boston Common to walk the Freedom! Trail! It is very full of freedom, the Freedom Trail. Also, it is painted with a big red line, so the tourists don't accidentally make a wrong turn and find themselves on the slavery trail. Handy.

Here we are at the beginning of the trail, each representing a piece of freedom.

Education:


Employment:


And Jeff, the most pious of all, representing Religion:

Plenty of things to see on the trail, but one of the best had to be the birthplace of the tastiest bun ever, the Pakerhouse Roll (now unavailable in Stoon *pout*)
One of Boston's most famous historical figures is Paul Revere. He's essentially the Laura Secord of the States, but clearly not as important or cool as I don't see him with his own line of delicious chocolate products. Rach and I stopped to reenact his famous "midnight ride."
The trail to freedom ends at the Bunker Hill Monument. Freedom, it would appear, is a big phallic symbol on a hill. We (I) thought it would be fun to try and get a group picture for jumpingphotos.com . Turns out we're not quite ready to be "famous" for our jumping skills (or lack thereof.)




After getting our fill of freedom, we headed out to Harvard to wander around the campus. We looked so natural in that environment that several different people came up to ask us information or directions. That's right - WE PASSED FOR HARVARD STUDENTS. Clearly you can see why,


After Harvard, we headed back downtown to try and secure some kind of tickets since we needed to occupy ourselves until midnight. We wound up with tickets to "Shear Madness" a bizarre murder mystery that is the worlds longest running non-musical play. It was no Blue Man Group, but I can think of worse ways to spend an evening.

After the play we went to Cheers! for supper and a beer. Turns out we accidentally missed the replica Cheers! while walking the freedom trail thinking it was a tourist trap/trick and instead visited the bar that was the inspiration for Cheers! We even watched the end of a Boston RedSox baseball to complete the official Boston pub experience. Since we were traveling on a budget, I had Jeff take my picture with my Cheers! beer mug as opposed to actually buying it. I'm crafty that way.
After Cheers! and trying to find a gas station in downtown Boston, it was finally time to go pick Erica up from the airport. It would of course be my luck that the one weekend I go to Boston, she would be busy gallivanting around the Galiano islands in BC. Her flight finally arrived just before 1am. I hadn't seen Erica since I left Japan in 2003, and if was fantastic to finally get to see her again after all this time, even though our visit was brief. We did meet up for lunch before we left town and hopefully we'll be able to arrange a longer visit this summer so I can bask in the awesomeness that is Erica for a little longer.

Thanks Boston!

you want stress?

Dear coworker:

I am writing to inform you, that while previously I had doubts about your professional capabilities, I no longer hold any respect for you as a professional. Someone who cannot be trusted with a dainty tray and some fruit certainly can not be trusted with forming the minds of the next generation.

Regretfully,
Mme Chelle
~~~~~~~~~~~~

After school I received this email from a coworker who had already proved herself ridiculously unreliable, prompting me to write the above reply.

I need your help. Would you be able to help me tomorrow at lunch? I bought some snacks for our multi-school department meeting and they need to be organised. I'm all alone - [two other teachers] can't help me. I'm really stressed!

Woman, if I were you I would stay away from me. After this, you have NO idea what you're getting yourself into next time you ask me how it's going...

do you? do you really?

My human rights group/Gay Straight Alliance is holding a Day of Silence on Wednesday. This is a national movement that will be occurring on Wednesday in High Schools across Canada.

The students, around 20 in total, have been pre-identfied to their teachers and will also be wearing lanyards so they will be easily identified. These are awesome kids. Most are top students and are actively involved in other extra-curricular activities. I don't think any are struggling academically. On Wednesday, they will also be carrying around cards that say the following:

Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?

There are a few exceptions to the silence. Students with pre-scheduled presentations may not use the Day of Silence as an excuse to not participate. If they need to ask a school related question that can't wait to a teacher, they may.

So you can imagine my surprise when a teacher came to see me today to double check that students had to still talk to teachers. I answered that if absolutely necessary of course they could, but the idea was for them to not talk between the hours of 8:30 until 3:15 when as a GSA we would officially break the silence and debrief about our day. The teacher continued, unsatisfied with my answer. I need to be able to ask those students questions. Do you? Really? Everyday, in your class, you ask EVERY SINGLE STUDENT a question? You evaluate them on their response? There is NO WAY you can go 1 HOUR without talking to those students? In your classes of 30 students, those 2 or 3 must be called upon?

Really? Then I would like you to also stop taking your basketball team to tournaments. They also NEEDED to be in my class for that hour you made them miss. Jerk.

road trip!

(All photos courtesy of Jeff since I was too lazy to take my own camera. Thanks Jeff!)

Wednesday night as I was getting ready to leave, Rach sent me a text to bring my passport "just in case." That just in case turned out to be a little plan Rach had been hatching for who knows how long - spinning it, twisting it, and then presenting it just right to Jeff and I. She certainly knows how to work us both. The plan? Boston! I certainly didn't see that coming (I was thinking she would say NY or Toronto). Tired from all the work we had all been doing, Friday was a much deserved sleep in day and we didn't really firm up what our tentative plans would be until late afternoon. Jeff was in it for the Blue Man group, I was in if we could do it VERY cheap, and Rach? well she just likes to hang out with both of us. Since it was already late, we decided to run errands Friday and leave early Saturday morning so as to save on a hotel room.

Saturday morning we made it out of the house running only 10 minutes behind out proposed schedule. Jeff had preprogrammed his new GPS the previous evening and we followed it the entire way. It certainly used a more "creative" route than we probably would have taken ourselves, but then end result was our planned hotel in Boston. Which looked much much nicer on the internet...





So it wasn't the prettiest hotel in Boston, but it certainly got the job done AND served up a good continental breakfast. Waffles! Who would have guessed?

After checking in, we headed off to the Museum of Science. Considering the number of big name universities in Boston, I was sort of expecting something fabulous. I mean, a city can't very well be the home to MIT and then have a crappy science centre... It was pretty average though. I remember the one in Ottawa or Toronto being much better, but that could have been because I was young and impressionable the last time I was there...


Obviously Rach has more practice at this, check out that perfect hand placement!



After running around the museum taking funny pictures, we went to a show at the Planetarium called "Far far away." Jeff really wanted to go since it was all about the Star Wars galaxy. I wasn't super keen, but I do love a good planetarium regardless of whether what I'm looking at is real or not. The show was a total bust. It was a movie, projected on both sides of the planetarium, that talked about the earth's various stages and how those stages could be compared to Star Wars planets. LAME! Every once in awhile they would randomly show stars on the planetarium, as if this justified putting the show in there as opposed to on a white screen in a corner somewhere. I took this opportunity to have a little nap in the comfy chairs they provide for you so you don't have to strain your neck looking up.

Well rested after the show, we took a DUCK tour of the city. This was money well spent since I knew NOTHING about Boston, and our guide seemed pretty well informed. He was rather entertaining, and Canadian. At first we sorta though the Canadian bit was just a gimmick, but then he was saying "aboot" all over the place and was very excited about us being from Saskatchewan. He actually said aboot! I thought just Newfoundlanders did that! The DUCKs themselves are these nifty army vehicles that drive on land and then turn into a boat on the water.



After the tour we made our way for dinner (not supper, apparently they don't call it that in Boston) somewhere called the Rock Bottom Grill. We had quite a bit of time to spend there before our show started, so when Rach finally caved and made us order desert, our waitress seemed very pleased and assured us it was the greatest thing ever. Really? I take my desert very seriously as you all know. She, however, was not lying. Check this thing out! So much icing, so much caramel, so much everything in fact!



Lastly we headed off to the Blue Man Group show. It was even better than I was expecting. We laughed pretty much solid for their entire show. I was also pretty entertained at what a possible "audition" might look/sound like. Are you constantly annoying people because you insist on playing percussion with any available "instrument" on any available surface? Can you catch a ridiculous amount of marshmallows in your mouth with physics defying precision? Can you then regurgitate those marshmallows into "art"? Can you spit paint creatively? Do you really like the colour blue? Lastly, do you enjoy making messes? Yes? Hired! I would definitely go see these guys again in a second.

All in all it was an excellent start to our whirlwind Boston tour.

a day of firsts

Finally Easter holidays are here. For a the break, I am out in Montreal visiting Rachel and Jeff. Yes, I am aware that I will be moving here in two long months, but they will be back home at the time. So to factor in the "visiting" part, here I am.

My first full day in Montreal encompassed some pretty important life firsts.

1. My very first Krispy Kream doughnut. I was very skeptical about this. I mean, what could really be THAT great about a doughnut. So we watch the doughnuts being made for 30 seconds. Then Rachel turns around and says "here's our sample!" I was expecting a small piece of a doughnut on a toothpick. THEY GIVE YOU A WHOLE DOUGHNUT. A whole doughnut people. They are so confident that their doughnuts are warm, iced, and delicious and that you will want more, they give you an entire free doughnut every time you come in the store. Oh they are right. We did briefly debate just leaving after our free doughnut, but then the cream filled chocolate was just too much to resist. That not quite boston cream was the best doughnut I've ever eaten.

2. My first Guitar Hero experience. I had pretty much been ignoring all the guitar hero hype. I don't have a system that will play it anyway. Too bad it meets pretty much all my qualifications for a good game. Do you need to be able to manoeuvre in 3-D? No. Is it played to music? Yes. Do you need to tap to the music? Yes. Are there different colours to be played? Yes. Seriously, this is DDR for the lazy. (And the potentially more hand-eye coordinated than myself.) Awesome.

3. The first time I have been made fun of by a Costco employee. Rach and Jeff needed some groceries, and Jeff has a certain fondness for Costco pre-made meals. We also needed a GPS. While waiting for them to finish the shopping, I headed over to the books. They sell a whole series of enrichment books for elementary school kids for French (and math). These look awesome for a lost and struggling core-french teaching me. So I pick out a few in the gr 3 to 6 level. As we get up to the till the cashier must have noticed Jeff and I were speaking English since he greets us in English. Then he looks down at my only purchase, the 4 French books, and says "Well I guess it's never to late to learn!"

juno festivus

Oh Juno weekend, how you turned my little city upside down for about 48 hours. You made so many of us very very happy indeed!

In all honesty, I really didn't want too much to do with the actual Junos themselves since I rarely watch them and tickets were astronomical prices. To pay close to $200 for something I typically ignore seemed totally bonkers. I stand by my decision.

Junofest, on the other hand, was SO worth it. True, there were way cooler people who could have agreed to play shows (Tegan and Sara, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Joel Plaskett, Sarah Harmer, Trag, and cool French bands where were you guys?!? Especially you Sarah, I know you were in town!) I digress.

Friday evening saw me at the Pat. Oh dear. This in itself is a sign of my love for Wide Mouth Mason. We arrived promptly at 10, and avoided massive lineups by mere minutes. A large-ish amount of beverages were consumed to make being at the Pat for 3 hours listening to terrible music bearable. However, it was all worth it. I wound up front row for pretty much the entire show and - terrible sound system excluded - wasn't disappointed. I realised about 15 minutes in that I have been standing in that exact same spot at WMM concerts for 10 years now. They played most of my old favourites.

Saturday evening we went to Louis'. We arrived early as I would have killed my concert going companion if we would have not gotten in. The quality of the evening was WAY better than the previous evening. I enjoyed all the groups, except the first. Enjoyment aside, I was really there to see David Usher. He was amazing. The small venue, the sound quality, I was pretty much bursting with happiness the entire show. So much love for Dave. He even played St. Lawrence River for the last song of his encore which pretty much proves he loves me too.

So thanks for bringing Dave to town Junos!

mon ame!

The weather is seriously breaking my soul. This needs to end, preferably before I wind up in a puddle of my own tears in the middle of my living room floor.

worst scam ever

DEAREST ONE,
IN BRIEF I AM MISS RACHEL ADAMS FROM IVORY COAST. I AM THE ONLY DAUGHTER OF DR. BOUGADUGU ADAMS FORMER DIRECTOR OF IVORY COAST COCOA EXPORTING BOARD, HE WAS ASSASSINATED BY THE REBELS FOLLOWING THE POLITICAL UPRISING.BEFORE HIS DEATH HE MADE A DEPOSIT OF TEN MILLION DOLLARS ( 10,000,000.00 DOLLARS ) HERE IN IVORY COAST WITH ONE OF THE LARGEST SECURITY COMPANY. THIS FUND HE INTENDED TO BUY A COCOA PROCESSING MACHINE.I ONLY WANT YOU TO HELP ME AND RETRIEVE THIS FUND OUT OF THE SECURITY COMPANY AND TRANSFER IT INTO YOUR ACCOUNT IN YOUR COUNTRY OR ANY SAFER PLACE FOR SECURITY REASONS JUST AS A FOREIGN BUSINESS PARTYNER TO MY LATE FATHERS DUE TO MY AGE.AND THIS IS FOR PROPER INVESTMENT AS YOU WILL BE THE BENEFICIARY AND RECIPIENT OF THE FUND .I PROMISED TO SEND TO YOU ALL THE DOCUMENTS ISSUED TO MY LATE FATHER DURING THE DEPOSITION OF THE FUND IN THE SECURITY COMPANY.I REALLY NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE IN MY LIFE FOR NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THIS POLITICAL PROBLEM WILL END UP IN THIS COUNTRY ( IVORY COAST ) AND FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO ME IN THESE TRANSACTION I WILL OFFER 25% OF THE TOTALL SUM.THANKS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING.I AM WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU URGENTLY.THANKS AND GOD BLESS YOU.
YOURS FAITHFULLY.
FROM MISS RACHEL ADAMS

I get this spam at least once a week, often written in very good french. I don't get it. What does the sender get from this? I can't suddenly realise me penis is too small or that I really do need to lose! weight! now! and spend money. The reply email given is in Japan of all places. What's the deal?

not stabbed!

Just in case any of you were planning on watching the news tonight, I did not get stabbed. I trust the news will manage to at least convey the message that it was two males involved in the stabbing at my school, but just in case they only get the former student part down, said former student is not me. I would also like to think that were it me, they would call me a former student AND current teacher, but Global was first on the scene; nothing should be assumed.

I'm guessing the media is going to make a huge deal of out said stabbing. To be fair, it probably is the most interesting thing that happened in toon town today. However, a stabbing between the young gentlemen involved was just as likely to happen on 8th, in front of Safeway, or in Kilburn Hall. They are the kind of gentlemen who stab one another. The media, I'm sure, will be running with not so logical conclusions. Safety in schools! Gangs! Poor supervision! Bad teachers! Metal detectors! and so on and so forth pretending that the rest of the 1500 people in their general vicinity were somehow involved.

Our neighbouring Catholic school is probably holding a party right now, in anticipation of a higher grade nine enrollment next year. Their school didn't have a stabbing after all. Bah.

A real update (band trip!) maybe once interviews are over...

mathletes

Last weekend I was lucky enough to chaperone a group of students down to Regina for the SK Math Challenge. What Saturday don't I want to get up at 4h45 to ride on a yellow school bus for 2.5 hours on an icy highway? Oh wait... all of them. Nothing says comfort like having your knees up around your neck and very little heat. The wheel well I sat overtop of turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it kept my feet off the ground, and apparently at least 5 degrees warmer than everyone else's feet.

When we finally arrived in Regina I was very happy to realign my body and partake in the 8h30am cookie break provided for us. Cookies at 8h30? I was slowly warming up to these math types.

After everyone was cookied and juiced, it was time to get things started. A very impressive number of 242 students from gr 8-10 were present (technically we snuck some grade 7s in...) The students wrote 3 rounds - one individual, two group. While they were all writing their individual rounds, I met some math types and helped out with door prizes, supervision, etc.

During the two group rounds, I supervised a room with 3 different groups of students. One from my school, one from a Regina highschool, and one from a small town. Before coming, I had been told our students were out to win. Not having much prior involvement with the students or this particular math competition, I really wasn't aware of just how serious they were. Watching our students compete was something in itself. They had a game plan and strategy that had obviously been practiced. They divided and attacked the first round and seemed to compile their answers as some kind of technicality. The second round was divided, but more group discussion took place. It is fantastic and hilarious to watch kids get this into math. Large arm movements and heated discussion was going on at all 3 tables. I felt bad, because one (presumably grade 9) boy from the Regina school kept coming to ask me questions, but as he would walk towards me he would have the most intense look of concentration on his face, that it was hard not to laugh. I hope he also does drama. Seriously. The third group was there for fun and may or may not have gotten one of the second round questions correct but they were still very entertaining.

While the kids were writing away, I got to visit with another teacher from a small town close to the border who's name I've already forgotten. She was shocked to see how into it my students were, and it is pretty amazing that somehow a reverse sort of peer pressure has built up around the math contests and math club. Someone must be doing something right if you're a "loser" if you miss math club.

The least pleasant part of the day? Lunch. It was loud, the kids were all riled up, and an idiot designed the setup. Everyone got into a large line that did a bit of a Disney wind to first get their drink. So far so good. Then, the drink line branched off into 2 different lines for pizza acquisition. Also good. However, instead of getting a plate and then pizza, you were supposed to walk past the pizza to the far end of the table for you plate and then back around in a circular pattern. Who thought of this? Instead of 4 lines, there were two very chaotic circles. And only one girl bringing out new pizza. Have these people never seen 14 year old boys eat? The pizza girl never had a chance. I was very happy NSFG and Mr. T showed up to have lunch with me. We had a nice, albeit quick, visit while the students were receiving a tour of the University.

Back for award time. Wow. Our students took home pretty much everything. 7 of the top ten grade 9s, 6 of the top 10 grade 10s, and all but one team award. The grade 7s and 8s from our feeder school also cleaned up and only 1 of their students went home without a certificate. I even won the good door prize - $75 to spend on NCTM stuff. Whoot!

On a bit of a math (and sugar) high, the bus ride home was a little on the painful side. Ok, by the time we hit Hanley, very on the painful side. I'm certainly looking forward to next year when it's in Saskatoon and I can just witness the math parts!