First Day

So, our first day back was pretty uneventful. Every student came back to school, which may sound weird but we were warned that a handful might drop out over the break. Routines were quickly picked up as if we had just returned from a weekend.

Nothing much has changed since we left in mid-December. There is probably another foot of snow (3-4 feet in all) and the temperature is a cozy -25. Snowmobiles have replaced vehicles as the mode of transportation. We did find out that someone's dog froze because the owners locked him in the shed, because he had fleas.

Good news! The number of T.V. stations we have has increased by one. We now have Peachtree which is a nice addition. Oh and Global Toronto has also decided to rejoin us.

Interesting side note from today. In grade 8 geography the students are learning about quality of life and standard of living. I asked the question, "Who thinks they have a high quality of life?" No one raised their hand. Then I asked, "Who thinks they have a low quality of life?" Roughly half the students raised their hands. We then learned that Canada's life expectancy is hovering around 80. The students could not grasp the concept as people do not often live past 65 in Deer Lake.

Claire also had an interesting story from today. She was teaching about nouns and looking closer at compound nouns (goldfish). In the work book she was using the students were assigned to take the compound nouns and put them into sentences. One of the compound nouns was Bare Naked Ladies. The students had no clue who they were, Claire explained, but some students were still unsure. Tonight when she was marking she read me some interesting sentences they made up. Here are a few examples: " If I saw Bare Naked Ladies I would run the other way", " Bare Naked Ladies walk across the street". We had a good chuckle out of it. The students take everything so literally, to the point that if I tell a student to go sit in their desk, they will reply "I won't fit".

We will post some pictures soon of the snow and scenery.