Day at the Beach

We spent a lot of time this week at school working on long-range plans and course outlines that are due for the principal and the ministry. We both feel good about our grade programs, grabbing a good grasp on the texts and resources. Since we are going to Thunder Bay next week, we needed to plan for the subsitute as well. Unlike subs at home, the T.A.s supervise the class. Meaning we need to provide seatwork/busy work for all five days we will be gone. It has been hard to plan engaging and instructional worksheets for so many periods/days.

This week the school has brought in a speech specialist to work with identified students. She works out of Burlington and it is her first time to Deer Lake. Claire, Amanda and I took her to the dam (rapids) and the beach (the local attractions). While at the rapids we decided to go for a little hike around the corner to see the other side of the lake, and to get a better view of the rapids.
This is a picture of us hiking. If you can see, the leaves have already fallen off the trees. Unlike at home where the leaves turn a variety of colours, in Deer Lake the leaves have all turned into the same yellow. Still nice, but not as beautiful as home.

I decided to show my strength by pushing down a tree that was simply resting on the huge rock. As you can see in this picture, the ground, especially rocks, are covered in different varieties of mosses.

After the rapids we took the visitor to the beach. As the following pictures will attest, it was such a nice day for a ....

The water was freezing but I wanted to swim while I was up here, and the locals have said that it doesn't get warm enough until at least July. So no time like the present. The day was actually beautiful, albeit the high was still only 10-12 degrees. As for the water, it could not have been any warmer than 3 or 4 degrees, close to freezing. Right now, there is frost on the ground in the morning.

Amanda was challenging me to go swimming, thinking there was no way I would actually do it. As many of you know, I don't have a typical inner thermostat. The swim was actually really refreshing.

After I was finished, Claire wanted a picture taken from the view of the water. So I had to go back into the water and take a photo. This is the photo. Notice everyone is wearing pants and sweaters, while I am standing in the near freezing water with drenched shorts and no shirt. Luckily the first picture passed Claire's inspection.