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I've scrapped my math lesson in favour of some photocopied worksheets on multiplication.
I've scrapped the guided reading and independent writing in favour of a reader's theatre activity - Beauty and the Beast, the non-Disney version.
Social Studies is going ahead as planned, but I'm going to spend a lot of time showing those grade 4's the life cycle of West Coast Salmon, and relatively little trying to get them to actually do work.
The last period of the day is called "rotating clubs", and this is the third week with the same group. I hand out decks of cards and they play a school appropriate version of War that I call High-Low. They know how to play it, and I can almost use the time as prep. I'll just have to step in now and again to remind people that looking at your cards and choosing the highest one to play next is CHEATING.
Essentially, I have streamlined this day to reflect my own mood and the fact that about a quarter of my students will be absent for Eid. I have thrown the photocopying restrictions to the wind, rationalizing the expense with the knowledge that half the pages (the Reader's Theatre scripts) will be put in an envelope for next year when I do the same play. As for the rest of it, well, I don't photocopy very much through the week, so doing it in large quantities occasionally isn't that big a deal.
The whole plan has the benefit of being able to write under Monday's plan, "See Thursday Math", "See Friday Literacy", and basically having two days ready to go. That should make life much easier for next week too.
If my mood is still down by next Friday, though, I'm taking a mental health day. I'm not letting this get out of hand, and I'm not sacrificing myself on the altar of the teaching profession.
The strike vote was 92% in favour. That's a reasonably strong mandate from a board which has experienced a strike only four years ago and a work-to-rule in 2003. Now it just remains to be seen what the Union will do with it, and what the province's response will be. Our only real hope for avoiding a strike is if the province steps in in the spring to offer funding for the extra prep time. Even then, there's a good chance our board will be hard-headed about it and we'll go out anyway.
I've scrapped the guided reading and independent writing in favour of a reader's theatre activity - Beauty and the Beast, the non-Disney version.
Social Studies is going ahead as planned, but I'm going to spend a lot of time showing those grade 4's the life cycle of West Coast Salmon, and relatively little trying to get them to actually do work.
The last period of the day is called "rotating clubs", and this is the third week with the same group. I hand out decks of cards and they play a school appropriate version of War that I call High-Low. They know how to play it, and I can almost use the time as prep. I'll just have to step in now and again to remind people that looking at your cards and choosing the highest one to play next is CHEATING.
Essentially, I have streamlined this day to reflect my own mood and the fact that about a quarter of my students will be absent for Eid. I have thrown the photocopying restrictions to the wind, rationalizing the expense with the knowledge that half the pages (the Reader's Theatre scripts) will be put in an envelope for next year when I do the same play. As for the rest of it, well, I don't photocopy very much through the week, so doing it in large quantities occasionally isn't that big a deal.
The whole plan has the benefit of being able to write under Monday's plan, "See Thursday Math", "See Friday Literacy", and basically having two days ready to go. That should make life much easier for next week too.
If my mood is still down by next Friday, though, I'm taking a mental health day. I'm not letting this get out of hand, and I'm not sacrificing myself on the altar of the teaching profession.
The strike vote was 92% in favour. That's a reasonably strong mandate from a board which has experienced a strike only four years ago and a work-to-rule in 2003. Now it just remains to be seen what the Union will do with it, and what the province's response will be. Our only real hope for avoiding a strike is if the province steps in in the spring to offer funding for the extra prep time. Even then, there's a good chance our board will be hard-headed about it and we'll go out anyway.
