New Year’s Meme for 2015

I found this meme that I did in 2012 and thought it would be interesting to do it again and compare it to the one thee years ago. You can see the original post here.

1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before? 

I went to New York for the first time as an adult, played lots of new games and ate at a few new restaurants.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I exercised more this year, which I think I made a resolution about. This year I haven’t really decided. I want to blog more and get back to using a journal more but I need to work out the logistics before I can make a real goal for the year.

 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, a few co-workers and cousins had babies this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No one very close to me this year. I’ve had friends and co-workers lose people close to them though.

5. What countries did you visit?

Just the US, but that’s more than most years.

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?

The biggest thing that I wanted to have in 2016 was a permanent contract and I have that now 🙂

7. What dates from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

I remember moments more than dates but big moments from this year would be going to NYC, our production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, finding out I got my B contract, and finding out I would be teaching at my school again.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Running a 5k for the first time was a pretty big thing for me. There were other things like Drood being a successful show that I’m proud of but that was a group effort, and having a great year of teaching was a big achievement but running was more of a personal achievement.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I’m not sure. There were lots of little mistakes throughout the year as there always are but nothing sticks out as a huge failure.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nope, I was pretty healthy this year. Not even many colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Books. So many books for my classroom and ebooks for myself and I’m pretty happy with my tablet. Oh and I’m happy I bought the Mass Effect trilogy games.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Lots of people. Lots of my students, both last school year and this, are fantastic and show me every day that they are amazing. My friends are wonderful and supportive. My family is the best by far.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Quite a few celebrities: Bill Cosby and Jian Gomeshi come to mind, Donald Trump and the terrifying things coming out of the US Republican debates. And a certain person who is making a friend of mine’s life way more difficult than he should.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Books, my classroom, travelling.

15. What did you get really excited about?

Our New York trip this summer, and our trips to Halifax, Drood, getting ready for Into the Woods auditions (we had to close auditions because we have 59 people auditioning!), sing-a-long parties, teaching at my school again, getting a permanent contract, trying new food, getting a pet for my classroom (more about that later), getting ready to take students to Drama Fest… there was so much good that happened this year.

16. What song will always remind you of 2015?

There’s just too many! Anything from Drood or any of the musicals I saw this year in NY or here in Fredericton, or from my running playlist.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– Happier or sadder? Happier

– Thinner or fatter? A little thinner, but more importantly stronger and more content with my body.

– Richer or poorer? A bit richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Sleep?

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worry

20. How did you spend Christmas?

My husband and I went to Cape Breton to spend time with my family. We stayed with my aunt along with my parents and got to play fun games and eat great food with my aunts and uncles and cousins. It’s a long drive to get there and back but totally worth it.

21. Did you fall in love in 2015?

I’ll refrain from saying anything too cheesy here.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

Doctor Who

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don’t think so other than celebrities mentioned above.

24. What was the best book you read?

I re-read the Harry Potter series this year which was great as always. The best new books I read were probably the Red Rising series.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I can’t pick just one! I got to know so many new musicals this year. Drood, Light in the Piazza, Little Women, Fun Home, Beautiful, Something Rotten, Big Fish – it’s been a great year for discovering great musicals.

26. What did you want and get?

A permanent contract.

27. What did you want and not get?

Pregnant.

 

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

This is a big toss up between the latest Star Wars movie and the last Hunger Games movie.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 34 this year and we did a sing through of Light in the Piazza on my birthday.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Less worrying

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?

Same as always, business casual – which BTW is getting harder to find new clothes because apparently dress shirts are out of style.

32. What kept you sane?

Running, friends, video games, books, cats

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I have a bit of a political crush on Justin Trudeau, our new Prime Minister, though it’s early days yet and I’m still only cautiously optimistic that he’ll keep being awesome.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

The election this year was a BIG deal and the Syrian refugee crisis.

35. Who did you miss?

Cynthia and Yolande who still insist on living in South Korea. I was happy to get to spend some time with my friends and family in Halifax but I always miss them too.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

I met lots of great new co-workers this year and a few new theatre people too.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015.

As a teacher – listening to student ideas and saying yes doesn’t make you a push-over.

As a person – saying yes to new experiences and adventures is important.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

“Say what you wanna say, and let the words fall out honestly, I wanna see you be brave.”

A sense of security

One letter can sometimes make a huge difference.

Something I have been waiting for a long time finally happened on Thursday morning. It has been almost exactly 6 years since I started teaching in my own classroom as a D contract teacher. Since then I’ve hoped and wondered how long I would be waiting before I got a permanent contract and now, as of Thursday morning, I have it.

I have a B contract.

My students were a little confused on Thursday why other teachers kept rushing into our room and giving me hugs and congratulations. “Are you pregnant?” they asked. So I told them that we were excited because I got a permanent contract. That was met with blank stares.

“It means that when you’re at middle school next year and you come back to visit, I’ll be here,” I explained.

That they understood.

I’m still figuring out what this really means for me:

It means that in April I won’t be stressed out about where I’ll be next year and can focus more on my students.

It means that in June I can leave most of my teaching stuff at school rather than carting it home to my basement.

It means that I can change things around in my classroom with a view of keeping it like that for years to come.

It means that when I talk about things we can do in our school to improve things, I can have a longer term view and know that I can be a part of that change.

It means I can stop thinking of myself as a “new teacher” – since I started supply teaching 9 years ago and teaching in a classroom 6 years ago, I’m no longer new, but I can still be innovative and looking for new ideas.

It means that I can take on a student teacher at some point if I want.

It means I have one less thing that I need to worry about in my future.

It doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop carrying about being a professional and working my hardest as a teacher to make sure my students get the best education that I can give them. It doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to get lazy or rude for sure. But it certainly was a wonderful early Christmas present.

In which my students express their fears.

It started out with me asking if my students were following what was happening in Paris with the Climate Change Conference. Instead when I said the word Paris, they immediately started talking about the attacks that happened. I tried to steer the conversation back to the conference but then one of my little boys pipes up with,

“I heard that people in Paris are being really mean to Muslims just because of the attacks. The people in IS aren’t even real Muslims.”

and then the worst

“I’m scared.”

Heart broken.

So we had a little discussion about how wrong it is to believe that whole group of people is a certain way based on the actions of a few.

“Why do people do that, Madame?” he asks.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” I respond.

But he is not deterred. I have never before taught a child who is more persistent and less able to accept “I don’t know” as an answer, from me, from himself or from anyone else. But it’s the only answer I really have right now. I don’t know what drives people to do terrible things to each other, other than from fear and ignorance and listening to other people who tell them that other people are bad and deserve to have terrible things done to them. But I’m not prepared for this. I’m not prepared to have my students, MY students, be afraid just because of their religion and I can’t tell him that there’s nothing to be afraid of because racism happens. It happens here. I wish it didn’t but it does.

My hope is that these children that I teach will grow up with a different perspective. They will grow up in a multi-cultural, multi-religion group of peers. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Atheists, Hindus, these won’t be random scary different people to be feared and hated, they will be friends and neighbours who they know and trust. I hope that this will help them to be the caring adults of the future who will help change things. But in the meantime, I worry.

PS.

I wanted to write about the Hour of Code that we got to participate in today, but that will have to wait for another day.

A Great Week

I just had a pretty good week. I feel like, as a class, we’ve got to the lovely point where we have a feeling of community. Students are helping me, they’re helping each other, we’re still talking over each other sometimes and pushing each other’s buttons but we’re also laughing with each other and learning for the most part. I still have a few that I haven’t quite made that strong connection with. There are still a few that fight me, on writing especially, but we’re getting there.

I had this realization that things were going well yesterday though because of a few things. One was that on Wednesday we had some icy weather so the buses were delayed for two hours which was annoying but I managed to grab the iPads and the students who came played math games against each other or went and practiced for the Hour of Code that we’re doing next week (more on that in another post) and a few others helped me do some cleaning and organizing which lead to me changing the room around a little to give us a little more space.

Then Thursday was a regular day. Thursday is my toughest day because I have no prep periods and I have drama right after school so it can be tough. I was very tired when I left school at 5:30 but I thought about how other teachers were complaining about how crazy their classes had been that day and mine were pretty good. And then Friday again we had a 2 hour bus delay which was frustrating but even so, we got learning accomplished and ended the week well.

I know last year I talked about how I had this amazing perfect class that loved to learn and was just oh so very good. This year I don’t have that same class. There are more challenges and, well, 8 more kids, but even so, I feel like things are going well and I’m happy to say that I’m relatively happy to get up and go to work in the morning, which is a big deal for me because contrary to what some people may think, I am NOT a morning person and would love to stay in bed until 8 and then have tea and breakfast before going to work if I could, especially in the dark winter months when I’m going to work before the sun rises and leaving after it sets. But I’m still happy to go. I’m not dragging myself out of bed as much because I’m happy to see my students. I don’t feel annoyed when they pop in before school or stick around for a few minutes for a quick chat at recess.

We have two more weeks before our holiday break. There’s still lots to do and still lots I wish we had already done, but it was a great week and I’m looking forward to two more.