Cold, So Cold

I got cold this morning and haven’t been warm since:( I was even cold during my exercise class!

Teaching:

It was back to the classroom today and it was definitely a busy day. We covered the concept of Beginning/Middle/End with the book Sadie and the Snowman. It was a great book for this and I was so happy when one of my struggling grade ones summed up the middle perfectly! It’s tough to get kids to not name every detail!

We also worked on the addition strategy of counting on in math. My students made it very clear they thought this was too easy, but unfortunately I still have three children struggling with it:(

Finally this afternoon we introduced our new Socials theme of Community. Now to figure out how to make it interesting.

After school, I met up with Liane and Lyndsay and we got four more report cards written. Yay I’m over halfway!

Oh and by the way- my food today made me very happy:) I guess it is true that you eat with your eyes as well as your taste buds.

Exercise:

I got home just in time to change and head off to Battlefit class. I think part of my problem with this class is that it’s the same moves every week so I get bored. It doesn’t help that there’s a lot of burpees and it’s easy for people to see that you’re behind:(

We did a whole bunch of warm up stuff like lunges and skipping and side stepping the length of the gym. We then paired up with a partner and one partner did plank shoulder taps while the other walked across the gym with two kettlebells. Then we did v sit while the other person walked across with a kettlebell over their head. We then had to do 50 swings, 1 suicide, 40 swings/2suicides, 30 swings/ 3 suicides, 20 swings/4 suicides and finally 10 swings and 5 suicides.

We also had to do a ten minute EMOM of 10 burpees and 10 wall balls.

I feel like there was more, but I’ve obviously blocked it🤣

My after workout snack:)

Reading:

Since getting home I’ve been reading and am now on the last section, “Becoming More” in the book Becoming. So far it’s been interesting., but I think I’m off to bed now.

Have fun!

AJ

Something Different

Well I’m 33 years in this district, I’ve only had two snow days and today was no different than usual. While almost all districts around us closed down, we were open as usual.

Teaching:

Other than allowing for extra time to put on snow gear, the children actually managed to concentrate pretty well.

We did more penguin research this morning, then we learned how to add zero to a number and this afternoon we made our valentines bags.

They finally got the last twenty minutes of the day to play outside and they had a ball! The snow is really dry which is very different for us so it was quite amusing to see them try and try again to roll snowmen balls 🤣

Exercise:

The staff all cleared out pretty quick after school as it was calling for another 25cm of snow starting early. I got home to see the usual sidewalk was cleared and couldn’t help myself- I went for a run. I got 6.75km by doing a few loops in a couple of places as not everything was cleared. It felt good, until I got to Battlefit Class.

Tonight we did these 1/2 TGUs. It meant nothing to me, but seems to mean that we are working on getting up from the floor to a standing with a full press. We also did a lot of swings and then 50,40,30,20,10 of wall balls, KB swings and box jumps. It really helped when the instructor finally found a smaller ball for me to use for the wall balls. At the end we had to do lying overhead raise and then burpees and then sit ups and squat jumps. Overall I survived!

I am home now and going to dry my hair and then collapse into bed. I’m not keeping anything crossed that there will be a snow day tomorrow:(

Have fun!

AJ

Successful ProD

A different kind of work day today, but very successful!

I had arranged a self directed ProD with a couple of colleagues as none of the workshops on offer were what I was looking for. We met at an office space at my friend’s building and took over the area. It was a gorgeous space to work as there were floor to ceiling windows to let in the beautiful sunshine we had all day.

My co- teacher and I got a lot done! We had made a list of topics that we wanted to learn more about so that we could implement them in our classrooms.

We learned how to implement loose parts through our writing program. We determined a new Writer’s workshop plan that would meet the needs in our grade 1/2 classes and still be interesting. We studied the new core competencies in our curriculum and have researched a picture book for each that we can teach them through and an activity we can have students complete to show their learning of that competency. We then researched the components of a successful PE program and have come up with a plan to implement it and brainstormed activities that can be used for each of those components.

All in all, it was probably one of the most successful ProD days I’ve ever had. I learned a ton of new things and can implement them immediately. This feels good as I often find I learn things at ProD but don’t implement them as I need to gather resources or research items for it:(

Baking:

We had a lot of food options for three people! I contributed the yellow container of goodies. The protein balls, cookies and cupcakes were a hit! The carrot pineapple muffins with vegan cream cheese frosting were amazing – so moist! The recipe is from Cooking for Isiah by Sylvana Nardone. The only change I made was to use Bob’s Redmill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour rather than her flour blend. They were so good and the vegan cream cheese frosting from Minimalist Baker was also yummy!

Watching the Great British Baking Show obviously rubbed off on me in a good way as I used a cookie cutter to make my muffins all the same size on top and piped the icing instead of just messily spreading it!

I have to admit I wasn’t super happy with the recipe I tried this week for veggie scones. The scones had a good taste, but were super dry:( I am thinking that I may try changing my maple nut scone recipe to a savory recipe and see if that works better.

Exercise:

First thing this morning I headed out for a half hour run to fulfil my Squad Runner mission. It was an okay run and I noticed that my pace was recorded more accurately since I started running before I pressed start on my tracking app. That was at least nice. I need about another ten kilometers before the end of the month to keep on top of my yearly goal.

I came home after work and had a quick nap and then went for a massage. I didn’t do very well with organization as I only had an hour to enjoy my niece loose, stretches out body before I went with Corri to Battlefit class. This is just never going to be my favourite class! Tonight we did lots of drills (just like gym class again☹️). Then we had to go run 8 laps of the small indoor track to make up a kilometer. Our first workout was then 30 kettlebell cleans and walking lunges of the length of the gym and back while holding a dumbbell straight over our heads. We had to do this sequence three times.

Our second workout was 50 wall balls, 40 mountain climbers (each leg), 30 kettlebell swings, 20 kettlebell row stops and 10 lateral bench hops with burpees. We then had to go back up the ladder again.

I did it all, but have to admit I just don’t love this class. None of it seems fun:(

Reading:

I have come home and been reading the book my sister in law gave me yesterday. The Ingredients Of Love has been a great read so far! I’m now going to go finish it:)

Have fun!

AJ

Thankful

I was nervous and dreading it all day and it turned out better than expected. I really should learn not to worry!

Knitting:

I picked up stitches for my sweater before I headed off to work today and it went better than it ever has before! I came home to the realization that I probably had too many stitches on, but I’m going with it!

Oh I wore my temperature cowl to work today and had tons of compliments, even from my students!

Teaching:

Today was another day of coming and going, but I was calmer about it as I just had printing and journals planned. I also think I’ve come up with a way to make Friday journals new and fun, so we’ll see if it works this Friday.

This afternoon we tackled a lift the flap book about where penguins live. The children did pretty good! It definitely tested their scissor skills!

Exercise:

Tonight was the second session of my Battlefit class. I had been dreading it all day and really didn’t want to go and probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t meeting Corri! It wasn’t so bad, way better than last week!!

I didn’t love the warm up where we were doing drills across the gym. It was too much like gym class as a kid when I was always last:(. What can I say, I have really short legs and everything takes longer!

Then we did single arm kettle bell swings and around the body passes.

Our first workout was 30 seconds of each: Around the body clockwise, around the body counterclockwise, goblet squats, left single arm swings, right single arm swings and then alternating single arm swings. We did this three times through.

We then had a second workout- which had four parts. It wasn’t so bad, though I don’t like wall balls cause the balls are way too big for me! This last workout had step ups/ sprints, walking lunges/ pushups, wall balls/ kettle swings, 1/2 kneeling shoulder press/ Russian twists.

The worst part of tonight’s class was that one of my students sat outside and watched me for most of it! Just what I want to do- workout with an audience😖

Well I’m home and on my couch with my knitting and Hallmark movie so all is right in my world:)

Have fun!

AJ

Wow!

Wow that was harder than I was expecting!

Teaching:

Today was crazy as it was the first day of our new student services schedule. They are taking all children who were approaching expectations in reading and giving them intense intervention this term. I love the idea of early intervention, but it’s only going to work if it’s consistent and that is definitely not a strength of our student services! Fingers crossed it works!

We also tackled place value again and did a mini book about penguins. All in all, a pretty good day, but I was definitely tired!

Exercise:

I got out right after school to do the crunch with my friend L. Usually I do all five parts once, but she just does the stairs multiple times. We ran over and down and up the original stairs and then the new stairs and then ran back to the school. I feel somewhat bad that I am slowing her down, but she’s the one who invited me, so I’m not going to worry about it. I did enjoy it as it was a gorgeous, sunny day:)

The first set of stairs has 437 and the second 459 so I definitely got a workout!

This evening I had my first Battlefit class with my friend Corri. It was nothing like what I was expecting! It made me feel incredibly out of shape:(. We had to do 3 laps of the gym, dynamic stretching, 3 more laps of the gym. Then we did kettlebell swings. We then had to do a WOD (workout of the day) that was just burpees and kettlebell swings. We started at 5 burpees and 30 swings and burpees increased by 5 and swings decreased by 5. I was mad at myself for not finishing in the time given:(. We then learned to do wall balls and had to partner up. One partner went and ran a lap of the indoor track while the other did wallballs and then we switched. This was done 3 times. It was at this point that my legs started shaking. The final sequence for the night was 20 lunges, 20 stop rows, 20 plank shoulder taps and 100 skips. I did this sequence twice. We then got to foam roll, oh yeah😖🙄

This was quite the workout!!!

I am just home now drinking tea and going to tackle the scarf again.

Have fun!

AJ