Friday

Today was a PD day, and the three schools in the Little Red River got together for a "get to know you" day. John D'Or and ourselves, Fox Lake, drove to Garden River for the event. They have the newest school and two gyms, so it was easy for them to host the event. The road to Garden River is not as bad as I thought it would be, though, no better than the road to Fox Lake. There are some bridges you must cross that are so narrow, with no railings at all, that when you look out either side of the windows in the vehicle, you can't see the bridge at all. Our driver slowed down to about 10km/hr to go over these bridges. He told me stories about how people have driven off the sides of these bridges. Scary. This is also a logging truck road. Seeing how it is so narrow, the logging truck and our vehicle both have to put one side of our vehicles in the ditch to narrowly pass eachother on the road.

I was invited to ride with some of the locals in their truck. So I rode with my TA, her best friend, a parent of one of my kids, the girl who invited me to play volleyball, and the driver, a guy I see at the school all the time but I am not quite sure what his job is. We laughed and teased the whole way. They spoke English the whole way. This made me feel very welcome, because I know that they would have had an easier time communicating in Cree.

There were many events at the PD day. When we arrived, we were all randomly divided into animal teams. I was a fox. The teams included staff from each of the three schools. We were competing for points to win prizes at the end of the day. There were many events. We played pictionary, beach volleyball, floor hockey (I was the goalie...we lost!), jeparody, and (my personal favorite) karaoke! No one on my team wanted to sing. I think I sang eight songs. After two or three, some of the members of my team sat with me and sang, but refused to use the microphone. I had so much fun! Our team got along really well.

For lunch, we had a native take on tacos. You put a piece of bannock on your plate, and then you layer your toppings (ground beef, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa). It was really quite good, and very filling. Bannock is very filling. I ate my lunch with some people I had met at the convention in Edmonton who are from John D'Or. The one girls name is Angela...an instant connection, eh?!

Each grade level got together for an hour to just get to know eachother and talk about what they were doing in their classrooms. I learned some very interesting things that I will try in my classrooms. I also really liked the way that the kindergarten classroom was set up. They had a mini amphitheatre in the room for the kids to sit at, instead of sitting on a carpet for group time. I want one!

Before the closing ceremonies, I heard a rumor that one of the guys on my volleyball team was singing up a storm in the karaoke room, so I ran down to check it out. We belted out a couple tunes together with a crowd of excited listeners...we rock!

The closing ceremonies were simle and short...the best way. We drove home. I slept half the way. I got home at about 3:30pm. I fell asleep. I decided not to get up, but to sleep all day and night. Let's get over this sickness already!

All in all, I liked the PD day. Let's do it again soon.