World Week

My collegue displaying our carp kites

Making our name plates.  Unfortunatly the girl at the bottom is
making hers upside down.

It has been another crazy month at work as always.  The terms go by so quickly these days.  This past week we had World Week at school where each classroom become a country of the world and the kids take turns visiting them.  I worked in the Japan class and helped out with the crafts and such.  The kids could also visit South Korea, the Cayman Islands, St Lucia, Israel, Kenya and a few others.  They had a really nice time.  it was a real improvement on last year's science week which was a horror.  Kids were everywhere doing some nondiscript experiment that mainly involved running around and wasting stationary supplies with very little to show for it at the end of the week.  Kids have a preternatural sense of situations like that where there isn't a lot of structure.  They know they can doss around for most of the time and then whip something up on the computer at the last minute.  I remember when I was in school and we had science fair.  You had to make some poster board display about something you sis almost entirely at home and then set up for judging in the gym.  Mine were on fossils one year and I also recall a year where I did it on finger prints.  There was never any experiment being conducted, it was just a display of things I was vaguely interested in at the time.  Needless to say, I was never a winner.  Who would have imagined then I would go on the get a masters in science?!  It's nuts, I know.  I'm still rubbish at conducting experiments but luckily that doesn't come into my realm very often.  That being said, I do have a basic knowledge of the topics due to common sense.  This was not the case with the supply teachers we have had in recently.  The whole idea of having a supply is that they can get on with any elementary school lesson left for them.  It doesn't have to go well, they just have to keep everything under control and muddle through.  The recent rash of them at work recently have refused to teach all manor of subjects though on the basis that they are not familiar enough with the subject matter.  My favourite one was the woman who didn't know what adaptation was in animals.  If you don't know the meaning of a word, just google it!  Don't tell everyone that you don't know grade 6 science vocabulary. 

Looking extra spooky back stage

Hard at work writing our names in kanji.  Or a close estimation
of what it should be based on my limited time scale!

After the craziness of world week ended, there was Harrow Dance Showcase to contend with.  I have been coordinating the event with my coworker Lisa and some others.  This year we went with a Halloween theme.  I know, it was a bit out of season but it was quite cool.  They looked liked the undead at the beginning of the the evening.  They were the first ones on stage of all the schools.  Of course after that they had to wait for some time and continued to apply face paint for the remaining hour and half.  When I came back to their dressing room at the end they looked more like raccoons and bandits than skelletons and zombies.  I have to say though that we had the best dance of our age group by a long shot.  The high schools that were in the first night had some great dances but some scandellous outfits.  They were wearing some skimpy gymnastics kind of outfits.  They younger kids waiting behind them we stunned at seeing their bum cheeks hanging out.  They told me they were wearing bikinis!  Well not quite but close enough!  Speaking of swimsuits.  A ridiculous controversy has arisen at school because some of our muslim girls in year 4 have not been given permission to take manditory swimming lessons with the school because of the immodest nature of bathing suits.  But after some internet research it has been discovered that they can indeed wear a more modest burkini.  I find it the most insane garment ever.  You would look like some sort of support hero if you wore it.  It is much more modest but it is too weird looking for my liking. 

Here's us in mid dance!

Burkini wearing lady.  It is a bit weird looking
isn't it? 

 Can't wait for the Easter holidays to come along!  I will catch up with as many people as possible and hopefully do very little.  Sounds fabulous!  Congrats to Mandie and Steve who have just brought the beautiful Phoebe Jane into the world and to my lovely cousin Connie who has just got married to Paul.  Wish I could have been there for both but I look forword to all the pictures :o)