Procrastination Revelation
Well, mere hours from another deadline, I post.My will to blog is flagging. I have started a tinyletter about teaching and learning. Feel free to subscribe - https://tinyletter.com/tinyteachingsPosts are not very frequent yet, but I'm spending a lot more time at school, and would love to share some stories, but can't post everything to the blog. I feel as though there's going to be a big push in the next two years to roll back some of the advances that the government has made to Alberta Education and I want to be sure that real stories of what teachers deal with make it out there somewhere.While still trying to stay busy and focused, I have allowed myself some reflection time to look back on this past year. I basically blew everything to pieces, changing homes, job, writing community. It's been a good re-set.I have had a lot of wonderful moments with some fantastic students and I am happy to say that I am a teacher, and I am, for the most part (up until this month when I became so overloaded I lost track of everything) pretty good at it. Most days. To be honest, it's not me, it's my students, but that's a story for the tinyletter.I'm so impressed by how resilient teens are in the face of all they need to deal with. I love them. Again, for the most part. :)My school staff is really small, but we've carved out some pretty hilarious and supportive moments. It was a year of changes and challenges, but we have pretty much made it through, now.I haven't had time for music lessons, but I play when I can - mostly when the family is out, because I am so shy. I haven't written much, but what I have written has been shortlisted and published. My new novel is taking shape and I am excited to start a mentorship with Gail Anderson-Dargatz in July. While I haven't re-joined my workshopping group yet, I have an "accountability" group that is helping me to stay on track with my monthly writing goals.In life, as in writing, my goals exceed my available time. I will be changing things up, going back to part-time. I'm grateful that my principal went out of her way to make it happen, which will allow me to remain teaching at a school mere blocks from home.Thinking about forgiveness a lot...but I'm not ready yet. Just acknowledging that I am still angry is helping me to be more mindful of focusing on the good in each moment. For the most part, I don't allow the crap I went through to cross my mind, though the constant bullshit spewed by the misogyracist supporters of TrumPence and FildeKenney triggers some pretty bad flashbacks. (C-PTSD is a bitch.)Finally, this month I was a chaperone for our grade 9 trip to Québec. Québec City is the same as when I lived there. It was strange to see Pavillons Parent and Lacerte. I spoke French, and people understood me. Some of my students were surprised - they didn't know I could speak it. Other students probably thought my accent was terrible, but it was fun.I'd never spent much time in Montréal, and yeah, the port was nice (especially in the dark on the ghost story tour!), and the old part of the city was lovely enough, but it kind of left me cold.The Atwater market was, quite simply, colour itself.
Then we headed to the Plateau and there, I fell in love with Montréal. Totally, completely, forever.https://youtu.be/lXidsQf0Y1MThings have been insane - but so, so many good things have been happening. I'm really looking forward to the end of the year so I can relax and reflect.Book - Métis Beach by Claudine Bourbonnais - still reading this one in French. I am a much slower reader in my second language.Podcast - Invisibilia! New season starts tomorrow!Song - Love by Lana Del Rey