Day 3 at St. Florence: The Visit

not by the Pope, which would've been a funny experience for me (watch out for Force-lightning), but by the district Superintendent. the reason for this visit was last year's pitiful EQAO scores. apparently there was a 3rd grade teacher in over her head and the scores reflected this. so the Superintendent dropped by and chatted up the principal and the 3rd/6th grade teachers. it was pretty cool seeing the teachers band together in a show of solidarity -- not that our visitor was a bad guy -- in the face of inspection. the principal shadowed him while other teachers would peek out of their rooms once in awhile. some made excuses to be in the hallways at regular intervals and raised signals when the Superintendent was spotted. the school halls were like gopher tunnels.

apart from that, my day was the usual dose of miscellany. i started off the day plainly enough by marking arithmetic (gotta get that mental math back up to speed). then i donned a SARS mask and cleaning gloves to spray acrylic sealer (matte finish) on some molded plaster flowers (soon to be Mother's Day fridge magnets). there was a lot of construction paper cutting as well.

lunch time = listening to conversation time.
today's topics: American Idol, Grey's Anatomy and the story of that time the teacher i'm working with took the grade 1s, 2s and 3s up north for a 2-night camping trip. she shared a tent with someone notoriously high maintenance, and after a day of activity, they unzipped the tent to find swarms of squirrels and chipmunks pouring out of the tent. apparently, HM woman had packed a bag full of chocolate.