A day in Vancouver

Another beautiful sunny day. We decided to go to Chinatown. It was fortunate that we happened to arrive at the same time as a parade was starting. It was to celebrate 60 years of the Republic of China. There were lion dancers, and all sorts of groups marching to commemorate the founding of modern China.

After the parade we walked around the shops looking at all the herbs and spices, and the varieties of dried foods. There were all sorts of roots and vegies, as well as the shops that sell all sorts of paper products to burn as offerings to the dead. We then stopped for lunch at Hon's House of Noodles.

After lunch we walked wown to Dr. Dun Yat Sen's Classical Chinese Garden, then down to the gate into Chinatown. From there we headed towards Science World. We then caught a False Creek Ferry to Granville Island. It was a perfect day for taking photos of the city. I left Paula, Nola, Bridget and Daniel to wander around and look at the shops and entertainment, while I walked back across the Granville Street Bridge and along the walkway around False Creek, back to the car, which was parked near Science World. It took over an hour. When I got back to Granville Island I used the walkie talkie to find Daniel who knew where the others were. We then headed to the House of Icecream to taste several of the 218 flavours on display. I had mango fudge this time. The make over 500 flavours, but can only display 218 at any one time.

On the way home we detoured into Stanley Park and stopped at the totem poles. The city was just lighting up as the sun was going down, and with the moon in the backgound it looked great.

Whistler

Today, Saturday, the kids stayed home to, hopefully, get some homework done, while we headed to Whistler. We stopped along the way at Shannon Falls, the Tantalus Lookout, and Brandywine Falls. There was quite a bit of low cloud this morning which hid the higher mountains from view, but the day tuned out well and the cloud lifted for the return trip in the afternoon. The views on this Sea to Sky Highway are stunning. It will be the end of the mountain bike season at Whistler when they close the mountain bike park, and convert the chairlift back to passenger only, after the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in 2 weeks time. There were still quite a few people up there today and it was difficult getting a car parking space. The free public parks were full. They had one of the large parking areas fenced off for paving and there is still quite a bit of work going on up there in preparation for next year's Winter Olympics.

Tour guides around Vancouver

Paula's sister, Nola, arrived on Wednesday afternoon on her way back to Australia. She has just had some time in Europe, including a 14 day cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. Paula took her around Gastown and Canada Place and then they came and picked me up from school. I had interviews with parents every night last week and was glad when I left at 5:15 pm on Thursday. Cheryl had invited the staff to her place for drinks and nibbles, so Paula and Nola came as well. Good company and a few drinks and before I knew it, we had to leave.

On Friday I got an email from one of my students inviting me to have a read of her blog. I had been reading parts of my blog to them so they could see how they can be used and to show that we can have audiences for our writing. Also as a stimulation for their own journal writing. I had shown them where they could access certain things on the internet, and was pleasantly surprised to get the invitation, and excited to see what she had created. It was brilliant! She had set up the account, uploaded her own photo, and written a couple of paragraphs. It looked great. Her mum sent me an email as well, saying how impressed she was that her daughter could do what she had done. It's great to see kids excited and technology being used properly.

Even though none of us had students on Friday, we did have a Pro-D Day to attend. I had made arrangements to go and visit another school in relation to the ITF report that I have to do when I return to Australia. As part of the International Teaching Fellowship, I have signed a contract that includes researching and reporting on an aspect of education. I had chosen to research "Innovative and Creative use of Technology in Schools". I have to use the Pro-D days at school to do this because the North Vancouver School District doesn't provide any extra days to conduct the research. Some of the other ITF's in other school districts have been provided with up to 10 days as a professional courtesy. NVSD says that it provides schools with Pro-d days, and that I should use those. That means that I have to make a choice between what is going on at my school on the day, and getting out to research other schools and programs. The Provincial Pro-D days don't allow me to get in to other schools because they are closed as well. I have requested assistance from the North Vancouver Teacher's Association, which has provided me with coverage for a day.

I did choose not to attend the activities at Eastview on Friday, and instead had made arrangements to go to a school on West Vancouver. I visited Ridgeview Elementary School which has been running a 1:1 laptop program in the grade 7 classes. They have had laptops for 5 years and the two year 7 teachers teach both classes. They have a mobile trolley that has 30 laptops and the cart is equipped with a wireless router and a printer. I was able to discuss the program and watch a couple of lessons in which students were developing a blog and student e-portfolio. I enjoyed mixing with the students and seeing what they were doing.

I thought they were going to pick me up near Ambleside Park, so I had walked down towards the shops and the park. I rang only to find out that they were on Grouse Mountain. While I was at Ridgeview, Paula had taken Nola up Cypress Mountain for a view of the city. There is a pretty good view of the city, the coast, and the islands from the lookout on the mountain. After that they decided to go up Grouse Mountain to see the bears, the Lumberjack Show, and take in the views from the peak. I knew that they would probably be up there for a couple of hours, so seeing as it was a nice day, I decided to walk along the sea wall to the Capilano River and then follow the river up the mountain to the dam and then on to home. As I was walking along the beach I heard a young voice say my name, and turned to see one of my students having fun on the swings.

The walk up the river follows the edge of the river for a bit and then you have to go up a couple of blocks of houses before again finding the trail along Keith Road. The trail continues through the forest and along the edge of the cliffs that are about 50 metres above the river. It goes along the fence behind the Capilano Suspension Bridge property and crosses numerous small creeks and valleys on the way up to the Hatchery and Cleveland Dam. The trail from the beach to the dam is about 8 km, so I guess that by the time I got home I must have walked about 15 km. I was ready for a rest and a drink when I got home.

It was also the Australian Rules Grand Final, and Geelong was to play St Kilda for the Premiership. We had been trying to work out how, or where we coupld watch it. In the end I decided that I would pay to get access through the internet and I would connect my computer to the TV. We had invited some friends to come and watch, and also organised some food and drinks. The broadcast wasn't due to start until 9:30 pm, so we filled in the time with some AFL videos from YouTube. Bridget and Daniel were both wearing their Geelong Cats jumpers and the countdown was on. Bridget is the keenest fan and was quite on edge when the game was so close. It was only after the siren sounded to end the game, with Geelong winning by 12 points. She was straight on to the computer to chat with friends. The internet broadcast finished a couple of minutes after the final siren, so we didn't see any presentations. Bridget was announcing who got the awards as her friends sent the messages. 3 Grand Finals, and 2 Premierships in 3 years is pretty good effort.

Visit to Ridgeview Elementary School

Thank you Mrs Wilson and the two year 7 classes for allowing me to come in to your classroom. I enjoyed my time watching you work with blogs.

Fort Langley

After the cruise around the harbour we decided to head out to Fort Langley again. We had all been earlier in the year when we had gone with my class. It was different going without the class because I didn't have to be constantly monitoring who was where, and their behaviour, the entire time. We were able to browse around the fort in our own time, and this time had time to read about some of the exhibits and displays. When I came with my class we had several stations that we had to visit during our time at the fort. It was a good way to get a class involved, but I appreciated the chance to come back and take in the things that I had missed.

Fort Langley was built by the Hudson Bay Company as a trading post. It houses one of the oldest standing buildings in BC, and is the place where BC was proclaimed a Province. There are docents here that act their part and bring the venue and builings to life. They explian about life in the pioneer times, demonstrate the various crafts and jobs associated with the times including blacksmith and cooperage.

Heritage harbour cruise

As part of the North Shore Heritage weekend, there was an historical harbour tour organised abourd the MV Magic Charm. This motorised vessel would have been able to carry around 200 - 250 passengers. The tickets were free. I just had to pick them up at the local Museum. I got 4 tickets and had to make sure that we got to Waterfront Park in time for the departure.

The forecast had not been great for the weekend, but it turned out to be a fantastic day. We arrived at the pier a couple of minutes before departure and boarded the boat. We went upstairs to enjoy the fresh air and the open air views. We pulled away from the pier right on time at midday, and headed west along the north shore of the Burrard Inlet towards the Lion's Gate Bridge. There was an interesting commentary about the harbour and it's history. As we got closer to the bridge, the boat turned towards Stanley Park and continued east along the south side of the inlet. There wew 4 luxury liners loading passengers for the Alaskan cruises. There were 3 at the Canada Place terminal and 1 at Ballantyne Pier. The boat continued past the container terminals and bulk terminals towards the Second Narrows Bridge. As we got closer to the bridge it began to turn again and headed back along the north shore, and headed back towards Lonsdale Quay, past the Sea Bus terminal and back to the pier that we had left from. The tour took about 45 minutes, and there was a queue of people waiting for the next one. They were running 3 free cruises for the day.


It was an interesting commentary about the harbour and the weather had been kind. It was lucky that we had found out about it and collected the free tickets. A nice trip.

School

We have just completed the first full week of school with the Terry Fox Run on Friday afternoon. I have an interesting mix of students. It has been an interesting start with the grade 2 and 3 classes spending the first 3 days in the gym. Students don't get allocated to their new classes until the new school year starts. They go to the room and the teacher that they had last year on the first day, chat about the summer and hand out notices that need to be returned, and are dismissed about an hour later. They also come back to that teacher the next day who tells them which teacher and class they will move off to. We have the maximum number of students allowed in those classes and there was discussion as to whether we would actually get another teacher and create another class. We still didn't know on the Friday as we left school, but the decision must have been made over the weekend, and we didn't get another class.

We had held off drawing up timetables, which would only have had to be changed. Now the process could begin. The music teacher had to set up his timetable first, because he is the main provider of Non-instructional Time (NIT). Then we could try and find 3 x 30 min slots for gym bookings. The computer lab timetable is yet to be done.

I have 14 boys and 13 girls - a nice balance. We had Student Alert meetings during the week, where teachers meet with the "School Support Team" and are briefed on all the students in the class. We are given files and information on students that are in need of special assistance. I was told that I have 4 students that have been designated by the School District with a variety of designations, and that a 5th student would be designated in the next few days. I have since been told that there may be a 6th student designated in the near future. According to the North Vancouver Teacher's Association (NVTA), there is agreement with the School District that class sizes are fixed at a maximum of 22 students in a Kinder class, 24 in grade 1 - 3, and 30 in grade 4 - 7. There is also a limit of 3 students with Individual Education Plans (IEP's). Any more than 3 and there needs to be a special Consultation procees. The consultation process has to take at least 48 hours and it must be finished before September 28th. Fun! Fun! Fun!

I have already been to a Grade 4 parent information night, which was to give parents a bit of information about the transition from Primary to Intermediate in the Elementary school. The students, and the teachers, are considered separately for various things. Next week I will also be at school until at least 5 pm each night for parent interviews. I have 27 students, each of which is allocated 15 minutes. That is another 7 hours of meetings.

We certainly don't start the year gradually. It is jump in at the deep end, and away we go.

Bear in the yard

Tara, the downstairs tenant came up this morning to tell us that there had been a bear in the backyard last night. We hadn't heard anything, but there was a mess. It had been raining and our bedrooms are at the front of the house.

She had woken to find a mess outside their back door, underneath our balcony. They have had a box type freezer under cover near their back door. This morning the freezer was tipped over on it's side and there was cardboard and plastic garbage around the yard, as well as bear scat on the grass. It had knocked over the freezer and helped itself to a pizza, a box of popsicles, an apple crumble, chicken nuggets, fish sticks and other bits and pieces. It decided to leave the "Lean Cuisine" and the frozen ground beef.

She has rung the North Shore Black Bear Society, so that they may be aware that there is a bear active in the area, and will be moving the freezer in to the laundry. Once a bear knows where to get food it will return. So we need to be wary.

Terry Fox Run

Yesterday the students at school ran the Terry Fox Run to help raise money for Cancer research and to continue the Marathon of Hope. The kinder students ran around the field at school. the Grade 1 and 2 students did a short run through the green belt near the school, and the grade 3 to 7 students did a longer run through some of the streets around the school.

I do recall hearing about his courageous run and fight with cancer back in 1980. He and I were the same age.

In 2004, Terry Fox was voted 2nd in a vote of the Greatest Canadians of all time.

There are statues of him across the country and many schools, libraries, roads and parks have been named after him, as well as a mountain in the Canadian Rockies. For a list check here.

Coho Festival and White Pine Beach at Belcara

Another great day weather wise and we headed down to the Ambleside Beach for the Coho Festival. There were lots of activities for kids, mostly related to the environment and how to promote a safe environment for the return of the salmon each year. This was a big weekend in West Van with a concert on the night before featuring, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young and Sarah McLaughlin. We looked at all the exhibitions and watched some of the entertainment and the mountain bike riders exhibiting their skills.

We decided to take a drive to White Pine Beach at Sasamat Lake in Belcara Regional Park. We had to go all the way around the Burrard Inlet. When you are at Deep Cove you can look across the Indian Arm to Belcara, and from Cove Cliff it is only about 500 meters across the Indian Arm to Belcara. To get there by road you have to travel back across the Ironworkers Bridge over the Burrard Inlet, along either Highway 1, or the Barnet Highway to Port Moody, and around the inlet towards the Indian Arm. It is around 40 km either way.

We were heading to White Pine Beach, which Paula had been to before, for an end of year excursion, with a Kinder class that another Aussie teacher has out in Maple Ridge. We arrived at the carpark area and headed for one of the beaches. Paula had organised a picnic, so we had something to eat while sitting in the shade and watching people playing in the water. They were using all types of blow up lilos and kids play toys. Some people were swimming across the lake which was quite a distance, given that the track around the lake was 3.2 km. I did walk around the lake which took around 40 minutes. When we left we drove to the Belcara beach area for a view of the area from there. The whole area is very wild and scenic.

Biking in North Van

It was a beautiful day today. There was a brilliant blue sky with hardly a cloud in sight. We decided to go for ride in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. The Seymour Valley Trailway is a 10-km paved path that winds through a beautiful diverse forest and crosses scenic creeks and streams. The Trailway features five picnic sites that include outhouses, benches, picnic tables and garbage cans. The Trailway is ideal for joggers, bicycles, strollers, and in-line skaters.

I left Paula, Bridget and Daniel to walk and ride around Rice Lake while I headed along the trailway. Bicycle books suggest that the 22 km round trip to the fish hatchery and Seymour River Dam should take about 2 - 3 hours. The paved path was great. There were families with young kids on their own bikes, as well as third wheel type tandems with young kids behind their parents. There were those hiking, biking, a woman pushing another in a wheel chair, those on in-line skates and quite a few skateboarders, including some who were lying down on their boards like a luge on the downhill parts.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the end of the trail. I decided to go down the hill to the river. It was flowing quite swiftly over the rocky bottom, and looked quite deep on the other side. I then rode up the hill a bit and turned off on a gravel trail for the fish hatchery. This path wound through an old growth forest with cedar, fir and spruce. The valley was carved out by glaciers in the last ice age. I got to the hatchery after crossing quite a few bridges over beautifuul clear water creeks to find that it was closed. As I was riding alone, I was whistling and watchful as I turned every corner. There are signs at the entrance to the par, and near the hatchery reminding us that we are in bear and cougar country, and to take all precautions.

I stopped at the picnic spot at the end of the trail and had a drink before heading back along the trail. Even though the trail is up and down all the way, it must be more of a downhill gradient on the way back, because I got back to the carpark in about 35 minutes.

The weather and scenery were great.

New school year

The new school year started on Tuesday. Some teachers have been in at school for the last week, or more, preparing for the start of the year.

On the first day students arrived at school and spent almost an hour with the teacher from last year. It was a nice connection to be able to chat with them about their vacation. Teachers took attendance and handed out information and paperwork that needed to be filled in to update information for the new year. Students were then dismissed and teachers stayed for a staff meeting and then used the rest of the day for planning.

It is difficult to get the planning and timetabling started because we don't yet know how many classes we will have. Classes are at the allowed maximum of 24 students in the grade 2 and 3 area. The school district are trying to decide whether to create another division at this level. this has implications for timetabling specialists, and also for areas like the gym and library.

On the next day students again reported to their teacher from last year who took attendance and then told them which class they would be in, and who their teacher would be. We then waited for an announcement for students to move off to their new rooms, classes and teachers.

It was quite a nice way for the transition into the new class to take place. I got a chance to have a chat to last year's students and to hear the stories of their vacation, and wish them well for their new class.

Tour guides for the weekend

It is a long weekend, both in the US and Canada, for Labour Day. We had arranged with friends from below the border in WA, to come up for the weekend. None of them had sporting commitments and we were going to act as tour guides and show them around Vancouver. Even though it is only 100 miles from where they live, the kids had never been here and it was a long time since Roger and Patty had been here.

Well, guess what? They arrived on the Friday night, and the forecast was not good. It was overcast and rained on both Saturday and Sunday. They had to leave on Sunday night, so the fact that Monday wasn't too bad weather wise, didn't enter into the equation.

We had hoped to take them up Grouse Mountain, but a look out the window confirmed that the top was in cloud and not worth the trip, so we decided to head to Stanley Park. We had two vans and communicated using walkie talkies. There was a guided commentary coming from the lead van as we headed down to cross the Lion's Gate Bridge and our first stop at Prospect Point. It is here that we are reminded by a plaque on a rock that there was a huge storm in December 2006 which took out some 10,000 trees in the park.

"In the early morning hours of December 15, 2006 a major windstorm struck this revered park with a vengeance. After two short hours of gale-force winds, some reaching 119 km/hr, the storm subsided leaving a level of devastation that had not been seen since Hurricane Frieda in 1962, and for the first time in over 40 years the entire park was closed to the public."

We walked out along the point to check out the view and noting that the tops of Cypress, Grouse and Mount Seymour were all still enveloped in cloud. We also walked down to the bridge and walked out to the first of the support towers. After heading back to the cars we drove around to the Totem Poles. From there you get a good view of the city. There were at least three liners berthed, waiting for their passengers before departing for their cruises to Alaska.

After heading through the park and towards English Bay we drove through the city, passing by B C Place, and G M Place, the citie's two main stadiums, through Chinatown, and finally stopping at La Casa Gelato to get icecream. This shop has over 500 flavours, but can only serve 218 from the shop at any one time. You are able to taste flavours such as garlic, curry, wasabi, durian, death by mango, etc. We all discussed the flavours we tried and headed towards Gastown. We parked and walked along Water Street past the Steam Clock and the Railway Station to Canada Place and the Convention Centre. By this time we were all starving and headed home for a meal.

On Sunday we awoke to a wet and miserable day. It didn't look any good for scenic views from the mountains and the breeze was quite cool, so any swim or water based activities looked out of the question as well. We decided to head in to Granville Island and the public markets and surrounding shops and galleries. There are always street entertainers there in summer and some of us watched the entertainment while others strolled through the market. After a couple of hours here we headed back for an early dinner before they had to head back to WA. Before they left, Paula made sure that our SA friends from down the street came up to say hello. Both families had heard about each other and were keen to meet. We had a bit of a chat and a drink before it was time for everyone to leave.

One more day until school starts for the new school year.