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.