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.