We had a ladies group "adopt" our grade 2/3 classroom and send us stuff we needed like glue sticks but also things like little knitted hats and mitts which we kept for kids who lost their mitts. They also included things like little knitted dolls that my class adored playing with for indoor recess. Maybe there is a school near-by that might welcome your little crocheted animals?

(((Hugs))))). I am sorry you are having such a terrible day. It is such a hard thing to lose a pet you love.

I hated it. Some classes were wonderful, others were just dreadful. Some kids will really do their best to be as difficult as possible when a substitute was there. Sadly so did some of the teachers. Everyday was a different grade and different school and different rules at each one that regular staff were surprised I didn't know. They seemed unaware that every school had different procedures for attendance, detentions, lunch orders, bathroom breaks, where to line up, etc. Some staff were quite friendly, but that was really a hit or miss thing. But in our board , they only hire from the substitute list so it was a necessary evil. I was very glad when I finally had a classroom of my own.

Agree with this!

I know I am not the OP but thank you for this post. It is a relief to know I am not the only one. I want to write a whole bunch of stuff but don't want take over someone else's thread. But thanks.

I am going to echo this! We live in a rural area and had to move into assigned housing that had been unoccupied for awhile and had a huge mouse problem!! Those ultrasonic sensors REALLY help keep them away though. And no having to dispose of dead mouse bodies later which is a plus!

I am an idiot and completely read this wondering how a book could get a rash? 😂

The fire near us is now at 1600 hectares. I can't seem to find an air quality rating on the map as we are too obscure but we are under a "Special Air Quality Message". If I can just finish getting the house packed up, I can fly out of here. But I am too tired to pack any more tonight.

It is lovely and sunny today, without being too hot, and without being too smokey thank goodness. Internal weather of the house: one very grumpy teenager who is tired of helping mom pack up the house to move. Possibly storm ahead, with internet outage likely due to mom tucking it somewhere hidden until she gets help.

Oddly chilly for summer. About 12 degrees Celsuis. Kind of strange since the fire is still going like crazy so you would think it would be hot just from that. Last week sweating like crazy, today I put a sweater on!!

Good morning! So far, I have dropped off my friend and his family at the airport and begun cleaning my kitchen cupboards. Yesterday was the last day of school, so YAY for that! However, I had to move classrooms and managed to throw my back out, so I am moving very carefully today. And I am moving houses finally and get to go be in the same city as my husband again. Feeling very intimidated by all there is to do this weekend. Plans for today: Finishing cleaning out food cupboards. Clean out fridge and freezer. Help teenage son finish 2 drama assignments that need to be handed in. Apply for another job as the one I started keeps trying to add random things to my original teaching assignment. Finish packing up my bedroom. Tackle son's closet with his help. Tackle the back bedroom and pack up sewing supplies and whatever is in closet. Pack up tool area. Possibly take pictures of some bookshelves and post on local buy and sell to get rid of them. Sort through what I brought home from school to see if it really needs to come or should just be thrown out. I am tired just thinking about all of it. Good luck everyone with all your chores for the day!

I saw it and wondered if it was all a joke? So bizarre!

This issues caused huge communication issues for my husband and me at the beginning of our marriage. I am a huge visual thinker and he is hugely words only/ non-visual. We would have the most frustrating conversations as I was often using "visual" oriented words that he simply could not relate to. So for example: What do you see us doing this summer? What do you picture as the perfect house? What is your vision of a job you would love? Since he couldn't picture ANYTHING, he often just answered "I don't know." It drove me crazy because I just thought he was shutting me out or not trying. It drove him crazy, because he honestly couldn't even figure out what I was trying to get at. We were years into our marriage before we realized that that kind of terminology will generate zero useful information in our conversations. I don't think I have found the perfect terminology yet, but I try hard to steer clear of any terminology that implies he will need to "envision" something. Whereas if I think of the future or the perfect house, or the ideal job, I get an instant stream of images and movie shorts that need to be sorted through to find the one that "feels" right. I have a hard time putting all those images into simple , understandable words. I still picture emotions as colours and have the hardest time trying to name what emotion I am even feeling. I had no idea everybody else's head wasn't a constant stream of movies, images and ongoing dialogue. It is so interesting to see how different we really are, right down to how we think.

I always feel bad cancelling gym. The kids look forward to it so much despite everything. Today we just pulled out some balls and scooters and let them mess around a bit, so it wasn't so active.

((Hugs)) Telling someone about their sister's death is going to be hard no matter what. I think maybe even harder because she is so young, and that makes it so unexpected. ( both your daughter and her little sister) I have no concrete suggestions on how to tell her, but do very gently suggest you be prepared for a wide range of possible reactions in dealing with the news: from numbness, to disbelief, to anger, and of course sorrow. The loss of a sibling, even one you didn't know very well, still leaves an empty place. My thoughts are with you and your family as you go through this.

I hadn't realized the smoke would affect my joints. I am usually more worried about the asthma. No, I don't have any anti-inflammatory supplements, but I will look into them. You can see how tired even the kids are. We have gym first thing and the last few days, the kids are all sitting on the bleachers after 20-30 minutes telling me how tired they are. I am so ready for summer to be here.

We live about 3 miles or so from the biggest one in Ontario right now. It has been going for a little over 2 weeks and mostly did not affect us as the wind was blowing all the smoke away from the community. But now the fire expanded slightly to the west, jumped one of the rivers AND the wind started blowing this way. My eyes are just dying. Something about the smoke made every joint in my body feel like it was on fire yesterday. And I slept like crazy after work yesterday. If school were finished , I would self-evacuate, but we have 2 more weeks, so I am hanging on. Just hoping the whole community might decide to evacuate. There is nothing to do, and I know there is smoke all over due to the fires in Canada so I am not alone. But just sitting here on the couch, dreading going to work. The kids are so unhappy from the heat and the smoke. Plus we were about to do a camping trip that is now cancelled. Just having my own little pity party here.

South Carolina... but only because my brother lives there with his family and I don't see enough of him. Otherwise probably somewhere like Minnesota that felt like Canada to me. The heat in SC would kill me in actuality.

sounds amazing

This exactly. But I don't think she even gave it the actual standards. As far as I could tell, she just wrote "( province name) Grade 4 math standards" and somehow assumed it actually would go find the standards and use them as the basis for her comments. I have no problem with generic comments. Everyone does cut and paste because we are encouraged to , quite frankly. But generic comments based on what AI thinks our math standards might be is something completely different. We are off in la-la land at that point.

She really is brand new. I think probably overwhelmed but also a titch touchy because she is so new. She just finished her practicum with us and immediately started working for us as we are so short teachers. I was her mentor teacher ( on an emergency basis) but she is now officially my colleague. I think she honestly does not know what the standards are for her grade. I just had to explain what Oral Communication is. I just don't want her blindly plugging in whatever the AI tells her, convinced it must be "right" . Sigh. I would imagine she sees the report cards as busy work.

I guess I just still think she should be aware enough of the curriculum objectives in our province to be aware that the AI is not generating anything specific enough to report on. It is just way too vague. "This student can consistently do all operations. " is not the kind of thing we normally say. It just doesn't really tell the parents enough information. I would be more likely to say, " This student can consistently add and subtract numbers to the 10,000's independently, and apply this ability to solving word problems. This student can sometimes multiply and divide 2 digit by 2 digit equations, and is developing their ability to apply this to word problems." This lack of awareness of her grade expectations and objectives has come up in other ways as well, this was just the most surprising way to me. Also fairly surprised that most people think it is a non-issue, but I guess that is what I was wondering.

I guess I think she is naive to believe that because she told it to use our province's math standards that it actually used them.

I just had a new teacher all excitedly showing me how she used ChatGPt to create report card comments . She included instructions to do it at her Grade Level and use our province's curriculum documents for different grade levels. I took a quick look at it, and it was fairly generic stuff. None of it seemed to strike me as actually representing specific curriculum expectations. For example, it had statements like, " This student is consistently able to solve word problems." It didn't specify which operations, or at what level, or in which topic. It is generic enough that it could represent any grade really , not specifically her grade, I tried to point out that I wouldn't really trust it unless I sat down and compared it to her actual grade level expectations/ objections, to be sure it was accurate. She was frustrated that I wasn't as immediately enthusiastic as she was. I was frustrated that I couldn't immediately put into words how wrong this felt to me, and just walked away rather than get in an argument. Am I just an old fuddy-duddy? I would be fairly annoyed if I thought my son's report card was computer generated rather than teacher generated, but is this just me? Also, unless I misunderstand how the AI works, just because she "told" it to use our province's curriculum expectation doesn't mean it actually did, right?

I guess it differs by region, but where I am paras with a degree absolutely make more than paras without one. It would definitely be worth it.