Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Snail Trails Summer Day Camp

hahahahhahahahhahahahahahah!

That is the official name of the summer camp program that yours truly is the outdoor coordinator and basically summer camp teacher at. GRAMMAR! Forall it's ridiculously long name, and imposing sounding-ness, it is a really laid back summer program forboth kids with extra support needs and typically developing kids. It runs for 2 1/2 hours Monday to Friday, and I get to mostly organize the fun stuff to do outside and then also get to go inside and hang out with the kindergarten-aged kids until they go home. It's basically a blast everyday.

We've been dealing with a heatwave here in Toronto for the last while - the last two weeks were blisteringly hot (like living in an oven), but it's tapered off a little bit and is a lot more liveable this week so far. The entire city basically was suffering from heat exhaustion within moments of stepping outside of any air conditioned enclave they may be lucky/environmentally insensitive enough to partake in. We had some parents wondering if we were actually SERIOUSLY going to be taking the kids outside during the hot hot heat - and I said yes of course we are, but we'll be playing with water and wet most of the time, and wearing hats too, so we'll be ok. And we were.

My territory at Snail's summer camp is the playground, and I am happy. We have a kickass sandbox, a hill with a pretty intense incline, some green space, a garden and a big ugly metal and plastic playstructure, but we make up for the last with our enthusiasm and funtimes.

Today was BubbleMania day - we have one each week - and I just realized that I should have taken some pictures of our awesome bubbles - we had bubble makers of all shapes and sized all over the place, and made some pretty wonderful bubbles. My goal is to make a bubble big enough to have a kid inside it --- by the end of the summer. YES! Photos of that for sure!

The camp is run out of one of the Bloorview Nursery School Preschool sites called Play and Learn, which I think I mentioned before. The preschools run on a Reggio Emilia inspired emergent, creativity based curriculum, and I feel really lucky to be able to continue playing with these ideas - follow the kids interests and build your curriculum on what they want to do - progressive education, right?! AWESOMENESS. I'm lucky enough to be working with some of the educators from the schools, as well as other talented folks, who are fluent in these ideas and ready to just go for things. My co-teacher Allison in particular and I seem to be cut from the same cloth - we're jazzed about creative construction projects, like getting wet and dirty and painty with the kids, and I'm learning so so much about listening and clear communication with her. No joke - it's super fun. And the kids are the darndest!

For instance, one of our lively fellows has been working on making a waterfall as a part of our water wall - thank you Jenny, Tom and Donna - out of cut open cardboard sono-tube. We've been pouring and scooping and getting wet, working together to get the water up to the top of the waterfall with other friends, and today we figured out a gravity feed method to make the waterfall run. We just keep everyone wet and no-one gets heatstroke.

All in all - it's pretty wonderful.

More soon, and photos.

Nerd, out.

hoo-hah - did I need this!

This amazing gem is from one of my total mentors Teacher Tom - CHECK IT!



So - I'm homesick. REALLY homesick.

I usually get this way, which is why I don't often travel. And this is the longest I've been away from my home on a trip in about ten years. It's been a real gift to get to be up here and experience life in a remote community - I have learned SO fricking MUCH being up here - and the project is continuing to do pretty well - facing challenges and time-crunches and all the day-to-day crazy-business of a regular community arts project...and I want to go home. Which is totally ok and fine and natural for me, and I'll use it to fuel the next week (which will be bonkers as last weeks always are) and we are going to have a really great time. And THEN, I get to go home.

PERFECT.

I'm feeling both elated and a bit down-in-the-dumps, which is why Jessica's encouraging messages to herself are so exactly what I needed right now. And maybe you do too.

Due to the long weekend, I've had a bit of an enforced vacation, and don't have anything to show you of the project that you haven't seen already since I haven't seen the kids since Wednesday (Thursday all programming was canceled due to a death in the community). I've done a few things for our set (you'll see once the kids get their hands on it), but I've mostly worked on relaxing, going for walks and getting things ready for this week.

Here are a couple of photos just to remind you of where I am...wandering around some of the bones of the planet waaaaaaaayyyy up north -



This was taken on Saturday, on a ramble on the rocky hills out behind town, and this...



...was my walk yesterday. Wow.

Ok - enough for now, I'll post more about the play as the week progresses!

nerd out.

arctic springtime - and more snow

Just wanted to let you all know that yes, springtime is on it's way here in Inukjuak, and I have photo evidence to prove it.

Here are some tundra plants that I took pictures of on an amazing and uplifting walk on the weekend, on a balmy springtime day...



...and now, just a few days later - more snow.

HA!

What a sense of humour the nature has up here!

Heh...

nerd OUT!

done...

Ahhhhh - the totally bittersweet victory of completing exams!

I hate tests. I don't test well, I feel like the don't reflect anyone's learning all that much, and I think exams are a terrible way to end a year of learning - with stress, isolation, and a burnt-out brain. I think that's why I'm feeling a complicated mixture of dissatisfaction, unfinishedness, relief and discomfort. I don't feel like exams honoured my year of intense effort, integration and learning. But - what can I do about that right now? Not a heck of a lot - giant changes like that will have to wait a while, until my super(educational)-powers are fully formed.



So - it's the anticlimactic ending of another year at university - and I don't want it to end! Even though I leave in two days for dramatically exciting educational adventures, it's hard to let go of my scholastic routines. I didn't want my classes to end! HOW NERDY IS THAT?!?

But they did, and that's the way things work - and now I have A MILLION things to do to get ready. So far, my packing has consisted of idly wondering which books I'll take up with me to read and use as resources, and buying soap. Oh, and goji berries. It's just the burn-out from end-of-school times -- I know that I'll start getting REALLY excited once I'm packed and on my way.



So, now I have a couple of days to do that, and putter around seeing friends and slowly putting things in suitcases. While spring is sproinging all over the place here in Toronto, it's -4 Celsius right now in Inukjuak. It's going to be a bit like going back in time, weather-wise. So, I'll do some wandering around in the cherry blossoms and unfurling leaves before I go.



I will certainly be posting a lot while I'm up there - stay tuned for news!

Nerd outside in the springtime...

groooooaan...and twinkle. time for tired.

We are almost there.

My fellow students and I can really see an end to the academic year close at hand. Only a couple more major assignments - finish my paper on sharing and negotiation for my social-emotional intelligence course, and put together my portfolios for interpersonal communication, creative arts, and field education. Oh my...I hadn't written it all out like that yet...yikes.

But considering I've worked through a good two thirds of the majorness, I feel good about it all.

That's not really what I want to be writing about. I want to write about the gazillion new thoughts that firefly through my heart and mind, even when I'm brain crushingly exhausted from working non-stop on final assignments and never hanging out with my loved ones. I want to write about the amazing feeling of watching tulips sprout up with young children. I want to write about the amazing free feeling of playing outside after a cold-weather climate winter. I want to write about reflective practice, and new thoughts on how we can encourage children to talk and plan with each other, and how we can guide and encourage a lot of learning with stories and narrative, or some new picture books I found at the bookstore, or the amazing feeling of the springtime sun on my back as I ride my bike to placement or class. Or the wonderful, warm, exuberant and inspiring community of thinkers and writers spinning threads of connection through the internet to inform and make community. The early learning and education bloggers are doing a wonderful job of weaving a feeling of togetherness right now...very awesome.



But I won't write about that now. The 'soft animal of my body'(thank you universe, for Mary Oliver) needs to rest, and not look at screens for a while. I will write about all of that soon.

nerd out, friends. let's rest.

OUTSIDE!

It might be spring.

I finally got to get back to the Nursery School, feeling all better, and since the weather has been so glorious (+13 degrees Celsius!!! SUNNY!), we got dressed early (sans snowpants, since it's so warm) and had a blast playing outside. Here are some pics of our space, what we had set up, and the kids going berserk from a little wee touch of Canadian it-might-be-spring fever.






















Wow, it felt good to be outside with them! They played a lot with the dried up leaves from last fall - the play ground was full of them. It was pretty amazing to catch S.J.'s leaf toss - my camera takes the darndest pictures!!

Hooray for outdoor play - I've been wishing and wishing...spring might be here!

nerd OUTside!

My Nana laughing

Today I was at placement, thank goodness, and we made some great shaker bottles, practicing scooping and pouring. I'll get some photos tomorrow. Isabel comes up with some great ideas.

I was feeling sick all day long, and so my energy was not that great. Ate some ginger, felt better, and then found out my Nana, my dad's mom, fell yesterday and broke her femur high up near her hip. She had surgery today, got a pin and a cable installed, and apparently is already on the mend. The thing is, she's in Texas, and here I am in the frozen (well, slushy today) north. Far away from family in times of trouble. Doesn't feel so great right now. So so glad that my Aunt Pam and cousin Erica are there. Whew!

My Nana's 87. She got me into reading, by first getting me into Star Wars and then science fiction. My omnivorous insatiable reading habits stem in good part from there, I'm sure. I have deeply felt memories of her reading A Wrinkle in Time, Fantastic Mr. Fox and other books way beyond what was judged to be our 'reading level', and my sister and I eating it up like the best dessert. Nana would laugh at the funny parts harder than we would, probably because she understood them way more than we did, but her laugh is still a deep part of my delight in reading, imagination, story and literature. I'm GLAD she's ok.

Been thinking a lot about outdoor play, due a lot to the weather here and blogs like Teacher Tom, Place + Inquiry, Free Range Kids, and I'm a teacher, get me outside here! . Our half-day schedule doesn't allow us too much time to get outside at Bloorview Nursery School, but the kids do tend to play outside all together when their folks come to get them in the playground outside our classrooms. Alternatively, at the Early Learning Centre at Ryerson, the kids spend about 2 hours a day outside. It so necessary to get ourselves outside, no matter the weather, maybe even because of the weather. I know I feel so much more human when I've been outdoors. I've also been thinking a lot about this video, about outdoor preschools in Norway. I want my life to be kinda like this.

Wouldn't it be amazing to do more of our learning outside. "There is no such thing as bad weather, only improper clothing." Stuff to dream on.

nerd OUT!