Triple Dose

The very best thing about teaching is definitely the field trips. Sure, I know a lot of teachers that say that it’s a hassle, taking care of the children and being responsible for knowing where they all are at all times. Some teachers even genuinely dread them.

Me? I love them. When else can you go on cheesy trips, without being embarrassed about it? Oh yea, when you have kids of your own. Okay, well if you don’t have kids, then taking field trips are actually a lot of fun.

And being a sub, I got to go to a cabane à sucre yesterday. Just North of downtown Montreal, only 45 minutes away, there were a few all in a row. The one we went to was called “La Villa du Sirop”.

They greeted us with some Québecois folk songs and a play, which included a reenactment of how the Aboriginals discovered maple syrup, by boiling sap. They were using this big old pot as a joke, but my mom actually has 4 like these and bigger still sitting in their basement.

And then we were off to see the inner workings of how they make maple syrup. They don’t actually use spouts and buckets anymore, but they left some around to show us.

Finally, it was time to eat! Most of the traditional Québecois foods contain pork and pork products, like pork rinds, ham with maple syrup, pork sausages with maple syrup, and beans with lard. But I still managed to find some good foods to eat, like eggs with maple syrup (yum!), fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, pickles, and of course, pancakes with maple syrup. I was too hungry to take any pictures of the food, but I did manage to remember at the very last piece of pancake. Meh, mine are better.

And just when we were about to leave, they surprised us with a little treat, maple taffy, or as they call it “la tire”. It’s hot maple syrup that gets poured onto ice and then rolled onto a popsicle stick. It’s chewy and melty and oh so delicious.

I was disappointed by a couple of things. First, they didn’t show us the forest and how it’s all a “mess of tubes”, as they describe it, because of how they extract the sap from the trees. I had thought that that’s the whole point of the trip, but alas, it wasn’t in their schedule. Second, they had no gift shop. Here I was, with freshly withdrawn cash in my wallet, only to find nothing to buy. I had to look very hard to find a bottle of maple syrup and a couple of maple fudge leaves. I think there’s more maple syrup products at the gift shop right across the street.

Other than that, I had a lot of fun, and it was definitely not something Omar and I would’ve done by ourselves. Sometimes, it’s okay being a teacher.

But I must admit, I’m beginning to enjoy the half-day Pre-Kindergarten gig. It’s so low key. The kids don’t always listen, but there isn’t a whole lot to do, so it’s okay if they don’t! And half the morning is taken up by snack time and bathroom breaks, so I’m just a glorified babysitter.

That gets to go home at 11:30 every day. This is the life.

One unfortunate consequence of working every day is that the house suffers. Laundry doesn’t get folded, the kitchen isn’t used with love but with impatience, and dust piles high on top of side tables, dressers, and nightstands.

I would but I could stay at home and tend to my domain.

I used to think teachers of younger grades have it easier in some ways– the content is obviously easier, the kids think you know everything, and everything takes a long time to do, so you have less time to lesson plan for.

But while that may be true, the behavioural crap they have to put up with gives me a newfound respect for them. I personally have no patience for crying children, name-calling and yes, tattle-taling. After only one day in a grade 2 classroom, I want to run screaming.

Unfortunately, I’ve already (pre)-committed to another day of chaos. God help me.

On my last job in this school, a couple of kids wanted to know if I was a Habs fan. Now, I grew up in Montreal, so my first exposure to hockey was in the home of the Montreal Canadiens.

Not that I really cared, though.

But then I moved to Toronto and married an avid Leafs fan, one who became “depressed” when the Leafs lost, who screamed criticisms during games and howled when they scored. Yep, one of those men.

So when they asked me if I was a Habs fan, I felt an obligation to my husband, despite the embarrassment of claiming to be a Leafs fan.

That was a few weeks ago.

Today, I sat in my classroom at recess, reading. The boys I had spoken to noticed me behind the closed door. I heard a tap tap at the door and there they were, goading me with a paper pressed against the glass window of the door, saying LEAFS SUCK.  I saw laughing, taunting faces at the door, one of them screaming it out to the hurrah of the crowd.

In retrospect, I should’ve stayed quiet.

I was in a Junior Kindergarten class today, where there was the cutest little girl with long pigtails on either side of her head and the biggest smile on her face. She hardly spoke, she just smiled, all day long.

At the end of the day, another teacher saw her and immediately froze. She quickly went to the office and returned and ever so calmly informed me that that girl had lice. They called her parents and they confirmed that they knew about it but sent her to school anyway.

They KNEW and sent her to school ANYWAY. So that more kids can be exposed to it.

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with all the flu paranoia and hand sanitizing craziness. Lice? Really? Lice!

Assign the same writing piece to a group of grade 7s and another group of grade 11s and immediately notice the difference in the amount of information required.

The 7s need to know whether the rough copy should be in pen or pencil, whether the good copy should be in pen or pencil, whether they should skip lines, if going under or over the word limit by 10, 15, 20 words is ok, if they should make corrections on the rough copy or off it, in a different colour pen or same, and whether the rough copy and good copy should be one and same or seperate.

The 11s just want to know one thing– when it’s due.

It took me 3 months since we’ve moved here, and 2 months since I’ve been working as a sub, talking to as many teachers and admin as possible to understand how to get a contract position, to discover that I’m actually not authorized to teach in Quebec yet. I need to take a 3 month course in order to obtain a “Permis d’enseigner au Quebec” and then, maybe then, the board might consider me for full-time.

Gee, thanks for letting me know. And all this time I thought I just wasn’t high on their seniority list.

…you see this in a classroom:

Tide laundry Detergent. Tide: Takes the shit right off your shirt