trew, dat

It's snowing again. It's supposed to be -7 tonight.

So, I've been back about three weeks, and we have had the equivalent of three full days of teaching. The school was closed last week, Monday to Thursday, because the heat was broken. It's fixed, with a vengeance, and we've been back to school ever since.

This means I can actually tell you how my classes are looking. One word: BUSY.
I have 34 grade 11s in my math class. The room is crammed, and northern students tend to be very high-maintenance, insecure math students. They don't have great reading comprehension, and so need everything explained verbally. But they don't listen the first time. Or the second. In fact, they can't hear your explanation if you are talking to anyone else. It's pretty astonishing, actually.

My homeroom of grade 10s has grown to 24 (from 18) and my art class of grade 10s (different section) has grown from 14 to 22. Since yesterday.

My art classes are off to a good start. We've done blind contour drawings and begun actual contour line drawings. They are getting into despite themselves, even the resistant ones. It's pretty exciting, seeing some raw skills coming out of them.

Everything in the first days is super high-maintenance, super intense. You have to be everywhere, see everything, hear everything, ignore most of what you see and hear...

I have not sat down during school days for two full days. My feet hurt.

I did a great hike on the weekend, searching out a waterfall. I'll post some pictures soon, or you can check out my flickr account. I think there's a link somewhere...