BY NICOLA HEIDEBRECHT, SECONDARY FRENCH TEACHER I am known to most students as “Madame H.” I’ve been the French teacher at ACS Secondary since September 2017. It’s somewhat ironic that this past fall, I was asked to submit a story for the January blog. At the time, I had no idea life would take a [...]
BY JACQUELINE BUSINK, ACS PARENT I am a mom of 2 middle school kids; my daughter is in grade 6 and my son is in grade 7, putting us right in the thick of middle school. Over their school years, we’ve endured some rather interesting trends! Our kids find joy in all kinds of strange [...]
BY KARIN RIEMER, ELEMENTARY VICE PRINCIPAL AND UPPER PRIMARY TEACHER I’m married to a chef. My husband can make food so scrumptious, it yells, “Eat me!” He treats food like art. Even finishing salt gets sprinkled on by hand, with a flourish, while leaning in closely to the plate. Gary can look in the fridge and [...]
BY: EDGAR RIVERA, BUS DRIVER When I was a kid in Guatemala, my friends and I used to go to a candy manufacturing plant. For just a few pennies we would receive a huge block or bag of chocolate, mints or whatever they were processing at that moment. Broken or incomplete marshmallows and cookies were [...]
Last spring, my Mom was diagnosed with untreatable cancer. In that moment, our family felt a sense of sad apprehension, like storm clouds gathering in the distance on a sunny day. We suddenly had to come to grips with the fact that a part of our story with Mom was coming to an end. We [...]
BY LINDA HOWARD, MIDDLE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT It never ceases to amaze me the mountains of t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, shorts, jackets, lunch kits, water bottles, and myriad other miscellaneous items that end up in the lost and found each and every term of each and every school year! Braving the stink One would think that [...]
BY: KOENRAAD BEUGELINK, FAITH FORMATION DIRECTOR Two days into my start at ACS these words entered my mind: “What am I doing here?” I mean why would anyone who made it out of high school want to go back to high school? Don’t get me wrong, I had a pretty good high school experience. Not [...]
BY DAN VERBEEK, GRADE 7 TEACHER Being a teacher has its perks from time to time. We receive many gifts and goodies from students and families at Christmas and the end of the year. We are showered with cookies, baking, candy and gift cards. It is really wonderful…but only temporary and only confined to those [...]
My daughter phoned me a couple of years ago and said, “Dad, I bought a boat.” Awkward silence. I didn’t know what to say. She had just been married, her husband was in his last year of university, they were poor as church mice and she was halfway through her nursing degree…and she bought a [...]
BY LINDA GROOT, ELEMENTARY TEACHER LIBRARIAN I like to regularly highlight new titles with my library classes to help create student interest in reading. Sometimes, this can lead to interesting conversations with students: Student: “Hi, Mrs. Groot, I’m looking for a book you showed us last week.” Me (excited): “Sure! What’s it called?” Student: “I [...]
