The email was followed up by a text; the kind that starts off with polite pleasantries about the weather and courteous queries about how I’ve been, only to make the awkward shift into, “So…while I’ve got your attention, I was wondering….” It’s the ever-popular approach of requesting a favour of someone or reminding them of [...]
BY HELINDA VANDERKOOI, ACS PARENT Middle school…yikes! I heard stories from parents about middle school. Claims like: your kids don’t need you as much in middle school, hardly any parents come to chapel, the teachers don’t want your help, the kids ignore and avoid you. With all this chatter I was not looking forward to the [...]
I remember it like it was yesterday. Grade 9 Band Tour. My suitcase was packed. We got on the bus at night. I was nervous. We were going to drive through the night and arrive in Alberta the next day. I remember the sun was just starting to go down, the smell of fresh fallen [...]
“Puh-lease?!?!?” came the persistent begging, once again, from my Star Wars crazed son. He had only asked EVERY DAY to battle me—light-saber style, which is really not my style at all! Always after dinner. Always just as my hands were getting sudsy, cleaning the mess from the last half hour. It was always then that [...]
I stood barefoot on my blanket as a First Nations person. We were a gregarious people who moved around, visited other groups, traded, conversed, shared stories and listened to new ideas and techniques. While I did that, my blanket was taken away. As I watched that happen, I lost my identity. I no longer belonged. [...]
I admit it…I’m a late adopter. I am careful in approach and rarely jump into anything new without appropriately assessing all options. Then I weigh them, and observe the early adopters to be sure I don’t experience the same pitfalls they will inevitably find themselves in. And although I consider myself a digital native, I [...]
Most people think Twitter began in 2006, but a form of it actually existed in my grade 7 classroom long before that. I didn’t call it Twitter, I called it “Notion Notes.” When I first came to Abbotsford, I taught grade 7. Besides having fun learning all that science and English, we also did fun things for their own [...]
Feathers floated through the air; strands of wig hair lay scattered on the ground. Kids were running around in circles practising a classmate’s fish swim move, and the one counter space left in my classroom had become an apparent make-up station. My classroom resembled anything but a learning environment. “Mrs. Barthel, I can’t find [...]
BY SHERRY DRADER, GRADE 4 TEACHER This past Christmas left me flabbergasted—the cardboard box STILL became the most sought after “toy” between my three kids! I’ve always been fascinated by the hours of enjoyment children get from a simple cardboard box, as the adult in me just wants to clean up the mess, flatten the [...]
Twenty-two years and 5 kids later, Valentine’s Day is coming, and romance looks a little different for us than it did back when we were dating. I met Steve in college. Our first encounter was almost immediately. I missed the bus from church back to campus and was panicking about arriving late for my [...]
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