Fabienne remembers

 Blog #17 My Specials-----Where are they now? In working over 50 years in Education and Counselling, I remember the joy and sadness I experienced working with "my specials" at a Regina, High School.  I worked two years in a  program for Special Needs students aged 15 to 21.  In my second year, I was in charge of 26  students, a half-time EA, a work experience staff member and three part-time staff doing  lessons in Typing, Music, Foods, Library and Art.  I had 17 students in my class and the other teacher had 9 students. She didn't have a teaching license ,so I was to mentor her.  I will change  the names of my students, but I do wonder how they are doing all these years later.     In my class, I had four students with brain injuries and mobility issues.  All injuries were from accidents. Will got bucked off a horse and hit his head on a rock.  Dan  was hit in a  crosswalk, flew high in the air and on a cement si...

 # 16 Crafty Gifts Mother's Day gift making was a lot easier to do. We would make flower pen  bouquets and put  them in a cup or glass holder.  The flower was made from tissue paper, twisted and held  on to the pen with green sticky craft tape. Another project we made , was candles.  One  candle I like to make was the cheese with a little plastic mouse in it.  We used old broken crayons to tint the color of the melting wax in an old saucepan. Using an empty clean milk carton  cut down to one third it's size, we put a small hole in the bottom with scissors, threaded a wick through it and taped it to the bottom of the carton. We made the wick stick straight up by tying the wick to a pencil and balanced it horizontally on the open carton. Next we filled the carton with various sizes of ice and poured the warm wax over the ice. The ice melted, the wax hardened and the carton was removed from the candle. The kids put the mouse inside one of the ho...

 # 15   Messy Craft Gifts I have always loved crafts. I enjoy doodling- abstract, kinda weird stuff, knitting, jewelry making, clay works, painting (bad at it), pretty much any 3-D kind of  objects out of any  materials. In the years , I taught elementary, my classes did a lot of arts and crafts for various themes and  seasons. We made gifts for  Father's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas gifts, Valentines' , Thanksgiving, and Hallowe'en.  Often times, our projects were very messy but we always  cleaned up before anyone discovered t he mess.  Sadly, not always... A Father's Day gift we would make was paper weights. We would take marbles of all sizes and crack them with a hammer (not break them).  Then we put them in large empty  plastic  prescription containers, put them on tin cookie sheets and bake them in the oven. Plastic burning is not pleasant, best to do after lunch.  They always melted into odd shapes and Dads alwa...

# 14---  Evolve or become Obsolete What was the norm many, many years ago is no more, at least in classroom management? Some of the consequences kids got for misbehavior would nowadays be considered cruel, even barbaric. The strap was used on an everyday basis when I was a student. It was still in use when I started teaching. In my first 4 years, I never used it nor witnessed it.  Thank GOD !!   However, I didn't realize that some school rules stated that a student would get the strap for damaging school property.  I was teaching a split grade 2/3 class of 33 students  in a small school in Regina, Saskatchewan.  I had taken my class to the library. There was a set routine to our visit. When a student decided on the book they wished to take out, they lined up to the librarian's desk and waited for their turn. Two boys started fighting over a book and ended up tearing it in half.  I really wasn't sure what I should so I took them to the Principal (C...

Obsolete means "no more".  So what was once in use is now no more.  Buggy whips are obsolete. We get about today by vehicles, cabs, buses, trains and planes not by horse and  buggy.    Old products, out of date items and out of practice  become  replaced with something  new.    Somehow old-fashioned and no longer useful seems rather harsh,  especially to people  who regularity had these things in their lives. Why are jobs like a pinsetter, a projectionist, a log driver  and a wheelwright  obsolete?  My dad was a projectionist.  Will these jobs become obsolete cashier, a dispatcher, a teller,  a telemarketer and an accountant?  When I started teaching the school secretary used a typewriter, a rolodex and  a gestetner and a hand crank  pencil sharpener. Where did the landlines go and where is the carbon paper?  What do you mean there is no fax machine and no chalk  or brushes...

 Retirement-- What is that? Well friends, I hate the  expression " I am so busy, I have no time for anything". However that seems to be true. Somehow 2 years have flown by and even though I officially retired June 2020, I am still working.  I have to say I have always loved working with people - age 5 to whatever, it does not matter. It has been 51 1/2 years since I started teaching. I have worked in Saskatchewan, B.C. and Alberta. I have  always explored many different areas of teaching and counselling. So many memories. Some good some bad. I always say stories can be sad, mad , bad and glad.   Positions I have held: vary from Grade 1 to Grade 12, split/combined regular classes, special    needs (disabled, mental and physical handicapped ages 5 to 21), Learning disabled, English  Second Language Learners, Drop Outs and Street students coming with addictions or Court ordered with jail records, University courses for Teachers on Teaching Speci...