Fabienne remembers

 I think back at times when I worked with this interesting man.  He had a huge family  with lots of Drama.  His first child  was an adopted Metis boy, then he and his wife had two or three more and then they divorced.  She went on to have two children with a First Nations man who had already two or three of his own.  Sadly her second husband died in a car crash.  So Cliffy married her again. That I think is when things crumbled around him.  I know when I worked with him he had at least ten children. He owned two homes and the older kids mostly stayed at the other house. They had an intercom between the two houses. His oldest child had issues with police and they always  went to the wrong house. Poor guy always had money problems and the staff had sympathy for him. We used to go through the school mail as he had a tendency to throw the mail unopened behind his desk. We couldn't get milk orders or medal engraving done without paying a prio...

 6  The Cliffy stories In my early days of teaching, I learned not to question the way other teachers did their assignments. Hard as it was to bite my tongue and not give an opinion or an assessment, some would consider gossip, I tried to stay out of conflict with staff.  For two years I had a principal  we nicknamed Cliffy. We all loved him. He was very funny, extremely intelligent, and his life was in chaos. Cliffy, sadly , was a huge drinker. If he got to school on time, he was in no shape to work, as he was always hung over.  He was a half-time principal and taught Grade six the other half of his job.  At least, he was expected to teach them. He would come in wearing sunglasses and tell us he had pink eye.  No one has pink eye for two years straight.  There was a door between his office and his classroom.  He  would have assignments on the board for the class to work on.  Then he would have the phone from his office on a very lo...

5     Where did you hear that? Many times over the years, I heard students repeating something they heard.  Who knows where they  heard it, but nine times out of ten.. they've repeated something their parents said. Homework excuses were always fun. Ones like,  "my dog ate it" or "my Dad thought it was garbage  and threw it away" or "I spilled my juice on it".  The best one was  "my dog sh*t on my spelling book". Heather was in grade four and said her new puppy had messed on her Speller when she was  working on the floor.  She handed me her Speller and I threw it in the garbage.  I asked her why she didn't throw it out. To which she said as her Mom came through the classroom door, "my mom didn't  think you would believe me." The Mom said, "look on page 41". I told them "no thanks, here's a new  book and you have an extra day to finish your work".  Some evidence you don't want to see, just trust. My...

Years ago, I remember teaching a grade 2/3 classroom of students. One boy  named  Tim was a freckled, red-haired boy with a big smile and devious little  habits.  He  wasn't purposely bad , he just had a knack for getting into trouble. He  was always  out of his desk, knocking things over, dropping things, bumping into  others,  generally talking out loud bothering everyone.  If ever there was any  disturbance  in the classroom, Tim was always in the middle of it.  He was my test from  GOD to learn patience. One day after school when I noticed his mom  entering my classroom, I realized my day had gone smoothly and also Tim had been absent.  She started to say she came in to get homework for him as he had the measles and he would be away  for  a few  days. What did I say, you ask!  "Oh Good." She looked at me and I tried to save myself by saying "Oh good that you came in and told me. I was...