And My First Day of Work Is…

Friday!

I finally got all my paper work done and I can officially start subbing

So excited. Teaching grade 5.

That is all.

~ Katie :)

Big News

So I have some new to share with everyone. Maybe the title of the post is a little misleading but for me it’s big news!

I found out I made it on the sub list!

I’m sure some of you out there are scratching your head going, ‘big new? I don’t understand’. Well the school board that I got on (there’s a few different board around here) they only hire 150 subs for all the schools so that means I’m more likely to get work.

This is definitely good news! Now I just need to sub and work but butt off and hopefully I can get a full-time job in the near future. It’s still going to be a few weeks before I can start working (paperwork and such) but I’m really looking forward to getting back to work.

In other news it’s starting to get very chilly here in Calgary. It was –4 this morning. With all the cold weather around here I bet you can guess what I was craving for breakfast when I woke up: Oatmeal.

In today’s pot: 1/3 cup of steel cut oats, 2/3 cup of skim milk, 1 tsp of chia seeds, 1 tsp vanilla extract (unfortunately I had no banana to add to it).

Toppings included: pumpkin butter, peanut butter, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips and a splash of milk.

I love hot oatmeal on a cool fall morning.

After breakfast I headed to the grocery store. I had no idea what was for supper. After yesterday’s post I’m still having some difficulty pleasing both the husband and myself. While at the grocery store I picked up the new Rachael Ray magazine and came up with a perfect idea for dinner. I can’t wait to share it with you all tomorrow.

I spent some time this morning doing some blog reading and lunch became inspired by Jaime’s post and made some grilled cheese.

Cheddar and seven grain bread. Nom!

I actually followed Jaime exactly and had the grilled cheese with a side of carrots.

Don’t we all just love comfort food?

Well I’ll be back tomorrow and I’ll let you know how tonight’s dinner turned out.

~ Katie :)

Decisions Decisions

I’m back!

I’ve been absent for about a week or so now from blogging. I’ve been trying to enjoy the last of the summer before school starts next week.

So today I had my first job interview since moving to Calgary. I think it went really well but now I actually think it might put me in a strange position. Since I started teaching all I’ve wanted was my own classroom, in a consistent school and get into a teaching routine. The job that I had the interview today is not really going to provide me with that and I’m a little confused on what to do.

I don’t want to assume that I will get the job (I will find out on Wednesday) but if they do offer me the job then I’m going to have to make a tough decision and right now I have no idea what to do.

Without going into too much detail about the job I would be working in more of a non-traditional school environment and I’m not sure if that’s where I want to me.

• The job offers pretty good pay, great school hours, great benefits, great holidays but do I choose all of those things over what I’m looking for in a job?
• Also, I have no idea when I’m going to have another interview or job opportunity.
• But then again, just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad. I might really enjoy this type of teaching and I’m never going to know until I try it.
• I’m still waiting to hear back from two school boards here and I don’t expect to hear back from them until next week.
• If I take this job I would start on Thursday so I will have to make a quick decision without knowing what my other options would be.

This is really tough and if anyone has any advice I’d love to hear it.

Since I’ve been absent for so long I thought I’d just share some pics of some of the eats I’ve had over the last week or so.

 

That pink fruit that looks like kiwi is dragon fruit and it was awesome!

Happy Monday Everyone!

~ Katie :)

Teaching Operation Beautiful

I wanted to vary a little from my usual posts to tell you all about what I’ve been teaching my students over the past few weeks.

As my readers, you know that I am a teacher. I teach at a private school at the Jr. High level (grades 7-9 for any Americans out there). My class is very small and only consists of 10 girls. This makes for an interesting and different dynamic. Most of the time I really love it. They all get along very well and we are able to have some very good discussions. About 6 weeks ago I was sitting at my desk eating lunch and I looked around and for the first time noticed what they were eating: potato chips, chocolate bars, buttery popcorn and other forms of junk food. I watched them for a few days not saying anything. I realized this was not only normal behaviour for them but for some of them this is ALL they were eating for lunch. I decided to have a talk with them and found out that some of them hardly ever ate ‘real’ food. I decided that even though they were teenagers and that they should have already learned this before I was going to put my other curriculum on hold and take a few weeks to talk about healthy eating.

We started with discussing the four food groups and discussing how many servings of each they should have. After that I got them to make menus for one day of healthy food that they like/enjoy or at least willing to eat. I then got them each to research a food group and look at healthy choices and unhealthy choices within that group and some of the key nutrients in that food group. We also had quite a few discussions on why healthy eating is important – I have started to showing them Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution. So far they have seen two episodes and are really loving it.

After we finished discussing healthy eating we moved on to eating disorders, body image and self-esteem. I knew from the beginning I wanted to some how incorporate Caitlin’s fantastic website: Operation Beautiful.

I considered to ask them to somehow participate in it but then I decided I didn’t want to force them to do it. It wouldn’t be the same so instead after we had a discussion about self-esteem in teenagers and how it is important to no only feel good about oneself but to make sure to pass it on I introduced them to Operation Beautiful and gave them an entire period (40 mins) to look through the website and read as much as they can on it.

Afterwards, we had a discussion and I asked them to go home think about what they read/saw on the website and write a reflection on it. I really want to share with you a few of their responses (please remember that these are 13-15 year olds and some of them are English as a Second Language students so their English/Grammar is not the same as others their age):

“As I entered my house today, after my 30 minute jog, I found myself “fat talking”. My original plan was to immediately go take a shower, but I realized this was the perfect time to reflect on ‘operation beautiful’. As was mentioned in the website, fat talking is something almost everyone is guilty of, and it has nothing to do with the way you look. I found this website absolutely amazing! Just at first sight, the colors and the design are so cheerful, which right off the bat sends off a positive vibe. As I surfed through the tabs, I was so inspired and everything that was written was so true! Reading Caitlin’s advice and encouragement about loving yourself is so motivating. I think tons of people have negative body images, and are struggling. Operation beautiful applies to so many people, and it can really help.”

“I really liked the website and it was so wonderful to see it. It really helped me see that I am beautiful. I am going to try not to say the word ugly anymore. I am proud of myself, I have black and brown curly hair and dark brown eyes…The website taught me to not care about whether I’m fat or thin but I am beautiful the way I am.”

“Operation Beautiful is a site that inspires girls about their inner and outer beauty. Operation Beautiful is an organization to help girls or women feel confident and on insecure about who they are, what they wear or how much they weigh…When I read some of the posts from the website, I felt inspired by these people who post some amazing notes just to make other girls around the world feel beautiful and confident in who they are…I am thanking this site for all the help. I realize you don’t need to be skinny, put on a lot of make-up or wear fancy clothes to be beautiful. It’s us girls who make up our own beauty.”

I am still waiting for a few more responses from some students so I might share some more this week but I after reading their responses I really wanted to share some now with all of you.

I would really love to spend more time with them talking about all of these important issues that teenagers face but I’m still a teacher and I need to go back to the regular curriculum and move on but I’m hoping that I was able to least get them to think about some of these important issues.

Thanks for reading and sticking with this long post. I will be back tomorrow with my regularly scheduled healthy living post.

~ Katie :)