Day 2 (Feb 16)

We started the day a little later then the first. We had tickets for a Finland-China women's hockey match in the evening. We decided our first stop should be the olympic store. The line had been rumored at being over 2 hours in the afternoon. We figured we could get there early enough to beat that rush. We stood in line for about 1 hour. Right about the time we were thinking we were at a standstill, my sister got out of line for a coffee. Almost as soon as she left, we were let in. We then watched her walk to the door and walk in, in front of all the patient shoppers in line. We stayed in the official store for about an hour and a half. We were also impressed at how quickly the store pumped people through the checkout line. All of the people in the store were polite as well. It was a different shopping experience.
When we finished shopping and headed toward the hockey stadium and the Saskatchewan pavilion. We looked for a bathroom and the nearest out of our sky train stop was in a mall in china town. The mall had a stage set up for Chinese new year, and we sat nearby and ate a quiet lunch.

We then headed outside to beautiful sunlight. We walked right by the hockey stadium just as a Canadian game was ready to be let in. The crowd was impressive. We then walked around the stadium and landed near Science World. They changed the Science world into Sochi world for the next Olympic games in Russia. We walked into the Saskatchewan tent and found a tv showing the games.

We watched the female snowboard cross in the tent. It was fun again to watch in a crowd. We then walked into the food and music tent. We weren't too impressed, but I did get my photo with some mounties.

As we exited, we saw the flags of the olympic village.

The security was pretty tight. They put up apartments for the athletes for the games, and they will sell to people after the games. We then found the stage where Colbert was filming the next morning. We then made our way to the train station and made our way out of downtown, back toward the University. We got on a bus and headed to the hockey game. As we approached the stadium, the crowd buzzed. We had to exit the bus a few block from the venue and walked. There were great volunteers the entire walk to tell us where to go.

We all had tickets but we were not sitting in the same places. I was in the highest seat on the edge of the side of the rink. I was sat next to a group of college students who came from Toronto for the game. They were great fans. They had their beers, they picked their teams and only yelled encouragement. In the US, if we had a drunk baseball crowd, I would only expect negative yelling and jeers at the ref or the players that do not play up to expectations. These guys( and girl) were true hockey fans and only cheered for a good game.
We watched Finland own the puck. They put 43 shots on goal to China's 5 for the game, but the score was 2-1. It was fun.

We then headed home. My brother, his wife and I decided to try and find a bar and watch some highlights. We found a nice little pub with a great burger and brew special. We ate and laughed until closing. I then headed home for an early morning getting ready for Colbert.

Olympics Day 1 (Feb 15)

We were suppose to have tickets for snowboard cross on Monday, but the weather caused the organizers to cancel all standing room tickets. The only good that came of it was that we were able to sleep in and we explored downtown. My dad bought a ticket from Stub-hub and there was a ticket location in town that we went to see if we would get reimbursed. We walked to the bus stop from our rental house and Dad gave us all change for the bus. We rode into town and were marveling at the crowd and the city. It is always fun to get the first glimpses of cities from windows of vehicles, and it is even more dramatic to get the view as you cross a body of water. I enjoyed my introduction to Vancouver in the daylight. We stepped off the bus and the first thing we saw down the street, was the Olympic flame.

After a brief stop where we were told that Dad would get reimbursed, we headed for the cauldron. It was a nice day, but overcast. We took photos with the scattered crowd outside the fence surrounding the torch. We then walked through town to find cultural pavilions and be apart of the crowd. We headed to the Northwest territories and Inuit pavilion. This was our fist line. We stood in line for only about 5 minutes and were let in. Inside there was lots of art and tools of people that live in the great white North.

There was also a small stage set up where there were demonstrations of Native games to practice agility and pain tolerance.

After a brief lunch, we walked toward The Bay. This is the Hudson Bay Trading Company, the oldest company in Canada and the exclusive Olympic Store. There was a line. We walked into a side door without a line, and saw a sign for the international clothes on the fifth floor. We went up escalators and took us a minute to find the section, but were happy to see clothes for all the countries as well as some Canadian and Olympic shirts and souvenirs. We stood in line to check out and then headed to Robsen Square. This was the hot bed of activity for the city. There was a free zip line (five hour wait) that crossed downtown, as well as an ice skating rink that went under the street. We found a big screen TV opposite of some stairs. We sat and watched the Snowboard cross, disappointed we weren't there. This was our first opportunity to watch tv with a crowd. Anytime a Canadian athlete came on, the crowd became alive.

As we walked around we found a bobsled (known as a bobsleigh in Canada) and went to take a picture. A line formed, which is a very Canadian thing to do.

The politeness was outstanding. The bus drivers would ask politely for people to not get on the back door, or to please move back. If they told somebody to "please don't" it was always met by heartfelt "I'm sorry" and no bad feelings. This is quite a surprise, especially coming from teaching 15-17 year old teenagers who feel entitled to everything and when you ask them to do something they don't always agree with, you receive eye-rolls and complaints.

We then decided to walk toward a Downtown Livecity, a place that had live music, food, and other entertainment. On our way we found the library. We went in and found two small shops that had trinkets, pins, postcards, and some shirts for the Olympics. We also took part in an art project promoting peace. The art was to get a crowd to write individually the ways they find and promote peace, fold the paper into the shape of a maple seed and send it into an air tube which launches it into the air and then catches in a net.

We then grabbed a drink and apetizer from a pub attached to the library. We were in a tent watching more TV. The sun went down as we finished up and we walked toward Yaletown Livecity. It was a free concert venue. We walked by CBC studios and waved our arms in the background of a broadcast. We then found block of food tents and found some additional food stuff to satisfy our consumerism. As we got into livecity (through metal detectors and pat downs, very polite patdowns) and were just in time to watch the first gold medal won by a Canadian on home soil get put around his neck on the big screen tvs. The crowd went nuts. We then went through the different tents set up and saw the future of 3D television as well as played some computer games. As we were waiting for one line (shocking) I saw a sign that said, "U-S-eh?" So I asked to get a photo. The man asked if I would want an olympian in the photo. So I said sure. It was Erik Fisher, but I had no idea until last week.


Matisyahu took the stage and was great. We danced in the rain and were wearing down when the concert ended. They then began some fireworks and a water show. The created a sheet of water behind the stage and projected images from the olympics to music. It was pretty neat. We then headed home on a full bus to crash.

February 13 and 14th

Last weekend, I went to school to tie up loose ends before my week in Canada, and then I went to the barber shop for a haircut. I left town around 4pm and drove up to Seattle to meet with family. i drove to Sea-Tac airport and met my parenst who drove from Montana the night before. i hadn't seen my parents since I left Montana in early July. It was great to be with them again. My dad and I then rode the hotel shuttle to the airport to meet my brother, his wife, and sister who were flying from DC that day.

We met them at the gate and headed back to the hotel.
I think it started at that point: we attracted looks at our noisy laughter and good fun. This would be a reoccurring theme on transportation around the next week. We had a happy reunion as I hadn't seen my siblings since the previous Christmas.
Valentines day started with my parents, brother and sister-in-law driving to Vancouver as my sister and I drove to north Seattle to visit some of her friends. We were trying to delay our arrival in Vancouver, because we told the people we were renting from that no more than 5 people would be in the house at a time.

My sister drove to Green Lake and met an old roomate of hers.
We ate breakfast while sharing stories, and then we walked around the lake. It was a beautiful "spring" day. It was one of the first days of brilliant sunshine as well. We then walked back to the breakfast place and met another set of my sister's friends. We ate lunch and then, back around the lake we went. The park was beautiful, and there were a ton of people.

There was also lots of free hugs. We were all a little skeptical at first, but then we gave in and took hugs around the lake. Happy Valentine's day.

My sister dropped her friend off at her place and began to walk through a farmer's market. It was more of a artisans market with a bunch of vintage tee-shirts and trinkets. We also found an antique-ish shop that sold used items form the 70's in great shape. I found a couple of state maps from the 50's which had great graphics.

We then started our trek north. We made it to the border around 7pm and handed our passports to the officer at the gate. We were asked to get out, and have our car searched. My sister and I were questioned separately and after about 10 minutes, we were able to go. It might have been a good thing we stopped. In the customs office, the TV was showing men's moguls. We were able to watch Andrew Bilodeau earn Canada's first gold medal. I don't know if we would have had another opportunity (this sentence is suppose to have a sarcastic tone. For the first three days, ALL tvs had a clip of the bumpy skiing guy and his victory).

We arrived outside our beautiful rental home and we all had a great dinner. We watched some Olympics, and were preparing to wake up early, when we found out our snowboard cross tickets were canceled due to lack of snow in the viewing area. We would go downtown in the morning anyway and try and get refunds.

Olympic short update

When I get back, I will put together a daily journal.

I have taken pictures with an olympian, although I have no idea what his name is. I was on CBC as waving hands in the background. I also took part in the first of two Stephen Colbert tapings downtown Vancouver. I love the town of Vancouver, and Canadians are super polite. It will be sad to leave. I am going to wake up tomorrow early to get to Whistler to watch Biathlon. It is a wonderful thing to be sharing space with so many nationalities in a peaceful competition.

Cheers.

End of Semester 1

I am now over half way through my third year as a high school science teacher. There are always pros and cons in any job, and I am still finding many more positives where I am at. This year, I feel, like I am doing the best work and actually teaching well. I know what makes a successful lesson and what doesn't but I am still fine tuning the balancing act of grading, planning, meeting, volunteering, communicating with parents, and of course, classroom instruction.
I feel very fortunate that I am in a school with so many young teachers, but also, young teachers that are inspired in their work. I also love working with co-workers that have the same teaching philosophy as I do.
I feel some times as if I am an alternative ed teacher. I have homeless students, students with parole officers, students who have been abused, students with minor and severe disabilities, as well as students who have substance abuse problems. I really do enjoy my job and ffeel that I am teaching students to be better citizens more than I am teaching them science (at least my sophomores). The first half of this year I had 95 sophomores. My students earned 2 "A's" and 33 "F's." That is over 1/3 of all my sophomores. This means that I am pretty much guaranteed to teach another section next year for juniors or seniors who did not pass the first time through. I am currently teaching two sections of "retakes" with 9 and 20 students respectively. Next year, I know those numbers will go up.
The biggest issue with my students is not that they aren't smart, they can understand what I say. They may not be bale to turn on their critical thinking skills when I expect it, but the biggest issue is work ethic. Homework doesn't give them enough satisfaction. In class, they know if they tell a joke they will get a quick and positive response of a classmates laugh. They do not see the reason for working on a project from start to finish, or how effort translates into positive reactions from their teachers or how it has positive effects on their grades.
Part of where I think education is broken, is that when we were bringing our numbers forward of the failed students, we were asked how did we cover our bases with our parents. While I think this is important and if we had dropped the ball I would expect to be held accountable. However, when we bring up our concerns there is no answer given to us about what we can do. When I was in school (and granted I am a special case with 14 in my graduating class) there would have been a minority of students that had poor grades, or items of concern. If I spent as much time as I should communicating with parents when students do not show up, forget an assignment or underperform, or misbehave, there would be no time for any other tasks.
There is no perfect answer. One of the best solutions would be to lower class sizes. We would need to hire new teachers to offer more sections of the same classes. If not more classes, at least we need more resources for students who need an extra boost. Whether it is a classroom aide to help with skills or language, a substance abuse counselor, food, a school nurse, or any other type of support, we just don't have them in our district. With budget cuts in every school district in our state, there is not much hope in this front. The other issue is that we are being run like a business. Schools are not there for profit. If they were, a lot of things would be different, and many of my students would have been "fired."
For all of the disgust in this rant, I will say I love my job because of the great moments with students and the discussions and passion of my co-workers. If I was surrounded by a different mindset or different personnel, I could see me getting jaded quickly and giving up. I don't feel this way at all. I also work with students privileged enough that they need very little support in high school and have the ability to help other students. I look forward to the second half of this year.