I am so proud of my students and the hard work they did cleaning up an illegal dump on Postill Road. Then yesterday one of my grade 11 students told me that he had been up in the area over the weekend and discovered that the mess was bigger and worse than before we cleaned. I emailed the regional district this morning to see if we can go again this Fall to re-clean. The response was quick - they don't have the resources to get a dumpster, but will provide garbage bags, safety vests, gloves, and will pay to have the material taken to the dump.

I think I'll do the organizing, even if it is a hopeless cause. I just don't think I'll advertise our work through the local media for fear of encouraging others to use the area as dump. I hope my students are willing to give up a Friday afternoon in classes to go spend time in the woods. I know I am!

Those people who camp at Postill Lake Lodge would proably appreciate the cleaner drive.
Postill Lake

High school camping trip

Each September it is my privilege - and job - to plan a camping trip for the entire high school student population. In past years we went to a provincial campground - Fintry, Kettle River, and Kootenay Lake were great destinations. This year I hoped to go back to the Kettle River campground which is close to Rock Creek, however portions of the campground were severely damaged in August by a wildfire. I ventured out of my comfort zone and took the students to a Forestry Recreation site instead. The advantages included cost - there is no charge at a forestry site, but a $56/night charge for a youth group at a provincial campground. The disadvantages include lack of flush toilets, running water, and a dearth of picnic tables.

I didn't expect that the lack of cell service would factor into the advantages/disadvantages, but I did find that students noticed right away that they had no cell service. The people most disadvantaged by this were the teachers. One staff member was hoping to organize her upcoming wedding during her down time, and another staff member wanted to let the rest of us know that he couldn't come out for Sabbath after all.

Students spent 2.5 hours cleaning up an area of Postill Lake road before we headed off to the Christian Valley. We filled an entire dumpster with garbage. I haven't tried a service activity so early in the school year, and found this one to be just perfect. The day was warm, the students enthusiastic, and the service so clearly needed.

Perhaps jumping off cliffs into the water, building cardboard boats, playing hide-and-seek, talking around the campfire, helping with dishes, and planning student association activities aren't in our formal curriculum, however they are certainly a wonderful way to build a cohesive team for our new school year.

Foods 12 Recipe evaluation

Last week my students made chocolate chip cookies for annual high school camping trip. I asked them all to evaluate the recipe as fresh cookies and as less fresh cookies eaten while camping on the Kettle River.
I won't share all the recipes they make, or every evaluation, but it will be fun to see their progress over the semester.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup oatmeal

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup butter

½ cup shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Stir together flour, oatmeal, and soda.  In a mixer bowl beat butter and shortening on medium speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugars and beat till fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating till well blended.  Stir in chocolate pieces.  Use a food scoop to make evenly sized cookies, and drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375^o oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till done.  Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.  Makes about 48.

M

I thought the recipe for the cookies was pretty good. I liked adding oats to it because they give it a firmer, healthy taste. We baked them for too long, so they were a little burned, but overall the recipe was good.

B1

The cookie dough was really tasty and delightful. I only had one on the trip but its the kind I like to eat, lightly soft and not too hard. There were too many chocolate chips in the dough, so they were over powering for me.

B2

This past Thursday we made chocolate chip cookies for the high school camp out. It was an interesting adventure! M and I had fun with it. We didn't exactly do the recipe right. We forgot to add the brown sugar before we added the eggs, so we didn't follow the instructions to the tee. Although, that didn't seem to hurt the cookies too badly! Plus, M ended up adding about an extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, not that that was bad, just made it a little more chocolate oh! We also ended up burning a batch which was sad, but I scrapped the burnt stuff off! They were still good though. Even on the weekend! It was fun and yummy! 

T

I really enjoyed these chocolate chip cookies. I will say I've have different recipes I've liked better but these were quite good right out of the oven. The ones I had during the camp out I didn't like nearly as much but that's usually how it is for me when I eat cookies. I would have liked the cookies to spread out just a bit more. It usually just makes the bites a bit more evenly spread out for me. So they were good but not the best I've had.

A

This recipe was a delicious success. I not only enjoyed the cookie dough before we baked them, but also fresh out of the oven. Then on our campout we ate the cookies, and they were equally as delicious. Some of them were a little more "browned" than others but again, they were still yummy!
Overall, and as always, I love making chocolate chip cookies!

New Paint for a New Year

I repainted my classroom, and the transformation reflects the hope and optimism I feel going into this school year. I still love my yellow walls, but the new trim colors help me feel even more at home. I based my color choices on a beautiful bulletin board border which I found last summer in New Mexico. New paint led to so much more - - -

 Next I needed to cover the windows so that students could really see what I was projecting on the Smart board. I also wanted to be able to work at my desk in the early morning without fighting sun glare. Curtains let me block light right at my desk without keeping out the view.

Then I discovered that two of the book shelves were missing a little support plug, so I bouth a package of those.

 Next I put black paper on each of the bulletin boards, and centered a little quilt made by some Math 11 students a couple of years ago. Math really is everywhere!

 I bought a few containers, painted those a denim blue, and then added pencils, hole punches, pencil sharpeners, erasures, and highlighters. Each set of 4 desks has a container, which should, in theory, keep my grade 6 students from spending 5-10 minutes each class block looking for basic supplies.

 

I hung my diplomas and  certificates behind my desk, added a poster I love, and have a cozy little corner to work in.

 

 I have a large bulletin board just waiting to showcase student work,

 a microwave for students to heat lunches, and a space for two or three plants by a window.

 Then, I decided that black chalk boards would look so much nicer than green chalkboards, so painted those also!

 Today I finished prepping the chalk boards, finalized my lesson plans for the week, made grad folders,and re-tidied everything. Tuesday I'll take the plants to their winter home and be all set for students. 

I think the year will be a happy one. I know my classroom is cheerful!

Getting Ready for the New Year

I think I'm ready - not for school to start, but for getting-ready-for-school to start. I love the promise a new school year brings - the chance to start again, without mistakes. Each pre-school session is a way to extend that looking-forward-to-school time, a chance to make time stand almost still.
I'll attend staff meetings, plan the high school camping trip and the Terry Fox Run, move file folders into their new positions, update my course overviews, arrange for Foods 12 field trips, rearrange desks, put up bulletin boards, and look forward to welcoming my kids back.

I'm looking forward to Biology 11 and 12 this year, to changes I'm hoping to make for Chemistry 11, to Precalculus 11 and 12, to Foods 12 (especially if I can swing field trips to the farmers' market, an orchard, and a goat farm). I'm looking forward to NOT having the grade 10s in Bible. It will be lovely to just have a two grade (11/12) split.

This year will be the first time in a while that the grade 12 class will be bigger than the previous year's class. I think there will be 9. It isn't a huge number, but it is more than before. I firmly believe that the only way OKAA will thrive is to grow from the preschool up, but I'm looking forward to this little bump of growth. It is so much easier to teach, and probably to learn, in a traditional school setting when there are more than 3-5 students in any given class.

So I'm rested, rejuvenated, and ready to start getting ready. 2015-2016 will be a great year!

Excellence in Education Award

I thought I was just treading water for the past two years, and still think that I was very overwhelmed by the amount of teaching/mentoring that needed to be done, but I was very pleasantly surprised to be awarded a 2015 Excellence in Education award, one of  four given out across Canada this year by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada. The award criteria include commitment to Adventist education, to life long learning, to community involvement, and to mentoring students and other teachers.

 One of my mentors presented the award and concluded her remarks with: "This year, one of Okanagan Adventist Academy's own has been chosen for this honour. This teacher has excelled in all the categories mentioned. She works tirelessly for her students, for Okanagan Adventist Academy, and for her church both local and conference. Anyone who has ever seen her in action at Orchard City Church Vacation Bible School, organizing events like International Supper and the Terry Fox Run, advising and teaching high school students, being the Grade 12 class sponsor, and leading out in Camp Meeting children's divisions for the last 25 years, knows there is no one more deserving of this award than our own Cherri Gerber!" 

It was so nice to be thanked publicly. 

Here are some pictures from this Spring/Summer VBS,camp meeting, and school groups. I'm saving this to remember when I'm tired, discouraged, and don't think the work I do matters.

OKAA high school students and staff posing after our sea kayaking excursion

Grade six and seven science students on our end-of-the-year geology field trip

We tested Mentos in Coke and Diet Coke to see which foamed higher. The VBS students (and volunteers) sure had fun!

I'm reading a story to a group of three-and four-year old children and their parents at camp meeting. I looked up to see a number of my high school students also listening in.

Try, try, again

Treading water was the best I could do for the past 2 years. I gave up blogging, asking my students to blog, revising my classroom wiki, even gave up contacting parents in a timely way. The best I could do was just hang on.
I'm going to try again. If I can get in the habit of staying in contact with my students, their parents, and the larger school community over the summer maybe I can keep it up next school year.