The First Day

What a miserable week!! With temps of -40 and ice fog, it really made me rethink the choice to be living here. The last day of exams was cancelled due to the cold on Monday. Tuesday was just as miserable, but was just a teacher's prep day. My sister showed up at about 8 am because she was unable to see through the fog to make a left turn to get to school! We waited a bit in hopes that it would clear up, but when we ventured out, it wasn't any better. Now we had to cross both lanes of traffic at that same intersection. Hoping for the best, taking our lives in our hands, we raced across as fast our frozen vehicles would go. Wednesday, first day of the new semester, dawned just as miserable as the last two. To my relief (I wasn't ready), classes were cancelled. Finally, yesterday, the temps warmed up to only minus 30something. So school was on! I've got two blocks of mixed grade 10-12 computers, one of grade 9 computers, and one legal studies (grades 11 and 12). It all went pretty smoothly until the last class of the day. I originally had 24 grade 9s on my register. Throughout the entire class, extra students trickled in until I had 31 students. It meant having to create new user accounts, reset passwords (why can't grade 9s remember their password!?), and continuously get them up to speed while trying not to leave the rest of the class dangling. Fortunately, after getting oriented on the first day, the students work independently so once the time table stuff gets sorted, things should ease up.

I'm pretty excited about having my own classes again. I do have a lot of work ahead of me as I still need to learn some new software, but I am eager to do that. I actually know a lot of the students in my classes from having subbed at the school in September and October. I have yet to determine the problem ones, but time will tell...