ST MARY'S HIGH SCHOOL

Below is a picture of Theresa, our head Custodian, and Shirley Wilcox, whose two children I teach. Immediately above is Lorraine Thomson, who teaches Religion and shares my workroom. At the top of the page is Katie Edwards, who teaches French and sits next to me.

THE END IS NEAR

Even though there are still 7 weeks to go until we finish, all the signs point to an end to the year. Field trips must finish by the end of the first week in June and preparations are being made for the Final or Culminating projects. These projects are mandatory and are worth 10% in most subjects although in 2 of my subjects, grade 9 Drama and Grade 12 Writer's Craft they are worth 20%. They have to be completed before exams begin.

We have a week of exams and the timeline is pretty tight. My last exam is on a Tuesday and my marking and reports must be done before the Thursday which is actually our last day of school. We also have a Graduation Mass, not too sure of the details yet, and a special Graduation ceremony at night where awards, scholarships and certificates are presented. This is where the parents attend and the staff must be dressed in Academic gowns like the graduates. Their Prom is held 2 weeks earlier and is for students, no parents. I was a bit surprised to discover that there are not enough tickets for every graduate. I thought this was rather sad.

Last night we had tapas for Mike and Laurie Rishworth, Ed Weiss and Rob Henry. We have quite a busy social life as we also went up to Shannon Cox's place at Kitchener to have dinner on Friday night. Everyone at St Mike's are so supportive and friendly. Today is Mother's day, we both slept in and rode down town and took some photographs of the beautiful old buildings of Woodstock. We finished off by having a buffet meal at The Charles Dickens. The weather has turned very bleak and at the moment it is trying hard to rain. Will try to put some photos on before I finish.

GETTING ON WITH LIFE

The last couple of weeks beginning 14-4-08 have been pretty uneventful. The weather has been beautiful, 18c. We have been taking every opportunity to get out and exercise. We have been walking with Mike and Laurie in a conservation area along the Thames River. We hoped to see some deer which frequent the woods, however, we have been unlucky in that respect. We have also ridden the bicycles on the cycleway along the river as well.

We had a PD day on 18-4-08 and Wayne and I were excused. We spent some time on the phone to social services and then drove to London where we were issued an Ontario Health Card. I'm not sure how useful it will be as so many people lament the sorry state of the Health system. It was a very hot day, 25c which has been the hottest to date.

Wayne has also spent some time tidying the deck, mending the pool gate and draining the snowmelt from the pool cover. I swept up the leaves and cleaned the bbq in preparation for the days ahead when we can use it more often.The weather has continued to be kind to us, 18c up to 22c again during the week.


On 24-4-08 I had parent /teacher interviews and spoke to about 20 sets of parents. There were no issues at all, in fact many had come to just say hello and ask how we were enjoying our stay. They were very welcoming and extremely curious and it took a while to actually get around to speaking about their children.

This last week, beginning 29-4-08 the weather has changed again and the temperature has been much cooler. I came down with the flu; headaches, temperatures and aches and pains and spent 3 days in bed. I can't remember the last time I was actually so ill with the flu. As I write this though I am feeling so much better.

TORONTO BLUEJAYS VS DETROIT TIGERS

On 13-4-08 we drove up to Toronto for the Woodstock Bluejays weekend. This is when the Bluejays, the baseball team, allocate tickets to cities outside Toronto so that they can see a home game. The cost of tickets is subsidised considerably. Altogether about 1500 people from Woodstock travelled up on the train or in a convoy of 15 yellow school buses. The cost for the day was $35 a head. The day was beautiful and sunny and we had 2 hours before the game to wander round the city and sample some of the hotdogs/sausages from the street stands. It seemed that everyone that day was headed to the game as there was a steady stream of pedestrians headed to the stadium.

The Rogers Centre is pretty amazing and has a seating capacity ranging from 50,000 to 65,000 depending on the event. The high stands look to be so far away and even though our seats were the lowest I think for a baseball match they were great as we were so close to the action. The Bluejays won the match by 1 run and since it was our first experience we enjoyed it although some of the students I teach told me that it was boring.