Edmonton

Hi guys... its been a while.

    For anyone who does not yet know, I am currently in edmonton, AB.

    I am teaching 5th grade limudei kodesh lessons (jewish studies). I also teach a davening period in the morning to second grade. I also do tutoring and remedial work with different children in between that... Every day I come to school at 8:oo am and sign in. I need to be in the gym by 8:10 to wait with my second grade class during line up. At 8:20 I walk my class to the classroom and the first thing I do there is pull out my raffle box. Said raffle box is really a disguised pringles can which I had such mesiras nefesh to empty out by eating all the pringles and then brilliantly disguising the container with colorful construction paper. We begin the day by singing a davening song and then I have them pull out their siddurim. They daven for 10 minutes, and  then read from a story book on the power of words and shmiras halashon, and then I need to have something to teach them every day for the next ten or twenty minutes. The school wants me to teach them about brachos. Lucky for me that is a topic i have been extremely interested in myself. I bought them cute notebooks and we will hopefully be filling it over the course of the year. I also work on their hebrew reading skills with them.
     After that I will be having private tutoring sessions with different students. So far I only have one daily meeting scheduled so the rest of the time I have been using to prepare my afternoon lessons. And I use up all the time because it takes me HOURS to prepare.
     At 12:10 I go on recess duty and at 12:30 I monitor lunch time with the middle and high school age girls. Mostly I use that to chat with the high school girls. At 12:50 I walk with my class to our classroom and begin the day with homework planners on my desk and check the daily schedule. I teach 7 subjects split into the week. I am with my 5th grade until 4:00  which never seems to be enough time. I go on curb duty at dismissal until 4:15. Once all the kids have left I often return to my classroom to prepare for the next day.... for a few hours.

     Just in case your wondering, I have a car. It's a maroon mini van that's not too old and not too new. I don't drive too often because I don't really trust myself at the wheel with all the new roads and rules. Mostly I leave the driving to the British girl who has never driven an automatic before :)

     As far as food, we buy our own breakfast, we have hot lunch in school, and we have dinner rotation at different families.

     I live on Wellington Crescent, which is Germasian property and its really cute here. It's nothing like i expected. It's really normal. The houses are not ginormous... just regular big. And the Germasian families are the most generous people ever. Every shabbos they prepare meals for between 20 and 50 extra people just because random Jews know they can come without invitation.

     We just moved to our permanent house and its really nice. It was hard choosing which room I wanted but I finally just settled on one and I'm happy with it. It has two twin beds, a nice bedside stand, a dresser with a vanity mirror and lamps, a full length mirror, and a nice closet. It's small but cozy. I'm not fully unpacked yet but I hope to be by the time I come back to Detroit so that I can figure out what i need and what I don't.

     There is this amazing family here in Edmonton who me and Donna spend most of our time with. We spent Rosh Hashana with them and then the rest of the week after because it was right in the middle of the move. I really don't know what I would do without them here. Baruch Hashem that we have them!

      The most expensive thing here is gas for the car, we spend like 60 dollars in 2 weeks.... its crazy. Other than that there is just basic things like cereal, coffee stuff, milk....

     Things I can't wait to do is ice skating at the mall, get a guitar, and get ahead in my preparing. :)

     Things I have already done is go to the largest indoor waterpark in the world [which is in the mall] when it was closed off by the Germazians for only women in the community. I have also sat by the ice rink for hours drooling, watching the professionals skate during their practice times.

     I have to admit that teaching is far harder than i ever imagined it would be but i'm hoping it and I will only keep getting better and better with each day.

     It's close to Yom Kippur and Sukkos and so the crescent is beginning to fill up with family. It should get pretty fun around here. It's too bad I'll be missing it but I'm much more excited to be coming home!

     I can't wait to get home on Friday. I hope to see you all then! I miss you so much!
Love,
Shayne