I can’t believe I’m 26 already…time sure flies, now that the 2010 Winter Olympics are over. Remembering the morning in July of 2003 when I first heard about Vancouver winning the bid to host the games, I felt like it was only yesterday. I can still recall myself thinking that year: “I’m going to be 26 years old during the Olympics, I wonder what I would be doing?” Now that the games have come and gone, it just felt surreal to me about all that happened over the past couple of weeks. I also cannot believe that starting tomorrow, everything in Vancouver will go back to normal. Kids who had the two-week long break are going back to school; the streets of Downtown Vancouver are returning to their busy weekday states, and at night these streets are going to be so quiet compared to the past two weeks; Venues will be taken down, and (some) road closures will be re-opened. All of these make me feel bad for the Paralympics, since the spotlight has dimmed significantly with the departure of so many people.

All in all, it was an excellent experience these past few weeks, and it makes me proud to be a Canadian living in Vancouver, British Columbia!

I have never cheered so hard before…my cousins and a few of my aunts and uncles were sitting in front of the TV, watching the Mogul event on CTV while waiting for dinner. The atmosphere was intense, we were cheering for all 4 Canadians who participated, and were also secretly hoping the other athletes would be slow or fall after each of their jumps. We were yelling so loud when Bilodeau captured the gold!

Here’s to Bilodeau, and many more Canadian athletes for more gold medals to come! At least the pressure on them is not as great, now that we have a gold under our belt!

Since I was anticipating the flame to arrive at 8:00am, I went to the City of Coquitlam’s website and found out that road closures would start at 7. I got up at 6 this morning, and by 6:30 I was out of my house with my camera, a step-stool, a tripod, and a mug of hot coffee.

At first, I planned to park as close to the park as possible, then wait in the car until 7:30. However, as soon as I parked my car at Canadian Tire, I found a colleague from my practicum school who’s there to support her kids who were part of 500 students in the district who got to perform on stage that day. With her, I was able to sneak into the school tent which was nice and warm and dry. It was raining quite a bit at that time. You could also tell how lax the security was, as I could walk in and out of the tent without seeing any security guards.

The stage at 6:45am. People are setting up and performers were rehearsing.

Inside the tent, tables lined up for the kids to sit around and wait, and they were each given an Olympic toque-like hat (that has “Coquitlam” embroidered on it) and a white poncho. The poncho wasn’t to cover them from getting wet, but rather for covering any potential corporate logos on their attire that are not affiliated with the Olympics. At about 7:45, the kids got called, and as I walked down with them, I found a spot along the runway on which the torch bearer would run through. I stationed myself there in hopes of getting some good pictures (they are all posted on my Facebook). Here are a few:

The torch-bearer's runway.

Spectators with some national pride!

After about an hour of waiting in the rain, the flame finally arrived, carried by Chris Wilson, the community torch bearer for Coquitlam. The timing couldn’t be better, as the rain stopped briefly when he was running into the park. He went up to the stage and lit the podium to signify the flame have passed through the city. There were other things going on throughout the day, such as performance and activities all around Mackin Park. Unfortunately, the rain started coming down again, so I left shortly after the speeches were given by James Moore, MP representing Port Moody-Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam.

The Olympic flame.

All in all, it was a really cool experience to be at the event. I was glad to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

The day started off with an assembly, and each class was being brought down in the anthem of the country it adopted over the last few weeks. The students, wearing the uniformed t-shirts, also carried a torch that each of them made at home prior to today. There were all sorts of different shapes and sizes, from ones that look authentic, to ones that are modified flashlights.

One  of the teachers from the school got a chance to carry the Olympic torch, and she shared her journey with the school. What was really cool was that during her slideshow, the lights were turned off, and the kids turned on their flashlights. It was a sight to remember, as more than 430 kids raised their handmade torches up high while seeing pictures of their teacher carrying and running with the real torch. Too bad I didn’t bring my camera with me today!

After recess, the students are divided into their family groups, and the groups travel around the school doing stations of activities related to the Olympics. There was the biathlon, building Inuksuks, skiing, snowshoeing, medal-making, and more. Everyone had a blast, and the parents were incredible as they helped with the stations and activities.

Although it was an easy day for me, it was really nice to be enjoying the spirit of the school, from students to staff. It also bolstered my fondness of the school, and it would be really awesome to be able to get a contract there!

Going to church this morning:

Today the students were working on a project in HaCE (Health and Career Education), and I thought it was a pretty good idea and a fun project to do. The students were presented with a scenario where one of the gold medal athletes was rumoured to have been taking performance-enhancing drugs, and students in partners decide the outcome of the situation. One of them is going to be the head of the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee), while the other partner could be the athlete involved, the coach, etc. They have to write a press release and then present it tomorrow. The audience would act as reporters and try to ask them questions afterwards. I thought it was a pretty cool idea for the students to learn about issues surrounding current events.

We also had some Richards Simmons again for PE, and this time the students were giving much more effort at participating…perhaps they know that they would be coming up with their own routines later?

Went home, got a haircut from my dad (yes, I’m cheap – but I’m also considering going for a cut outside since he’s taking so long nowadays to cut my hair), and then watch the Canucks helplessly beaten by the Ottawa Senators 3-1, who won their 11th straight game. The boys in blue was just hemmed in their own zone for much of the game, and they seemed to be always losing position to the Sens. I was just surprised that Alain Vigneault started Raycroft instead of Luongo…

After the game, I finished my World History binder for NAMC…2 more binders left until the first term is done!

Today was an easy day though. For 2 blocks of Science (I have 2 different 6/7 classes), we watched a couple episodes of Bill Nye on skin and cells. As I was watching it with the class, I couldn’t help but think how old the series is. I watched it when I was in middle school, and that must’ve been over 10 years ago! The good thing about Bill Nye is that it contains humour in different levels – there are ones that are really obvious and easy to get for younger audience, and then there are subtle ones that pertain to the older group like me. However, I think that the series is pretty cheesy, but to my surprise, the 6/7s really seemed to enjoy it!

Math was easy as well. The 6s were doing a test on Geometry, and the 7s were just working on a poster for their end-of-unit activity. That brought me to lunch. After that, a prep block for me to mark the tests, and then PE with another class. For PE, I was told to show a Richard Simmons video to get the class to do some aerobics. Richard Simmons, of all people! The kids were already giggling, and then the “ew”‘s started to come on as soon as Simmons shows up in front of the screen. The moves were quite outlandish for aerobics, and I wasn’t surprised that the girls had no problems copying his moves. The boys lacked a little motivation, so as much as I hated to do it, I set an example for them by doing it with them! It worked, and I was glad that no one I know was watching me busting out those moves! :S

All in all, everything worked out really well today. After subbing in a grade 1 class yesterday, I think I really needed today to refresh myself. I’m not saying that i don’t like the primaries, but it drains a lot from you, since they are often very needy. At least in older grades like 6/7s, you don’t get kids coming up and complaining to you that so-and-so said a bad word, or so-and-so hit me!

Yup…Grades 4-7 is what I would really like to teach…

Katie’s Sunday Afternoon is one of many picture books in a series by James Mayhew that aims to expose children to famous artists and their styles. This book focuses mainly on Seurat and his style called Pointillism. The story is about Katie, who tried to go swimming with her grandma on a Sunday afternoon, found out that the local swimming pool was very crowded. Instead of swimming, they decided to pay a visit to the local art gallery, which features many of Seurat’s famous art pieces. What Katie didn’t know was that she was able to interact with the people inside the pictures by going into them! At one point, she went into Bathers at Ansieres and accidentally sat on bottom part of the picture frame. It caused water to flow out of the picture and flooding into the museum. To solve the problem, she invited other characters in Seurat’s art pieces to help, and she cleaned everything up just in time for the security guards regular patrol.

I always read this book prior to teaching a lesson on Pointillism, which is a technique of painting where instead of brushing colour onto the canvas, coloured dots are used to compose the image. For a different grade level, a different technique can be used to recreate the effect. For primary grades, students can dab their pinky fingers on dry tempura paints, and then stamp their prints onto a pencil-drawn picture. Alternatively, they can also use markers or pencil crayons to make tiny circles. For on older grade – likely grades 5-7 – students can use Q-tips and paint to fill in their designs.

Calgary Flames receives Jamal Mayers (RW), Niklas Hagman (LW), Matt Stajan (C), and Ian White (D) from the Toronto Maple Leafs, in exchange for Dion Phaneuf (D), Fredrik Sjostrom (RW), and Keith Aulie (D)

I’d have to say Calgary came out as the winner in this trade – at least for the time being. Although Phaneuf was viewed by many as the cornerstone of the franchise, his poor play recently led him to be snubbed by Team Canada and deemed expendable by GM Darryl Sutter. By getting the offensive-minded, puck-carrying White in return, the Flames still has a solid defensive core in Bouwmeester, Giordano, Pardy, Sarich, and Regehr. They also off loaded a chunk of salary, too. Fredrik Sjostrom is a young and speedy winger who can kill penalties, which is what the Maple Leafs need, as they sit at No. 30 in the PK ranking. Keith Aulie is 6’6″, but a good skater who was part of the National Junior team that won the gold medal last year. He could potentially turn out to be like Tyler Myers, though Burke already said he will continue to develop in the Marlies, Toronto’s farm system. This deal will definitely help the Leafs in the long run.

On the front, Mayers, Hagman, and Stajan definitely shore up the depth chart in the Flames organization. Mayers is an energy/agitator type player who fits perfectly into the Flames’ strong, physical forecheck culture. Hagman is a proven scorer on the wing, and he will look good skating on the other side of the wing with Iginla. As for Stajan, he is a good offensive threat who can finally make Calgary more than a one-line team.

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Anaheim Ducks receives Jason Blake (LW) and Vesa Toskala (G) in exchange for Jean-Sebastien Giguere (G)

I would say this is a pretty even deal for the two teams. As soon as Jonas Hiller got a contract extension yesterday, I immediately thought something might be up. Giguere is unhappy with the role he had as a backup in Anaheim, and stated that he wanted out. With this trade, he will re-unite with GM Brian Burke and goaltending consultant Francois Allaire, who were all together when Anaheim had that magical run in 2005 by capturing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. I think he will get the starting job, despite Leafs nation having much hope for Jonas “Monster” Gustavsson. This will give more time for Gustavsson to learn to become a good goaltender in this league behind the bench and not getting thrown out onto the ice every couple of games.

On the other side, Jason Blake has a huge salary with his contract, and if he doesn’t start over in Anaheim and perform well like he did with the Islanders, the Ducks would be paying a hefty price to get him. With Teemu Selanne currently out, watch for him to skate with Bobby Ryan on the second line, or even with Perry and Getzlaf on the first. As for Toskala, he looked real bad against the Canucks the other night, and it seems that he will see more of the team, now that he’s in the Western Conference (which is good for us!). His arrival in Anaheim means that he will become a back-up again, a role that he had when he was playing behind Evgeni Nabakov when he was a Shark. However, during his tenure in San Jose, he did a good job pushing Nabokov. Hopefully he feels that this is what he needs to do with Hiller to get his play back on track.