Have you ever watched a moonbeam?

Driving to school this morning on my way to picket at 6 a.m. (!) I was feeling a bit stressed and worried (as many of us are these days, I know), and Lee Rosavere (on the CBC) played "The Moonbeam Song" by Harry Nilsson (who is one of my favourite singers) and it made me feel so positive and peaceful and sure that everything will turn out okay.  If you have never listened to it, you should.  It's really a lovely song and rather absurd and makes you think about moonlit nights and the small beautiful things that make our lives glorious.

At this point, you know that we teachers voted 86% to escalate our job action.  With a strong vote like this (we were joking this morning that we got an "A"!), our hope is that the government will make a better effort to truly negotiate with us and that we will be able to get a deal that we can live with.  The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has reported that if people in BC who earn more than $200,000 paid 1% more in income tax, the government could fund the improvements in class size and composition that we are demanding.  It seems fair, since all taxpayers in BC pay 50% of the cost of every child who is enrolled in a private school.

The union has not yet issued 72 hours notice of any plans regarding the escalation of job action, so that means we will have school on Monday and perhaps even Tuesday, so that takes a little pressure off trying to get everything done by the end of Friday.  If you have a monologue or a journal lurking in the back of your mind, now is the time to get that done!

I am sad that I was locked out and not able to attend awards night.  I hope it was a positive experience for everyone.  Let me say, it is always very difficult to decide who should receive the awards and I would dearly love to hand out a lot more in the way of acknowledgements for all your work, but I really feel that the award winners do exemplify the qualities I hope to instill in theatre students -- creativity, thoughtfulness, leadership and teamwork, and a willingness to take risks in rehearsal and in performance.  Congratulations to all of you.

See you tomorrow!