Back to school!

 

This is a photo of a Douglas squirrel on my upper balcony (with snowy Port Moody in the background -- we still have a lot of snow and it is very icy today!  I wonder what it is like in Richmond.)

Tomorrow we will be back at school.  The provincial government feels that it is important for schools to be open and that students feel better (especially mental health-wise) in school, and I agree with that, but we will have to be VERY careful to keep our distance and wear our masks properly (over both nose and mouth) and try to prevent the Omicron variant from spreading through our school population.  I am very nervous about it, because my vaccine appointment (for the booster) was cancelled because of the cold weather and I have a new appointment for January 11, but my immunity won't be fully kicked in for a couple of weeks after that.  An old student of mine had COVID over the holidays and she said she felt like a cement truck had poured its load into her brain and she is young, so you can imagine what it would do to me!

We will have a health and safety presentation at the beginning of C Block and then we will try to get back to normal, as much as possible.  We have about three weeks left of semester one, so we have a lot to try to do before that, but I promise I will not saddle you with a lot of work to try to make up for the week we've lost.  We will do what we can and make the best of it.  I hope you all enjoyed your time away from school and that you got outside in the snow and read a book or two and listened to music you liked and spent time with people you love and all that great stuff that we get to do when we aren't as busy as usual.

I saw the movie everyone is talking about -- "Don't Look Up" -- directed by Adam MacKay and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance (who was fantastic), Cate Blanchett, Timothy Chalamet, Tyler Perry and all sorts of other people.  I really liked it but found it very scary.  I think it makes a very strong point about how we seem to lack the ability to act collectively for the good of mankind and how precious the natural world is and how, as stewards, we are doing a terrible job of protecting the whales and bees and birds and trees.  Someone on the radio yesterday said that this movie might have as strong an impact as Greta Thunberg's school strikes, and I am hoping all of the actions of people of goodwill will help us make sure that the Douglas squirrel and the varied thrushes that I see on my balcony have what they need to thrive and that we value them more than we value our cars and cool running shoes and things like that.  SPEECH OVER!

Looking forward to seeing all your shining faces in class tomorrow!