The End is Near

Well, the last day of classes was last Tuesday. On Wednesday morning at 9 am I was invigilating the exams for my two Grade 9 classes while my Grade 10 students were in three different rooms writing the English 10 Provincial Exam with the other Grade 10 students at Pacific Academy.

I spent Wednesday afternoon marking the Grade 9 exams, finalizing my marks book and submitting final grades. I spent most of Thursday between 7:30 am and noon marking English 10 Provincial essays with two other English 10 teachers. Once the exams were locked safely in the vice-principal's office, the official part of my duties as an English teacher ended for the school year.

I have been able to finish course overviews for the coming school year, and even ordered materials. All that is left for this work week is organizing and cleaning my classroom for the summer.

I will take the month of July off, then do a 4 week summer session with the new students enrolled in the International program for the coming school year.

On Saturday, we finally saw some sunshine. It has been one of the wettest Junes on record, and we are quite tired of gloomy, grey, drippy days. I have to say that Thursday nights have been the exception - they've been beautiful for the window of dragon boat practice - but I digress.

After a lazy morning, I decided to get into the back yard and take a look at the garden. I did some pruning (my large rose bush has black spot) and weeding, then decided we needed to take a trip to Art's Nursery.

It was quite busy, as I think everyone else was taking advantage of a break in the weather as well. We bought another Passion Flower Vine to replace the one I inadvertently killed over the winter. As well, we picked up an Asian Lily, an Oriental Lily and a Day Lily. I purchased some annuals to fill in the gaps.

The rest of the afternoon was spent digging up the earth, mixing good soil and sheep manure to create a better environment, especially for the new perrenials. The garden is still in early-summer-primitive state, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will begin to flourish. I'm a hit and miss gardener, but seem to do well enough in spite of myself. The strata gardeners "weeded" out the Oriental Lily I planted last year, so before fall I need to clearly label all my perrenials.

Victoria Field Trip

On June 15, we loaded up the school van once again with another group of students, and went for a day trip to Victoria. The day had a very wet beginning. We arrived in Tsawwassen early, so the students had time to peruse the shops, and the teachers had time to get coffee.

We took the 9 am sailing to Swartz Bay. Because of the weather, there wasn't a lot to see on the first voyage. Thankfully, things had cleared up for the return sailing that evening!!

After spending almost an hour trying to find parking in downtown Victoria, our first stop was at the Royal London Wax Museum. This was, for the students, one of the best parts of the trip. They really enjoyed the wax figures, and particularly, in true teenage fashion, the chamber of horrors.

We were unable to book a tour of the Parliament Buildings for this trip, but did take time to walk through the grounds later in the afternoon.

The larger part of our day was spent at the Royal British Columbia Museum. We first went to see an IMAX presentation about exploring the Titanic under water. The kids didn't enjoy it, but one thing I liked about it was the personal story that was interspersed with the exploration told by an older woman about her experience surviving the sinking. Her parents - and dog - did not. It personalized the story for us.

After the movie, we went to see the Titanic exhibit. Each of us was issued a boarding pass, and would not find out if our passenger had lived or died until the end of the exhibit. I thought it was really well done! The captain greeted us, and told stories at different points throughout the exhibit. As well, there were various stations set up to talk about aspects of the ship's operation, from the purser's office, to the kitchen.

There were several artifacts that had been recovered from the Titanic. What was amazing to me was the pristine condition of some of the china! Several sample rooms had been recreated from the ship. We saw an example of the contrasting first class and third class accomodations. First class was very lavish, by anyone's standard!

They had a wall of ice as an indicator of how cold the water would have been, and then the wall of survivors. On my boarding pass, I was a 25 year old woman travelling in first class. Statistically, I was told, I would probably live. In fact, I died!

There was time after the Titanic exhibit to tour the other excellent exhibits at the museum, but the kids, who are in my lowest level English class, had really lost interest by then. I think it was a lot of English stimulation for them to handle in one sitting. As well, we later found out that a couple of them had thought we were actually going to see the movie Titanic and had even imagined actually seeing the ship. Oh the joy of miscommunication and misunderstanding!!!

We travelled back to the ferry terminal at Swarz Bay in much better weather than that morning. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the crossing to Vancouver. There was lots to see, and the students enjoyed having the freedom to run all over the ferry - inside and out. I enjoyed the views of the Gulf Islands - we're heading to Salt Spring next week - and the solitude (relative) of wind and water.

Surprisingly, after such a long day and a lot of fresh air on the ferry, the students were very wound up for the 1/2 hour drive from Tsawwassen to Surrey! For the teachers, it was a long day that had both good and bad moments. We have already thought of ways to improve this field trip for next year. Overall, though, it was a worthwhile day, and the students did have a good time and learned something along the way.

Final Day of the Okanagan Field Trip: Mascot Mine

After spending the night in Osoyoos - at least part of the evening spent swimming in the lake - we continued our adventure by driving to Hedley to tour the Mascot Mine (http://www.mascotmine.com/Tour_Info.html).

We started the tour at 9 a.m. by getting onto a small bus, and travelling up 48 switch backs over one hour, and climbing to 5300 feet at the highest point of the drive. The road is very narrow, and is used only by the tour and by logging trucks. Thankfully, they don't work on Saturday, because I've no idea how they'd have passed!

We passed the current inactive mine on our way up to the Mascot Mine, and heard about efforts to recycle the contaminated water. The two elements used in mining are cyanide and arsenic. Arsenic occurs in nature, so will "biodegrade". Cyanide is man made, and will not. So they've introduced a bacteria that thrives on cyanide. It will take about 10 more years before the water can be reintroduced into the river system. I was amazed that it was even possible!

It was another hot day. We parked at the top of a trail and began the hike down to the mine, all the while remember that what goes down must come up. After a 10 minute walk, we reached a beautiful lookout point at the top of over 500 stairs. We began the descent, which was much more enthusiastic than the ascent, later that day.

At the bottom of the stairs were the actual mining offices and buildings, as well as a small museum and the actual entrance to the mine. We were regaled with stories of miners travelling up the mountain in a bucket on a cable. They were told that drinking was not a good idea before this trip. However, one of the very few deaths to occur at the mine was a drunk miner. He started up the mountain in the bucket, and partway up leaned over to throw-up. This up-ended the bucket, and he fell off the mountain.

Mascot Mine was a gold mine, and closed when the vein dried up. We donned hard hats, and some of the kids were given lamps for their hats. A few had flashlights. It was enough light to see our way on the walk into the tunnel. We went from 30 C outside to about 3 C in the tunnel. We were thankful for sweaters at that point!



On our way into the mine, our guide pointed out features of mining, including the dynamite cupboard, and also demonstrated several mining tools. Once we were all the way into the tunnel, he had us turn off all the lamps and we were treated to a very realistic audio-visual presentation. It was just like being in an operating mine - sights, sounds and smells!

After we hiked out of the mine, another guide took us through the mining buildings and museum, while the second half of the group (we weren't the only ones on the tour) went into the mine. Then the hike up the 500+ stairs in the heat began. It wasn't that bad, and although there was a bit of grumbling, all of my students made it up with very little effort.


We got back into the bus, and began the long drive down the mountain. The trip down was admittedly shorter than the trip up, but most of my students were sound asleep within the first 5 minutes. We had had an early morning, anticipating the drive from Osoyoos to Hedley, and the whole tour was almost 5 hours, including driving time up and down the mountain. At the bottom, the kids had time to look in the gift shop, then we began the journey home.

We made two stops: Princeton and Hope, before ending up on the Lower Mainland, and arrived home very tired after three amazing days. The students were extremely well behaved throughout - and it was a very quiet drive home!

Day 2 of the Okanagan Field Trip: Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre

After a lunch break in Oliver, we continued south to Osoyoos. There was one brief detour, as I went to the "wrong" Desert Centre. I had no idea that there were two in Osoyoos. The one we went to last year has a science focus. The Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre (http://nkmipcentre.osoyoos.com/) has a cultural focus. The tour combines First Nations history and culture with a discussion of flora and fauna in the region, especially as both were utilized by the Okanagan people.

After meeting our guides in the cultural centre, we began our trek in 30+C weather. We were encouraged to stay behind the guides and on the trail for two reasons. The first was to preserve the vegetation, and the second (more meaningful for the students) to avoid encountering a rattle snake.

As the guided walk progressed, I was increasingly struck by the similarities between vegetation in the Okanagan and that on the prairies.

One of our first stops was at this tree. Sadly, my old brain cannot recall the name of the tree. The bark smells like vanilla. If you know what it is called, please let me know. The kids all had to sniff the bark and try to guess what it smelled like. The first response was "ice cream" (thinking of vanilla ice cream).

Rather than human actors, the guided walk was interspersed with metal statues. This field was filled with statues of older women at the perimeter and younger women toward the centre. It illustrated the women's work of digging for medicinal and edible roots, as well as the teaching and protecting role of the older women.

On this very hot day, ducking into the traditional houses was remarkably cool. The ground acts as a natural insulator. Each house had both a door entrance, and a roof "exit". An angled pole in the centre had notches for a quick climb to either a lookout or escape. The roof hole also acted as a chimney, as a fire pit was right in the middle of the hut.

There was also a reed-walled tipi. These were used on hunting expeditions, more than in the more permanent winter villages.

The last stop of the guided tour was a talk and demonstration of the various tools, plants, etc. traditionally used by the Okanagan tribe. It had been a very long day, and I was thilled to see how the students examined each artifact and asked so many questions. Our guides were exceptional, and this is definitely something that we will do again another year!

After the tour ended, some of the boys opted to take a higher trail back, in spite of the hot weather. Most of us decided to make our way back to the cultural centre to look at the exhibits and take in a video presentation in the air conditioned environment.

Day 2 of the Okanagan Field Trip: Okanagan Gleaners Society

The Okanagan Gleaners Society was formed in 1994 (http://www.okanagangleaners.ca/). The society receives donated produce that is "past its prime" from supermarkets and local growers. Volunteers prepare the produce for chopping, send the produce through a chopping machine, spread the chopped produce on trays, dry the produce in a drying machine, and finally package the produce for delivery to third world or disaster-ridden areas of the world.

Packages are mixes of dried fruit, or vegetables combined into soup mixes. The soup mixes have been taste-tested. One package of soup mix makes, I think, 70 servings, and one shipping barrel holds 100 packages. So one barrel will carry 7000 servings of soup.

We got up very early and drove from Penticton to Oliver, where the Okanagan Gleaners Society is located. After an introductory tour of the facility, we donned aprons, and took our positions at a work station. As you can see, the produce of the day was peppers. For almost three hours, we removed stems and Innards, chopped off any "bad" spots (almost none), then rinsed and tossed the chopped pepper into a bucket. The buckets were emptied into a large container once they were full, and taken to the chopping machine.

We worked with a group of senior citizens who were volunteering for the day, and it was a great opportunity for my students to be mentored, and to interact in English. Mid-morning, the women served us a homemade coffee break in the lunch room.

Students who weren't cutting up peppers were given other tasks. Here, one of my students is helping to arrange green beans onto drying trays


Here, another student works in the post-drying area. Here they unload dried produce into barrels. The soup mix is made by measuring portions from the various barrels containing vegetables for that mix.



At the end of the morning, we helped with cleanup. All the chopping boards, buckets and knives must be washed down with bleach. The produce and chopping tables must be hosed and wiped, then moved to a storage area to the side of the covered work area. The cement work area needs to be hosed down, swept and any vegetable waste shovelled into compost barrels. Barrels of compostable refuse are loaded into the backs of pickup trucks to be moved to the compost location.

We had so much fun on the three day field trip, doing many different things, but for every single one of my students, the highlight remains the three hours that they volunteered at Gleaners.

Here are some quotes from student journals about their experience at Gleaners. I haven't edited at all, so just read through the ESL language.

"In the Gleaners place, we cup up vegetables. I probably cut 300-500. That day we made soup packages enough to feed 25,000 people. We only worked for 3 hours. It was not hard work also. All we did was cut up vegetables. It was so easy. The important part is that this little bit of time from our life can help other people in a big way. Three hours, when we can be watching movies, we halp the porro and we save 25,000 lives. That little bit of time can make a big change in this world."

"I learned some lessons that were valuable to me as I worked there. People who were working there were enjoying the work and there was no one who was complaining about things. When I saw them, I thought I should give my time to work for others who are in need. I also realized that I should neither complain nore say things about work that is given to me, but just do my best."

"We have so much, and most of the time, we don't we do not realize that. We waste so much food that is perfectly fine to eat. Okanagan Gleaners use the wasted vegetables to make soup mix for hungry people. I think we should thank that we have so much save as much as possible."

"Gleaners gather up the wasted fruit and vegetables and help the hungry people in the world. There are no paid staff positions there. The three things I was impressed with were: volunteering, how much we are wasiting and how much they [Gleaners] consider the sanitation."

Okanagan Field Trip: Day 1

After a day of driving up the Fraser Valley, over the Coquihalla, and through the Okanagan connector to Kelowna, we made our way South to Penticton. The journey to the Okanagan from the Lower Mainland clearly shows the "rain effect". The terrain changes from lush, green, gigantic treed, mixed forests to higher elevation, sparser, largely evergreen forests, and finally into very dry land on the otherside of the mountains, with not only sparse forests, but a complete change in vegetation.

Our first stop was at the SS Sicamous, part of the Okanagan Inland Marine Heritage Park in Penticton. It was a beautiful, hot day, and we arrived early for our tour, which gave both teachers and students a chance to wade in Lake Okanagan and enjoy the sunshine. After over 4 hours of being cooped up in a van, it was a welcome break!



The SS Sicamous is a restored steam ship. It is the largest steel-hulled sternwheeler left in Canada. In its day, it serviced towns and villages up and down Lake Okanagan. The Restoration Society has recreated each area of the ship, from the engine rooms and crews' quarters, to the women's and men's salons, and dining room. You can find out more about the SS Siamous at : http://www.sssicamous.com/index.html .