Truth and Reconciliation

This was a tough week, but I do understand at least some of the reasons why:

- The community was mourning a car accident tragedy that affected families all throughout our district (and beyond),

- Many of the adults in the community were away for either the funeral or because they had made previous plans to go to the week long Vancouver event called Truth and Reconciliation. This event was to educate and inform the public about the residential school system (among other things). It was a free event that anyone could attend and it included performances, speeches, and I believe real politics (and maybe treaty stuff) as well. I hope I am not saying the incorrect thing because I know that this event was a very major thing for First Nations and for our province.
Please see these websites for more info:
http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=92
http://www.theprovince.com/life/Truth+Reconciliation+walk+turnout+amazes+organizers+estimated+brave+downpour+Vancouver/8944811/story.html

So, between these two things....many children were being babysat for the week and were probably missing their parents and living in a different setting.

AND this was the first full 5 day week of the year and everyone (myself included) was incredibly tired by the time Friday rolled around. On Friday afternoon I had quite a few tired/stress tears from students. We ended up having a more relaxed afternoon than planned and we did a lot of stretching, and a lot of quiet time before we went home for the weekend. If you're a teacher and you are reading this, the stretching worked WONDERS! Please try it in your classrooms. I know that I will be using it more frequently. At first the students were skeptical, but then they were trying to "out-stretch" each other and we ended up laughing a lot!