What strange times. Normally I would be celebrating the end to my school year with my students or anticipation of summer plans with my family or a huge pile of books that I want to read.

But school hasn’t really ended and summer hasn’t really started. We have been out of our classrooms here in B.C all week – picketing on the sidewalks because of a full scale teacher’s strike. Before this we had rotating strikes for three weeks – out one day a week. While rotating strikes were happening, we were partially locked out and our daily pay was reduced by ten percent each day.

Finally, both sides have agreed to mediation. But this has been a long haul with no real end in sight. We all feel in a strange sort of limbo. I want to be in my classroom teaching. At the same time, I have deep concerns about the funding and respect for public education in this province and feel strongly that this government needs to fund education in a way that means students can have the support that they need. There is a big story about court cases ruling in favour of the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation. Government appeals. Months of bargaining. No contract.

Very challenging. Very complicated. I am not going to get into the details here. Instead, I am going to find something to celebrate because in times like this, we need to remain positive. The alternative is too depressing. I have surprised myself with how positive and even optimistic I have remained. And this is what I celebrate. The positive spirit of so many as we endure one of the most challenging labour disputes of my career.

I celebrate my colleagues, my family and all of our children. I celebrate positive sentiment despite all that is at stake. I celebrate support from near and far.

Students and their families have visited us on the picket lines. And our own families come too! Always a recipe for big smiles and joy.

Shift change is social. Public generosity and support means much. Time together is positive and encouraging.

At rallies for public education, we find strength and meet colleagues from other schools.

Our children are often on the picket line with us. They are decorating the sidewalks, enhancing our signs with art and kid sentiments. They play and connect with each other and always entertain us.

This is our current reality. I celebrate that we still hang on to such positive spirit.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres, for the inspiration and the Celebration Link up that she hosts each week. I treasure this #celebratelu community.

This week I celebrate the wonderful Miriam who works in my classroom with me. Not only do we share a brain, we share an important group of children who have a variety of gifts and a variety of needs. Everyday there is wonderful learning and a certain kind of magic that allows every member of our classroom community to smile. To laugh. To find joy. Much of this is because of Miriam. Here, I celebrate some of the many wonderful things that make her so very special to me and to our students.

I celebrate her friendship.

I celebrate that the students in our class truly are our children.

I celebrate her calm.

I celebrate her giving spirit.

I celebrate that she knows how to orchestrate the very thing some of us need at the right time. And then celebrates it in just the right way.

I celebrate her intense pride about all the amazing things our children do.

I celebrate that she has shared her passion and made it our passion and that yoga is something that is such a part of our classroom community.

It is an honour every day to work with someone who teaches me, who inspires me and who treats children with such absolute love, respect and dignity.

I celebrate Miriam and how lucky I feel to share a classroom full of very special little people with her every day.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres, for the inspiration and the Celebration Link up that she hosts each week. I treasure this #celebratelu community.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres, for the inspiration and the Celebration Link up that she hosts each week. I have realized that this celebration is an important way I find balance and calm. I treasure this #celebratelu community.

So . . . I have mentioned it a few times on this blog in the last few weeks but contract negotiations between the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation (our teacher’s union) and B.C. Public School Employer’s Association (bargaining on behalf to the government) continue to escalate in numerous terrible ways. I wake up in the morning and think, “Is this just a really bad dream?” But no, it isn’t. My job, that I love, has all kinds of outside things attached to it that are awful. Like an impending full scale strike, weekly rotating strikes across the province, being locked out for recess/lunch and needing to be off school property by 3:45 p.m (and not arriving before 8:15 a.m.) and the very delightful, 10% deduction from our daily rate of pay that was deemed legal by the Labour Relations Board this week. Much media is quite biased but this piece gives details of the history of bargaining between the Liberal government and teachers.

This letter from a parent is pretty powerful:  Beware the power of Mama Bears Oh the power of parent voice!

Last week, I was not coping well with all of this. This week, somehow, I am still smiling. And this is what I celebrate. All of the little moments that I hang on to that allow me to keep smiling. All of the moments that honour the classroom community that we have created over the year. I may only be paid 90% of my salary each day, our three weeks left of school might suddenly only become one, financially I may not know how we are going to manage (my husband is a teacher too) but all of these little moments are mine. And I hold on tight to them.

Sharing a few here . . .

Thanks to the wonderful Miriam who works with me, we get to participate in outside yoga as part of our Physical Education program each week!

We have a room full of readers. Passionate, skilled readers who love nothing better than time to read!

There is much math joy!

Happiness over a shared experience like a soccer clinic hosted by high school students can be seen on these exhausted, proud faces on the bus ride home.

We are a class that helps each other. No asking often. Just stepping up. With smiles.

These are my moments. I celebrate how much I love being a teacher.