With a few vacation days to spare, we decided to go on a trip to Vancouver Island. There are not photos at all, because we had too much fun. Some of the highlights include:

1. Staying at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria and exploring every floor.
2. Visiting friends and hearing stories about their move from Vancouver to Victoria.
3. Walking into a local microbrewery, Hoyne Brewing, after it had just closed. The young man said, “I can’t sell you any beer, but I can give you some.”
4. Visiting Craigdarroch Castle, which is basically in our friend’s backyard.
5. The restaurant in Metchosin, the My Chosen Cafe, which comes pretty close to our favourite place at the Sunshine Coast, the Gumboot.
6. Checking out Nanaimo nearly 2 years after getting married on Newcastle Island, a small island just outside of Nanaimo.
7. The ferry ride home – you know you’re in BC when you spend some time waiting for your ferry in the summer.

We went on a beautiful road trip to visit my aunt Doris and Bill in Ymir, near Nelson, BC.

Last week we met Evan’s mom & Doug in Calgary. We had a couple of days to explore the area, including a trip to Lake Louise and Canmore. In Banff we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer and made our way through the Rockies to Vancouver. A trip of a lifetime.

by Evan Sutton

Just a quick poem, for fun
I don’t want to be too talky
As I reminisce about our adventure
Aboard the spectacular Rocky
Mountaineer twisting turning
Spiral Tunnels winding as I rap
That’s rap with an R.

We saw sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock
All from the comfort of our rolling stock
With a blue sky and greenery
I guess we’re part of the scenery
Along hundreds of miles of track
We find our way back
To the ocean, in constant motion.

I’m so happy I could share
When we saw a bare
Naked man on the Shuswap
And I can’t stop, after all of my train-ing
I construct a rhyme
Memories moving back in time
From the very first moment on this lovely consist
As an employee of Rocky Mountaineer I am unable to enter this contest.

Place-conscious learning in Early Childhood: What it is, what it can and cannot do, and why it matter for early childhood education

Earlier this month I was enrolled in a summer institute at UBC. Eight beautiful and engaging days. It was so rewarding to be a student again, and I was so exhausted that I needed a nap every day 🙂

While thinking/writing/talking about place-conscious learning,  I also learned a lot about teaching just by listening to the instructor Dr. Linda Farr Darling. She has recently retired and has many years of experience. She truly has mastered teaching and being with her was very inspiring. I am sure I will use/practice some of her ideas in my classes this fall.

Once again, I was reminded of how small the ECCE world has become. Amongst the guest speakers were two of my colleagues from Cap, educators from the children’s centre, and a former classmate.

On most days I sat on the bus with Melanie. She is a teacher in Chilliwack and stayed with her friend in Vancouver while she was taking this course. I didn’t know her before taking this course, but after riding the bus together every day I feel like I have made a new friend.

How I missed my sweet friend Mia… and all the things that we do, and all the things that we say… She was in Vancouver for about a week in June, not sure if it was merely a dream. Life with Mia is always filled with adventure. And tattoos. And food.

Last summer we often met at the cafe at the Art Gallery. This is where all the big ideas got discussed – and last year there were many BIG and life changing ideas. She told me that she would quit her job as a lawyer and move to Cambodia.

Mia and McKay got married days before starting a new life together in Cambodia.

I first came across David Jardine’s writing in one of my classes back during my BA studies. I know it was difficult for my teacher back then to bring in literature that is not typical for early childhood programs. A few years later, the unfamiliar became familiar and Jardine is well liked in our department.

The 3 days with David and other seminar participants, including some of my colleagues, were very beautiful. He talked a lot about his new (unpublished) book on Education, Buddhism, and Ecology. He has many stories to tell, can make countless connections to other thinkers, and I enjoy that he considers the etymology of words. I would have loved to be in the group of students lucky enough to visit him on his land near Calgary to have conversations about education. I am sure he played the guitar for them, too 🙂

The most important idea I took is to practice doing it now (whatever it is), not because I want to do it now, but because in 10 minutes I will be so happy that I am doing it. Feeling like riding my bike will come through riding my bike. And if I take this seriously, it really applies to anything I can think of and starts with getting out of bed in the morning, practicing Yoga, biking, writing, playing the piano, seeing friends, phoning Germany…

David Jardine’s idea about hope, or better, placing hope has been very moving. I’m not sure if I understand it and will have to find the chapter that unpacks this a bit more… I believe it is about placing my hope in the transformation itself, because the conditions will shift (e.g. teachers will leave their jobs). For example, placing all my hope into the teacher at my old daycare program to renew the field of ECCE in the most lovely ways, has been difficult, because of the resistance. However, if I place hope in the transformation I know it’s already changing. For example, someone might stumble across ideas in my book club article and feel inspired. I’ll just trust that exciting ideas are contagious!

And lastly, consider all the monsters in children’s books you have encountered. The word monster comes from monere, which means to show, to warn, to teach something. Jardine told the story of studying the etymology of monster with a group of children, then pointing out that their teacher is a monster. So pay attention to those monsters, when do they show themselves, who do they appear to, what do they say?

I received an exciting email from Europe – the IMEC consortium is arranging a conference in Malta this fall to celebrate 10 years of IMEC!!! Long awaited news for me – a reunion with my sisters AND others who have completed the program. I’m not sure if I can arrange to fly to Europe, but I certainly hope so. Just in case, I submitted my proposal to present at the conference. Let’s hope it gets accepted.

Over a year ago I taught EDUC 221 Intro to Centre Adminisration for the first time and remember the final quiz very well. We were in a computer lab and the moment the quiz opened, students frantically started typing away. It sounded like a sea of keys.

It sounds he same today, but feels much better. I think I have prepared my students much better for this quiz than I did last year. I also don’t feel so awkward as the only person who is not writing the quiz.

Evan and I went on a trip to Kamloops for the weekend. We left on Friday after work, drove through treacherous fog, rain, and mountains, and couldn’t quite believe the sight of the motorcycle gang once we entered Kamloops. In the morning, everything looked much brighter. Mountains, sunshine, and a new city to explore.

We had a fabulous time with our private tour guide, Brianna. My dear friend and academic sister Ola from my IMEC days is good friends with Brianna, which made her our good friend as well 🙂 We met at a cafe with life music, saw the University, hiked a trail behind the Canadian Tire, had a BBQ at Brianna’s house, and had a few pints at the Red Collar, the microbrewery in Kamloops. We missed Ola  <3

We also visited the Rocky Mountaineer Station, Evan couldn’t resist the temptation and fixed someone’s computer 😉 We found out later in the day that that someone was Brianna’s roommate. What a small world!