In the Midst of a Serious Snow Storm in Toronto

My Car Stuck on the Driveway today

It has been snowing really heavily since last night! We have over 23 cm of snow in a day. I did not go anywhere today. I am still in my nice warm housecoat since this morning. Why bother changing into regular clothes as I would not be going anywhere today?

My car is stuck in our drive way. The snow is so high that I would not be able to drive it out on the road. So I decided to just stay in our house today instead of going out.

Glad I was Inside today instead of driving in the snow storm!

I made myself some coffee and warm toasts. Sitting in front of the living room window and looking out, I saw a beautiful winter wonderland picture:

Everything is covered in clean white snow including the bird houses, tree stumps in my garden to trees, branches and benches to the few cars moving slowly on the street, while snow flakes dancing around and winds whirling. I love it!

Our Bird Houses Blanketed with Snow

With a cup of hot coffee warming my hands, a beautiful winter scenery outside, and my laptop computer, I am enjoying the quietness and beauty of a Canadian winter in the middle of February!

While I am singing and enjoying this beautiful scenery, I thought to myself that I sure am glad that I am not the one driving on the roads or traveling anywhere by plane because it has been messy on the roads, traffic congestion everywhere with some major exits blocked on the highway.

A Picture of Calm and Tranquility - from My Perspective

It has been more than five years since southern Ontario has seen so much snow. Many school buses cancelled and go buses delayed. Some schools have been closed and there have been flight and bus cancellations.

Ontario, along with other places in the U.S.: New York, New Jersey and Maine are in the path of this snow blizzard. It has been a travesty walking or driving on the roads. The temperature currently is - 11degree, with winter snow storm warning and very low visibility.

Enjoying the Winter Wonderland Scene from Our Living Room Window

This tranquil snow scenery I am admiring from my living room window contrasts sharply with the road conditions elsewhere which makes me realize one thing: We all have different perspectives on what happens in life from where we are. What I see is a beautiful winter wonderland picture from the warmth and comfort of my home is a nightmare for travelers, drivers and passengers out on the roads. I thank God for reminding me that next time when I hear people complaining about certain things which I don't agree with, I need to take time and see things from their perspectives  because what I think is wonderful could be really ugly and miserable for others.

R.T. Toronto, Canada
In the middle of a severe snow storm

Persian Palace, Richmond Hill, Ontario

Persian Palace, Richmond Hill, Ontario

The best part of living in Toronto, a metropolitan city in Ontario, Canada, is the diversity if cultures and foods one can experience.

I have made many good friends with Canadians from the four corners of the world. My husband and I were invited to a Serbian wedding in Serbia last August and we loved the experience.

Last week we were invited to a Persian restaurant where we were treated to food, music, and entertainment from a very different part of the world.

The Persian Palace is a restaurant located on Yonge Street in Richmond Hill, a recently opened restaurant.We got there at e8:30 p.m  knowing that there would be music and entertainment starting at 10 p.m.

It was great meeting our friends, and catching up with each other of what we have done in the past little while.

The Persian Palace is a beautiful restaurant/ banquet hall decorated with many statues and sculptures from the country of Iran.

 After a little rest, our friends from Iran took us for a tour of the restaurant and explained to us the meaning of the many statues and shared a little bit history of their country with us.

It was interesting indeed as if we had our own personal tour guides from Iran!

 We have an English saying that " The way to reach a man's heart is through his stomach."

I think the more appropriate saying should be " The way to reach anyone's heart is through his/her stomach."

 The Persian Palace has a menu with dishes catering to different tastes. It has kebobs, stews, steaks and seafood. Since we have had kebobs many times before, we decided on something which we never tried before - Persian meat stews.

Our Hosts - Introducing us to new food & cultures!

Morteza and Mitra ordered us an appetizer plate with various dips, pickles and bean sauces, as well as salad and different kinds of kebobs.

That was our first Persian dinner and our taste buds were introduced to a variety of flavours and delicious food that evening!

Great Music & Entertainment at the Persian Palace

Around 9:30p.am, a couple of musicians came on the stage and entertained us with their beautiful Persain songs.
Though we did not understand what they were singing, we enjoyed the melodic music. One by one, restaurant patrons were up and dancing on their feet in no time.  We did a little dancing ourselves too!

Unlike regular restaurants where most tables and booths are set up for parties of four people, there were many long and large tables set up for large groups and family gatherings from ten to twenty people.

Stan and I were surprised to see kids joining their families in these late night dinners, dancing on the dance floor and having a great time with adult family members as well. What a pretty picture of a family getting together, having fun and celebrating!

A Graceful Dancer on the Dance Floor

 Of the many people dancing there that evening, one gentleman really stood out among the crowds. He was about late fifties, slender built, dancing away on his own, moving his body according to the beats of the song, raising his hands above his head  and clearly enjoying himself.

 Everyone in the restaurant was awed and mesmerized by his graceful moves. We just sat there and enjoyed his dances.  Deep down, we were wishing that  we could have the confidence, courage and grace to dance in public just like him. Bravo!

Tasty Persian Dessert!

  It was a fantastic evening! It was really interesting not just learning about another culture but actually experiencing it right here in Toronto, without traveling anywhere. This is what we love about Canada, a country where people from cultures and countries around the world come and live harmoniously together, all respecting others' differences and customs.

We are fortunate that we have made friends beyond our own cultural group and our Persian friends took the trouble and  introduced us to a whole new culture, food, music and entertainments.  Canada is a great country where its citizens can celebrate and embrace diversity of people, cultures and religions freely and share them with others.

For this, we are grateful for friends from different countries. We are grateful for being Canadians!

R.T. Richmond Hill, Ontario

Second Post on An Affordable Christian International School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I was surprised that when I googled the article which I blogged and posted about an affordable international school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last November, the search took me to the site but then it said this article did not exist anymore. I complained about it to Blogger and Google a few times but I heard nothing from them. So here is the article again and hope that when people want to find an affordable school in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, they will find this article.


An Affordable Christian International School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

One of the main purposes of my visit to Cambodia is to assist the staff and support the Christian International School in Phnom Penh. This is a non profit kindergarten and elementary school operated by a Christian church in Cambodia and supported by a number of Christians and churches in Canada.

Some School Staff and I did a community Outreach to Inform Parents.

School Open House Flyer in Khmer Language

The school staff and I have been working diligently since my arrival here last Thursday. We made a number of changes, re-assigned some classrooms, had great discussions at our teacher training workshops, planned programs together and got many things accomplished.







The school has been preparing for its opening and we are hosting an Open House next Saturday to inform parents in the community about our kindergarten programs.  




There is an urgent need in Cambodia for schools to deliver quality education to its children. Though there are public schools that are free for children, many parents prefer to send their children to schools  where they could  receive a bilingual  ( English, Khmer) and sometimes even trilingual education ( Khmer, English, Chinese).





  However, the cost at these school is often prohibitive. Currently, there are over one hundred and forty private schools in Phnom Penh but most are beyond the reach of ordinary Cambodians.

Kindergarten Playroom at the Christian International School

The School's Kindergarten Classrooms

The Christian International School has been planning its opening for the past two years and they are now ready to receive students. The teachers did a community visit last Saturday afternoon. Armed with  school flyers written in three languages: Khmer, English, Chinese, we formed three groups and went visiting residents in the immediate community.





While most international schools in Phnom Penh charge a hefty sum of between US$ 180.00 - $ 250.00 a month for student tuition fees, Christian International School is a non-profit Canadian International School that follows Canadian curriculum and standards.

The school is committed to offer Cambodian and expatriate students a high quality yet affordable trilingual education. All our teachers are university graduates, certified with teaching training and experiences.









It is our mission to level the playing field for children in Cambodia so that Cambodian parents who wish to send their children to receive an excellent education will be able to do so without sacrificing their livelihood.

We also believe strongly that when our students graduate from our school in the future, they will be fluent in two out of three languages of their choice, English, Khmer, or Chinese as to enable them to enrol at universities or higher education institutions at home in Cambodia, go overseas to continue their studies in English speaking or Chinese language countries.









 
We are delighted that our dedicated teachers and staff will be able to help prepare and equip the next generation of Cambodia leaders.







Information regarding the school's Open House is as follows:

                                                  Christian International School
                                       
                                                              Open House

                                                Saturday, November 17, 2012
                                                     4:00p.m. - 6:00p.m.

                                               #99, Street 294, Boeng Keng Korng
                                                     Chamkamorn, Phnom Penh
                                                                 Cambodia
           
                                               



R.T.  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Nov. 16, 2012

Age Appropriate Placement of Students in Canadian Schools

Since I worked over thirty years in Ontario schools, I have been asked by many parents regarding their child's grade level placement in Ontario schools.

It is an ideal situation when a school can divide all its children into groups of same age and teach them in the same classroom.  Placing students in the same classroom and learning with peers of similar   age group is the philosophy behind the policies of the Ontario Education. Therefore,  Ontarian schools have adopted the Age Appropriate Placement -  placing students in a grade level based on their age.  

For example, when a child is four years old, he/ she starts school in Ontario as a junior kindergarten student.

 There are two years of kindergarten in Ontario schools:

 Junior kindergarten  – 4 years old

Senior Kindergarten – 5 years old

When a student reaches six years old, this student will be placed in Grade one, and so on. 

Grade 1 – 6 years old

Grade 2 – 7 years old

Grade  3 – 8 years old

Grade  4 – 9 years old

Grade  5 – 10 years old

Grade  6 – 11 years old

Grade  7 – 12 years old

Grade  8 – 13 years old

By the time, a student finishes his/ her elementary school education, the student will be 14 years old. From them on, they will start secondary school education.

However, very often when an immigrant student first lands in Canada and arrives at an elementary school,  parents would request that a student be kept back at a lower grade because of the child’s lack of English skills. Ontario schools do not hold back students because of their language or academic skills, we believe in placing students according to their age because of social developmental reasons.

 We believe that students can learn from each other, and from interactions with their peers. Ontario schools believe that education for students is for the development of the whole being, not just academic achievement, therefore, a student’s  social development is equally important. 

Some parents are concerned that their children who have not done well academically, therefore feel strongly that they should be kept back. But  imagine when a child aged twelve years old  placed with children who are nine or ten years old? The two/ three years difference is not obvious when we are adults, but when you are a child, even one year can make a big difference in physical size. Placing a physically much bigger child with children who are a couple of years junior can be a problem. The older/ bigger child can be a bully or can become a target of taunting depending on the child's personality. 

The age appropriate placement practise could be workable if the weaker students can be supported and provided with extra support by the school. I have seen students becoming successful in school after resources have been offered and the school and parents work together to come up with an IEP - individual learning plan for the student.

R.T. Toronto

My PR and Most Favourite Exercise - Barbell Back Squat

I was put through exercises such as this for my assessment

I have been with my personal trainer since April, 2012. Today was the last day of my personal training sessions for 2012 program.

Joyce,  my personal training did a thorough assessment for me and we spent an hour doing various exercises to find out what was my PR - personal record for both my upper and lower body strengths as well as figuring the total number of inches and amount of body fat I have lost since I started my fitness program.

Back Squat - One of my Most Favorite Wt. Exercise

I was happy to find out that I have shed 7lbs of body fat and reduced many inches on various parts of my body. I could have told Joyce the inches I have lost without her measuring me at all.

My clothes fit me so much better than before. We went to a party last weekend and I was able to wear a beautiful party top which I was not able to wear for the past 5-6 years because it was just too tight. I wore it to the party and I looked great last Saturday!

I found out that my PR for lower body strength was 110 lbs when I did the barbell back squat. However, my upper body strength is only about 40% of my body weight and needs a lot of work.

I love working with weight and particularly locking out and lifting it. I feel so empowered when I could lift weight and this weight exercises have helped me to regain my strength and enable me to do many things which I had problems doing before in everyday living.

Make Sure You Learn the Proper Form As to Avoid Injury

I heard before that as we age, " We must make daily exercise a part of our life. Exercise is not an option but a must. " I did not know the meaning and how true this is before.

Now I have learned and experienced the truth. I will keep going and spend my time and resources on exercise program so that I would be able to lead a healthy, happy and independent life.

R.T. Toronto

Kindergarten Structures and Organization in Ontario Public Schools

After working in the Ontario Education system for over thirty years, I am now a part time instructor for an international leadership course in Ontario, Canada.  I teach a principal course to visiting principals from overseas. Recently, I had the privilege of working with a group of visiting kindergarten principals from China and in addition to my lectures, I took them around to visit some schools in and around Toronto.

It was a great experience for these principals as their system in China was quite different from ours. In fact the Ontario education system is one of the best in the world as our students ranked quite high in their academic scores. I receive many questions from various educators inquiring how to help their teachers to prepare lessons for their students, especially in the elementary grades.

In many parts of the world, teachers are trained to teach a specific subject, i.e., the Math teachers would teach Math to  the students, English teacher teaches English,  while the music teacher would teach music and the Physical Education teacher would look after physical education etc.

In Canada, an elementary school teacher is considered a generalist who teaches everything to his/ her student. Each grade of students has a core teacher who is like the mother hen being responsible for the students' well being all the time academically, socially and physically.

For instance, a kindergarten teacher named Ms. A would have a class between 15-20 students and Ms A will be responsible for her students. She / he has to know all the time where her students are and what they are doing. She/ he is responsible for these students' academic progress as well as safety ( everyone in the school is responsible for student safety). But the classroom core teacher especially knows his/ her class of students really well and helps the students to develop as a whole person.  ( I strongly recommend this same approach as the classroom/ core teachers develop close relationships with the students in their classes and take responsibilities for the safety of the students.)

Teacher's Role -This teacher is also responsible for planning programs,  lessons, activities and delivering them effectively to the students on a daily basis. In Ontario, we have curriculum material for all the subjects we teach in our schools from K-12. Parents and educators and anyone who is interested can access these documents online from the government websites.

Teachers are expected to read and know the curriculum of the grades that they are teaching. These curriculum guidelines list the expectations of what the students should be able to do at the end of a specific grade level and are quite board  in nature. Therefore, according to the needs and background of the students, teachers are allowed a lot of freedom to develop their lesson plans and activities to meet the students' needs from these broad guideline.

Reporting to Parents - Teachers are expected to report to parents of the students' progress 2-3x a year and have regular communication with them when they have concerns about their students.

Textbooks - We generally do not have a set of  well defined textbooks from which teachers must use to teach the students particularly in the kindergarten grades.Teachers can either download learning activities from the internet, or they design them according to the topic which they are teaching or they can use some commercial activity books that are age, grade and content appropriate to their students.

Team Approach - If there is more than one teacher teaching the same grade, some team planning or team teaching may happen which involves the teachers to meet regularly to discuss their lesson plans.  To make learning interesting and fun for students, the team of teachers who teach the same grade of students would  collaborate and come up with a common theme for each month or each term and from there they plan the daily activities that would teach students the skills stated in the curriculum. I personally find this team approach much more effective for students.

R.T. Toronto
Jan. 2013

God's Plan - His Ways are higher than ours

October, 2012
A couple of weeks ago,  E., our son told us  that he had a phone interview, but since we had not heard from him after that, we just assumed that it did not go well. Therefore, we were surprised to get an email from him informing us that the phone interview went really well and that the company would be flying him out to California for a personal interview.We were happy for him; dreams of the California sun and trips to the sunshine state started clouding my head. We love to go where our sons would go. So far, Eric has been the only one studying and now working away from home.

 E. came home on the weekend after his whirlwind trip out west.  He was there for  that Californian job interview .  Since we were in Waterloo, we could not pick him up. Fortunately, he changed his travel plan. Instead of flying to Toronto on Friday, he rested in New York, then boarded the Grey Hound on Friday midnight and got here around 3pm, Sunday afternoon. We picked him up from the Elizabeth st. Starbuck.

Naturally, we were anxious to hear all about his job interview. E. thought that he did OK and that the interview was very intense. It lasted for four and a half hours with 5 different people firing questions at him and then going to different people including the CFO of the company for further interviews after the bombardment of questions from the company lawyers.

I am writing this as a testimony later on to E. He did not think he did really well or aced the interview. But I strongly believe that when God is on your side, it;s up to Him, not on what we have done to achieve what we have in life. I dare not pray to God  that He would give our son specifically the job in California because I have faith that God will give us and in this case, E., the best. I just pray that E. will experience the grace and love God has for him in his job search experience. God, may your mercy and grace cover E. and that I humbly ask our sons will personally experience Your blessing and guiding hand in their work. In Christ name, Amen.

R.T. Toronto
 p.s.
E. did not get the job in California, but we have faith in God. As I am reading about King David wanting to build a temple for God but He said no to his godly desire, God blessed David and had better plans for him and his descendants. I truly believe that God will prepare and has better plans for Eric.

p.p.s.
We talked to E. via Skye last Tuesday, he told us that he would have two in person interviews in June. One in Toronto, and another one in San Francisco, the one he really wanted with a game company. God is great! Since he did not hear back from the S.F. job which he was interviewed for in March, 2013, we all thought that he did not get the job. We were wrong!!! I kept praying and crying out to God, God hears and answers prayers! Hallelujah!!!!  We pray and know that God will give us the best. He will give our sons, the best!!! June 1, 2013