We finally got around to visiting the newly developed Trillium park and William G Davis waterfront trail, just east of Ontario Place. Apart from being an awesome place to watch aircraft departing CYTZ runway 26, it's also a wonderful spot just to enjoy the great outdoors!

One of the most impressive structures to me is a large pavilion, constructed with soaring roof lines and lots of wood.

There is also a geocache, and a pretty nifty rock wall and climbing feature; when we returned the next weekend with the kids, they climbed forever. Even the dog liked it, getting right into the little "cave"!

The first Sunday afternoon we went there, the weather was quite stormy, creating a magnificent backdrop for the city skyline.

In between watching planes land and take off, we marvelled at the light, and were able to get some great shots of the late afternoon sky.

Another thing I noticed throughout the park, which I did not take photos of, was the incorporation of various indigenous features, such as a number of "marker trees" and plaques explaining their significance, and some moccasins carved into the stonework near the entrance of the park.

If you walk further west along the path, you come to the old Ontario Place grounds, which we walked into the second time we went to the park. There are remnants of the old park in its former glory; you can see the Cinesphere and leftovers from the old water park.

I had a conversation the other day about the importance of teaching history from a less eurocentric perspective and through a more FNMI-focused lens.  The teacher I was chatting with was lamenting
the lack of ready access to good FNMI resources for students and teachers.

As someone who grew up with little if any authentic teaching about FNMI realities in Canada, I shared her frustration: How do we begin teaching well about something we know so little of?  Last year's Truth and Reconciliation  Call to Action calls for the integration FNMI history, contributions, current events, etc. into the curriculum at all grade levels, and not just for FNMI students.  We are to incorporate  Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods, and we are to teach at all grade levels about the legacy of the residential school system, and its attempts at systemic eradication of an entire cultural group.

But how can we do it all justice without a firm understanding ourselves of FNMI realities?

I was embarrassed -- when talking to a colleague at the office later that afternoon (one who had recently published a relevant children's book about her grandmother's experiences with the residential school system) -- to be reminded that it is not just in History that we should be thinking about how to infuse FNMI realities into the curriculum; Dr Jenny Kay Dupuis, who happens to work in a cubicle a short walk from mine, patiently pointed out that there are many opportunities to highlight Canada's injustices to our FNMI people, and to integrate Indigenous knowledge into our teaching.

Jenny shared with me this guest blog post she co-authored, which includes a number of links to FNMI sites and other resources for teachers and students.

Coincidentally, she also happened to be interviewed by CBC's Matt Galloway that very morning, to share about her new children's picture book:   I am Not a Number, by Second Story Press.

​
The audio interview is under 10 minutes, and provides listeners with some poignant historical information about the residential school system.  

It would itself make an interesting study in oral language for students -- as I listened to it, I imagined immediately how I might use it with my students, were I still in a classroom:  How effective is the interviewer (Galloway) in extracting information from the interviewee (Dr. Dupuis), etc.

It could perhaps serve as a catalyst for having students interview a family member about their own history, or write about a time when they first remember hearing an important family story. I could also see myself using this interview as a jumping off point for students to develop inquiry questions; the ESL teacher in me wants to begin by supplying a list of relevant vocabulary words: Grannie, Residential School, haircut, and so on, before students listen to the interview, and have them write a few sentences predicting what it will be about.

After talking with Jenny about her book, I offered to let her write a guest post on my blog (which I am still hoping she will do at some point), and sent her a follow up email saying "anything I can do to help!" 

I realized after I sent the email that I was guilty of the same crimes that the T and R commission's report urges us to fight against: Although well-intentioned, my offer of help could easily be construed as demeaning; Jenny and her people don't need my "help".  What they need is for me and my fellow non-FNMI Canadians to stop helping and start learning.  Ugly history, beautiful history, troubling current events and discrimination, beautiful arts, culture, medical and other contributions... we need to take responsibility for our part -- direct or indirect -- in the ugliness, and make it a priority to learn the story of our FNMI sisters and brothers so that we can share the same with our children at home and in our classrooms and begin the long climb out of darkness and into a lighter future in which we acknowledge the mistakes of our past authentically and celebrate our truly equitable and respectful co-existence.

And it has to be authentic, not just a memorized and  script off a printed page, poorly recited at the beginning of a meeting or over the P.A. system at school each morning so that we can say we've fulfilled our legal duty -- no, we have to go our of our way to learn something we didn't know before, and get excited to share about it with our colleagues and children.

​It is through a combination of these opportunistic teaching moments and through careful, planned, integrated instruction that we will begin to fulfill our responsibilities with respect to the teaching part of the reconciliation recommendations.  

​Not knowing is no longer an excuse. We are called to wonder, to question and -- if necessary -- to google!

​For avid cyclists, it's no secret that finding the ideal fit in a bike takes time and experience. When I was lucky enough to have Silver bestowed on me by a generous friend a few years ago, I was still new to commuter biking, and not entirely sure that new, sporty steed was the right fit for me. Nevertheless, I rode it to work weekly, and rode around elsewhere, too, trying to get a sense of what it was to feel truly comfortable on two wheels.

Fast forward four years, and I knew for sure that I needed a longer frame and a more aggressive geometry.  My partner and cycling muse, a long-time bike commuter and former Can-bike instructor with the city of Toronto who currently rides 40 km a day to and from work on one or the other of her two bikes had also been urging me to consider drop bars, which I was not previously ready for, but which I had finally become more open to. 
​
And so, on a recent summer day, we replaced Silver with Kermit*, an Instagram-worthy touring hybrid with drop bars and fancy new disc brakes.

Our first stop after introducing the two to one another was to take Kermit and Stevie geocaching, which we did along the Lakeshore last Sunday.

Sam Smith park afforded the first new cache we'd found in those parts in a while, and Stevie and Kermit waited nicely together in the cedars while their humans went hunting around in the dirt, eventually finding the cache and harrumph-ing at the silly jokes listed in the logbook.

After returning the treasure to its hidden home, we continued a little further west, along the waterfront...

Bikes locked up to one another and the slat of a gazebo, Tats began digging around on the beach while I pulled out some sustenance and set up shop on a lpicnic table nearby.

We did not get to lunch for very long, however, as Stevie's owner was determined to find one final cache before taking Kermit's owner to a little Austrian cafe on Lakeshore for "Kaffee und Kuchen". (Well, tea, in my case.)

And so on we rode, further west still, and leaned Kermit and Stevie against a tree one final time.

Once more Tats went tripping along the beach with her GPS while I snapped a few pics for the blog before joining her in the hunt.

All three caches on the list signed and logged, we hopped back on Stevie and Kermit, and headed back east a little, to Sugar for my Honey, to enjoy the promised cake and tea, and have a conversation in German with the owner there.

Still tweaking a few little details on Kermit (I think a slightly longer stem would be helpful), but overall, loving my new ride, especially the drop bars!!

*Naming my bikes is a habit I picked up from my partner, who had adopted the practice long before we met, from a cycling friend of hers.

After Alex's art class this morning, we grabbed our scooters and headed downtown to catch said boat.

First stop: Climbing the tree at Centre Island!

after doing a little geocaching in the William Meany Maze...

...we headed over to the Franklin Garden to catch up with some old friends!

Then it was was time for a beaver tail and some frozen yogourt, which we devoured in the shade before scootering on to Wards Island to swim at the beach there.

(beach cat)

We ended our island adventure with dinner at the Wards Island Café, where a Calypso band entertained us while we enjoyed our food, and the boys scootered around the ramps at the nearby "pirate ship playground".

Here's to another beautiful day at the Toronto Islands, one of my favourite places in the world!

Took a break from the frustrations of report card writing this afternoon to meet my girlfriend in the east end and do a little geocaching.  Some sort of geocaching "event" was taking place, which is basically a meet-up organized by a geocacher responsible for a specific group of caches.

In this case, the caches had to do with "Orphan Black",  a clone-themed sci-fi series, filmed in Toronto,  that Tats and I have recently begun watching.

The event began at "Jim's restaurant", an establishment near Queen and Logan, which is featured in a scene from Season Two of the series, and which is slated to be torn down and replaced by condos in the near future.

I'm not sure what was more mesmerizing to me, the locale or the event participants:  The diner was some sort of greasy spoon with hilarious signs posted all around -- we were informed that Helen Waite was the new person in charge of rush orders, for example, and that if we were in a hurry, we should go to Helen Waite.  

Then there was the money jar at the cash, with a hand made sign requesting donations to a local, generic charity,  imploring the reader to consider what it was like to be poor and starving, and assuring the reader that God, who "is watching us" would "reward you greater than what you donate".  (Oh, and they "also support African Orphans". ) 

Well!

The actual geocachers attending the event were no less intriguing...  The roughly 12 people in attendance came in all shapes and sizes. Most of them had "real" GPS units (as opposed to the more ubiquitous smartphone versions), and they were very proud to show and share with this muggle!!!

At some point someone pulled out a travel bug, and suddenly, there was a pile of them sitting on the table in front of me:

These people were very serious cachers, and most of them had been to several events before.  

​I was taken with how much protocol there seemed to be with the whole thing... everyone referred to one another by their caching handles rather than their actual names (made for a little confusion for me and the one other muggle in the group!), and everyone had a million interesting stories to share about the time they got stopped by the marine unit while trying to find a terrain 5, or the fact that they no longer tried to find difficulty 1s, because they were trying to up their average...  the geekiness of it all was kind of fun, and I found myself really drawn into their stories.

yes, but also the actual report card system, which hails from over a decade ago, and is painfully out of date, technologically speaking, making it exceedingly frustrating for any teacher attempting to use it!!)

I was glad to have attended this geocaching event -- even though I've often hunted for treasures with Tats, I had never actually gone to a meet-up like this with her.  I feel like I have a better appreciation now for my partner's hobby, and for some of the people who engage in it.

Snagged a few caches in the park this evening while biking through with the boys... one was even hidden in a tree (terrain 4, difficulty 4.5!) -- we found it.

A little family time down time today... the boys were eager to spend their $ at the New Glasgow Toy Factory, and I was eager to get some new jams at the jam factory across the road. 

On the way, we drove through the National Park and stopped in Stanhope -- a cold, windy day, but still a great beach adventure...

There were also several geocaches nearby, so we did a little of that, too (and even ran into some other geocachers on the road!)  Tats finally figured out how to use the stamp I had given her a few years ago, so we inaugurated that, too.

Since we had a little time to spare today, we finally decided to stop and check out the Great Canadian Soap Company, too.  Such fun! I highly recommend this delightful stop for anyone in the Rustico area!

As we had a little time to kill before the Ceilidh we were planning to attend later that evening, we stopped at Brackley Beach mid afternoon for some more wind-swept sand and sea.  Thank goodness we had some leftover treats from our morning visit to the Old Village Bakery in North Rustico to tie us over!