Some things I have discovered about taking a professional development course at a private school in midtown Toronto:
1—Gourmet continental breakfast (with chocolate croissants!!!), beautiful fruit platters, AND high end coffee, courtesy of The Second Cup…which all continues on our breaks!
2—Lunch involves gourment grilled vegetables, sushi, and smoked salmon served onto your plate by a real, live, white-clad chef!
3—Happy hour involves free beer and wine at the end of each day…yes, you read that correctly…FREE booze after a hard day working out the brain cells!
4—TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE from across Canada, the United States, and around the world are attending what is otherwise your standard summer institute of improving learning, and discovering a VASTLY different, challenging curriculum.
5—FREE books! Giant, gorgeous, up-to-date hardcover texts and reading packages! I’m going to need a sack to carry it all home on Friday!
6—My superiors have decided to pay for ALL of this, for me and my two colleagues, without any up-front money or reimbursing. My only explanation for this generosity is that they’ve temporarily entered Bizzaro-world!
Let’s just say my head is still spinning. It’s nothing like what I thought it would be…to say nothing of the fact that I (raised as an educated, blue-collar proletariat) felt rather dirty, walking around a school and a neighbourhood where so much bourgeoise wealth was on display…
More later in the week, when I’m not so tired and shell shocked…
