Day 248- Nov. 27- Alexandre Girard-Lamontagne

Alexandre, like Elise, is a part of the Compassionate Schools team. Our team is a unique one since we rarely meet in person all together as we are working together to serve schools across a very, very large territory. Our team had only about one week and a half in the entire year that we were all together in the same space working.

Despite the geographic separateness of our team, I had the chance to meet up on purpose and by chance many times in airports or on planes with each of the team members. We also had fun distant ways to build team spirit and rapport, as shown in the picture of Alex with the top hat. At the first training we had together in September 2015, someone thought about having a secret hashtag challenge to celebrate #bestcoopfinds (actually I don't remember the actual # we used but it was something like that). We said we'd discuss the winner at the end of the year, however I think this top hat, found by Alex after Halloween in Salluit was probably the coolest one.

On that same trip a blizzard arrived in Salluit while I was on a visit with him to his schools there. For 2-3 days it was so windy with zero visibility and we were stuck in the hotel with a whole bunch of random regional workers, including the sewing machine repair man, construction workers, maintenance support workers, a radio technician and another one of our colleagues, Audrey, from KSB. It was a long week, but when we all finally had a ticket to leave, it was a bit of celebration.

The travellers life is challenging, as is our role in the schools, but Alex has brought an incredible strength to that role. He is very wise, patient to listen and assess, has very strong read of social cues and knows a lot about behaviour and teaching. I've really enjoyed working with him, we've had some great laughs when working together. He is also very helpful- this past week during a big training of over 20 regional front line support workers, he's been our committed shuttle driver making multiple trips to make sure everyone gets to where they need to be with a smile on his face.

Song of the Moment: Great Soul by The Tragically Hip