Ok, this post is to settle a dispute I had with my old man. Below is a picture of a jacket I bought for $8 at Value Village. I thought it was a totally sweet find but Pops called it unstylish because “the double-breast is out”.
Anyways, we ended up making a wager that day of the following criteria:
Without telling anyone about our bet, I would ask 10 fairly fashionable people their opinions on the jacket. If the vast majority agreed that the jacket was hideous, I would have to submit to the old man’s fashion advice. If there was an even split, we’d declare it a draw and the status quo would be maintained. But if the majority of the people thought it was sweet, Pops would have to admit that I knew what I was talking about when it came to style.
The results are in, majority ruled that my jacket is an excellent find. From friends, to family to people I don’t really know, the most of them think the jacket is rockin’. But it gets better because I wore the jacket to school today to get some opinions from my students. My Bio. 12’s all thought the jacket was “pretty dec”, but my 10’s, oh my tens. Upon my arrival to Science class today I instructed them to write down their first impressions of the jacket, pass their sheets forward to me and I would tell them the accompanying story. The following are unedited comments my 10’s made on the jacket.
Fancy!
Pimpin
Spiffy, looks a little professional.
Hot Shit! (X2)
Whoa! Jacket!
Nice jacket, but does it suit you?
My first impressions of Mt. T’s suit coat was that he was mourning about this being his last day ever seeing Miss (student), but I do think it is an awesome jacket!
It is pimp and I love the slit in the back.
You look like a science proffesur! (sp)
Not bad, makes you look like a cool professor because you’re not wearing the full outfit.
Mr. T that’s pimpin.
Very sofisticated (sp) but not your style I don’t think but hot.
I do not like it.
It looks like something my grandpa would wear to dinner.
You can tell it was $8!
It was a huge waste of $8… you could have bought dinner at a fast food place instead!
It’s totally hard-core, but you probably don’t want to wear it too much cuz you could get hot.
It’s totally kick-ass!
I prefer your t-shirts.
It’s ok, too long on you though lol:)
Wow! Very sexy HAHA.
Pro-steeze jacket! Money (for 8 bucks), I like it?
You look like a try-hard. LoL.
The t-shirts and jeans suited you better and depicted you as unique. It is hideous.
You look like a clown.
I must admit it is a pretty slick jacket. You remind me of a young Davey Havok, even though he’s a tool, but you’re not. It’s the hair that reminds me of him.
I hope you wear a fanny pack tomorrow because that would be funny but the jacket is P.I.M.P. Haha.
So I guess if it was up to my grade 10’s it would be a draw between dear old Dad and I. But what say you? Feel free to post a comment on the jacket at the end of this entry.
Anyways, second last day. My UF came in, signed me off. We went through my portfolio, I gathered some letters of reference and he gave me my final evaluation. What do you know, I’m officially done my APT. Both my mentor teacher and my university facilitator gave me loads of positive comments. Apparently I’ve “come a long way”, and “worked very hard” during my time out here. I don’t really know how else to comment on the whole thing. I can’t believe 9 weeks is up. Two and a half months of my calender is X’ed off. I return my resources and my keys tomorrow, mark a few unit tests and that’s it. Tonight I clean my room, pack up my stuff and get ready to move back to the city. Jeeze. I think I’m going to go for a walk now.
So just as I’m putting this entry together, I hear this thump against the window beside me. It sounded like a snowball and since it’s snowing, that’s not an unreasonable assumption. I turn to see two objects descending. Crap. I go outside to check it out and sure enough there’s a bird on the steps. I instinctively pick it up. I have this motherly nature about me where I want to get things out of harms way and try to help them. What can I do though? It’s possible this bird has done serious damage to it’s cranium. But I don’t know. It can’t talk. I’m not an ornothologist. Damn. Put it out of it’s misery? Not an option. First; I don’t know if it’s that miserable, second; I can’t kill things. It’s one of the reasons I’m vegan. So I sat there on the porch holding this confused little creature. It’s not the first time. I’ve had to wrangle birds from my cat’s mouths on the odd occasion and I don’t worry about parasites as I’m sure to wash my hands. So I don’t know, the best thing I could think of was to put it in a tree and if it’s going to die, then at least let it die in it’s “natural” environment and not in the hands of the species responsible for placing windows in such an erroneous location.
This post isn’t meant to bum anyone out. But think about how we indirectly contribute to harming other beings on a daily basis. It’s kind of a staggering idea but as we embark on this “green revolution”, let’s keep in mind the survival of other beings on this planet.
Well, it’s snowing like crazy which is cutting into my outdoor soccer lesson planning big time. This isn’t so much a bad thing as I’m anticipating the introduction to the sport as being kind of a pain. Wait, that’s a self fulfilling prophecy waiting to happen. No, the unit is going to be super fun and I wish the sun would come out so we could get on with it!
In gym today a kid called me dumb because my reffing was unfair, to him at least. I told him that unless he wanted to spend the rest of the morning in the office he was to keep the insults to himself and he nearly started to cry. There’s something weird with that kid. I’ve noticed it since day one. He’s a little off. His buddy fell on his keys later on and spent 5 minutes on the ground howling. I thought he broke something but he insisted that it was just the wicked charley horse. He walked it off and was fine.
My 12’s and I talked about puppy mills a bit in class today since we’re learning about selective breeding as part of a genetics unit. It also opened up the floor to discussions on fish farms and how genetically modified fish roaming wild might not be a hot idea. Though some of them were convinced it would be since it would add genetic variability to future offspring. That one stumped me for a sec.
My 10’s were fun as usual. I gave a girl the boot today for noogying another boy during my lecture. During the lab section, a group confessed that they were going to miss me when I left. It was kind of touching. I am going to be saddened when I leave these kids, they’re total characters. One of them wanted me to admit I spend all my time outside of school at the gym and that we need to call a plumber because my “pipes are about to burst”. I assured him the only thing that keeps me in decent shape was the diet and the occasional band practice. His buddy told me I should try eating onions. I told him that I hate onions. He said they’re good to eat like apples and that they clean you palate. I told him he was full of it and he said that tomorrow, he’s going to bring an onion and that we’re going to “chow down”. His friend then told him that his breath is bad enough as it is and that he should probably just stay away from anything that would make it worse.
Filed under: Students
Grade 10’s are ridiculous and apparently want me to spoon-feed them the material. I get them to do a lab and follow the procedure and they hit me with a barrage of “what do I do now?” questions. Are the all illiterate? Lazy? On hormones? Who knows. One thing’s for sure, they had no idea who I was referring to when I called one kid Professor Grif today. (See: Public Enemy)
For the last couple of days I’ve been the hallway cop during lunch hour, moving kids along, putting a halt to the PDAs etc. I have a feeling these patrols are much less eventful then they would be in a bigger school.
Lots to do tonight. Have more parent-teacher interviews and a ton of lesson planning to get to.
Filed under: Students
Back in the saddle. A ton of snow forced us inside for gym today. Both classes played some indoor soccer and couldn’t have been better behaved. Honestly, I can’t find any patterns in the 8’s. It’s gotta be hormonal.
Bio was fun. I got my students to draw little monsters using the genotypes they came up with through tossing coloured popsicle sticks. If that didn’t make a lot of sense, I’ll reiterate. For 30 minutes my kids worked on drawing make believe monsters. Biology.
Science with the 10’s was a delight as always. They wrote a test. One of the girls did pretty poorly and saw me about it after class. I asked her what her problem was and she told me she didn’t get it. I asked her what she did during her review period and she didn’t really respond. In fact, she left in a huff when my mentor teacher started to get on her case for her crappy attitude. Her parents were called and her Dad came in to have a chat with us. To summarize that meeting, there is huge drama happening in the family and it’s really good that she’s just showing up for class right now.
I punted a kid with 5 minutes left before the bell. He came in to see me after class and I asked him why he chose to waste my time hitting his friend in the back of the class. He told me he was retaliating. I told him he had a choice to be an ass and cause a disturbance. He told me he understood and would refrain from being an idiot next time. I don’t care that much, but it’s good to put them in the hot seat once in a while to let them know they’re being goofs. Actually, I’m surprised I made it so long without having to boot anyone out. During my IPT I was punting kids into the hallway left and right.
Anyways, here are some photos of my weekend.
This is slogan the group I was working with used after putting together an action campaign to ban bottled water, an idea we got from the City of Seattle. The reusable container in the cape and underpants is fighting off other bottles of water.
On to the icefields. Here they are from afar.
The crazy monster truck bus we took to get up close.
Glacier!
After the tour, I asked our driver (a surly Francophone man) what the funny yellow looking vehicle was all about and if it still ran. “That’s a snowmobile from the 40’s and it still runs!”, he said. “You know why? It’s a Bombardier, built in Quebec!”.
Filed under: Students
I’m pretty burned out today. Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Woke up this morning and realized I had nothing to eat for breakfast so I had to get out early to see if I could rustle up some flapjacks in town.
Gym was alright. One of the kids (who’s got an incredible temper) got his glasses knocked off his head. A screw fell out and he was upset that they were broken. I told him not to worry about it, how screws cost very little money. We went to the office and I fixed them up with a paper clip. He stop crying and I wonder if he would make it through the day without decking a kid.
In Bio, my kids were totally out of it. The classroom was hot and the energy was sucked out of the kids. If they’re putting in no energy, it’s much harder for me to put it in. Like performing in front of any audience, you feed off each other and one way streets can be incredibly draining.
The 10’s were fun though. I made two diagrams on the whiteboard that were supposed to be cells, but totally looked like cartoon boobs. The kids were amused and it gave me an opportunity to laugh at myself. I like these moments because I think kids think I’m too serious sometimes and I don’t know if that’s what I’m still going for.
Went for a skate after school. The kid who called me Mr. Turkey, then Mr. Terminator is back to Mr. T. He was on a bike, I was on my board. We had a little skate park jam and it was neat to see him outside of such a restricted environment.
Now I’m sitting on the couch feeling completely burned out. I’d love nothing more than to just sit in a quiet room alone right now but I have way too much work to do. It’s alright, tomorrow’s a half day and then I hit the conference tomorrow night and Saturday.
I also forgot my razor in the city and damn, do I ever grow facial hair fast these days.
I woke up this morning feeling like a million bucks. I have no idea why. Maybe I got the perfect amount of sleep, maybe my nutrient levels are well balanced, maybe it has something to do with spring break arriving in two days… regardless, my mood did not change throughout the day. In fact, I had the best time at school in the past 5 weeks. Oh yeah, check this out. Today was the half-way mark AND I just found out that I got an A in my class. That means that I will be graduating with an A-, I believe. Or a B+. Either way, I have never had higher grades, in 20 years of education. So I’m stoked.
I let the 30’s study for their unit test tomorrow. There was a teachable moment in class when one of them asked me how governments control the information citizens are exposed to. I told them about how in some American schools, teachers are only allowed to talk about abstenence as a form of birth control. They responded with “well no wonder pregnancy and STI rates are so high in the States!”.
One of the girls in that class is having some major motivational issues. She’s putting in next to no effort and I’m struggling to get her remotely interested in the class. We’ll see how she does on the Unit test tomorrow, I figure that will determine my next course of action.
So check this out, right after spending a class talking about reproduction, I head on over to give my first lesson to the 10’s. Not 5 minutes into the class, I’m describing how before microscopes people believed in the spontaneous generation of lifeforms and I say something to the effect of “so 400 years ago, you have all these people thinking that orgasms appear out of nowhere!”. The class starts howling and I am satisfied with my introduction.
It went well though, I really let ‘er rip.At this point I am getting comfortable with the fact that making a fool out of myself in front of them is probably the best course of action. Pretending I know it all at this point is futile. They see through it. I think the appreciate it a lot more when I approach the class not so seriously.
The heat is on. I am not coasting into spring break but rather, I’ll be working my little vegan butt off for it. Tomorrow I begin taking on 100% of the workload. I’m excited, but also a little anxious as I don’t want to choke in front of the 10’s on my first day. It’s a pattern though and I recognize it. I worry about it, but it never really goes that bad. In fact, I once had a mentor teacher say that it’s good to be a little nervous about your lesson because that means you care.
Today I got the 12’s to put together pamphlets on specific methods of birth control. It led to some interesting conversations. The student who’s always coming up with interesting questions for me asked me what the evolutionary advantage was to being able to freeze male gametes (or sperm). I didn’t really know, but regaled him with a story about the frogs that can survive winter by freezing. He tells me he knows this, but that as far as he knew, humans produced no glycerol and there’s no sense in having sperm that can freeze if a human dies of exposure. I tell him he is incredibly observant and that I would “look into it”.
Another girl asked me if there was a scientific term for intercourse. I say “how about coitus?”. She says, “interesting. So what, can you make coitus?”. I say, “it depends on if you have the right ingredients, I suppose”. She presses, “seriously, what, do you do coitus? Do you have coitus?”. I try to keep myself from cracking up (and fail miserably), then my mentor teacher and I agreed that one must indeed have the coitus.
I found out that Iron Maiden is coming to my town this summer. Who’s stoked? Me, that’s who. Say what you will, Steve Harris is a fantastic bassist and the falsetto on Aces High is one of the best in recorded history.
Filed under: Students
It’s a beautiful day in the mountains. Snow is falling in the distance in all directions while the sun beams in the valley are causing me to sweat profusely.
Had our last classes in the curling rink and the three boys I’ve been working with came in during the last period of the day. Everything was going well until I decided that they were all ready to play a game with each other. Wrong. 5 minutes into that, there were rocks and cusses flying all over the rink. One of them ended up chasing another who fell on a corner and scraped his hand up pretty badly. Office. Now. Apologies. Understandings. Icepack. He’ll live.
Today a kid who always greets me with a “hi person!” asked me if he could call me Mr. Turkey.
Blastula formation in Bio. Assignment. Pretty mundane. I bought myself a cream soda after school ended. It was probably the best cream soda I’ve ever drank.
3 days until spring break.
I think I’m going to go skateboarding.
An excerpt of a conversation between me and a kid who is apparently interested in my love-life:
Kid – “Are you married?”
Me – “No”.
Kid – “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Me – “Nope”.
Kid – “Wow, you’re a loser!”
This after I spent 40 minutes trying to teach his stinky, lippy, post-suspensioned monkey-ass how to curl.
I also spent some more time with the same troubled kid from yesterday who, as soon as he saw me arrive at the rink, practically begged me to work with him on his shots again. Ok, this completely blew my mind. It gets better, he’s actually improving and was giving other kids tips. Well done kid, consider my head exploded. At least until tomorrow I’m sure…
I had the Bio students research STD’s (or, STI’s rather) in class today. Tomorrow they will be presenting their findings in front of my UF. I’m looking forward to it. I’m starting to realize how capable they are, how they only seem to do as much as you expect them to and otherwise know how little effort to expend to make it through. Well, some of them anyways. There are a few who are totally clued in and I’m excited for their adult lives, they’re going to be movers and shakers I’m sure.
Chased a couple kids down today to complete their labs. Tried to explain to them how easy it is to get extra marks and that they only had lousy assignment grades because they were being lazy. I wish someone had the same conversation with me in Chemistry 12.
Read the Lorax with my coffee this morning. What a fantastic book. It made me want to get a tattoo of the Lorax. That would be awesomely nerdy I think. I especially like the line in that book that says “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not!”. Oh Dr. Seuss, you were awesome but wait, no, I don’t think I’ll get a tattoo of the Lorax now that I think about it. Cartoon characters make AWFUL tattoos.
Oh yeah! I also forgot to mention that the nearsighted kid from yesterday rocked another triple take-out at the curling rink! He claims it is because of the”weed” he eats before we play. Weed of course referring to these little seaweed strips he fills his pockets with before he leaves home in the morning. He gave me a few and at 9 o’clock this morning, after 3 cups of coffee, I decided that seaweed is not my favorite thing to eat.
Filed under: Students
Alright. Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Tossed and turned it away for a variety of reasons. Lately I’ve really been enjoying sleep, it’s a form of escapism for me to the point where I get bummed out when I wake up. That’s ok, I woke up this morning feeling alright, coffee made me feel better.
Curled for the majority of the day. One 8th grader who was assigned to my team is as blind as a bat. He couldn’t really make out any of the hand signals and barely had an idea where the rocks were on the other end of the ice, yet somehow he landed a triple take-out. It was impressive to say the least. High fives all around for our nearsighted friend.
I got some 1 on 1 time with one of the students who was giving me grief last week. He came to class and instantly started acting like a jerk. I did something that in retrospect I think was a bit out of my league, but it ended up totally working. After I witnessed him misbehaving I called him over. “Listen, I don’t want you ragging on (soandso) this afternoon, alright?”. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I didn’t do anything”. “K”, I say, “don’t bullshit me, let’s just have a good time on the ice, are you down?”. For this I got complete compliance out of him. We went through deliveries, we shot the breeze, he wasn’t disruptive and he actually improved his game during the period. “Nice work”, I remark after the lesson and he gives me a fiver. It was a neat moment. Good kid, just easily swayed.
In Bio we talked about the female reproductive system some more. The kids know a lot less about sex than I assumed they did. I thought this was all going to be review for them, but they are more or less clueless. I think tomorrow we go on to STI’s and birth control. Yeah I know, so all of a sudden I’m teaching sex ed, leave it to the Biology teachers, why not? The funny thing is my approach, which is pretty much deadpan and involves using as many scientific terms as possible. I can only imagine them talking with each other after school about my lesson describing the shluffing of the endometrium with references to lutenizing and follicle stimulating hormones. Haha, hopefully these incredibly unstimulating thoughts will keep prevent some buns in ovens. Anyways, I also had a talk with a couple of girls about how the more you understand Biology in a global sense, the harder it is NOT to be vegetarian. One of them was completely on board and the others were really interested in talking about the ethics around pumping hormones into animals that provide food for humans. I really like to be able to have these kinds of forums during class. These are the times when I see them thinking, as opposed to when they’re copying answers from the text. Which is most of the time.
Next week I’m going to max out with my workload as I’ll be taking on the Science 10 class as well as my Bio 12, and Jr. High PE. This week is half over for me. Next week is a short one as well, then I get a 15 day spring break. Things are going full steam and it’s great, but I can’t wait for some time off.
Oh yeah, I found an interesting link on food additives, check it.
Filed under: Students
Ok, here are some photos. I saw these guys on the way home today.
This is my school.
The drive through the mountains.
Daylight Savings Time is messing with me. I couldn’t pry myself out of bed this morning and was nearly late. Played some curling and had to deal with a couple bratty kids by separating them and keeping them active. There is one kid who is picked on pretty harshly and it basically creates this positive feedback loop of crappiness. He gets a raw deal, dishes out garbage, it gets even worse then someone gets the boot. Everyone loses. Kids can be really mean for no reason and I forget about it all the time.
I also did a poor job at explaining the hormones involved in menstruation, so my homework is to get them straight and go through it again with the students tomorrow morning.
Yesterday I went snowboarding for free. It was wicked and I listened to Iron Maiden’s Powerslave more or less the entire time. It was nice because I could enjoy it without pushing myself to “get my monies worth”. I rode until I was done, then I came back to my place to eat.
UPDATE: After a glass of “stress juice” (a term the teachers I’m staying with use to refer to the vino), the vegan teacher is going to put together a lesson plan that includes placentophagy.
I’m dead-tired. I had a lot of planning to do for today and consequently was up late last night. Plus, it’s mandatory that I watch an episode of Futurama before I fall asleep. One thing about being in the mountains, I’m sleeping like a log. They say it’s the altitude. I say it’s no cats, no ambulances, no roommates or no noisy neighbours. Ah, just joshin’. I can usually sleep through that stuff, well except for the cats. I am basically a slave to them when we share a living space.
Had my university facilitator in again today. He gave me a glowing review which is always nice to hear. I like criticism, but when I hear that what I’m up to is a step in the right direction, it makes me feel like I’ve made the right decision.
The superintendent was in today and I got to sit through a meeting where the staff talked about the pros and cons to refurbishing a 50 year old school as well as building a new one. (Wow, that was a pretty poorly constructed sentence…). Anyways, it was interesting to hear what people had to say regarding the implications either decision will have on the community.
I started my human reproduction unit with the 12’s today. It went over way better than I thought it would, I never give those guys the credit they’re due. There was barely any giggling when I went over the male bits and we had a few discussions involving stem cells, cloning and ethics surrounding abortion. Actually, when I think back on it, it was probably one of the most engaging classes we’ve had so far. Huh. I gave them an assignment to investigate alternative forms of made birth-control. I also told them that, regarding the test they wrote yesterday, they would not get marks for their long answers that consisted of what I call “term-salad”. That is, mashing a bunch of unrelated key terms together hoping for a mark or two. Jokers. I know how that one works, and ten years later it still doesn’t.
Played some more floor hockey with the grade 7’s. My team lost the shoot-out and I had stinky-glove-hand for a portion of the afternoon.
The young man who wants me to help him (with his application for post-secondary) gave me his admittance essay to look over today. It’s pretty rough. He’s a student who speaks English as a second language and it always takes me a bit for me to discern his words and understand the points he’s trying to make. Though I minored in ESLm who would’ve thought it would come into play so early in the game? At any rate, he wants to be a denturist and I have 2 weeks to work with him and get his stuff in order. He’s a good student in my class and I don’t think the language barrier should hold him back.
The girls I tried to get interested in curling yesterday threw snowballs at me after-school. I told them they all had detention tomorrow. They told me they were going partying this weekend and that I wasn’t invited.
The young lad who listens to me drum walked me home and talked my ear off about a bunch of stuff. I’m still trying to convince him to learn how to play an instrument. He says he’ll see me at the upcoming NOFX show.
It’s a beautiful day out there today. I walked home and could smell the melting mountains. There were many streams I passed and it made me a bit homesick. But also, not really. It’s hard to describe, but I almost feel at home away from home here. At any rate, I’m looking forward to being back in the city this weekend. I have some loose ends to tie up and some shots to get.
Oh yeah, the student really dug the new Constantines record.
The last couple of days, whooooweee, where to begin. Ok, so the vegan teacher has picked himself up and dusted himself off. I have no choice. What, am I going to let extracurricular drama affect my last semester of this? That would be insane, I’ve come too far and can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Besides the content I’ve been going through with the students and some floor hockey I’ve been playing on the side (where I attempt to play goal), a certain experience has caught me off guard. Let me elaborate.
So I’m supervising this student, shooting the breeze with him while he’s chosen not to partake in the day’s activity, when he starts misbehaving. Like, really badly. I tell him to cut it out and he challenges me. “What are YOU going to do?”, he goes. “Send you to the office”, I says and the little hellion replies “you wouldn’t dare”. Really. REALLY, I’m thinking. So I go, “give me one more reason to”. He knocks it off for a moment, then his friend joins him and they start screwing around. I tell them to knock it off and they give me the funniest line. “Why should we listen to you? You wear your pants as high up as they go”. (A note, the boys practically had their pant-waists sitting below their boxers). After I explain to them that when you’re my age, the goal of fashion is to not be at risk of flashing anyone your wiener, I send them to the office. “Alright, get outta here, I’ll see you two after school”. The friend says something to the effect of how I’m not his teacher and blah blah blah, but the broken record technique prevails and both of them head to the office.
After class, I meet with them and ask if they can give me a solid reason why I shouldn’t tell my mentor teacher about their bad deeds (he was away during class due to an appointment). They start going on about how I’m their best friend and how I’m nice or something. “Boys”, I go, “I don’t want you to butter me up and I’m certainly not your friend. I want you to explain to me why I sent you to the office”. They continue not getting it and I end up letting them go and informing the teacher.
Turns out, they’ve both had a hard go of it and after I learned the details, it cast them in a different light.
20 minutes later a teacher walks in and tells me that she just handed out two behavioral slips to one of them. At the end of the school day it’s like, kid, go home already!
Anyways, today I get to school ready to start off new with the two boys when a few minutes after my arrival, I am informed that the two were caught being mean to an animal. It wasn’t even 8:00 yet. Seriously! So my mind is blown, we all know people who abuse animals when they’re young have serious issues that need to be addressed, and the staff are fully aware that this one kid in particular needs some guidance. It was a lot to take and my first real experience with this kind of thing. (On a related note, did you hear the one about the marine that threw the puppy off the cliff? I wish I were joking and could say the military doesn’t strip people of their compassion).
So I don’t know. We’ll see what transpires with this whole thing. The staff are fully aware and no one’s turning a blind eye, so I’m interested to see what will be done about these two boys. They’re good kids but they’re having a rough go of it. Fortunately, they are still young enough that they’ll be able to change if someone gets through to them. But it’s really weird when you’re dealing with kids who don’t respond to any positive feedback and only know how to get attention by being little turds.
So enough about the drama.
At the end of today I caught one kid doing laps in the hallway. I queried him on this behavior. He tells me that they’re watching a movie on racism and the ignorance of the fascists being interviewed is really getting his goat. We get into an extensive conversation about racism, sexism, homophobia, capitalism and the failure of the electoral system in the time span of about 20 minutes. Then he asks me if I can burn the new Constantines record for him. For sure. It makes me happy to know some of them are so passionate about making things right, and these are the moments that keep me hopeful.
Filed under: Students
I’m really burned out today. This week was draining and I have a feeling it’s just going to get more intense. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but when you’re student teaching the workload never seems to end. There’s always more you can do. I guess when it comes down to it, I’m going to have to learn how to cut myself off.
There was a lot of idea-sharing between myself and another teacher this week. That’s what I really enjoy about this profession. There are no patents on lesson plans. If you have something that goes over well with students, you share it. There’s no hording. It’s refreshing when you live in a society that can be very individualistic and greedy.
Supervised some kids in the computer lab today. They were trying to hide their myspace accounts behind the window with their assignment on it. It was funny because when I’d call them on it, they’d flat out deny it. Then when I told them that it was the oldest trick in the book and that I practically made that one up when the internet was new (10 years ago, yikes!), they stayed on task. It was a good afternoon because while they were doing their thing, I got to know a few of them a bit better. Those opportunities are hard to come by when it’s lecture after worksheet after quiz.
I’m also trying to give them some things to do that aren’t for marks, but for their own good (as they’ve got a unit test quickly approaching). Some of them get it, some not. I’ve yet to find a way to activate a couple of their brains, but I’ll figure it out. They’re all interested in the Science which is nice, but I’d like to know what would ignite some passion amongst a few of them.
Well, it’s Friday night. I’m finished with all my markin’, have a full belly and am ready for the weekend. There’s an open mic tonight at the firehall. Apparently a few students are going to get up and play so I’m going to go check it out. It will be nice to see some of these people outside of the school environment.
This morning as I was packing up I had a hunch to bring my camera. I neglected to and bummed out 15 minutes later when I came across a pair of deer on my walk to school. It was a heck of a way to enjoy the sunrise and my mug of coffee.
I had my University Facilitator sit in on my Bio class today. You see, it’s up to both my U.F. and my mentor teacher to give me the old pass or fail so there was a bit of pressure. I was kind of nervous and the kids were picking up on it. One girl was even ribbing on me a bit, going on about how it was my turn to be tested. I was way over prepared and worried that my students were going to cause trouble. To my surprise they did the exact opposite. In fact, I have never had a class of students better behaved then today.
Afterwards, we debriefed a bit and he told me that I was on the right track and that he was impressed by my organization. If you know me, you know that I am not one who is regularly organized. However, I’ve actually been trying to make it habitual vis a vis the whole teaching thing because I’ve found that if I’m not, I’m way behind.
I also gave an interactive urinalysis lab today and told my students to assume the role of CSI’s. I’m not entirely sure, but I think they enjoyed it. Most of them got the expected results and a few kids totally had it together. On the lab worksheet, I asked them if there is anything about the investigation that they would change. One kid wrote that the music I played during the lab, (a collection of mid-century Ethiopian jazz), sucked.
More on the topic of kids speaking their minds; I overheard one grade 7 boy tell his friend that his breath smelled “like eggs and crap”.
In other news, I have a screening interview in a couple of weeks with the school board where I did my first practicum. Neato!
Filed under: Students
Blah, today I had an 80 minute Bio class. It was really long and I had to keep it to a specific part of the endocrine system. Too much endocrine. It was a struggle. But I did get to show a Weird Al video in class, and that was fun.
My students are slowly revealing their personalities which is really interesting to experience. The slackers, the goofs, the keeners, the musicians, the athletes. I have a really diverse group in my class for sure.
They say that you’re not supposed to be all buddy-buddy with students and that they really want you just to draw a line in the sand between you and them. I’m attempting to do this and I find it way easier with the Jr. High kids. With the seniors it’s something I work a bit harder at. I think it’s got something to do with 80% of them being taller and more adult-looking then me. Ha!
Ok, I don’t have much today and I’ve got to prep for a lab tomorrow.
Friday. 1 week down. 8 to go. I think I can do it. Today I gave a fairly extensive lecture on the ear. It was a lot of material, but I think some of it got through. I caught one kid drawing penises in his textbook (a la Superbad). I told him that he had until Monday to make them disappear or my mentor teacher would be notified.
Some other ridiculousness happened yesterday. En route to the staffroom, the hallway is full of smoke… Why? Some kids decided to see if microwaving a pencil would split it in two. The kids bolted but were ratted out and one of them spent this afternoon cleaning the microwave in detention.
Sat in on a Gr. 7 health class this morning and the teacher has scheduled the program around the development of a local baby. I think it’s 6 months old now or something. They put a carpet down, let it crawl around and observe it’s length and weight every week. It’s kinda neat, the kids are very interested and it gives them an opportunity to learn about reproduction and development in a tangible way. So today, the Mom was talking about how the baby was a result of in vitro fertilization. The teacher explained that the process involved the sperm fertilizing the egg outside of the body. This piqued an interest in the class and one kid goes, “how do they do it? Like, in a bag?”.
So now I’ve got the weekend off. I think I’m going to go riding tomorrow. It’s my birthday today. I am spending it in my new favorite cafe eating a bagel sandwich and some daal. I think I’m going to get a brownie too. Booked my flight to Africa. I’ve got a 3 day layover in Amsterdam. So that’s neat. Apparently there are some sweet museums to check out over there. I’d like to ride the rail somewhere while I’m there as well. It’s supposed to be way cheap.
I ran into an ex-classmate I haven’t seen since my 2nd year of University. It was nice to see a familiar face, but I’m getting along just fine being surrounded by all these new people. I’m supposed to go riding with the music teacher sometime soon. There are a couple others who have offered to share their corporate passes so as you can see, I’m pretty set up and taken care of.
Once a small-town kid, always a small-town kid I guess. It’s hard to describe it, but there is such a huge difference between being in a place like this and the city. I love the city and all. Actually, I really enjoy the city where I usually reside. But these small mountain towns are way laid back, which is more my style. No traffic, less insanity. People make eye contact with you on the street. I donno. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up teaching in one someday once I am through with all the things city life has to offer.
I handed over the keys to my place around 3 yesterday, said goodbye to my cats and set off with a cup of coffee in hand and a few of my favorite records. It was a beautiful day for a drive and I ventured into the mountains to the tune on the last Minus the Bear, the Wheat Chiefs and some Hot Water Music.
Driving through the mountains I noticed all of the pipework that’s happening in the area. I couldn’t believe the giant tubes that were being buried in order to expand capacity of sludge headed west. It’s the reason why I had a hard time finding a place to stay, the workers have made the vacancy rate hover around zero. I’m not complaining however as two teachers have taken me in and given me a room to sleep in with my own coffee maker. The only stipulation, no talking shop at home. This was broken within minutes of my arrival however when we all sat around the table, ate and drank some wine. Apparently the second of two beverages that are a teaching necessity (the first being the black blood of creativity). Their 12 year old son grilled me on my knowledge of hockey all night. “What’s your favorite team?”, “are you any good?”, “do you know a lot about hockey?”. It was humorous, then I blew his little mind when I told him I’ve been to many concerts. (Gasp) “You’ve been to a concert?”, he asked. “I’ve been to many”, I replied. “You should look at my stereo! Do you have your own Ipod?”. It was funny.
One thing I forgot to mention, when I got into town I was surprised to see these Elk just hanging out in people’s front lawns. Lot’s too. I counted about a dozen and tried to take some photos of them. My host’s son told me about how they’re annoying and that I should throw ice cubes at them.
I work up bright and early and walked to school, arriving at about 7:15. The facilities are quaint and utilitarian. Though the students have access to a pool, a rink and a weight room at the activity centre next door. Apparently I get to take them there for curling lessons in a couple weeks.
Right now my schedule is more or less split in half between Jr. High P.E. and High School Bio. I give my first lesson tomorrow on the eye and get to do the lab with them the following day. Trail by fire, that’s what all the seasoned teachers say is the best way to get through this.
I finished school today and went for a walkabout. The town seems to have everything I’ll need in the coming weeks. An organic grocery, some sweet coffee shops and a veg cafe. Also, might I add that due to this teaching community being so tight knit, this guy is going to be getting some free ski passes. Happy Birthday to the vegan teacher!
Lastly, I’m sure you’ve all heard about the beef recall south of the boarder. Check out this video and ask yourself if it’s ethical to support this industry anymore. I would argue not. The way I see it, the cows in it are no different than our dogs, cats and other companions and deserve to enjoy life to the extent of the rest of us.
Wow, I can’t believe what I just came across! Alright, so in case you don’t know, there is no independent news media in Fort McMurray. Scary since there is so much craziness going on up there right now because of the Oil Sands projects, the boom and the war(s) in the Middle-East. However, Vice TV has put together a documentary that talks about everything that is being kept from concerned citizens including the pipeline being built to Chicago, the destruction of the boreal forest and what actually goes on at the sites. It’s more informative than anything I’ve seen from the press, government reports, corporate disclosures, Parkland or Greenpeace. You’ve got to check it out: Toxic Alberta.
I checked out about 50 booths and a couple others that stood out were alternative forms of power, hybrid cars: do they really cut down on CO2 produced?, the effects of music on your dreams and the mozart effect.
It’s a drag that because of crazy freedom of information and privacy acts, I can’t post any of the pictures that I took from it because I’d need permission from the students and their parents. But I will say that I was impressed overall with the passion for science that some of these students exhibited.
We were all treated to lunch afterwards and I overindulged on V8 juice.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Clash records lately. I have always been bummed out that I missed seeing Joe Strummer in Vancouver a couple years before he died. 1 of 3 shows I’ve missed in my life that I regret (with the Botch finale and the Texas is the Reason reunion being the other 2). Anyways, they played in Edmonton in ‘82, right before Combat Rock was released. I was only a year old. If my friend who shot photos for the university paper ever goes through his rolls and finds his shots, I’ll put them up here. Apparently the barricade collapsed and he’s got some good photos of Joe cooling down the crowd while security dealt with the mess.
Lastly, have you ever heard of Garbage Island?
Filed under: Students
I’m on the plane, heading back home for the holidays. The flight was a couple hours late and I met a nice lady in the airport with a wiener-dog that just had a $6000 back operation (it was paralyzed, and the cutest). But I have 2 hours to entertain myself so it’s time to talk about wrapping up the old I.P.T.
The morning of my last day started off great. In fact, I had more fun in that lab than I’ve probably had in the last 5 weeks. Not just because it was my last day, but it was also a kid’s last day. The kid knew too, that he didn’t really have to work, so he spent most of the class causing disruptions. Consequently, I spend most of the class booting him out into the hall to finish his work. I’d let him back in when he was done only to have to kick him out within minutes because he would say something inappropriate to crack up the rest of the class. “M!”, i’d say, “back in the hall!”. “But Mr.T”, he’d reply, “the floor is hurting my ass”. Apparently a girl gave him the old boot in the bum the day before and the linoleum floor was an uncomfortable sit. Regardless, “M! Get out there!”. Observe what seasoned pros refer to as the Broken Record Technique when dealing with students (especially young ones). “But Mr. T. I’ll be good!”. “M. Get out there”. But Mr. T. common, it’s my last day!”. “M. get out there”. “When can I come in?”, “when you’re done your diagram”, I’d reply. He knew I was joshing with him, regardless of it being his last day I still have to set an example for the rest of the kids. During the last 20 minutes I rewarded M. by having him demo the lab with me in front of the kids. At the end of the period he asked me if I’d see him before the day was done and I promised him we’d have a party later.
Finish class. Rip back into tow to pick up the P.A. and the lads in the band. After another cup of coffee and a treacherous load out of our studio (down to the car on what I refer to as death stairs as they’re angled at 80 degrees and icy), we made our way back. The jig was pretty much up when the grade 9 gym class saw us bring guitars and drums into the gymnasium, and I made it to my way back to K. and the University Facilitator who officially signed me off. That is, I passed my I.P.T. Definitely another “woo” moment. Back to the gym. Bands show up, sound guy-friend shows up and we get ready to throw down.
Kids get called into the gym and are instructed to sit down where the Social teacher (a fabulous woman who’s idea the show was to begin with) tells them to behave and that we’re going to have a dance. Music’s loud, kids are milling about and nodding their heads. Some are really intrigued by the opener, who is playing a guitar along with music he programmed into his ipod. It was pretty cool. We got the kids to clap along to his last song. They were stoked.
We get on and I’ve gotta say, I had no idea what to expect really. These kids had never seen an independent band before and well, i don’t think any of us had ever played to anyone younger than 16. But it was rad. By the end, the Grade 8 girls were go-going, a few were doing their weird break-dancing thing, a few up-and-coming bangers were making with the hariwhips, and the budding punkers were jumping around.
Half way through the set, we dedicated a song to M. and he was floored. Then we gave a shout out to I. for getting me his lab report bright and early this morning, (I was on his case yesterday to complete it for easy marks), and he blushed and laughed. We played for 30 minutes and the teachers asked us to play a little more so we broke out a Replacements tune and gave the kids tambourines. After the set we were mobbed for pins, picks, and broken drumsticks by the students who were looking for momentos. It was funny to sign shirts and shoes and whatnot. Some girl said she couldn’t wait ‘till we were famous to which I replied, “we’ll be dead before we’re famous”. T., the budding punker said we should name our next album after that remark. I also got to get my little speech in there about how it’s not about being famous, but doing what you love which was more or less the theme of the event, articulated better by various other band members during the set.
Afterwards we packed up and I said my goodbyes. I’ll really miss that school. Overall, my practicum couldn’t have gone any better. My mentor teacher was the best, hands down. He gave me a DVD with 10 years of his work, which is basically an entire Jr. High Science program, and stressed the importance of sharing material with other teachers. After all, this is one of the last occupations that hasn’t been completely boiled down to the capitalist boner-land that would have teachers hoarding their work for the sake of competition for dollars (though it’s starting in our neighbors to the South).
J, the other student teacher I worked, with helped get me through some rough times and we pretty much propped each other up the whole way through. This was an interesting relationship because I think she was the first Creationist I’d ever got along famously with. We left our politics at the door and focused on doing the best we could to help each other out which paid off in a deeper understanding of our experience. The rest of the teachers were incredibly helpful, I am very grateful to have worked with such a wonderful staff who were pretty much on call for us when it came to dealing with our constant inquiries, sitting in on their classes and sharing of their resources.
Lastly, the students made the last 4 weeks one of the best experiences in my life teaching ME how to be flexible.
Thank you Ecole Rudolph-Hennig Jr. High.
Anyways, the Vegan Teacher is going to take a couple of weeks off to enjoy the holidays. These 6am mornings have been killing me and I’ve got hours of sleep to catch up on, some non-fiction I’ve been meaning to get to and a snowboarding itch to scratch so I’ll see you in the new year. Merry Xmas and be sure to cash in on that chocolate-peppermint Vitasoy while it’s available!
