Got a ton of things done today. Had a bunch of mailing to do, registered with the GoC as a visiting citizen (which apparently comes in handy should anything unexpected go down when I’m in Ghana), bought some money orders and went to my cohort meeting. We talked a little more about the program and I guess it’s best described as follows; there’s a lot of emphasis on North/South relations in any globalization class you take post-secondary, but it’s all textbook information. Simply put, the point of this trip is going to be experiencing some of the things that are going down in the developing world (many a result of the consumptive patterns and exploitative nature of the West), in the context of being a pre-service teacher interested in creating little global citizens. I still know very little about what I’m getting myself into, but I’m making sure to keep an open mind in order to have it (for lack of a better word) exploded. It seems to me that this year is all about shaking up my little routines and I have come to really embrace all the new challenges that keep popping up. But I digress.
I picked up the new Nightmarchers record yesterday. They’re the new project of one Mr. John Reis, aka Speedo (see: Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes). The album is fantastic, not only does it pick up where the last Hot Snakes record left off, but there’s a lot more of a 50’s rock and roll feel to the album and hey, it’s nice to hear Speedo’s voice again. I was always a big fan of “Mystery Boy” on Auto Midnight and I feel like he finally made the record I wanted to hear since then.
It’s very humid here, my hair is huge and it seems like the tomato plants are not enjoying it. Last night an old friend dropped by unannounced and we spent the evening on the stoop with a bottle of wine catching up. It’s a magical thing when you can pick up where you left off a long time ago. In some ways it feels like it’s been forever since we last had to opportunity to really hang out but in others, it’s like yesterday we went on our first tour together.
I’m back home for 10 more days. The shows went really well. In fact, I think it was the most successful jaunt I’ve ever been on. There are a few things that help keep spirits high when you’re on the road with your band:
The first is people actually coming out to the shows. Since we were opening for a bigger band we had nothing to worry about in that department. Sometimes you can hit a town half a dozen times and still only get 10 people out. On this one about 100 people watched us every night which is rewarding after sinking hour after hour into writing and rehearsing.
The second is promotion for the shows. We had some awesome people work really hard for us on this tour. That and the fact that we’re charting nationally now added to people actually being aware that we existed before we hit the stage. It’s neat to be out of town and have people sing along to your songs. I’ve never experienced that before, though the last touring band I played in was an instrumental one.
The third is pay. It can be a real bummer when you get paid out $6 at the end of the night when you have to find food, a place to stay and put gas in the tank. Fortunately for us, we were paid handsomely by each promoter and sold some merch to boot. This alleviates a ton of stress and I don’t think any of us had to dip into personal savings. A huge success in the world of independent music.
Fourth: tour tantrums. Spending a large portion of your day in a hot van with your bandmates can be grating. If people aren’t careful to keep their attitudes in check, the day can easily turn into a drag. Being that we’ve all run this gamut before in other bands, we made a point to air our grievances which helped raise awareness of things that can be done on a personal level to improve the overall enjoyment of the experience. It’s neat, we’re all older dudes and we were all pals before we started this thing, so it feels like everyone is a little more invested in making sure people are having a good time.
Anyways, our homecoming show was bananas and we were offered a spot to play at the Western Canadian Music Awards which is kind of neat. It’s a strange thing, this band. Things just seem to keep coming our way. The band we played with wants to bring us to Montreal in the fall. They really dug our stuff and would like to help us out so we’re starting to draft plans for the fall, which brings me to my next topic.
When I returned home, I arrived to find that I got a B in my ethics class and a reply from the public school board. Turns out my application was accepted and I was provided with information on how to apply for a job subbing this fall (which I will be able to do once I finish my last class and get my teaching certificate). That’s really what I’m going to shoot for. Having the flexibility to do the band thing and be in the school environment when I’m at home seems like the bees knees to me, for the next while at least. You know, you’ve got to keep moving forward, but you can’t forget who you are or what keeps you in love with the world. This is a lesson I’ve come to learn in the last couple of years re: happiness.
Ok, Africa time. Today I begin making with the preparations. First thing’s first; getting my itinerary together as well as a making list of supplies I need to pick up and things I need to take care of.
Ask me about the off duty fiduciary responsibilities of a teacher sometime and after a short giggle, I will tell you about me acting all in loco parentis. Sounds pretty smart eh? Yeah right, but for the next ten days I am all about the legalese in my ethics class.
So I think some of the responses I’ve been getting (regarding my search for a new roommate) are kind of funny:
“I’m 23, very quiete and clean as well. I’m not vegetarian but i like to cook and very open minded on everythings
you can reach me at (phone number).
You can call me even if it’s negative.”
“Hi!!!
I am a young professional looking for a nice, quiet, and clean place to live. Due also to my previous experiences I do not tolerate drugs, smoking, or parties or any other form of erratic or/and stupid behavior. I am financially stable- so there is no doubt that I can pay my rent- and I am looking forward to hear from you if the aforementioned conditions are met.
Thanks!!!”
So tonight I’m going to see NOFX. Should be fun. Jeeze, I’ve been listening to those guys forever. Well, not as much in the past few years, but from 94-98 i had them in my IV drip of punk.
I finished up with one of my applications to a school board today, the one that I already interviewed with. Now I play the waiting game with that one.
Got my visa for Ghana in the mail, so that’s pretty much in the can. Nothing left to do but get a mosquito net, a power converter and get on the plane.
My ethics class is pretty funny. Half the students are in the same position that I’m in (last class of the degree) and it’s funny to see everyone who just came off their practicums strut their stuff in front of the class when it comes to giving presentations. At times it’s almost unbearable since there seems to be this dichotomy created separating those who are done, and those who’ve yet to do a practicum. I just kind of sit back and take in some of the ridiculous things people say such as “why do we let the dumb majority push us teachers around? We’re the ones who are supposed to know more about education”. I swear that was a direct quote from this morning’s session. But it’s not so bad and it makes for a good class dynamic. It’s true what they say though, after spending 2.5 months teaching, being back in class is a bit of a drag.
Time to break out the BBQ.
Not much new here. I’m home for the weekend and it’s snowing. Hopefully it’s doing the same in the mountains because I’m planning on hitting the ski-hill Sunday. I have a lot of work to do and errands to run in town, but I’ve been feeling pretty isolated so I think I’m going to try to see as many friends as possible while I’m here. Picked up my ticket to Africa today. Tried to do my taxes, didn’t have the proper form. Went out for lunch, went to band practice. Pretty mundane. I’m feeling very underslept. Had a cohort meeting with my Bio APT class. It was sad, they are a fantastic bunch of people and I doubt we’ll ever be in the same room again. My prof was the most excellent. Bar none. Thank you for that.
Interview with a school board tomorrow. Nervous? Not at all actually.
Over and out.
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!
One of the neat things about my living situation is that there is another room on my floor, rented out for other guests to stay in. This weekend an awesome couple were in town and last night we sat around the living room last night sharing stories. Turns out one of them (D.) lived in Kenya for the first 18 years of his life and his partner is a prof at my university who’s actually writing a book on sexuality in Africa (with a focus on the queer community). Very interesting stuff! I had my mind blown several times during our conversation as they told me stories that I would have never heard otherwise.
D has been back 8 times in the past 4 years and does work with a non-profit that tries to find disabled Kenyans work. It’s hard enough to be a resident there where the rate of unemployment is extremely high and the term minimum wage has no tangible meaning. But the people are very industrious and I saw some photos of things people were selling to get by that were literally made from garbage. One woman made shopping bags from wire and bottle caps. Another man’s job was going door to door in the slums offering his knife-sharpening service. The contraption he used to sharpen knives he made himself from various waste materials. The whole time I was being regaled with these stories, I couldn’t help but think about how much material we throw out that is usable.
Another thing they told me about was the water, and how it was usually undrinkable and black in colour. The lady, C., had a woman with “freshly” washed hands touch a cob of corn she bought and told me that the resulting effect was her first experience with projectile vomit.
It sounds like the vegan thing is going to be my biggest challenge while I’m there. While legumes and fruits are widely available, there isn’t much of an animal rights movement in a land where people struggle to get by on a daily basis. They told me that while I will probably be able to find food to eat, but the slaughterhouses there have glasswindows (unlike they do here) and people treat animals fairly poorly.
Lastly, they provided me with all kinds of tips on critical vaccinations and what to do to prevent pickpocketing and such. They were very clear that while things happen, I should be looking forward to the experience this summer as Africa is an amazing place. And I am. As well, they said my experience in Ghana will likely differ from theirs in Kenya. Don’t worry Mom, I’m going to have access to clean water.
Today I woke up, found some excellent breakfast/coffee and spent the majority of my time at the school marking, putting together tests and tomorrow’s lesson plan. A couple of other teachers ended up coming around during the day and I got to know them a little better. One of them invited me out to the community dinner that goes down every Sunday night and is put on by various local groups. Also, it’s pay by donation. Score! I don’t know who put it on tonight, but I ate like a king and met a few more locals. It was totally fun.
When I came home I marinated some tempeh bacon for the morning and had had a chat with the 12 year old (S.) who lives here. The one who screened me my first night, you remember. Tonight I asked him about the music he listens to. Sure enough, his hockey warmup playlist consisted of some predictably bad stuff. Hey, I don’t care if he’s 12. Kids today are unfortunately exposed to some total crap, marketed by labels that know their bands are seriously lacking in content. SAs a result, they appeal to people who were never exposed to the Nirvanas, Elvis Costellos and Minor Threats. So I’m going to make him a mixtape. Get ‘em into the good stuff while they’re young.
Filed under: Studies
Usually I look forward to bands rolling through my town. I keep my ear to the ground by scanning the local weeklies and checking pollstar, on occasion I am rewarded for my efforts by knowing way in advance that soandso are coming and that tickets go on sale whenever. However, for the first time in my life it is not a band coming through that I am looking most forward to, but a science exhibit! Yesterday, coincidentally the same day I gave a presentation on the Human Systems unit of Bio. 20, our class found out that Bodyworlds is coming in June! The entire class laid a collective egg and we’re already making plans to reunite after our practicums to go check it out. Horray! Bio-nerds unite! It doesn’t get much better than this, unless it’s possible to go on a coelacanth dive.
Bodyworlds!
On another positive note, I’ve got to say that I’ve really enjoyed this semester in school. Regardless of my financial woes, the content has been fantastic, my instructor is totally ballin’ and my peers are an eclectic bunch whose company I couldn’t enjoy more.
I’ve also got to share some of the most important things I’ve learned up until now. As a teacher, one of your most important skills is your ability to act. To look like you’ve got things under control when in actuality they may be everything but so. Though developing this skill isn’t outlined in the syllabus, it’s definitely part of the hidden curriculum. How to become a good actor? Develop your coping skills as well as the ability to wing it if things don’t go according to plan.
Coping skills? Accepting the fact that things will get done and not stressing about them in the meantime. Though I may not seem to have any of these, I’ve actually come a long way since first year. Looking back on my living situation, I can see how far along roommates that I’ve had were at the time. I can remember incidences of coming down the stairs the night before an exam, freaking out about how much I didn’t know and having a friend of mine invite me to watch Star Wars instead of cramming. Lesson learned: if you don’t know it the night before an exam, cramming won’t do anything for you and you’re better to relax and get a good sleep. It’s true to. If you cram the night before a final, you MIGHT raise your grade by 3-5%. This is about the same increase you’ll see if you get a good night’s sleep. Serious. Coping skills.
Thinking on your feet. Something that I learned during my IPT was that you can have your lesson plan ready, but there’s about an 80% chance that it isn’t going to flow according to it. If you are rigid and try to stick to your plan without being flexible, you’re doomed. If you relax and get comfortable with flying by the seat of your pants a bit, you’re as good as gold.
Filed under: Studies
Today we listened to a presentation of how to teach evolution in a climate that has a strong anti-evolution faction. The interesting thing is that our guest was a self described evangelical Christian with Ph.Ds in both Theology and Biology. I might write more on this later, right now I have to sneak a nap in. The thing about living with cats is sometimes you have no control over when they decide it’s time for you to get up. For me this morning that time was apparently 5:00.
Filed under: Studies
Yesterday we had a presentation from a teacher who used to teach on the Blood Reserve in Southern Alberta. He was Blackfoot and the point of the lesson was introducing aboriginal perspectives into science education. The most captivating part was hearing him talking about how a lot of science education focuses on attaining empirical facts, but neglects to recognize how we ended up there. Then we talked about the tradition of storytelling and how it can bring people together by keeping them from forcing to choose between what’s “right” or what’s “wrong”.
The thing that struck me the most was something he said, and that I’ve been thinking about for the last day or so. That is, and I’m paraphrasing, forcing students to accept facts is a form of violence. What you want to do as an educator is to provide your students with the opportunity to end up there on their own. I know it’s a little hippie-dippie-doo and that you can’t just ignore wrong answers and whatever, but I think the point was a bit of a revelation for me. I think North American education, for the most part, is an extension of colonialism in that it’s still a my-way-or-the-highway type deal. Evolution (or creationism in some states) is the be all and end all. I’m not suggesting we give it all up, start anew or anything, but we’ve definitely got to be able to accept the fact that somethings don’t work as well as we’d like to think they do.
Putting all the emphasis on marks, which is more or less institutionalized by government policy, doesn’t do anything for kids but teach them that to succeed as human beings they’ve got to be able to think about things the way they’re told to. Through rote memorization, you produce kids who can recite the periodic table of elements, but are incapable of applying rationality in a simple conversation. You and I see it all the time.
So, by thinking about aboriginal perspectives in science is not to say that we should dwell in our colonial past, but move toward a more holistic system of education, that’s all. What does the periodic table have to do with us, and our environment. What is the point of knowing all the elements? Is there one? I think if a kid can leave high school being able to discuss something like this, the system has done something for him/her. That’s what fascinates me about science by the way, is the interconnectedness of everything. An obvious example, how what we choose to put into our body affects the world around us and the other inhabitants that depend on it. I think we really start moving forward when we start recognizing these kinds of relationships.
Filed under: Studies
Ok, before you read this post ask yourself the following questions:
1. What makes the seasons?
2. Why does the moon have phases?
I like it when things I think I know are challenged and proven to be false. I like learning things and I dread becoming someone stuck in their ways who has lost the ability to adapt. Well I am in some ways (ie. I don’t have and refuse to buy a cell phone), but when it comes to information, gimmie gimmie gimmie, I need I need I need! Anyways, today we were talking about what inhibits people’s ability to learn and watched a video wherein Harvard graduates were asked the two questions I mentioned. In the video, everyone of them was shown responding with the wrong answers. Then they interviewed a class of Grade 9s, many of whom also gave the incorrect answer (some of them pretty amusing, like a figure eight earth orbit). The point of it was understanding how we formulate incorrect notions of our understanding of things. Turns out, most of it is based on experience, and how we might originally come across the info.
For example, I answered the moon question incorrectly (which was puzzling, since I just taught a unit on the solar system). When I answered “the phases of the moon are due to earth’s shadow”, I was thinking back to models I’ve seen of the Moon revolving around Earth and it made sense in my mind. I didn’t take into account that the model I was referencing was not to scale, and that caused this crazy disconnect.
So what else do I think I know, but totally don’t? I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff and I want to find out what it is, like now! Unfortunately, (and I’m paraphrasing Donald Rumsfeld here) I know what I know, and know what I don’t know, but I don’t know what I don’t know. So, I guess it will come out the next time I take my car to the garage to get fixed and ask the mechanic about some engine part that has nothing to do with the problem, or at the farmers market when I think I know how some vegetable grows and get called out by a 10 year old.
In case you were wondering, the seasons are caused by the earth being tilted at 23.5 degrees (not due to an elliptical orbit) and the phases of the moon are caused by the direct illumination of it by the sun, and how much of that is visible to us from the angle in which we see it.
In other news, China is going to ban plastic bags! Step it up Canada!
When I come back from being on the road I get what I refer to as a post-tour bummer. After being closely surrounded by your friends and exposed to new terrain everyday, the shock of re-adopting a sessile lifestyle at home takes a good day or two to adjust to. This is also funny, because I am also prone to early-tour crazies that is; after a day or two of being in a van with people in close proximity I want to lose it from not having my own space. These things come and go, and due to our travels being relatively short (5 days), I’ve had both feelings in less than a week. So there’s that. Also, I would like to add that being on tour with a band is not unlike being with your family at Christmas time. At times, it is no walk in the park. To have the best experience, you really have to overcome some of the things others do that drive you completely nuts. Most times, I’m pretty good at taking everything with a grain of salt, but there have been times over the last few years when I’ve felt like quitting because I couldn’t deal with the egos, neuroses or negativity of members I was traveling with. Not to say that I am the model citizen in this regard. It’s just that you’ve really got to let the bad stuff slide to make it through to the next show. However, that is not to say that a little tension doesn’t mean you will play horribly because some of the best shows I’ve played were partially a result of inter-member drama. I guess after being exposed to it you are able to understand why bands split due to creative differences. Anyways, I digress and onto what seems to be my other personality.
This semester is going to be really fun. Basically, I’m in class taking 3 courses in 5 weeks. Some of the things we’re going to be doing include outdoor field trips, judging science fairs and going to check out the science Olympics at some high school. It’s an intense workload and I’ve got to fit some part time work in there to make sure I’ll be able to pay my bills, but I’m totally up for the challenge. Today I’ve got to study the curriculum for Bio 30 and figure out a way to teach it to my peer group as part of a jigsaw exercise.
Two more things.
Did you know there was once a headless chicken that survived for over a year? It’s pretty weird, and I don’t condone how Mike came to lose his head, but the story is interesting nonetheless.
Also, a cat was microwaved to death in small town Alberta last week. Not the first incident of animal cruelty to happen here in the past while. The good news is that there are some steps being taken to prevent these kinds of things by strengthening Canada’s animal cruelty laws but more support is needed to make it happen. If this interests you, check out Bill C-373 and throw some weight behind it by contacting your MP.
