Speedy McFasty

Just a really quick post (which is appropriate! ha!). For those that have seen my biking video, you may recall that my previous max speed was 51.6km/hr. Today I shattered that. Flying down Smythe Street, tears streaming down my face, I hit a whopping 61.1km/hr on the old spedometer! I think I may technically have been speeding. Fortunately, no cops in the area!

Sounds of the Season

No, I'm not talking about carols wafting out from store fronts, or bells jingling on horse sleighs, or even the scraping of frost off of car windshields. Rather, I refer to a uniquely maritime sound with which I have become aquainted.

The other day I had a car drive past me that had wheels that made a weird sound on the pavement. It sounded almost like it had a flat tire, or something stuck in the treads. But the car was a beater, so I just laughed at it and thought nothing more of it. Then yesterday the same thing happened. And today, yet another. No longer could it be a coincidence. So I took a closer look at the tires on the car today and noticed the glint of metal coming from the treads. That's when I remembered - unlike Ontario, the Maritimes allow studded tires. So while Ontarians are all switching to their winter tires, out here folks are putting on the studs, and making more of a racket on the roads.

Parent-Teacher

Tonight was an interesting experience - my first parent-teacher conferences (made more interesting by the pitcher of beer we shared at dinner!). We had about 7 or 8 sets of parents through, which was far less than some other teachers (for example, the one next door who is reknown for being really tough), but still a decent turnout. I was surprised that I couldn't pick up a pattern as to which parents came and which didn't. Other than the obvious that the parents who came obviously care a lot about their child. But there was no trend in terms of marks. We had a couple of sets in about their daughters who are both doing extremely well (mid to high nineties) and just want to make sure they're developing the right study habits for university. We had a couple in for students that struggle through the math but aren't failing (65-75 (60 is the pass number at my school)) - discussions over whether they should take the more advanced math next year, or hire a tutor and so forth. Then we had a few in about kids who are not doing well, mostly because the student just isn't willing to put in any time. The parents are obviously concerned, caring and well-meaning and the kids don't seem to correlate at all with the parents, which was an assumption I had had going in. I learned a fair amount about discussing marks, attendance and behaviour with parents without pissing them off. My cooperating teacher has it down to an art.

Speaking of attendance, I had the pleasure of making my first calls home to a parent today. The students had received their report cards about 10 days ago and had until yesterday to bring them back signed. We had told them that if they were not back by today we would be phoning home to pass on the marks and ensure the parents knew about parent-teacher night. Lo and behold, two students had not returned them - they had also not been in school the last two days, so we couldn't really fault them for it. I called one number and left a message. But at the second number I spoke with his mother.

Me: Hi, I'm calling from your son's high school. Last week we handed out report cards and he hasn't returned it signed yet.

Mom: Sigh. I signed it and gave it to him four days ago.

Me: That's okay - probably just kids being kids. Hahaha.

Mom: Yeah - he's not that organized. I'll have a discusson with him tonight.

Me: Besides which, I know he wouldn't have been able to bring it in since he's been away from school these last two days.

[awkward silence]

Mom: I'm sorry, he's been what?

Me: Ah...I take it this will be a more interesting conversation between you two tonight.

Mom: But he's at school right now, right?

Me: Um...not so much...at least he wasn't there for homeroom and period 3 math, which are my classes with him.

Mom: Well thank you very much. We will deal with this.

Me: No problems. Reminder about parent-teacher night...

So I caught my first student jigging (which is East Coast for skipping class). You have to wonder about a student who jigs the two days before parent-teacher night when we'd told him we'd be phoning home if he didn't return the report card. Nice work Einstein.

On another note, I gave my grade 10s, who I have been teaching on my own now for 2 weeks, a quiz today that was on all the material I've covered. It will be a bit of a test of how well I'm getting through to them. Initial returns are not so great, at least for the morning class, with an average of 68%. In my defence, I will point out my cooperating teacher says the morning class is the most difficult math class he's had in 4 years. I haven't finished marking the afternoon grade 10s yet, but I suspect they did much better. He says they're the best math class he's had in 4 years...extremes abound.

But things are progressing well in this internship. It is tiring - always having to think of what to do the next day, always having to "perform" in front of the class. But I'm gaining confidence and think I'm starting to deal with the classes well - particularly when it comes to discipline issues now. Just wait til you hear my teacher voice :-)

First week

First week at school is now over and I'd say things went fairly well. My cooperating teacher is slowly integrating me into the classroom. TuesdayI taught my first class (using his lesson plan) and it seemed to go pretty well, although I did talk for a little too long (which I'm sure comes as a shock to those of you who know me). For the rest of this week I'll be teaching one class, then the following two weeks I'll be doing two before finally picking up the full teaching load. I must say I'm looking forward to it. It keeps you very engaged to always have to be talking or thinking about students - the day goes by pretty quickly!

There's a dress code at our school, but it doesn't always seem to be enforced. Sure, nobody wears hats and I haven't seen any "revealed undergarments" yet, but slogans on t-shirts aren't really monitored. Last week I had these two t-shirts in my homeroom (subsequent days - same kid):

That's funny - last night your daughter was calling me daddy too.
You're definitely on my to do list.

I found them funny anyhow :-)

Also, two "only in New Brunswick" moments. I have two kids in my class with the same last name. I thought maybe they were brothers or cousins or something...no...it turns out one of them is the uncle of the other one! Go figure...

Second moment - we were discussing ways to heat a home and the teacher said the most cost-effective way is still a wood stove. Then he started discussing the cost of a cord of wood. Now, I don't even know what a "cord" of wood is, let alone have any clue about its cost. But these kids knew what a cord was and knew down to the dollar the cost of a cord of wood. Local issues I guess.

Anyhow, managing to stay above water here :-)

Different Backgrounds

Yesterday I went for a hike with a couple of friends and Carrie's dog, Meadow, who I have been dog-sitting for the last week. We hiked the Irving Nature Trail in St. John. Despite its name, it was actually a very pleasant hike through some woods and along a rocky and sandy beach. It was windy with the ocean waves crashing in and felt very raw, which I enjoyed. The hike was not too challenging, but good exercise nonetheless. Meadow certainly enjoyed it!

Of course, when one (or three) are walking, there is little else to do but chat, and it was though this conversation that I realized how "normal" my upbringing has been and how much of a "city boy" I am, despite my best efforts to be a camper. Kendra, one of the hikers, was born in the Northwest Territories and, when she was six, moved to Cambridge Bay, a very small town of 900 well above the tree line. She grew up celebrating a mingmunk festival (musk ox festival) and would go ice fishing each spring with her friends, hopping from ice floe to ice floe, dropping her jig into crevices.

Sean T, who also came hiking, has a similarly interesting and rural background. He's 40, has 2 kids and only recently received his undergrad degree. At 15 he dropped out of school and spent a year in Alaska long-line fishing. He's worked as a painter (fell off a ladder once and broke both legs and both arms at the same time) and lives on a very tiny island off the coast of Nova Scotia, population around 750.

Fascinating people, but very different backgrounds from my suburban, sheltered life. I'm really glad I'm getting to know folks like this. Gives me the courage to try new things and not worry so much about failing...

At long last...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was working on a project the other night that was interrupted by, quite literally, the Soup Nazis. The project in question was a video or photo project for our technology class. Each student (or group of students) had to put together a video or photo story on any subject.

The end products were absolutely fabulous. All very well done and ranged from comedies to documentaries to dramas to horrors. I wish I had access to all of them because I would post them here, but sadly, copies were not provided.

I chose to work alone, having had more than my fill of group projects. And because I have had people express an interest in my bike trip out to Fredericton, I thought why not combine the two tasks and do a digital story of me and my bicycle. For those with enough bandwidth, patience and hard drive space, the final product is available here. I used Movie Maker, which is a free software from Microsoft that actually isn't all that crappy.

I hope you enjoy it, if you take the time to download it. We held a little Academy Awards ceremony for our class and I'm pleased to say that the video won Best Documentary. It was also nominated for Best Picture, but couldn't pull it out against some very tough competition.

Happy watching!

Halloween Wedding Party

Well, my last post was a gripe about Halloween, but there was a decidedly positive spin to it as well. My neighbours Carrie and Leah decided to host a Halloween costume party, before going out on the town.

As a group, we went for a 1980s wedding party. Carrie and Dan went as the bride and groom, Matt and myself as groomsmen and Kendra and Leah as bridesmaids. We added a couple of "fathers" of the bride and groom due to their outfits. Matt, with the geeky glasses, is in my class as well (so is Kendra - the others are not). We were a very slick looking bunch. And, for those of you who remember my birthday a couple of years ago, I finally got the opportunity to employ my pink suspenders. I won't tell you that I also wore this outfit to school on Monday (we have to dress "formally" on Mondays, so I thought I would push the envelope) and Wednesday (we had an "Academy Awards" of sorts for our year-end video projects...more on that in a subsequent post).

The place we went was called the Blue Door (my parents and brother will remember it from our dinner out), with all proceeds going to a charity operating in Havana, Cuba. Had a good time there. I keep forgetting that drinks can be cheap - they have specials here all the time, like in Manitoba. Not like Ontario were the drinks always have to remain the same price!

Because the 28th was the night the clocks went back an hour, we had an extra hour out, so most of us didn't turn in until pretty close to 4am old time. But it was a very fun evening. If your interested, more photos are available here.

Edumacation...

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I've been drafting entries in my head, so I've got some stuff to catch up on. The first is a rant against St. Thomas University. Its computer access sucks. The computers in our building are only accessible from 10am to 7pm. We're in classes every day from 8-5. The other computer lab on campus (yes, there are only two labs) is open until 11pm. Now, I understand this is a small school and it has no moeny so that explains their normal crappy hours. However, on Halloween night they went even further.

The student council had run something they call Trick or Eat. It's a very admirable cause where instead of trick or treating for candy, students go around and ask for canned goods that they donate to either the Fredericton food bank or the food bank for students on campus. Can't fault that. However, after they had complied 2800 lbs of food in the lobby of James Dunn Hall, they decided they needed to close the whole place down at 10pm so no one would steal the food. And yes, the computer lab is in that building. So at 10pm they kicked us all out, including those of us working on an assignment due the next day that I could not work on at home (software only on school computers).

Now, first of all, I would assume a university's priority would be education, so they should maximize the amount of time available for students to work on their assignments. Second of all, why were they worried about people stealing the food? It was going to the food bank (and the student food bank) – where it’s given away for free. Anyone taking it from the pile that night probably needs it too.

So because of a fear of having food stolen that was going to be given away for free, no computers were available anywhere on campus after 10pm. Absolutely ridiculous. Fortunately, my friend Carrie had the software on her computer and let me borrow her laptop for the rest of the night to finish the project. But not stellar support from the University.