How Long Does it Take to Fall in Love with a Country?

Perhaps it's the cumulative effect of my exploratory journeys across the land in which I now reside that have enflamed in me something resembling a fondness for this strange and complex island or maybe I'm just getting used to it but...

I'm actually starting to feel like I like it here.

Living and working London has been one thing but in the past 6 months I've been to Wales, Scotland, York, Stratford, Derbyshire, Brighton and Liverpool.

In London I've managed to see Hampton Court, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, The Thames, The London Eye, Brick Lane, Oxford Street, Covent Garden, The Tate Modern Art Gallery, The Tate Britain Art Gallery, The Natural History Museum, The British Museum, Somerset House, Soho, Greenwich and Greenwich Park, Canary Wharf, Borough Market, The National Portrait Gallery, St. James' Park, Hyde Park, seen the Changing of the Guard...been to the Globe Theatre...

and the list goes on but..

...it's only in the last week or two that I've actually started to enjoy living here.

I think a huge part of it is working at this school and feeling like I'm starting to get this teaching thing figured out. I came home a week ago on a high (which I wrote about on this blog) and I haven't really felt the old negativity since.

I can now navigate London with out anxiety. I know the lay of the land - it doesn't seem so confusing, claustrophobic, cramped and dull as it once did. I don't feel so claustrophobic in general.

I wrote numerous posts about how crowded this country is and how, for some reason, the Brits have to put fences, hedges, and what not in the line of sight at all times. The result is you can literally never see farther than 100 feet. Watch any British TV show - that's how it looks. I always assumed they were filming in some quaint area of the country. That's everywhere. Also - all pubs, stores and restaurants are tiny compared to Canada. I'm now starting to understand the British love of the "cozy." Everything is so small that you start to treasure a warm quiet spot. The result is I'm starting to feel at home.

I've also gotten used to the architecture. This country is full of brick. Everything is hard, dark, echoey, cold, loud and looks somewhat worse for wear. To be blunt - a lot of it is not that pretty (though I've discovered that much of it is). I did't like all the hard brick and stone for a long time. It's not that comfy feeling to a Canadian. I've gotten used to it now and I actually enjoy the good parts of it.


Above: Clapham High Street. Not too far from me. Typical looking street.

I no longer stare at the way people dress with amazement. I mean, compared to Canada or the US people here dress really strangely. Those who are "stylish" are off the charts compared to Canada and then there's the strange national obsession with the drab, tweed, hats...hard to explain but I found the dress here bizarre for ages.




I now have a feeling for pop references and politics. This might not sound like much but think of how many times you talk about a famous TV program, film or politician in a day. Remove 60% of your knowledge of that stuff and see how you feel. I tried to glean information about it from the news rags and gossip columns they have here but it's all very distorted. Keep in mind they have THE most blatantly biased news papers in the universe here as well. They don't worry about neutrality as much as in North America. Some (The Daily Mail) are downright fascist leaning. I am now starting to get comedians references to people and events - which makes them much more funny!

Accents: I can understand most accents now. I've picked up on most common idioms so I have some sort of idea as to what people say and mean. I'm telling you - it ain't easy in this country.

I've gotten a better handle on the people of this country. Especially after travelling around it. How can such a small island have such a HUGE number of cultures and classes? It's amazing and confounding! First of all I'd like to address the concept that the British are quiet. They are not. Even they think they are...but they're wrong. The Brits are WAY louder than Canadians. For instance - there's a shouting match going on outside in the street at the moment. The Brits talk more, use more words, and are all around more chatty than Canadians. Once you get into the upper classes the repression gets more severe and they definitely get quieter but as you go down the ladder...oh boy. There's can't be anyone in North America that can compare with the sheer volume and verbal aggressiveness of the working class British. Just can't see it. People will get in peoples face here like nothing I've seen.

Something about travelling and meeting people from different areas has given me an appreciation for the regional differences that exist. There really are MASSIVELY different cultures which exist beside each other within this country. To be honest, I don't know how the country actually holds together. We call Canada a country of two solitudes because we have two different cultures (English and French)? This must be the country of 1000 solitudes then.

The Brits are constantly racked with doubt about national identity. 'What does it mean to be British?' they ask. They no longer run an empire and they are now an extremely multicultural society. I was surprised to find they are as confused about being British as Canadians are about being Canadian. (Funnily enough, the Scots and the Welsh have no such problems.) How does this fractured society hold together? I suppose it was the class system upon which it was built which held it together. That system still exists. People are classified by accent, culture, and where they live in a way that we Canadians can't really grasp until we've been here for awhile. Is it love of God and Queen? I don't really know except that in a country so much anger seems aimed across the classes....everyone considers them self a part of the country.

I suppose it's the shared history that creates the connection. The HISTORY! People here can routinely tell you the history of their family, a building, or a product. They can build context for everything. I've never been to interested in history much farther back than WWII but this place... how can there be so much history, so many fascinating places, so many key events and figures of the Western world crammed into such a minuscule place. It's incredible. It's won me over. I had an anti-English bias when looking at history as I looked at it as a method of cultural oppression. We in Canada, for instance, weren't even able to study our own history until the 60's or 70's. Now that I've been here and have seen so many amazing sites... and it's not just the history of Kings - it's the history and development of all the people of this land that's so fascinating. The Roman Empire, The Anglo-Saxons, the Celts, Scots, Druids, the Normans...these aren't abstract concepts here. You can SEE the things they built, hear the accents they left behind, and engage in the cultures that developed over the last 2000 plus years. Amazing.

It's the modern Britain that I'm coming to grips with though. The tendency for people here to be negative and to put down their own country is something I've found confusing. I suppose it's the fact that many people here have taken a shit kicking for a long time that causes this. Some of it is also the "don't be soft" culture. Men can't say they like each other so they say as far to the opposite as they can to express affection. I've gotten used to the differences in products, foods, TV and film. At first I didn't like them, found them alien and was uninterested. Now I'll miss my Marks and Spencers, curries, TV shows, celebrities, brand names, tubes and trains and everything else when I leave. And the music! I mean the music here is incredible. I'm only peripherally involved in the music scene here and I can't get over it. There's also the theatre of course. Amazing - the sheer volume of it. Though I'd put the best of Canadian against the best of the Brits any day!

I now fear that when I go back to Canada I'll pine for Britain. How weird is that?

Liverpool

We went to Liverpool this weekend where a young John Lennon and I hung out outside The Cavern.

Check out our photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_n_gen/

I was blown away (again!) by the history of the place. This was not so unexpected as Liverpool is well known as the location of one of the world's most important ports...until the last 100 years or so. It has been absolutely devastated by various economic factors starting with WWI, being bombed in WWII and then being part of "the north" when Thatcher basically abandoned everything north of London in the 80's. Things have improved since Liverpool won the right to be "The European Capital of Culture" for 2008. This has led to a massive regeneration in the last 5 years or so.

It's the home of the "most mistrusted accent in Britain" - scouse. The term "Scouse" apparently comes from the name of a stew that sailors ate. It's a blend of English, Irish and Welsh. Why it's mistrusted is beyond me. No idea other than, maybe, after 100 years of poverty the cities of Liverpool and Manchester have produced a fair number of criminals. I was told by a local that 8 of the top 20 most deprived areas in England reside in Liverpool. I personally like the accent a lot more than the Essex accent which may be the second most mistrusted accent. (But then, I had a miserable time in Essex) The Beatles made the accent famous but they don't really sound like a lot of the scouse I've heard. The Beatles sound way more laid back and softer than the high pitched accents of the many Liverpudlians. As with everything though there's a huge range of accents in the city and, as is usual in this wacky country, some of them are almost incomprehensible.

Liverpool was a massive and incredibly important port which ruled the shipping industry for centuries and so the people of Liverpool became wealthy and prosperous. The darkest part of it's history involves the role of Liverpool in the slave trade. Millions of West Africans were kidnapped and brought to Liverpool where they were sold, traded, or shipped to America. The economic windfall from slavery obviously greatly increased the purses of the people of Liverpool. In one century alone (I believe it was 1600 - 1700) 9 MILLION Africans were stolen from their lands. Shocking stuff. I learned all about this at the Maritime Museum at Albert Dock which contains the Slavery Museum. It's a sobering and powerful display and I admire the government of Liverpool for allowing such a frank look at an unflattering piece of their history.

Here's something that will blow your mind. I had the best meal I've had in England at a place called The River Diner. And...it was fish and chips. This fish fell apart and melted in your mouth, the chips were fantastic and even the salad on the side was sublime. There's something here called "mushy peas" which I usually find disgusting. Basically it involves making pea puree and putting a dollop of it on you plate. I hate peas so I can't stand this stuff. THIS mushy pea contained mint - didn't really taste like peas and was fantastic. Gen had a tomato soup which was clearly made from real fresh tomatoes - the bread that came with it was incredible. I'm telling you! It was great!

Albert Dock (which I previously mentioned) was some sort of massive industrial dock has now been turned into a huge museum/restaurant/shopping area that's amazingly beautiful.

Most of all though - I dig the Scousers! They're laid back in attitude though also incredibly lively and yappy. They're passionate and very social. I had the good fortune of watching the last 10 minutes of a Liverpool/Chelsea football match in a pub and as I stood among the sea of shaved heads, moustaches, and burly men shouting at the TV I thought "This is great!"

Just What are We Voting for?

I just read an article about Tony Blair in The Gaurdian called "Look Back in Wonder" that completely shook me up and not at all in the way that the writer had intended. It's a re-vist of a a book called "The Blair Revolution" written by Peter Mandelson in early 1996 - almost 13 years ago. Mandelson was in the New Labour government at the time and was the architect of Government policy. The article made a list of issues that were not on the agenda in 13 years ago and it's jaw dropping. They include:

1. Very little on foreign policy other than Europe. The U.S. was barely mentioned.
2. Ignorance of climate change (tiny mention)
3. Mobile phones are unmentioned luxuries
4. There was no: text messaging, web, email, or blogs. That's what the article mentions...I also think of no: Youtube, Google, MySpace, Facebook, spam, camera phones, ipods, Apple was nowhere to be found, organic movement, hybrids, video download issues, nuclear threat from Pakistan - Iran - Pakistan or North Korea, no war in Iraq, no Al-Qaeda...
5. Gay rights are barely mentioned with almost no reference to gay marriage (this became a central rights issue to New Labour during it's term)
6. Race and migration are not mentioned. "Polish plumbers" (The Poles now form a major work force due to large numbers of immigrants) or Islamic radicals
7. Hedge funds
8. Music downloads
9. No mention of credit crisis
10. Nothing substantial about the National Health Service (which has been a major issue)
11. No mention of terrorism outside problems with Ireland (Ireland is no longer a concern)
12. No mention of wars with Iraq or a special relationship with the U.S.

All these things became MAJOR issues in the 12 years since.

So what then...are we voting for in Canada, the U.S., here in Britain or anywhere else when we cast a vote? We have absolutely no way of knowing what the person we are voting for is going to have to do. Who could have predicted 9/11? Who could have predicted the credit crisis and it's economic downturn? In 1996 there wasn't even a hot housing market. Canada was barely limping out of a horrible recession and the dotcom bubble was just inflating.

We think we're voting for an alternative to what has come before, a person that shares our values and one that we trust or hope will lead us through the issues of the day. What we're really voting for, I think, is a someone we hope is a great leader, who shares our values and will lead us through any and all unknown crises that will arise. We want this person to have the wherewithal to identify what needs to be done. Most of all we want them to be able to bring people together and unite them to handle whatever problems arise with the best intentions of the people at the forefront of his or her mind and as a key to the policies they implement.

With that in mind I choose Barrack Obama. To me he is one of the few politicians I have found to be truly inspirational, who I believe has the greater good at heart when he acts, and has the ability to create a more positive and unified politic than currently exists. Wish I could vote for him. Canada? I see no one like that on the scene at the moment - certainly not Harper. Dion a little maybe and here in Britain...I don't see anyone like that here either. Guys like Obama only come along once in awhile though. They're rare and that's what makes them so special. I hope he gets elected and I hope he turns out to be what he appears to be.

It's a bit scary to think that when you vote for someone you're voting for them to deal with problems that haven't even been invented yet, don't you think?

Read "Look Back in Wonder" at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/11/tony-blair-peter-mandelson

A Good Day

Well I walked out of school today on a cushion of air. When things go well (finally) it renews your faith in why you decided you might want to be a teacher to begin with.

(not my class...shhhh)

I planned and executed my first Drama class that was worked the way I wanted it to. I came up with a concept, planned it, executed it, used drama techniques I have learned along the way when I needed (in other words I was able to think on my feet), the students co-operated and got along well, and everything ran like clockwork. It was fantastic.

This may be a bit boring for non teacher's but here's how it went (for posterity).

I came home on Thursday night and realized I was supposed to run the Drama session the next day (I'm alternating weekly lessons with another teacher). I knew the theme was supposed to be spooky stories (Halloween is approaching after all). No idea what to do. I thought I might read them the first part of a spooky story and then they would have to come up with the ending. I went online to find spooky stories but they were too gory or long in many instances.



I opened "Structuring Drama Work" by Jonothan Neelands and looked for ideas. I found one which called Objects of Character which essentially means you give the students some objects that a character owns and they have to figure out who the person was. I thought that was interesting. Then I stumbled across one called A Day in the Life in which starts end of a story (or at a dramatic point) is given or created and the students have to work backwards to build scenes running up to that point. So...

It thought wouldn't it be interesting if I gave the students objects for a person who had disapeared and challenged them to figure out who the person was and then build the story up to the point in which they disappeared. And it worked!

I was worried they'd just come up with all kind of gore, screaming, fighting and mayhem so I we discussed some different reasons people might disappear other than being killed. Maybe they were on the run, kidnapped, or left volutarily without telling anyone? Then I showed them some objects and asked them what we could tell about the person by the objects they had left behind. All I showed them was a dictionary, a pen and a set of headphones. The ideas they had were really creative!

I separated them into groups and gave each group a bag with 4 objects in it. These objects were found in an apartment in which a person had disappeared. These were the only objects left and we knew nothing about the person other than they were gone.

They had 5 minutes to think about who the person might be.

They then had 5 mintues to create a tableau showing the moment at which the person actually disappeared. They would show this to the rest of the class and we would see if we could guess what was happening.

They would then have 15 - 20 minutes to create the story leading up to that point.

We would then present and the groups would get feedback.

It went brilliantly.

Key points things I did:

The warm up:
Doing a proper stretch and warm up for 5 minutes before starting was essential.

The mental set:
Bringing up some ideas about what could be done before starting. Also stating the obvious such as "Of course they could be horribly murdered but let's challenge ourselves to think of other possibilities" before starting. I learned this by watching the Drama teacher last week.

Time:
When doing my final acting class at University I was amazed at how little time we were given for tasks and how that helped us focus. The thing is we were adults so I think students need more or they basically freak out and start yelling and don't focus. 15-20 minutes is still short and the last thing you want to do is run out of time before they can come up with something good and work through their ideas.

Keep it simple:
Keep tasks simple and build on them class by class. I learned this through the Physical Education classes we're doing at school and by wathing the other teacher I'm working with there. I've been guilty of piling on too many ideas in too short a time in the past. It also makes more sense as the students need time to work on a specific task for awhile so they can engage with it and learn it before moving on.

I also realized that you are not meant to select 1 technique from each of the 4 sections of techniques in Structuring Drama and use them all in one lesson.

Performance and Feedback:
Once the performance is complete ask the students for a few things they liked about the scene and some suggestions to think about for improvement next time. Then give your own ideas. (This actually helps me think of thigns to say as the students bring up very valid points)

But there's more...

Also had a great grammar class in which I used erasable whiteboards with the students for the first time. I first observed these in a math lesson a last week. The math teacher gives each student and small whiteboard on which they can write answers with an eraseable marker. She asked them some questions and they wrote answers on the boards and held them up. They were reviewing things they had worked on previous to that class. This was amazingly effective as it was low risk for the students, they all got to have their answers seen by the teacher, and they DIDN'T SPEAK! They were quiet and focused (which is the hardest thing to get students to do). Then they continued with a focused lesson.

I took this and used it in Grammar. I put sentences on the whiteboard in the classroom and asked students to write down the nouns, verbs, or adverbs etc in the sentence. Then I could see who knew what, students were quiet and focused and they actually learned the aspects they dind't know once we talked about the answers. Brilliant.

All my other classes went well as well.... it was a good day.

I'm starting to feel like I might be able to do this job. I'm starting to love my school. I'm even starting to not feel so much like an alien in this country. All in all things have gone well.

Parent teacher night next week though. Should be fun.

Canada's Banks World's Strongest?

Read: http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4981X220081009?rpc=60

There it is! In black and white. Unbelievable. When I think back to 90's and how the Reform party (now cleverly rebranded as The Conservative Party) were banging on in a very American free market way about how we were missing the economic boat I am so happy that Canadians stuck to their values and avoided the "fatten the rich so the scraps from their table will fall down and nourish the poor" philosophy. The Americans have gone through two massive boom and bust cycles since then. First there was the dot com bubble burst (which was easily predictable and did very little real damage) and now this. There was massive pressure to deregulate our banks and the argument was that the world's big boys were coming in and would snap up our institutions or drive them out of business. We couldn't compete it was said. Well all those banks are now out of business. The madness allowed by deregulation and the "make my bonus at any cost" seems to have lead to, quite possibly, the collapse of the global finance structure. Maybe it will be a good thing long term. Maybe we can fix things. As the system is remade I hope to God that it's built in a better way - that incentives are put in to improve our energy and environmental issues along with our wallets. We simply can not overuse every resource on the planet and survive. The crash will always be just around the corner whether it be an unsustainalbe banking system, energy resource or food supply. But that's just my opinion I could be wrong.

Strange. I never thought I'd be proud of a bank.

The First Month

Well one month down and things are going better than last year. At least that's what I think. I thought they were going better last year but it turned out they weren't. I think they are though. I have had a really positive experience at the new place.

It's all about the management there. They're very supportive and, when I have a problem, they offer solutions. It's great! I have a tiny class which makes my marking workload manageable. I've been able to come home on many nights and not work until 11:00 pm on planning. I've had a some good times with the students and even one profound moment where the class actually came together and started to bond. That fell apart in a day or two but we'll keep working on them. They just don't get along very well and a lot of the problems go back years.

On the other hand...I'm starting to wonder if I'm not being TOO hard on them. There's that point where you have to insist they do what you want but if you come down like a ton of bricks all the time it starts to wear thin. Not sure how to balance that at the moment. It's something I'm working on.

Also had a parents night in which one parent (whose child is brilliant - and I mean really amazing at English) tore into me. It was a bit of a shock as I figured she'd be happy her child is doing well. Apparently I'm boring her daughter. Not pushing her enough. Oh well. The rest seemed happy.

I planned and executed my first class trip. We went and did a survey of pedestrians and shop owners on the High street (read: main street) to determine if there was support for the high street being closed to cars. That went really well. You have no idea how much insanity goes into planning these things. I'm talking writing and collecting letters to parents, filling out about 8 forms to do with health and safety, gathering medical information, making badges for the students with the school name, address and telephone number on them to stick on each child in case they get lost, bringing a first aid kit...the works. I managed to do it and not forget a single thing! Miraculous! The trip went really well too!



I learned a lot from my mistakes of the past. The biggest difference is that I spent the better part of a week looking at every weekly teaching objective and then making a schedule for what week I would be teaching it. Most importantly I went though all the books we had and recorded what page numbers and what books I would be teaching each week. This cut my planning during the term down by easily 200%. I used to spend most of my time trying to find the actual text that I would base my next lesson upon. I could spend an hour or more per lesson just trying to figure outh what I was going to look at. Now I go...what am I teaching this week? Look at the schedule and go. It's awesome. -It's like the schedule on the left. Cause it keeps me on track! Get it?! - My planning and objective setting abilities are growing exponentially. Probably because I'm actually taking the idea of planning more seriously as I see the benefits. I've also cut down on "bells and whistles" lessons through the first term. I wanted to go in and do all the exciting interactive stuff right away last year but I've discovered that students need to sit down, focus, and do work before you can do those things. The routine is important. Even if it doesn't seem exciting.

I am feeling upbeat at the moment as I made it through the toughest week so far of the year. I had that trip and the parent meetings within two days of each other. Also - babagenouche's mother and her new man came to visit last week and stayed with us. We had a GREAT time. it was really fun having them around (and thanks to my new found orginisational prowness I was able to hang out with them at night). We even went to Hampton court with them last Saturday. I had no idea it was an enormous castle. It was Henry the VIII's party palace apparently. Amazing. The upshot of all that though was I hit this week tired and literally had to work until 9 - 11 at night from Monday to Thursday to keep on top of everything.

Finally:

I met with a psychiatrist again after doing tons of testing to do with ADD. Actually I did a huge range of tests from intelligence to emotional. He finally had all the results together and it turns out I'm pretty bright! Apparently in the top 2% for Verbal and Language abilities. I came out reasonably well in other areas as well. I'm one not to put too much stock in these kinds of things but, now that I've done well, maybe I'll take them a little more seriously. ;) Anyway looks like I do have problems with attention deficit but not with hyperactivity. I knew that but there you go. Next step is 2 weeks to discuss strategies as to what to do.

So there you go. One big update. I'll try to keep posting regularly it's just the hectic business of my life that makes sitting at a computer and typing seem painful at then end of the day.