It's Official.

It's official! I'm coming home for Christmas. I just got my passport back from the Home Office of Immigration here and I couldn't be more excited. I hadn't told anyone back home so as not to worry anyone but I sent in my application in July - only to get a letter back stating that they would not begin to process my application until the day it expired - Namely October 14th. They also held all my documents. Anyway, suffice it to say that I was worried about not getting it back in time for Christmas as the processing time stated it could take up to 14 weeks!

I called last week and was told by some monkey in a call centre that the documents were being processed - that was all the information they had. No I could not call anyone else, no I could not go into an office, no there was nothing I could do, no they could not look into it. If I wanted to ensure I had my passport I could only withdraw my application. They finally suggested writing a letter. I figured... here I am married to a British citizen, working as a teacher (an area in which Britain desperately lacks qualified professionals) and I haven't broken any laws. Wouldn't it be a fairly straightforward and quick process?

So I wrote a letter, attached my flight itinerary to prove I actually had bought the tickets and spent several days trying to get a recommendation letter from my head teacher(which was no problem). I sent the letter urgent delivery at 4:30 on Tuesday and came home to find the package had actually arrived that day! I have a passport and a visa! THANK GOD!






Can't wait to come home and see everybody. I fly out 3 weeks tomorrow!

Journies through the Summer of 2008

Our travelling exploits from the end of the school year in July to October 2008. Starts with the karaoake bash that kicked it all off and moves through Brighton, Edinburgh, Brecon (Wales), York, Stratford and Liverpool.

Thoughts on Another Week of Teaching.

I'm really starting to enjoy this. I mean I really am.

I'm starting to get it.

There's a lot about teaching I arrogantly thought I understood but it turns out I was dead wrong. I thought book work and worksheets were for bad teachers who had no imagination. Turns out book work is important in terms of students improving their writing skills, understanding, and pride in their work. It works as notes to refer back to and as a record of their progress. Turns out worksheets set up the framework for those who can not work independently, provide information in addition to focusing writing and discussion.

Learning Objectives are not only crucial; they make teaching possible. Target setting is incredibly important in terms of focusing students so that they can concentrate on areas of improvement in a progressive and manageable way. Example instead of working on spelling, paragraphs, handwriting, vocabulary and punctuation... Target: Start sentences with a capital and end with a full stop. Once you can do that we take the next step.

I thought all the technical "boring" stuff like punctuation and grammar was, at least to some extent, a waste of time. Turns out that stuff is incredibly important and also has loads of meaning behind it beyond what you would simply see in the students written work. Punctuation, for example, determines rhythm, word emphasis and connects thoughts. Dry terms like punctuation, connectives, paragraphs, conjunctions, prefixes, suffixes, verbs, nouns, phrases, clauses, rhythm, imagery, themes and metre are all actually important and interesting.

Teaching involves lots of interesting questioning. Thank you Socrates.

The role of a teacher is a simple one. To teach in a classroom you will simply be a: Law Maker, Policeman, Shoulder for Tears, Punching Bag, Leader, Thinker, Disciplinarian, Role Model, Opponent, Priest, Writer, Authority figure...

[Deep Breath]

Upholder of the System, Shouter, Pleader, Beggar, Comedian Keeper of the Peace Evaluator Judge,Organizer, SchedulerAdminstratorPaper CutterComputer fixer docTORFOOTBALINFLATORCHESSCOACH...

[GASP]

...and then Monday ends and you go home and prepare for 4 more days and at least half a weekend of the same.

(Notice how the use of punctuation, spacing, and letter size affected the rhythm and meaning of the text? Ahem. But I digress)

Anyway I had the most amazing history class about the Indus Civilisation today. It's a civilisation which is 4,500 years old and was only excavated in the 1920's. It's in the Indus Valley which is between Pakistan and India. They were incredibly advanced - at least as much so as the Roman's and the Egyptians and they existed BEFORE them. Amazing. The students have engaged at a very high level. They're fascinated. Likely because no one has heard of these guys before. And possibly because my teacheing partner and I are doing such an amazing job. Hee hee.

Look up the Indus Civilisation. It's incredible.

I'm also lucky to be at my current school. I went and visited another school which is owned by the same organisation that owns mine (I'm in a private school, remember). The stress level of the staff there was palpable. Apparently, the students are much rougher at that school since it's in London but the students seemed engaged and well behaved. It may have been a battle to get them there , I suppose - things are never as simple as they seem when an outsider walks in a classroom. It was the feeling coming off the staff though. They seemed extremely harried, negative, and stressed. I just don't know what was causing that. Certainly we feel that way at my school and at my previous school...but that feeling of frustration and anger doesn't seem to ooze out of everyone at the school. It's a shame...it's just around the corner. Who knows though maybe I'll check it out in a few years.

Right now I like where I am.

Dear Obama

Please save the world.

Yours Truly,

Edukator

p.s. No pressure.

The Power of Leadership and Role Modelling

What is leadership?

Ultimately it's the person who sets the tone, the standard, the agenda and - most importantly - defines how we are to behave and look at each other.

Barrack Obama has already had a profound effect on me. I have been watching his speeches and debates throughout the campaign, have read his book The Audacity of Hope, but it is his acceptance speech which has floored me. His graciousness, humility, strength and honesty are all (to me) awe inspiring.

It made me think about how I interact with my students for:

As a teacher we know that in order for people to learn a skill we must model it for them (do it or show it), point out how that thing works (an essay, poem, football pass, or music piece) then have them practice it until they can do it independently. Children naturally watch adults and those around them to learn how to behave as well - and in the exact same way. I would argue that adults look to those with power the way children look at adults. How are we to behave? What are we to do to get what we want? What is acceptable to do to get what we want?

So I changed the way I've been dealing with my students. I've notice they're fighting a lot and pulling me into their conflicts...but then again I'm being quite angry and blunt with them quite often to try and get them to correct their behaviour...are they modelling me? So I've removed myself a bit from the direct conflicts and started talking about respect and how to deal with situations where we don't agree. In fact, I'm consciously Barrack Obama. I even showed them some of his speech when he got elected! Whoo hoo!

With that in mind; here he is!

Barack Obama Acceptance Speech Part 1 of 2



Barack Obama Acceptance Speech Part 2 of 2

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.

100 Foods to Try Before you Die

As most of you know, I have an obsession with all things food-related. This leads to me trawling foodie websites and blogs into the wee hours of the night, neglecting my husband while I read about Frenchmen making bacon ice-cream and where to find the best kimchi in Buffalo.

It was whilst visiting one such blog (probably while ignoring pressingly urgent work) that I came across the intriguingly named "100 Foods to Try Before You Die" list. This is the list of the 100 things that Very Good Taste thinks everyone should eat at least once in their life.

Here's what you do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

Here are my results -
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (Gareth’s favourite!)
12. Pho (gee, tripe, no thanks!)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (mmmm, Italian gelato!)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (Dave’s dad brought us County wild strawberries once…)
23.Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float (memories of Grampy…)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Phaal
42. Curried Goat
43. Whole Insects
44. Goat’s milk (gross)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel - yuck.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea Urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (for my sins!)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (ah, the endocrine glands!)
63. Kaolin -
64. Currywurst –
65. Durian
66. Frogs legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (to my shame!)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini (thanks Mummy!)
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97 Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99.Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
100. Snake

I've done 68 which is pretty darn good considering my tender years! What about YOU all? How many do you have?

Thoughts at the Twilight of Summer.

First of all. If anyone I know reads this please post a response. It'd be great to know who's still hanging on out there!

Well. One week to go. Tomorrow I await the arrival of a new fridge and, if it arrives early enough, I'll head into school and start preparing for this year. Whew. 8 weeks almost gone.

It's been a strange and wonderful summer. Since I stayed here Gen and I decided we'd try and go something every weekend we could. Gen has did a show in July and had some weekends occupied so we didn't get moving on this until August but it's been great. We have been to Brighton York, Edinburgh, and Brecon (Wales). We were going to go to Cornwall but we decided against it due to the expense and the fact that I have to start teaching on the following Monday. We will, however, be going to Stratford in two weekends. We'll be taking a show and staying overnight.

It's been a bit of a weird summer. I've spent loads of time in state of complete inactivity. I watched 9 hours of The Wire Season 3 in one day last week. I looked for a job - albeit half heartedly. I bought a guitar and got back into that...though now I sense that will fall by the wayside as my teaching takes over my life again. I worked at Abel and Cole for a week and a half answering emails. It's cool company actually. They deliver organic produce and organic goods to your house. They're a really ethical company and they treat their customers and employees well. That was good. I volunteered at a green charity...for a day (because I got the Abel and Cole job as soon as I volunteered). Then we had the aforementioned weekends.

Now as for the trips here's what I've learned:

Brecon, Wales

It's a whole other country! I did not know that. Well I did know that before I went there but I didn't know that before I came to Britain. I thought it was something along the lines of Quebec - a different culture but the same country. Technically it is a separate country. But there's no real customs to clear....or border security... It has it's own government sort of. I don't know. Scotland and Wales are separate countries but the same at the same time. They send people to British Parliament...they have their own governments... it's all very muddy. Definitely a different country though! Don't say anything different or they'll rugby tackle you to death.

And it's beautiful. It's very rural. Driving through Wales is a breathtaking experience at times. Lush green mountains with sheep grazing everywhere. There are more sheep in Wales that people. For real!

The people there seem nice and friendly. They like to shout a lot in the toilets. Some of the funniest things I heard at the Jazz festival I heard in the toilets. It rains like crazy in Wales. Poured the entire time we were there. Apparently Brecon is bad because it's in a valley so they get tons of relief precipitation. Also learned that Brecon is one amazingly beautiful town.

We went up with Dan (friend of Gen and I) and stayed at his parents house. He grew up on a farm there. It might be the greatest most quaintest farm house ever. We had a great time on Sunday trekking through the fields in the pouring rain. Almost got stampeded by a herd of cows. Wandered up through the woods and spent half an hour falling down on the side of a 45 degree angle hill in the sopping mud. Dodged some more cows. Great fun.

Just in case people don't believe me when I say it roads here get claustrophobic...here's a video of driving through Wales!

York

Wow. I knew this country had history but the more you look around the more astounding it becomes. York was AMAZING and steeped in so much history it wasn't even funny. Originally named Jorvik by the Danes it became a major trading city when the Vikings took over. Eventually the Saxons (who came over from Germany) took over and had a hard time wrapping their tongues around the word Jorvic so it became York.

It was England's second city after London for centuries. The middle of York is still surrounded by the medieval walls that William Wallace (ie. Braveheart) overcame during his time. The entire inner city still looks like a city from the medieval times and there are monuments, plaques, museums and displays everywhere. There is also the Abbey Museum Park which has the remains of an ancient abbey in it. Incredibly impressive park. There's York Minster which is an INCREDIBLE church. By the way - a minster is the first church set up in an area. York Minster was originally a wooden hut or something.

Anyway, it was great. Did I mention it's only a 2 hour train ride from London. And that's over halfway to Scotland! How did so much happen in such a tiny place?

Edinburgh (or Edin-brah)

Astounding. Go to my Flickr page and check out the pictures. This city is the most impressive I have seen outside of London. In some ways it's more impressive than London. It's much smaller - only 460,000 people I was shocked to hear - but it has this fantastic castle on a hill - in fact it's is partially carved out of the rock I think. The castle is only part of the picture though as impressive building shoot into the sky from atop this massive hill. They have the most incredible monument there to a WRITER of all things. Walter Scott. He wrote a book called Rob Roy which, I have just discovered through the pages of Wikipedia, is actually NOT the book the hollywood movie was based on. Nevertheless an impressive monument to a writer...there's something cool about that! The Scots seem to be bigtime into the arts. Lots of funding and whatnot apparently.

Also - the Edinburgh Fringe is nuts. 300 venues! The city was packed to the gunnels. It also runs all of August so there must be 1000's of shows. I didn't actually get to look into the history of the city much as we drove up on Friday night, arrived at 2:30 - didn't get to sleep until 4:00 - took in some shows on Saturday - stayed up until 3:00 got up and saw another show - ate a lot and tried not to fall asleep. I would love to go back. I could see living there actually. It's also amazing because it's surrounded by mountains. Beautiful.

We took in 3 shows while we were there. One with two guys completely naked for the whole show, one musical, and one staging of a Tom Waits album with a 14 piece orchestra. I think the naked show and the Waits show were equally good. Naked show was funny. Even funnier because the actors were Dan's friend and we crashed at their house on Friday.

On a side note we drove there in 8 hours and that's most of the country. Crazy! How did so much happen in such a small place I once again ask you!

And now...

Now there is the teaching coming one. God help me! Hopefully this year goes well!

Looking forward to Christmas and my return to Canada. Another 2 years here max. and then we'll be back.

They're back

Yup. Had that class again today. Same story over again. Well...there were a few students trying to work but the usual suspects were out of control. I dread this class. There's no way to get them back. All I can do is put up with there crap for the rest of the year.

The tired update.

Hmmm... coming up on 2 months since my last entry. Aw well.

Well things have been interesting since my last entry. I've managed to get to the gym about twice a week on average which is 2 days less than I want. I always feel good when I do but it's tough to get in there.

I actually slept until 1:20 today. I was completely exhausted all week. I had one of the toughest days of my life on Tuesday. I don't know if it's because I was so tired what but every student I ran into seemed to be mocking me or giving me trouble. The day just seemed to be spiralling out of control culminating in a really bad class at the end. I actually had a chat with that class the next day and was honest with them. I told them I felt the were being disrespectful and that I, as a human being, felt I deserved better than that. I told them I had lots of respect for them and outlined all the things I'd done to try and make the class interesting for them which they had quite often tried to undermine. It was amusing to see them actually feel really bad. Then I had a Drama class with them on Friday and they were great! Maybe I finally broke through with this class! Hopefully. It' only took 9 months but hopefully they'll be better.

Exams are coming up. I never realized this puts teachers under immense pressure as well. You've got to make sure you're covering everything that's going to be on the exam, get them revision guides (revision = review in Canada). You've got to make sure you've covered all the bases in English to make sure they know how to write essays, stories, do comprehension exercises in poetry, prose....know their grammar and punctuation....and half of them won't. I have the bottom set for English and they're going to bomb these exams even if they do well at what I get them to do in class because I'm working on far more basic skills. The exams are set up to test all levels so these guys'll probably mostly get in the 50's for marks. Maybe some'll do well, hopefully.

Got in touch with my Grade 8 teacher on facebook! That was really cool. He's 24 years into teaching now - amazing. He was really great but he would LOSE it in class with frustration sometimes. I remember thinking "Why's he taking this so personally? We just don't want to do our homework." Now I get it. He was a pretty new teacher then so I assume he doesn't take it so personally now lol. Really great to talk to him though. He says he didn't think he could do it when he first started either. Sigh...ah well. Actually the incident this week reminds me of part of a book called "Teacher Man" by Fank McCourt (of Angela's Ashes fame). He was a teacher for 30 years in New York and he's asked for some advice from a New Teacher and he says "It's just you and the kids. Find what you like to do and do it. I didn't always like teaching but at the end of the day it's just you in a classroom with the kids." Or something along that line. It's true isn't it? Just me and them. Seems simple but it's not.


Looking forward to Babagenouche coming home! 13 days! Yay! It'll be so good to have her back here! Think of the savings on phone bills alone! I'll be picking her up at the airport and locking her in a closet or something so she can't run away again damn her! :)

Is This Possible?

Well I'm on my Easter break and I've decided to get some good health back in my life. I joined the Virgin Gym up the street and the strangest thing happened.

I went in last Wednesday and did 40 minutes on the treadmill and during this time you can grab on to these handles and it'll measure your heart rate - which I did - and my heart rate was up in the 170s or something. The next day I went to the initial consultation and the guy put me on some pretty low level work outs - the idea being to ease me in and work on form instead of lifting heavier weights and causing myself serious pain. I was all for this. I don't like pain. Anyway I did these various cardio things and my heart rate was consistently 152 to the high 160s. This was on level 4 on the machines.

I've managed to go for 6 straight days (I'm proud to say) and when today when I hit the cardio machines my heart rate didn't go above 135! I didn't believe it. I actually switched machines three times to make sure it was right.

That's amazing. 6 days and it appears my heart has become much stronger already. How incredible is that? I mean if that kind of improvement is possible in 6 days what's possible in 6 months? Also, if that kind of consistent effort pays those kind of dividends in that area how could that kind of thing help in others? I'm inspired.

I just watched a show on TV called "Alternative Therapies" about meditation. It was a show by a physicist who was trying to determine the benefits of meditation. Most of the show was interesting but at the end of the show it touched on the whole issue of neuro-plasticity which is another way of saying the brain can stretch and change as we train it. I ran into this in a book that called "The Elastic Brain." This is possible all through life. This physicist when through the whole show trying to find if there was an actual link between meditation and better physical and emotional health because there are so many claims that it does. It wasn't until the end of the show that she finally found one scientist who measure the cortex of meditators and non-meditators and found a significant difference. The cortex is the thin layer around the brain in which the processing of emotions takes place. In the group that meditated regularly there was an 0.1 mm in increase in the thickness of this layer. They all had a thicker layer with which to control their emotions. Meditation is primarily a process of focusing our thoughts. This then means that we can PHYSICALLY change our brains with our thoughts. This is also borne out by the previously mentions neuro-plasticity theory.

This then also connects to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on the distorted thoughts that go through our mind that cause us to feel depressed, anxious or angry. By changing those thought we can change our mood. For example if a person thinks "Nothing good ever happens to me" over and over again in their head they'll believe it. If you write this down, examine it and think about it then it is obviously not true. By refocusing your thoughts on what is good that happens to you your mood changes. If this "recording" you play in your head goes long enough...based on the findings with the meditation this could mean the part of your brain that makes you depressed would actually get stronger! Good news is...you can reverse that!


This also connects to work in Drama, I believe. Drama is so much about unblocking yourself that you inevitably get into this stuff when you're doing the work. In fact - it seems that all creative endeavours inevitably wander into this realm because ridding yourself of the fears and self defeating blocks enable you to do the work. You just can't do much if you can't over come those things.

Then there's Yoga!

I've been hesitant to type this but ah...to hell with it. I've been feeling pretty down lately and
I know it's the voice in my head running me down. I hate it I really do. That negativity that just plays endlessly and is so self defeating. I've done a lot of stuff to overcome this over my life time, in fact a lot of people do. So I was considering the 'ol Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, then I thought about this book "The Artists Way" which is brilliant. I thought of meditation which made me think of daily affirmations and stuff like that...and by the way the affirmation thing has never worked for me at all. Try this - think of something you're think you're bad at and then tell yourself you're good at it 10 times. Like say, try "I am the greatest teacher in the world." Your brain immediately starts arguing in the opposite direction. Cause no matter what I know I'm not. I don't think affirmations work...but I'm off on a tangent.

Anyway this all lead me to motivational speakers. This lead me to the famous Tony Robbins - who I have never had any interest in before. I watched some You Tube stuff and thought hmm....maybe he's worth a look. Then - and most importantly I think I found a website that showed that listening to motivational tapes for like 20 - 40 minutes a day or something actually resulted in mood elevation that lasted much longer than just the duration of the tape and resulted in increased mood and confidence over all. I thought that this made sense actually because it connects to CBT - it's about focusing your thoughts on the positive for 20 -40 minutes which would hopefully keep going longer than that and eliminate the negative recordings and core beliefs you had.

So I downloaded some of Tony Robbins stuff and I've been listening to it. The stuff he talks about connects to CBT, all the therapies I've been talking about, the process your brain goes through with meditation so I think he actually makes sense. But most importantly...I feel better! The exercise has made a HUGE difference, I've been eating well and I haven't had a drink in over a week...I actually feel great.

Whew. I just typed a whole lot. You can tell I'm on vacation when I start philosophizing and pontificating. Why did I type all this?

Maybe, just maybe it IS possible to create positivity and happiness in your life. Maybe the way you think and feel - and thus act and achieve IS within your control












Amazing.

Good News for a Change

Well, despite my best efforts this year I've had some serious struggles with classroom management. It's been a great year in some ways but in other ways it's been really tough. My classroom management skills are not where I would like them to be. To be honest the school hasn't been to happy with me on that level.

But today...

I got observed and things went wickedly well! My head of department is quite a what's the word...ball breaker. She's been hard to deal with as she tends to be more critical than helpful. I've had a very hard time controlling this class so we've been cracking down on them and, of course, when she's in the room they're quiet and terrified. I got observed a few weeks ago and it went well and she gave me some feedback - which I took on board.

This lesson I did went as perfectly as a lesson can go really and she actually seemed happy and was positive at the end!

I feel like this is one of my first major victories in education.

I'm learning a lot this year. Teaching ain't easy I'll tell you that much.

But for today I feel good.

Amsterdam Photos on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_n_gen/ <-- Go there.

Had a good time in Amsterdam. It was weird travelling alone though. Don't think I'd do it again. Despite all the exciting and seedy stuff that Amsterdam has to offer I was most impressed with the art and museums! Amazing stuff those Dutch have done! (Rembrandt! Holy cow! Van Gough should be even half that good)

Anyway, I'm back - gotta go to work tomorrow.

I see Babagenouche tomorrow as she flies in from Italy to do her BBC thing. I get to meet her for a few hours at Paddington station. Maybe I'll meet the famous bear!

Off to bed.

I'm going to Amsterdam!

Babagenouche is away in Italy doing her tour and I've just hit my mid term break. I was hoping to go visit her in Italy but I can't so I started to think of other places to travel. I've always wanted to go to Amsterdam (hell...who doesn't!).

I'll be there until the 14th. Whoo hoo!

Just in Case You Thought I was Dead

I'm not....

I have parent teacher interviews...which means I have to go through all the kids books and put post it notes on various sections, make notes on the books, and prepare to talk to parents. This takes about 15 hours on top of my 65 hour work week.

To anyone who doesn't think teacher's work hard: bite me.

I hate kids. I hate parents. I think I hate life. It's 11:50...have to wake up at 5:30...go to school...some how prep more for the interviews, teach all day interview until 9:30pm...prepare cover for the next day as I have a Dr. apt.

(sob)

Flickr Update

For the first time since I went to Greece in April of last year...flickr has been updated with photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_n_gen/