Secondary School DS Lite

This morning was my third Study Buddy session at Coronation Elementary, and as usual, I was working with two Grade 5 students. I'm usually asked to help the students with either math or reading comprehension. My first session I did both, did all reading comprehension during my second visit, and today it was all math.

These kids are in the IB Program (re: for the smart kids) so they tend to know their stuff - getting them to do their homework or stay focused on task is the challenge with them. Anyways, their teacher had suggested that we could do supplement their assignments with some flash card work. Without premeditation, the thought stuck me that I had my DS with me and a copy of Brain Age. I explained to the teacher that it could work as "electronic flash cards" and she happily agreed.

Man oh man was it a great idea! I'd have the kids work on their assignments and once they finished a section and gave it to me to mark, I'd let them work on Calculations x20. I'd have them correct their mistakes, proceed to the next section, and the cycle would continue. In a nut shell, I roped in their attention with a videogame, they got a reward for doing well, and the whole while they were still doing their math!

Brilliant!

Currently: Looking forward to my first student teacher placement.

Warm Fuzzies

Whether they're actors or not, it's still fun to see their expressions as they play around with the Nintendo Wii Remote. I figure this thing will be reasonably priced by the time I graduate with my B.Ed.

Currently: Pouring over my EDIT 202 Powerpoint notes.

Of Academic Importance

01010100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100001 01101100 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01000101 01000100 01001001 01010100 00100000 00110010 00110000 00110010 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110101 01110010 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100100 01101110 01110101 01101101 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100111 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101101 01110000 01101100 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100110 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101001 01101110 01100011 01101100 01110101 01100100 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110011 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101110 01101011 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01010000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 01100101 01110011 00101110

Binary to Text Converter
Arabic to Roman Numerals Converter
English to Pig-Latin Converter
The Klingon Language Institute
Job Posting for English-Klingon Bilingualists

Yes, that's right. Based on this latest set of lecture notes, my EDIT 202 mid-term exam tomorrow afternoon will be a strange one indeed.

Currently listening to: Our Lady Peace - Wipe That Smile Off Your Face

At A Medium Pace

Twenty-six. The big 2 - 6. The square root of 676. This past Sunday was my latest in a series of annual birthdays and it was a delicious milestone. Apparently Jeremy would have advised me not to turn 26, but, well...here we are.

A handful of us went down to Gabbana: Casual Dining for a taste of inexpensive Asian-fusion dining. I'd been there once previously, quite some time ago, and it was my immediate choice after Unheardof was discovered to be far more pricey than my conscience would allow.

While waiting for a table I glanced around the room and was stricken by an eerily familiar sight. I turned to Nicole and whispered, "Hey, that guy with the glasses over there...he looks...he looks just like Mayor Mandel." Nicole didn't think it was quite an ominous coincidence. "Uh, Honey, that is Mandel." While I bartended at the Shaw Conference Centre I had the chance to serve Bill "The Best City in the Best Province in the Best Country in the World!" Smith and he was a non-tipping, pompous ass. This brush with celebrity was far less enraging.

To sum up the restaurant in one word - delicious. Despite having to resort to my 3rd menu choice, the Teriyaki Chicken Stirfry (the Carmelized Beef Brisket and Glazed Pork Medallions were both out), I wasn't disappointed. The house red wine at $15 for a 1/2L was also a tasty, refreshing deal. By the time desert arrived, which I quickly devoured, I was pleasantly full, though not overly-stuffed, as the meal had already lasted nearly 2 hours.

That was the best part of all - it's labeled "casual dining" for a reason. There was no rush to get in, eat, and get out. It was an atmosphere that encouraged conversation and relaxation. Going out to eat, especially with a group of loved ones, should only partly be about assuaging your hunger pangs.

So, over the course of the evening as I enjoyed great food and waxed poetic about "growing" homemade meat and eating babies, I couldn't help but appreciate that it was a great start to my 26th year.

Currently: Basking in the post-nervousness glow of writing mid-term exam 3-of-5.

Dry Run

Nearly an entire month since I last posted? That would have to mean I'm already 1/8 done my Education degree! Woo! Only 7 eighths to go.

I'll be heading down to Coronation Elementary for an interview tomorrow. Aside from a few chance encounters with my nieces and nephews over the past 10 years, I'll readily admit that my exposure to children is lacking... so I signed up for EPS's Study Buddy Program. Every school has different needs, but you're typically expected to volunteer 1 hour per week, tutoring either a single child or a small group of children. I won't know the specifics of Coronation's expectations until the interview. Needless to say, I'm excited to get my first, primordial, taste of being an educator.

I'm hoping my child will need help with dodgeball.

Currently: Watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. Awesome.

Now You Know!

Google is a calculator! All these years and I had no idea...I guess this EDIT 202 course isn't a waste of my time after all. Try it out and see.

Currently: Trying out (4 * 2) -10 / 2 =

Corporate Crack Dealers

Fashion designers should be ashamed of themselves.

I'll be the first to admit that with the emergence of "low-rise" jeans, the occasional, fleeting glimpse of female butt cleavage was a new experience not entirely displeasing. Flash forward a good half decade (perhaps even longer) and the entire crack phenomenon has spiraled dangerously out of control!

It seems female dungarees now start at low-rise and progressively work down to super-ultra-low-rise...jeans, sweats, skirts, you name it. There is virtually nothing else for women to buy. Combine this fashion hijacking with shirts that insist on being deceptively short along the backside, and we've got ourselves a recipe for copious amounts of relentless ass crack.

This year at the University has been particularly bad. With a female to male ratio of nearly 40-1 in Elementary Education, this once endearing, juvenile indulgence has been unjustly overwhelmed by my classmates and their continuously exposed derriers. I'm forced to pretty much stare at the ceiling as lectures end and rows of female students arise lest I be blinded by the fluorescent light refracting at various angles off their acres of exposed flesh.

I may be a man, and a man who enjoys the curvaceous figure of the finer sex, but there's a time and a place for appreciating it. My 9:00am Math 160 lecture isn't one of those places. Shame on you fashion industry, shame on you indeed.

Currently listening to: The crinkling moans of wind on tinfoil.

Break Out The Tweed Jacket

"Nurturing children is judged very closely to molesting them... A public perception is that men who teach primary grades are often homosexuals, pedophiles or principals (in training)."

That is a quote from The ATA Magazine which also happens to be in the final assigned reading in my EDU 250 course - I chose to read the article first. I can honestly say that my foray into Elementary Education will be met with unprecedented challenges unlike any I've faced before. Never before have I had to contend with such powerful, negative (and decidedly misinformed) social stigma.

I prefer to counter my initial quote with this one:

"Schools demonstrate daily that child care is women's work. Female teachers, by their presence, demonstrate that caring is what women do. The men are 'out there.' I believe that the absence of men shows that children are not valued in our culture. It seems to me that in our patriarchal society, if children are highly valued, men would be present. Men would regard this as men's work. If children represent the future, then perhaps the future is not valued. Perhaps our society's lack of interest in raising our children shows that we are truly living only for today."

More on this looming social and professional enigma as it develops, my friends.

My first week in pursuit of a second university degree has been overwhelmingly positive and unexpectedly invigorating! It's a completely different feeling to be in the midst of a professional program - a program which is actively preparing you for a career. A program being taught by actual former teachers, who love teaching, and can't wait to ignite that fire within each of us. What a drastic departure from Sociology TA's, who exude utter disdain for undergraduates, yet are forced to "teach" them to further their academic pursuits.

From day one the Faculty of Education made it very clear that it would use every available resource at its disposal to help us students excel. The staff were present at Orientation to congratulate us for our acceptance into the program and offer preemptive offers of support. It's nice to be reminded that new learning environments and philosophies exist within the same institution I've spent the better part of the past decade in.

I can feel it already - this is the start of something great in my life.

Currently: Fighting to type accurately on my new, ergonomic keyboard.

Sweet Re-design!

I figured it was time to spruce up the ol' blog and get it ready for a whole new year of actual, frequent use.

My foray into the realm of Elementary Education begins the next phase of my life and I'm absolutely certain I'll have a few things to say about it along the way. Aside from some residual nervousness about returning to University, where I've already spent a great deal of time and money, I'm starting to get very excited about the upcoming experience.

I'm not just excited about challenging myself to learn something new, but also about some of the goals I've set for myself. Among other things, these goals include managing my savings properly, biking to school for as long as possible, eating well (re: NO bought lunches from HUB/SUB/CAB), a proper sleeping schedule, continual exercise (heck, I've put off the UofA karate club for too long!), and on they go...

Anyways, I'll be sure to keep in touch and update you guys on my progress. As for the new site design, if you're thinking this page is looking pretty blank, it's probably because you're not using Explorer. For some odd reason the template doesn't work with Mozilla?

Currently listening to: Matthew Good Band - The Fall of Man

iTunes-a-palooza 2006

According to iTunes, my music library currently stands at 1499 songs. For those of you keeping score at home, it's taking up 7.67 GB of space and can play continuously for 4.1 days.

Quite frankly, that's a shit-load of music.

Currently listening to: Metric - Glass Ceiling