25-plus years teaching high school drama has taught me something.
THEY never AGE -- forever seventeen, they fly through my life too fast and have transmogrified into facebook friends the world over. Past students smile in photos with eyes I can never forget -- eyes that are passed on to children of their own.
I love you all, but don't everyone visit the old lady at once. 'Cause that would be... awkward.
This Remembrance day is a first -- 11/11/11 -- a once in a lifetime happening -- in the 11th year of the century.
Remembrance day at Sir Wil has always been an important event. The highlights for me are always the live piper with his glorious presence and the insanely loud bagpipes. Impossible to ignore and so unique in sound. Then the Military guest speaker -- very inspiring this year as he was stationed in Afghanistan and had a personal slide show bringing courage and sacrifice home to the students in a way that they could relate to.
And, for a number of years now, a screening of Terry Kelly's song, "A pittance of time" brings more that a tear to my eye by reminding me to consider deeply the significance of the day.
Thanks to all the organizers and helpers and especially Mr. Fyfe.
I always loved Halloween. From childhood, my mom would dress me up in crazy outfits, usually spooky ones, and I had a great time. I'd drag my pillowcase around our neighborhood filling it and going back three times till I had enough candy to make me sick for a week. When I became a drama teacher, I created haunted houses with the kids. Every Halloween, hundreds students would experience the "haunted mansion" or "high school from hell". At home, three strobe lights, a graveyard and a smoke machine was standard. Me, dressed to the vampire teeth as some witchy creature with her pet tarantula, Charlotte — and my Mom, glow stick shining through her teeth, scared the kids for hours.
I spent bags of money on Halloween and boxes of paraphernalia are buried in our basement. I bought only the best candy — lots of chocolate — none of that cheap kiss candy ( I always hated it). I wanted to re-create the great experiences I had when I was a kid. That one lady on our block whose house had no lights on and when she opened her door, she was standing there holding a knife and cackling . She was great.
Forty years ago there was no spider webbing or decorations (except for the odd jack o' lantern), and Mom made our costumes. No one was trying to upstage anyone with decorations because the night was all about us — about the kids.
Nina, posing for her photographer :)
My mom died last October 23. She lived a good long life — she was 93 — but she had Alzheimer's. The last three years were very difficult. Last year I did not celebrate Halloween, and no one seemed to mind — despite the fact that we usually get over one hundred kids at our door. I thought this year would be different, but the anniversary of her death hit me hard and I just didn't feel like it.
I watched my mom die. I think it changed me. I believe people should be able to opt out of Halloween without having to explain themselves. I'm even feeling a bit resentful of the fact that I'm expected to buy candy for kids I don't know. I'm feeling some need to put up a sign of some kind explaining myself. Do people post signs explaining why they don't celebrate Christmas, or why they don't celebrate Valentine's day, or why they don't celebrate any other holiday? But Halloween... if we don't have candy for the kids at the door, we have to worry about them egging our house or... something worse. It's a kind of societal peer pressure I'm feeling, a kind of obligation.
For years, I've taught a basic form of "Method" acting bsed on the Stanislavsky System and, for years, I have discussed with my students the dangers in misunderstanding and misusing the technique, -- created by Stanislavsky in the early 1900's. Now, we have concrete proof that Marilyn Monroe WAS psychologically and emotionally harmed by intense exercises during her acting classes. Check out this excellent article here.
Well, the first week of school is finished and It was fun but really tiring.
I have two lovely classes. Lovely so far. I expect it will continue, they seem like nice kids..
September 11 is on Sunday. This will be the 10th September 11 that I've spoken to my classes about that day. And each year less and less of the students actually remember September 11. This year, only two students had anything to say. This is no surprise, considering that the grade nines were four years old in 2001 and the great tens were five. However, they were all very attentive and polite and allowed me to once again recall where I was on September 11, 2001.
I'd only been back to teaching, after two years sabbatical, for about five days when September 11 crashed in on all of us. I was in a new school with new students -- I didn't know anyone. So, when a student opened my door and said, "Miss, there's something happening on the TV in the room across the hall", I felt very alone in my sudden responsibility.
Now, you have to understand that Sir Wilfrid Laurier high school in Orleans Ontario was, and still is, the most technologically advanced school in the Ottawa area. The "TV" was a projection of live CNN on a pulldown screen, the size of the opposite wall.
I brought all the kids in my class into that classroom and, together, we watched the second plane hit and we watched the towers collapse and we feared for a students uncle who worked at the Pentagon.
We thought World War III had started.
We had what they call a primary experience. Unlike other schools that only found out after, and other people who weren't tuned in to the news, we were traumatized because we lived it at the moment it was happening.
But, we also bonded. Everyone felt closer to each other and I think this actually helped the school be what it is today. I know it shaped me. It made me think about life and death and appreciation.
Take a moment to remember the 343 firefighters and policemen who lost their lives that day. As one survivor of 9/11 said, "I was walking down the stairs to my life and I passed the firemen walking up the stairs to their deaths."
I'd like you to think about your life and appreciate the gift that it is and how tenuously we all hold on. Give a hug to your mom or dad.
We had a giant helium balloon flying saucer like this years ago, but it randomly traveled the house. Tended to hang out over the bed and scared the crap out of me a couple of times.
Fed up with all those humdrum and repetitive personal surveys my inbox has to offer I have decided to invent one. I'm curious to see how long it takes to be forwarded around the globe.
Some questions require a yes or no answer, some are multiple choice, and some may require added memory to your hard drive.
Your decision on which style of answer may affect your points accumulated.
Point values are based on a logarithm even I don’t understand – that’s how IMPORTANT and ACCURATE this test is. Oh, did I not mention this was a TEST?
Add up the points at the end and take your printout to Wally-Mart. They have promised a free Bloo-ray disc of your choice to the first 1500 subjects with a provable score of 123.
1. What in heaven's name could persuade you to learn another language? 10 points
2. You are a superhero with a brand new power -- what is it, and how did you get it?
6. Your hair grew 2 feet overnight. What will you tell everyone to explain this phenomenon? 10 points
7. The World Wide Web has crashed and the internet is no more. How will this effect what you have for breakfast? Be specific. 10 points
8. You fear that your arms may leave your body when you are not looking. How do you get any sleep? 10 points
9. Your family suddenly understands everything you have been trying for years to explain. Is it the end of the world? 10 points
10. Balloons are your only friends. Explain in 10 words or less.
11. A waif-like person with 16 piercings and a startling tattoo shows up at your door brandishing a clipboard. If they tell you that bananas are endangered and may be extinct before the end of this century without your personal intervention, what will be your response? 10 points
12. Two trains are headed toward each other at 60 miles an hour. What is the chance that you would be on one of them? 10 points
13. A man walks into a bar and sees his girlfriend hanging off a guy who looks suspiciously like Brandon Routh. When she tells you she was auditioning for his new Lois Lane do you believe her? 10 points
14. You are female. You know this. The dangly bits are just a distraction and mess up your skinny jeans. Do you opt for surgery or tunic tops? 10 points
15. Scrambled eggs or oatmeal with bacon bits? Real bacon bits, not the fake ones they sell in the spice aisle. 10 points
Randomly choose a number from one to ten; now randomly choose a street near where you live. Multiply the number of letters in the street name by your secret number, write it on a small piece of paper and eat it.
Tell no one. 10 points
17. Pretend you can fly.
That’s it. 10 points
18. You haven’t eaten for 3 months. Are you dead? Explain. 10 points
19. Right now, what are you sitting on? Is it moving? Why not? 10 points
20. Imagine you are trapped in a large building for thirty years with 1000 humans who never age. They yell obscenities at you and then hug you when you least expect it.
Are you in hell or are you a high school teacher? 10 points
21. Cream sauce or hot melt glue? 10 points
22. You are a librarian. 10 points
23. All household appliances have a soul. This has been proven by molecular diffusion technology. Does this change your concept of the afterlife now that you may have to ask your microwave permission to heat up your coffee?
I talk too much -- I do. I've often said to my kids -- or anyone who may be listening -- as a teacher I know students can tune out easily. They are trained early to have selective hearing and focus, and teens are naturally self-directed.
As Charlie, I never talked -- some thought this was my best form of self-expression.
Or they were just sick of hearing me rant about something or other.
So.. I SAY to them, "I throw a lot out there and hopefully some of it sticks to the wall" Most look at me with knowing expressions and nod -- what they are knowing, I never know...y"know?
Occasionally, I RANT.. Of course, I never called these pearls Rants at the beginning. I would just start expounding on a topic I CARED about and.. it would get slightly out of control. Now, ever since one of my favourite ascerbic Canadians, Rick Mercer, coined the phrase "RANT" by serving up some of the best political and hilarioius rants ever on This Hour has 20 Minutes and then later on his own show, The Rick Mercer Report, have I realized what my passionate "lectures" were.
Rants.
So, I rant.
On most anything to anyone -- but to my students, I try to keep it pedagogically sound, but you must realize that I have talent for making wild lateral connections.
I loved that show, "Connections" -- wonder what happened to it? The fact that the computer evolved from the printing press is one of my favourites.
OOps, lateral me -- where was I?
Oh, Yes -- ranting. I am passionate in my opinions. My students would say I'm nuts, but what do they know? And I'm not arrogant at all. Well, a bit. But, I have a lot to prove, since I know better than anyone on which I speak. Sort of. At the moment.
Was this a rant? Naah -- just a long-winded intro. Specific rants to come...
Seven foot high cone-flowers -- almost as tall as this years crop of grade nine boys
We all yearn for it about a month before the end. Coinciding with summatives, it makes everyone miserable and at odds. time to break out those ACTING chops and get to work! Smile and you'll feel better. Smile AT someone and you'll feel better about them.
That works till they tell you to #@#@# for some reason residing in the teen brain -- that has nothing to do with you, their teacher. Ah, I think with all my knowledge and Yoda wisdom, "sweetie, did you not have breakfast?" and since I never think before I speak it comes out my mouth at the same moment. The kid blinks, says actually, no. I send them off to get a milk or O.J. and, without their knowledge, make their day.
I started to write about how weird an empty school is and how surreal it seems to go about the empty (yet filled with costumes, black books and assorted crap) drama room doing whatever, whenever.
And I ended up reminiscing about kids who swear at me at 8:40 am because they're hungry.
Yup. Yer gonna learn a LOT about teaching from this blog
What can I say... I became a teacher because I was the kid who dragged anyone willing to a small blackboard in the backyard of our trailer home and taught them SOMETHING. Anything... I taught mostly the alphabet to little ones I babysat. I just liked being in charge I guess. Yeah, I'm a know-it-all. Ask my students. I DO know that the older I get, the less I know. That's true, by the way, not just an old cliche.
