First World Mural Problems

It has been a long while since I've been anything close to what I would call "an artist."  Student scheduling being what it was, I was a band geek in Junior and Senior High (Clarinet and Tuba FTW!) and had limited room for other options given the Science-heavy course load I felt that I had to pursue.  Though I did manage to fit in a few art classes for a few years, I mostly preferred to doodle and draw characters and maps from comics and video games.  There was one area, though, where I was absolutely terrible: I couldn't paint to save my life.  It didn't matter whether it was oil on canvas or watercolours... I just didn't like the lack of precision that a paint brush offered and couldn't take what I saw in my head and transfer it to whatever I was working on.  No harm done.  I have a deep appreciation for the immense talents that some people have and feel no shame in saying that I just can't do that.

So where am I going with this?  Well.  There is a particular mural in our building that, though it was inspired by nothing less than the best intentions of several well-meaning students, could perhaps use a bit of a face lift.

Allow me to demonstrate.

This is President Obama... or rather, President Obama apparently feeling a little under the weather.  The greenish sheen really highlights the internal struggle of being the leader of the free world.  There's just something... a little off.

I don't even know who this person is supposed to be.  I've taken to calling her Lady Sloth in large part due to her striking similarities to everyone's favourite Goonie.  Apparently all that pirate treasure worked out pretty well for him. #LadySloth

This is another mystery for our middle school department.  Not only are we unable to recognize the individual, but we have even less of an idea about what the object with him.  Is it some sort of chair?  Is it a baguette?  No one really knows.  Unfortunately, some students have come up with their own conclusions and they aren't exactly pleasant. 

And so it goes for at least a dozen other portraits on the wall.  

Now.  To be clear.  I certainly mean no disrespect to those who so many years ago planned and created this work.  I could not do what they did.  In fact, I am certain that my attempts would fare no better than what's already there, or even this case.  

There is a tendency to fixate on the negative connotation of what it means to criticize, which is to point out the faults of something in a disapproving way.  To criticize, though, also means to form a sophisticated judgement on the merits of an artistic work.  Too often when I am marking essays or offering feedback on how to improve a student's comprehension of sources, what they want to hear is the answer and not how to get there.  I have too many students who will think that I'm being mean when I say that they aren't doing something as well as they need to.  They just want to hear that they're doing a good job and that everything's going to be great: the reward of praise.  To borrow a phrase from Ocean's Thirteen, they don't want the labour pains, they just want the baby.  The focus in society, for better or for worse, is on the result and that means that too many are afraid to be critical on themselves or towards others because we don't want to hurt feelings.  

There are more than a few in the immediate vicinity of the mural who are eager to see a change in the decor.  In that spirit, this could become a real opportunity to showcase a new generation of talent here at our school.  Fingers crossed...


A Look at Syria

I decided when I first started this particular blog that I didn't want it to be too political and that I wanted to focus more on things of general interest and to shed some light on my perspective as a teacher.  However, this, and other videos like it, have captured my attention.

This ongoing civil war has claimed the lives of at least 250,000 people and displaced many millions more.  It's the eerie quiet of the city (not the lack of sound in the video) that really hits home.  I am reminded of how grateful I am to live in the country that I do where I have been spared from experiencing this kind of devastation.  At the same time, I am overpowered by a sense of helplessness.  When I am asked as Social Studies teacher why we need to learn about what's happened in our past and what continues to go on around us, I think of stories like these and hope that I adequately communicate the big picture to my students.

Zoe Keating: Into the Trees

Surprising no one, especially my wife, I caved and quickly bought this wonderful album.  I find myself listening to it when I need to have some quiet, reflective time, or when trying to solve more puzzles on 'The Witness.'  Here's another track that my wife and I have particularly enjoyed called "Seven League Boots."

On one more separate 'Witness' related note, it turns out that some people have been more inspired by the game than perhaps was anticipated.  Quite clever.

~Mr.T

CHHS eSports is Live!

We had our first play session today and I am just thrilled with the turnout.  All in all, we had almost 40 students show up in the library.  In fact, most of them were waiting for me to arrive.

After some delays (my bad) in having everything up and running, we got right to it and most people were pretty good about taking turns and letting other switch in.  Many even came prepared with 3DS's to use as controllers which allowed us to have larger battles.

Here are a few pictures of the event:

It took about 2 minutes to get our first memorable quote of the day: "I believe in you, Pikachu!"

Lots of energy and excitement.  It was definitely a plus to be able to play in front of a crowd.

All in all, I'm very happy with our humble beginning.  The goal is for this to be as student driven as possible.  I already have some students who are putting together a tournament for later.

~Mr.T

Early Take on 'The Witness'

Being paid once a month has advantages and disadvantages.  On one hand, there are many months where I'm often feeling that things are tight and that we should only buy ramen and hot dogs to tide us over.  Well... not really, but you get the point.  On the other hand, getting that paycheck gives me, albeit temporarily, the sensation that I can get whatever I want.  Having just bought a new van, though, has tempered that significantly and I've had to give myself a monthly allowance.  I've known for a while, though, what I was going to get with my monthly stipend: The Witness.

So I picked it up and downloaded it once I got home from work.  I've read some reviews but I didn't want to spoil the surprise for myself.  Once the game was installed, I grabbed my controller, plunked myself down in Mr. Chair, and waited to see what I could find out in the first few minutes.  Turns out, I didn't find out all that much.

Here's what I can say: you start in a tunnel, you walk out of it, and then you're on your own.  Free to explore but no real sense of where you should be going.  For a kid who grew up with 80s Nintendo, conventional wisdom was to always go to the right.  Nowadays, with technology giving programmers and artists the freedom to create vast, open worlds, games are played in the Sandbox.  And this is a good thing.

The PS4 has a built in feature that allows gamers to share videos and screenshots.  I haven't really done this before because quite honestly I didn't think anyone else would care in a world populated with PewDiePie and other prolific social gamers.  However, I wanted to try and experiment with the feature and make this a little bit more of a shared experience for the handful of students and readers who might find their way here.  These are a few pictures that I took yesterday:

I captured this image after completing a series of panels within the game.  Essentially, these panels have you draw a line from a designated start point to the correct end point, always noting that there is a method to the madness.  You need to use the clues around you to figure out how to draw the line often before moving on the next panel.  The panel you see in the image above was part of a series where I had to not only draw the correct pattern, but reflect and mirror that pattern onto three opposite panels.  I was some sort of camera type thing emerging out of the ground and firing a beam of light off into the distance.  I've only just begun and this gets me excited... and feeling like I'm not so sure what I've gotten myself into.

As I move to another location and work my through more panels, I find myself having to use reflections of light to see correct patterns.  This means positioning myself in a way so that I can try to work things out in my head, as panels are now partially obscured or relying on multiple sources of light.  It's a bit hard to describe without showing you a video (which I will work on for later).  Eventually I end up here:

What?!  I spent more time running around this small room, with limited light and water levels that could be changed, before getting stumped and moving on to another area.  I hope that I can remember to come back here...

One more picture to share.

I really don't want to give too much away, but I have already found several moments where the solution seemed impossible only to have something click as I look at things from a different angle.  There's a lot to be said about problem-solving and I'm eager to scratch that itch of discovery that I am experiencing.

More to come...

~Mr.T

I love you, Lego...

This is acceptable.

~Mr.T

Teacher, teacher, can you teach me?

A few weeks ago, my principal knocked on my door and asked if I would be willing to have one of the new education students from the Medicine Hat College come to my class to do some observations.  Without much in the way of hesitation, I quickly said yes, and made my way back to my desk feeling just a little more confident than I was 17 seconds before.  Surely, after nearly 8 years of teaching it was time to be able to pass on a little more of the sage wisdom I had accumulated to one in a rising generation of eager educators.  This would be interesting.

And then I woke up this morning, and realized that I had no idea what I was going to say.  I panicked a little.  Well... maybe more than a little.

I spent most of the morning thinking about my own experiences as a student-teacher, both failures and successes.  I remembered the feeling of hopelessness and rejection during my IPT (Introductory Professional Term) as my first mentor teacher essentially locked me away in an office after teaching my first class of the day for nearly 4 weeks straight.  Apparently my German wasn't good enough and she felt it would be best for me to plan for most of the day instead of being in the class.  While I passed the practicum, I was so turned off by the experience that I was certain I no longer even wanted to be a teacher.  I set my sights on a permanent position with a landscaping contractor and figured that I would at least finish my degree and be done with it.

On the other hand, I also remember my APT (Advanced Professional Term) and the relief at being able to work with two mentors who let me experiment and figure things out for myself.  I was allowed to form relationships with staff and students and given the freedom to play with the curriculum instead of feeling limited by my own weaknesses.  Rather than hide me away, they let me own my time at the school.  I won't make the claim that I was an amazing student, but I will say that my passion for teaching was rekindled.  It was that feeling that I left home with the desire to recreate.

After meeting my student and giving her a quick tour, she got to work writing detailed notes over our routine for the morning.  I would try to touch base during the classes but I also wanted her to come to her own conclusions about what went well and what didn't work.  Before she left for the day, I sat down with her and said that I was not a perfect teacher and that I made mistakes all the time.  As a student-teacher, I remembered feeling overwhelmed with the desire to do what my mentors wanted me to do.  That was what I mainly felt would be the path to success.  As I look back on that, I realize how wrong I was, and that's what I told my student.  I said that she shouldn't hesitate to find her own groove and inject her own personality, talents, and perspective into her approach.  After all, if she couldn't be herself as a teacher, then what is she ultimately hoping to accomplish?  There is no one mold for being a successful educator.  At the core of this profession is a passion for learning: in creating that feeling in others and maintaining it for yourself.

CHHS eSports: Our Humble Beginning

When we had our first meeting back in January, the top game request with nearly 50% of all votes cast was Smash Brothers for WiiU.  So, naturally, that's what we're going to start with.  I managed to secure a copy of the game along with a brand new WiiU Mario Kart Bundle.

I'll be the first to admit that Nintendo is not always to first choice among hardcore gamers who craze somethine more intense or realistic.  However, I maintain that no other game company can create the kind of universal and downright fun like Nintendo can.  Perhaps that's one reason why I still like their games so much: it's about keeping it approachable and accessible for everyone.  I can come home from work, help my own kids with their chores, and all of us can run downstairs, grab a controller, and have a blast!  That's not always something easily done with their competitors in an age of gritty photo-realism, stylized violence, and toxic online communities.

It's my hope that as people see our small group grow, it will lead to great things.

Well, what if there's no tomorrow?  There wasn't one today.

Groundhog Day remains one of my all-time favorite films.  Too many classic moments.  I've written about this before so I won't overdo it.  I will, however, share this little gem.  The world needs more Ned Ryerson.  Bing!!!

~Mr. T