I have a similar teacher-reader story. My grade 6 teacher read The Hobbit to us. I fell in love with the story, and I'm pretty sure he's directly responsible for my love of Fantasy!

We do face some of the same challenges. Funding is always an issue, of course, but it's a different issue here. Ontario schools are funding provincially, so no matter where your school is located (and no matter what the socio-economic state of the neighbourhood) the funding formula is the same. There's grants given for special instances, like major renovation, high Native or Special Education populations, remote areas, etc, but just because you live in a wealthy neighbourhood doesn't mean the school receives better funding. I like this. From what I understand, US schools often run on a funding formula that can doom a low SES neighbourhood to continued poverty because their schools are so underfunded. It's a vicious cycle. The other thing that we do here that I think would benefit the US is that our pay scale is very similar across the province. Teaching in a really good school gets you the same pay as teaching in a really tough school. But here's the thing - the teachers that teach in the tough schools are there because they WANT to be there - not because the paycheque is better. And they don't leave after a year or two - they develop a relationship with the students and families in the community. That's important if you want to turn a neighbourhood around. Every teacher across the province is well-paid, so you go where you're best suited rather than where the money is.

On the other hand, my particular area of expertise (gifted students) is ignored in Ontario. In the US, I could likely work in a school or district where there were more options for my kids, because each district is run so independently. There's good and bad sides to everything. Personally, I'd like to toss the entire system in both countries and rebuild it in a completely different way.


Bullying is always an issue, and we're always trying to find new ways to combat it. There was recently a law put into place requiring schools to deal with on-line bullying that happens outside of school hours and off school grounds. While the bill was exceptionally controversial, I don't have an issue with it. The on-line bullying leads to problems at school as well, and prior to the bill, we had no recourse as long as the kids kept it outside of school hours. It's a sticky issue.

I don't think you were around when I was dealing with major drug issues in the school where I taught a couple years ago. I taught in a grade 8 classroom in a Kindergarten to grade 8 school, and I had 9 kids in my class of 24 suspended on the same day for drug use - plus another 2 who just weren't caught that day. Several were arrested for suspected cocaine possession (it wasn't coke...but they thought it was), one for ecstasy, etc. My classroom was only 2/3 full for the week, and I had a parade of students who were out for a day or two at a time over the next several months to deal with their court dates. One of my kids spent some time in a youth detention centre as a result. The whole thing was horrible. The worst part was that I LOVED these kids - all of them. I'll remember them as the most enjoyable class I had, likely until I retire - they were just that wonderful as a group. But we had two kids move in that year who changed everything, and they brought the drugs in with them. While we had always had the occasional run in with pot smoking, they brought it to a whole new level. That same year, one of my students (one of the move-ins) broke into the school - twice - and caused some pretty major damage through vandalism. I have an entire folder full of police reports, and spent many hours sitting with cops that year. But I still loved every one of those kids, and I'll never forget that class for all the positive things. Go figure.

How's your mom and her many talented artsy things doing these days?

Any more pics for our inspiration?

Can you post past pics. I don't think I have them anymore after 2 computer crashes.

Are you doing any with her these days?

My mom left for the cottage this week, so I won't see her again until mid-August when Liam and I go up there to visit. My dad is up there with her for a couple weeks, then home for a couple, then goes back up when we do. He spends about six weeks up there over the summer, and my mom stays for 3 months.

She has a Flickr account if you'd like to see her work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31234627@N05/?saved=1

Her latest project (not posted) is using bear teeth and claws to reproduce traditional Native designs.

Her work is amazing! I remember that totem pole and still drool over it. She is so talented, and so patient! Can't wait to see the latest projects (hope you take some pics!).

I didn't see the sox on flicker.

Socks pics:

Have you only taught public school or have you also been at private school? If you've done both what are the pros/cons for the teacher in each?

I've only taught in public schools. There are only two private schools around my home that I know about: a Montessori that only goes up to grade 3 and a Mennonite school. I'm not entirely sure if the Mennonite school actually pays their teachers or if it is just women from the community. The pay at the Montessori is horrible in comparison to the public system. Private schools just aren't very common here, and every one that I've seen in Ontario pays about half of what the public system does. I'm ok with that - I'm a firm believer in the public education centre so I wouldn't teach in a private school even if the pay was great. I like that the private system isn't luring great teachers out of the public system with better pay.

Those are gorgeous socks!

What kinds of things do you and your son like to do?

He's a real cutie and very photogenic...

Luckily, my son is a huge dork, just like his mother. Our favourite things to do together are board games (current favourite is Pandemic), playing video games, going on trips to local attractions like the Science Centre. We also do a lot of building with Lego and K'nex. He's taken a bit of interest in my photography - he always wants to know what the theme is and likes to contribute ideas, but he DOES NOT like being the model. Another similarity to his mother, I suppose.

This summer, we're headed to the cottage to spend some time with my folks. He likes fishing with grandpa and exploring, though he's usually ready to leave about the same time I am - it's a tad too isolated for both of us! I think this year, we'll head up a day early and spend a night at a hotel in Toronto so we can go to the Science Centre (The Ontario Science Centre is WAY cooler than the one in Detroit) and maybe the Royal Ontario Museum or the zoo. Then we'll head to the cottage from there.

Books that most affected you/your life?

Person you'd most like to meet - living or not... why?

What music touches you?

I have lots of time on my hands, which is good, because the books question is huge! I'm going to be self-indulgent and go on and on.

When I was about 11, my grandmother gave me a copy of the complete works of Lewis Carroll for Christmas. She was always giving gifts that you didn't know you even wanted, but they were always perfect. I absolutely fell in love with Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I read them both at least once a year. One of my largely retired internet usernames is from Jabberwocky, and I seek out adaptations and remixes of the works. My tattoo is the first line of Jabberwocky. I credit this book for my love of fantasy, remixes of other works (including cover tunes), and love of literature in general. It's a fabulous work.

When I was in grade 6, our teacher was also the school librarian. He introduced me to two books: The Hobbit (as I mentioned earlier), which he read out loud and I absolutely loved - adding to my love of Fantasy, and The Polar Express. I loved the magic of The Polar Express, and read it to my class every year at Christmas, regardless of their age. I always struggle through tears as I read the last two pages.

My reading love continued through high school, but because I had to read so many horrible books for my classes, my pleasure reading was limited to Stephen King and other low-brow books. Until my grade 12 drama teacher came along. We became friends after I graduated high school and I worked with him on a couple of productions. He introduced me to a book by Timothy Findlay called "Not Wanted on the Voyage", which is a retelling of the Noah's Ark story. It is, to this day, one of my all time favourite books. It's a brilliant work, and it introduced me to reading literature for pleasure, rather than just as an assignment for school. I met Findlay years later, when he was doing a book signing for his last book, "Spadework". Though I bought the book, I didn't like it. I thought it wasn't up to the level of some of his others. So I came to the book signing with my dog-eared, dropped in the bathtub, cover taped on, pages falling out mass market copy of Not Wanted on the Voyage. I asked him to sign that instead. He gave the book a bemused look and I apologized for the state of it. He looked up at me and said that there was no greater compliment to an author than to see one of his books so obviously well loved. He died a few months later, and the book remains one of my favourite possessions.

Memoirs of a Geisha, as silly as it is, had a huge impact on me. I picked it up in a bookstore when I didn't have a lot of money and a $20 trade paperback purchase was an indulgence, after getting some distressing medical news. I just wanted something light to cheer me up. I fell in love with the book and eastern culture in general. That started me on a bit of an obsession, and I read everything I could get my hands on. I read memoir after memoir (real memoirs, unlike the fictional Geisha) about life in Japan during WWII, and then started in on China during Mao's rein. I probably read a few dozen of them. When I exhausted the supply of the bookstore where I worked, I started in on reading memoirs from African nations. It was my first real exposure to true stories told in the narrative format, and it all came out of an impulse fiction purchase.

More recently, Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell made a huge impact on me. Like the memoirs, her book talks about history in the narrative form. I loved her blending of her own experiences on her historical pilgrimage with the narrative of past events. The book is so entertaining, and it gave me the basis I needed for teaching Canadian history (which can be admittedly dry) to my grade 8 students. I taught every lesson as a chapter in a narrative, storytelling to help my students understand the historical impact of events. I've even toyed with the idea of writing my own "historical pilgrimage" work about the War of 1812, as I live in an area rich with that history. When I grow up, I want to be Sarah Vowell.

Person I'd most like to meet:

Hmm... That's really difficult. Sarah Vowell would be up there, though I'd be concerned that she'd think I was a bit too stalker-ish. But I think she'd be fun to hang out with. I think the people I'd most like to meet would be the unnamed witnesses to historical events. Courtiers from Queen Elizabeth I's time, peasants from Marie Antoinette's time, those closest to Mao, Hitler, etc. I don't necessarily want to talk to the historical figures themselves - I want to have conversations with the people who surrounded them. My interest in history has always been about the narrative of those on the front lines, or the people who were affected by edicts rather than those giving them, so the idea of having dinner with some of the people who could recount events from a slightly different perspective is appealing to me.

Music:

My musical taste is eclectic, to say the least. I don't like country (except Johnny Cash, cause he's brilliant) but other than that I'm open to just about anything. Because of that, the music that touches me is all over the map. As stereotypical as it may be, the Prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No.1 brings tears to my eyes. It's one of the only "classical" pieces that appears on my random favourites playlist on my iPod, and I crank up the volume whenever it pops up. Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah has the same effect in a slightly different way. Suzanne Vega's The Queen and the Soldier puts me in a mellow, contemplative mood whenever I hear it, as does Queen's '39. Hearing anything by The Mamas and the Papas brings me straight back to the summer I was 9 or 10, when we went to the cottage for two weeks and brought a CD player, but the only CD we had with us was the one that was in there: their Greatest Hits album. And, as I mentioned earlier, I have a ridiculous love of cover tunes. I get quite the thrill out of hearing a band cover a song in a new way, and often enjoy the covers more than the original.

quote:

Luckily, my son is a huge dork, just like his mother.

Being a dork is really fun! I'm one, too, my dad was one, and we took some great dorky field trips together.

What is your idea of the perfect meal? What is Liam's? Is there a compromise meal that you both enjoy?

I'm one of the least picky eaters I know. I love good food, certainly, but there are very few ingredients that I don't like in some form. I don't like Okra and I don't like black licorice (though a mild anise flavour used in Vietnamese cooking I'm good with). Other than that, I like everything!

When I'm cooking at home, I love mexican and thai inspired dishes with LOTS of heat. A recent fave is a salad made of raw red onions, sliced habeneros, cilantro, black beans, fresh corn, and a bit of vinegar to meld the flavours a bit. Delish! Liam's not quite there (raw onions and habeneros? That's not 8 year old food!) but when I make fajitas, I marinate the steak in a really spicy mixture that includes a habenero, and while he always talks about how crazy hot it is, he always has seconds!

Liam is a pickier, but his palette is expanding slowly. His absolute favourite food is shrimp sauteed with garlic and olive oil with lemon juice added at the end, served over basmati rice. We have that about once a week with a salad, because it's so easy and I know he'll always eat it. But the dish that makes us both happiest is salmon baked in parchment with zucchini, scallions, and lemon. When I announced we had to go do a big grocery shop at the big market in the next town tomorrow, he groaned, until I told him that if we went to the big market we could have salmon for dinner.

His weird food thing is he doesn't like melted cheese mixed in with other things. He's ok with pizza, but no baked pastas (including lasagna), He won't even eat Kraft Dinner (which is kind of a blessing...). He's an odd kid.

So, how was it you became interested in theatrical production? Were you a drama geek in your high school days?

As far back as I remember, I wanted to be a doctor. I remember going through the whole Anatomy Colouring Book and building a life-sized skeleton when I was in elementary school. So in high school, I took mostly maths and sciences. I did very well. I took a drama class to lighten up my schedule a bit in grade 11. In grade 12, they were doing a production of Comedy of Errors. I didn't audition - I wasn't an actress. I was walking by the drama room one day at lunch, and a hand darted out of the doorway, grabbed me by the shoulder, and yanked me inside. "Get up there. You're auditioning for this." It was my drama teacher. I told him that, no, I was not auditioning. I wasn't an actor. He pleaded with me. I already had the part, based on my performances in class the year before. He just had to get me to audition. I still refused. He continued to plead. Finally, to get him off my back, I told him that I was not, under any circumstances, going on stage, but I would work as stage crew if he needed me to.

So I became the assistant stage manager for that production. Then I joined the community theatre group in our area and spent all my spare time there.

In the spring, I was taking Biology and hating it. I was complaining to my mother and she said, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" I couldn't answer the question. Her response was, "You seem to like this theatre thing. Can you get a degree in that?"

So I asked my drama teacher. It turned out that there was one program in Canada that offered a four-year degree in Theatre Tech that did not require acting as part of the program. The admission requirements were tough. Grades, which weren't a problem as I was consistently top of my class, didn't really matter beyond the university minimum requirements. There was a portfolio, essay, and interview requirement. Less than 10% of applicants were accepted. But I applied anyways. I also applied to McMaster for an Arts/Science degree and Wilfred Laurier for Archeology.

I got acceptance letters for McMaster and Laurier really early. McMaster offered me $10,000 (tuition was about $3500 at the time). Wilfred Laurier, although I had skipped my interview, offered me a full ride for all four years, including the fourth year field study in Greece. My Ryerson acceptance letter came on the last possible day - my 19th birthday - and my parents showed up at the bar I was at to hand it to me. I didn't get a dime from them, and because I had left the math-science route, I watched my classmates with lower GPAs scoop all the big-money awards. My eye doctor is one of those - she mentioned it the other day when I was there with Liam. She still, apparently, felt a bit guilty about walking away with $45000 when I got a total of about $1000.

So I did one more show with my drama teacher (Midsummer Night's Dream - still one of my favourite productions) and because I had officially graduated, we became friends. We still are. He still teaches drama and English in a nearby highschool, and he formed a pro theatre company in Windsor, which is doing very well. I see the shows when I can.

Even though I'm not in theatre, and I doubt I'd ever go back, I'm so glad I did that for my undergrad. I would have been a miserable doctor. Doing the tech courses challenged me for the first time in my school career (I'm like Michael Anthony Hall's character in The Breakfast Club. I could ace advanced Chemistry, but would have failed Electricity I if it weren't for the assistance of the group of very techie guys I hung out with). I know how to use a band saw, why particle board is crap, and how to, if I were so inclined, make my own corset.

Such a simple question, and I turn it into a novel. Sorry 'bout that!