because I don't think I really have anything to report.
I guess I could have been doing my routine reports of daily activities but that started to bore even me. So I'll use Becky's Coles' Notes approach.
The Christmas holidays started off hectic because the last day of school was the 23rd. Dion and I Greyhounded to Ottawa that night and came back to Toronto with Ian and Dad, who stayed for a few nights. Chi was in town and it was nice to spend some time with him and Seewan also, whom I didn't know at all before. They really are everything that is great about Americans. I enjoyed three days over New Year's up at a colleague's cottage near Norland. very easy going. lots of sleeping, reading, and eating. Then I still had a whole week to do more sleeping, reading, and eating at home. I did not crack a book, not even Sunday before classes resumed.
I hope that everyone can say this but I think I got the best present in the Toronto-residents-of-Manning Christmas exchange. Becky bought me a game called Apples to Apples. It's so fun that Dion could not sit and watch, which he prefers to do for most games. We also played it at Chinese New Year, althought the group was a little big. 13 players means that there is always at least one good match.
I really had fun a couple of weeks ago when I went to play volleyball with Kevin's highschool buddies. The level was just about right for me. Luckily, the net was a little saggy, so if I jumped as high as I possibly could, I could just hit a quick. Three hours. I was tired but felt really good. I'll go again, for sure.
I'm starting to curl well - or at least better - again. That beginner clinic early in the season taught me a lot but also messed me up a little.
I was shocked that on the first day back almost my whole grade 12 class turned in a little assignment I had given them. It was assigned as seatwork for the last day of classes but I allowed them to hand it in after the holidays if they preferred to sing Physics carols, which they did. This was an incredibly hard-working and nice group. I told them so at the final exam. They did really well on a tough final. The average was 68%, including two zeroes, 74% otherwise. The other sections averaged 55% and 64%, I think. One of my students told me that the "joke/rumour" going around was that I was teaching enriched Physics. Which is a good thing, I think. Several of those students need enrichment. And I still ended up with a number of marks in the 90's and a median in the low 80s. But on the other hand, I do so many evaluations that anyone who has handed in all the assignments and put in a decent amount of work does pass. Completely fair I think. My only failures skipped the final (giving up and planning to try again for a better mark).
I have hated the weather this "winter". damp and grey, mostly above freezing. yuck.
My new semester classes look promising. I have a couple of characters in both gr12 Physics sections and I'm in a more intimate classroom.
I'm sure I've forgotten stuff. Remind me if you think of anything.
BOOKS
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway. loved it. I've never read any Hemingway before. I can see why he's a big deal. ;)
Fifth Business Robertson Davies. I liked it. It dragged for a couple of chapters, I thought. For a little while, I didn't know why the book continued. It felt like everything was resolved.
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2 comments:
Hi Karen, my first (and only) hemingway book was A Call to Arms. i liked it a lot too and also got why he was a big deal. i reread it a couple of weeks ago. maybe i'll try to find For Whom a Bell Tolls this week. Also interesting is The Manticore by davies. it's a "sequel" to Fifth Business but is entirely different. it deals with jungian psychoanalysis. of course i read it more than 10 years ago so i don't know what i'd think now.
very interesting, i previewed my comment and almost everywhere where i needed "it" i had omitted... it.
Hey there!
I often check in on your blog (probably once a week anyhow), and enjoy the updates. I guess that just as I seldom reply to group e-mails there didn't seem a personal incentive to respond.
Based on the recommendation here, I've requested For Whom the Bell Tolls from the library. I like now and then to read a 'classic' to see if I agree with the hype.
It's a new book, but I just finished reading Frances Itani's first novel 'Deafening' and really enjoyed it - good characters and a style of writing that made me feel like I was sharing their inner thoughts. Set in Ontario (Belleville/Desoronto) in the early 2oth century, it follows a girl growing up deaf as a result of scarlet fever and then her life as a young woman during the first world war. I have a leaning toward historical fiction but didn't know this was of that genre when I selected it. But reading the credits at the end and realizing how much research went into it, I can see why it seems so true to life. At least the aspects I can verify. The comments on sign language and speech/language development among the deaf were very accurate.
I'll let you know how it goes with Hemmingway.
Jen McMillan
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