Technology in the Classroom

WARNING: Physics- and Pedagogy-Intensive

I’ve often liked certain specific technological activities for improving understanding. For example, I really like motion sensors with real-time distance-vs-time displays for various motion activities. A particularly cool one is the distance-vs-time graph for an object moving at constant speed in circles.


It’s a very graphic, so to speak, connection between the unit circle and sinusoidal waves and transformations thereof. Most systems will do v-t and a-t graphs also.


About a week ago, I was looking online for a simple demo for electric fields and/or the motion of charges in electric fields. We don’t have much equipment for this topic at the school, so I have struggled to make electric fields even somewhat concrete for the students. Lots of chalk-and-talk. But online, I found a great little simulation applet (http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/wavpart2.html) that shows the motion of an electron in the electric field of a proton. So, the next day in class, I connected my laptop wirelessly to the internet and to a data projector. I illustrated a 1-D calculation I was doing on the board and then later showed some of the 2-D possibilities and we talked about the shapes and energy transformations involved. I loved it but I had no idea it was going to be such a big hit with the students.

There are more such simulations (not all fields) indexed at http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/ and many other websites.

But I experienced an enrichment of understanding through simulation for myself today.

I had asked my students to submit proposals for the fields unit test they were writing today. I like this exercise in that it often yields perfectly valid test and exam questions (not just bonus questions) and it gives every student the opportunity to think as deeply about the material as they are ready to. The winner this time was: “Sketch the electric field diagram for two positive point charges and one negative point charge fixed to the vertices of an equilateral triangle. All three have the same magnitude of charge.” A tough problem for grade 12s, to be sure. During the test, I spent a good 15, maybe 20, minutes making a pretty detailed sketch. And although I was reasonably confident that I had a good answer, I went online to try and find a textbook answer. I didn’t find one, but I did find an applet (http://ww2.slcc.edu/schools/hum_sci/physics/tutor/2220/e_fields/java/) that would let me simulate it. Here is the applet answer and mine.


Pretty much I got it but I didn’t have the “ears” or “heart-shape” exaggerated enough.
Aside: After the test, I overheard one student asking another, “Did your answer to the bonus look like a jellyfish?” Woah. I have no idea what a sketch of a jellyfish would look like.


Then I went home and started telling Dion the story above. He had no visuals to go on but when I said I had all the key features, and listed them including, “heart-shape,” he replied, “well, of course, that’s what I’d expect – a circle subtracted from an ellipse.” Uh, what the hell was he talking about? Turns out he was thinking of the equipotential contours, which are at all points perpendicular to the electric field we were supposed to be sketching. Ah, vector calculus. Something about the derivative of a changing vector being perpendicular to it. I truly do not remember sketching equipotential contours. I probably did, but I’m sure I forgot it all 10 minutes after the exam. Anyone remember when we did that – Dimi’s E+M? ODE’s with Smith? I never took PDE’s.

So, after showing Dion the applet and how it does both field lines and equipotential contours, I started playing around with various configurations. Some pretty patterns came out. And some mundane ones. But this one really caught my attention.


The red dots are positive point charges. The grey lines are the electric field lines. The fuchsia lines are equipotential contours and at all points perpendicular to the field, of course – that much I have solidly known for some time.

But I know that fuchsia pattern from something else. If those red dots were charges moving out of the page, then the fuchsia lines would be the net magnetic field they create (per Oersted’s Principle and superposition). I use this diagram in Gr 11 Physics to explain the shape and strength of the magnetic field created by a solenoid/electromagnet.

Hang on there. The (1) electric equipotential contours perpendicular to the (2) electric field lines created by (3) static charges have the same shape as the (4) magnetic field lines created by (5) motion of charges.
(1), (2), and (5) or (1), (4), and (5) are all mutually perpendicular.

MAXWELL!

If I could just remember all that div, grad, curl stuff, I could write this down much more concisely. Actually, the Cartoon Guide to Physics (Gonick and Huffman, Harper-Collins) has Maxwell’s equations. I’ll scan ‘em for y’all later. BTW I cannot recommend the Cartoon Guide to Physics highly enough.

Anyway, who knows when I might have reencountered these ideas so intimately without the simulation software, some unconstrained time to explore, and some “expert” input from Dion. I might be able to transfer some of this experience into my lesson/unit planning.

Problem is, I am me and they are not. If I give 17 year olds unconstrained time to play with simulations, how effectively will they use that time? Will they be inclined to think about what they’re playing with? How much time is needed before the probability of gaining a new insight becomes reasonably high?

And now if I can ask a favour? Can anyone figure out how to get a working local copy of these applets? I’ve downloaded all the related source files (and the objects they call) I can find and maintained the file structure, but they just won’t run. Do they have to phone home? I’d like my own copy as the internet connection at school is flaky and who know how long these websites will be maintained. Thanks.

start to second semester

After getting to 10% in almost 3000 games, I reset the stats. I'm playing a lot less but doing a lot better. In 500 games, I'm one game over 250. Does anyone say that? Or can one only say one game over/under 500.




Wrapping up first semester was really hectic but second semester is off to a good start. My classes are strong academically and I have some personalities, too. I have started out really on the ball. I'm trying to have everything in order for the sake of my replacement if I need to start my leave suddenly. This is probably the first weekend since September that I didn't have anything to mark. I'm also trying to be on the ball for the sake of Kaitlin, who is teaching 12U Physics for the first time. We're doing the units in an unusual order (starting with the hardest three of six) for a few reasons.

1. I will be starting my leave right around midterm, so I'll be at school to help Kaitlin through the weirder stuff.
2. This will leave the easiest half of the course for my replacement.
   
3. The grade 12's usually go on virtual vacation as soon as midterm marks are in, as these are the basis for most university acceptances. (They'd really have to tank to have any offers rescinded.) This way, I have their attention and motivation for the tough stuff and more of them will learn something.
4. These are the units I enjoy most anyway. Why leave them for someone else?
   
5. I'm sending a message to all those students with 80 and 90 percents at midterm in first semester who drop the course and retake it second semester, thinking that they may as well get tested on stuff that they've been taught twice and never get tested on the tough stuff (at least before marks go in to the universities).

I think that #3 is enough on its own and I may continue to do this in the future just for that reason. Some of my students seemed a little disappointed but none has given me any grief about it. In fact, several students seemed to nod their approval as I explained that starting with the harder stuff is for their own good.

The only downside is that the actual instructional planning can be a little complicated. Until the students have covered circular motion and momentum, a number of applications need to be postponed, e.g., the Compton effect, cyclotrons, and calculations for Rutherford electron orbits.

Two weeks of vacation

let me forget how tiring my job is. Good grief, I'm knackered.

I had photos,

so I thought, "what the hell, I'll post." and then it ended up super-long. grr.

SINCE LAST POST

junior girls' volleyball has been hit and miss. A nice group of girls (and nice to each other, which is rare) but a little immature. good athletes but underperforming. I think we're 1-5.

bought Gina's old car - a 2003 Echo 4-door manual. done all the paper work, plating, insuring etc.... Johnson's quoted us over 4000 per year, including condo. Got a State Farm Policy for about 2000 per year, including condo. (It's so high because I've never been insured before.) Here's a photo I found online. Same colour even.

Holidays have been very nice.
-Greyhound to Ottawa on the 22nd.
-all Christmas shopping accomplished in around 4 hours on Saturday.
-visited Doug and Mel (Mackenzie and Keira also) in the afternoon, Uncle Mike in the evening
-went to the Christmas Eve service at McLeod-Stewarton. Dion mostly enjoys ripping apart the organist. She improvises the harmony for the last verse of every song, making it impossible to sing any of the harmony voice parts as written. pretty self-indulgent, no? plus the unevenness of the right hand. appalling.
-snacks at Joan's after church.
-nice brunch on Christmas then on the road back to T.O with Dad and Ian for Christmas dinner on Goldhawk. built gingerbread houses after dinner - very fun. Let's do that again. Also very fun are Dance, Dance Revolution and the wii. I sucked at DDR but kicked butt bowling on the wii. Dion is a DDR natural, of course.
-saw the "new" Bond movie on Boxing Day with Ian.
-showed Dad and Ian the condo, went to Indigo with them. I restrained myself to 4 books. Ian bought closer to a dozen.
-went for lunch with Dion and 5 of his WOW DJ friends. no surprises really. a clean-cut, late 20s group.
-don't remember much more but did do some marking last week. I have SO much marking to do.
-New Year's Eve at Ann and Steve's. good fun. Sophia loves Dion. Opposites attract? I brought crudite and a cheese plate. Apples to Apples, the boardgame Becky gave to me for Christmas last year, was a pretty big hit. I really was just throwing "Gallbladder" away. Who was to know that Evan would think that a gallbladder was unscrupulous?
-Dion demoralised that Ann, Steve, Evan, and Daniella won at curling without us on the 22nd.

-lots of research into pantry/cabinetry/storage options for the hallway opposite the kitchen. Finally ordered wardrobes from Ikea.

TODAY
-did some marking
-bought some maternity pants. Don't need them quite yet. but soon, very soon.
-exchanged some bathroom accessories because they didn't quite match. kinda bold for me and Dion but I like it. Here's a photo of what I got in exchange. (the shower curtain plus stacks of coordinating towels. Our ensuite bathroom is painted the same colour.) colour doesn't always come out. walls - pistacio. towels - plum.






11 weeks I think. I can't find the 19 week one right now. This one's cuter anyway. I'm 24 weeks now. baby should appear around the end of April. front-runners for names are Adam and Jill.







MOVIES
Casino Royale (Bond). I like the new guy very much. I also liked the reduction in cheesy lines.

BOOKS
bought
The Giant Little Book of Science Facts
The Giant Little Book of Science Experiments
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
Vinyl Cafe Unplugged by Stuart McLean.
I've been reading the last one and I even read a couple of stories to Dion last night. best line so far: "Murder was in his house and it sounded just like someone trying to flush a cat down the toilet." italics by the author.

delight and outrage

delight - senior boys vball wins north region championship 25-22, 25-23 on thursday. game not really as close as it looks. we were in control of the match except from 0-0 to 4-9 in the second set.

outrage - grade 11 physics class. got the sense that they haven't done homework in ages. took one entire 75 min period to take up two nights homework.

• each table assigned one question to copy solution onto chart paper.
• of course, most not copying solution but doing problem on chart paper.
• solutions posted around classroom.
• announce: open book quiz next day, 3 of these problems, one number changed.
• remainder of period: walk around classroom with notebook, read questions study solutions.
• solutions left posted over lunch time.

results: mediocre. 6 failed. but a bunch (13 of 31 students) got 14 or higher (no more than one part mark per question lost). i can't think of a bigger gift though. tomorrow: copy three of these from your notebook onto the quiz paper.

outraged

Yesterday, I had only 6 of 9 players at the Jr Boys Volleyball practice. And one of them showed up 40 minutes or so late. That was not what outraged me.

Today, the player who was late informed me that he could not play today. That was not what outraged me.

I asked the referee and was informed that I was not allowed to field only 5 players. I was forced to play players who had skipped/missed practice or default. I felt the latter option was unfair to the opposition who had travelled for a game and to the five players who had practiced.

The game started, I looked down the bench and saw my remaining two players. One was on the phone! The other was doing homework!

Not clear on the concept of team. Not even pretending to be interested in what their teammates were doing, cheering for them, supporting them, or even being prepared to substitute into the game.

I'm still seething.

Spider Solitaire

I have clearly spent WAY too much time playing this game. It has taken me a LONG time to hit 10%. Especially since the stats always round down. I've been over 9.5% for quite a while. I believe it took me 60 or 70 tries to solve one.

stirring the melting pot

One of my volleyball players told me yesterday that he'll date any type of girl but he's going to marry someone from Afganistan, as he is. Besides his mom would kill him if he didn't.

Where does that sit ethically?

Is it racist for his parents to insist that he marry a girl from Afganistan? I think it depends on the details of their motivation for it. But on the face of it, I don't think it's necessarily racist.

Would it have been racist for my parents to insist that I marry a white man? I think blatantly so.

Double-standard? absolutely. The world is subtle. Equality is not treating everybody the same.

Also, there must be a tipping point in the middle, right? How many generations?

Another example. Racist for whites to use the n-word? absolutely. Racist for blacks? I'd say no. Is it "good" for black people to use the n-word? not good but not racist either, IMHO.

double Hugo and Nebula winner

I read Flowers for Algernon today. I remember talking about the premise in my Gr. 5 class with Mr. Seidenspinner. It's really good and a quick read. I confess that I cried through the last few pages.

We bought a condo.

exterior

living room

breakfast bar

master bedroom

2nd bedroom

dining room (the + of 2+)



904-25 Maitland. 1200 sf. 2+ bedrooms. Everything's in good shape. Clean. Just move in in November. Close Oct.31.

Canadian Idol

I thought that the final two was going to be a coronation for Eva, who is consistently excellent. And though I've always kinda liked Craig, too, I didn't think he was up to it. He's been underperforming and nervous. But he really brought his A game. surprisingly good, especially on his first two songs. played to his strengths - super powerful. Eva, of course, did really well and deserves to win. I'm just glad Craig made a game of it.

Results are in: Eva won. 3% difference, I think I heard.

interesting...

The Guardian has a noteworthy article titled: Websites that changed the world

I agree that these are all influential; however, some are better described as "websites that changed the world wide web."

1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com

a good book

bought it Friday, read it Saturday, done by bedtime.

What Should I Do with My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson. ISBN 0-345-48592-0. $10.99 in Canada.

It's definitely a good read. It's a collection of human interest stories on how some people have made work work for them in different ways at least temporarily. The author admits that he doesn't have a representative sample of Americans - very few minorities, mothers, immigrants etc... mostly white boomers and GenXers.

• There's a guy who gives up law to open a store that sells homestyle cakes (Becky).
• There are several people who find work in and out of their field overseas (Kern and Kristin).
• Several writers (Jaclyn).
• Many people who find or devote themselves to their cause. Why don't I know people who work fulltime for their cause?
• There's only one case of a guy who had spent his life preparing for one profession (marine biology), hated it, made an immediate switch to another profession (dentistry), and lived happily ever after.
• Otherwise there aren't really any fairy tales.

I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether s/he is satisfied with his/her work.

This was in The Guardian. The Guardian!

"According to Levine, parents should take care not to pressurise their children to try to be outstanding at everything...."

pressurise. pressurise!

I believe in language growth and change. I really do. But I cannot accept this.

Woe is I!

Photos from China

I actually have very few useable photos because of my camera's death and the number of times my film canisters were X-rayed. Which made the following compilation come together very quickly. To the right is my favourite shot and probably the biggest highlight of the trip - hiking the Great Wall at Simatai.


Our guides were invariable surprised that we went to the Great wall twice in Beijing. But they were very different experiences. Compared Badaling, Simatai is a little more remote (about three hours from Beijing versus 1.5 hours) and allows for more climbing. Simatai was restored during the Ming Dynasty and is more rustic than Badaling that has been more recently and heavily restored. There's no climbing the Han Dynasty wall near Dunhuang at the Western-most section of the Great Wall. It's made of straw and clay. This section is about the height of tall person.

The Great Wall
The Great Wall near Dunhuang Han Dynasty	Simatai. The Great Wall near Beijing Ming Dynasty	Badaling. The Great Wall near Beijing Ming Dynasty

The Forbidden City

The Other Four shots that actually developed properly
The Seventeen-Arch Bridge on Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing	Jiaohe ruins. There were at one time Buddhas in each of the cubby holes. Jiaohe was a stop on the Silk Road until it was abandonned during Mongol invasions.
One of our stops on the Silk Road. This is the view from our hotel in Dunhuang	Yang, our favourite guide

The prime directive.

Dion insists that Yolande and I violated the prime directive in Dunhuang.

Our guide, Vicky, was a sweet but mousy young woman. Late on our last night while we were waiting for the driver I decided to make some fun. I asked Vicky if on a night like that, when she gets home late, whether her husband has dinner waiting for her. Well, by the look on her face, you'd think I was from another planet. Of course not. He gets fed at his mother's house.

I explained that in general, Dion and I split the cooking. If I cook, he cleans up. If he cooks, I clean up. cook together, clean together. Vicky was astonished. Not only was I recounting this freely in front of my mother-in-law but even more shockingly, my mother-in-law seemed pretty happy about it. She's proud that Dion pulls his own weight. She pointed out that it's fair that way when both people work and that Vicky could tell her husband that. Vicky's response? "I will. Thank you?"

I also told her that she should teach her son (now 3 years old) to cook. He'll get any girlfriend he wants. Vicky's response? "I will try." I don't think she meant it.

making friends in China

On my last night in China, I discovered the easiest way to make friends in China. Sit in an internet cafe with English prominently displayed on your monitor. Eventually, someone will sit beside you and start reading and making conversation. Exactly as 19-y.o. Xiaolaoshu did in my case. It was particularly fun since Xiaolaoshu speaks about 10 words of English so we had to make do with my Mandarin. In fact, we've already exchanged a couple of emails.

Having internet access also facilitates conversation. Babelfish from Altavista is helpful. Google Earth is a big hit but, unfortunately, it doesn't cover any part of China I've looked up.

I was also able to find a way to display the images that I have previously posted on my blog. Several were a source of great amusement for Xiaolaoshu, including that little paragraph in pinyin and characters that I wrote about a weekend. I was pleased that the pinyin seemed funnier than the characters. Xiaolaoshu also had a good laugh at a picture of me and Dion, although, I think he was just laughing at Dion because that is when I pointed out that Dion does not speak Chinese.

so far - will be updating from here

Sorry, Big Brother sees fit for me to update my site but not view the final product or to view any comments from my readers. In fact, because the interface is all in Chinese, I cannot even tell if there are comments. Do comment though, I will reply when I get to an off-label machine or home, whichever comes first.

Style will vary based on queue for computer and connection quality.

Friday the 7th/Saturday the 8th: uneventful travel via Chicago and Tokyo. JAL seats tiny but luckily we had an empty seat next us - the only one on the flight from Chicago to Tokyo, I think. That 5 hour layover in Tokyo was deadly. Sooooo tired.

Sunday the 9th: forbidden city
Tiananmen (the gate, not the square) is awe-inspiring. The forbidden city is fascinating too.

Monday the 10th: climbed the wall at Simatai. incredible though visibility was not always good. In fact, there was a down-pour just as we started back down the mountain. Yolande has never been 5 hours away from dry clothes before.

Oddly enough, I think Yolande has experienced a lot more culture shock than I have. She finds the city quite dirty and our neighbourhood rather rundown. I haven't seen any parts as dirty as Chinatown or Kensington. I also think that she's a little put out by the traffic chaos and the complete lack of "the customer is always right" attitude in the city.

Tuesday the 11th: summer palace. perfect day to do it - hot and muggy. still big crowds even though it's a weekday. irritatingly, the long corridor closed for renovation.

We used public transit to get there. I was very impressed with the subway system. Extremely easy to navigate, all the information you could want clearly and frequently displayed. Unfortunately, we chose a simpler but longer surface route for most of the route. Not so enjoyable except that: there were TVs in the bus (got to watch some of the world cup highlights) and we went by some of the most important University campuses in Beijing.

We still haven't figured out how to get the TV in our room to work.

Wednesday the 12th: Ming tombs and great wall at Badaling. pretty nice tour guide but some required stops at Jade, silk, and tea "factories", i.e., guided shopping. very fun day. stayed up much too late chatting with Yolande.

Thursday the 13th: Tiananmen square but skipping Mao's tomb. WAY too many people.All afternoon in the Temple of Heaven. A very nice park/historica attraction. Some souvenier shopping in the evening and chatting with the hostel staff.

Friday the 14th: pretty much a day off. transfer to another (really nice) Beijing hotel to start the JBC tour. did some walking around. watched some older people doing some traditional dancing in a bank parking lot.

Saturday the 15th: fly to Urumqi (Wulumuqi), Xinjiang province. population 2 million, lovely climate, beautiful valley setting. city farther from the ocean than any other in the world. 5 star hotel. too weird. spend evening walking through the local market. kinda like the shabby parts of kensington but much larger.

strange tour system. It seems we're the only ones who signed up. So far it's just me, Yolande, our guide, and our "driver" in a big-ass Honda. Our driver is obviously some bigshot friend of the tour operator and he is treated like royalty in every restaurant we go. and we're going to nice restaurants.

Sunday the 16th: morning at heavenly lake and heavenly mountain. Just gorgeous. hope my photos turn out. afternoon in nice new museum. mummies made Yolande uncomfortable.

Monday the 17th: drive to Turpan (with same guide and driver), 3 hours away but near one of the lowest land depressions with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded. waiting until 5pm to start touring when heat should subside. famous for grapes. hotel on the shabby side but email access under one Cdn dollar per hour.

Monday afternoon: Jiaohe ruins. An ancient city on the silk road. Fascinating and beautiful. Whereas I was a puddle of sweat and sunscreen in Beijing because of the constant 30+ temperatures and 90%+ humidity, Yolande really suffered in the 40+ heat and 0% humidity of Turpan. Poor woman doesn't sweat.

Tuesday the 18th: Gaochang ruins, Astana tombs, a vinyard, and a high-wire act [watching, not performing :P ].

Food in Xinjiang province (Urumqi and Turpan) has been delicious.

Tuesday the 18th/Wednesday the 19th: overnight train to Dunhuang in Gansu province. shared a cabin with two Hong Kong business men. slept great. new guide and driver in Dunhuang. still just the two of us in a Honda, but just a Civic maybe, not an enormous one.

Wednesday the 19th: Silk Road Museum in Dunhuang - small but effective. Several hours touring the MoGao grottoes (caves) with a bizarre but fascinating guide and two Americans. The MoGao grottoes is as LonelyPlanet says, "one of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world". dinner first bad meal in China but our guide got us an apology, at least.

FABULOUS hotel in a gorgeous sand dune setting a little outside of town.

Thursday the 20th: drive out to the Jade gate (WuMenGuan) and the Western-most (I think) section of the great wall, both build during the Han dynasty. updating blog while waiting for the heat to break so that we can go climbing sand dunes. It's not even so hot, really.

Thursday evening: climbed sand dunes at Crescent Lake. I took a camel ride, Yolande took a slide on a toboggan.

Friday the 21st: pretty much just killing time. went to the white horse pagoda, which is a monument to a monk's horse, not the important white horse pagoda. helped our taxi driver change a tire on the way. just waiting for our flight to Xi'an.

Friday evening: arrive in Xi'an, Shanxi (aka Shaanxi) province, start of the silk road and capital of numerous Chinese dynasties, notably Han and Tang. quick dinner at the airport then about a one hour drive into Xi'an. Our guide, Yang, is terrific. terrific English, outgoing, intelligent, great conversationalist. laughs at all the right times. He is also a rabbit. It's a good thing he's one of our last guides. Anyone else who follows will/would disappoint.

Saturday the 22nd: Qin Terracotta Army Museum. amazing. Thousands of life-sized terracotta soldiers placed in battle formation as part of the tomb of the second last Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang. roughly 2200 years old, rediscovered by farmers in 1974. I hope my photos turned out - no flash photography was allowed. Of course, I had my photo taken with a general. Please refer to my previous entry titled: If the shoe fits.... Also, Huaqing Hot Springs then the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, which has great artifacts and exhibits from Neolithic to Tang times. The post-Tang exhibits pale in comparison to those in Beijing.

Saturday evening: Xi'an dumpling banquet with song/dance performance of supposed Tang style. kinda entertaining.

Sunday the 23th: buddhist temple in Xi'an, fly to Chongqing. City has roughly 8 million, municipality has roughly 31 million. Ever heard of it? was completely rebuilt since being utterly destroyed in WWII. dinner, tea "ceremony", i.e., sales pitch, and quick tour of a park before boarding the MS Sunshine after dark for a 3 night, 2.5 day cruise to Yichang along the Yangzi, properly called the Chongjiang.

We learn that there will be Chinese, German, French, Spanish, and Canadian citizens on board. Seems odd. No Americans? In China, only some hotels are allowed to take foreigners, so maybe boats are only allowed to accept specific varieties of foreigners? We tried to guess the reason. I had two ideas. 1. They don't want Chinese people mixing with Americans for the same reason they don't want Chinese people reading blogger.com. seemed weak. perhaps 2. Americans attract attention and thus require more security to quell any lobbyist or protest activity that follows them. We were later told that it was simply a matter of marketing. Our boat targets European and domestic travellers. I'm still not sure what the deal really is.

Final count 120 passengers (2 French, 2 Canadian, 18ish Spanish, 30ish German, remainder Chinese) capacity 160, 110 crew.

Monday the 24th: meet our table mates: a middle-aged French passengers, three middle-aged Germans who were travelling together, a 28-yo German woman, and us. 5 speak French well. 5 speak German well. 6 speak English well. 2 speak Spanish well, 2 poorly. based on talkativeness and assertiveness of the personalities, most group conversation was in French or German. Side conversations were had in English and Spanish. We came to like each other very much.

excursion to Ghost temple. kinda boring actually. after 3 meals, we conclude that the food is going to be mediocre for the whole cruise. "Fashion show" by a dozen or so of the cruise. good sports. takes a lot of humility. A drunk HK business man made an ass of himself by joining in several times.

Tuesday the 25th: findout that Herr Professor Ralf has sprained his ankle. cannot join us on the excursion to Badong, where most locals are from the Tojiao (sp?) minority. I overheard our local guide complain that she had so many foreigners but luckily she was able to switch and we got John, an adorable Tojiao guide with good English. At one temple, he tried to convince me to pray to a goddess who is supposed to grant sons but I refused.

On the way back to the boat, four of us split on a kitsch cane for Ralf. Also, I had made a tiny bit of small chat with some Spaniards earlier and then when one Spanish lady asked me to translate what the English guide was saying, my brain hung. Insufficient memory error. The cache was full. Although I'm not sure whether to say my head was full or empty. But I was paralysed.

Early in the day we entered the Three Gorges. Right when we entered, my camera went kaputt. ah well. No more photos from here on out.

talent show by the crew and passengers. Passenger portions we three karaoke songs and the limbo, which a german group taught to the crowd, who had never seen it before but ate it up.

Wednesday the 26th: excursion to see the locks and dam just upstream from Yichang. pretty impressive. no amount of reading or listening can do justice to a structure that can produce 84 GW of electricity. yes GIGAWATTS, 84 of them.

Before we left, Ralf gave me a small present. A Chinese painting that the onboard artist had made. Carolina, the younger German got one too. I think he was very touched by the cane and wanted to reciprocate.

find out that the French couple received their very first communication in French from the boat. There was no French guide. There were Spanish and German guides and the Chinese guide doubled as an English guide as necessary. The handouts were available in German, English and Chinese only. What is the first communication they get? A handout explaining how and how much to tip. We were horrified. They even asked us to label our tip envelopes with name and room number!

disembark at noon at Yichang. lunch - where we happened to meet up with Carolina. embroidery "factory", where we again meet up with Carolina. but that's it. She's off to Wuhan, we fly to Shanghai. Like Dunhuang, Yichang has only one gate at its airport.

flight late arriving in Shanghai. traffic is insane. Like Beijing only lanes are narrower and streets are more irregularly shaped. Nothing close to a grid, lots of intersections. just enough time to make it to dinner and then an acrobatic show, which was very, very entertaining.

Thursday the 27th: silk "factory". souvenir shopping. Yu Yuan garden. lunch. walk along the Band (river side boardwark). Yolande had a small rest in the afternoon at the hotel and I walked around the hotel. very cute area. A short pedestrian street called duo lun lu. The restaurant at our hotel is called duo lun duo or Toronto.

5 minutes after we arrived at a vast but empty restaurant for dinner, who appears but the three middle-aged Germans? too strange. Our guides don't even know each other or work for the same company.

After dinner we had free time to stroll along (one of?) Shanghai's most famous shopping street(s), Nanjing. We killed tons of time and spend the last of our RMB at Shanghai's biggest bookstore. This place was huge. You can take the teacher out of the school but... Anyway, I left with 13 books (including three Chinese language textbooks) but spent under 50 dollars.

Now, I'm just killing time updating the blog. There's plenty of time for sleeping on the flights home.

for later reference

I'm just putting these together for when I'm using internet cafes.

Weather in Chinese Cities
gmail
canada.com
tel
Indy One long streak was broken and one was maintained. Follow the link for more info.

I should just retire now.

I should take my 6% pension and go out at the top of my game. This year has been unbelievable. Was it perfect? No. But I cannot see how it could possibly get better than this year. This year's grade 12s are just phenomenal. I wondered out loud about this to Bill Huang, who replied that they're mostly Dragons. "A superstitious lot you are." "Yes," he replied, "but you have to believe in something, right?"

Marcus Chan once commented out of the blue that I must have had a really great year, with the volleyball team and my classes. That is quite a perception from a student. Marcus is a very good student and musician and a very good-natured, down-to-earth, mature person. He came to see me today and brought me a present. Books. He gets me, obviously. Marcus is really into the history of science, and so, he has had really enjoyed storytime in my class (I read to my classes for the last 3-5 minutes of every period). He wanted to get me the two books he first read that got him into science but he was having a hard time finding or ordering copies. So, Marcus gave me his own copies.

Are you kidding me? This is too much! I should quit now, right?

My Mandarin class is over.

I can't believe it's over already. But I was in a state just before class started on Thursday. I was just a mess. I had just emailed out my part of the skit we were performing the night before so I figured it was going to be pretty tough for my group mates to get the lines memorised. Plus I happened to look at the syllabus, which said that there was an exam on the last day. EXAM? He never said anything about an exam. Although I had skipped Tuesday's class to do the bridge PowerPoint presentation. And I hadn't studied in a week. Yikes.

Well, it was all for naught. There was no exam and nobody was memorising their skits. We just read them. My group had the shortest skit by far. We stuck to the suggested 8-10 lines of 8-10 words per person. But I think it went as well as could be expected. Here we are in character as Kramer, Elaine, and Jerry. Oh and Jerry left me hanging for quite a while. Elaine "dances" in the skit.



Keep reading. I did about four entries this week.

Open Gym

I stay after school on Fridays so that some of the kids can play in the gym until the caretakers kick us out around 6. It all started during the senior girl's volleyball season when I had had it with absenteeism and made a Friday afternoon practice optional and asked a couple of the senior boys to come to give some one-on-one instruction. And it just grew from there but still it's mostly varsity volleyball players and their close friends.

The students are always very appreciative and since yesterday was the last open gym of the year, they got me a little something. I wish I had a photo of the giant thank you note, but it's still at school so that I can laminate it. But here is what the got me. It's too much! I was definitely touched.


They said that they were disappointed that they couldn't get me a pair of the team shoes (the boys all have the same ones) but they didn't have them in my size. Anyway, these fit perfectly and I jumped pretty high in them.

If the shoe fits...

On Wednesday, my gr.12 superstar was signing yearbooks and I looked over to check out his handwriting. His English penmanship is pretty bad. So a brief discussion of handwriting followed. Later in the period he asked me to sign his yearbook and suggested, hahaha, that I could sign in Chinese. Well I signed in English but added my name in Chinese.

Well something just felt wrong about the last character. I couldn't figure out the stroke order, which is weird because I knew that there was nothing exceptional about it. But I gave it back to him. When I got home, I looked it up and saw that I had forgotten the third stroke, so the next three felt weird.

On Thursday, I mentioned this to Mindy and showed her what I wrote. And she looked a little surprised and said, "Do you know what you wrote?" Uh oh. I was hoping it was something random, like "bench" maybe. But no, it was much funnier. It was very apt.

I asked for the yearbook back so that I could correct it - I like it when things are right. And I insisted that it was an honest mistake, that I wasn't trying to be funny or arrogant, so I needed to demote myself to my proper rank.
Instead of Teacher Lew, I had written Old General Lew.

They looked good before...

but now they're toast. We're doing destructive testing. The bridge must take a load of 300X its own weight for full marks. The largest was just under 500g, the smallest around 120g. With Kevin's help, I created an award for each bridge.

I did a Power Point Presentation with these photos and their group shots. I had to do a preamble for almost every award because they're very language- and culture-rich. But I think that I pulled off some humour. The kids got a really big kick out of the presentation.
In no particular order:

The brute force award. 150 kg wouldn't break this 480 g bridge.	The most elegant bridge. held 551 X its own weight. really good use of material and colour.	The most patriotic bridge. Apparently, there is a story behind the flag.
Close but no cigar award. Held 270 times its own weight.	The never judge a bridge by its cover award. This 120g bridge held 90 kg. I also considered the biggest over-achiever, the little bridge that could, and the ugly duckling.	It looked even better in real life but it wasn't especially strong. It held only 153X its own weight. Best eye-candy award.
All that glitters is glued.	The Mark McGwire award. The box they bought did say "popsicle sticks" although the rules explicitly said no tongue depressors.	Most original bridge. Cable stay? out of popsicle sticks?
The less is more award	the more is more award.	The little bridge that could. held almost 400 times its own weight.
The quality is job 1 award. This was meticulously designed and constructed. Using steam and ammonia to create the arch.	best supporting actruss	The wood wide web award? I love this photo, more for the seamless than anything.

Did I really do this?

I don't think it's particularly good and I know the text is very choppy, to say the least. But I'm certainly shocked that I can do this at all. click to enlarge. Some of the blurring and curving is caused by the binding of the workbook.

My new cousin.

My cousin John and his wife Sophie have just brought a son into the world. He's awfully cute, you must agree. James Qi John Li Iveson. 8 lb 4 oz, if I recall correctly.

3 angry coaches

The jury is still out for Sr Boy athlete of the year at my school. Beth, Peter, and I are the committee. I'm holding out and lobbying hard for one of these two. Let me condense our HOURS of discussion to a few lines:

Eric Tsui (I was going to use a fake name but I'm being so specific that there's no not knowing who it is if you're from AY)
- vball: #4 or 5 on a team just short of OFSAA. consistent and effective but no flash.
- tennis: can't recall, never saw him play, but this is "his sport"
- badminton: 2nd in North York in boys' doubles (an extremely competitive league). lost only to one team ever - twice in a massive double knock-out
- ultimate: most skilled thrower, leads an effective and aggressive offense, solid defensively

Matthew Lezon
- vball: #1 on a team just short of OFSAA. student of the game, cornerstone of offense, positive leader technically and socially
- bball: #3 on a team that finished 2/7 in North York East league play, did not advance very far in playoffs. able to finish, held his own against some extremely competitive competition
- ultimate: natural leader, capable thrower, leads a solid offense, great read of game, anticipation on defense

This is just too close. At first, I thought I would be happy either way but I'm just not comfortable with our decision yet. I think that both of these kids are terrific but they are very different types of athletes.

Who should be athlete of the year? Why?

Don't forget to read my next entry too - I had two entries this week.

Help me with my homework...

For my Mandarin course I am to choose and investigate 8 of the following questions. I want to see what generates some good discussion. Comment on any (as many or few as you want) that seem interesting to you. Although some are posed as yes/no questions, I am expected to elaborate.

If applicable, please also tell me
a) if you are of Chinese descent
b) whether your mother tongue is Mandarin or Cantonese
c) how long it has been since you lived in "China" or any version thereof
d) which city or region in "China" is "yours"

1. In general, how do Chinese prefer to say "No" (as in, no, I don't want to do what you're asking of me)?
2. Would Chinese prefer to be introduced to strangers or to meet them casually?
3. Do Chinese bow at the waist like Japanese or Koreans? What do they do?
4. Where do you put someone's name card after they give it to you? Why?
5. What's the appropriate resonse when someone flatters you? Why?
6. How impartant is the Welcome and Send Off for the Chinese? Why?
7. Do most Chinese preer a phone call or a face-to-face visit? Why?
8. Are individual expression and rugged independence praised by the Chinese?
9. Do some Chinese have an Us-Them view of foreigners? Why? (My addition: how is the affected by marrying in or marrying out?)
10. Is China a classless society? How can you see this? Explain.
11. Name eight of the confucian values which are still important for many Chinese in the 1990s. (I guess he's been using this assignment for a while.)
12. How important is Mianzi (saving/giving/taking face) to Chinese today? Explain.
13. Explain the term Reciprocity (huxiang). How important is it?
14. How do Chinese deal with the concept of "privacy"? Why? (My addition: within the family? outside the family? for children/teens? This one really hit a nerve for one student in my class.)
15. How different are Canadian Chinese from other Chinese? Explain.

And might I add that it bugs me whenever the instructor says "a Chinese" or "Chinese" instead of "a Chinese person" or "Chinese people."?

Why did I wait so long?

So, I'm loving my Mandarin course. Things I thought were going to be ridiculously hard haven't been so far. I love learning languages. I really should have done this such a long time ago.

Don't worry, the novelty will soon wear off and I'll started posting about topics other than Mandarin. Anyway...

I think I'm not bad at word attack, word recall, and the meta-game. For example, the instructor pointed to his nose and asked the class what type of nose (bizi) it was. I had no idea what he was getting at but I came up with the answer he was fishing for - mostly by luck. I've only encountered about 50-100 words, and I figured he must be looking for one of them. So I sorted through my adjectives (which are a small proportion of my vocabulary) and said out loud the only one that came to mind - da bizi (big nose). His wasn't even a large nose. But hey, you can call a nose big, right? He was so pleased and asked if anyone had ever called me da bizi. No, I've never heard of this before. Apparently, this is a reference to white people (makes sense). I also know that America (Meiguo) translates roughly as beautiful country so maybe one could call a nose mei but big definitely seems like the better answer.

I've had to ask one of my students for help with my homework once, which was an interesting moment/role reversal. I asked him to keep this Mandarin thing to himself. One, I'd be humiliated to respond if a native speaker wanted to hear me speak, which I can assume s/he very well might. Two, I want to be able to eavesdrop surrepticiously. Three, I don't want my admin or guidance to know or I'll spend hours talking to parents.

On a related note, the topic of mahjong came up in one of my classes today. I told the story of Tiffany's purchase of my contraband set and confessed that I play pretty poorly - my inlaws usually relieve me of my money when we play. To say the least, the class was very amused. I wonder how far the cuteness of a foreigner will take one?

Also, our instructor is really into language as culture, culture as language. And I do find those things interesting, too, but a part of me just wants him to get on with it give us speaking drills and feedback. You can never get a short straight answer on anything with any cultural implication at all, e.g., which title to use for a stranger of a certain sex who is clearly older/younger than you are). It always depends - where are you? where is the stranger from? how long has it been since s/he lived in China? how educated is s/he? But I'm thinking this culture focus is a good thing. Any Mandarin-speak to whom I've mentioned this has a quick and positive response to this description of the instructor. I'm just so pragmatic about most things. I figure that my appearance is going to let me get away with all kinds of minor or even major breaches of protocol.

Mandarin Lesson 1

Woah! That was really fast.

We covered
- a few statements (most about belonging to national groups)
- forming questions in two different ways
- negative statements
- a vocabulary word for each "letter" or group of "letters" that appear in Pinyin

I understand better now why Mandarin sounds like "sure, sure, sure, sure". I think it has a lot to do with the verb to be.

Cantonese vs Mandarin

I've been using this debate to put off learning to speak Chinese. But I think I've finally decided. At risk of offending my new family (sorry, guys!), I've decided on Mandarin. Let me be a little defensive. On the side of Mandarin we have:
- only four tones vs SEVEN
- daily practice at school
- eavesdropping on my students
- increasing Mandarin proportion of Toronto's Chinese community
- more usefulness for travel

I'm going to take an interest course or two this summer.

Mozilla rocks.

I just discovered the "open in tabs" feature. I used to right click and select "open in new tab" for each of the blogs I've listed above. Now, I have them all bookmarked (plus a link to comment moderating) in the same Mozilla directory and open them simultaneously with one click. I know it saves me less that a minute but I still love it.

mea culpa

um... It would seem that the absence of comments since September is my own fault. I wasn't aware that my blogging service now "required" me (by default) to moderate comments. But hey, even still, my ultimatum generated more comments than anything else I've written.

ultimatum

Start leaving comments or this blog has had it. In one year, I've had eight comments from three people (Thank you, Kern, Kristin, and MarkMark) and none since September.

You don't need a login. Just sign in as "anonymous" and leave your name in the body of the comment, if you want.

an ungodly speed

On a recent unit test, I asked my grade 12s to
(a) calculate the orbital speed MIR (or the Hubble), (3 marks)
(b) the period of its orbit, (1 mark) and
(c) explain whether their answers to (a) and (b) were reasonable. (1 mark)

The purpose of part (c) is to train the students to think about the meaning of their work during the test. I do this check every time I do a problem on the board. Some students do this instinctively but I figured the mark for checking reasonableness would motivate the others, especially since they could earn full marks for the question even if (a) and (b) were wrong but part (c) was good. It was also an opportunity for a discussion about good test-taking skills.

I've had good laughs over students' answers before. And I got another laugh this time when a student got answers of 10^40 or more for each of parts (a) and (b) in m/s and s respectively. At the very least he conceded that 10^43 m/s was - and I quote - "an ungodly speed" and that it would take "several centuries" for MIR to orbit the Earth. Well, the universe has only existed for around 10^18 s. The laughs continued because I wrote "LOL" next to "ungodly." Well, the student thought that this was the greatest thing that any teacher had ever written. The camera phone was whipped out. Another fun answer: an orbital period of 0.3 s. Imagine three times a second: "There it goes... There it goes... There it goes."

Aside: I had another student use a camera phone to record a demonstration we did in class. It's a different world, eh? Interestingly, technically speaking, the students aren't even allowed to use cellphones in the school, let alone in classrooms. But clearly, there are great uses.

Keep reading... I have a second entry today.

Did this really happen to me? or did I do it to myself?

Friday morning, I woke up before my alarm, needing to use the washroom - around 6:10. I sat up and something that didn't seem quite right. But I didn't think about it. I wasn't in any state to think about anything. I stood up. step up with the right foot. "step" with the left foot. Except that my left leg was entirely asleep and bore no weight at all. So next thing I know, I'm on the floor swearing. Lucky I didn't hit my head in my tiny, furniture-stuffed bedroom.

Well, my left knee had gone through a range of motion unknown to it for almost a decade. I landed hard on my left heel, which felt a little bruised. I was more worried about my knee but it didn't hurt. So I proceded with my day but investigated a little when I got to school. My knee seemed perfectly fine, not even any swelling which I can get from regular exercise. But the "bruise" on my ankle happened to be right over my ligament. By the end of the day, it was somewhat swollen, stiff, and lightly discoloured. Definitely a sprain.

It's pretty much okay now. I curled Monday and yesterday without any trouble.

crock pot

I got a crock pot for Christmas. It's awesome. I made stew and chili last week. I don't know if the best part is having a hot dinner ready when I get home or leftovers. Most recipes feed 6-10 people. I think my next effort will be a chicken. Ingredients: 1 chicken. 1.5 cups barbeque sauce.

second post in a day

So, look what they have at the Geography Challenge now. I am shocked that in my first three tries I got 6, 6, and 7/10. Same idea as for countries. They give you the capital. You click on the country. This IS a challenge.

Darn it. After playing for a few hours and pretty much getting the capitals down, I just discovered a good feature. If you click on "give me a detailed analysis" after your game. You get a list of the questions and your answers. What I didn't know is that each entry on the list is linked to the map. Click the word and they show you where it is on the map. That would have been helpful. I think it's too late now.

I haven't been posting ...

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.

Dion wins in a rout

nerdiness

Wow, if I don't score really high on a nerdiness scale, there's something wrong. The reference game, anyone?!

Today,

I went painting ceramics with Dion's family.
Here, I'm painting the lid to a Star-of-David box for Beth.

Kern

If my next post doesn't convince you to teach, nothing will.

two weeks of living vividly

It's been such an intense time.

Sorry, I've saved up 13 days of material.

Monday - don't remember much except that we lost at curling (Monday is my night with Leigh and Jenn). During their unit test, one of my able and eager Physics students completely blanked on one question about a snowmobile collision. I watched him staring at one page for the last 15 or 20 minutes. Poor guy. It was a question I all but told them was going to be on the test. I saw him in the hall a while later and tried to say some encouraging words but I think it just made him sadder. He was on the verge of tears.

Tuesday - the senior boys' lost their North region-semi final to York Mills at home. It was ugly. Complete fear of failure. Then we (Heather, Beth, Peter, and I) had to go to a coaches' meeting for the North region, where I had to face the York Mills coach and hear from Peter about all the things I could have done better during the game. It was a tough night. I think I spent about 2 hours writing my speech for the next day. You know the expression: if I had more time, I would have made it shorter. I made it shorter. The speech was mostly about courage.

Wednesday - SKIP AHEAD if nitty-gritty volleyball stuff bores you. 7am practice with the senior boys, 3:20 tryout with the senior girls. At lunch time I happened to see two grade 10 basketball players and convinced them to come to the tryout. Anita was stunned that I even knew her name but recalled that I did go watch a few basketball practices and games. The tryout was pretty fun. At the end I had two courts going side-by-side just playing a 4-2. Brian was playing with them. He made one pretty big back court attack that Kara, a grade 12 who didn't play volleyball last year, dug up like it was no big deal. She made the cut. I heard a big crack as Brian made another big attack but then I heard the gym go wild. Somebody had just stuff-blocked him. 15-year-old Anita. It's impressive enough that she was in the right spot at the right time. The shocking part is that he didn't go through her. She made the cut.

Thursday - 7am tryout with the senior girls. I posted the final list at the end of the day. I made some gutsy cuts and risky keeps, IMO. It's going to be a fun season no doubt. I got some work done (it happens so infrequently) after school and then I stayed at Dion's parents' house for the night so that I could take the car to school in the morning and have it for the weekend.

Friday - morning practice with the senior boys, good periods in the resource room in the morning, and the easiest-to-organise field trip ever with the Grade 12 Physics class in the afternoon. It was a workshop at the engineering faculty of U of T on how to design a spaceship. It was reasonably educational and of varying degrees of interest for the students - ranging from "hey it kinda sucked but I got out of class in the afternoon" to "wow, this is so cool.". The good things about it - 1. it was free. 2. I didn't need to miss any classes for it. 3. I didn't need any extra teachers to come with me (30-1 ratio is fine for that age and low-risk activities) 4. Almost all of the students could come. 5. Transportation was the TTC. 6. Students were allowed to go home unsupervised.

On the way back to school, I was on the bus with just two of my students, including the one who blanked on the test. He explained that he remembered my saying that it was a really excellent test question and that I had done a bit of wink-wink-nudge-nudge. But then a lot of the students laughed. Of course, they laughed because teachers aren't "supposed" to tell you what's on the test. But he interpreted it as, "she's goofing around. This is so hard that there is no way that it is on the test." And the worst part for him was that he was studying with a really strong student at lunch, right before the test. The strong student said something like, "I'll bet you anything that the snowmobile question is on the test." It was too late for him to learn it.

We lost our curling game and then drove straight to Beth's cottage and arrived around midnight. Poor Dion was already starting to get sick and then he had a pretty strong allergic reaction to Beth's dogs.

Saturday - nice day chilling out with Beth and getting some marking done. Poor Dion slept most of the day away - doped up on Neocitran. But then he beat us pretty handily at Scrabble. I had challenged him twice. Won one, lost one. For future reference: padders IS in the SPD, gentleer is NOT.

Sunday - left the cottage pretty early, got home, and took care of some stuff. I think I skyped with Kristin (or was that the week before?).

Monday - returned the gr 12 Physics tests and talked about study strategies - including studying in groups because at least someone will know what's on the test. I told them, too, that I didn't mean to have confused anybody about the snowmobile question. I will try to be more explicit in the future and they should call me on it if I am speaking in riddles. It really isn't fair that I speak in code to a few students who "get the game" of school.

I got an attendance report for all of the girls' volleyball players plus Brian, who was going to act as my assistant. Someone has to teach Jane and Kathleen to set - and God knows I'm not the one to do it. Not exactly the blind leading the blind, but it's close. Anyway, at this point I'm becoming really concerned for Brian. He has a habit of picking slacker friends and skipping classes.

The City of Toronto boys' volleyball championships took place this week. We are in the AAAA division (for the largest schools). Monday, we played Woburn at home in the quarter finals and WON 2-1. They played well. Stuck together, played some awesome defense. Jon had a break-through game. I've never seen him play smarter. For match point, Jon jumped really high and went over the block with a 75% speed hit that landed in deep one, where there was absolutley no one there to pick it up. Our motto up to that point had been, "good things happen when you go to one." We finally converted him. Unfortunately, Peter wasn't there to see it.

I really started to get excited about the prospect of OFSAA. Staying in the hotel. Dion would come as the male supervisor. The banquet. Ahh. A win on Tuesday would almost guarantee us a trip to OFSAA because two teams from Toronto go. We would only need to beat Macdonald (a heavy favourite) OR Northview (a heavy underdog).

Tuesday - We played our city semi-final at Northview against Danforth, who beat us 2-0. It wasn't a terrible game but we did beat ourselves. I think that I had improved dramatically in my game-coaching but it wasn't enough. We lost the first set 26-24, but having played rather well. But then despite two time-outs and two substitutions, we were down 11-2 at the start of the second set. Only then did we decide to play. To our credit, we toughed it out and traded points for the rest of the match. I was particularly proud that when Danforth was up 23-13, we kept playing. We did not lose 25-13. Most teams would. We lost 25-19. Danny served seven times, including three more times after a Danforth time-out.

It was a hard loss to take because it meant that our season was all but over. Danforth would have to beat the heavy favourites on Thursday and then we would need to beat the favourites on Friday to go to OFSAA. I took my probabilities and figured it was about a 9% chance. We were sad but I think it was healthy disappointment. Part of life, builds character, all that. Anyway, I stayed in the gym to watch the second semi-final and to chat with Beth, Peter, and Alison (a VP). It completely made my day that three of my players came back in the gym to watch the game.

Wednesday - morning practice with the senior boys. I gave them a speech about how proud I was of them and although I really wanted to win against Danforth, (if you're reading this, you probably know me well enough to know I hate losing) it made my day to see those players come back and to know that I still got to come back into the gym with them for the rest of the week. I was close to tears but not even trying to hide it. It was a really fun practice and we goofed around a fair bit. They didn't even play very well but no one cared.

Senior girls' practice afterschool. Pretty fun, but man, we've got a lot of work to do.

Thursday - senior boys' practice at lunch. A few of them were in the greatest, goofiest mood because they're also on the basketball team and they just won a season-opening tournament the day before. Fun practice again. I told them about a player's suspension (he was too embarrassed to tell them himself) and that they needed to support him, the same way he supported them. I also told them that I was going to U of T to watch the city finals and that whatever the result of the Danforth-Macdonald game, we would meet at the beginning of lunch - for season wrap-up or practice, depending. Before our practice-ending cheer, Danny interrupted to lead us in spontaneous prayer for Danforth. I was a little stunned but it couldn't hurt, could it?

I had fun with my grade 12 Physics class too. We haven't been having a lot of fun lately. I've been away so often for volleyball that when I am there, it's all business. I told them my F=ma story. Non-9T7 Eng Scis out there may remember Prof. Collins' speech on our first day of class. I repeated what I remembered of it and we dissected it. Then, we played BINGO, or should I say FSECS (phu-SECS) - Freebody diagrams, Symbols, Equations, Calculations, Significant figures. It was a nice change of pace.

A player's prayer worked and Danforth won 2-0. So, we found out at 8:30 that we were - much to my surprise - playing at Macdonald the next day. Do or die. OFSAA or bridesmaids. Well holy cr*p, that just made the next 24-hours ridiculously exciting and chaotic. I had to get ready for a supply teacher for my last period class (prepping to be away is always harding than prepping to be there) and make phone calls.

Friday - I was completely worn out around midnight (at the beginning of Friday) and just crashed. But then Dion came to bed at 3:30, which normally, I wouldn't even notice. But I did wake up and my mind started racing. Thinking about the next day & OFSAA. I ruminated for ages. I looked at the clock and it was 5:00. Well, my alarm was set for 5:30 for senior girls' practice; so, I just got up and took care of 2 or 3 of the 400 things I needed to do. Thankfully, I ate a really good breakfast because that and adrenaline was all I had to get me through until after the game.

Before most morning practices, as I'm waiting for the first subway of the day Northbound at Wellesley at 6:09 in the morning, I'm barely awake enough to do the Sudoku or to skim the Metro. Well, I was so excited, that I was pacing the platform. Not just shifting my weight, but grinding a groove in the floor. I actually caught myself unconsciously skipping at a couple of points on Friday. I was completely wired all day. I have never been that excited for even my own athletic competitions.

pretty good resource periods in the morning considering that I was trying to multitask some administration for getting to Macdonald and that Rose was absent and that we had a supply teacher in. Lunch practice. Highly necessary to work out some of the jitters. I had no fear of tiring them out. They're 17 and there was more than enough energy to go around. Here's my speech that followed my description of the game-plan. "If we want to go to OFSAA and we play like we deserve to go to OFSAA, we might just go to OFSAA." Practice ended with a cheer and another prayer.

It turns out that the gym was closed to student spectators because no admin from either school could be in the gym. Parents and teachers only. Unfortunately, we found out too late for a couple of my junior players, whom we turned away at the door. But Peter and Beth were there, several relatives of Danny and Matthew, plus our two super-duper student-teachers/gym rats, who had just had their last day at Jackson (until we hire them next year, I hope). Luckily, Nick (a first-year U of T student and sr. boys' athlete of the year at Jackson last year) was there, too. He sits on the bench with me and Brian and Kara when he comes. So, I had someone other than the players at whom to direct my nervous energy and any negative thoughts that I had during the game. I'm verbal. It helps for me to say something out loud and then I move on.

Game One (Best of Three). We're with them all the way. Macdonald is the heavy favourite but they're only playing at around 65 to 75%, I'd say. We're executing the game plan (something we've stuggled to do in the past) and playing great. So great, that I screwed up and lost track of the score. Rookie coach. We were up 22-20. But then they got three points on us before I called time out. We lost the first one 25-22. That was the only run more than two that Macdonald had in the match.

Game Two. I was afraid of another lapse like against Danforth when they didn't start to play until 11 points into the second game. Much to my delight, the team went out on the floor and kept on executing. But it wasn't to be. We played almost aggressively enough. Today's prayer wasn't enough. The score in the second set was 25-23.

Right after the game, Babak said it all - "The game was too pretty for us to be sad." True as it is, it's easy for Babak to say. He's our only bench player and still in grade 11. I said a few feeble words about how they should let themselves be disappointed or angry, it's healthy and natural, but that they had absolutely nothing to regret. I sent them into the change room to discuss what we should do for dinner. I wanted them to hurry into the change room so that I didn't have to cry in front of them. Tears mostly of joy.

When they came out of the change room, Peter come over to talk to them about the season, their athletic careers at Jackson, and their position as role-models in the school. At first, I was staring right at him but then I scanned their faces. My heart was melting. How could anyone not love these kids? I hardly had anything to say (rare - I know). They know how I feel by now. When Peter was done, Danny added that it wasn't just their experience in the gym that made the team so special. It was their experiences off the court, as well. They're very tight and spend a lot of time together. Danny also thanked me for stepping in to save their season and they all applauded. Of course, I was the lucky one in this transaction, I protested. I was once again embarrassed in front of them for being embarrased in front of them. I think I looked at the floor and shuffled my feet. Then we went out to Macdonalds.

Matthew blew me away. It was a time for us to be thinking about ourselves and celebrating our success as a team. But he wanted to know more about the suspended player, who couldn't be there for obvious reasons. What a kid.

Then I went curling. We got crushed.

Saturday - I got a 9am phone call, which normally I would leave for the machine, but I took it anyway. Happily, it was Becky, inviting us out to brunch. It was a nice brunch. Great to see her and Rob. Su, Lellean, and a friend of Lellean's were there, too, but they were at the other end of the table. So, I recounted much of this to Rob and Becky. I almost came to tears for the umpteenth time this week.

After brunch, I did some grocery shopping, took a nap, and spent a couple of hours blogging and wiping tears off my cheeks.

recreations

My junior boys are out of the playoffs, but it couldn't have happened in a better way. We won our tie-breaker to be 8th on Monday but lost to the first placed team on Tuesday. We lost 2-1. All the other quarter finals, junior and senior, have been 2-0 results. Not too bad at all. So we had a pizza lunch on Wednesday to celebrate the season.

The senior boys keep going strong. Our quarter final win over Westview on Thursday wasn't pretty but it does place us number 1 in the North for the AAAA City Finals. I'll explain the city playoffs when we get there a week from now. We move on the North semi-finals at home this Tuesday versus York Mills. Just thinking about it makes me nervous. This is going to be an exciting, tough game. The North Finals are Thursday at Newtonbrook, probably versus Henry.

Meanwhile, I have a senior girls' volleyball team to select next week.

At curling on Friday, Dion, Ann, Steve, and I beat a team we had no business beating. It's sport- it can happen. But it was particularly sweet because the skip found out before the game even started that we were complete rookies - Dion, Ann, and Steve had played seven games between them; this is my second year curling in decades and my first year skipping. He went straight for the throat, didn't call a single guard. "You jerk," I thought. But we absolutely killed them. They decided to shake hands when it was 8-2 after six ends.

Dion was so proud to be "that team." You know, that ultimate team that has no skill but lots of youth and comes down with all the swill. Anyway, we were absolutely giddy all night.

All four of us went to the beginner's clinic yesterday, which was very fun and instructional. They fed us well, too.

Today, had a good long chat with Kristin over Skype and played a bunch of the Geography Olympics. I had my best result ever. 10 countries in 12 seconds. There was a lot of luck involved - the countries were almost all within reach of the Mediterranean. I only had to move three times: once to the Mediterranean for Serbia and Montenegro, down to Madagascar, and back to the Mediterranean for the Czech Republic.





BOOKS: I'm reading an entertaining but fluffy book that a house guest from Switzerland forgot at my apartment. It's called "Cross My Heart and Hope to Die" by Claire Calman. Complete brain candy.