Progress: 26/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

I had vowed to never use a digital reader, scoffing at people who looked at phone or tablet screens, mentioning something about "my book". My future home will have a wall-to-wall library of books - you know, real ones - and as a tactile book-lover and teacher of literature, I see the preservation of this future lost art as vital.

On Christmas evening, I ventured into Google Play, while trying to assist a student via email to find a cheap and easy version of a certain book that would otherwise take too long to order to even complete the independent study.

It was there that I discovered this free memoir. I read 80% of it on my phone, waiting on dinner, grateful for the busy but quiet sensory break. Oh and, boy, could I relate:

Here is another recommendation to add to my mental-memoir-list.

Also, do not worry, for I have not quite joined the digital dark side. However, it may be nice to "carry" some ultra-light extra digital copies of books while travelling, in the case that I burn through all my real ones too quickly.

Original goal list posted here.

Progress: 25/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

Like The Lowland, I bought this novel when I landed in Delhi from Dharamsala and had to wait 10 hours for my next flight. However, shortly after, I discovered the miniature and inexpensive sleeping / showering rooms and used up my time napping instead. This book has sat on my shelf for almost precisely two years since -- until my next international trip. It still served its purpose to make travel tolerable -- just on several plane rides into the future.

This novel is beautiful, informative, tender, harrowing, heartbreaking. As I've mentioned previously, I want to construct an Enhanced-recommended ISU list for 2D this upcoming school year, and this would be one of those listed.

I also want to read The Kite Runner.


(I am also grateful that this has been a summer of travel, rest, love, and reading. Oh, my life.)

                     Original goal list posted here.

Progress: #2. join a choir

My Pop! Choir

My Pop Choir's Fall 2017 Term- LP

Mondays, September 11th to November 13th.

NOTE: Thanksgiving Day, Monday, October 9th session being replaced by a session Wednesday October 11th!

Time: 7:15 - 8:45 pm.

LP Location: Eglinton St. George's United Church, 35 Lytton Blvd

"Do I have to audition for My Pop Choir™?

Goodness no. My Pop Choir™ welcomes everyone who loves to sing. This is about a safe, comfortable experience. Skill levels and experience ranges from member to member but you’d never know it because when we all sing together – we have one voice.

I’m really nervous…will I have to sing alone?

No one has to sing alone at any time during the Sessions. Even finding your vocal range is done with the choir as a group – at no time, do you sing alone. We know that it may take some courage to come out and join in this wonderful experience but you’ll soon find your fears were unfounded – one of the reasons My Pop Choir™ was created, was to create a safe environment in which we could leave stress & worry behind.

Do I need to know how to read music?

Absolutely not. We use music sheets but they're simple and many members use them simply to follow when their voice group goes up or down; and for the lyrics, of course.  We learn by listening to the choir master play and sing the notes, and by repetition.

Do I need singing experience?

We often hear “I love to sing, but I’m not a singer”.  Members would all say the same thing. Some members have had choir experience but most have not. The only obvious prerequisite is that you enjoy singing."

Sounds like my kind of choir, so I signed up!

[Original goal list posted here.]

Completed: #16. volunteer with elephants

Elephant Nature Park
Volunteer, 1 Week Program
August 7 - August 13
Chiang Mai, Thailand

I hope everyone gets the chance to be so in love.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: 24/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

I'm not going to lie: I found reading this book to be very painful. It wasn't written in a way that allowed me any emotional investment in the characters and, consequently, their outcome. Moreover, I'm not even sure of the narrative purpose or closing circumstance of any of the characters on the periphery. At best, it's written like a 235 page National Geographic article - but, most unforgivably, poorly edited. This is something I fail to understand when (1) someone considered the author to have enough merit to be published, (2) presumably the book had an (overpaid) editor, and (3) I was considering making it available as a reading option to high school students (who should be positively influenced to write by what they read, as opposed to inevitably catching mistakes for the author). I feel like cracking out a red pen, noting page-by-page edits, and mailing it back to the publisher. Alas.

So... Why did I continue reading?

(1) My dad says I'm not a quitter.

(2) I need to know if my first impressions are justified, because I give everything (and everyone) more than enough chance to prove itself.

(3) I'm in Thailand, the Wi-Fi is spotty, and I can't leave this centre in the evening.

As a "novel" that boasts a bird-watching quest at its centre that is fueled by environmental conservation against hydrofracking, I was considering this text for the assignment option outlined in my previous post. Does it fit the bill for a hero's quest through an environmental lens? Sure. Does it pass the test as something I would want my students to read? Can't say it does. At most, I'd leave it as an option with all my uncensored warnings as penned above.

Any recommendations for (good) environmentally-themed novels?


[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: 23/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

My school has 3 Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) programs: Health and Wellness, Transportation and Technology, and, the newest, Environment.

Each student in a SHSM must complete a cumulative learning activity in grade 11/12, in certain core subjects, through the lens of their SHSM. As this cannot be an additional project, this generally involves completing an existing class project through this lens.

I have adapted the 4C course as follows for the first two SHSMs:

1. For Health and Wellness students, Glass Castle free choice journals, students analyze the psychological and physical effects of the Walls' parenting on their children, supporting their analysis with external research and articles.

2. For Transportation and Technology students, they write their personal memoir about a difficult or challenging learning experience relating to their SHSM (i.e. fixing a car).

For Environmental students, I am in the process of cultivating a list of texts with an evironmental focus.

I read Dig too Deep for this list. Instead of reading the class text Ready Player One, Environmental students will complete the same project (a comparative film/text essay focusing on three aspects of the hero's quest archetype), but with a chosen text from the list.

Verdict: Dig too Deep will work perfectly for this assignment.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: 22/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

I have spent the past week reading this posthumous collection of stories and essays by Marina Keegan, pausing often for contemplation, and finishing this afternoon.

I wish there were more. That is to speak about the book itself, and the life of its author cut tragically short in 2012, a passenger to a boyfriend who fell asleep at the wheel.

Owing to their relatively short length, I'd like to use either her essay "Why We Care About Whales" or "Song for the Special" with my 4Us next year -- though really anything of hers strikes me as though it would be both relatable and discussion-provoking for those classes.

Aside from writing with a youthful astutity unparalleled by much else I've read, what strikes me most about Marina Keegan, having created most of her work throughout her undergrad is this:

As a young writer, she doesn't have the same sense of preemptive mortality as so many others. She talks of marriage and children, the food in which she intends to indulge on her (elderly) deathbed, and the idea that even writers can't achieve mortality if our planet will someday die.

It's poignant and admirable. I remember calling, writing into the dark ether of a blog at 19, shaken and shaking and unable to sleep: "If I die too soon, tell them I really lived." --

but here is someone who really did; who did not take too long to learn a lot of lessons it took me at least another ten years to know.

Respect. Rest peacefully and thank you for your words.


[Original goal list posted here.]

Completed: #28. use a juicer

I'm going away for two weeks as of Saturday, so I am trying to preserve my veggies. 

I intended on using the juicer to make veggie broth that I could freeze for soups in the fall. 

It was a disaster. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but entire chunks of veggies just fell into the juice holder and the troubleshooting guide didn't give me answers. 

Fortunately this goal does not say "use a juicer successfully".

 Also I just transferred everything to a pot of water and will make my broth in my usual manner. All is not lost.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: 21/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

In my adult life, I've not been much of a film viewer. Having only determined one or two films worth the time, I was never independently sure what was good for me -- and I'd rather not waste the time it takes to find out.

I'd been without cable from age 19 to only recently, at 32 -- a capitulation rather than an independent thought of my own. It's been okay, though. I like watching Power and Politics on the CBC.

In any case, I've always filled more of my downtime with reading and crafts.

Our 3U course has an assignment where students read texts in small groups and then compare them, individually, to their subsequent movie versions. 

I have really enjoyed cultivating lists of novels and memoirs I love with film versions, watching those film versions - largely in disappointment - and then reading very validating essays about how the film version of Silver Linings Playbook was an offensive depiction of mental health in comparison to the beautiful sensitivity of the novel version, for instance.

However, I get bored easily. It's why I'm the oddball teacher to request three preps, and it's why I teach myself new skills constantly. Life is too fascinating to just coast comfortably until I die.

Ergo, I need new book choices for this assignment. I decided to do something different here - instead of my usual route of having read the book and THEN watching the film, I did the opposite. I picked a film I somehow enjoyed previously (despite the presence of Hugh Grant) and read the book.

The film I encountered because a former colleague years back used it as a pairing to discuss the topic of bullying in a novel our classes were reading.

As a general rule that I can say with confidence now having done this narrative reversal of film before text: owing to narration, depth, directorial choices and cut scenes, the text is always better.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Completed: #4. use my Wacom art tablet

I actually have two Wacom tablets. The first is a Bamboo Splash, which I asked for years back as a Christmas present, and which has sat in its box from that day forward.

The second was passed along by my little sister and looked way less daunting, so I started there.

The next I'll try when I have the laptop to support the storage usage (which will likely be soon, as my browser has finally seized up entirely.)

This is meant as a follow up to my residency: the four sacred medicines with directional colours and scientific nomenclature, to accompany my writing about the deer.

They are made with a Wacom CTE-440, using Adobe Photoshop CS3.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Completed: #23. study Mi'kmaq language

Out of all the vlogs, websites, and Facebook groups, this app has been my favourite Mi'kmaq language learning tool yet.

My nephew is only 20 months and it has encouraged him to respond to my sister saying "I love you" with "kesalul", which is pretty amazing.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: 18/30, 19/30, 20/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

I discovered Richard Wagamese at a time I really needed his writing.

I rediscovered Richard Wagamese through trying to find a poem about a medicine wheel - and, as a result, ordered the anthology Runaway Dreams. I read slowly because I didn't want it to end.

As is often the case, macro level funding is now supporting micro level initiatives that we tried to raise some three or four years ago. Better now than never.

As a result, every high school in my region has ended up with a curated box of multicultural texts, which I was invited to peruse.

I borrowed the non-fiction One Story, One Song, which I finished quickly and easily, rivaling my longstanding love of Keeper'n Me. I would like to use an essay or two with my 4Us next year.

I bought Medicine Walk at a garage sale, which is nothing but harrowing and heartbreaking past page 175 or so. I want to construct an Enhanced-recommended ISU list for 2D, and this would be one of those listed.

I am disheartened that Wagamese is no longer of the living, to write. However, I am glad that he has left such a written legacy and I want to read it all.

                     Original goal list posted here.

Completed: #5. Participate in an art residency / retreat

"Trust is the spiritual by-product of innocence. My people say that more than lack of knowledge and experience, it's learning to look at the world with wonder. when we do that, we look in a learning way.

Trust, the ability to open yourself to teachings is the gateway for each of us to becoming who we were created to be. 

All things bear teachings. Teachings are hidden in every leaf and rock. But only when we look at the world with wonder do the teachings reveal themselves, and trust is also the ability to put those teachings to work in our lives. 

Trust is, in fact, our first act of faith and our first step towards the principle of courage that will guide us."

-Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

___

I am grateful for that which ceaselessly brings me so much fear and anxiety because it is that which also brings me endless curiosity and a need to know.

___

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: #5. participate in an art residency / retreat

This will be a summer of satisfying some of the larger goals on this list. For the first, I leave in 1.5 days on a Greyhound to Ottawa (where I will stay for a day, before being relocated to a cottage-style house for an artist residency in Gatineau).

I did a lot of research to find a residency that sounded best suited to me. The Ayatana Artists' Research Program was actually the only one to which I applied, as it was the only one that really piqued my interest. Fortunately, I was accepted to their "Germinate: Botany for Artists" program.

I'm madly excited to learn more about integrating science and nature into my practice. 

Here's the preliminary agenda that we received by email:

---

Tentative Germinate Schedule All activities are subject to change according to expert availability. *Asterisks mark meals that you will pay for yourself 

Day 1:12:00  Meet at the National Gallery of Canada cafeteria for *lunch and introduction
1:00  Gatineau park visitor center
3:00  Drive to Residency House
4:00  We invite you to give a private artist talk to share your work with the group.
7:30  Dinner at residency house 

Day 2:
10:00 Tour of the Museum of Natures Herbarium
2:00 Hike the Wild Garden to pick edible and medicinal plants.
5:00 Eco dying workshop  7:00 Dinner at residency house.

Day 3:  10:00 Guided tour of the Arboretum and experimental farm.
3:00 Meet with the Ottawa Society of Botanical Illustrators.
7:30 Dinner at residency house. 

Day 4:
11:00 Meet a krilian photographer for an artist talk and plant EEG demonstration. 3:00 Explore shore line plant life with a river keeper.
&:00 Dinner in Chelsea 

Day 5: 10:00 Visit the research green houses at Carleton University to learn about ethnobotany.
2:00 Hike the woods with an expert on invasive species. 7:30 Dinner at residency house. 

Day 6: 10:00 Visit the Ottawa Seed Library to learn about seed saving and sustainable food. 1:00 Meet with an arborist to learn about caring for and climbing trees.
7:30  Dinner at the residency house. 

July 11:
11:00 *Brunch in Wakefield
2:00 Drop off in Ottawa

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: #43. make my own regalia

Here are some progress shots of the back of a vest I've been beading, using seed and bugle beads on vinyl. (I've actually either been gifted or traded for most of the materials, so it's a continual act of resourcefulness and embracing the accident, which is nice.) The iconography is based around my spirit name and medicine wheel symbolism. The eagle design is a variation derived from a jean jacket my mom once embroidered for my dad, which is now in my possession.

This will be familial and cultural and may take me another year to complete, but I'm okay with that.

The front left hand side will also feature traditional Métis flower beadwork.

I have to thank my 43things goals for inspiring me to take up beadwork in the first place, really. I think this may be the pinnacle of any beading I ever do -- save for if I ever have a child I want to make something, maybe.

I don't think I've ever been this contented with something I've been creating, but it's so incredibly time-consuming and there are so many other art projects just waiting to be tried. Life's sort of cool like that.

[Original goal list posted here.]