Jorgh will explode if I don't blog right now

My cute Jorghnassen was very nervous the entire trip and back, but he managed to drive us to the cemetery on Thursday to visit papa for his birthday without causing any traffic accidents. One guy honked out of his imbecilic nature, but overall Jorgh did a good job of driving after 4 years of not driving.

On another note, I got a response from the idiots at the french school board. Just as expected, it was a rejection notice (what else could it be?) but I didn't even predict it would be as bad as it is actually written. It's so bad that it's ridiculous. It's a form letter for sure, probably made from a program with a bunch of tick-boxes, which they decided to tick all the negative things. They went into a shitload of BS about how I didn't take into consideration of the students, or their socio-cultural and economic backgrounds, or how I didn't show that I was competent in any shape or form, blah blah blah... This from a 15 minute interview in a language where I have absolutely no possibility of expressing myself properly.

I find this hilarous but also very maddeningly disgusting.

BEWARE DRIVERS!!!

Yeah, I mean it. I got my learners license today after fuxx0ring four questions out of nervousness.

This City is Going Down the Crap Hole

After spending about 6 months back here in Quebec, I am rather disappointed by its offerings. A right-wing (ADQ, leader Mario Dumont) politician was elected in our provincial riding in September. The RTC (formerly the STCUQ) is on strike this week, thereby dooming the entire city of 600 000 to ride the bus during the brief window of rush hour (at 1/3 reduction of service) during the weekdays ONLY.

What I am most disappointed in is the lack of internet-based news sites about Quebec City. I'm not talking about the bullitens that the National Assembly, or other Quebec government sites set out, but just plain effing news.

Montreal Web Blog is a decent enough news/commentary site that is varied enough to keep even me interested in what is going on in Montreal. It has a link to a Quebec City blog, called Québec urbain, that is probably going to be the closest to a news blog there will be in this city.

I don't mind that everyone is French-speaking and probably hardly ever see anglos or immigrants miling around town. I don't even mind that some can't speak English, or hold preconceived notions about other cultures and ethnicities. But posts like the third one down from this thread really piss the living crap out of me. Especially when people like that choose to hide their identity behind the anonimity of the internet.

Fortunately, sentiments like those don't ring true of the majority of the population. I prefer to think that among the people who live in this very bureaucratic city, the majority is in fact highly educated and well-informed... well, except that majority who decided to elect the ADQ. (But this is Vanier, so I don't think there's much to wonder here.)

Ms C's Random Food Review (part 3)

Today: Hot cocoa the not-so-instant style

Comments: Most people have some inkling for a hot chocolate (a.k.a. drinking chocolate, or even a cup of brown in water), or some sort of hot drink, when the temperature decreases dramatically. In this case, I was bored. Let me impart the details of its creation:

• not made of NesQuik, Carnation, or other instant packets


• probably made of severed digits of small children ground up with the store-brand cocoa, but it's still robust in flavour

What is in the cuppa chocolate is 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of sugar, and most importantly, hot water or some sort of hot liquid (milk, maybe?). Otherwise the cocoa will never dissolve and you get the inevitable deposit of blobs of bitter cocoa at the bottom of the cup.

Review: It's cheaper than buying instant mixes in boxes or packets. But you have to be sure to use a cocoa that isn't only meant for baking otherwise the results may be disastrous. I used store-brand baking cocoa that seems to work. When dissolving the powder, I used a combination of half hot water and half cold milk, which instantly cancelled each others temperature out and resulted in a rather less than warm drinkable beverage. Still, my chocolate craving is satisfied, and I can stop when I want. *twitch* *twitch*

Saving grace: Rich cocoa satisfaction. And a luscious feeling of having consumed a chocolate factory or something of the like.

Rating: 4/5; bonus point for when I use all milk and froth it with my wondrous birthday present, the milk frother.

The Substitute

I spent Wednesday to Friday supply teaching at a school in Shannon (ie. Valcartier Base settlement). One of the most obvious things about it is that it's far. Far enough for people to utter "WTF!?" It's a small school with probably 300 students at most, and combined elementary and high schools in one building. The saddest part about the school is that it shows its age, without seemingly much renovation to help it out. I figure that the newest things about the school structurally are the temporary classrooms built at the elementary school section that they've been using for about 2 years.

The kids are generally similar to other kids that I have taught in Montreal, except for the noticeable lack of ethnic diversity. I was bombarded with many "How many languages can you speak?" questions, which naturally accompanied the "Can you speak Chinese for me?" questions. For three straight days.

My favourite part of subbing at this school was the genuine comraderie of the teachers at both levels, along with administration. No one was ever made to feel out of place, even the subs. My least favourite part of subbing (or maybe even teaching for that matter) was my lack of classroom management, especially among the younger grades. I was assured that the students were the ones at fault, but I am stubborn and I refuse to believe that it could be anyone else's fault but my own (except for exceptional circumstances). The only times the students would be calm and follow directions was when a teacher would step in and intervene, or when one of the teachers came to observe.

There is probably no deeper shame I harbour in my profession than not being able to fix my CM problems. I have almost no other problems in teaching; I'm certainly well versed in the maths and sciences (despite my misgivings about the McGill program), and coming up with new ideas and projects is one of the great joys of teaching. I am quite interested in curricular reform, while I still hold in respect the traditional methods of teaching.

So why in the world would a university teaching program not require the CM course? And why the crap isn't there something intuitive about CM? (Well, not intuitive to myself; there are countably many people in the world who are naturally gifted with this quality.)

This is my main stumbling block. My dear readers may be thinking, "WTF!? How in the world did you pass your field experiences then?" Well, the short answer is I didn't... my 3rd year cooperating teacher didn't pass me on that part, which was 1/4 of the categories he was grading me on. But he passed me overall, which led me to the 4th year field experience... where the 4th year cooperating teacher decided that despite my weakness, it would be a shame to prevent me from being a teacher. In fact, I agree with both of these cooperating teachers; for inept duds like myself, it takes time to develop an effective classroom management procedure.

So hopefully by doing enough substitution now, I might get the hang of something that will work for myself. At this school, I tried very ineffetively using the teacher's established discipline procedure with very laughable* results...! (*On hindsight only.)

Why didn't I do this before at the previous field experiences? Well, for the 3rd, it is probably understandable since I never taught before, and for the 4th, the students were rather better-tempered. Since I am now outside my cycle of the education system (and entering into the students' cycles of education) I feel like it's time to really stop moping about and do something about this horrible mess.

What I like the most out of teaching is working with students to help them learn. The most satisfying feeling is when I can see in their faces that they truly understand (and not just pretend to), but the second most satisfying is when they ask me for help.

Time to borrow some books from the library!

Bon Voyage!

Mama was on her way! (Tuesday.) 

Random Photo

Dull and stately National Assembly of Quebec. (National?)