Some things never change

A blast from my 4-year old past:
"You were about as tall as my knee and you always had a big smile for everyone. I think you found life pretty delightful back then."

Conflict resolution

Overheard in a school office:
"Are you happy with this being a, 'Say you're sorry, end of story' kind of situation?"
"Yes, sir."

Shaken to the core

I'm not the best at dealing with my emotions. I'm not the best at explaining what's going on when I feel something. Like, seriously feel something.
While watching Waiting for Superman, I started crying. I was pretty confused about it because I don't think of myself as a crier. I thought through my emotions, and I think that I understand why I responded that way. Nonetheless, I was shocked how I reacted to my feelings.
It happened again. I just got an e-mail that shook me to my core. I love it, maybe more than your average person, when things connect. When you find out the world is small and you feel like there's too much of a coincidence of what's happens in life. So that part of the e-mail was great, but then I started reading into the subtext of the e-mail and again I was surprised at how strongly I was reacting. When things get really personal. When thing really hit at what you're passionate about. I guess that's when you react in surprising (or maybe extreme?) ways. At least, that's how it seems to be for me.
As I've said, there are some things that I need to pursue.

"School board considers paying needy students"

There's an article in the Toronto Star that talks about an idea that has the TDSB paying "needy" students for things including good grades, attendance at school, involvement in programs.
From skimming the comments on the webpage (I haven't looked at the Twitter page that they referred to), it seems as though people are bashing the idea. I, however, I can come up with both pros and cons to the proposal, but there's not enough information to really make an informed decision. I would like to learn more about it.
I also hope that in the future I will directly be involved with policy, institutional, systematic, or similar kinds of changes. That would be so exciting.

"Gifted"...in the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is doing a series about giftedness. Here are the articles thus far.
When I'm passionate about something, I find it hard to articulate my thoughts about it...which probably isn't good for my profession. Also, I need to pursue this area in more depth. I have to.

Definitely not the norm

I was sitting beside a Kindergarten student during afternoon snack-time. She turned to me and asked for my help. She couldn't open her bottle of San Pellegrino on her own.

Les ailes d'Hermes

This website by Hermes is quite cute. Some videos are better than others. I quite like the fingers skateboarding.

Freitag's new Hazzard

I'm liking the new Hazzard backpack by Freitag.

A disappointing workshop

This afternoon, I attended a workshop about networking. It was a complete disappointment. It's not necessarily that I had high expectations, but it's a topic that I think is very important and something that I want to learn more about, improve upon and think that it will be integral in my future.
It was such a horrible workshop. The presenter seemed too confident, too much of an entrepreneur, I was pretty disgusted. I don't feel as though I learned anything from the presentation other than confirming some of my feelings about networking being kind of sleazy. I know it's an important part of life, but I still like to think of it as something that can come from a genuine place. If you think that's naive, too bad. I truly believe that it can be done without that dark side coming out.
The presentation was horribly done. Instead of learning any valuable skills, I felt like a commodity, only there to trade information with others in the room. One could argue that our networking was valuable to our future, but it was ridiculously superficial.
It was a 2.5 hour workshop, and two hours were spent finding out about everyone's career interests one at a time. We learned about all of the wonderful contacts that our presenter could provide for us, and were constantly reminded of the value of LinkedIn (I'm not sure how I feel about this). After a 10 minute break, the final 20 minutes were spent going through a powerpoint presentation in which we learned of all the successes of our presenter and in the last four minutes (seriously) we finally learned some basic networking ideas. I had a conversation with the presenter during the break. She had asked me who she could introduce me to so that I could get closer to my goals, and I honestly couldn't think of anyone, nor was I sure that I wanted to be (at this point, I was already disillusioned by her 2 hour ramblings about who she knew and how she'd be able to introduce us to all of them). It was almost as if her actions backfired, and I didn't even want to be associated to her. As opposed to me wanting to get into her network so that there would be a reciprocal payoff, I wanted to stay as far away as possible.
It was like she thought the only reason I wanted to be there was to get introduced to some important person that may advance my career. Although I'm apparently a green link (sequential thinker, list maker, summarizer, quick witted, don't like wasting time, visual, know what I expect from things, make a beeline for my target - I guess I did learn something, however, it wasn't made clear what the point of this knowledge was...I mean, I already know what I am), I wanted to learn more about the process rather than get just a name out of the workshop. I told her this, and although she kept saying "what can I do to help you", I got no help other than being reminded of mundane etiquette that everyone in my world knows. I was told about all of the wonderful things that I do, which doesn't seem helpful, because I do them already, so why bother telling me about it. Whether they are conscious or unconscious things, I do them, so tell me about the things that I don't do. When asked what I wanted to learn about (this was done in another round-about way that talked about things that I already knew about), we both agreed that it wouldn't be helpful to learn about obvious basics (that she proceeded to outline and explain in great detail - this woman is so ridiculously ineffective!), so I proceeded to tell her that sometimes you don't know what you don't know so you can't articulate exactly what you want to learn. I think it's her responsibility as the 'expert' to be able to provide us with that next step and be able to tell us (from her prolific experience) what more we need to learn. Is this where I'm supposed to toot my own horn and admit that I'm lucky that I've had a variety of experiences and opportunities to learn and develop the skills that were being (but I really don't think were) presented in this workshop and since I already have the skills and knowledge about all this stuff, that's why I felt do annoyed by the sub-par performance?
Ugh. I was so annoyed. I wanted to get up and leave.
The write-up about the workshop was completely misleading. Instead of learning about networking, I wasted 2.5 hours of my life and felt sorry for all the rest of the people who were subject to the presenter's wrath. I have no doubt that she's successful, but she does it in a way that is completely different than I would ever do. I may never be a millionaire like she is, but I much more comfortable in the way that I view life and other people. Sometimes workshops are ridiculous. I wonder if I'm more judgmental of presenters because of the field that I'm in. And I feel like my rant isn't really explaining the situation. If only I was more eloquent. Maybe I should attend a workshop about that.

Schooled by a Kindergartener

I was reading a Scooby-Doo book to a wee Kindergarten student this morning and had some trouble. You see, it was a learn-to-read kind of book that had pictures in place of many words. I had to get my new friend to tell me who all the characters were. I hid my lack of Scooby-knowledge by encouraging her to help me read by saying all of the words that were pictures. Rather quickly she got tired of this and said, "Can you just read the book for me?" Yes darling...now that you've told me who Fred, Velma and whoever that other girl's name is, yes, I'll read the book for you. I had to get her to remind me about Fred and that other girl's name a couple more times. Obviously, the names didn't stick.
I, clearly, missed out on some classic TV as a child. And this child of the 21st century, knew more about the stars of my childhood than I did. How strange.
It was mighty fun being in an elementary school again. I listened to the barely audible morning announcements over the tinny PA system, sat in a chair so that my knees were almost hitting my chin, sat on the rug for storytime, squished 6 bodies onto a loveseat, got told that I was pretty, you know, all the good stuff.
Education is a wonderful thing.

Trivial dilemmas

May hair seemed to be a great length a month ago. Now, it's too long. The dilemma is that I decided awhile back that the next time I cut my hair, I want to cut off a significant amount. It's long enough to donate to an organization that can turn it into a wig for cancer patients, so that's the goal. I've already decided the style of cut that I'm going to get, but I don't really want to have that style until warmer weather rolls around. That's not for months. Also, I want to give my blunt bangs more exposure. This new 'do has gotten some interesting reactions. Anyway, I thought that I could last until the spring, but my hair is entering 'too long' zone. I don't want to wear my hair up for the next couple of months, so I'm getting antsy. I could just trim my hair, but I'm concerned that they'll chop it too short. Actually, I just don't know where to go for a decent trim. I visit hairdressers for cuts, not trims. Another annoyance is that static-y hair season is upon us. Woe is me.

Life goes on...

...at warp speed!
It's been a busy busy run, but I've enjoyed it. I've been overwhelmed at times, but everything's gone pretty well (I think).
I'm taking a break from marking, which I haven't done in a while. It's time consuming, but I'm enjoying the process and finding out more about my students. Some of them have come up with really great ideas that I will most likely borrow.
I recently got to ride around in a stretch limo. My first in many years. I was at a competition and the company was a sponsor, so we got transported around in style. It was funny. Definitely not normal. I wonder what the skaters thought when they saw us all piling out of the vehicle. Maybe it'll encourage some of them to join our ranks?
Back to marking I go. Just a couple more assignments to get through and then I'm out the door to go furniture shopping. 10 months in this place and the living room is still bare. It takes time.

Head in the clouds

There's a lot going on right now. The beginning of the year (I can't believe that we're already a month in) is pretty hectic. New classes, new routine, new commitments, etc. I'm really happy with everything that's going on, but I'm pretty overwhelmed. There's a couple big deadlines coming up and I'm feeling the stress. I keep telling myself that it'll calm down a bit in November, but I don't know if that's actually true. Things seem to happen and I don't really get as much of a break as I need. And I have a pretty big, semi-self-imposed deadline on December 1st that will keep me in check for November anyhow. Or at least, I hope it does.
Today was a long day. A pretty consistently busy day. I got things accomplished, but I still feel like there's lots to do. I desperately wanted to take a nap, but I pushed through and continued to work until the time for my reward for surviving the day came.
I was so dazed by life and everything that's going on that I almost went the wrong direction on the escalator. If I didn't have the habit of putting my hand on the railing before stepping on, I would have been toast. It took a couple seconds for me to register that my hand was moving toward me rather than away for me to clue in that I probably wasn't supposed to be using that particular escalator. I must have looked like a complete do-do (and I recall no understanding how someone could get so close to the escalator before realizing that it was going the opposite way - could they not see the stairs and railing moving the wrong way, the people coming at you instead of away from).
It was a first.
Luckily, me plan to end the note on a high worked. Docsoup FTW! I was a little concerned that I would fall asleep during the screening, but I didn't even get bored or wonder when the movie would be over. It was great.
Sons of Perdition was a great documentary. I'm so exhausted right now, that I don't feel like writing a synopsis of the film, but basically it follows a couple boys who left the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints in Colorado City, Utah. I learned about something I know very little about, and was thoroughly confused about their culture. It's obviously a different way of life, but add on top of that a different mentality. I wasn't able to understand it all. I'm now making mental connections to my studies about cultural theory and ethnography. It's pretty fascinating, and just the other day, I flipped past Sister Wives. Well timed, my Hot Doc friends.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the documentary, and filmakers Jennilyn Merten and Tyler Measom were on hand for a frank Q&A.
I was rejuvenated from watching the film, and happily walked to do an errand before heading home. The weather outside was lovely. I think I had enough energy in me to walk home. But instead, I hopped on the 510 and promptly started to let my mind go until now when I am getting rather close to turning into a pumpkin. And so, I shall end my post.

Am I some sort of legend?

I've recently met a young lady who seems to know who I am. The only common ground that we've found so far is that we attended the same elementary and secondary school, but I had come and gone even before she had entered the picture. Most of my teachers had retired by the time she was at the schools, so we're pretty sure none of them were spreading my gospel. That, and of my classmates, I was not the top student that I would think they'd be talking about. Don't worry, this isn't a self-deprecating thing, sure, I wasn't top-of-class, but I wasn't at the bottom either. We might dig a little bit more to find out exactly how our paths have crossed, but it was nice to think that I was a little bit of legend in some right.

TIFF10 awards

The TIFF awards have been announced.
I'm more than a little stunned by the winner of the documentary award. As I wrote, I didn't really like Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie very much. I'm wondering how they calculate the winner. Is it purely by average, or does the number of votes make any difference?
I am happy that for once, one of my favorites made the list. It didn't win, but runner-up is pretty good.

Porter FTW!

Two more reasons I like Porter:
1. You can bump your reservation up two flights...for free!
2. They have a lounge in Ottawa where I'm blogging from. It's just as great as the one in Toronto.
Porter! Porter! Porter!

TIFF10 roundup

There's still the final weekend of TIFF to go, but for me, the festival is done. This year, I saw eight films. I had more commitments during the festival than in previous years, so I was limited in what I could see. My TIFF experience was hindered by being ill, and seeing three films in one day didn't work out so well this time around. Still, a successful festival, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

So here's the order in which I watched my eight films:
1. Inside America
2. Waiting for "Superman"
3. The Piano in a Factory
4. Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie
5. Blame
6. The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical
7. Buried
8. The First Grader

I'm looking forward to seeing if any of the ones that I saw get an award. My favorites were screenings 2, 7, and 8, so we'll see what happens.
I'm hoping to get to the Bell Lightbox to check it out soon.
Woohoo TIFF!

The First Grader

The final film that I saw during the festival was The First Grader. It was super good and I can give the premise of this film pretty easily as well. Based on a true story, the film is set in Kenya and is about an 84 year old man who seeks to enroll in Grade One after the government announces the opportunity for free education for all.
This film is touching, inspiring, terrifying, funny and educational all in one go. There are so many messages that one could get out of this film. The screening that I attended was sold out. At the time of the screening, the film hadn't been picked up for wide-release, and I have no idea if it will. Obviously, I think it deserves it. Some parts were a little difficult to watch, and I'm not sure how some of the issues would be received by, umm, the UK. History is history, but there are many cases where history is either downplayed or attempted to be forgotten.
Director Justin Chadwick (of The Other Boleyn Girl) was in attendance, along with two of his producers. They did a great Q&A, which the TIFF people seemed to draw out as long as possible an even cut the end credits to do so. They don't usually do that, but I'm glad they did. We learned that the children were all from local Kenyan schools and about the process of how he was able to get them to "act" without actually coaching them on what to do. It seemed as though he often just put them in different situations and recorded their genuine reactions.
Having been to Kenya, I liked seeing some familiar landscapes and the film gave me a better understanding of some of the things that I only slightly heard about while I was there. I now have a better understanding of the history of Kenya, its culture and traditions. I specifically liked making further connections about my pretty basic understanding of the tribes and their relations in Kenya.
I really hope that this film gets wide-release. One audience member asked about if there was concern about how the film would be received in the UK, but the director said that he thought it was important to tell this story and that the British know what happened. He said that he (as a Brit) didn't know about it and even the Kenyans that he worked with on the film didn't know the story either.
This movie is pretty darn special. You'd think that the link to education would be most appealing to me (and it was the main reason why I'd picked the film in the first place), but I don't think that it was my favorite part of the movie. Of course I took lots of messages about education from the film, but it's those other lessons that I learned and the way the film wove its story together that I liked. Two thumbs up!
What a great way for me to end the festival!

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net

Buried

I said that I have difficulty summarizing movies that I like. This would be an exception. Buried (official website here) is about a man who wakes up in a coffin with only a BlackBerry. I could tell you a little bit more, but I think with this film, the less you know, the better the film will be.
The film stars Ryan Renolds and that's it. It is a one-man show. The film takes place in a coffin and that's it. It is a one-set show.
I'm impressed with the fact that they could have a 95 minute film with just one actor, one location and still make it interesting. Try and think about how you would go from scene to scene or change shots in that kind of situation. I thought it was neat how they did it. And the music they used really helped the situation as well.
The movie even makes you think about issues that are pretty intense. Not just, the "what would you do in that situation" kind of questions, but some other things that I don't want to give away. Seriously, the less you know, the better.
Director Rodrigo Cortes did not stay for this screening. He was at the first one though. I should try to remind myself to attend earlier screenings of the festival, because this has happened a couple times previously. Luckily, producers Adrián Guerra and Peter Safran were around and they did a Q&A with the audience. I'm pretty sure that most of the audience didn't think there would be one because no one mentioned anything about it during the intros, and by the time the lights came back on, there was only a small portion of the sold out crowd that was still there. Sucks to be those who left, because the Q&A was great.
Apparently, there were 7 sets used. I couldn't figured out how some of the shots were done, but I guess that's what adds to the appeal of the film. I was impressed at how quickly this film was made. I think they said that it was shot in 18 days, and Ryan flew out to Barcelona on his vacation to get the movie done as a pretty measly (for what he was capable to bringing in) salary. He clearly really believed in this film and with good reason. It sounded like Rodrigo Cortes was super into the film, willing to go all out, had a really strong vision for the film and everyone else jumped on board pretty quickly.
This movie is getting wide release, so I would definitely recommend people to see it then.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net

The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical

The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical (official site here) is a documentary about the lead up to a musical performance by children from slums in Mumbai, accompanied by the Bombay Chamber Orchestra and taking place at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
As with most documentaries, we meet the stakeholders involved in the story. Some of the children, their families, their teachers, members of the orchestra, the Viennese conductor who makes the trip to India to work on this project, and the environment from which the children come to the locale in which they will be performing.
This documentary gives an account of the childrens' lives and their journey to the performance date. It really just tells the story of who they are and what happens, but only delves a little bit deeper into the issues that could be really compelling. I believe it is obvious that this opportunity is a once in a lifetime chance for the children, even if they did not live in the slums. For any child to perform on a National stage is something special, so although this part of the story warmed my heart, it was not compelling enough to have me think that this is a special documentary. It is only at the end, that the filmmaker weaves in the deeper issues that I would have liked her to further pursue, that of the fact that the opportunity was like a dream, and now that it's over, what? Nothing has changed in their lives. This experience is one for the memory books, but does it propel them to anything more.
Unless the filmmaker wanted to show the simple answer of no, I don't think that she did this issue justice. This was director Sarah McCarthy's first documentary and her attendance at the screening showed how dedicated she was to the project and to her craft. The film's website shows that her team is taking this documentary to a level of giving, which is quite nice. During the Q&A, she gave us a couple updates on the children and mentioned that the children loved the film (and didn't seem to be thrown off by some of the negative or pessimistic, albeit realistic, components of their lives that were illuminated - a fear of hers) and she will be returning to the town again in the fall for more follow up.
The festival is a great time for movie lovers, as they get a concentrated opportunity to see different films, but it's important to remember the impact that a festival has on a filmmaker. As a young, first time director, Ms. McCarthy was obviously honoured and grateful to be at TIFF. She even presented TIFF's documentary programmer, Thom Powers with a mini-trophy thanking him for his support. It's easy to forget the impact that TIFF has on those people making the film that we go to see.
So anyway, it's a pretty good film. Nothing above and beyond, but gets the job done.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net