What is a Quafaie?


Quafaie (pronounced: kwa FAY) are fantasy creatures that exist in the fantasy writing of Hugh Kemeny, and are created by him. They are primarily in Hugh Kemeny’s Black Phoenix short stories...

To learn more, read this post: What is a Quafaie?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Daily Inspiration

The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.
- Howard Cosell
inspire daily calendar Tue 24 Apr 2012 


Every school year I do an activity where students match their skin color to "people color" paints, then paint portraits and handprint murals to celebrate who we are and how we look. The colors are called everything from cinnamon to peach to mahogany to toast. When one third-grader's skin color matched the "wheat" color, he got so excited, he hollered, "I'm finally student of the wheat!"
- JoMarie Privitera on www.yesiteach.org
Teachers daily calendar Mon 25 May 2009

Monday, April 23, 2012

Daily Inspiration

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.
- Warren Buffett
inspire daily calendar Mon 23 Apr 2012 


Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce, Dubliners
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 23/24 May 2009

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Daily Inspiration

It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them - the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
- Fyodor Dostroyevsky
Teachers daily calendar Thu 21 May 2009


Intelligence is derived from two words - inter and legere - inter meaning "between" and legere meaning "to choose." An intelligent person, therefore, is one who has learned "to choose between." He knows that good is better than evil, that confidence should supersede fear, that love is superior to hate, that gentleness is better than cruelty, forbearance than intolerance, compassion than arrogance, and that truth has more virtue than ignorance.
- J. Martin Rlotsche
Teachers daily calendar Fri 22 May 2009

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Daily Inspiration

We will either find a way, or make one!
- Hannibal
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 21/22 Apr 2012


 At the beginning of nearly every episode of The Simpsons, Bar is punished by being made to write a sentence over and over on the school chalkboard. A few classics:
  • A booger is not a bookmark.
  • This school does not need a "regime change."
  • Fish do not like coffee
Teachers daily calendar Wed 20 May 2009

Friday, April 20, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Great crisis produce great men and great deeds of courage.
- John F. Kennedy
inspire daily calendar Fri 20 Apr 2012 


Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. 
- David M. Burns
Teachers daily calendar Tue 19 May 2009

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Alberta Election 2012


On Monday we vote in a new provincial government.
Based on all I have heard (polls etc), we are finally going to change the government we've had for over 40 years; a conservative majority government.
There is still not guarantee that the  PCs (Progressive Conservatives) will totally lose power, but they are getting a run for their money from an even more right wing party; the Wild Rose - think along the lines of the U.S. Republican Tea Party.

Now to be fair, the PCs are more centralist (still right wing, but moderate). The parties on the left are: Liberal, NDP (New Democratic Party), and the Alberta Party.

Both the Wild Rose and Alberta Party are new to the political scene this election. Both parties have MLAs (members of legislative assembly) only because people crossed over from another party (PC to Wild Rose, Liberal to Alberta Party).

To give you an idea of the makeup of the Alberta Government, we have 83 MLAs to represent our entire province.
In our last election in March 2008 the following were elected:
72 PC
9 Liberal
2 NDP

Currently (until the election results on Monday) the Alberta Government is comprised as follows:
67 PC
8 Liberal
4 Wild Rose
2 NDP
1 Alberta Party
1 Independent

Based on the most recent poll listed here: http://www.electionalmanac.com/ea/alberta-seat-projections/ the projected make up of the Alberta Government would be about:
49 Wild Rose
33 PC
4 NDP
1 Liberal


This would result in a majority Wild Rose government.
Note: To have a majority government a party has to have 42 or more seats.


Now I'm not a conservative. In fact, according to CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) VoteCompass (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/albertavotes2012/features/votecompass.html), I fall between Liberal and NDP (see pic at the top of this post)

I currently live in a riding where there is a Liberal MLA, he is however retiring. So I am now posed with an interesting question. Who do I vote for?

There is a movement to vote strategically to ensure there is more of an equal voice in the government. Their website (http://www.changealberta.ca/) indicates that the NDP candidate has the best chance to win.

I was at an all candidates forum last night (held at the nearby college). There are actually 6 candidates in this riding:
Alberta Party
EverGreen Party
Liberal
NDP
PC
Wild Rose

My impressions were that:
The Wild Rose candidate seemed to express herself a little inappropriately. She was the only one who was making faces at what the other candidates were saying, and in the beginning didn't want to stand to answer the question.
The PC candidate did not show up, he had a representative though, who stopped standing to answer questions half way through. And checked his mobile at least once during the forum. When the forum started the students hosting the event mentioned that they'd appreciate it if candidates did not have the phones on the table.
I am not going to comment on the EverGreen or Alberta Party candidates, mostly because I wasn't paying as close attention to them.
The Liberal candidate was definitely fired up, expressing her desire to ensure that the government stays accountable. Commenting on almost every audience question directed toward other candidates.
The NDP candidate seemed less impressive than the strategic voting website made him out to be. When he answered questions he had some humour, and had good responses. However he did not comment on any question directed towards other candidates. Including the last question directed to the Wild Rose which everyone else then commented on.

So this weekend I really have to think about who I want to vote for.
The Liberal candidate has the passion, is representative of the riding, and has already worked with the current MLA to understand the people.
The NDP candidate appears to have a chance of winning (the last I heard was that the NDP candidate was ahead of the Liberal candidate in the polls, but that was an automated message from the NDP. However the strategic voting site also has NDP as the best chance). He has a large number of signs around, is very personable from all I have heard.

. . . . .

I'll give an update on this on Monday night or Tuesday morning - when the results come in.

Daily Inspiration

You have a very powerful mind that can make anything happen as long as you keep yourself centered. 
- Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
inspire daily calendar Thu 19 Apr 2012


I was trying to hook up a laser disc player and was having a heck of a time getting it connected to the TV and VCR. I asked the kids to sit still for a minute and give me a second to "fiddle." When I asked them if they knew what "fiddle" meant, a girl announced, "I know . . . you have to go to the bathroom."
- Chris Gulotta on www.yesiteach.org
Teachers daily calendar Mon 18 May 2009

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Daily Inspiration

 The shorter way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.
- Mozart
inspire daily calendar Wed 18 Apr 2012 


Curiosity is the very basis of education, and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only that the cat died nobly. 
- Arnold Edinborough
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 16/17 May 2009

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Daily Inspiration

What we have to do . . . is to find a way to celebrate out diversity and debate our difference without fracturing our communities. 
- Hillary Clinton
inspire daily calendar Tue 17 Apr 2012 


Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Teachers daily calendar Fri 15 May 2009

Monday, April 16, 2012

Web Interest - What we should have been taught in high school - comic

Once again, this week's web interest is something I saw posted on a friend's Facebook.
It is a series of comics from  The Oatmeal, titled "What we should have been taught in our senior year of high school"
As a Canadian, I particularly enjoyed the 'Science' one (below), because we are taught in both systems since the U.S.A. is our neighbour.
The whole series (Science, Home Economics, P.E., Math, Economics, English, & Sex Ed)  is here: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/senior_year


Daily Inspiration

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more.
If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.
- Oprah Winfrey
inspire daily calendar Mon 16 Apr 2012

 
Knowledge exists to be imparted.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Teachers daily calendar Thu 14 May 2009

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Daily Inspiration

I was born to be a teacher. It's all I've ever wanted to do. When I was a child, my mother gave me a memory book, and every year I wrote in it that I wanted to become a teacher. Being a teacher is one of the most influential professions in the world. We are training the future leaders, doctors, engineers, and scientists. We need to be proud of the fact that we're teachers.
- Former Georgia Teacher of the Year Amy Monroe Denty
Teachers daily calendar Tue 12 May 2009 


Concerned that our seven-year-old son was showing signs of eyestrain, I asked, "David, are you having any problems seeing?" He thought for a moment, then replied, "Sometimes at school I can't see the blackboard." Worried, I asked, "Why do you think this is happening?" "Well," he responded, "sometimes Claudia's head is in the way."
- Jim Hutch in Reader's Digest
Teachers daily calendar Wed 13 May 2009

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Determination is the wake-up call to the human will.
- Anthony Robbins
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 14/15 Apr 2012 


Word of the Day
quidnuc • \KWID-nunk\ • noun
: a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip : busybody Example sentence: Those who criticize Joanne for being a quidnunk are usually the first to go to her when they want to know the latest gossip.
Did you know?
"What's new?" That's a question every busybody wants answered. Latin-speaking Nosey Parkers might have used some version of the expression "quid nunc," literally "what now," to ask the same question. Appropriately, the earliest documented English use of "quidnunc" to refer to a gossiper appeared in 1709 in Sir Richard Steele's famous periodical, The Tatler. Steele is far from the only writer to ply "quidnunc" in his prose, however. You also can find the word among the pages of works by such writers as Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne. But don't think the term is old news - it sees some use in current publications, too. 
- www.merriam-webster.com
Teachers daily calendar Mon 11 May 2009

Friday, April 13, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Never stop. One stops as soon as something is about to happen.
- Peter Brock.
inspire daily calendar Fri 13 Apr 2012 


Teacher Tip
Many students don't want to save their old school supplies such as crayons, erasers, pencils, paper, and other items at the end f the school year. In many cases, these items just get thrown out at home. The last tow days of school, we set out boxes in hallways that are labeled for each item, and students can contribute their used supplies. The surplus items are used by teachers, saved for needy students, or donated to area service agencies. 
- Sonny Bechler, Illinois Education Association, Libertyville, Illisnois; Works4Me on www.nea.org
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 9/10 May 2009

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Daily Inspiration

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou
inspire daily calendar Thu 12 Apr 2012 


 Fun Facts: Famous Firsts
The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a fifteen-year-old girl from County Cork, Ireland. She arrived in 1892.
In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister was the first person recorded to run a mile race in under four minutes. His time was 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
In 2007, Keith Ellison became the first Muslim member of the U.S. Congress. He took the ceremonial oath with a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
- www.corsinet.com
Teachers daily calendar Fri 8 May 2009

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

What a day!



I am going to start with the most pleasant surprise: seeing the beauty of wind turbine blades on a train next to the road I was driving on.
The picture above is what I found doing a google search, since I was driving and couldn't take a photo.
I liked seeing the elegance of the shape of the blades, the clean whiteness on the train, and the unique shape. I thought that if I had time, and the ability, I would have taken a photo for Aussielicious' most recent challenge: patterns.

On to the rest of my day....
The most frustrating part was realizing how busy I am these days and losing time to do stuff I want to do. I spent most of the day supervising exams - 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the early evening. This time was at least somewhat productive as I managed to finish revising the first part of a play I'm working on.
I need to have the revisions done by Sunday for a class I'm taking where my play will be read on Monday. It was read a few weeks ago and my classmates gave me great feedback that I am working into the script.

The exams were relatively close to my place, however in the middle of the afternoon I had to go across town (passing the train with the wind turbine blades), to do a demo of Lego robotics for a course I'm teaching. It was a nice break in my day. 

Daily Inspiration

I never met a person from whom I did not learn something.
- John Wooden
inspire daily calendar Wed 11 Apr 2012 


Many fast-track paths to teacher certification bring educators into classrooms after only a summer's training, allowing them to complete their certification while they teach. Proponents say that this option gives highly educated and motivated people a way to immediately bring their energy and expertise into the schools that need them the most. Critics argue that this kind of "emergency" certification sends underprepared teachers into high-need classrooms, which can have a negative impact on student learning and lead to new -teacher burnouts.
In an Edutopia online poll, 39 percent of voters said that fast-track teacher certification programs benefit public education, bringing teachers into schools that need them and increasing the diversity of the teaching workforce. An additional 31 percent said that it depends on the program; some underprepare their teachers, but others, such as Teach for America, have excellent track records. A quarter of voters were against fast-track certification, and believe that too many of these programs do little more than throw poorly prepared teachers into underserved classrooms, which hinders student learning and contributes to high teacher-turnover rates. The remaining 5 percent of voters were undecided.
- www.edutopia.org
Teachers daily calendar Thu 7 May 2009

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Web Interest - Video

I am about a day late for my Web Interest posting, but that's because I was working all day setting up postings on my NSFW tumblr blog. Which it turns out I should have started a couple days ago.... but that's another story.

As part of my breaks while I was waiting for stuff to upload onto tumblr I was watching and reading a few posts in my news feed on Facebook. One caught my attention, and so I thought I'd post it here.

Beware, there is nudity!


Quatre jeunes Suédois nus dans Incroyable talent by LeNouvelObservateur

Daily Inspiration

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. 
- Mahatma Gandhi 
inspire daily calendar Tue 10 Apr 2012 


I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
- Terry Pratchett
Teachers daily calendar Wed 6 May 2009

Monday, April 9, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Sometimes questions are more important than answers.
- Nancy Willard
inspire daily calendar Mon 9 Apr 2012 


 Today is National Teacher Day, a time for honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives. If you can read this, thank a teacher!
Teachers daily calendar Tue 5 May 2009

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Behind Every Famous Person Is a Fabulous Teacher
"What a great profession this is!" says NFL Teacher of the Year Charlotte Gagliardi. Twelve-time Pro Bowl participant and former student Will Shields is glad she thinks so.
"I'm a member of the NFL today because of God-given talents," says Will. "However, I'm a father today and a husband today and the best person I can be today because of Ms. G."
- TeachersCount National Social Marketing Compaign
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 2/3 May 2009 


 How to Be a Kid Again
  • Put an orange slice in your mouth, peel side out, and smile at people.
  • Tell someone they're really smart then yell out "opposite day!"
  • Spin the stem of an apple to see what letter it comes out on.
Teachers daily calendar Mon 4 May 2009

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Thoughts

I keep things going when I probably should stop.
I don't do things I probably should.
At time I feel lost and confused.
I sometime feel I make an effort and no one notices.
I know there are times people care and I don't notice.
As I try to to find my path in life
I find I want to change things about me, yet
I struggle at making those changes I want.
And so I must push through the barriers, so
I will overcome my habits,
I will be who I want, not what I think others want
Which means I must let go and make some tough decisions
without looking back.


One of these decisions is to not force this blog.
I will let it become what ever IT wants.
That means that even with my new posting ideas in mind, if I don't have anything to post, I won't post.
I had already started to let go of some things I should let go of, now I must truly let go.

Daily Inspiration

Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds.
- SEAL Team saying
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 7/8 Apr 2012 


The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Services to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. While recent winners are always great reads, don't forget classics from ten, twenty, or even fifty years ago.
1999: Snowflake Bentley, illustrated by Mary Azarian; text by Jacqueline Briggs Marti
1989: Song and Dance Man, illustrated by Stephen Gemmell; text by Karen Ackerman
1979: The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble
1969: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; text retold by Arthur Ransome
1959: Chanticleer and the Fox, illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text adapted from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Teachers daily calendar Fri 1 May 2009

Friday, April 6, 2012

Suggestions?

In light of my previous long post (Thursdays....), I am interested in what any of my followers would like to see me post. Please give any suggestions you have - all of them will be considered.

Daily Inspiration

Your brain shall be your servant instead of your master. You will rule it instead of allowing it to rule you.  
- Charles E. Popplestone
inspire daily calendar Fri 6 Apr 2012 


That voice. There's something about it. I don't know who you are, but I can guess what you are. You're a schoolteacher, aren't you?
- Calbury (Clinton Creyn) in Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Teachers daily calendar Thu 30 Apr 2009

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Thursdays....

My thought for a regular Thursday posting was to get back into Half-Nekkid Thursdays (HNT).
I first discovered them through Aussielicious back in late 2007 / early 2008.
HNT was created and run by Osbasso on his site Views From the Back Row. HNT was created in 2005.

I got involved initially in January 2008 and stayed fairly active for about a year, then posting occasionally for another year. By about mid 2009 I was pretty much no longer participating. Mostly because, as one can see in looking at my archives, I am not that great at keeping up much of a blog. Another reason being that life and school came in the way - before I knew it a month had gone by from the last posting.

Any how, as I was considering getting back into HNT, I went to Osbasso's page to check up on the HNT, and well I found out that as of December 2011, HNT was ending.
Had I gone 2 days ago I might have been able to participate in their final farewell:  http://hntfinale.blogspot.ca/
But as life would have it, for better or worse, I didn't.

What I think I will miss most, or perhaps that is cherish, about HNT is the friends I started to make the year I was involved. Although I enjoyed posting, and getting the boost in views on my blog, it was the few friendships I started that I was looking forward to trying to rekindle, or develop new friendships.

My intent to have more regular thematic posts was to balance HNT with other content, however with HNT closed, I will still push myself to contribute regularly in my other thematic posts..... this does however leave Thursdays open to new ideas.



Daily Inspiration

Who likes not his business, his business likes not him. 
- William Hazlitt
inspire daily calendar Thu 5 Apr 2012 


A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things.
- Benjamin Mays
Teachers daily calendar Wed 29 Apr 2009

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Word of the Week - Robot

 



In less than a week I start teaching an after school class in programming, using Lego Robotics & NXT Programming software. This is the second year I have taught it.

Today I met the teachers at one of the schools I will be teaching at, which is partly why I decided to have today's word as Robot; I am now gearing up to teach the course.

The other reason I decided to start with Robot is that I have a  powerpoint presentation derived from Discover Magazine's "20 Things You Didn't Know About ... Robots", where point 1 is:

“Robot” comes from the Czech word robota, meaning “drudgery,” and first appeared in the 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). The drama ends badly when the machines rise up and kill their creators, leaving a sole lonely survivor.
Since I don't know how to post a powerpoint on blogger, I have converted it to a video and posted it that way.

Important notes: The article it is based on was published online on 2 April 2007. The powerpoint presentation was created 10 March 2011. Therefore some of the information and references are out of date, even though I updated some information for March 2011.




Link to Phillip K. Dick Android video mentioned in my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ930zzYxl8