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?

Friday, August 31, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Stumbling is not the same as falling.
- Protugese proverb
inspire daily calendar Fri 31 Aug 2012 


Online courses are on the upswing in public schools across the country as more and more students, teachers, and educational leaders tout their benefits. Supporters say online courses make learning flexible, utilize essential technological tools, and allow schools and school districts to offer a variety of courses they would not otherwise have the resources to offer. In Michigan, completing at least one online course is now a high school graduation requirement.
- www.edutopia.org
Teachers daily calendar Mon 7 Sep 2009

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus will you when the limo breaks down .
- Oprah Winfrey
inspire daily calendar Thu 30 Aug 2012 


How to Be a Kid Again
  • Blow the wrapper off a straw.
  • Find some pretty stones and save them.
  • Avoid the opposite sex at all cost on account of "cooties"
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 5/6 Sep 2009

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.
- Mario Andretti
inspire daily calendar Wed 29 Aug 2012 


Q: Where do polar bears learn their ABC's?
A: At a cool school.
Teachers daily calendar Fri 4 Sep 2009

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.
- William Shakespeare
inspire daily calendar Tue 28 Aug 2012 


It was the first class of the new year and the gym teacher was sporting a new look - a goatee. Excitedly, one of my students cried, "Oh, look! Mr. Steiners is wearing a toupee!"
- Margaret Huerter on www.teachernet.com
Teachers daily calendar Thu 3 Sep 2009

Monday, August 27, 2012

Life should start to settle down

This month has been hectic.
I was producing a play in the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival (small houses, not that good media reviews, but great work of mouth comments). - The final show was yesterday (Sunday).

I was also volunteering for the Fringe, something I have done for over 20 years!

Combined those would have kept me pleasantly busy. What made it hectic was getting a teaching job (teaching mathematics) at NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) that started today, and required to attend a 2 week orientation/training course.

This course was the past 2 weeks; the 2 weeks in which the Fringe happened.

Thus I had little time to 'study' for the course (which was basically a 2 week course on 'how to teach'. Having an education degree, the course was simple - but ran 8-4 everyday!).

Nor did I have time to prepare for my teaching!

Luckily, I do have a decent amount of prep time (though most of it in the latter part of the week!), so I can catch up and get ahead of the students.
I also have other instructors helping me on 3 of the 4 courses I am teaching, and all 4 courses use the same text book.

I'm hoping to have a little time to get back to posting more than the inspirational sayings.

Please feel free to ask me anything, or make suggestions on what you'd like to see on my blog - that may help me keep it active :)

Daily Inspiration

I believe the greater the handicap, the greater the triumph.
- John H. Johnson
inspire daily calendar Mon 27 Aug 2012 


Behind Every Famous Person Is a Fabulous Teacher
"It seemed like every time I'd turn around, Laura was taking over the class," recalls Charlene Gnagy, Laura Bush's second-grade teacher. Replies Bush, "Mrs. Gnagy taught me the joy of teaching - helping others learn."
- TeachersCount National Social Marketing Campaign
Teachers daily calendar Wed 2 Sep 2009

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Daily Inspiration

A stumble may prevent a fall.
- English Proverb
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 25/26 Aug 2012 


What do we most want to give our children during this important and impressionable time of life? Toys, material things? Protection from all risks? A bottomless supply of our own brilliant advice? Or do we want to give them the ability to think, to observe their own decision-making process, and to experience the results?
- Bahram Akradi, Experience Life magazine
Teachers daily calendar Tue 1 Sep 2009

Friday, August 24, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.
- Napoleon Hill
inspire daily calendar Fri 24 Aug 2012 


The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.
- Ralph M. Sockman
Teachers daily calendar Mon 31 Aug 2009

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Daily Inspiration

It was courage, faith, endurance and a dogged determination to surmount all obstacles that built this bridge.
- John J Watson
inspire daily calendar Thu 23 Aug 2012 


Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow.
- Ivan Welton Fitzwater
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 29/30 Aug 2009

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Daily Inspiration

The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.
- Paul Cezanne
inspire daily calendar Wed 22 Aug 2012 


It must be tremendously interesting to be a school,aster, to watch boys grow up and help them along; to see their characters develop and what they become when they leave school and the world gets hold of them. I don't see how you could ever get old in a world that's always young.
- Katherine (Petula Clark) in Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Teachers daily calendar Fri 28 Aug 2009

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Daily Inspiration

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
- Albert Einstein
inspire daily calendar Tue 21 Aug 2012


It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
- Charles Dudley Warner
Teachers daily calendar Thu 27 Aug 2009

Monday, August 20, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Every individual matters.
Every individual has a role to play.
Every individual makes a difference.
- Jane Goodall
inspire daily calendar Mon 20 Aug 2012


If you give the very best you have in whatever you do, the best will come back to you in a boomerang effect.
- Mary Kay Ash
Teachers daily calendar Wed 26 Aug 2009

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Daily Inspiration

If you truly want to bless others in your life, you must seek out those experiences that keep you motivated and inspired, and then share them.
- Thomas Kinkade
Teachers daily calendar Mon 24 Aug 2009


Word of the say
grandiloquence - \ gran-DIH-luh-kwunss\ - noun
: a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language
Example sentence: I prefer a more informal style, so I was a bit put off by the grandiloquence of the author's writing.
Did you know?
"Grandiloquence," which first appeared in English in the late sixteenth century, is one of several English words pertaining to speech that derive from the Latin "loqui," meaning "to speak." Other offspring of "loqi" include "eloquent" ("marked by fluent expression"), "loquacious" ("full of excessive talk"), and "soliloquy" ("a long dramatic monologue"). "Grandiloquence" comes (probably via Middle French) from the Latin adjective "grandiloquus," which combines "loqui" and the adjective "grandis" ("grand or great"). A word that is very similar in meaning to "grandiloquence" is "magniloquence" -- and the similarity is not surprising. "Magniloquence" combines "loqui" with "magnus," another Latin word meaning "great."
- www.merriam-webster.com
Teachers daily calendar Tue 25 Aug 2009

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Daily Inspiration

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
- Milton Berle
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 18/19 Aug 2012


A word as to the education of the heart: We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher.
- César Chávez
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 22/23 Aug 2009

Friday, August 17, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
- Mother Teresa
inspire daily calendar Fri 17 Aug 2012 


At the beginning of nearly every episode of The Simpsons, Bart is punished by being made to write a sentence over and over on the shcool chalkboard. A few classics:
  • Vampire is not a career choice.
  • I cannot hire a substitute student.
  • I so not have power of attorney over first-graders.
Teachers daily calendar Fri 21 Aug 2009

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Daily Inspiration

There is a choice you have to make, in everything.
- John Wooden
inspire daily calendar Thu 16 Aug 2012 


Education is leading human souls to what is best and making what is best of them.
- John Ruskin
Teachers daily calendar Thu 20 Aug 2009

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Until you're ready to look foolish, you'll never have the possibility of being great.
- Cher
inspire daily calendar Wed 15 Aug 2012 


All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.
- John F. Kennedy
Teachers daily calendar Wed 19 Aug 2009

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Those who don't understand determination call determination stubbornness or too driven. To be determined is to see it through!
- Catherine Pulsifer
inspire daily calendar Tue 14 Aug 2012 


I don't think people who haven't worked in schools can comprehend the intensity of the work, the emotional involvement, the nonstop demands.
- Susan Moore-Johnson
Teachers daily calendar Tue 18 Aug 2009

Monday, August 13, 2012

Daily Inspiration

I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
inspire daily calendar Mon 13 Aug 2012 


I explained to my seventh-graders that a metaphor compares to unlike objects that have similar characteristics. Thinking about the fact that I'm always punctual, I wrote on the overhead, "I am a clock." I asked my class why I would draw this comparison. One of my students piped up, "Because you get ticked off!"
- DeLona Niland on www.teachernet.com
Teachers daily calendar Mon 17 Aug 2009

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Daily Inspiration

I see the mind of a five-year-old as a volcano with two vents: destructiveness and creativeness.
- Sylvia Ashton-Warner
Teachers daily calendar Fri 14 Aug 2009


I don't want to be an inventor. I want to be something useful like a teacher's aide or a prison guard or a science fiction cartoon writer. 
- Cubert J. Farnsworth (Kath Soucie) in Futurama
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 15/16 Aug 2009

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
- Og Mandino
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 11/12 Aug 2012 


Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
- Henry Ford
Teachers daily calendar Thu 13 Aug 2009

Friday, August 10, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.
- Denis Waitley
inspire daily calendar Fri 3 Aug 2012 


Don't wish for a unilateral answer to our education dilemmas. There will never be a single solution that will be a perfect fir for our diverse society. Instead, we should work towards partnerships of families, communities, and educators who enjoy the process of solving.
- Former National Teacher of the Year Elaine Griffin
Teachers daily calendar Wed 12 Aug 2009

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Week of Inspiration

I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention.
- Diane Sawyer
inspire daily calendar Fri 3 Aug 2012 

Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.
- Sophia Loren
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 4/5 Aug 2012 

If you're going to be thinking, you may as well think big.
- Donald Trump
inspire daily calendar Mon 6 Aug 2012 

Control your own destiny or somebody else will.
- Jack Welsh
inspire daily calendar Tue 7 Aug 2012 

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.
- Mother Teresa
inspire daily calendar Wed 8 Aug 2012 

People do not lack strength; they lack will.
- Victor Hugo
inspire daily calendar Thu 9 Aug 2012

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Daily Inspiration

No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
inspire daily calendar Thu 2 Aug 2012 

A teacher's attitude toward scholarship plays a huge role in helping students learn to value difficult academic work. Students recognize when a teacher has a passion for his or her field, is eager to learn new things, and brings genuine questions into the classroom for them to explore as partners. Even when teachers are not experts in a particular field, the way they react will send a powerful message to kids about the value of curiosity, hard work, and lifelong learning.
- Kathleen Cushman, Fires in the Bathroom
Teachers daily calendar Tue 11 Aug 2009

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

One year to the Next

For the past two years my mid to late July has been a busy, emotional time for me.

In 2011, about 2.5 weeks after my mother's 65th birthday she passed away.She had always had medical issues, including chronic pain, and post polio.
We had a fairly large celebration of her birthday at the beginning of July, friends and family came to visit for the occasion.
Around the middle of July my sister and family (with 3 year old son and 1 year old daughter) moved to Brussels. That same day (after the family left) my mother admitted herself into the hospital to have her medications readjusted.
One week later she passed away.
A couple days before she passed away she aspirated, which induced a coma, and her body couldn't handle the fight of that with all the other health issues she was coping with. She passed away quietly with myself, my father, and a family friend present.
At the time I was also teaching a summer course that I could not find a substitute for - I continued to teach that week (she passed away on a Wednesday morning).
The rest of July, most of August, and part of September was helping out my father with all that happens after the death in the family. The latter part of 2011 I was in a mild depression, looking for work, but not passionately.

Jump ahead to July 2012.
This year I have been busy with more happier things in life.
In May I started to really pull things together for a play I had on the waiting list for the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. I found out in mid June that I was in the festival, around the time I got (exceptional) actors. I was near the end of June that my stage manager caused some problems and quit. Through the first half of July I was busy with the production and trying to find a new stage manager, as well as all the little behind the scenes of producing a show.
I was also teaching Lego robotics for 3 weeks though mid July; the second year in a row (the same thing I was teaching when my mother passed away).
The biggest change in my life for this year happened one day prior to the anniversary of my mother's passing. I received a job offer to teach mathematics at NAIT (technical institute / college).
Just as last year had August busy with memorials for my mother, the Edmonton Fringe, and other travel (more on that in a future post). This year August will be just as busy (perhaps more so). Not only am I producing a show at the Edmonton Fringe, I will be doing my typical volunteering, and have a 2 week training course for my new job.
The course is August 10 to 24. The Fringe is August 16 to 26. I will likely be starting to teach just after my 35th birthday in early September.

Daily Inspiration

Never make excuses. Your friends don't need them and your foes won't believe them.
- John Wooden
inspire daily calendar Mon 30 Jul 2012 

If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything.
- Marva Collins
inspire daily calendar Tue 31 Jul 2012

Never bend your head. 
Always hold it high.
Look the world straight in the eye.
- Helen Keller
inspire daily calendar Wed 1 Aug 2012