So I got to school today to find out that all of my rehearsing the night before, which was a lot, because I have a tough time with memorization, was for nothing. The student I was to be replacing was actually there and I was out of the play, just like that. I felt really bad, worse than I would have thought. I love acting, and I miss not doing it. But I do have a Jr. High drama class next term that I am sooooo looking forward to.
The day was not a complete loss. As it turns out, a girl from the same class (same Act and Scene) was sick and they needed to fill her role--and I was the number one choice. It didn't even phase me that it was a female role; actually it was the new bride to the role I had been studying the night before. It wasn't a big deal; with so many kids in the play there was a lot of gender mixing in the roles, the only difference was that I was the only Hippolyta where the other roles with gender mixing had at least two of the correct gender--Oh, and I was the only teacher in the play and I played a woman. It was good though, I wore the same housecoat, which was Jen's, that I was going to wear, and a grade twelve girl found me a headband with a long and flowing colourful train. It got a good laugh when I first took the stage.
I was a little concerned with having only a couple hours to learn my lines, but it went okay and I did well. It was a great experience and I think helped sell me as a drama teacher to some of the students. Most importantly I had fun, and so did most of the students. The day was a blast!
The only real downfall was that Jen was not able to be there to watch and take some pictures. Which means I have no pics to share here with you. Sorry!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
To Be or Not to Be!
All week long we have had a drama group, called Quest Theatre, in the school teaching our students a Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. They work with the students from K-12 and on Friday (tomorrow) will put on a performance. They use an abridged version of the play, but maintain the language from the original. Each grade is responsible for one scene, for a total of 13 scenes. And each student (who was going to be here on Friday) got lines in the play. Each day, Monday to Thursday, the students receive 2 50 minute rehearsal times where the professional actors (from Calgary) work with them to memorize the lines, block out the action, and give acting tips.
It has been a great experience, and a lot of the students are beginning to shine. It is great to see some of the quieter kids, or kids you wouldn't think would be into acting, stand up and take pride in their performance. Most of the students have really taken this seriously and put a lot of work into their parts.
Tomorrow morning the students go through a dress rehearsal with their costumes and the lights, then in the afternoon they perform.
Today I sat in on the grade 12 rehearsal time and noticed that one of the actors from Quest seemed to be reading a lot of the lines. After school I went and asked if the students who he was reading for dropped out or just weren't there at the time. As it turns out one of the main characters in the scene was not going to be there tomorrow and just found out today.
So now I am performing that character's part! That's right,
I get to be in the play.
I am so excited. As many of you know, I love to act. I was feeling a little left out all week. Even to the point where I had some of my classes rehearse in LA class so I could offer some pointer to them. I had originally been told that teachers would go with their homeroom for rehearsal and so would receive a part if they wanted one. Then, as it turns out, we simply took the class we had at the time if their rehearsal time fell during our period. This meant we would be with different classes for rehearsal every time and would not be able to have a part. I was thrilled when I was able to get a part--although now I have to memorize something like 16 lines (of Shakespeare and with emphasis) by tomorrow, and my memorizing skills are shaky at best. But I am still excited.
Jen may come and watch with the kids and I will try to get her to take some pictures or film of the play that I can put up.
But I guess I should get back to rehearsing.
It has been a great experience, and a lot of the students are beginning to shine. It is great to see some of the quieter kids, or kids you wouldn't think would be into acting, stand up and take pride in their performance. Most of the students have really taken this seriously and put a lot of work into their parts.
Tomorrow morning the students go through a dress rehearsal with their costumes and the lights, then in the afternoon they perform.
Today I sat in on the grade 12 rehearsal time and noticed that one of the actors from Quest seemed to be reading a lot of the lines. After school I went and asked if the students who he was reading for dropped out or just weren't there at the time. As it turns out one of the main characters in the scene was not going to be there tomorrow and just found out today.
So now I am performing that character's part! That's right,
I get to be in the play.
I am so excited. As many of you know, I love to act. I was feeling a little left out all week. Even to the point where I had some of my classes rehearse in LA class so I could offer some pointer to them. I had originally been told that teachers would go with their homeroom for rehearsal and so would receive a part if they wanted one. Then, as it turns out, we simply took the class we had at the time if their rehearsal time fell during our period. This meant we would be with different classes for rehearsal every time and would not be able to have a part. I was thrilled when I was able to get a part--although now I have to memorize something like 16 lines (of Shakespeare and with emphasis) by tomorrow, and my memorizing skills are shaky at best. But I am still excited.
Jen may come and watch with the kids and I will try to get her to take some pictures or film of the play that I can put up.
But I guess I should get back to rehearsing.
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Lyrics
I had a request for the lyrics to the song from below. Here they are.
The Non-Hunter's Twelve Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
A cartridge in an Uzi
On the second day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
2 hand grenades
On the third day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
3 Land mines
On the fourth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
4 Sherman tanks
On the fifth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
5 Throwing stars
On the sixth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
6 blades a-switching
On the seventh day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
7 rifles sniping
On the eighth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
8 Rockets launching
On the ninth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
9 bombs exploding
On the tenth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
10 crossbows aiming
On the eleventh day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
11 Fixed winged aircraft
On the twelfth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
12 death ray machines
The Non-Hunter's Twelve Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
A cartridge in an Uzi
On the second day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
2 hand grenades
On the third day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
3 Land mines
On the fourth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
4 Sherman tanks
On the fifth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
5 Throwing stars
On the sixth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
6 blades a-switching
On the seventh day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
7 rifles sniping
On the eighth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
8 Rockets launching
On the ninth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
9 bombs exploding
On the tenth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
10 crossbows aiming
On the eleventh day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
11 Fixed winged aircraft
On the twelfth day of Christmas the hunting store gave me
12 death ray machines
Sunday, November 23, 2008
12 Days of Christmas
Last year I attended Teacher Convention and sat in on a session that I signed up for only because it was the only thing that sounded remotely interesting for the time slot I still had to fill. I don't even remember exactly what the session was all about--something like "incorporating technology into the classroom"--but one thing caught my attention and made me go Hmmmmm. A lot of the session was way over my head, talking about web 2.0 tools and such; but one idea was about podcasting.
I'm sure most of you have heard about podcasts; if you haven't, look it up. No, but I wouldn't trust my explanation either: Basically a podcast, to my understanding, is an audio recording that an individual puts on the internet for others to listen to. You start a podcast and can put on new episodes that form sort of an online audio blog. People can download the podcast to their ipods or other players and listen to your thoughts. I know I am not doing the concept justice, but my knowledge of this is extremely limited.
I began exploring podcasts after the convention and was never able to become proficient at the technology. One thing that I got out of the session, however, was a site by the name of gcast. The great thing about this site, I was told, is that you can record your episode over the phone and gcast will automatically publish it to the podcast you began on their site. I thought this was brilliant and would be an interesting idea to bring into the classroom. Like I said though, I have yet to gain the skills in figuring out exactly how all this works, and so it will not make it into my classroom for a year or two yet.
BUT I do enjoy playing around with this neat technology from time to time and thought I would try to upload an audio recording of my own to this blog. Jen decided that today was the day to be putting up Christmas lights, and the tree, and such, so I went to the computer to find my Christmas music only to discover the file had been deleted. Long story short, I got The 12 Days of Christmas stuck in my head, and began thinking about other versions of the song I have heard over the years (some funny, others not so much) and began to create my own version in my head. Throughout the day the lyrics began to loosely form. A bit of research later--into the song, the syllables of the lines, a tune-only version, and some lyric specific items--and I had my very own version of the song, audio and all, published to the internet.
The idea began from a stray, and now forgotten thought in my mind, and evolved into a searing commentary on my skills, or lack thereof, in an extremely popular sport in the Peace Country (where I now live). Give it a listen.
***Caution: This is a song, and is sung by me, and I don't sing, and when Jen heard me singing she asked why and I said "no reason" and she said uh-oh, because I don't sing, but I am singing here, so . . . Caution!***
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Hunting is very popular here in Grande Prairie and the surrounding area. I first discovered this when a student had been missing from my class for a week and when he came back I asked where he had been and he said hunting. Wow! You miss a whole week of school to go hunting? I had never heard of that. But apparently that's what you do when you're in Peace Country. When I told another teacher about this he simply said he wished he could take a week off and go hunting. Since then I have heard speeches about hunting, read stories about hunting, and viewed student blogs dedicated to hunting. It is big business out here, and most kids at school either own a gun or are looking forward to when they are old enough to own a gun; but be assured they have all fired a gun. Even the girls. I was asked by a student what the biggest gun I ever fired was. I said I had fired a 9mm Glock at the shooting range in WEM, once. He laughed and said "that's it?" Then he proceeded to tell all the other students this as they walked in.
At the risk of, again, sounding like "city-folk" (which I am) I am quite certain that as cool as I think it would be to go hunting and track an animal and have it in my sights, I would never actually be able to pull the trigger and kill it. Around here I would be laughed at for such a statement, but it wasn't long ago that I came from a place that would have laughed at the "red-neck" who made such a statement.
Anyway, this song evolved into a list of weapons the gun store would sell me to help me kill the buck in my sights; though none of the weapons actually would enable me to do it, which is why they keep compounding and culminate in a death-ray.
By the way, laugh all you like at the song, my singing, or whatever else you want, but until you write your own song, sing it to the music from this site, and have the guts to post it on your own blog for me to listen to, I will be proud of my efforts.
Merry Christmas!
I'm sure most of you have heard about podcasts; if you haven't, look it up. No, but I wouldn't trust my explanation either: Basically a podcast, to my understanding, is an audio recording that an individual puts on the internet for others to listen to. You start a podcast and can put on new episodes that form sort of an online audio blog. People can download the podcast to their ipods or other players and listen to your thoughts. I know I am not doing the concept justice, but my knowledge of this is extremely limited.
I began exploring podcasts after the convention and was never able to become proficient at the technology. One thing that I got out of the session, however, was a site by the name of gcast. The great thing about this site, I was told, is that you can record your episode over the phone and gcast will automatically publish it to the podcast you began on their site. I thought this was brilliant and would be an interesting idea to bring into the classroom. Like I said though, I have yet to gain the skills in figuring out exactly how all this works, and so it will not make it into my classroom for a year or two yet.
BUT I do enjoy playing around with this neat technology from time to time and thought I would try to upload an audio recording of my own to this blog. Jen decided that today was the day to be putting up Christmas lights, and the tree, and such, so I went to the computer to find my Christmas music only to discover the file had been deleted. Long story short, I got The 12 Days of Christmas stuck in my head, and began thinking about other versions of the song I have heard over the years (some funny, others not so much) and began to create my own version in my head. Throughout the day the lyrics began to loosely form. A bit of research later--into the song, the syllables of the lines, a tune-only version, and some lyric specific items--and I had my very own version of the song, audio and all, published to the internet.
The idea began from a stray, and now forgotten thought in my mind, and evolved into a searing commentary on my skills, or lack thereof, in an extremely popular sport in the Peace Country (where I now live). Give it a listen.
***Caution: This is a song, and is sung by me, and I don't sing, and when Jen heard me singing she asked why and I said "no reason" and she said uh-oh, because I don't sing, but I am singing here, so . . . Caution!***
Subscribe Free Add to my Page
Hunting is very popular here in Grande Prairie and the surrounding area. I first discovered this when a student had been missing from my class for a week and when he came back I asked where he had been and he said hunting. Wow! You miss a whole week of school to go hunting? I had never heard of that. But apparently that's what you do when you're in Peace Country. When I told another teacher about this he simply said he wished he could take a week off and go hunting. Since then I have heard speeches about hunting, read stories about hunting, and viewed student blogs dedicated to hunting. It is big business out here, and most kids at school either own a gun or are looking forward to when they are old enough to own a gun; but be assured they have all fired a gun. Even the girls. I was asked by a student what the biggest gun I ever fired was. I said I had fired a 9mm Glock at the shooting range in WEM, once. He laughed and said "that's it?" Then he proceeded to tell all the other students this as they walked in.
At the risk of, again, sounding like "city-folk" (which I am) I am quite certain that as cool as I think it would be to go hunting and track an animal and have it in my sights, I would never actually be able to pull the trigger and kill it. Around here I would be laughed at for such a statement, but it wasn't long ago that I came from a place that would have laughed at the "red-neck" who made such a statement.
Anyway, this song evolved into a list of weapons the gun store would sell me to help me kill the buck in my sights; though none of the weapons actually would enable me to do it, which is why they keep compounding and culminate in a death-ray.
By the way, laugh all you like at the song, my singing, or whatever else you want, but until you write your own song, sing it to the music from this site, and have the guts to post it on your own blog for me to listen to, I will be proud of my efforts.
Merry Christmas!
Monday, November 17, 2008
It's been a while
Hey, there! It's been a while, I know. 10 days to be exact. A very busy 10 days. I had assignments to mark for report cards, then report cards and comments for the students. I had a wonderful long weekend (Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues) then two days of teaching this past week. I had parent/teacher interviews on Thursday after school from 3:30-9:30 which went great. Then on the weekend the family and I went into Edmonton to see family and friends. We had a great visit, but very little time for blogging. As it is, I am sitting here in my school computer lab at lunch typing this up while some students are blogging. So I have only a couple more minutes of this somewhat bland and boring post.
Oh, got to go.
Oh, got to go.
Friday, November 7, 2008
A Job Well Done
I was pulled into the office today by one of our wonderfully amazing, couldn't live without them, administrative assistants (sometimes referred to as secretaries) who said she needed to talk with me. Now, I don't know about you, but I generally do not get a good feeling deep down in my gut when someone pulls me into an office and says those dreaded words, "We need to talk." I tried to refuse, saying I was on supervision and needed to be patrolling the hallways for hooligan kids, but to no avail.
It turns out that the news was good news. The admin assistant, has a daughter who also attends our school. It turns out her daughter did a fantastic job on an essay (the bane of my teaching career) for social class. Her teacher was amazed, as was her mother because in the past this girl's essays were . . . well they weren't "fantastic jobs." When her mom asked her what happened and how she got a such a good mark, apparently her response was "Mr. Groff." And so, her mom just wanted to let me know how well her daughter was doing and that she thought I was doing a pretty good job.
I know at this point I know you are wondering why you should continue to read the blog of an egotistical jerk so I'll let you know that I walked out of the office today feeling both really good and really bad. It struck me how wonderful it was to hear that someone was actually benefiting from the teaching I had been doing. It's usually a rarity to hear such things in the teaching profession. But it also struck me that every single person in this world could probably use the pick-me-up of "A Job Well Done." It also struck me at how rarely I, myself, let others know when I appreciate all they have done for; and that left me feeling pretty bad about myself.
So, I would like to say a few thank you's to some of the people who have been a big help to me.
Thank you my wonderful and loving wife, Jennifer, for all the hard work you do looking after a home and kids and me on top of the job you have outside the house. I know there are a lot of times when I don't make it easy. And thank you for sticking by me through all the years of school when things were not always working in our favour.
Thank you Knox and Declan and Oakley for being great kids with a great sense of humour and an innocence that often makes me stop and smile. You brighten up my day.
Thank you Mom and Dad for raising me with strong Christian values and doing the best job you could with a kid who usually seemed not to care about the lessons you tried to teach. You did good and I am thankful for all you did for me out of love.
Thank you Ron and Val for being who you are. We had some good times, and some not so good time growing up, but I want you to know I care about you and wish the best for you.
Thank you Mom and Dad Kivell for all your help over the years, both financially and practically. Dad you are always a source of wisdom and mom you are always there to lend a hand.
Thank you Cam for your friendship. Even now I get excited and impatient at the thought of visiting with you and Jodi. Your friendship got me through high school in one piece and it's good to know you are always there to listen.
Thank you Harry Lent for all that you taught me about teaching in the 9 weeks I was in your classroom. Your advice and respect was greatly appreciated and extremely helpful as I continue my teaching career.
Thank you Roxie for exceeding my expectations for what a principal could be. I was quite nervous my first year, but you have always been there to answer my questions and to support me.
And, though it may seem trite, thank you God for your love and mercy. Thank you for carrying me through the rough times and thank you for allowing the good times.
I could go on and on and on and on, but I won't right now. What I will do is try to say thank you to people a little more often and let you know how much I appreciate all you and what you do for me.
It turns out that the news was good news. The admin assistant, has a daughter who also attends our school. It turns out her daughter did a fantastic job on an essay (the bane of my teaching career) for social class. Her teacher was amazed, as was her mother because in the past this girl's essays were . . . well they weren't "fantastic jobs." When her mom asked her what happened and how she got a such a good mark, apparently her response was "Mr. Groff." And so, her mom just wanted to let me know how well her daughter was doing and that she thought I was doing a pretty good job.
I know at this point I know you are wondering why you should continue to read the blog of an egotistical jerk so I'll let you know that I walked out of the office today feeling both really good and really bad. It struck me how wonderful it was to hear that someone was actually benefiting from the teaching I had been doing. It's usually a rarity to hear such things in the teaching profession. But it also struck me that every single person in this world could probably use the pick-me-up of "A Job Well Done." It also struck me at how rarely I, myself, let others know when I appreciate all they have done for; and that left me feeling pretty bad about myself.
So, I would like to say a few thank you's to some of the people who have been a big help to me.
Thank you my wonderful and loving wife, Jennifer, for all the hard work you do looking after a home and kids and me on top of the job you have outside the house. I know there are a lot of times when I don't make it easy. And thank you for sticking by me through all the years of school when things were not always working in our favour.
Thank you Knox and Declan and Oakley for being great kids with a great sense of humour and an innocence that often makes me stop and smile. You brighten up my day.
Thank you Mom and Dad for raising me with strong Christian values and doing the best job you could with a kid who usually seemed not to care about the lessons you tried to teach. You did good and I am thankful for all you did for me out of love.
Thank you Ron and Val for being who you are. We had some good times, and some not so good time growing up, but I want you to know I care about you and wish the best for you.
Thank you Mom and Dad Kivell for all your help over the years, both financially and practically. Dad you are always a source of wisdom and mom you are always there to lend a hand.
Thank you Cam for your friendship. Even now I get excited and impatient at the thought of visiting with you and Jodi. Your friendship got me through high school in one piece and it's good to know you are always there to listen.
Thank you Harry Lent for all that you taught me about teaching in the 9 weeks I was in your classroom. Your advice and respect was greatly appreciated and extremely helpful as I continue my teaching career.
Thank you Roxie for exceeding my expectations for what a principal could be. I was quite nervous my first year, but you have always been there to answer my questions and to support me.
And, though it may seem trite, thank you God for your love and mercy. Thank you for carrying me through the rough times and thank you for allowing the good times.
I could go on and on and on and on, but I won't right now. What I will do is try to say thank you to people a little more often and let you know how much I appreciate all you and what you do for me.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Remembrance Day
I know it's a bit early, but we had our Remembrance Day ceremony today at school and it got me to thinking . . . or remembering I suppose. It was a short but good ceremony and we had three veterans out to honour the day. The students were amazingly well behaved and respectful. I was very impressed.
I think it is very important to stop and remember the men and women who gave their lives for our benefit. There was a wonderful reading read today that really got me thinking about all the things we owe to our veterans. It went like this:
I think it is very important to stop and remember the men and women who gave their lives for our benefit. There was a wonderful reading read today that really got me thinking about all the things we owe to our veterans. It went like this:
Patriot Games, by John Ostrander
It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
It is the VETERAN who salutes the Flag.
It is the VETERAN who serves under the Flag.
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