As of this week I have completed phase one of three of my TESL teacher training at Saint Mary's university in Halifax, NS.
The teacher of teachers was one Paula Cheal.
I came into the course with no expectations of what we were going to learn, which in hindsight was probably the best foundation for actual learning. I have been teaching various mathematical disciplines for some time, but, as I quickly found out, teaching a language is a different cup of tea altogether.
On thing that didn't even cross my mind is that the language you are using to teach the students is the same language that they are attempting to learn. Tragically, this means no linguistics acrobatics for me in the ESL classroom.
Perhaps the most surprising thing for me was the idea of "teacher talking time" versus "student speaking space". I altered the last to keep the alliteration train running :) I won't be able to do that in the class, so this will be my gymnasium!
Basically, in the ESL teaching world, the educational paradigm is flipped on its head. In a traditional classroom, we have an "information fountain", the teacher, from which the thirsty travelers, the students, quench their thirst for enlightenment in their subject of choice. In the ESL classroom, however, we have a wise sage, the teacher, who shows the desert wanderers, the students, where to look without telling them what to see.
This wise sage accepts the wanderers as they are, for he was once a wanderer like them. He knows which roads lead to water, and which roads lead to mirages. He only knows the roads that he has walked down. He just so happens to have walked more roads than they have.
This sage does not condemn mistakes. They teach us where we are stuck. The sage merely suggests different ways to move forward. We all wander in different ways, you know, so you never know which directions will lead other wanderers to water. There will be other wanderers along the way, though, and they may have traveled roads which you have not yet seen.
The sage must speak slowly, clearly, and give the wanderer only enough information to go in the right direction.
I am a man who loves paradigm shifts, so this information was quite valuable indeed! Anything that helps me step through to the next level is awesome in my books.
When you treat every other wanderer as a sage, then the world can be your teacher. Hopefully these courses will help me teach the world :)
Live long and Prospoer,
FKA
Friday, 10 August 2012
Monday, 2 July 2012
Te(a)met Nosce
If you love tea, randomness, and having these two combine to gather deep insights into your psyche, then this blog post is for you!
The test is simple:
1. Open up this random number generator in two separate tabs, and the shop teas section of the Davids tea website in another.
2. In this first random number generator tab, you want to generate 10 random integer between 1 and 8, in 1 column.
3. Write these numbers down in order. 1=black tea, 2=green tea, 3=white tea, 4=oolong, 5=rooibos, 6=pu'erh, 7=mate, 8=herbal
Note: There are, in order, 42, 34, 18, 15, 20, 8, 5, and 46 distinct teas in the above categories.
4. For each number listed in 3, you'll want to generate 1 random number to attached to it. Ex. If your first number is 3, you'd generate a random number between 1 and 18, say 13, and write that as 3-13.
5. Go to the Davids tea website and look up your list of 10 teas. Ex. If you had 3-13, you'd go to the white teas section and look up the 13th tea in alphabetical order, which is Pom Power.
6. Assign this list of 10 teas, in order to the following 10 things:
1.How you see yourself.
2.How others see you.
3.Your best friend.
4.Your ideal Partner.
5.Your life purpose.
6.Your greatest strength.
7.Ideal career.
8.Your true self.
9. Your inspiration.
10. Your life in a tea.
7.Look up the descriptions for each tea and learn and enormous amount about yourself, or have a laugh.
8. Invite your friends to do the same and compare results, or drink the teas :)
Pro tips:
1.If you have, say, three 1s in your list, then you could save time by generating 3 random numbers between 1 and 42 and attaching these numbers in order.
2.Write down your favorite things about the teas and what the taste/smell reminds you of.
3.Do the same for the tea names.
4.If you know about symbolism, you can go to town with the information you get in 2 and 3 and catch a glimpse of your psyche.
Enjoy!
FKA
The test is simple:
1. Open up this random number generator in two separate tabs, and the shop teas section of the Davids tea website in another.
2. In this first random number generator tab, you want to generate 10 random integer between 1 and 8, in 1 column.
3. Write these numbers down in order. 1=black tea, 2=green tea, 3=white tea, 4=oolong, 5=rooibos, 6=pu'erh, 7=mate, 8=herbal
Note: There are, in order, 42, 34, 18, 15, 20, 8, 5, and 46 distinct teas in the above categories.
4. For each number listed in 3, you'll want to generate 1 random number to attached to it. Ex. If your first number is 3, you'd generate a random number between 1 and 18, say 13, and write that as 3-13.
5. Go to the Davids tea website and look up your list of 10 teas. Ex. If you had 3-13, you'd go to the white teas section and look up the 13th tea in alphabetical order, which is Pom Power.
6. Assign this list of 10 teas, in order to the following 10 things:
1.How you see yourself.
2.How others see you.
3.Your best friend.
4.Your ideal Partner.
5.Your life purpose.
6.Your greatest strength.
7.Ideal career.
8.Your true self.
9. Your inspiration.
10. Your life in a tea.
7.Look up the descriptions for each tea and learn and enormous amount about yourself, or have a laugh.
8. Invite your friends to do the same and compare results, or drink the teas :)
Pro tips:
1.If you have, say, three 1s in your list, then you could save time by generating 3 random numbers between 1 and 42 and attaching these numbers in order.
2.Write down your favorite things about the teas and what the taste/smell reminds you of.
3.Do the same for the tea names.
4.If you know about symbolism, you can go to town with the information you get in 2 and 3 and catch a glimpse of your psyche.
Enjoy!
FKA
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Letting it all go
It's been a week now since my brother departed for the US to marry the girl of his dreams that he met on youtube. I've had the apartment to myself and I cancelled my cable before he left, so I've had plenty of time for reflection.
He had the courage to let it all go. He quit his job and sold all of his worldly possessions, even his most cherished ones, so that he would have enough money to travel there and have some spending money while they spend time getting to know each other in person.
He knew full well that things could fall to pieces when he got there. They could meet in person and realize that the way they wanted each other to be and the way that they portrayed themselves to each other was different from their true nature. He could get held up in customs and not make it there, making it all for naught.
None of this mattered to him, however. He believed in their love so strongly that he was able to risk everything to make it work.
This makes sense until attachments get in the way and cloud our judgement, of course. There was many a time when he was trying to sell something, but was unwilling to sell it for less than his idea of what it was worth. Thankfully he let them go in the end.
Of course, worldly possessions have only abstract value and are ultimately impermanent, so it only makes sense to give them up if it means that you can meet your true love, or start a new life for yourself, or take a yoga teacher training program, or whatever it is that you believe will make you a better person and make you happy at last.
Even if we let all those things go, though, there's the pesky ego to deal with. It's not enough to let go of your worldly possessions when our ideas about the way we should be, or what we should do cause us further suffering. We can let that go as well.
Accepting reality, messy as it is, without judgement, is a tough pill to swallow. Sadly, it's the only suffering pill on the market.
Maybe we'll never do dwi pada sirsasana, or win a gold medal at the over-achiever olympics, but we can certainly live in the moment, work with what we have, and turn that into enough.
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
We're glorious as we are. We sometimes muddy ourselves with our own projections, though.
As any alchemist will tell you, only imperfect things can be brought to perfection; perfect things can only be corrupted. Thankfully we can always polish ourselves back to perfection by removing the projections.
Wax on wax off,
FKA
He had the courage to let it all go. He quit his job and sold all of his worldly possessions, even his most cherished ones, so that he would have enough money to travel there and have some spending money while they spend time getting to know each other in person.
He knew full well that things could fall to pieces when he got there. They could meet in person and realize that the way they wanted each other to be and the way that they portrayed themselves to each other was different from their true nature. He could get held up in customs and not make it there, making it all for naught.
None of this mattered to him, however. He believed in their love so strongly that he was able to risk everything to make it work.
This makes sense until attachments get in the way and cloud our judgement, of course. There was many a time when he was trying to sell something, but was unwilling to sell it for less than his idea of what it was worth. Thankfully he let them go in the end.
Of course, worldly possessions have only abstract value and are ultimately impermanent, so it only makes sense to give them up if it means that you can meet your true love, or start a new life for yourself, or take a yoga teacher training program, or whatever it is that you believe will make you a better person and make you happy at last.
Even if we let all those things go, though, there's the pesky ego to deal with. It's not enough to let go of your worldly possessions when our ideas about the way we should be, or what we should do cause us further suffering. We can let that go as well.
Accepting reality, messy as it is, without judgement, is a tough pill to swallow. Sadly, it's the only suffering pill on the market.
Maybe we'll never do dwi pada sirsasana, or win a gold medal at the over-achiever olympics, but we can certainly live in the moment, work with what we have, and turn that into enough.
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
We're glorious as we are. We sometimes muddy ourselves with our own projections, though.
As any alchemist will tell you, only imperfect things can be brought to perfection; perfect things can only be corrupted. Thankfully we can always polish ourselves back to perfection by removing the projections.
Wax on wax off,
FKA
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
There and back again
Tomorrow is the launch of the 1$ tea of the day promotion at Davids tea and I'm super excited. It was a little less than a year ago that I first started my "terrific tea tasting journey": a quest to try all of the teas at that very same store.
I was a little intimidated by all of the teas on the wall, but, after about 3 months I had finally tried the last tea (for the time being), Sencha Ashikubo, which just so happens to be Davids favorite :)
There have been many new teas to tantalize my taste buds since then, and I'm sure there will be more to follow, but I find myself drawn more and more to the straight teas these days. I'm still quite fond of the flavored teas, of course, but the subtle flavors are more intriguing to me now for whatever reason.
It has been said that the whole point of a journey is to return to where you came from and know it for the first time. I'll drink to that.
FKA
I was a little intimidated by all of the teas on the wall, but, after about 3 months I had finally tried the last tea (for the time being), Sencha Ashikubo, which just so happens to be Davids favorite :)
There have been many new teas to tantalize my taste buds since then, and I'm sure there will be more to follow, but I find myself drawn more and more to the straight teas these days. I'm still quite fond of the flavored teas, of course, but the subtle flavors are more intriguing to me now for whatever reason.
It has been said that the whole point of a journey is to return to where you came from and know it for the first time. I'll drink to that.
FKA
Thursday, 26 April 2012
An end of an era
The spring schedule has finally arrived at the yoga studio that I frequent, and they've definitely made some changes. Mostly making the Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes a little later, and adding some 1 hour classes here and there, but, alas, it has also brought the end of the 4-6 pm Tuesday/Thursday class that I attended regularly.
I've had the full gamut of emotions in this class; from triumphant glory to bitter defeat(though that had more to do with the realization that finishing my masters was a pipe dream than the actual class). Still, the teacher was patient and persistent in her training whenever cheesy jazz music was not being played.
I feel as though I've come a long way in the brief 4 month window in which this class existed. I'm eliminating as much of the hesitation and unnecessary movements as my brain has the capacity to notice and this has helped tremendously.
Perhaps it is fitting, though, that this class ended as soon as I handed in my key to my grad office, informing the powers that be that I will not be finishing my Masters.
If all goes well I will be starting my life outside of school as soon as the new schedule begins. New beginnings are always nice. The warrior's path awaits me, and I am pretty excited to saddle up the windhorse to see where it takes me.
Hopefully my teacher will become a tremendously successful author to make up for the relative lack of led classes to teach. Perhaps MEC will look favorably on her at least.
Anyway, a big thanks goes out to her for tolerating my shenanigans and helping along the way. See you in the weekend classes :)
FKA
I've had the full gamut of emotions in this class; from triumphant glory to bitter defeat(though that had more to do with the realization that finishing my masters was a pipe dream than the actual class). Still, the teacher was patient and persistent in her training whenever cheesy jazz music was not being played.
I feel as though I've come a long way in the brief 4 month window in which this class existed. I'm eliminating as much of the hesitation and unnecessary movements as my brain has the capacity to notice and this has helped tremendously.
Perhaps it is fitting, though, that this class ended as soon as I handed in my key to my grad office, informing the powers that be that I will not be finishing my Masters.
If all goes well I will be starting my life outside of school as soon as the new schedule begins. New beginnings are always nice. The warrior's path awaits me, and I am pretty excited to saddle up the windhorse to see where it takes me.
Hopefully my teacher will become a tremendously successful author to make up for the relative lack of led classes to teach. Perhaps MEC will look favorably on her at least.
Anyway, a big thanks goes out to her for tolerating my shenanigans and helping along the way. See you in the weekend classes :)
FKA
Monday, 2 April 2012
Alliteration madness
Angry aardvarks are almost always annoyed by bashful beavers. Beavers, being big brilliant blokes, carefully construct curiously crafty creations continuously. Disappointingly, destructive dogs diligently demolish each enthusiastically erected edifice every evening. Fortunately, furry foxes fortuitously fend fiends far from fine fortifications.
Gentle giants' humble homes have increased in illustriousness in July.
Jolly juggernauts jump joyously juggling kitten kettles.
Leaping lemurs love laughing ludicrously loudly.
Many mammals migrate mindlessly, moving meticulously north. Normally, narwhals never nap. Newts nap notoriously. Old Owls ostensibly play plinko perfectly. Perhaps quizzically, queen quails quietly read reports relentlessly. Regal roosters rarely read.
Surreptitiously, Slithering serpents sneakily swallow silly squirrels sometimes. Tragically, tiny turtles trek toward terrible trials.
Unfortunately, unafraid unicorns usurp unprepared Ulstermen unrelentingly until victorious. Vivacious vixens woo wandering warblers westward without xylophones. Xenophobia? Yes. Yet, yellow yetti's yell youthfully; zealous zebras zip zanily.
Gentle giants' humble homes have increased in illustriousness in July.
Jolly juggernauts jump joyously juggling kitten kettles.
Leaping lemurs love laughing ludicrously loudly.
Many mammals migrate mindlessly, moving meticulously north. Normally, narwhals never nap. Newts nap notoriously. Old Owls ostensibly play plinko perfectly. Perhaps quizzically, queen quails quietly read reports relentlessly. Regal roosters rarely read.
Surreptitiously, Slithering serpents sneakily swallow silly squirrels sometimes. Tragically, tiny turtles trek toward terrible trials.
Unfortunately, unafraid unicorns usurp unprepared Ulstermen unrelentingly until victorious. Vivacious vixens woo wandering warblers westward without xylophones. Xenophobia? Yes. Yet, yellow yetti's yell youthfully; zealous zebras zip zanily.
Friday, 30 March 2012
Extending the gratitude
I just found out the other day that my blog won a Libster award. Liebster is german for dearest, favorite, or beloved. In order to win this award, a blog must have less than 200 followers and be a favorite of someone else on the interwebs.
I was nominated by an Exuberant friend of mine, Erica Schmidt. A yoga teacher, author, and all around outstanding person. Her most recent book, I let go, is a self help book of immeasurable worth. You can buy it for $2.00, though. Your pelvis will be eternally grateful and spacious, just like Erica's. Her yoga classes are pretty spectacular as well. The Mysore classes on Tuesday and Thursday from 4pm-6pm are especially awesome. If you're from the Halifax area, you should definitely check them out. They take place at the shala, which is right above lululemon. You can get a 3 month unlimited pass for $90, which would give you ample opportunity to take her classes. The jokes are excellent and come free of charge.
I now have to pass the award on to another excellent, though under-followed blog.Without further delay the next recipient of the Liebster award is *drum roll*.
Nicole! Nicole, myself, and our mutual friend Courtney were lab partners in our intro stats course. We had an excellent time rejecting Hos and finding confidence intervals. After mastering these essential life skills, she has since moved to Australia to pursue her masters degree and befriend koalas, kiwi birds, and other exotic wildlife. Feel free to follow her to read about these excellent adventures.
Until the next time.
FKA
I was nominated by an Exuberant friend of mine, Erica Schmidt. A yoga teacher, author, and all around outstanding person. Her most recent book, I let go, is a self help book of immeasurable worth. You can buy it for $2.00, though. Your pelvis will be eternally grateful and spacious, just like Erica's. Her yoga classes are pretty spectacular as well. The Mysore classes on Tuesday and Thursday from 4pm-6pm are especially awesome. If you're from the Halifax area, you should definitely check them out. They take place at the shala, which is right above lululemon. You can get a 3 month unlimited pass for $90, which would give you ample opportunity to take her classes. The jokes are excellent and come free of charge.
I now have to pass the award on to another excellent, though under-followed blog.Without further delay the next recipient of the Liebster award is *drum roll*.
Nicole! Nicole, myself, and our mutual friend Courtney were lab partners in our intro stats course. We had an excellent time rejecting Hos and finding confidence intervals. After mastering these essential life skills, she has since moved to Australia to pursue her masters degree and befriend koalas, kiwi birds, and other exotic wildlife. Feel free to follow her to read about these excellent adventures.
Until the next time.
FKA
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