Music, Mugs, and Digital Meetings

Once again, I find myself in front of the keyboard at the end of the week. It’s time to look at the week with the kind of introspection some people like to subject themselves to–and others run away from with the intensity of a Hollywood disaster movie.

The road between my house and the bus stop is lined with a lovey park on one side and a group of shops that occupy an unusual series of buildings on the other. What I mean is that they look more like a small villa than a shopping centre–that is until you reach the Asian store located across the parking lot–that is unmistakably a supermarket. Many of these stores have an upscale image and must survive on a well heeled clientele–some of the stores are far too niche to survive otherwise. There are a few restaurants, some designer boutiques, a comic book shop, a Dutch bakery, and a children’s book store. There are also a number of other stores, but I don’t do much shopping there.

As I got off the bus on Thursday, I noticed a number of tents set up in the small parking lot. I was curious, but I was also pretty tired from teaching. I couldn’t make anything out, but since I had never seen tents in that parking lot….well, my curiosity got the better of me. As I got closer, I could see that someone was on the microphone and playing a rather large instrument. I didn’t get very close, but I got close enough that the person who turned out to be the singer invited us over. I generally don’t like being picked out of crowd like that…but I guess since there were only two of us that isn’t really a crowd. We approached.

As I took up position near the events, a person approached us to explain that this was a performance put on by the Aurora Cultural Centre–which has been somewhat homeless since the Aurora Library and library square started renovations. The performer was Sophie Lukacs and in addition to singing also plays the 21 stringed Kora. Her voice was quite good and the instrument was unique. She was singing a kind of folk music on an instrument I had never heard or seen before. I really enjoyed it. We spent a bit of time listening, but weariness overtook us and we headed home. For the short time we were there, it was great to enjoy the music.

On Friday, a student presented me with a fabulous gift. It was a large coffee mug emblazoned with “the best Teacher ever.” What I need to explain about this person and this mug is that while she has been at the school, she wasn’t actually my student. During some part of the pandemic, she joined my online class from Brazil. I had other online students, but at the time, she was one of the very few that weren’t actually in Canada, or more specifically in Toronto. She had internet issues and eventually paused her studies.

Some time ago, she decided to do her last two weeks in person. She toured around the country first. I knew this because I follow her on Instagram. When she showed up at the school, she knocked on the teacher’s door to introduce herself. Because I had been following her, and because she is pretty memorable, I was able to say her name before she introduced herself. She was relieved, or happy. or some emotion like that. So that’s how I earned my mug and title without actual teaching.

Today, in the midst of writing this post, my two best friends and I got together for a video chat. I am so grateful for technology. It was good to hear what both of them had been up to. These are the same people I met up with recently in my post One More for the Road. It is with pride that I say I have had the same friends for more than 30 years. We’ve all got our adventures and I am glad to see we are all living an interesting life.

I hope everyone reading this has a Monday that is somewhat better than your average Monday.

If you found this post interesting, please visit the ongoing site where this post originated from. It can be found at todaysperfectmoment.wordpress.com

Vocabulary Perspective

Perspective is everything. This isn’t a platitude I tell myself, but rather a truth that my students sometimes make very clear to me. I don’t know whether it is the difference in our ages, or some aspect of culture, or how we interact with technology, but it definitely exists and a little story about today should make that clear for everyone.

Currently, several times a week, I am in charge of teaching a vocabulary centric lesson. The name for this course is “Expand Your Vocabulary.” Besides encouraging them to read and improve their vocabulary, I introduce a variety of lexical sets in context for the students to work out the meanings and use–I am also responsible for pronunciation, function, and form– but you probably don’t need a rundown of everything ESL.

Today, we were looking at collocations (words that go together typically) and in the middle of the exercise, a student asked me (or maybe he asked another student–whichever it was, you’ll find this story worth a smile–what does Super B mean?

When you get asked a question out of the blue like that, it takes a minute to adjust. The last thing I wanted was to look like I didn’t understand, but I have to admit, I was a bit flummoxed. The students in that particular class are good and I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s confidence, so I scanned the smartboard (the modern equivalent to a chalkboard or whiteboard) hoping for some clue as to what the student was asking.

It was then I saw it. One of the collocations contained the word “superb” and he read it as if it were two separate words. Looking at it after he said it, I could no longer look at it another way. Super B was stuck in my mind. It’s kind of like getting an earworm song stuck in your head.

It was rather creative and made me smile for most of the rest of the day. When my girlfriend asked how was my pizza for lunch, I answered “Super B.”

Winter Questions

My student, looking a bit worried, asked me “It isn’t over, is it?” Since the class had just started, I felt pretty confident that she was talking about something else. I asked her to ask me again and she more precisely asked “Winter isn’t over, is it? It’s quite a bit warmer today and the snow is melting. Is it the end of winter?”

In a typical week at my job, I have to field a bunch of weather and seasonal questions. Well, mostly they are criticisms and complaints cleverly veiled in question format. Most of my students come from warm countries where seasonal temperature swings can be measured in single digits and don’t include any minuses. They also have, or so I am led to believe, much more predictable weather. When they are told it is going to rain from 4:35 to 4:45 they can feel pretty confident not to break out their umbrellas at lunch. They also don’t need to feel frustrated because they brought their umbrella even though the expected rain failed to materialize.

It seems that this particular student, who comes from Mexico, really enjoys the cooler weather. This shouldn’t be a surprise to me since her Instagram story had her diving into a snowbank with wild abandon. I believe her when she says that she enjoys the cold.

I did my best to reassure her that winter was far from over. I explained that frigid temperatures and apocalyptical snowfalls were still very likely for this year. I just had to explain that I really couldn’t predict when. This seemed to satisfy her. It also elicited some groans from a few of the other students, but I have little sympathy for anyone who can’t Google the seasonal temperatures of places they are going to visit.

I generally like winter and I am glad other people do too.

A Collection

Today’s Perfect Moments are a collection of little things that collectively added up to something good. Needless to say it required a bit of thinking and calm quiet introspection that the bus ride somehow managed to provide (because most days, the bus isn’t really that quiet).

I am not one of those people who buys coffee from a chain store every morning. I make it myself from coffee beans. When I made my coffee this morning, the coffee bag contained exactly the amount of coffee beans I needed for my morning fix. I didn’t need to open a new bag and I didn’t need to store a bag with only a couple of teaspoons of coffee in it.

For lunch, I perfectly toasted my sandwich. While this might not seem like a big deal, I can assure you that sandwiches are quite flammable. I can also assure you that the smoke detector at my work functions quite well. It is as loud as advertised.

When some of my students leave, I often get food gifts. These can be hit or miss. What some cultures consider a “treat” or “sweet” might be a little different than that when translated into another culture. I have had some rather spicy foods be declared sweet, and some less than delicious food be hyped up as the best thing ever. This is rarely true, and sometimes devastatingly false. Today, however, I was given a treat from Brazil that tasted like a peanut butter cup. Delicious. If I had been given more than one, this would have been Today’s Perfect Moment hands down.

I had pizza for dinner.

When I arrived at Finch subway station on my way to work, there were no subway cars waiting. Usually there are two trains and I have to frantically figure out which one is leaving first because the light indicating that at the bottom of the stairwell I take to the lower level is burnt out and hasn’t been replaced in at least a year. Seeing absolutely no subway car in the place made it look eerily different. It was bigger and much yellower. I took some photos, but I might or might not post them on Instagram–because I can’t post them here.

My walk home…since they still haven’t cleared all the snow, I should probably stick with trudge home… was not in complete darkness. The days are definitely getting longer.

I perfectly timed out my lesson for today. Normally, I prepare too much or am too ambitious about what we can get through in the time. Today, I executed my plan well and finished exactly on time.

My best friends and I will have an extended conversation via the internet this weekend. I’ve written it plenty of times on this blog, but friends are important. Friendship is very important.

Have a good weekend everyone.

A Story about the Snow Storm

Undaunted by the warnings of a big snowstorm, I slept calmly and deeply. I had peered out the window before my slumber began, but that was only to confirm that it had started snowing. I conceded that I might have to leave ten minutes early (just to be safe), but that is all.

After waking up, showering, eating, and doing the surprising number of mundane tasks that make up my morning, I put on my boots, my coat, my gloves and my toque and ventured out into….well, let’s call it like we see it…actual winter. The snow was boot deep (or more in some places) and since my street is not a priority, the sidewalks were a hard trudge. The snow was still coming down and the wind was making it more difficult.

I didn’t see any footsteps and began to wonder if I was the only foolish person out on foot this early morning. There were a few cars, but they were moving at conservative speeds. There are bound to be foolhardy people without snow tires who still think the speed limit is a suggestion, but Mother Nature will take care of them (hopefully without the drivers taking care of anyone else). I won’t mourn any lampposts or culverts.

When I was a kid, a day like this almost always became a snow day. I walked to school my entire life, so I often discovered the school was closed only after I arrived. A few times, the meagre few of us that made it to school had to stay for a few hours until it was deemed okay that we go home. We didn’t do too much actual school work and we got to go home early. Those were the best days.

As for this morning, I arrived at the bus stop only to discover that the bus was way off schedule. As I waited, the sign kept putting the bus arrival time back. I was still in no danger of being late, but I was starting to wonder if this was a wise idea.

Another potential passenger came to the bus stop after I had been waiting for at least 20 minutes. He explained that he was planning on taking an Uber, but they had tripled the price. I tried to commiserate as best you can with snow whipping in your face and no Uber experience.

I had forgotten to check my email when I was at home and I currently do not have a data plan. Why is this important? Well, I was starting to wonder if my school was going to close. In the quarter of a century I have worked there, they have only closed once or twice–and one of those times I was on vacation in a warm country. However, thinking about it logically, since we have been doing classes online, it wouldn’t take much to switch over to online for the day. It was already set up and the students, while them might mind, probably would prefer that over hauling their asses to school over snowbanks and drifts.

I checked to see if I had my boss’s phone number. No dice. So, I called people (my girlfriend) who could contact my boss and get him to contact me. Yes, this is a roundabout bunch of nonsense. I should either have their contact information or I should have data on my phone. This year is becoming a year of lesson learning (see the infamous gas station story).

My boss got in contact with me and told me that yes, in fact, classes were online today. Luckily, I had not boarded the bus and I didn’t have to backtrack too much. It would have been worse if I had gotten on the bus or if I had made it to work. I would have been the only one there.

My trek back from the bus stop had me literally retracing my steps. Interestingly, or frighteningly perhaps, most of my footsteps had almost already been covered over with snow. Even though I still have my workday to go, I feel a bit at peace. I have some new material to teach the vocabulary class (they might want to learn some lexis related to snow). I can drink another cup of coffee and I even had time to write this. The only downer is that at some point today, I am going to have to shovel.

When Students Plan the Lesson….and Provide the Examples

My class was set for mid morning. It was an advanced vocabulary class. I had made my plan the night before and felt pretty good about it. I didn’t feel great about it, but that was because, like many lesson plans, it could always hit a bump in the road and fall flat on its face. I am seasoned enough that it won’t bother me, but having to adjust on the fly is a bit taxing.

When the class started, there were a number of people absent. This is not unusual with the winter cold and the unreliability of the transit system, so I didn’t think too much about it. I am prepared to teach whoever happens to be in the classroom.

For a most of my classes, I want to foster an environment in which the students can feel free and confident to ask questions. I make time for these questions and I make sure my responses do not contain even a hint of judgement or derision. I usually ask if the students have any questions. They seldom do.

This morning was different. A student asked me to explain the difference between “in time” and “on time”. Surprisingly, this is not a new, or even rare question. Subtle nuances still confound even my brightest and best students.

As I was explaining being on time for class, several of my late students came into the classroom. It was the perfect opportunity to explain that they were not “on time” for the class. It got a big laugh and better still, it seemed to resonate with the students. Suddenly they had lots of interesting sentences. Suddenly they were engaged with an idea that came from one of their own and not the teacher.

Yes, kidding the student for being late, is probably a bad plan, but it was a useful example and and one they provided. I feel pretty confident that they all understood it. After a short time and some feedback, I continued with my original plan.

What I Can Tell You About My Week

With a week of face to face classes under my belt, and with a week of commuting completed, I should probably be able to come up with something to sum it all up. I am hoping that this will not be a complete ramble.

Reading

Commuting has meant a return to reading. This week I was reading the Body by Bill Bryson. I had grabbed the book on impulse as I was heading for the checkout kiosk. I always laugh reading his work and don’t even think twice about picking up a book when his name is on it. In this case, I was not disappointed. The only problem was that I had mistakenly chose the large print version. This is great because it’s easy to read, but the number of pages is huge. In a normal book I can read 50 or 60 pages an hour, so I assumed I could read about 100 in this format. Maybe because I cannot really concentrate on the bus (possibly from lack of practice), or maybe because the subject matter is a little technical, or maybe because of the large print, I haven’t managed more than 30 pages on any leg of my commute. I expected to finish the book in a week, but I’ve still got hundreds to go.

Making Mistakes

On my last blog I made a glaringly obvious mistake. Obvious to other people that is because I didn’t see it, and my editor girlfriend didn’t see it either. It took a student to point it out to me using a message on Instagram. All I can say is “oops!”

Coworkers

For almost two years, most of my coworkers were either vague digital impressions left by messages and the digital debris of postings on the program we were teaching from. When we had meetings, there weren’t really any social moments. Now, while we are still dealing with measures to stave off an upsurge in cases, and navigating safe practices for working people, there have been a few moments of relaxed camaraderie.

Teaching the Word Toque

Since the temperature has grown a bit colder, my students keep asking me the same thing. They want to know when it’s going to snow. I’ve been asked this question multiple times a day, every day. No answer seems to satisfy them. They want the snow, but they don’t want it to get colder. They don’t want to hear that I haven’t even gotten my winter jacket out yet. On a good note, I could at least teach them to use the word “toque” instead of “beanie.” We are in Canada, after all.

How was your week? I’d love to hear your impressions of the week.

Cruel Irony and Hot Chocolate

So, I missed the bus on my first day back to work. Okay, I didn’t miss the bus exactly. I hadn’t planned on taking a particular bus, but when you’re walking to the stop and you see a bus pass, you feel as though you missed it. Based on how the day went, this kind of missing the bus really should have been a clue as to how things were going to go.

My big sister does not like when I focus on the negatives in my blogs and would much rather I stick to Perfect Moments rather than bad ones. I can’t argue that. It’s in the title. So, I will have to balance the good with the bad.

Morning

On my way to missing the bus, I have to admit the morning colours were fantastic. There was something quite beautiful about the post sunrise colours and the last remaining fall colours. It gave me hope and optimism that missing the bus managed to mostly crush.

Up until last week, I was teaching early morning classes online and I was only teaching face to face 3 days a week and they were late starts. This week saw us return to classes full time, and a return to a more stable schedule. Sadly, I hadn’t put enough effort into understanding my bus schedule.

This set off a bad domino effect. Perhaps the things are not related, but that is how I see them. My subway trip was plagued with delays and cruelly, we arrived at my station but with a few metres of train still in the tunnel, we were not allowed to disembark. There’s nothing worse than seeing the escalator to freedom (work actually, but how poetic is that?), being late for work, and not being able to alight. Oh the frustration.

My slight jog to work was tempered by the fact that no one around me was in the slightest hurry. In fact, one young woman who had been in the subway car with me managed to catch up to me at every street corner despite me sprinting away from her as soon as the light went green. Obviously, I was running to a stoplight. While this was rather frustrating, I could sese the humour in it. The universe is full of irony.

Lunch

My lunch break was short, but I managed to toast and eat my sandwich. It was delicious.

Back Home

The bus ride home managed to take the proper amount of time. However, someone carrying far to many bags managed to spill a large drink of some kind all over the back of the bus. It must have been something sticky because people walking over it found it quite difficult. The guilty party also managed to drop some of his boxes and tear a few of his paper bags. Again, I focused on the irony.

Home

Home was exactly what it was supposed to be on a day of subpar teaching and misadventures on public transport. It was warm and welcoming. There was food to eat, conversations to be had, and even a cup of hot chocolate.

Of Course it Was a Monday

I am not sure if any of these qualify as Perfect Moments, but I hope that I write them in a way that both entertains you and allows you into my though process. Be forewarned, I am providing a window. Should you enter, I cannot guarantee there is a way out.

After waking, and preparing the coffee that might keep me awake through the day’s marathon of classes, a quick glance at my deck confirmed the news. Autumn (though Fall seems a better choice of words) had definitely arrived. Leaves both small and large covered my deck. It had rained during the night and the leaves were firmly affixed to my deck. Any hope that they would blow away into the neighbours’ yards seemed somewhat distant.

*****

On the ground at the bus stop, I noticed a rather famous label. It read “Canada Goose”. I briefly wondered whether the buyer had bought the jacket that day and decided to put it on at my bus stop, or if they had forgotten the label when leaving the house and decided to discard it then. Personally, I would have at least waited until I got on the bus. Of course, I also would have either put my garbage in the very near garbage can, or I would have saved the label to use as a bookmark. While it was cool, I am not sure it was Canada Goose cold. I was only in a t-shirt.

*****

At work, we have changed locations. We aren’t going fully face to face until the new year and many of our potential students cannot reach us until things improve in their countries. As a result, we just don’t need as much space as we had. I worry that we might need more space if things improve, but that really isn’t my department. Change is always interesting. Also purging a lot of stuff to move to a smaller space didn’t hurt either.

My perfectly crafted lesson required electronic communication with the students. Whether related to yesterday’s “outage”, I cannot be sure, but I also had problems using Microsoft Teams in my lessons. Not handing out books to students, and relying on electronic copies has saved some trees (or put some paper recyclers out of work–two sides to every story) but occasionally there are hiccups. I had to get students to photograph things or have them squint at my white board at maximum enlargement. Either way, I made it work. It’s a poor teacher who blames technology (rather than student laziness, apathy, or stupidity) for a student’s inability to learn.

*****

On my commute home, while trying to lose myself in a Lincoln Rhyme mystery, some loud people on the bus were intent on sharing their conversation with me. In between sips of beer, they were loudly agreeing with each other. Rather than plug in my headphones to block them out, I decided to be the “fly on the wall” and let their words wash over me.

At one point, one of them made a sentence along the lines of “you’re just like Bruce Lee.” I thought this a rather unusual reference, but I did like it. When I was growing up, Bruce Lee was definitely cool. He died before I discovered him, but that didn’t lessen his cook in any way.

A few months ago, one of my students tried reciting a speech Bruce Lee had made on TV about “being like water.” (You can see it on YouTube). My student loved the pronunciation, but I just loved the intensity that the man spoke with. He definitely had a kind of charisma that so easily came across on screen.

I managed to get a look at my happy bus passengers. There was no Bruce Lee in any of them.

*****

If this sounds like a full blown Monday to you, I would be forced to agree.

Face to Face

I taught a face to face class for the first time in ten months yesterday….and it was exhausting. It wasn’t the teaching, but all the other stuff that goes along with it.

We have been allowed to have face to face classes for the past couple of months, but I was teaching an exclusively online program for a while, and then I was on vacation. Monday (as well as Wednesday and Thursday) are going to be days when I have to get back to the classroom.

Last year we taught face to face classes until about October and then had to shut down for a while. It seems likely with high rates of vaccination (even amongst the students) that things will continue this way despite increasing case numbers.

The neighbourhood around my school is embroiled in a huge construction project. They are building something called the Crosstown LRT. As I understand it (and there are parts that I don’t’–including the rationale) they are building an underground bus lane (rather than an actual subway that could take people to the airport). I had expected it to be finished by now, or at least look like we were close to a finish. Sadly, this is not the case at all. The neighbourhood looks worse than a house on one of those hoarding shows. For all the underground construction, there is a lot of stuff going on aboveground.

What with the commute, walking around the classroom at a distance to the students, and catching up with a couple of coworkers, it was a rather tiring day. Today, I am teaching from home–which also means I have time to write this post.