The Malicious Monocle

 I had my first meeting between myself, my university supervisor and one of my two co-operating teachers earlier this week. It went well. The meeting was largely so my supervisor could meet the teacher and then explain some of the paperwork the teacher will be filling out on me over the next ten weeks.

I was caught off guard however with the scheduling of my first informal observation by the supervisor. I won’t even have two weeks in the classroom before that first observation. The only thing keeping me from panicking about this is that I’m not expected to do any teaching that day or even really do anything at all. If I’m still at a point where I am only observing and perhaps assisting students in a one-on-one capacity while my co-operating teacher still runs the classroom, that’s ok. I’d really hoped that I would be doing more in the classroom before my first observation, but I’ll just have to see where I’m at with such a quick turnaround on things.

I do have a copy of the teacher’s edition of the text. I’m toying with starting writing a few lesson plans so I can get those out of the way as soon as possible. I’m just not sure if I should start with the chapter the class will be studying as of this next week or if I should target my lesson plans for chapter after that. I wasn’t able to get any kind of hard time from my co-operating teacher for how long the next chapter may take.

 Zebu hid behind the garden wall as he watched Bengal and his men take Orangutan away. He followed them to find out in which gaol Orangutan was going to be held. After seeing where Orangutan was going to be held, Zebu raced off to find help for his friend and to make sure everyone one of the Raja’s men were informed of what had happened.

Zebus wasn’t really sure he would actually be able to help Orangutan. Realistically the best help he might be able to arrange for Orangutan would be a vial of poison for a dignified suicide before the Governor’s tortured him. Raja was all too unlikely to support an attempt to free Orangutan. Doing so would tip his hand to the Governor General far earlier than likely planned. Zebu would simply hope against hope that his friend would soon come home.

Today was spent at the Games Workshop store on Layton Ave. I participated in a large battle using my new Mûmak and Harad army. The scenario was that a group of four Mûmakil and warriors were marching through an unsettled area on their way to the big final battle at Gondor and were ambushed by the side of good. There were Dúnedain, Elves from Rivendell and representatives of the Army of Dead. I went a bit crazy with the camera on my phone so here are all of my pictures of the battle.

My Mûmak is the one with the purple on the howdah. I’m not done painting it by a long shot, but I at least had a enough painted to look respectable on the table.

Who won?

Evil, of course.

Soon my happy fun-time will end and I will start my student teaching. Am I spending my time practicing lesson plans? Am I reading about performance assessments?

No.

I’m working on my Mûmak.

Here are some work in progress photos of my Mûmak.

The paint job is mostly a series of drybrushing so far. The base especially has a lot of work left to do on it. Next up is to finish the toenails and then start in on the tusks. After the Mûmak is finished, I’ll start work on the howdah, alternating with work on the base as the whim takes me.

Last night was the second Benchmark for the teaching program I’m in. I passed. It was actually a pretty straight-forward experience. We had to prove we were able to put together a pretty portfolio and participate in a Socratic Seminar. I looked up my GPA and was pleased to see it sitting in the neighborhood of 3.8.

I have my first informal meeting set up with my student teaching supervisor and my co-operating teachers. I’ll be going in and meeting one of the teachers tomorrow. After that will be class. Whee. At least there wasn’t any homework due for the first night of class.

Benchmark II was fun though. There were tornadoes in town and so at one point we had to huddle in a windowless classroom for a bit at one point. There was even some question if we would finish the benchmarks. We stayed. All of us just wanted to get it over with and be done.

I bought a new miniature this weekend to assemble. It’s one I’ve been drooling over for a couple of years now. It was a little easier than I had thought to assemble, but it wasn’t easy.

Here’s a picture of it mostly done.

For my student teaching goal I propose an expedition into the deepest, darkest corners of the school A/V room. This expedition will, of course, be fraught with perils as I brave scorn from the oh-so superior A/V nerds and the overly protective and suspicious Tech-priests known as librarians. My goal for this expedition is to learn the effective use (if any) of film strip projectors which go ‘beep’ and other examples of educational archaeo-tech I may find.

As with any student teaching goal, I will have to answer the question of how I know if my expedition goals have been met. I will know I have succeeded when the Student Helpers accept me as one of their own and bestow upon me my A/V club name. (Personally I’m hoping for something fun like, ‘He-Who-Ironically-Forwards-At-The-Beep’.) Acceptance into their tribe will not be enough for the success of my goal, however. I will also need to be inducted into the arcane rites of the Librarian Tech-Priests. Only when they have taught me the proper prayers that need be offered to Edison, Morse and Bell before activating a piece of equipment will I be able to use the equipment as easily as any coal-stoker stokes the furnace of an ocean liner. I will know for sure that my expedition has been successful when I can walk in to a school library and get a knowing nod of the head as I point to any piece of equipment and know that the librarian is signing that piece of equipment out in the name of a teacher they don’t much like.

For an artifact I intend to bring back detailed schematics of all of the types of equipment available. Included with these schematics will be important notes concerning alternative power sources in the all too likely event that the equipment doesn’t work when needed. These schematics will clearly note if a candle may be used to replace a burned-out bulb or if the class hamster and its wheel can be used when the power cord has become too frayed to unwind from the A/V cart.

  Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The same song, but using video from a couple of video games I play.

  The Christmas holiday is fast, fast approaching. I celebrate it as a secular holiday. The only thing that annoys me more than a holier-than-thou religious type telling me I’m having fun wrong is not being able to give and receive some fat loot.

I also thought I would provide everyone with a holiday-themed music video. Of course it features my favorite cephalopod.

    The semester is just about over. There are a few classes left yet, but fortunately the super big piles of homework that I’ve been having to deal with have shrunk to almost tiny piles. I have to write nearly ten pages worth of reflection for next week, but compared to the homework I’ve had to deal with I’m not even worried.

A package I’ve been waiting for showed up today in the mail. My calendar for next year, “The Lovely Mistresses of George W Bush.” Some great classic pin-up shots to brighten the next thirteen months.  Miss April is someone I know from an online forum. I’m kind of surprised that none of the girls have any ink on them, but the photographer could have easily ’shopped the ink out.

I’m off to watch some more of Tin Man  before heading off to bed. I promise some more Monocle in the coming days as well.

  I did actually take some time to relax a little this weekend, but most of the holiday weekend was spent doing homework and trying to get everything done before the end of the semester. I managed to finish out two assignments this weekend and get the nitty gritty of a third out of the way as well. So, that should leave me with approximately 3.5 assignments left to do before I’m free for a few weeks to kill off some brain cells before student teaching.

I ran into a guy I used to know from college last week as well. I found out his daughter is a student at the school I’m doing my student teaching at and she is in the right grade. I have no idea which classrooms I’ll be in though, so I couldn’t tell him if I was going to be teaching his daughter. I’ll have to see if I recognize his last name if I see it on the class roster. Considering I can’t remember what his name is currently, I figure I have a 50-50 shot of recognizing it if I see it written down.

How will I celebrate the end of the semester and the fact that I have given my current place of work notice? I will be getting together with a friend to watch the Series 3 Doctor Who episodes we missed and maybe play some Wii. I love it when girls ask me to bring my Wii over to their place to play. It just seems… titillating somehow.

Clearly I am also running into some fun insomnia with the end of the semester as it is half-past one in the morning and I’m awake.

Don’t Blink!