Summer Reflections Part 3 – Feeding Teenagers, Driving your Husband Crazy and How to Lose Your Voice at the PNE

I started working and preparing for the upcoming school year this week. I had one full day of collaborating and planning with the ECC team last week, but, at that point, the first day of school still seemed very, very far away. After that collaboration day, I went on a short holiday to visit family and have some summer fun before the return to work. Since arriving home, it’s go time. Time to get ready, time to start thinking about all those expectant kiddies who will walk (or skip, or run, or something) into the classroom in eleven days!

Unfortunately, I hit a block today. I can’t organize another pile of ideas, or write another email, or even think about work at all. I’m going blank. All I want to do is write and think about the summer which gave me a perfect reason to sit and think about summer while writing the final instalment of my summer reflection blog posts…sounds so fancy when I write it like that!

So, in addition to part one and part two posted earlier, here are a few more things I learned this summer:

1) Never, ever, ever, buy a puzzle with the words ‘endless skies’ in the title. Don’t ask. Just take my word for it. What was supposed to be a pleasant diversion ended up being a project that was equal parts frustration and enjoyment.

2) Eating carrots and tomatoes and other food grown in your own backyard is totally worth all the time and effort it takes to put in and maintain the garden.

3) The best place to swim is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. The best time to swim is right before dusk on a night when the water is smooth as glass and the beach is almost completely deserted. Oh, if I could do that every day of my life…

4) The PNE is a ton of fun! While I went every year as a little girl when I lived in Vancouver, I hadn’t been for ten years. One unexpected thing I learned is that you can lose your voice from screaming throughout the Haunted House and while on rides like the Wooden Roller Coaster. It was worth it though! So. Much. Fun.

5) When going for a long walk, it drives your husband crazy if you stop every two minutes to take photos like these:

IMG_2572

IMG_2577

There are 43 more from that one walk, but those are two of my favourites.

6) Always feed your teenagers before asking them to do anything. Actually, let’s just shorten that to ‘always feed your teenagers’. Life is just so much easier.

7) I still love my job and am following the right path in my life by continuing on my journey as an educator. While I love being home with my boys, and summer is a lovely respite from work, I am excited to go back to school. This will be my 20th year as a teacher. A real milestone for me. And I’m super excited, a bit giddy, energized and ‘up’ about going back to work. That’s so reassuring and feels really good. Nice to know I’m still doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

Well, I think I’ll stop on that note. Thanks for reading along as I’ve shared my thoughts and reflections from the summer. If you’re in the middle of a school year, or just returned back, or starting soon, I hope your school year is wonderful and makes real, positive change in the world.

 

Summer Reflections Part 2 – Photos Included

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a few reflections on my summer so far, including the fact that I’m learning how to use a Canon E60 this summer. It’s been fun something other than my iPhone to take photos with and I love being able to zoom in on my subject! As promised in my earlier post, I’m sharing some of my favourite photos from the summer (so far!) below. One thing, I haven’t done any digital processing on these at all – they are straight off the camera.

IMG_2191

A good portion of summer this year is on the road. This photo of the Tantalus mountain range (above) was taken from the Tantalus viewpoint on the Sea to Sky Highway. It was a bit hazy from forest fire smoke in the air, but other than that I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and I’m awed at the natural beauty of British Columbia.

IMG_2199

The blue moon at the end of July was stunning! This photo (one of my favourites – ever!!) was taken just after moonrise above Fountain Ridge just west of my hometown. I posted this to the #bcedchat summer slow chat and received good feedback!

IMG_1914

There is a large osprey nest on top of a local bridge. It’s a perfect place to go take photos because you have the Fraser River, an old bridge and the osprey nest complete with chicks!

IMG_2246

Whenever he can, my older son loves to ride his skateboard. He’ll spend hours, days, weeks, trying to perfect different kickflip tricks and I love this action shot of him attempting a no-comply pressure flip (yup, skateboarder mom). And yes, he does wear a helmet when he’s riding vert (vertical ramps/bowls, etc) but not when he’s practicing street or learning flip tricks.

IMG_1974

Ever summer, my younger son spends as much time as possible swimming in local lakes. He loves snorkelling or swimming completely underwater. One memorable moment this summer was when he popped up out of the lake excited that a 20 centimetre trout was right beside him!!

IMG_2000

If I could sum up the perfect summer, it would include something like this last photo. Water, a beach, flip flops and time to just relax and enjoy the sunshine.

I’m learning quite a bit about the camera and enjoying the quality of images as compared to all the photos I take with my phone. I don’t like the extra step of putting photos onto the computer before I can share them out on flickr, twitter or instagram but that’s the only frustration so far. That and remembering to bring the camera with me – I keep forgetting to bring it with me and have missed some great shots as a result!

More summer reflections coming soon…

 

Taking a Photo a Day

I love photography. I always have. I’ve always been the person who’s rarely in any photos because I’m the one taking them. Teaching photography is an woodabsolute pleasure and I enjoy sharing my passion for the subject with my students.

Last New Year’s Eve, I decided to take on the challenge of taking a photo a day for the duration of 2010. Not surpisingly, I learned about the photo a day challenge through Twitter. My first photo, at the right, is one of my favourites so far. I started because I love taking photographs, but I also though that it might be an interesting assignment for my photography students and I like to try things out before I bring them into the classroom.

FragilityI decided to follow @dailyshoot on Twitter because they tweet simple, good photo assignments each day. It helps to keep motivated and inspired. You can even tweet your photo with a link and they’ll add it to their Daily Shoot site. I usually try the daily shoot assignment, but, if the opportunity presents itself, I veer off and capture images of my choice.

I use my Flickr account to archive my daily photos. I also joined two groups on Flickr: the 2010/365photos group (a group largely made up of After the rain...edubloggers which started in 2008) and the Art Ed 365/2010 (another group similiar to the first, but specifically for art teachers). I already had a Flickr account, so it was just a matter of finding the groups (which I learned about from my PLN on Twitter) and joining. Both groups contain members that I either follow on Twitter or that have a blog I subscribe to. I purposefully joined groups that would extend my existing PLN experience and I’ve found that being a part of the group has made my commitment more real.

The benefits I’ve experienced so far are:

  • a greater awareness, a constant searching, for that awesome photo
  • some great photos that I’m really proud of
  • a neat visual record of my year so far
  • an understanding of what it feels like to have to take photos in the same place every day. I get it now when my photo students come in and say ‘there’s nothing to take photos of in this school’,  whereas before I’d privately think, ‘how could there be nothing to take photos of in the whole school?’

The struggles I’ve had so far:

  • finding inspiration in the same spaces day after day. I think it’s time to go on some long drives to take advantage of the beautiful natural setting surrounding me. Looking at my photos so far, very few are outside of my house or my classroom, even though I take my camera with me everywhere I go. I want to change that.
  • remembering to take the photos. I haven’t missed a day yet although I haven’t posted all the photos online, but I have forgotten until late at night and then I was stuck taking a photo just because I had to. Not surprisingly, those don’t turn out very well.
  • technical difficulties. I’m getting a dark spot in the lower right corner of my recent photos. It only shows up in certain close up situations with the flash and it’s ruined a few good photos already.
  • uploading the photos to Flickr, then naming them, tagging them, adding them to the group pool, etc. Is there an easier way to archive the daily photo? There probably is, but I haven’t found it yet, so I usually only upload every couple of weeks or so.

In this time of limitless online professional development, the daily photo is a Linesvaluable and worthwhile learning experience. I’ve really enjoyed it so far and I think it will make for a valuable photography assignment for my students. I wonder about others’ experience so far and I think in a classroom setting, where the students can sit and talk about their successes, struggles, etc. face to face, it will be even better.

All images by me.