Dark Rider

 

Well Connor succumbed to the pressure of his cousins this weekend and took off his training wheels. Of course in typical Connor fashion he found it necessary to where his ninja tights, Zoro cape and brandish his double swords just in case he came across any bad guys.

Facebook Shmacebook

Alright my wife is now a part of the Facebook nation so I took a look to see what it is all about. I have to say I don't see myself facebooking any time soon. The idea of people "poking" me, messages about people's moods filling my screen, receiving emails alerting me to the fact that someone has left me a message on Facebook and generally calling people friends that I had little or nothing to do with in the real world is just too much pressure for me. Now some people may find my attitude towards Facebook surprising considering the fact that I have a blog I regularly update and share thousands of pictures on Flickr. However, the difference to me is that I really don't care if people access those sites or not. I mean I put things out there in the hope that friends and family who would like to keep up with the activity of our family can feel better connected but the whole point is I don't have the time or interest in communicating with everyone individually. The few times I have looked at my wife's Facebook page I get the distinct sensation of a phone that just will not quit ringing and my head begins to hurt. Now don't get me wrong I have no problem with people who are into Facebook. I just find it kinda interesting that people feel the need to "force" their messages onto others but won't actually just send someone and email. It is great if people get a chance to reconnect to people from their past, however, just a caution sometimes you find out there is a reason you lost contact with those people. Now I am not sure if anyone will read this or not as I don't know if anyone visits this blog and nor do I care I feel better just for writing it. Now I must give up the computer as my wife wants to check her Facebook.

The Pressure of Summer

Well, we are heading into the third week of summer and it seems like time is flying by. I can't believe how little it feels like I have accomplished but at the same time it doesn't feel like I have slipped into my vacation routine yet and I beginning to get a little anxious. Now I know people out there who are not teachers are rolling their eyes and mentally wrapping their hands around my neck for whining about how fast three weeks go when we still have another five of holidays ahead of us but trust me the pressure is enormous. I mean I have a mental list of jobs around the house and cabin that I want to get completed plus I have a stack of books to read, a bunch of hobbies to get a kick start on, an exercise routine to begin, places to visit and explore around BC, family to visit, dinner parties, BBQs, kids summer camps. There just never seems enough time and the list just keeps going so I am sure you can see having the summer off is not as easy as it seems. In fact just writing about it has got me wound up. I think I better have another cup of coffee, before I go for a run and begin loading the truck for the lake.

The Graduate

 

Hard to believe that my little boy is already a pre-school graduate. If it wasn't for my youthful appearance I would start to think I was getting old.

Story Time

Never to young to be read to, Graeme reads a story to his brother and cousin.

Finally a Lewis is published

In speaking with my son's grade 2 teacher it seems as if Graeme, in place of doing his math work, decided to write the following story about a boy who eats his math book. Well instead of getting in trouble his teacher thought it was quite funny and has published it in the yearbook.

Le garçon qui aime less livres

Il y a un garçon qui aime manger des livres.
Cela a commence quand il fait ses maths.
Il ne sait pas bien les maths, alors il mange
page de maths. Après, il mange une
grosse, grosse phrase, et après ça, il mange
tout un livre. Mais toutes les pages du livre
se sont mélangées dans son estomac. Il était
triste parce que quand il parle, il dit :
« Ba +He +Ke + 7 = eliblablabla. »

Graeme Lewis

La fin

A New Old Direction

Well as another school year comes to an end I am preparing for a shift in my career direction again. I have resigned from my administration position and I am heading back to where I started, the classroom teaching social studies. I decided earlier this year that after years of university education gaining my Bachelor of Education and Master of Educational Technology degrees that I had strayed too far from the education side of schooling and too close to the management side. It has been a tough year in many respects as I struggled with the decision to quit, I am sure Marla would share with you how annoying I was as I worked through everything in my mind. While I am very excited, happy and proud of my decision it did not come easy. In a society that values promotion and views success as how much money a person makes it is easy to let your ego drive decisions. However, the more I examined the reasons that I went into education in the first place the more I realized I had moved farther and farther from those reasons over the last two years. Clarity was really brought to the situation when my son asked me one night at dinner as we talked about our day "How many kids did you suspend today dad?" I thought back to the days when I was teaching and he used to hang out with me in my classroom on the weekends as I was prepping for lessons and decided I liked the idea of my children knowing me as a teacher better than as an administrator. Besides, as I told Marla, it is hard to reconcile an ideology of "screw the man and his stupid rules" with actually being "the man". I am looking forward to next year as I have decided to remain at PGSS and will have an opportunity to get back to what I love, teaching social studies. Who knows what the future will bring but for know I can rest easy in the knowledge that I got in on my own terms and I am going out on my own terms.

Air Mexico

My son and I went on a little zip line adventure in the hills of Sayulita. Here he is flying across the third zip line. You can tell by his very cool "good" at the end of the clip that he figures he is an old hand at this jungle flying.

The office memo that ate the world

Have you ever noticed how the convience of email and the ability to communicate with family and friends from all around the world quickly and cheaply has been turned into nothing more than a glorified office memo. Personally I work in a position with just enough authority that people feel it necessary to cc me on pretty much every friggin email they can conjure up. Everything from, the city informing god knows who about the city facitilites that have been booked for the upcoming week to parents asking for homework for their children to messages to the custodians complaining the waste paper basket still has a piece of scrap paper in it from the previous day. What is worse than getting all of the mundane messages that actually pertain to you...? It is getting cc'd in on mundane messages that don't pertain to you and in most cases relate to people or events that you don't have a clue about. Now one could argue that my recieveing these messages should be taken as a clue that I should actually get invlolved and try and figure out how they do involve me. I rather take them as a challenge in creating mail rules that will allow my junk mail filter to block them. On top of getting all of these messages is the fact that we get sucked into using your email account for nothing more than work related crap. While we constantly lament the lack of time we have to keep in contact with people important to us and how our busy lives leave us with little motivation to send out those christmas cards from last December we always seem to have time to send out the latest email to our colleagues clarifiying the previous email that was sent as an explaination of the instructions to the original email. When our total misuse of this great technology truely hits you is when you go on vacation like I have this week. During a typical work day I will receive approxiamtely 175 messages a day. While I have been on holiday that number has dropped to 4 a day with three of those having to do with ways to improve my manhood but that is a different post. Why do you ask am I writing about this, well I think we should take back control of our email accounts and refuse to read or send work related messages after 7 pm. If you have something to say at that time you should go talk to your family and leave the work stuff for the morning. I also think we need to quit the ccing. If the message is not important enough to the person to warrant them to be included in the addressees then they don't need it sent to them. They are probably not reading it anyway so save yourself the trouble. Most importantly, use your email for what it should be, a powerful way to stay in contact with those people who are important to you. That is all I have to say about that. now to get back to those emails about my manhood.

camera man

camera man
Originally uploaded by kinglewy.

I recently gave my older son a cheap little digital camera and he has taken to photography. He has already graduated to a little better model with a zoom. It is great to see him laying on the ground or climbing on the rocks to try and get the shot he wants. It is even better to look at the photos after and get a little glimpse into how he sees the world. This shot is of him taking pictures of the Iguanas in Sayulita. To see his pictures of our spring break in Sayulita click http://www.flickr.com/photos/kinglewy/sets/72157600044177141/

Anticipation......

Well, we are only 2 sleeps away from being on the beach sipping Pacifico in Sayulita and everyone is getting pretty excited. We have had an awesome winter but it will be great to sit back, unplug the phone and email and read a few books while enjoying the sun. I wonder how Connor is going to react when he figures out we didn't pack his "warmy" pants and gum boots. Current weather in Sayulita 32 degrees.

Choirboy

Footage of my son in his first choir recital. Ok, it is pretty boring stuff unless you are related but then again isn't that what blogs are all about.

4 yr old career counseling

Do you ever notice that kid are much more interesting than adults. My 4 yr old son was driving with my wife the other day and a song was playing that included the line "Would you be the saviour of the broken?" My son asked my wife what a saviour was and she explained to him that it was a person who helped people. He asked if they helped homeless, sick and poor people and wife told him yes. My son then thought for a while and said that he would like to be a saviour when he grew up. My wife told him that would be a great idea as it is very important to help people. He then remained quiet for quite a while and my wife could see him in the rear view mirror deep in thought. After a few minutes my son said he had a problem because he wanted to be a saviour but he also wanted to be a Ninja and it is hard to be two things. In fact, he also wanted to be Batman so that would be hard and he would have to think about it because he would like to help poor people and homeless people or people who were lost in long grass because you know people who are in long grass get scared because they can't see were to go. He thought he might have to talk to his brother to see what he thinks so it should be interesting to see where this goes. I'm just glad my wife wasn't listening to If I had a Rocket Launcher.

The Iceman Cometh

 

Well, a couple of weeks ago my wife and I joined another couple and decided to throw a team in the Iceman competition. The Iceman is a unique northern athletic event that consists of an 8 km cross-country ski, 10 km run, 5 K skate, 5 km run and an 800 m swim. It is a fantastic event that really brings together the community. We had a great time even if we were not the most prepared team. We are looking forward to next year and we may just even do a little training beforehand.

Missing Mexico

As we are deep into winter and looking forward to heading back to Sayulita in April I thought I put together some shots from last year. A warning, this is pretty boring stuff except for the boys who can watch themselves over and over and over and over ...

Bubbalicious

Ok, this is cool and don't lie you would all like to give it a try.

Pass the Prozac

Ever wonder why you sometimes get that sinking feeling or the people around you seem a little gloomy and on edge. After a century of living the good life, scarfing down fast food, driving gas guzzling muscle cars, building houses, resorts, bridges and generally shaping the land and taking from it anything we chose we are now facing the global hangover of a 100 year party. How is this reflected in our moods? Look no further than our entertainment choices in recent years. While in the 80's and 90's we could unwind with Crocket and Tubbs for a hour as they chased drug smugglers and bikini clad babes around Miami now we tune into some guy who decides to eat MacDonald's for a month straight and point out how we are slowly killing ourselves through a lack of nutrition and overindulgence. We used to tune in weekly to the Dukes of Hazard to see if just maybe Daisy Dukes shorts would ride up that extra quarter inch. Now we tune into Michael Moore's latest shockumentary to see how corporate America is pillaging our communities, or how the president fixed the election, or how or culture is turning young people into killers. Take your pick they all follow pretty much the same story line, we're f****ed. Gone are the feel good days of Richie, Fonzie, Potsie and the gang. Today we are stuck with Franky, Bubbles and the rest of the Trailer Park Boys. No wonder we are a little down. Universal health care is under siege, the education system is in need of reform, nightly we watch highlights of wars we cannot win, we don't recycle enough, we spend too much, our children are too fat and stupid, our pension plans will be bankrupt before we can claim them. If you do happen to feel good about your life then you have pangs of guilt about not being concerned enough about the future. All I can say it is a good thing I had the foresight to tape then entire last season of Magnum PI so that whenever I get that sinking feeling I put on my Tigers cap and take a little trip back in time.

An Inconvenient Truth

Well my wife and I finally got around to watching the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth and I must say it was time well spent. At first I was not really all that sold on the idea of watching a film with a "moral" message from the right hand man of a president who thought of his secretary as a cigar holder or whose wife had petitioned so vehemently against those icons of my youth Judas Priest. However, to my surprise film was very entertaining and educational. Al Gore comes across earnestly and without the air of a past vice-president just milking the post administration pay check. The film uses just enough science to be convincing and informative without making the viewer thing he his watching a re-run of the Nature of Things. Overall the film delivers a compelling call to arms for all of us, especially in North America, to get off our butts and start taking care of the land the has so efficiently looked after us before it is too late. Of course, the downside is that I am now filled with guilt every time my furnace kicks in and when my kids start to complain about the cold I find myself lecturing them about how cold it is going to be when we bring about the next ice age.

What are we doing in education??

This month Time magazine has proclaimed "you" to be their person of the year for the role each and every one of us is playing in the transformation of the world wide web from an information repository to an interactive global community. Time calls the growing community of bloggers, podcasters and videographers a revolution with sites such as blogger, youtube and myspace attracting millions of subscribers and daily hit counts in the hundreds of millions.

Meanwhile in education we seem to be stuck in a debate around how much access we allow students, how we can best monitor and restrict their internet access and what is the best way to get music to play over the entire length of a powerpoint. While we lament funding cuts and grouse about the apathy of today's students and how they are just not interested in things we turn our backs on the many resources that are at our fingertips thanks to the growth of the read/write web. How many teachers do you know who are accessing the hundreds of soldiers blogs from Iraq or Afghanistan. How about using webcams to link up with other classes around the world or access one of the thousands of virtual fieldtrips from places like NASA and the San Diego Zoo. How about taking advantage of the price drop in digital cameras and designing lessons that put them in the hands of their students or encouraging students to create videos or podcasts. How many teachers have their students publish to the web and seek feedback from people with no vested interest other than having an opinion. Don't get me wrong I don't think it is the teachers' faults. I think it is a result of working in a system that has long been a dispenser of knowledge. In this environment information is to be given out in small, controlled doses so that progress can be measured and standards maintained, or created, in a sort of chicken and egg scenario.

While one to one laptops initiatives are seen to be cutting edge in the education world and have school districts all around North America scrambling to try and remortgage our children's' educational future so we can provide them with shiny new computers with no real sense of how they will be used. Perhaps school districts should take a closer look at why the large number of students who actually have their own laptops are not bringing them to school or using them in their classes. Maybe it is because students are not allowed to text message in class, MSN is banned, assignments are not online, email is blocked, wireless access is not provided and internet resources are not part of the lesson plans. The reality is that I do not need the school system to buy my children a laptop or monitor their online activity, I will do that. What I do need is a system that encourages rich learning activities that take advantage of the power, simplicity and creativity of a vibrant online community.

Everybody seems to get the power of the read/write internet and more so they are simply going online. Teenagers chatting about the latest episode of the OC, preteens creating online pets on www.tamagotchi.com, parents sharing the latest pictures of their kids and grandparents video chatting with their grandchildren. Everybody seems to be tapping into the power of the internet and molding it to their own purpose so what are we waiting for in education. Jump in, explore, play its OK, we might just learn something along with the students. In education we keep investing in infrastructure and hardware asking ourselves is this revolutionizing education yet. What we really should be doing is looking to the kids and the online community to see what we can take advantage of before the revolution runs right over us.

Anyways, this is a little deep for Christmas vacation but if you want to read a position paper I wrote about technology not being just a tool feel free to download it here. Not Just a Tool

Click here for the Time magazine cover story Cover Story

Happy Holidays

Well, the holidays have begun and it is sure nice to pause and take a deep breath after what has seemed like a hectic start to the school year. It is hard to believe that it is already December 23rd. Somehow I don't really feel as prepared for Christmas as I should be but the decorations are up, the presents are under the tree, the eggnog is chilling in the fridge and The Flintstones Christmas Caroll is on TV so maybe we do have it under control.

2006 has been a good year for us. We had a fantastic time in Sayulita, Mexico at spring break with my Mom, Dad and Cyndi and Scott. I know you are all dying to see some photos so feel free to click Sayulita. In fact we liked it so much we are heading back this spring break with Marla's family and some friends. I must admit despite years of putting her off Marla is starting win me over to this whole just lying on the beach thing. Of course 70 cent Pacificos don't hurt either. We had a great summer with hot weather and many sunny days at the lake with family and friends. Graeme thinks he is a tubing god and Connor has realized that if you fall off in the middle of the lake you actually won't drown. Connor also caught his first fish this summer and, in fact, skunked Graeme and I on several occasions.

Marla is back at College Heights this year and is enjoying her second year as she starts to feel more at home at a new school and enjoys the people she works with. She does, however, secretly wear wear Duchess Park t-shirts under her clothes sometimes so I don't think the black and gold has been completely exercised. I am also back at PGSS this year doing the VP thing . It is nice to not be the new guy and at least have the students spell my name right when they decorate the bathroom stall. Graeme is enjoying grade 2 and we are amazed with the amount of French he is picking up. Of course I am impressed by anyone who can count to 10 in French as my grasp of the language ends with "tenir le premier rôle ce soir d'abord des canadiens de Montréal" Connor is in his second year of pre-school and is loving it. He is really ready to go to kindergarten, however, he has stated that he does not want to go to Graeme's school because all they do there is work. You know what task masters those primary teachers can be. Graeme has started hockey this year which also means I am coaching hockey. He started out a little reluctant but is really enjoying it as his skating has improved and he feels more confident about stopping. He is excited about January as he starts power skating and he likes the ideas of just skating and not having to use pucks so I guess we still have a little ways to go before we have to worry about having the next Sidney Crosby on our hands. Graeme and Connor both completed another level of swimming lessons this fall and they are both really becoming good swimmers and they sure love the water. Surprisingly, unlike their mother, they do not need the water to be 85 degrees before they get in.

We hope all of you have a great Christmas and a Happy Holidays! Know that while we not always be the best at keeping up with people we think of our friends and family often.

Love The Lewis'