Adult Fun and Responsibilities

 When was the last time you went to a place that you visited as a child? Last Tuesday, my friend Sarah and I spent time together touring the Canadian National Exhibition, aka the CNE, aka The Ex. I never went to the CNE when I was little. Niagara Falls was more of my family of origin's choice for a vacation destination. However, Sarah used to go to the Ex all the time with her family. Based on my shaky recollections, it's been about 10 years since I last went to the Ex. (We took my son and a couple of his friends to the CNE for his 12th birthday, and he's turning 22 this year - happy birthday in advance, Peter!!) Naturally, I was keen to see how things had changed and how they had stayed the same. I was also intrigued to see how Sarah and I (both women in their 50s) would interact with and enjoy the Ex.

Well, Sarah and I definitely enjoyed ourselves. We wandered through the Home and Garden Pavilion, then perused the International Pavilion and warehouse/shopping outlets all in the Enercare Centre. We watched a short show about the planets in a mini-planetarium. We indulged ourselves at the Food Truck area by the Princes' Gates and played a few games on the Midway. We checked out the Food Building and the Arts, Crafts & Hobbies building. We looked at a display called "Carnival - The Exhibition & Archives Exhibit" and enjoyed both traditional and unusual treats. (I even bought pretzels to take home for the family.) I must have taken a dozen photos of Sarah drinking her immense watermelon smoothie, served in a half of a watermelon!

The adult me noticed how expensive things have become (and the impact of shrinkflation). I was particularly surprised by the cost of the carnival games. We played 3 games and it cost $22. I also noted, to my disappointment, that I can no longer eat as much food as I used to. I only had Saigon Chicken Bites (YUMMY!) from Los Vietnamita, an ice cream waffle sandwich, and a Beavertail pastry. I would have chomped on so much more if there was room in my belly.

My adult fun continued later in the week. I flew to Calgary to visit my sister. The two of us will fly to Vancouver to board a cruise ship for an Alaskan adventure. In the meantime, my sister and I have enjoyed spending time together. We have eaten out at some delicious local restaurants and pubs (Borough, Rising Tide, and NotaBle), gone shopping together, chatted extensively and even tried baking Portuguese custard tarts like we had in Portugal when we were there together in July.

Adult fun has to be balanced with adult responsibilities. I brought my laptop with me to work on my ESL Part 2 AQ assignments. I won't be able to continue my studies on the ship - Internet access is too costly and I don't plan on gluing myself to my computer when the rugged beauty of the north is right in front of me - but I will try not to fall behind with my studies.

I also wanted to stick in a summary of a conversation I had with my Cross Fit coaches. I attend three times a week when I am home, but I'll be honest; I don't enjoy going. Unlike my husband, my gym buddy, who savors the post-workout burn of a job well done, I dislike the pre-gym, during-gym, and post-gym time. I only go because I know it's good for me and my husband and I do it together. He's probably a bit tired of hearing me gripe about going to the gym, so he encouraged me to ask our coaches about this attitude of mine. When I brought up the topic to one of the coaches, he had a tough but practical response. "Are you a child? Sometimes we have to do things that we don't like. You don't have to do Cross Fit specifically, but you have to do some sort of exercise to keep healthy." The cockles of my heart weren't exactly warmed by this answer, but he is right. The reason why I attend Cross Fit is because I know I'm not self-motivated enough to go to a gym and push myself to complete a proper workout. With a coach telling me what to do, I get stuff done. My next grumpy question was when I'd get to stop attending Cross Fit class. Again, in his sharp but smart way, he replied that some people would love to be able to work out but just aren't physically able; ergo, continue to work out while your body is capable. It wasn't the reply I exactly wanted to hear, but it was practical and one I couldn't argue with easily. 

No Easing Out or In (and Educating ELL Educators)

This can either be seen as well planned or poorly planned.

I ended the school year in June by plunging into a conference, followed by a significant vacation. (I've only been to Europe twice in my life. The first time was to France in 1990. The second time was to Portugal in 2024.) It was a very abrupt switch, to go from lessons with elementary students to lectures with academics to immersing myself in a completely different country. 

I'm going to begin the school year this September in a similar way. I'm going to go on my very first cruise just before school starts.

Usually, I spend the first week of July and the last week of August puttering around my school, tidying up and getting things in order. Last year, I examined my school library collection and helped with a huge inventory project in the summer. I like to attend the TDSB New TL Unconference and Fan Expo Canada with my daughter in late August. It's like slowing inching your way into a pool; it helps me to adapt to the new routines and slowly say goodbye to the slower days of summer. There will be no gradual acclimatization for me this year. To mix my metaphors (from swimming to driving), it's pedal to the metal and start the race immediately.

How might this change impact me and my students?

I'm not sure. Let me try and list some potential positives and negatives.

Energy

+ I'll be fresh and full of stories from my summer adventures

- I'll be tired from travelling all over

Preparation

- I'll not feel as "ready" as some of my colleagues

+ I'll feel more akin to my students, creating more empathy

Decoration

- I won't have "Back to School" displays already up

+ I can create and co-construct displays with my school community, giving more agency

Stress / Mindset

+ I won't be worrying or overthinking before school begins (hello school anxiety dreams) or doubting my abilities because I'll have something else fun to focus on (Have I packed everything?)

- I may not be able to take that "pause" time to mentally prepare for anything that's thrown at me, which could add to my stress

One thing that will be a consistent presence during this time (other than my family, of course) is the AQ that I'm currently taking as a student. My York University AQs that I teach are summer-specific. I taught 3 in July and 4 in August; they only last a month for a very intense learning cycle. I am taking my ESL Part 2 AQ with Queen's University. It qualifies as a "Late Summer" course, which means that it runs from August until October. 

I've only worked on two of the seven modules in the course so far. The top thing that I've embraced from the course so far is :

Like being a TL, it's important to look inward and examine how your own culture and identity impact the way you [might] do your job.

For instance, I really liked this reading from Unlocking English Learners' Potential, where they asked us to reflect on our attitudes and beliefs around certain topics, such as punctuality, the role of the teacher in class, student participation, student non-verbal communication, student interactions with teachers, independent vs collaborative learning, and plagiarism. The point was to see that there are different cultural norms associated with these, and great variability even within cultures and social groups. Culture is complex, dynamic, evolving and manifests in different ways. Teachers are inclined to see their cultural norms as "correct" and then see deviations from this norm in their students as evidence that the student is not successful or doing poorly.

Admittedly, this is true, especially for me and "discourse behaviours". I come from a West Indian background, where talking over people and interrupting (notice my choice of descriptors?) is natural. However, as a:

• female who has seen "mansplaining" a bit too often, 
• someone born in Canada (second generation of immigrants), and 
• teacher who took Tribes TLC training, which focuses on "attentive listening" (wait your turn to speak). 

I've internalized and adopted that method of conversing so much that having loud, overlapping debates irritates me. I like things a bit more orderly. I need to remind myself that it isn't necessarily rude, but just a different way of interacting. I need to tell myself that those talks I gave in the past when I was heavily a part of the GamingEdus about respecting "gaming culture" and "school culture" as two separate but equally worthwhile creatures, also apply to other forms of culture too.

This chart outlining the three "levels" of culture is helpful.

I'm not sure if there will be an "easing in" period with my new position as a 0.5 teacher-librarian and 0.5 ESL teacher. I know it will take a few days to organize the schedule of seeing the primary / early junior division students, based on the classroom teachers' schedules, the number of students that need service, and other factors. I'm grateful that I will be sharing this role with Connie Chan. She will be responsible for the late junior / intermediate division students and I will lean on her heavily for support and guidance as I "transition in".

I realized as I typed this reflection that I have almost no photos to accompany my post. That's not appealing visually. People like hearing about my recent Fluevog addiction, so I'll end this post with some photo highlights and wondering at what point I'll stop purchasing ones for my collection. I'm at 17 pairs so far and every time I think "I won't get any more", I find a great deal on Facebook Marketplace or on one of the Fluevog groups I belong to (or I go shopping with my sister or my friends that wear Fluevogs). To connect it back to the theme of today's blog, even though I "eased in" to being a "Fluezzie", I have a feeling I won't be able to "ease out"; I think I'll have to "quit cold turkey" and leave all those lovely Facebook groups to resist temptation. After all, in March of 2024 I only had six pairs (with three new pairs added back then) and now look!

This is my collection, not counting my two most recent acquisitions. (15 + 2)

The bottom two rows are the ones I wear the most. Putting them all together like this also helps me notice trends / patterns (I really like round toes and Mary-Janes) and "gaps" in my collection. (Some brighter colors, like orange, blue and green, along with some more pointed toes, might add some variety.) These Leonoras might be a consideration for the future once they go on sale.

And yes, I take "shoe selfies":

TLs make great friends!

 It's easy to get bogged down by academic projects. Right now, I've got 4 courses that I'm teaching for York, with a particularly large number of participants this term. I'm getting mentally ready to take my ESL Part 2 AQ with Queen's (it starts Monday August 12) and I've been chipping away at a project on Digital Media Literacy with CSL. Thankfully, I've been able to make time to see some friends this past week.

My "citation savior" Joanie Proske was in Toronto recently. Joanie lives in BC and we first met when we were both taking our Masters of Education courses online with the University of Alberta. We had lunch together at the delicious Pigeon Café on King Street West. (Excuse how wet we look in this photo. We got drenched while walking.)

My long-time friend Wendy Kaell turned 50 and I attended her birthday celebration on Saturday. 

My TDSB pals Wendy Burch Jones and Kim Davidson went for lunch mid-week in Scarborough.

I was also rescued by the wonderful Jennifer Brown from Peel DSB on Thursday. My scheduled guest speaker for my York TL AQ had to drop out unexpectedly last minute and Jenn kindly agreed to sub in and give the same presentation she gave to my July 2024 cohort. We had a good time playing with new Zoom features, like embedding Jenn directly into her slides as a background, and the listeners were absolutely enthralled with Jenn's presentation.

I noticed that a large number of my friends are educators. This should not come as a surprise. You make friends at school and at work, and I'm surrounded by teacher types. What I wanted to comment on was on how many of my friends are teacher-librarians and how utterly wonderful it is to have friends that are school library professionals. Having a friend that's a TL has all sorts of benefits. For instance, TLs are very generous with their time and skills. Jennifer Brown (a TL) willingly volunteered to give up part of her evening to support new TLs in my course.  My friend Joanie (a retired TL) helped me immensely when we were both in the Teacher-Librarianship via Distance Learning program with U of A. She patiently taught me how to do proper APA citations. TLs are also great conversationalists and (usually) attentive listeners. They are (in general) intellectually curious and eager to continue learning. Joanie and I both teach TL courses for Queen's, and she shared so many ideas and resources. We are both keen to embark on a project so we can work together and invigorate graduate-level scholarship in the field. Wendy Burch Jones and I drove to Wendy Kaell's party together and we couldn't help but "talk shop". As OSLA president, Wendy has some ambitious plans for helping the state of school libraries. TLs are action-oriented people; they like to get things done! TLs can be counted on to give good book recommendations even if they are in casual social settings. When Kim and Wendy (both TLs) and I went to lunch, the book titles mentioned peppered the conversation. TLs are good researchers, friendly, and good connectors. It turns out that our server and the sous-chef at the restaurant we ate at were former students of Kim's, and they had nothing but positive memories of "Ms. McNaughton" (her maiden name). TLs also seem to have good memories. I can't believe some of the things my friends remember from the past. 

This doesn't mean that I only have or want TL friends. Some of my other friends are "TL adjacent". I exchanged a few nice emails this weekend with GamingEdu alum Andy Forgrave. He's super-organized like a TL might be and is a great resource and source of stories himself. I had a short but sweet picnic in a local park with some members of my teaching staff.

Some of my other friends have nothing to do with education, so they ensure I don't exist in an echo chamber. My husband had "the boys" over for some gaming on the weekend. 

Either way, it's great to have friends and great to have friends that are TLs.

The ABCs of Early August

 Sometimes it's hard to tie in multiple topics into a single blog post. Today's entry works alphabetically.

A = AML Think Tank

On August 1, the members of the executive board of the Association for Media Literacy met for their annual Think Tank. I enjoy this get-together for several reasons. It's always held in-person, and there's something special about gathering together in the flesh. Even when we are chatting informally prior to any established agenda, we are "doing" media literacy. One of our newest members, Sarah, brought this really cool adult Happy Meal box and we all loved passing it around and remarking about all the great discussion possibilities. I brought my Portugal scrapbook and people really looked intently at how it was set up and my choice of photos. (Why do I always pick pictures of Karen Ambrosh eating food?) The meeting itself was very productive and helped set the stage for the upcoming year.

B = Baltimore

My husband and I took a mini-vacation to his hometown of Baltimore (although technically we were in Baltimore County) for a few days. If you recall, last year, we took a 3-day trip to Huntsville between my AQ responsibilities. My husband doesn't like to travel as much as I do, but he agreed to use the Civic Holiday weekend to visit his mom with me. We just went to Maryland in March of this year, so it's only been a few months since our last jaunt. The focus, in addition to the familial time together, was for crab. 

My relationship to crab is a fascinating one, and shows that time and influence can alter even the hardest opinion. I used to intensely dislike crabs. When my hubby and I were engaged and I first visited his family, they bought a bushel of crabs for us to eat, and I didn't partake. I found it yucky. Even the favored spice of Maryland, Old Bay, was gross to me. As my husband tells it, many years afterwards, during one of our summer vacations to see his family, I asked to try one of his fried jumbo lump crab cakes and discovered that I actually liked the taste. Now, I'm more crab-crazy than he is. I ate:

• crab fries and a crab cake from Conrad's for dinner on Friday
• a crab cake dinner from the Double T Diner on Saturday
• Chesapeake Benedict (eggs benedict with crab) for breakfast on Sunday AND crabby tots (potato tots smothered in crab imperial and cheese) and a crabby pretzel (a huge soft pretzel covered in cheese and crab imperial sauce) from Red Brick Station on Sunday
• a crab cake from Casa Mia on Monday (with some Chicken Chesapeake Pasta we bought to take with us and eat tomorrow!)

crab from Conrad's

crab from the Double T Diner

crabby tots from Red Brick Station

the sign in our hotel

crab from Casa Mia

C = CNE Job Fair

I was tempted to use the C for crab, but I wanted to mention something that happened just the day before August began. My son is still looking for employment, and he applied for work at the Canadian National Exhibition. He was given a link to register for tickets to a job fair on July 31. This event actually made the news, because 37 000 people showed up to this fair, even though there were only 5 000 jobs available. (You can read about it here from Now Magazine, from CBC, from CP24, and from BlogTO.) He lined up at 11:00 am and at 3:00 pm he threw in the towel and left, frustrated and discouraged. This is a terrible situation. My son, and many other young adults like him, are eager and willing to do almost any job, but despite the signs claiming that businesses are hiring, they aren't. When I was young, our teachers used to tell us to do well in school, otherwise we'd "end up working at McDonalds". Now, it'd be a dream come true for my son to be able to snag a job at McDonalds. How times have changed. Doing well in school and earning a diploma or degree does not guarantee you a job. I hope I'll have better news to share related to my youngest one's quest for a paying position. 

(This is a photo of me finishing my "Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults" book and making a serious dent in my "Education for the Age of AI" book while waiting for my son at the CNE grounds. I "took notes" by taking photos of pages I thought made good points. My shoes were super-cute but gave me bad blisters!)

So, even though it's August, there's lots of learning going on. This coming week, I begin teaching 4 TL AQs for York, and the following week, I start taking my ESL Part 2 AQ as a student with Queen's. My activities during those first few days of August show that learning can be social, unexpectedly transformative, and challenging.