SOME COMMENTS ON LOSING

    In the American election one has to lose and one has to win. Losing is never very easy

    I would rarely put my name up for an election. I could not handle the experience of losing. Now all my life I have participated in organizations but very few times did I go through an election process. I was appointed to the local library board. I served on many teacher committees and executive. I loved salary negotiations but I guess many didn't like negotiating because is was sometimes difficult to get a whole committee. Again I attended the provincial teacher's association conference. It was an experience that gave me many skills in leadership and debate. I once argued for a motion that didn't even make it to the floor for a vote!. I enjoyed these activities but they were never things that I had to run in an election.

    Now some people look at a position and for various reasons, they want the position. People have issues that they would like to push forward. So what I'm talking about here is politics. Some people have a "fire in the belly" and they want to be elected.

    People win election but then they have to be prepared to step down or lose an election. People have to  be prepared to compromise on many issues. When an issue is seen in black and white things are going to be difficult. One guy loses. One guy wins. Through compromise and negotiation we can sometimes get the best of two worlds or at least find a situation that is acceptable to both sides. 

     That sad issue is being very poorly played out the U.S. Trump cannot understand why he losing. ( I can't understand how anybody could vote for him.) I can understand Trump not liking to lose. However , when the people say we're finished with you. You have to go. Somehow the message should get through that you've lost. 

     With some very nasty protests going on it looks like quite a few people do not quite get the reality of losing.

   

RIVERBEND

       In the mid 80's our government set up a province wide park system. Much parkland was set aside in our city. Many facilities were built. The one I like best is the trail system . There are many km of paved trails. There are lesser used trails that are gravel. Many of the photos on this blog were taken in this park system.

     I rode about 47000 km on these trails over the years. 

    What I do most now in these parks is bird watch.

     Saturday we went to Riverbend. Riverbend is actually a golf course along the river. There is a trail along the river and the course is set back a 100 meters from the river so there is native habitat to walk through. So we see water fowl and boreal species at the same time.

     Saturday we saw 15 species of birds and a least weasel. 

     The highlight was swans . We only have swans during migration. We also saw a great blue heron which is somewhat late to e here.

     So we saw: common raven, black-billed magpie, mallard, trumpeter swan, blue jay, buffle head, golden eye, red head, Canada geese, scaup, white breasted nuthatch, boreal chickadee, downy woodpecker, great blue heron, black capped chickadee. 

   These are the swans visiting us.

  

  This photo is roughly the same place as the photo in my header. The header photo was taken in July and the photo shown was taken Oct. 31.

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    Photo bombed by a ring billed gull.

WE ALL FALL DOWN

  Ring around the rosie 

A pocket full of posie

Husha husha 

We all fall down

    I played this little ditty with my own kids and many others. The boys loved it and were very creative in making a fall, rolling around on the floor and having great fun. 

     Well, I fell yesterday and I wasn't playing ring around the rosie. And it wasn't fun.

     My fall was inelegant and totally uncontrolled. I did a real face plant. I more or less fell like a tree . I did not bend. My face  hit the floor first (face plant) . My glasses went flying and I grazed my check. Other than that I'm fine.

     Yes the micro manager found my glasses . I forgot I was wearing glasses. The Micro Manager didn't show up for a while. She thought I'd dropped my weights. When she came by I was sitting on the tub with a cold face cloth on my eye and cheek. Then she wondered what happened.

    Now before you get going, my place is pretty safe as far as preventing senior falls is concerned. I realize falls are very hazardous to seniors. That's why I quit cycling, skating and cross country skiing last year. I always said even if I fell on the floor I would hurt myself let alone flying off my bike.

   Why are seniors so vulnerable? I always say that my head is on the ground before my brain knows that I'm falling. Add to that a whole lot of other senior disabilities.

    So I was fortunate and had no injury. I think I sort of got light headed for a few seconds , tripped over my feet and fell. 

    Now in looking up the ring around the rosie rhyme I learned something. The nursery rhyme refers to the great plague. Apparently there was a very prominent ring around the eyes when people had the disease. Fall down refers to people as they die. 

SCHOOL DAYS

      As I said a the the start  of this series , there were several hats to wear in telling about my education. Sometimes it switched from student to teacher to just a kid in the same post.

     Even though I was a classroom teacher for 37 years I have a healthy skepticism about some of the things that go on in education. 

     When I was finishing Gr. 12 we had to fill out a form for the exams we wished to write . In that way, the powers that be, knew how many exam copies to send out and then there was less risk of extra copies circulating.

     As I was carefully filling out the form so that I would get all my exams , the teacher came along and said , "Why don't you order the exam for Agricultural Economic?" What? Write an exam for a course I didn't take? The teacher told me that I should get the exam and on the day to write the exam , I could look at it. If I thought I might be able to pass it I would write it. If I thought it was too hard I could get up and leave the examination room. The teacher told me that he thought I had a good chance of passing the exam as I was a farm kid and followed news on agriculture. I was also active in 4H.

     Well you know the rest of the story. The exam came and I wrote it and got a good mark that increased my average.

     So there's my learning things that are out of the classroom!

    So my skepticism is this. There is something wrong with the curriculum if somebody can pass an exam and get credit for  course they didn't take. So over many years I realized that in some cases we did not teach much. I 'm not worried about teaching a whole lot of facts but teaching skills that help a student to evaluate, analyze and make judgments. With world events and elections right now, I don't think we got these skills got across to the students.

THIS IS A GREAT IDEA

     I was reading Steve's blog      this morning when he casually described school interviews being conducted on Zoom. Immediately I said WOW! What a great idea! 

     Now I was a teacher and we had parent teacher interviews regularly. Well, not in the very olden days. Interviews were a marathon. We went from 9 to 9. It was a long stressful day. You'd get home about 10:00 PM and be shaking. 

     I encouraged kids to attend interviews with their parents. Then the kid knew what both teacher and parent said. Sometimes a kid got beat up when there was just a parent. Sometimes there was an argument when the parent went home if the student didn't attend the interview. I wanted both parent and student to go way with a positive attitude. 

     Now I'm not sure how Steve's school did interviews but I can see some definite advantages. The logistics would be much easier. You wouldn't have parents racing to the school for interviews. Scheduling could be much easier. The parent could attend the interview from the office. Just think how this would help reduce greenhouse gas. The parent and student could be in their own home. Preparations could be made and students work and marks on display. This would  be much quieter as there wouldn't be people running around the school. A parent with two students may have 10 in interviews to attend. Hey, even the teacher could be at home. 

    We keep wondering what changes covid might make to our society. This to me is a good change and I hope it continues after covid. Some technology is being developed and improved so that work can be done from home and in other off site places. 

    

SOME CORRECTIONS

     From some of the comments I got the idea that  some people felt sorry for me because of the hardships faced. There were challenges but I didn't hurt myself . I was a poor student. I was incredibly lazy. I skillfully got by doing the least possible. 

      I did my work except for one time that I remember and my friends will never let me forget it.

     In Gr. 11 English we had a novel to study. Since there was very little teacher time, he wrote questions on the board for each chapter and we were supposed to write answers for the questions. No checking of the work...almost no checking. I did not do any of the questions. I faithfully copied every question in my book but wrote not one answer. One day about 11:50 the teacher decided to take a look in our books at the questions and how we were doing. Everybody knew I hadn't done anything. There was an air of tension. The kids were all waiting for me to get caught . It would be a lot of fun to see me get caught.  So the teacher started at the front of my row and started checking. He was checking the student in front of me. Just then the bell rang for noon. I remember some of my buddies couldn't believe my good luck of not being checked. They've never let me forget this incident.

     At the end of the year I would bring all my school stuff home and Mom told me to put it in the closet. I would come home and she would tell me to sort out what I didn't want and put it on the floor. I would come home a few months later and everything had been put back in the closet.

     So my brother had the same teacher and novel study. My brother wanted to take a shortcut so he decided to get my book and copy the answers! Guess what. There were no answers for him to find. 

     So I wasn't exactly an angel. Math was checked every day. The teacher would ask each student for an answer. If something was wrong the teacher would explain the concept. Now I was pretty good in math . I did learn to factor trinomials. Does anybody remember trinomials? Does anybody remember how to factor trinomials? Does anybody remember what trinomials are for.? Has anybody ever used a trinomial since they left school? But I did my math.

     So I was good sometimes and bad sometimes. However I don't need sympathy. I  had the opportunity and got there.

    Now I have all my report cards. Do you know why? You guessed it. Mom kept them all. I will not copy one report card to show you my marks. 

THE LITTLE SPRUCE TREE

      I saw this little spruce tree this morning.