Filed under: Personal
I just spend a very enjoyable 5 days spending time with my family away from anyone we know. Between teaching, coaching basketball with my oldest playing on the team, my youngest playing hockey and his team going all the way to winning provincials, and taking this class; there hasn’t been a lot of family only time. Before Christmas (knowing winter was a busy time for our family), Jeanette (my wife) and I decided a family holiday would be a good idea. The four of us hadn’t really gone anywhere together in a couple of years. We decided to go to Toronto and catch the pro teams there, and check out some other highlights of the area. It was a full trip. On Tuesday we went to Wayne Gretzky’s restaurant and later that night watched the Toronto Maple Leafs play hockey (well that’s what it’s called, not that they played it well!) at the Air Canada Center. Wednesday saw us take in the Hockey Hall of Fame and then that night the Toronto Raptors play basketball (now they played the game the way it was meant to be played!). Thursday saw us venture out to the Niagara Falls. It was a site to see, but in reality it really wasn’t as big as I had imagined. Like food commercials late at night, pictures really do make it look better. It was neat though. Finally on Friday, a tour of the CN Tower was the last tourist site to check over. I, being quite afraid of heights, stayed on the ground while the others marvelled at the amazing structure. For those of you shouting “what about the shopping?!”, yes that happened too. The Eaton’s Center downtown is huge! The factory outlet shops at Niagara Falls had many good deals as well. There were many other little things that were enjoyed such as the subway, Younge Street, traffic!, and the massive amounts of people. We even saw a guy get chased down and arrested for trying to steal 2 cases of Red Bull from a grocery store.!
Overall the trip was quite enjoyable. We really enjoyed our time together. Toronto is quite the place. Traffic is bumper to bumper non-stop. People are everywhere. It really makes you appreciate home. It’s a fast-paced life, and myself, I like the even-keeled pace of life here in Saskatchewan. It’s good to experience places like Toronto. I know it opened the eyes of my boys. Dorothy had it right though…there’s no place like home.
Filed under: ECI 831
Well the time has come to open up my site for my major digital project. It is taking shape, but has yet to be finished. It is for this reason that I have dubbed it my 3-headed monster.
I started out with the idea that I could develop a wiki and make a unit for a colleague in her Visual Arts 30 class. Now, I’m not saying the idea wasn’t good, just that it was much more massive than I anticipated. First there was the discussions as to what would be put on the site. From the list of ideas my colleague and I came up with, we started gathering information and forming the work for the assignments. There were many things that had to be transformed from paper to digital. It was in this area that I had trouble keeping control of what could be done. There are lots of good ideas, but it had to be kept under control. Hence the monster association. I’m sure as the unit is used and ideas are tried, things can be added. For now I have finally learned that I can’t do everything and that time is not on my side.
The development of the wiki and how everything would be added came to be the next challenge. Making it look, feel, and act how I wanted to was not always easy. I was limited in my abilities (or lack of html abilities to be more accurate) to do everything I wanted. Eventually, I had to settle on the set up as I found I could fiddle myself to death! It is amazing how much time can be spent on fussing over little things.
One other obstacle that I hadn’t counted on was the difficulty of collaborating. Organzing ones own time is often a challenge. Organizing time of two busy teachers is another. Though we managed to find time, more could have been used. Throw in this Easter break, and it was tougher to keep things moving. We’ll find enough time for the home stretch, but it may require some late nights for me. For now the main foundation is laid. Now I have to get the rest of the building organized into a well-rounded project.
