Where’s Hugh?

How should we approach the opening of school in Sept?  Schools of the future need to be rethought.  When I started teaching I wrote a letter from the future to each of my students asking them to attend their 30 year high school reunion. ( I was younger then so I figured 30 years out I would still be able to attend. ) The idea was to get students to picture themselves as adults and to imagine a future they have helped shape. I received wonderful letters from future dentists, artists and millionaires. The return address to the invitation was “School name, Community Learning Support Centre”. In the future of education that I pictured schools would be community spaces that would double as senior learning centres as well as community resource places.  I thought of that this week as I read a proposal in a NYTimes OpEd by Dr. S Jogee, an Astronomy professor and parent, suggesting we make kids stay home this fall if they can access online learning and leave schools open to only t...

Here’s the best line that I’ve read in a while:   “Restaurants get eulogies. Airlines get bailouts. Shakespeare gets kicked when he’s down.” It’s sooo true. Sure says a lot about what we value as a society. I walk a lot with a friend- we start each day off with a 1 hour walk in Earl Bales Park. It’s gorgeous and energizing and I cannot do without it. One morning my walking partner asked me “Is Covid-19 is God’s response to human kind’s hubris?” This is a deeper topic than we typically cover in our morning walks. We usually discuss distance learning/teaching challenges, why dogs should be on leashes, and how gorgeous the forest looks today... But hubris? God? Wait up! It’s too early for this... But as you can tell, the question has stayed with me, because I think it is true: not the God part- but the hubris part. I’m partial to Greek philosophy and the concept of our creating our own circumstances, and I often teach the nature of humankind as seen through literature. So I was d...

The world feels new today; young, and hopeful. It is a gorgeous May Day - but it should have happened earlier- it is a perfect Spring Day and we wonder at it like villagers emerging from our hovels after hiding from marauding armies - we wonder that the earth remembers how to heal and grow.  I went to the Island today, and the wildlife there looks at us visitors as interlopers of their land. That we are. It seems like the winter kept its nails dug in for much longer than normal, but nothing about 2020 is normal. Winter lingered- thankfully so - because it gave us a chance to flatten the curve and the dreary days did not inspire social behaviour distanced or otherwise.  But today! Oh what a day! Today is pathetic fallacy reflecting our hopes,  and we bask in it - afraid we will have to go back inside. Let me stay out just a little longer please... I’m relieved winter is done. I turn, like a sunflower, to warmth to heal me and help me grow.  The final stanza of my son’...

It's been over a month since my last post. We've been living Groundhog Day since then. Nothing new to report. We are surviving - not thriving... Or are we? I teach senior English and I am taking my students through a journey of sorts while reading Shakespeare's Hamlet . It is not an easy piece for students, especially in a distanced learning environment where discussion is challenging, and motivation is in short supply. So, it was with great trepidation that I approached the teaching of Act 3.1 and perhaps the most famous speech ever written. It starts like this "To be or not to be, that is the question:" Maybe you've heard of it (hahaha). We read through it, and then I explained that this speech was beyond a simple consideration of suicide. It is about the point/pointlessness of life. Hamlet is questioning the very value of humanity. He is asking Why live, if living is meaningless? if it lacks purpose? grace? authentic being? Kinda deep. And I was nervous to ...

The Toronto Public Library is now offering Digital Library Cards to anyone who is without a card. Here's the link: TPL Digital Cards Why get a card? Because the TPL has TONS of audiobook, ebooks, films, Magazines, etc. you can borrow for FREE and it is TOUCHLESS!!!! You can also try the SimplyE APP . Borrow from a vast catalogue of Fiction, non-fiction, and Literary books or short pieces of fiction for every taste. You can Download for free at Apple Story or Google Play. It is an Open Source Library Platform that will satisfy every reader without costing a cent!  For Teens there is Tumblebooks.org - free for rest of school year! Great collection of classics as well as Audiobooks! Well Curated for all tastes/levels. Here are some recommendations: If you have wanderlust:  Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert An Embarrassment of Mangos  by Ann Vanderhoof If you need inspiration: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Christina Lamb...

This furniture painting hobby is a blast! I received a new colour I order from Amazon: Laurentian. I wasn't sure when I opened it up. It looked really hospital Green. Fusion Chalk Paint: colour Laurentian The pieces I painted are both Aberfoyle Antique Market Finds I picked up in the Fall. The market is famous and a short drive from Toronto. It been running for almost 60 years and has over 100 vendors making it a great spot for finding pieces to paint. The table with the magazine racks was in need of a good cleaning and one of the racks was missing a bottom which was easily fixed using a few tack nails and a discarded piece of trellis I had in the garden shed.  Tables pre-paint                                                                             ...

Many people have taken on projects at home that were previously put off and so have I.  I have started painting furniture. I really like working with Fusion Chalk Paint. It doesn’t require a base coat and covers well. It is not water proof however. To address this you can get a Fusion sealer if you want a less mat look and a protective coat on your piece.  This is a pic of the chair I took on as my first project: I began with two of them in fact which I brought back from England where I bought them at a thrift shop. I love the shape of the legs, and the back, but hated the colour and the seat material. All was easily fixed, however, as the seat nicely lifted off and I could simply staple a new material over the old- done! Here’s the result: The material is from Ikea - bought sometime ago. The paint colour is fusion: Coal Black.   It’s a new hobby that is extremely satisfying. I’ll show you more finish pieces tomorrow once they dry... A Attachment