New Year's Resolutions?

Since I never seem to be able to keep my New Year's resolutions (they tend to be the complete opposite of what I've planned to do), I have devised a simple method that hopefully address this issue! If not, at least I was able to keep my resolutions this year. =)

1) Gain 20 pounds
2) Not get a job
3) Don't graduate from school

Three main "resolutions" for this year!

Overall, 2012 has been a pretty standard year. It had its ups and downs. I had quite the number of accidents this year, but I managed to meet a bunch of new people as well! =)

Eitherway, Happy New Year! Hopefully 2013 will be awesome! =)

I used to like Winter Break more than Summer Break...

But I will have to change my mind on that matter. I used to like winter break more since I had a strong hatred for the intense sunlight at sunset during the summer. My workspace has a window that faces west, and I don't have any houses/buildings to block the incoming rays. My blinds don't do it justice either. =/

However, there isn't much I do during winter break since I can't really go out in the cold (scared of contracting frostbite again!) I've stayed home once again without doing anything exciting. I think I may get cabin fever at this rate....

Good thing tomorrow is Bro Night!

Now onto something mildly exciting. I've completed Rowling's novel today. Overall, it was a great read. Essentially, it seemed to be a tragic novel since a lot of things went horribly wrong at the end where a problem escalated to the death of two individuals. As an ironic twist though, a couple of the characters that started out miserable had a "decent" ending.

It was no Harry Potter in terms of fantasy, and I think it was a bit too pessimistic for my tastes. However, it was an intriguing story with good character development. 4/5 stars out of my self-made rating scale with nothing to compare it to!

Boxing Day 2012

I woke up too late (around 10 AM) to cash in on the deals today, but it's okay. I'm broke this month from spending too much money. =(

Once again, I began my day by reading Rowling's book. I have to say that it's getting more interesting as the story progresses, but it makes me lose hope for humanity. It's definitely a lot darker than the Harry Potter series. Everybody seems so selfish in the book!

After some LoL, I had some work to do. I couldn't finish all my work today, but I'll have time tomorrow to work on it! =)

Hmm... no picture today. Too lazy =P

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

To those that celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas! To those that do not celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays!

It has been quite a relaxing Christmas Day. I spent the day reading and playing Zelda, with a touch of LoL on the side. I got to level 28 today! Two more levels to go!

Here's a piano-vocal live version of My Grown Up Christmas List, sung by Ailee!

May the rest of 2012 be merry for you. =)

Week Long Break

I took a break from blogging for a while since nothing really interesting happened to me over the past couple of days. I went out a bit and had loads of time to play LoL, but that was pretty much it. Oh, and I guess I survived the "end of days" apocalypse that the Mayan's have predicted, but it turned out that it was just an end of an era! Good thing I didn't spend like crazy or do something totally out of the blue =P.

As for Christmas Eve today, I spent the day playing Zelda on my brother's 3DS. It's the first time I've played Ocarina of Time. Due to the difficulty of finding the correct viewing position, I've been playing it in "2D" instead of 3D.

I've just completed the Fire dungeon, and now onto the water dungeon!

credits: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuLSZY55KaViwtl1qbLkRFO6sgvG8hjyDDlTFkT0TE387yU2upjWGqa4TsZi8DKL1O4uOZG2-vAJYC8a7em2tmGaJ2UfiTWHDObCz0ZUA8sbjcI9yzVoXQGp5OvkrW2Zc21_D-ME_WOeqk/s1600/zelda-ocarina-of-time-3ds-box-art.jpg

Weekend Break

May those souls rest in peace. Such an event is starting to become to common place. =(

My weekend so far, has been games games and more games. Nothing really exciting, so I won't bore you readers to death. Starting tomorrow though, I'll need to go out and get some exercising in. I'm starting to feel my waistband again...

Bison Striploin at Smuggler's Inn

For Bro Night tonight, we went to Smuggler's Inn to eat. I always enjoyed going to Smugglers since they have large portions and all you can eat salad and soup!

Talking about my main meal, I had the bison Striploin. I got it medium rare, but it was a tad bit chewy still. The cranberry sauce on top though was pretty delightful; a little bit of tart, but a bit of sweetness as well.

For $40ish dollars after tips and taxes, I was quite satisfied. I made sure to eat a lot of salad, soup and bread to try and make up the price of my bison Striploin =P

New School and Musical

Yesterday, I went to go see a brand new school that opened in September since my first practicum teacher was working there. She showed me around the school when I arrived. During the tour, I noticed how this building had really wide hallways (or maybe the students were so small that the hallways seemed wide...) Either way, the school was so nice and clean. After the tour, I went into her classroom and observed students working on an interdisciplinary inquiry project. They were making Ruberg Machines (the one where one thing leads to another thing, leads to another thing... like the one where you roll a marble down the thingamobable... I think you get the drift!) They were integrating science (simple machines), math (data collection), language arts (poems about their work) and social studies (renaissance period). I was amazed at how complex some of their projects were and how they had really efficient problem solving skills. For example, one student told my first practicum teacher during his interview (they were interviewed on their project) how it took him many tries to get the marble down a spiralling ramp by making adjustments like adding a wall (so the marble doesn't fall off the ramp), or angle the spiral to slow down the ball. I remember standing there amazed that students could come up with these things! An engineer in the making I say!

I pretty much spent my entire morning observing many different projects. All were simply amazing. I couldn't think of one project that lacked some kind of "amazing factor".

As for today, I went back to my second practicum teacher's school (FFCA... even though I call it my third practicum. It's my second assigned practicum teacher). They had dress rehearsals for Wonderland... which I was supposed to play in. (Still feel slightly guilty about it). From what I remember, there are 4 different casts (2 grade 11 casts and 2 grade 12 casts). Today, I got to witness one of the grade 11 casts perform. Of course, there were some glitches but overall, I was very impressed with the musical. It's amazing how busy young students have the time to come together and practice when they have finals/diplomas coming up! The band, (consisting of the piano, drum set and bass guitars) did an excellent job accompanying the singers. I have to give props to my replacement (a student that I swear looks like somebody in my former Bio class) for learning the pieces quickly!

And that's that!

Practicum Experience at FFCA

I'll probably be busy playing LoL tonight so I better write my blog now!

It has been an enjoyable four weeks at FFCA High School campus. I have to say initially that I was scared of entering a charter school. I didn't know what to expect since I never been in a charter school before! All I knew was that the charter school didn't follow the charter/mandate/whatever-its-called that the CBE had. Also, it was a bit shocking to see everyone wearing uniforms at school. I've seen tons of teacher-based dramas that had students wearing uniforms, but this was something new in a Western society-based classroom.

Throughout the four weeks though, I've became accustomed to seeing students wearing uniforms. Sure, not all students adhered to the uniform standard, but for the most part, it became normal to me. It was odd to see students not in uniform during Casual Friday though! It was like I walked into a different high school!

Now onto the teaching/learning environment. Valley Creek Middle School was big on inquiry. FFCA on the other hand was more direct-teaching (something that I grew up with). It was very odd to be immersed back into an environment I'm so familiar with when I've been through Valley Creek and courses at the university that promoted inquiry based learning. I see the merits though at a high school level since there's so much material to cover in such a short amount of time. (There were times where I felt like I was dragging my class behind since I would explain some things in too much detail =P). It would be interesting to integrate more inquiry into a high school environment, and something that I wish I can potentially see in my last practicum. Nevertheless, I readjusted myself, and followed the direct-teaching model they had at FFCA. I made sure to apply  everything I learnt at my last practicum, and this practicum, to try and engage students in meaningful learning. That was perhaps the biggest issue I had with my four weeks to keep students engaged. My learning partner and I would try to incorporate fun activities to make learning easier, but these activities took time, which at times we did not have.

What I think I enjoyed the most was how friendly teachers were at the school. They were all very welcoming for they would introduce themselves as they see me walking around the building. I believe I had the chance to become acquainted with almost all of the science teachers and quite a few humanities teachers. There was a gym/science teacher that offered her insight on teaching with the experience she had when we student teachers were pestering her with questions during lunch one day. Other teachers would welcome us to their classrooms and encouraged us to interact with the students. Overall, it was a very warm community of teachers that really make me want to work at the school! Also, the principal took the time to introduce himself to me when I bumped into him in my first week of practicum. During PD, he even asked for our opinions on how the school was running, which really surprised me. I would have never thought that a lowly student teacher could input his opinion on a matter as large as how the school is running!

Overall, it was a pleasant experience at FFCA. I wouldn't say it was better than at Valley Creek, since I really enjoyed both practicums. I have seen two different environments and learned a lot from both of my partner teachers (and my learning partner). I've been lucky so far and had two wonderful practicums. I wonder how my last one is going to shape up...

credit: http://www.viewcalgary.com/Associations/pMacKaySchool.JPG

A picture of what the school building looks like. Since FFCA is a charter school, they can only rent school buildings; not own their own school. 

First Day of Break (Practicum experience tomorrow!)

I neglected to blog for the past couple of days since I was playing LoL. I've been playing mostly support with Soraka. It's a totally different role to what I'm normally used to since I'm usually a bruiser with Riven (or try to damage with Riven).

Today marks my first day of break. I spent the day mostly on working on my website (which the first draft is done) to playing more LoL. I also managed to listen to both moumoon's latest albums. I'm not sure what genre I would put moumoon into, but it's definitely not your main stream pop music!

YUKA (or is it simply Yuka... not sure) is the main vocalist of the duo known as moumoon. She has a soothing voice in my opinion! =)

Cowboy Cut Rib Steak at Cattle Baron

I'll talk about my practicum experience tomorrow (including interviews).

It's been a while since I've last been to the Cattle Baron. I usually don't go here often because I find it to be quite pricey. Anyways, we ordered two appetizers: calamari and short dry ribs. Both were pretty good, but nothing spectacular.

My main meal came, and it was quite huge! The vegetables I had were quite delicious. The mash potato was alright. It's texture was creamy but the taste was a bit bland. The rib steak was cooked rare (I asked for medium rare) to my eyes, but it was still quite edible for me. There was quite a bit of fat, but nonetheless it felt like the meat melted in my mouth.

For $54ish dollars for my entire meal, I was satisfied but I don't think I'll do something like this for a while...

Will blog tmmr about today! Too tired

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Week 4 Wednesday

Only two days (technically 1.5 since I have to leave early on Friday to present at the university) of practicum left! Today was pretty laid back since biology was mostly a work period. My partner teacher had some tricky genetics questions for the students to work on. It took me a while to figure them out myself!

Chemistry was straightforward since we finished our topic on excess and limiting reagents. During this time, my field advisor was observing me for the second time this practicum. Seems like everything went well, so I don't have anything to worry about (well website, presentation this Friday and applying for jobs...)

That's all for today! Parent Teacher Interviews tomorrow!

Fractured after all =(... Week 4 Tuesday

During biol 30, I had a phone call. Since it was in the middle of class, I did not answer. It was a good thing that my phone was on silent!

At lunch, I checked my phone and saw that it was my doctor that called me. Knowing that it meant bad news, I called back with a sense of dread. It turned out that the radiologists determined that the line that my doctor was suspicious about was indeed a fracture. Fortunately though, it is quite small so I don't need a splint. However, I'll be out for about 6 weeks. =/ (Though I don't think 6 weeks will be all that long).

I can't wait to be able to bend my fingers again! It feels so weird keeping them mostly straight for the entire day. I can only curl my fingers slightly before feeling pain. =(

Onto school! It was pretty much an ordinary day. Biology was notes (we managed to finish what we planned for today!) and chemistry had a quiz. During the quiz, we had a chance to visit a Chemistry 30 class and a phys ed.

And now my left index finger is getting tired, so that's all for now!

Hybrid Typer! Final Week Monday

Since my 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers are out of comission on my LH, I can only use my index finger to type (for that hand). My Right hand is okay, so I've been using all my digits for that hand. It is an interesting experience, since my normal typing rhythm is erratic. Things that my right hand types are moving at my normal speed while letters I type with my left hand are drastically slower. I'm prone to making more mistakes when I type like this since I'm not looking at the screen when I type, but I'm starting to get used to this!

Today marks my last Monday at FFCA. The morning starting like any other morning: prep time where I quickly go over what students need to go over in both biology and chemistry. Biology went somewhat well today. I had a mental glitch during a dihybrid test cross (and I just realized how dirty teenagers could be...) but otherwise I believe things went smoothly. I may have spent too much time on dihybrid test crosses, but I hope I was able to drill the point across. My biggest weakness I'm noticing for this practicum is my pacing. I tend to spend to much time going over detail. =(

Chemistry: things were going great! After the class though, I realized that I forgot to give them a review booklet that they can use to study for their quiz tomorrow! =(

I left school early today to go see my family doctor to get my hand assessed. After his prognosis, I was sent to get an X-ray done to see if I did fracture any bones in my hand. At the X-ray center, they gave me a CD with my my X-rays, which I then had to give to my doctor. This was wayyy after the closing time of my clinic, but I went back to his office to see if I could hand in my disc since I don't have much time during the week to make this trip (the X-ray center and his office are in the same building). Luckily for me, the receptionist opened the door and gave the disc to my doctor. My doctor then quickly checked the file on her computer and showed me the images. I have to say that my bones looked really beautiful =)

So according to my doctor's initial... observations... (the word is on the tip of my tongue), everything looks fine (besides the swelling). There may be a small fracture, but it could have just been the shadow of a blood vessel. He'll let me know if the radiologists find something though (they weren't at the X-ray center that afternoon).

So, so far so good! Also, the music teacher knows that I won't be able to play in the musical and she seemed to have found a replacement for me.

And thats all for today... my left hand is starting to feel weird from typing like this...

Bruised and Swollen 

Another hand injury! And what timing...

In Karate today, I managed to injure my hand again. This time, I took a kick to the fingers. We were doing an exercise where we were supposed to block/evade incoming kicks and then counter. This exercise was done where one person stood in the middle (as the defender) while the others formed a circle around him/her. When I played the role as the defender, the first few kicks were fine. Halfway through, I was too slow in blocking with my palm/wrist, so I ended up blocking a kick with my LH fingers...

I ended up with three fingers that I can't bend without feeling pain and with one that is quite swollen. In other words, my left hand is inoperable due to my sprained/swollen fingers. That also means that I cannot play the piano, and thus cannot play in the musical next week.

I have to admit that I feel relieved from the stress I was feeling from the time crunch, but I feel extremely bad for not being able to play. I felt like I let down the people that were counting on me to perform next week. =(

On a happier note, I went to a musical that my learning partner student teacher was in the NW. The show was based on a broadway musical called White Christmas. I was very impressed by the entire musical! The dances were spectacular and the music was lively. I can't say that it was the most original plot, but I still enjoyed the entire thing overall. I even recognized a couple of pieces, such as Blue Skys, and the Grieg Concerto opening they used in one of the pieces.

A picture of my wrapped fingers that another instructor helped me wrap up today.

A Piano Day

I spent about six hours playing the piano today. About an hour's worth of piano playing at the hospital and 5 hours to practice for the musical. I don't recall playing so much in one day! I have to say that I'm feeling pretty exhausted from all that, but I guess it's a good way to increase my stamina and concentration.

I'm starting to feel frustrated with these pieces, but I guess I can only continue to chug my way through! As long as I put in work, I can improve (even if they're just small improvements!). The Mad Hatter song is a lot more difficult than I anticipated due to the intricate rhythm. Thank goodness though that the notes are relatively simple to play. 

I'm exhausted, so off to sleep!