Masochistic Perceptions, Trials and Truths

These are my cyberfied cerebral synapses ricocheting off reality as I perceive it: thoughts, opinions, passions, rants, art and poetry...

Friday, September 08, 2006

Reflecting on Week One of My New (resumed) Career


Just reflecting on my first full week of Teaching over a wee dram of Glen Breton (a 10 year old scotch and the only single malt made in Canada) before turning out the lights and laying down my head. Of course reflection is a big part of teaching. When one stops reflecting, like any professional, you know that you are becoming habituated and it’s time to hang ‘em up.

As a side note, I forewent this evenings return match of the CFL’s Labour Day Classic football game between my beloved-but-on- the- ropes Edmonton Eskimos and arch rivals, Calgary Stampeders (Edmonton won it apparently with a second remaining), to attend an MFC (our small-time version of the UFC) fight card. It was interesting looking at all the testosterone charged lads with their tats and shaved heads trying to look the part of a tough guy, alongside the overly produced chicks. Of course this is only a portion of the crowd, but so not much my kind of crowd. I’m more at ease with the granola book reading lot, never truly comfortable around jox in spite of my previous Rugby career. I find the sex aspect of sport in general to be an unnecessary and pathetic diversion from what the true passion should be about whether it’s ring girls or cheerleaders at a football game. Bringing this back to teaching, it’s amazing to see how 12 and 13 year old girls are dressing the part, leaving me to wonder about the life that they might lead as some man’s ornament. Some say that sex is power for women, and there is credibility in that. The problem is that most of these girls, in my opinion anyway, don’t understand this power.

I also realise this evening that my heart really isn’t in competing in any pugilistic pursuits. In a nutshell, I’m turning 38 pretty soon and pretty much every joint hurts all the time and I’m always getting niggling injuries to my shoulders in particular. I enjoy my boxing because it’s a lot like running or weight training – I go and do my thing. Sparring will be a fun addition to this. That said, my wrists are constantly aching. In spite of wrapping them well before each session, I do tend to wail the heavy bag with considerable fever. I certainly intend to keep up with boxing, but still I am left searching for something in my life.

One of my teaching colleagues inspired me the other day when he was telling me that a few years ago he a few friends started a band for the hell of it, even though none of them really played any instruments with proficiency. I’m constantly contemplating taking guitar lessons. I have taught myself to play to a degree, but I’m no guru. Music has always been a big part of my life. I sang in a punk rock band, Ick on Fish, back in the early 1980’s and was part of the same scene as the guys in Sloan and Sarah McLaughlin – they were just folks who I hung around with on occasion…who would’ve thunk it, eh? In fact, Brad Conrad, Ick on Fish guitarist, now plays guitar for Matt Mayes and El Torpedo, not to mention our bassist Glenn Coolen who is an accomplished architect and bagpiper. Me, in my youth, could pull off a vocal style that fell somewhere between Joey Shithead of D.O.A. and Henry Rollins. I’m a bit old for that now. Ideally, I think I’d be happiest jamming in a band along the lines of the Pogues, Tossers or Mahones. Sadly, I now live in cowboy country, and, being from Nova Scotia, always tell folks that I’m a Celt, not a cowboy! Nova Scotia go bragh!

Amazing, isn’t it, how my mind digresses from teaching this week into my own learnings and goals? Can you tell that I’m a Social Studies and Language Arts teacher?! Teaching, right. Stay on task….

My first day was rough, my second, easier. Now I feel that I’ve pretty much found my legs and save for administrative duties and the one class that I am teaching in Mathematics, life is very good indeed. I’m developing some very good relationships with my students and see a whole lot of potential in them. It’s been a long but good week and I feel confident that I am where I need to be in terms of my career path. Now let’s hope that I am able to sustain this enthusiasm/momentum so that they renew my contract next Fall! Who knows, by then I might have figured myself out! Alas, I am a living identity crisis!

Cheers!

1 Comments:

  • At 3:34 p.m. , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Can't help but direct you to today's Pearls Before Swine, little rat that I am...While speaking of myself as on today's Ballard Street. Comical life, but you are too busy really working now to worry about the rats and cockroaches in the info-hiway being run over by Bush-league political hacks

     

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