Teachers

Just finished Frank McCourt's autobiographical book The Teacher Man. It was an interesting insight into a teacher's mind. He was one of those inspirational teachers kids remembered after they've grown up. So many stories of students' lives that affected him. And it shed some light on his own education journey as a Trinity doctoral candidate.

Teachers that stand out in my student career are Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Morrell. Mrs. Nichols was my Grade 3 teacher who introduced us to the boy wonder detective Encyclopedia Brown who always seemed to crack such challenging cases and C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (when the cartoon version came out). She also recognized I needed a bit of an extra hand in the language side of things (Note: Cantonese was technically my mother tongue ... I've been told I learned my basic English from Sesame Street prior to entering kindergarten). She also was there one who assigned me extra 'homework' to help me improve my comprehension skills. Mrs. Morrell was my Grade 7 Science teacher. The most patient, encouraging and gentle person - ever. She somehow made science interesting. She encouraged me to open up and speak what was on my mind.

In high school, Mr. Kroiter's Social Studies and English classes were always entertaining and educational. He had a good sense of humour and knew how to handle kids. He once transformed the yardstick into the sword Hamlet used. He was hip enough to get the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet, too.

I've been to three universities, too. And there are memorable profs, of course. History Prof. Pitsula had a photographic memory. That or he memorized all his notes and students' faces with flashcards. Never did see him look at a piece of paper while lecturing. While knowledge of Canadian history was impressive, his interest was infectious. To help bring the history to life, he would bring in clips ... such as Tommy Douglas giving a campaign speech. Broadcast 101 ... CBC's Vinyl Cafe host Stuart McLean taught us the basics of radio reporting. He had a wicked sense of humour and was such an inspiration to us green j-school students. 502 Classification of Information Prof Davies made cataloging fun!

These teachers cared about their students and imparted more than just curriculum and book knowledge. Like McCourt, they helped students develop their potential in preparation for a journey called life.

Day One

Phew!

Made it through the first day of work relatively smoothly. It was a pretty relaxed first day. Got up about 7 a.m. even though the alarm was set at 6.30 a.m. (groan). Sharon and I just caught the bus as it was arriving shortly after 7.30 a.m. (perfect timing!) (side note: Sharon is my friend whom I was one of her bridesmaids last year and I'm also staying with her these days. :)

So, it took about an hour to get downtown to work from her place. Thankfully I'll only have to do this four a couple of weeks. When I get moved into my new place (only four or five subway stops away from work), I should be able to sleep in a bit ...

Anyhow, timing was perfect at work, too. As I headed into the main building, I ran into my supervisor. She happened to be going into work early. So, she took me to security to get my photo ID badge, and brought me upstairs. I got a quick tour and lots of materials to read (re: cataloging, union and cbc general stuff). In the afternoon, it was all about cataloging. Not too bad for the first run. Also got to meet my other supervisor (for reference) near the end of the day. I'll get to work with him next week after I master cataloging ... *right*.

I was a bit apprehensive about cataloging since I hadn't done it ... well, since I did descriptive cataloging in Winter 2006. My first attempt wasn't too bad. Mind you, they don't expect perfection the first go around (thankfully).

The co-workers are all friendly. They're all willing to pitch in ... and answer questions and help out. It's very collegial. My cubicle neighbours get to work on things like the documentary side of The National, Venture, Marketplace .... Children's programming! It's a pretty laid back atmosphere, which I really appreciate. And, to top things off, there was a bag full of leftover Hallowe'en candy on the "snack" table. :D

Funny thing ... I ran into one of my former first-year roommates at Ryerson. She works in the library, too. Also, I saw a former j-school classmate in the newsroom. Small world!

So far, things are off to a good start!

biodegradable bags and thoughts on being green

When the cashier at Mountain Equipment Co-operative (MEC) asked if I wanted a plastic bag for my newly purchased sling-style bag, she said, "Do you want to add to your collection of bags?" (note: I had three other plastic bags full of groceries), I reluctantly agreed to take yet another one.

What I didn't realize was this MEC bag was biodegradable. This concept is very environmentally friendly. Growing up in my household, or family always used plastic bags from stores to collect our refuse. So having biodegradable plastic bags (if they are used as garbage bags) would be ideal. But I wonder what the shelf life of these bags are. Suppose the store doesn't use that many bags (as the disclaimer on the bag actually discourages its consumers from using additional bags), then what if they ordered too many bags? Are these bags ... garbage?

Earlier that day, I went grocery shopping with a friend in Chinatown. She opted to use a cloth bag to tote around her food purchases. Her cloth bag brought back memories of my mother, who being the pragmatic chinese seamstress she was, made bags for us when we were kids ... bags for library books, bags for ballet gear, for example. When Superstore started charging a per bag fee, she sewed several large cloth bags to use. I guess she was environmentally friendly way before it was fashionable.