The Stuff...

Hello there people, dudes n foxy ladies..what is a happening in the wonderful world of Robert Reid Hawley esquire? Well not too too much today, a day off and stuff..finishing up some Education 4673 today while its nice out.. had to re-submit my lesson plan for module 7....my last one was way too advanced for the learners and well i just have to make it more simple that's all..keep it simple Mr Hawley!!! When i was teaching overseas in South Korea, my young learners, especially a group i had that were around ten to eleven years of age had very good writing skills, however their conversational skills were lacking, what they did not get enough of in their daily lives was conversational english, especially at home. During our forty minutes of class time i did alot of pair work with the children, either in groups of two or more and i gave them dialogue from their books and had them act out the dialogue in front of the class. We did alot of listen and repeat of certain words and i had each student come up to the whiteboard to spell the new words and say the word to the class. What i had hoped to accomplish was to give the students as many new words as possible and for them to incorporate it into everyday speaking.

My new chapter is on "Assessment and Evaluation" and so far so good.. What i like about it is that the new chapter is touching on old school beliefs that still stand today at almost all levels of education... Teachers find it difficult to do away with the following; teachers give exercises and essays for students to imitate. If that is the entire teacher does, then they are hampering creativity on the part of the students. The teacher lists topics on the board and asks the students to choose one and write about it without any preliminary activity before the exercise. Teachers write marginal comments and confuse students. Teachers give comments like improve, rephrase, too vague, too broad or specify....or in other cases they write things that alientate their students alltogether such as...

- “This is no good.”


- “Didn’t you learn anything about writing?”

- “This is a mess.”


This in turn frustrates students instead of helping them....i know it sure as heck used to piss me off..... Teachers use red pencilling and bleed student’s papers to death both figuratively and literally. The classroom malpractices, confuses and disorients the students. With traditional evaluation, the teacher is the only reader for whom the students write. Assessment and evaluation are not the sole responsibility of the teacher. Teachers need to make students realize that their papers are their own property, thus answering the question of ownership. The paper that is marked and scribbled over by the teacher is no longer the student’s property; it becomes that of the teacher....such a no no don't ya think?

How's about my Habs? Beating Ovechkin and the Caps in that first game! Ovechkin without a shot on net! hahahahah! Of course im not planning a Stanley Cup parade yet.... but damn this is one hell of a good start..all three Canadian teams won last night..wouldn't that be Buttman's nightmare? All three Canadian teams going down to the wire? The Habs, Canucks and or Sens? He has got to give up this silly dream of making the NHL the big thing in America and let some of those teams swimming in red ink come run for the boarder so to speak..im sure Quebec City and Winnipeg wouldn't mind having franchises back...

Last weekend was pretty fun took a trip to Black Rock..actually there are two Black Rock's in Nova Scotia and both have famous lighthouses with the other very close to Peggy's Cove... well the smaller one is close to Kentville way and i was up that was Saturday

Oh yeah...saw another one of these too...

I mean...WTF????

Then my travels took me to Hantsport to go see Dressed2Kill a tribute to KISS..a good show, i've seen them a few times now.. it was a small crowd at first, but more trickled in as the night went on..was funny watching some dude in a Gilligan hat do a drunken dance the whole night...(I believe he was cut off...) and a highlight was seeing Peter Criss..well the drummer who looks alot like Peter Criss singing "Beth" as a solo..overall a good time..

While i was in Hanstport i noticed a cool looking antique store...Red Fox Antiques i believe it was called...definitly a must for next time i am down that way.. well the pictures tell the story, or at least some of it, but any place that has Darth Vader, Pee Wee Herman, The Iron Sheik, Pachinko Machines, Slots etc etc in the window is definitly worth a Robb Hawley visit for future consideration...

Would be cool if this guy worked there...

So i did make a trip over to the Mall...yes when im not working i actually made a trip there to pick up Slash's solo album..but they were all sold out..looks like a solid affair with Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Lemmy, David Grohl, Iggy Pop as well as the rest of the old GnR gand except for Axl making an appearance..so as a substitute i picked up for $5.99 the Jake The Snake DVD from a few yrs ago called, "Pick Your Poison" which was an in-depth look at Jake's career with Jake sitting down and chatting about how bad his family life was as a kid, his addictions to drugs and booze..its amazing with all the wrestlers that have passed away and yet Jake is still with us..very amazing..i liked hearing and seeing again his old feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Rick Rude, Steve Austin (The whole 3:16 thing) and Jerry Lawler, which pissed Jake off because it got personal over booze comments by the King.. it should be interesting to see Jake on May 2nd here in Canning at the Gloosecap Arena..

Finally before i go i have to touch on the whole Graham James thing...i was totally appalled at hearing that this slimeball was granted a pardon back in 2007...how did this slip under the radar? This slim sexually assaulted two teens, including Sheldon Kennedy and recently Theo Fleury has come forward and revealed that James molested him in junior as well and there are probably scores of speculated others who just haven't found the courage to come forward yet.. another real shining example of Canada's parole board..its really sickening folks to think that this thing is out walking the streets... hate for this guy is so bad that The Calgary Flames organization has digitally altered a picture of James taking him out of a team photo with the  Calgary Hitmen that hangs in the Saddledome... im stunned..im really stunned that they would just let this thing be free on the streets...what is our country coming to? I think Don Cherry said it best when he stated, "'I'd have drawn and quartered the son of a bitch!"

Anyways folks..that's all for now..have a good one..