This moment

Posted on | September 3, 2010 | 1 Comment

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama .

The trouble with new jobs

Posted on | August 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

Today is my first day of a new job — and I’m exhausted.

Yes, I wanted the job and think it is important to work.

Yes, I applied for the job and brought THREE pages of notes to the interview.

Yes, it has a flexible schedule and allows me to still do mama work more often than the other options.

And, yes it is in my field and in my community and world changing, important work — which is the kind I like the most.

But, I’m tired. Also, there is a part of me that I call “the non-committer” that likes to resist this type of thing. It seems to think that if I commit my time and energy to one area that I will get stuck there and not be able to do anything. I thought about ignoring the non-committer and just trudging though it. But recently, I found that there is someone who actually talks to monsters. She is here. So, I am going to attempt this.

me: Hi there, non-committer.

NC: What are you doing?

me: I’m up and getting ready to work, which at first I get to do in my pyjamas and at home.

NC: Go back to bed.

me: I’d like to talk to you.

NC: Not interested.

me: All the parts and voices of me are important, you’re sometimes annoying. The thing is that if you don’t talk to me, then I’ll have to do some sort of therapy where we find out what you are and work to get rid of you.

NC: Seriously?

me: Yeah.

NC: Let’s talk.

me: I’m excited about this job and think it is going to work for us.

NC: But what about playwriting and drama teaching and knitting.

me: I can still do all that stuff. At first I’ll bunker down, research like crazy, meet people, get grants, get everything going. I’ll knit on breaks. The people I work with also know about the playwriting and the creative drama — so that will be part of it.

NC: You’re being too optimistic, it’s like that time you worked as an accounting assistant and said you would write in the evenings.

me: I did write in the evenings.

NC: Writing deserves more attention than the evenings.

me: I agree. If I’m going to be a writer than this wouldn’t be the right job. But, my degree is in Humane Education, which is my big passion right now. My big passion can change, but I’m choosing this one right now.

NC: Seriously? Isn’t writing a better choice? You had so much fun doing freelance drama work.

me: I can do those things again. This is a contract, it has an end date.

NC: So suffer through it?

me: No, this is what I choose for us right now. I choose this because I think it works for our life right now, and my true passion and talents. I’m excited about this work and working with new people.

NC: It’s a dangerous walk.

me: Non-committer, I think I’m going to get dressed now and start the research — maybe set up a meeting or two.

NC: What? Have I lost?

me: You’re part of me remember? It’s not about winning or losing. Talking to you and acknowledging the fears has helped me see why this new contract is a good and exciting thing instead of a scary thing. I really need to get dressed now. Thank you.

NC: Ummmm.

me: I heard what you said and I see where you are coming from. I think you need a new job too.

NC: Seriously?

me: Yes, we can both do new work today. I’d like for you to stop being concerned about this commitment stuff and start being my “Creative Assessor.”

NC: Sounds important.

me: It is. The Creative Assessor helps me ensure that creativity is still in all my work. Feel free to nag me if I get boring at solving problems or giving information.

NC: I can do that. Do I get to wear a new outfit?

me: Sure, sparkly, shiny, frilly or frump. Your choice.

NC: This is going to be fun.

me: I’m so pleased.

NC disappears and runs off to the dress-up room.

Kerri exits to get dressed, she is excited about her job and eager to start!

Category: creating, my issues
Tags: creativity in work > first day of work > job anxiety > new job > switching careers

This moment

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 3 Comments

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Category: creating, good moments, home
Tags: creatve couples > horror movie > making movie with your partner > making movies > movie making couple

The truth about the 3rd anniversary

Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 3 Comments

~invitation designed by our daughter Julia (age 5) and Dave ~

The truth of the matter is that today is our third wedding anniversary and if I write more than a paragraph I’ll get all cheesy about it. Let’s just say, it’s good. I have an aunt who has dated the same man for over thirty years. They see each other once a week for a date. Their set up seemed ideal to me for a long time. Our marriage has parts of that — we make time for weekly casual dates — but we share a house and a bed and some children. We talk to each other, we watch movies, we eat great food, we challenge each other, we snuggle, we laugh and we make stuff. This is how it works for us. the happy couple across the street probably does it differently. Beyond a mutual respect between partners, there isn’t a magic formula for making it work.

For those readers with a little time on their hands, you can still see our wedding announcement here. WARNING: includes our first video projects with a embarrassment factor of extreme. Seriously, even people who love us can’t watch them.

Category: creating, good moments
Tags: creative couples

How to make a short horror film with your family

Posted on | August 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

Witch mask in progress

We are making a short horror film Pest in our house next weekend and there is a buzz of creativity around it. Our family includes young children which is an extra consideration when making a horror film, this is how we do it.

1. Involve the children in an appropriate way

Pest is a horror film and while we toyed with idea of using Julia as “the witch,” we have a rule/value that says “if we won’t let her watch the final film, she can’t be in it.” Instead of hiding this project from her because it’s not child-friendly, she sees us talking energetically, seriously and creatively about making art. She knows the basic story premise. She has seen the existing costumes and masks and has played around with them — she may be using some for Halloween. Tomorrow she will assist in my thrift store search for props and costumes. She is interested in helping to plan and prepare the food for the weekend.

Since we are sharing the process with her, she is thinking about stories she wants to film. If Julia was five years older, or this was a different script, she would probably be acting or lighting shots or shooting.

2. Be extra supportive to your partner

Film shoots are notoriously stressful and your partner doesn’t need any extra crap in the weeks leading up to the film. In general, loving your partner extra in the weeks (or months) leading up to the work can go a long way. I write plays, which is a solo art for most of the time, until I have the courage to have some readers and directors have a go at it — and I take notes. Writing, directing and shooting your own film takes a crazy amount of confidence and risk. Respect it.

A non-creative partner can be helpful by offering assistance in logistics — like calling actors, scheduling, booking lights and cameras, getting food and drinks, buying props and photocopying.

A creative partner can be helpful by taking their artistic venture seriously. They can read the script and story boards and offer constructive feedback and assistance.

Remember that the support does not end after the shoot. The post-production is time consuming and requires a lot of time, energy and fiddling.

3. Make it a priority

It is really easy to have a film idea, think about making a film and then not take the next step. The film needs to be top priority. It will come up against many types of resistance like:

- finances

- time

- resources

- childcare

- self-doubt

You cannot let these get in the way. Think of creative solutions for costumes, locations and props. Dave has been cutting and painting my mask for the past few evenings — using paints from Julia’s craft box. We’re scouring discount and thrift stores for props and costumes — but also not settling for less than perfect for shoot. If you start early enough, you can get what you need or make it for next to nothing.

Pick a date and stick with it. Nothing gets in the way of this shoot. It is the focus of the weekend and everyone in this house knows it.

Ask for help. If you have a musician buddy – have him help with sound. If you don’t have a sound guy – cut the dialogue.

If both partners can be involved (and useful) during the shoot – start looking for a great babysitter now. Or take turns on set.

Making a film — no matter what length — takes courage and determination. As it gets closer to the shoot date, the scarier it will get. Just trudge through it. Even if the film is a disaster, it’s a disaster to learn from.

Category: creating, home, parenting
Tags: creative > creative homes > horror movies > making movies > raising creative kids

This moment

Posted on | August 20, 2010 | No Comments

Category: good moments, parenting

My Education: Grade Twelve

Posted on | August 19, 2010 | No Comments

Grade Twelve was the most inspiring, practical and meaningful experience of my public school education.

I was part of the Career Internship Program (CIP) — a school to work transition program that taught me about proposing ideas, building a business and the importance of networking. I still reference and believe in what we were taught.

How CIP worked

The students in CIP completed courses like everyone else in the school, but all within the first term at an accelerated rate. The second term required students to create, propose, implement and report on a project of their choosing. The program ended with the students working a full-time internship instead of going to school — except for one Tuesday morning meeting at the school. The students had to go through the regular stream of applying and getting interviewed to get their internship positions.

Forget the buzzer bells

Since the first term was accelerated, CIP students had a different schedule than the rest of the school. That meant ignoring the school buzzer and more independent learning. It took me a few weeks to get used to not jumping up when I heard the school buzzer — it wasn’t for me. There are some people who never question societal accepted (induced) time systems — they wake up at the same time every day, eat lunch at noon, leave work at 5 pm. I eat lunch at 11 am because that is when I get hungry. I choose work with flexible schedules or that have a lot of variety — because I hate being forced to sit somewhere for the sake of “putting in hours.”

Some people never question if the 9-5 workday is a good thing? In grade 12, I learned there are different ways to get things done, that have nothing to do with the actual hour you do it.

Don’t burn bridges

Our teachers stressed that if a situation didn’t work out, that we needed to act professionally. I messed up. I was volunteering at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on Sundays from 11-4, renting art to people. The job was boring and instead of asking for a different task, I stopped showing up. They fired me. 12 years later, I applied for a job at the gallery that I really wanted. Luckily, I was able to refer to the previous event in the interview and illustrate the importance of making volunteers feel of use. But, that could have really stopped me from the job. I was also lucky that the event took place when I was in high school and not 10 years later in my career. You never know when you will run into people again, or who they know, so present the “you”, you want them to remember.

Project development

In grade 12, I learned how to:

brainstorm for ideas
write a proposal
form a partnership with another organization
keep track of project progress
write and present a report

My project was teaching elementary students Monty Python scenes (clean ones) which they presented to their peers. I worked with the students during their lunch hour for six weeks. I contacted the school myself, auditioned students, created lesson plans, and reported the entire thing. This is the basics of entrepreneurship. The experience of that has given me an outline for how to see if new project ideas are going to work and to assess them in progress. I have worked for organizations who didn’t have a set criteria for evaluating programs (at any stage). This is pretty critical. Yes, you can do ideas on the fly and it can work out — and I like to do it that way in creative drama classes — but there are people out there with brilliant ideas that don’t know how to go about getting it done.

Real life experience

My internship was at Prairie Theatre Exchange as the Communications and Marketing Assistant (pretty nice title for my first job!). I was always on time, creative, asked questions and smiled at everyone and everything. I was offered a job that Fall to work in the Theatre School which started my career as a drama teacher.

I loved going to work instead of school. I was given a multitude of tedious tasks including maintaining databases and stuffing envelopes — but the work was real. Those databases would be used for something, and those envelopes were being sent to real people.

The CIP program was the best way to end my public school education. Do you remember your last year of high school? Any big experiences or life lessons you want to share?

This is part a continuing series about my public school education in celebration of finishing my M.Ed.

Category: classroom, series, teaching
Tags: business high school > education > entrepreneur training > first job > first work experience > grade 12

My Education: Grade 11

Posted on | August 18, 2010 | 3 Comments

Dance and the arts in education

In grade 11, my drama teacher was a professional dancer/gymnast and decided to form a dance group. I auditioned and got in. We did modern dance and crazy lifts and leaps. I danced in the school play. I felt gorgeous and light performing the moves — even if the camcorder footage shows otherwise.

Our teacher choreographed a modern dance piece about body image for us to dance at an out-of-school event. Sadly, school administration found out and we weren’t allowed to participate. There were major gaps between the kind of dancing we did for the school play and the risky and different movements we did for the body image work. I stayed after school for months rehearsing the second piece, using dance as exploration and it only mattered to a few people. In Slouka’s essay about math and science ruling the schools he describes the state of the arts in our schools,

One teaches some toothless, formalized version of these things, careful not to upset anyone, despite the fact that upsetting people is arguably the very purpose of the arts and perhaps the humanities in general. (p. 37)

I learned more about myself and the work of an artist in those after school hours, then any formalized classroom work. Our drama teacher ended up leaving the school after that event.

The return of Ms. Neuman – poetry rules!

Ms. Neuman left her middle school position to teach high school English and I was delighted to have her again. I continued to write poems and submit them as assignments — further putting off my essay writing training. She also brought in a local author, Margaret Sweatman to do a creative writing workshop with us through the Artists in the School program.

The activity involved writing a room description. Ms. Neuman suggested that some of us share our work and I was asked to read my description. Margaret made a big deal about my work and we had a great conversation about writing — and I felt like we were the only two people in the room. Since that day, her and I have run into each other at various places and usually stop to connect. This was the first time I thought about writing “for real.”

The other subjects

Another good teacher was Mr. Kroeker, who taught Psychology. While he had a set curriculum, he told us that we needed to research and present on a psychological disorder of our choosing. I chose “left-hander’s syndrome.” I read a bunch, interviewed people and gave an interactive workshop on the subject. I think was the first time I was given the choice of what I wanted to learn. I’d like to have been given that choice earlier.

The big choice.

Towards the end of the school year, students at our high school had to make the choice about grade 12. Students could continue the regular schooling or apply for the Career Internship Program (CIP) – a school to work transition program. Since I wasn’t so impressed with the way school was going, I applied for CIP and got in. It was the best choice and year of schooling in my life. More on that tomorrow.

This is part of a continuing series about my educational experiences since pre-school in celebration of completing my M.Ed.

Category: classroom, creating, series, teaching
Tags: classroom > education > winnipeg arts education > winnipeg high school

My Education: Grade Ten

Posted on | August 16, 2010 | 4 Comments

Poetry-less English class

Since I was so confident in English (see: grade 9), and Ms. Neuman recommended it, I enrolled in Advance Placement (AP) English. My new teacher did not accept poetry in lieu of essays. She did not appreciate when my mother (yes, back from the dead!) told her, “I failed Shakespeare too, and I did okay.” I failed.

How to Sell Social Studies

Social studies hugely focused on my phobia of maps, instead of coloring them in we had to know stuff about the places. I didn’t understand why knowing about people or places was important and our teacher didn’t know how to sell it to us. Sometimes teaching is about selling. When I worked at the art gallery, I would have to tour middle schoolers through a collection of painted porcelain. Can you imagine their excitement? Zilch. I had to sell them on it. I sold it two ways:

1. I said, “a long time ago people didn’t go to the store and choose pre-designed patterns for their plates. They chose designs from a book and hired an artist to paint it, like people do at a tattoo shop. Walk around the exhibit and think about if you could have anything or anyone painted onto your dishes, what would you choose.”

2. I said, “imagine the gallery said you could have one piece of art from this exhibit. What piece would you choose and where would you keep it?”

What I did there was make the art work relevant to their lives. What do we know about today’s youth? Generally we know that they like “custom” stuff and they like to buy stuff. When they think about actually buying a piece, they start to really look at the plates and the tea cups. The question, “where would you keep it” forces them to think about the art in relation their lives. If my social studies teacher had taught us that history is basically people like you and me, under different circumstances — that would be pretty cool to know. But, no. We memorized facts he gave us from a book about places we would never go. I failed.

Math

I always liked numbers and math, but in a different kind of way. I like doing calculations in my head to fall asleep. School liked figuring out angles of triangles and I didn’t much care. I failed.

Summer School

I recently wrote a play entitled, The Changers for a middle school audience. In the play, the students are asked to accomplish a huge task (make their school greener and more compassionate) or they’ll have to go to summer school. If you ever had to attend summer school, you will work your tush off the following year, to ensure you never go back. I had to take English, Social Studies and Math for four weeks. We were there to be punished or prove something and it was no place for meaningful engagement. It sucked, but I passed.

What if it were different?

What if instead of using summer school as punishment for slacker students — they tried new teaching and learning theories. What if the information, conversations and projects at summer school got students excited about learning. How does boring them out of their minds and marking them on fact regurgitation help anyone? What if only the best teachers were hired and paid amazingly well to teach the summer courses? Don’t you think students would be better prepared to make a difference in the world?

Comment theme for today:

Summer school. Did you go? Was it as horrible for you as it was for me? Did you love it? Do share.

This is part of a continuing series about my education from pre-school to University in celebration of completing my M.Ed.