Constructing Intertextuality: Reading Anne Hébert's "Les fous de bassan"

This is another of my mini-adaptations of a literary work, Anne Hébert's Les fous de bassan. It is a response to Yves Simoneau's controversial adaptation of the same novel. 

A. J. M. Smith, a Canadian poet reading his poem, "My Death"

How do you make a video with one photograph? Check it out!

This is an adaptation of A. J. M. Smith's poem "My Death"

Some of the Nouns in my Everyday Life

This is the fruit of my labour. It was part of a DVD full of video shorts destined for native speakers of Chinese who are learning English as a second language. It was an exposition of culture.

Winter Walking

For all you lovers out there, Spring has sprung!

Way to Go Fred!

I took the time to give some constructive feedback to one of my teachers today. For the sake of privacy, I will refer to this teacher as Fred. It would appear, judging by Fred’s reaction, that my feedback was not appreciated. As I watched the teacher’s back hurry out the door and down the hallway, away from the conversation, I experienced the pleasure of recognition, and I made myself a promise: I will never do this to one of my students. For all my hard headedness, and I do have one hard head, when I am wearing my teacher’s hat, unlike Fred, I listen to my students comments. I consider these comments to be akin to a gift. Well, today I offered a gift to one of my teachers, but I learned that much like God, Fred already has everything Fred needs…and I am not one of those things. So much for the student being at the center of his/her learning. Way to go Fred!

Todd

The Fishermen

This is a video of a puppet performance done by adolescents at an English summer school. As you will see, it is a political comment on the way humans treat the earth. The authors not only wrote the script, made the puppets, constructed and painted the decor, but they also sewed everything by hand, including the curtains!

Thank you Christine!!! This poem is far too beautiful to be hidden amongst comments

A dear friend asked me to share my feelings
About this humble and reverent king
That we were fortunate enough to behold
For such a brief moment.

Little did I know back then
About this immense fountain of knowledge
Separating my world from his
That could so justly feed my curiosity
About the world surrounding me.

But from this withering fountain
I felt nothing but dryness
As I learned with absolute dismay
About his imminent departure.

I already miss him dearly
But he will most likely not miss me
As I am but one insignificant being
Out of so many
Who crossed his path at the wrong time.

So, I guess that I can only say
With complete honesty to Mr. Duffley
That I hope he recovers from this obscure curse
So that again may he fill
With wisdom and integrity
This fountain of knowledge
Separating him from me.

Christine

Crash and Burn

Linking Language and Content: ESL and Art History by Deborah Raphan & Janet Moser (1993-94) is yet another article we have been assigned to read that is specific to education in the United States! Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the article or the United States. My beef has to do with the homework assignment itself. The fact of the matter is that we are in Québec, Canada, and our situation is quite different from the one in the United States. Speaking of interdisciplinary teaching, I would like to have fewer articles about the United States, and more articles about Canada, and specifically Québec! It would be nice to link the specific language and content that we are living here in Québec to our teaching practices, seeing as most of us want to teach English as a second language (ESL) in Québec.

Furthermore, I am Canadian, and last time I checked, I was still living in my own country. I find it offensive that the culture from another country should be such a large part of my pre-service teacher-training. For example, I find the following statement difficult to understand: “[m]any students come from cultures in which the typical give-and-take between teacher and student is totally absent […]” (Raphan & Moser, 1993/94, p. 17). The writer is an American citizen talking to an American audience, so how am I, as a bilingual Canadian Anglophone supposed to relate to this type of discourse? What is meant by typical give-and-take? Typical compared to what and for whom? Where am I in all this? More importantly, where are my future students? Is Québec not a socialist society? That is what the guy at the medicare told me. It is also a bilingual society situated within a bilingual country. Our national anthem is sung in two languages! Generally speaking, we are all humans. However, I would like to focus in on our situation here in Québec. My question is: “What has what is going on in the United States have to do with what is specifically going on here in Québec?” Teaching English as a foreign language in the United States is quite different from teaching English as a second language in Québec. Our culture is different, the variation of English is different, our history is different, and the way we approach multiculturalism is different. So what is the big idea? Are all these American articles a pre-brain washing to the final American take-over of Canada? What gives? Are we all asleep at the wheel, or should I drink more coffee?



Todd