I was outside, playing with my smart phone, when I stumbled across this mushroom growing near the fence line. It is about the size of a softball, is short in height, and has a wide and thick cap. Anybody know what type it isÉ (my question mark key quit working).
Category Archives: Bruce County
Mushroom
Rokinon Fisheye Lens
I now have a Rokinon fisheye lens for my Canon Rebel 450 and my jet lagged mornings have been used to try and get some nice morning pics of the area. As someone who grew up with digital cameras, I found using the Rokinon challenging due to being so used to digital cameras and autofocusing. But I do enjoy manually being able to control what I want. EIther way I’m happy with the lens!
Tractor Row
I was going through my external hard drive, looking at old pictures, when I came across the one below. I fell in love with the picture when I took it back in the Fall of 2007 and forgot about it. The picture combined three of my favorite things. Those being photography, farm life, and auctions. This photo was taken at an auction held after an old farmer died. He collected whatever he could and his collection over sixty years made for some rather awesome sights and buys. But the row of tractors fascinated me the most. Only the tractor in the background worked. All the rest were long dead or in need of serious repair to ever work.
Canada
Canada has been pretty decent for visiting. The weather nicer and cooler than in Mokpo and it has been very nice to have wide open spaces again to enjoy. The homemade cooking is also really nice. The downtime I have here has been great and I’ve been thinking lots about next year and beyond. I am pretty sure I am going to leave my school and Mokpo next year. I don’t want to live in the same city, the same apartment, and working at the same school for three years. I want to change things up. I know I want to stay within Jeolla province but not sure which city I want to live in. I’ve given thought to Suncheon, Yeosu, Naju, and Wando. Gwangju is a distant option.
I also have a somewhat clearer idea of what I will do after my time in South Korea is up. I was originally planning on Teachers College but I don’t think this is for me. Instead I am giving lots of thought to Museum Curatorship. I love History and it allows me to use my education in something I enjoy. I would like to save for school next year then begin the program in 2011.
When back in Korea, I want to make more use of my time and travel around the country more on weekends and take in much more. I haven’t done that as much since my core group of friends left last year. But I will be out and about! 
Goat Barn
My parent’s farm has an old goat barn that I will be helping to tear down while in Canada on vacation. The barn held out goats when we had them and countless other types of livestock from when the previous fmaily lived there for generations. The barn is at least 120 years old based on the size of the boards used (massive!) and the hand made square head nails. The building is in bad shape and will probably not survive another winter. The good parts salvaged will be used to make a garden shed for storing lawn chairs. I did not get any outside pictures but got some inside shots of the structure. I was playing around with my digital cameras and tried to get some nice shots. Enjoy. I will be posting once the actual tear down begins. We should began again in a week or so.
Honey……
I’m home. The flight took around 17 hours plus a 6 hour layover at Narita Airport in Japan. Also a three hour drive from Pearson Airport to my home. It’s great to be back home and surrounded by noises and smells I want to be around! This time around I’m pretty busy here too. I’ll be…
- Seeing a whackload of friends I haven’t seen in ages.
- Seeing Virginia and Ty from Saturday-Monday.
- Tearing down our old goat barn. The beams have rotted out and the building must be torn down.
- Recharge for Korea. I was feeling somewhat worn out and I really want to get recharged. I hate feeling worn out.
I’ve also been busy taking pictures of everything too. I’ll be sure to post those up as well as whatever I fancy. Have a good week and weekend!
Poetry Lesson
Being at the same school for a second year is a great oppurtunity to improve upon lessons you used last year. One of my favorite lessons from last year was my poetry lesson. It was successful last year and it was even more so this year. Students don’t often get the chance to be creative so I try to give them a chance to use those brain muscles for something fun.
Students made a simple four line poem and a simple acrostic poem for this lesson. The first thing I had to do was explain what a rhyme was. Most students did not know so I posted a few examples on the board.
Zach…..Black
Lazy….Crazy
Book…Look
Once I did that, students understood rhyme. I then put a simple four line poem on the board.
My name is Zach A
I am very tall. B
I like to wear black. A
Opps I hit a wall! B
I explained to students that lines A must rhyme and lines B also must rhyme. I put an incomplete poem on the board and had the class make one.
The students are very _________. A
They want to _______________. B
They _____________________. A
Students _________________. B
They were able to make a good poem in a few minutes. I put another one up on the board to make sure they underood the concept of this poem.
Zach is ____________. A
He is very __________. B
He wants __________. A
He always __________. B
Once this poem was done, I moved onto acrostic poetry. I told students to write one word going down their paper. One student wrote the word girls.
G
I
R
L
S
I used girls as my class example and made a poem with it for the class to understand what was happening.
Girls are
Inside the school
Reading many books about
Love and
Super Junior
I would also use a student’s name as an acrostic poem example.
Ji Yun
Is eating a
Yellow banana
Under the
Night sky
Students then had 20-25 minutes to come up wiht one simple poem and one acrostic. Most had both done in 15 while some struggled to finish one type of poem. I chose the best 10 poems to be read aloud to the class and reward them with candy. Students generally enjoyed this lesson and it made me smile to see them having fun with English and having an oppurtunity to be creative. Here are some poems below from my classes.
You go to school! You’re late!
Ummmm. Oh my God! Teacher is there!
Go go go. Hurry!
You are chased by teacher.
Excellent!
Oh. Hummm. Oh
N0! Oh my
God. Sorry teacher. ㅠ.ㅠ
Jane Goodall is
Ugly?
No! She is
Great beautiful and
Her skin is
Yellow? She works for
U.N.?
No! You wrong!
Candy is delicious but I’m very
Angry because Jach
Not take candy.
Don’t forget candy Jack! When
You come to classroom.
Big Bang is my honey. A
Flowers are very pretty. B
Big Bang has alot of money. A
They are sweaty. B
I’m so cool. A
I have a friend. B
I want to go to swimming pool. A
What is trend? B
Someone is fool. A
I like piano that is grand. B
I hope you enjoyed these poems as much as I do.
