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Why my students write stories, they usually create characters who are good at everything. So we brainstorm some simple traits (smart, athletic, popular, etc.). We talk about what each trait would look like on a 1-4 scale - a 1 in smarts is dumb, a 2 a little slow, 3 kinda smart, and 4 really brainy, etc. Then I give then 8 points to spend. That way their story character is either really good at one thing and weak at the others, or just a pretty average guy/gal. Regardless, it helps them create much more interesting, well-rounded character for their stories.I wish you had taught Lee Child (my father-in-law's favorite author). Jack Reacher (Child's main hero) is 7 feet tall and stronger than a Russian weightlifter, is a better unarmed fighter than Bruce Lee, is the best sniper in the world, is the best investigator ever, can easily outsmart everyone in the FBI and Secret Service, and is irresistable to women even though he wears the same sweaty rags for a week on end. When my father-in-law makes fun of my fantasy novels, I reply, "Yes, Reacher is MUCH more realistic."
That sounds like Dirk Pitt from the Cussler novels - McGyver, James Bond, Jacques Cousteau, and Hulk Hogan all rolled into one package.
That sounds like Dirk Pitt from the Cussler novels - McGyver, James Bond, Jacques Cousteau, and Hulk Hogan all rolled into one package.
Yeah, I read one of those once... two hours I'll never get back. At least Lee Child's books are interesting and well-written, if a bit silly. (And he doesn't use himself as a character, which not even Stephen King can convincingly get away with, much less Clive Cussler.)
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That sounds like Dirk Pitt from the Cussler novels - McGyver, James Bond, Jacques Cousteau, and Hulk Hogan all rolled into one package.Yeah, I read one of those once... two hours I'll never get back. At least Lee Child's books are interesting and well-written, if a bit silly. (And he doesn't use himself as a character, which not even Stephen King can convincingly get away with, much less Clive Cussler.)
I agree totally. I used to read Cussler in high school, it was my trash reading while I was digesting things like Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto, and more serious novels like Great Expectations. The "history" is the part I liked the best.
My wife is a math professor at a community college.
I home-school our three children.
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That sounds like Dirk Pitt from the Cussler novels - McGyver, James Bond, Jacques Cousteau, and Hulk Hogan all rolled into one package.Yeah, I read one of those once... two hours I'll never get back. At least Lee Child's books are interesting and well-written, if a bit silly. (And he doesn't use himself as a character, which not even Stephen King can convincingly get away with, much less Clive Cussler.)
Have you read Black Wind? It's one of a few books wher Clive Cussler writes himself a cameo apperance. Casn't remember the other right off the top of my head. Personally for my guilty reading pleasure, I prefer Stephan Coonts.
Have you read Black Wind? It's one of a few books wher Clive Cussler writes himself a cameo apperance. Casn't remember the other right off the top of my head. Personally for my guilty reading pleasure, I prefer Stephan Coonts.
Dunno which one it was; it ended with Dirk Pitt singlehandedly defeating an army of killer robots. He meets Clive Cussler at an auto exhibition about midway through; I almost puked.
Never read Coonts. Always enjoyed John D. MacDonald and David Morrell, though.
Hey Tarren, I must be pretty close to you. I teach in Brampton and live in Toronto. I did my B Ed. at OISE. I'm teaching grade 4 right now. Just finished my first week at back at school.
So, how many of you are teachers. I know there are a lot of us.
hhehehee...
** spoiler omitted **
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Have you read Black Wind? It's one of a few books wher Clive Cussler writes himself a cameo apperance. Casn't remember the other right off the top of my head. Personally for my guilty reading pleasure, I prefer Stephan Coonts.Dunno which one it was; it ended with Dirk Pitt singlehandedly defeating an army of killer robots. He meets Clive Cussler at an auto exhibition about midway through; I almost puked.
Never read Coonts. Always enjoyed John D. MacDonald and David Morrell, though.
Cussler always puts himself in as a "mysterious stranger that Dirk can't quite place where he met before" who inevitably hands Dirk a deus ex machina. I prefer Michael Crichton for my pulp.
I prefer Michael Crichton for my pulp.
Remind me never to drink your juice.
High School history teacher going on year 7 happily married to an ESOL teacher.
I prefer Michael Crichton for my pulp.
I liked him a lot until I read "State of Fear." Don't care about the views on global warming; it's the internal inconsistencies that ruined that one for me.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Hey Tarren, I must be pretty close to you. I teach in Brampton and live in Toronto. I did my B Ed. at OISE. I'm teaching grade 4 right now. Just finished my first week at back at school.
So, how many of you are teachers. I know there are a lot of us.
hhehehee...
** spoiler omitted **
Yep. I'm in Ottawa.
Yep. I'm in Ottawa.
Thought about moving there, until I realized it was colder than Moscow. That's insane.
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You should have seen the snow last year! My son and I played WWII in the trenches formed by the snowplows. ;-)Yep. I'm in Ottawa.Thought about moving there, until I realized it was colder than Moscow. That's insane.
The giant pile of snow collected by the city last winter did not melt until mid-July.
The giant pile of snow collected by the city last winter did not melt until mid-July.
When I left upstate NY, we had just received 4 ft. of snow in one blizzard. I thought that was a lot. I was wrong. You guys are crazy.
But I'd happily put up with the snow to live in Canada... except that beer is $8 a pint at the Firkin. You've got to be kidding me.
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The giant pile of snow collected by the city last winter did not melt until mid-July.When I left upstate NY, we had just received 4 ft. of snow in one blizzard. I thought that was a lot. I was wrong. You guys are crazy.
But I'd happily put up with the snow to live in Canada... except that beer is $8 a pint at the Firkin. You've got to be kidding me.
Yeah, but minimum wage in Ontario is $8 an hour. There must be a correlation.
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I'm a teacher and working on a degree related to teaching both. This fall I taught a course at Kansas State University on Laboratory Techniques in teaching the sciences for secondary education majors. I am also doing student teaching as well as designing some new labs at the local high school as part of a science teaching methods course I am taking. I have a Bachelor's degree in Biology with a minor in pre-medical studies and right now I am in the second to last semester of a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction as well as a Graduate certificate in Secondary education. In the spring I am doing a full time student teaching internship and next may I will finish my degree, certificate, and be licensed to teach Biology in the public school system. By next fall I expect to be teaching full time doing exactly that. I also tutor high risk high school kids in Genetics, Cell Biology, and Evolutionary Biology. So I am a teacher, student, and future teacher all in one.
And thanks in advance for the apple.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Teaching in an innovative school in the Netherlands; we combine all the subjects as much as possible and try to show how many things are connected. It's also a kind of Community College, with the students combining their projects with charity-work for the local area. Very few classes and a lot of group study with coaches. It's not all wishy-washy and sitting in a circle singing though. We don't let them choose IF they want to learn, just how. You're at school to learn, when you're between 12 and 17.
It's hard work but they kids are really creative and even after three years at school they look forward to Mondays.
2 in 1! I am the Education Officer for a theatre, so I run the Youth Theatre and teach classes.
I teach drama to childen, along with making idustrial quantities of chutney and jam. Not at the same time.
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How are our teacher candidates doing? I recall more than one Paizonian is in teachers' college at the moment.
Things are going well for me thus far! I'm getting along with my associate teacher, getting to know the students, and getting a head start on my lesson plans! Here's hoping that my next four weeks of practicum go as well as the first!
Also, the more I learn about teaching the more I agree with your opinion, Tarren: teaching is very, very much like DMing. Except with more students. And less dwarves. Sometimes.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I teach drama to childen, along with making idustrial quantities of chutney and jam. Not at the same time.
That's good. Not at the same time. "Say, where is little Bobby ... And how did you get so much chutney?"
HEADLINE FAIL: "Include your children when baking cookies."
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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How are our teacher candidates doing? I recall more than one Paizonian is in teachers' college at the moment.Things are going well for me thus far! I'm getting along with my associate teacher, getting to know the students, and getting a head start on my lesson plans! Here's hoping that my next four weeks of practicum go as well as the first!
Also, the more I learn about teaching the more I agree with your opinion, Tarren: teaching is very, very much like DMing. Except with more students. And less dwarves. Sometimes.
Fewer dwarves. ;-) More gnomes, though.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Fewer dwarves. ;-) More gnomes, though.How are our teacher candidates doing? I recall more than one Paizonian is in teachers' college at the moment.Things are going well for me thus far! I'm getting along with my associate teacher, getting to know the students, and getting a head start on my lesson plans! Here's hoping that my next four weeks of practicum go as well as the first!
Also, the more I learn about teaching the more I agree with your opinion, Tarren: teaching is very, very much like DMing. Except with more students. And less dwarves. Sometimes.
Let's have coffee sometime when you're on campus.
<===English Teacher, Canada, although currently on a self imposed exile.
How are our teacher candidates doing? I recall more than one Paizonian is in teachers' college at the moment.Things are going well for me thus far! I'm getting along with my associate teacher, getting to know the students, and getting a head start on my lesson plans! Here's hoping that my next four weeks of practicum go as well as the first!
Also, the more I learn about teaching the more I agree with your opinion, Tarren: teaching is very, very much like DMing. Except with more students. And less dwarves. Sometimes.
Crazy, crazy, man. Good luck.
Also, the more I learn about teaching the more I agree with your opinion, Tarren: teaching is very, very much like DMing. Except with more students. And less dwarves. Sometimes.
I get an age range from 4 ("It's my birthday next week, can I use the toilet") to 18 ("My character wouldn't just walk off stage, that motivation is all wrong."), so yes, GMing is very close indeed to teaching :D
Although there is the distinction that most GMs promote violence rather than standing in the middle of the room saying "NO! The point of this exercise is to LOOK as if you are gouging out his eyes, not to try and do it. FREEZE. Now, let's go over the rules one more time and the next person to not listen sits this one out. Ready?"
Playing is a delightful respite. Every time one of my characters enters a room full of goblins I hear this little voice at the back of my mind saying "Therapy. These you can thump."
And Tarren - that headline is going into my profile someplace.
Rev Rosey- LOL! "Therapy" Indeed!
Jumping in late here,...
My wife is a committed (or should be committed) grade school teacher of 12 years now. She loves her little 'Ewoks'. But she doesn't use any game-stuff in her teaching,(that I know of!) as she doesn't play, she just puts up with ME playing!
ME? One of my many degrees includes all of the courses needed for an education certificate. But as I was substitute teaching to help pay for college, I swiftly decided that teaching high school kids wasn't what I thought I wanted to do with my life. (MOst of the modern-day high-schoolers are taller than me, and I don't deal well with insubordination!) I have three degrees in Theatre and related subjects (Music, speech, English, Education) and I am a Certified Actor/combatant with the SAFD.
I now run an auditorium for a Louisiana college. When I am not actually 'running' the place, I am taking classes for theatre dept teachers who are ill, or teaching stage combat techniques to college kids in plays who think they're Bruce Lee! Does that count? ;)
PS- ALL of you guys/gals who manage to use game-ishness to help teach are way cooler than any teacher I ever had! I went to a private CHristian school in the '80's, where/when unfortunately it was widely determined that D&D was 'evil and promoted Satanism'. YOU try explaining to that bunch the pictures on the covers of the 1st ed. D&D books! :P
Keep up the great work all of you teacher/geeks!
Laters,...
Except with more students. And less dwarves.Fewer dwarves. ;-)
Unless they're in the chutney with the kids, in which case it's "less dwarf," because you can't count 'em individually anymore.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Except with more students. And less dwarves.Fewer dwarves. ;-)Unless they're in the chutney with the kids, in which case it's "less dwarf," because you can't count 'em individually anymore.
This is true. ESL lesson of the week: "'I love dog' means something very different than 'I love dogs'."
Mmmm, this is good chutney. Could have used a bit less dwarf though.
I teach mathematics at a college.
I am a high school art teacher (I teach drawing, photography, printmaking, and AP Studio Art) and am in my 4th year of teaching.