Education

I’ve just had a revelation.

I think I may be closer to truly understand the difficulty of teaching. It is only my sense of challenge and a deep love for children that stops me from turning back here and now, giving up teaching as a useless enterprise, that is bound to fail no matter what you try.

For my sociology of education class, I’m reading a book by John Holt, called “How Children Fail”. It illustrates the mindboggling gap between an adult’s perspective and a child’s perspective. A teacher might think they’ve got a fool-proof strategy to catch the student’s attention, interest him and make him think. Well, tough luck, the student finds it pointless, confusing and unknowingly finds countless techniques of figuring out the “right” answer without understanding what we want them to understand, or thinking in the way that we want them to think. This however, although highly interesting, was not what lead to my revelation. My own experiences did.

I am also presently writing a short essay on education and was thinking of important factors of education that have little to do with the class material. Things like learning how to learn, creativity, social skills, self-esteem, to name a few. Now if anyone has studied in the international school system, you might frown slightly and start rummaging your brain, thinking, why does this sound familiar? No…? Do any of these ring a bell? “Apprendre a apprende” “Homo Phaber” “Environment” “Comunaute et service” and “Sante et formation sociale”. That’s what I thought too… and I was astonished to see find that, while I found all of this to be utter rubbish while I was in school, I find now that it’s a splendid idea! Once again… an adults view about what children perceive is out of tune with reality. You see, the people in charge of reforms, special school systems and the like, might have the best intentions going in, but unless they truly understanding how children feel they can only make half-blind guesses at the effective way to teach them.

This being said, all this work is not going to waste. My younger sister, who incidentally is studying in the same system but at an elementary rather than high school level, finds these teaching strategies as interesting as anything else in school. She doesn’t have a particular passion for “apprendre a apprende” or “santé et formation sociale” but unlike me, finds them quite tolerable and engaging. Maybe the mistake in my particular experience with the international school system it’s age inappropriateness.

Can I show kids what I find important in a way they can relate to? Challenge accepted! 

Of snow storms and srawberries

It's snowing in Montreal. A thick white carpet covers the streets. A young girl sits in bed with her friend the laptop, typing away. A colourful string of lights illuminates the room. (said room is a mess, but we'll ignore that fact till the morrow). Our damsel collects her thoughts, pondering on the next line. Why did she start writing in the first place? But of course! Exhausted after her busy day, she sat quietly with a friend, exploring the wonders that the internet holds, and realized that she is tiered no longer. What more natural thing to do, than type away (especially if your fingers keep mixing up keys, your mind mixing up words and your imagination mixing up ideas). For instance, let's examine for a moment where the strawberries in the title came from... This is a most noble and ambitious quest! Perhaps a tad bit too ambitious for our young friend, who is at long last willing to succumb to the beckoning calls of sleep. Let her drift away into the ever-changing, unexplored waters of the dream world. Let her sink into the soft and soothing form that is her pillow. Let her be shielded from the elements, while deep in slumber she regains strengths. Let her be for she will likely make more sense in a more rested state. Let her be, we shall learn of the strawberries that trouble her so upon a different hour. Let her be and think not of what is not meant to be thought. You too my friend, be free. Go, frolic away, fast as the wind. Slide away, smooth as the river. Go. Be. Or if being pleases thee not, than be gone.

Wallet Tutorial

By popular demand on crafster, I finally made the tutorial for my wallet. =)

Good luck, and feel free to ask questions if you have any!

Material:

- Two types of fabric: one can be thinner, with a nice pattern and the second more sturdy but plainer. I have no idea what’s the name of the fabric I was using, but it was canvas-like and stiff. I imagine denim will do the job, or anything else you can find.

- Zipper

- Magnetic (or other) clasp

- Glue stick

- And whatever you use for your sewing

Fabric Pieces:

(s) = sturdy fabric (p)= pattern fabric

measures in cm

2- 18.5 x 19 (s) this will be your base

1- 18 x 16 (p) this will be your coin pocket

6- 18.5 x 4.5 (p) these will be your card slots

1- 18.5 x 16 (p) this will be your bill pocket liner

2- 10 x 2~ (s) this will be the base of your strap *

2- 10 x 2~ (p) this will be the outer part of your strap

2- 18.5 x 16 (s) one piece will be for your bill pocket and the other for your coin pocket *

4- 9 x 2 (p) these will make the ribbons around your wallet.

~ Or larger depending on the size of your clasp.

* Do not leave leek

Step 1:

Cut out and label (very important!) all the pieces you’ll be working with. Don’t forget to leave a leek unless otherwise mentioned.

Step 2:

Insert zipper and pocket 1cm from the top of a “base” piece

I, myself, followed an amazing tutorial for this part, here’s the link: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=150

Since my sturdy fabric was… well sturdy, I couldn’t fold over such a small piece like shown in the tutorial, so I just cut it right along the edge of the rectangle and later “covered it up” with some acrylic paint. What you can also do is cut it along the edge and (before sewing on the zipper) make a contour with the patterned fabric.

NOTE: make sure your pocket is sewn on with the pattern on the inside. (the first time around I made the mistake of having it inside out and had to improvise a solution)

- Onto the back of the coin pocket, glue the piece of sturdy fabric intended for that purpose. This will make the wallet less flimsy. 

Step 3:

Make the top 6 card slots.

- Fold over one edge of your 4.5cm pieces and sew a straight line close to the edge. 

NOTE: before sewing along an edge, iron the fold first.

- Repeat for all the other card slot pieces.

- Now, starting with the top slot, sew the pattern fabric onto your base; sew on the second and third slot making sure that the third is 9cm from the top.

- Sew a straight line in the middle to separate the 3 long slots into 6 shorter ones. Leave the outer side as it is, it’ll be taken care of later.

Step 4:

Make bill pocket.

- Fold the lining fabric in half and iron (fold the 16 cm side). Once again, the patterned side needs to be inside.

- Fold over and sew the two top edges. One as is, and the second one with the sturdy fabric inserted into the fold. 

Step 5:

Sew on card slots onto the sturdy fabric of the bill pocket pocket following step 3.

Make sure the lining fabric is out of the way, you don't want it sewn on as well, you want it dangling behind for now.

Step 6:

Attach bill pocket to the base

- Now that your card slots are sewn on, glue the back of the lining fabric to the back of the sturdy fabric. (the half that's touching it when it's folded) Glue the other half of the lining to the base of your wallet. make sure that the bottom of the card slots is aligned with the bottom of the base.

- Sew on the upper edge of the bill lining to the base (the edge that's not sewn on to the other strip of sturdy fabric)

- Now sew along the sides of your entire base, in this way, closing the sides of all the slots and bill pocket.

 What it looks like from the back

 *Note, when I took this picture I had not yet glued the sturdy fabric onto the back of the coin pocket.

Step 7:

Make a pattern on the outer side of your wallet.

This is done on the piece of “base” fabric (18.5 x 19) that we haven’t touched yet.

I decided to just sew on a solid rectangle of patterned fabric, but if you have other ideas, feel free to improvise!

Step 8:

Make strap and add the magnetic clasp.

- Round off one side of both sturdy fabric pieces

- Glue each of the patterned fabric pieces over a sturdy fabric piece.

- On one half of the strap cut slits to insert magnetic clasp, leave the other intact.

- Insert magnetic clasp on strap. There is a bit on clasps here http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=150. It’s fairly straightforward.

- Sew both sides of strap together. You might have to do this by hand. My machine couldn’t work around the clasp.

Step 9:

Finishing the strap.

- Secure the strap on one side (18.5 cm side) of the “outer base”.

- On the opposite side, secure the second half of the magnetic clasp.

- Both clasp and strap should be centered lengthwise and about 3cm from the side. Before sewing it on, make sure the strap is long enough to go around without being too tight.

Step 10:

Sew both sides of wallet together.

- At this point I cut the leek of both sides of my wallet, leaving them 18.5 x 19cm. You can cut a bit more or less depending on your zipper or anything else that may have gone wrong/changed in your design. Don’t worry about the flailing ends.

- Glue the two sides of the wallet together

- Fold over and iron the leeks on your 19 x 2 pieces of patterned fabric.

- One by one, glue and then sew on these “ribbons” all around your wallet. Make sure you get the strap out of the way when you're sewing the ribbon around that edge.

- Wash off any glue that might be showing and you’re done!

It’s really not as complicated as it sounds, bear with me, this is my first wallet and first tutorial. I would love to see what you guys make of this! And please feel free to comment on my tutorial (not enough detail? Too much obvious info? Pictures?) and add any suggestions you might have!

Anything is possible if you set your mind to it

Even making your own wallet!

For a while now, I've noticed that my wallet was falling apart and I wanted to find one with more card slots. Then, just the other week I discovered crafster.org ... and fell in love! All the nifty projects on that site inspired me to get my ass off the couch and take matters into my own hands...

So here is my first home-made wallet.

I was amazed at the amount of measuring, calculating, planning, re-planing, and on-the-go fixes this took! This gave my brain cells some long-needed exercise. But despite (and in a way, thanks to) all the complications, I had a LOT of fun making this.

Measures 19.5 x 9.5cm

12 card slots

Coin pocket with zipper

Pocket for bills

Magnetic clasp

Fresh, fresh exciting!

I love spaghetti with tomato sauce, or, frankly, any other sauce. However, any sauce I buy invariably ends up moldy somewhere in the back of the fridge. This is mainly because I'm the only one in the house who consumes it (and partially because I sometimes loose things in my fridge). I tried buying smaller quantities of the stuff, but somehow, I can never manage to eat if fast enough. So I found my solution in making fresh sauce.

I once got the craving for pasta and, realizing that there is no sauce in the house, but that there are tomatoes underhand, I decided to improvise. The first time I did, I was in a hurry and simply diced a couple of tomatoes and threw them on the pan, along with fresh parsley. Not bad. Not bad at all. In fact, with some grated parmesan (and when I say some, I mean a small mountain of it, because it's just so damn good) it was quite next to restaurant-style delicious.

Now, when ever I make pasta, it has to come with the fresh, home-made, tomato sauce to which I add an ingredient or two every time. (Today's magic ingredient was sweet onion, giving it a subtle and marvelous taste) However, despite the fact that my recipe grows and changes a bit every time, I try to keep it simple, fun and fast to clean because, usually when I make pasta, I'm starving and I want food now, not in an hour!

Try experimenting a bit on your own, you don't always need a recipe to tell you what to do, to make something worthwhile!

Life Hacks

My boyfriend follows this site called "Life Hacker".

http://lifehacker.com/

What they do, is basically give random tips to life: from cooking, to financing, to electronics. It's a compilation of quick-fixes and do-it yourself. Personally, I haven't explored the site too much, but I like the concept. When I finished making a case for my new electronic book, I thought "hey, this makes me think of the hack concept".

So here is the "How to hack your own electronic book case".

Instead of buying a ready-made case (I think my dad said it cost somewhere close to 50-60$), I made one out of an agenda cover. Not too complicated, cheep and exactly the way I want it.

Unfortunately, my photos are not step by step, but here it is in a nutshell:

Step 1:

Find a hard-cover outdated agenda (outdated simply because it costs less) the size of your e-book and with a pattern or texture you like.

Step 2:

Take out the agenda part, you'll only be needing it's cover. In my case, this was really simple because it was a slip-on cover; if it's not, simply rip out the pages.

Step 3:

Secure your e-book to the outer-side or the cover. If, like in my case, you found a slip-on cover, simply cut out the desired curve to be able to slip in your e-book in place of the agenda. If not, you will have to create corners to secure it. This can be done by sewing on or securely gluing on elastics (diagonally, at the corner of your cover); by finding large photo-corners; or by making the corners out of a nice solid cardboard or fabric. Personally, I think elastic bands would be your best bet.

Step 4:

Secure your e-book to the inner-side of the cover. The way I did it should work in most cases, simply secure an elastic band to the cover and slip your device in.

Step 5:

If you wish, add something on the opposite side of the cover: a photo, notepad, even a mini pocket folder! I glued a piece of cardboard under my notepad, because the book-cover itself was not hard cover and I wanted an extra protection to come over the screen when it is folded.

Step 6:

If you book cover has no way of closing on it's own (some come with clasps or close shut with magnets) then you can easily attach an elastic band to do the job.

Voila, your custom-made, unique and personalized case is now complete!

Comme dans les films

I realize more and more that real life is just like they show it in the movies. No, I don't mean that you can save your friend from a fatal fall by clinging on to his pinkie; I don't mean that some random guy will pop out of nowhere and slow-motion karate-kick the robber in your house; I don't mean that a heroic love interest will burst into a burning building to, bare-handedly retrieve your cat. What I mean is, these things happen: fires, robberies, love affairs, divorces, earthquakes, domestic violence, that's to name a few. These this happen around you. They're not just some far-off reality in the news or some Hollywood invention or part of an harlequin novel. They are there, around you. I personally know people who have suffered every one of the things I mentioned, and I myself have witnessed a couple in my life.

Realizing thins makes me see that life isn't as constant as it may seem. It makes me see the importance of living in the moment. If you're happy in the here and the now, it doesn't matter what happened before. or even what will happen after.