Student of the Week will start up again in a few weeks. This week, however, will be TEACHER of the Week. And the honouree is the wonderful Ms. Dudra!

Of course, Ms Dudra has now started her (well-deserved) retirement. It's hard to even imagine King George Secondary without her. When I first started at KG, many of the students referred to her as "mom". This always struck me as a great nickname for her. She is the loving, knowledgable, no-nonsense matriarch who keeps ALL of us on the right path and out of trouble.

So many times at staff meetings, someone will have a bright idea: "why don't we just divert funds from a flex account to make up the amount owing?". Everyone will nod happily, thinking a solution has been found. Then Ms Dudra will speak up: "I'd like to remind everyone that Flex money can not be used to cover expenses of this sort". She is literally the ONLY person who seems to know some of this stuff. What will we do without her to set us straight!?!

Two of my (joking) WORST moments at KG involve Ms Dudra. A bunch of years ago, the staff did a "Hell's Kitchen" sort of social event. We were broken up into teams and given a few mandatory ingredients and challenged to come up with the tastiest meal possible. I was on Ms Dudra's team (along with the principal at the time). I remember thinking: "how can we NOT win? We have the Foods teacher on our team plus our Italian food-loving principal. Plus me (hehehe)". Can't remember what we made but I do remember it tasted DELICIOUS!! And out presentation was top-notch. So the result...

Mr Warrington's team won. MR WARRINGTON!!! If you see Ms Dudra around some time ask her about it. The injustice of the event still gets her all worked up. Pretty funny!

The second (even more shameful) event: a few years ago the staff did a scavenger hunt around Stanley Park. One of the questions was just a flat-out Math question. I can't remember exactly but there was a triangle drawn inside a circle and we had to find the length of one side. Again, Ms Dudra and I were teammates (with Ms Lin) and - again - we were chuckling to ourselves: "This will be a cinch. We have a Math teacher (me), a former Math teacher (Ms Dudra... did you know!), and someone who took Calculus at university".

Long story short: it took us FOREVER to solve the question. We made it WAAAAAY harder than we had to. We were using trigonometry, similar triangles, proportions. Meanwhile, some other groups just looked at the picture and decided "well it looks about twice as long as the radius"... and got it right!! They basically guessed while we bumbled around for 20 minutes. (incidentally, other people solved the problem easily and correctly in mere moments by using a MUCH more elegant solution than us). EMBARRASSING!!

My FONDEST memory of Ms Dudra, however, is the time that we spent together during the knitting club. It was a small club and most of the members already knew how to knit (I may have been the only person who do not). This afforded us the opportunity to spend lots of time chatting together (I believe this is called a "stitch and bitch" in the handwork world). We would talk about our students (how much we love you all, obviously), our children (especially what horrible sleepers they were as babies), classic rock (Ms Dudra LOVES rock n' roll!), and life at King George. It was such a wonderful way to end the week (knitting club was Friday afternoons). Ms Dudra is a warm, funny, intelligent, and interesting lady... a pleasure to spend time with.

Thanks, Ms Dudra, for everything that you have done for us at King George over your many years here. You have made a big difference with so many people... I consider myself one such person. Here is wishing you a wonderful and relaxing retirement. Kick back, have fun, and rock on!! Love you, CD!!

Baseball game with Ms Sidhu and Des! 

Met up with Mr Wiebe at his place (I got to watch him iron and help him make beds)

Way too many visits to Playland with Simone

We have moved!!

We are renting a place in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. It's a duplex (we live on the right and our friend lives on the left). Check out the massive yard!!

Don't worry: I'll still be here this year. I'm staying in Burnaby during the week (we have rented out two bedrooms so I'll have roommates) and will go to Gibson on the weekend,
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Why are we moving? It's a one year experiment to see if living somewhere a little quieter and a little slower-paced will agree with us. If not, we move back to Burnaby and my job at King George. If so... well.. (we can discuss in class)  :)

Though it was not unexpected, it was still devastating to hear of the passing of Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul and one of the most celebrated singers in the history of popular music. When I started listening to R&B and soul music (in my twenties), it was Aretha that first attracted me to the genre. In fact, I believe it was this song (which I now consider one of my favourite songs by any artist)...

Amazing! If that doesn't move you... nothing will. 

Check out this concert footage. Quality is pretty basic but the singing...!!!!!

This is footage from the Live at the Fillmore West album which I urge you to listen to. In it, she not only covers but (arguably) IMPROVES on songs by The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Otis Redding, and Stephen Stills. If nothing else, listen to the last four songs. Absolutely mind blowing.

Rest in Peace Aretha. Your music will be enjoyed for many, many, many years to come.

Every year, I can tomatoes in late August. Always with my mom and - the last few years - another day with Ms Birks too. But this year, someone else wanted to learn... ANELIA!!! And she was an awesome tomato partner. We both have heat-defying ex-dishwasher hands (for handling red hot jars) and shared lots of good laughs. All told, we made 30 of these beauties (and I did 168 over three days. Too many!!). Lots of good stews, soups, pasta sauces, chilis, etc ahead of us this year! Thanks Anelia. Can't wait to do more next year!

The Grad Class of 2014 was a super special group for me. I taught (some of) them in grades 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. After they graduated, some of us started a tradition of climbing the Chief every summer (followed by a swim in a local lake). The numbers and people change from year to year (only Blaga, Yanal, and myself have made every year) but it is always a highlight of the summer... even when there is not much of a view at the top (darn smoke!). Who's coming next year with us...?

It's one of the most enduring musical mysteries: Lennon or McCartney?
The composition of many Beatles songs is attributed to Lennon-McCartney.
But that little hyphen can hide a lot.
Dalhousie University Prof. Jason Brown has used mathematics to untangle the authorship of disputed Beatles songs. 
"They agreed on a lot of their songs. But on a few songs they disagreed," Brown said of the two British songwriting giants. 
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RIO DE JANEIRO - Four mathematicians on Wednesday were awarded this year's Fields Medal, a prestigious award that many describe as the Nobel Prize of mathematics.
Given every four years, the prize goes to mathematicians under 40 and the winners were announced during the International Congress of Mathematicians being held in Rio de Janeiro.

As part of a new study by researchers at San Francisco State University, 125 college students were tested to see how well they could perform simple math -- subtracting 7 from 843 sequentially for 15 seconds -- while either slumped over or sitting up straight with shoulders back and relaxed. Fifty-six percent of the students reported finding it easier to perform the math in the upright position.
"For people who are anxious about math, posture makes a giant difference," said Professor of Health Education Erik Peper. "The slumped-over position shuts them down and their brains do not work as well. They cannot think as clearly."