Eric sat looking into the flames of his campfire. He was camping near Banff, alone; which gave him a chance to just think. The flames danced over the logs he had put on the fire, and as Eric watched them a sense of loneliness came over him. It was a loneliness that reflected more a state of being rather than sadness. He felt that this was also a sense of what was to come, perhaps a flicker of the year ahead.
Eric decided to cut his 2010 birthday camping trip short; after only one night camping by himself. He had gone on a hike the day he arrived in Banff, up most of Level C Cirque, with a lookout over part of Lake Miniwanka. The following day his friend Brent, from Calgary, joined him for a hike up Tunnel Mountain. Eric’s decision to pack up camp was a good one, for as he drove away from the camp grounds rain started to fall; Eric drove through a storm heading back to Calgary.
Over the next several weeks Eric worked at his summer job with HFP Acoustical Consultants, in Calgary. As October started Eric returned home, to Edmonton, to prepare for his second attempt at his teaching practicum. Preparing was not easy as there was a delay in learning where and what grades he was going to teach. The delay was due to computer issues at the University of Alberta.
Louis St. Laurant (LSL) Catholic School was where Eric was placed. He was to teach junior high science, and he eagerly started with the grade 7s and soon the grade 8s. His mentor teacher, Ms. Schatz, was excellent, and quite helpful in making sure Eric was getting the most out of his practicum. Eric also enjoyed hanging out with the other student teachers.
Heat and Temperature was the unit Eric taught the grade 7 students; the grade 8 students had Optics. Eric had 2 sections of both grade 7 and 8, there was also 2 sections of grade 9s that he eventually taught part of the unit on Electricity. Eric enjoyed teaching the students, and many of the students seemed, to him, to enjoy him as a teacher. Eric did make some mistakes, but what is learning without a few stumbles; “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” -Oscar Wilde.
Teaching was not the only thing Eric did at LSL, he also volunteered for a number of activities: yearbook (briefly as it conflicted with robotics), robotics club, supervision for the junior-junior volleyball tournament, and back stage supervision for the junior high Christmas band concert. The volleyball tournament and Christmas concert were both one time events. Robotics on the other hand was something Eric was quite interested in being involved with, and continued to volunteer beyond the end of his teaching practicum.
Eric’s volunteering with the group extended to the competition day in January 2011, which was held at NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology). At the end of the day awards were handed out, and the LSL Barons (the team name) won third place in the category of teamwork.
On the family front, there was a big celebration for David’s (Eric’s father) 65th Birthday in November. Christmas was fairly uneventful with the typical family celebrations, though with a new member of the family joining in; Klara, Eric’s 5 month old niece. Eric worked as Santa’s helper for a second year in a row; taking photos of kids on Santa’s knee. This gave him some income which helped in the buying of Christmas presents. The major excitement in Eric’s personal life around this time was with one of his tenants. Adiona moved in to the vacant room in October, only to be a little wishy-washy about staying every month after that. In late December she actually moved out, and to ensure she didn’t suddenly change her mind, Eric started minor renovations on that room (ripping up the carpet to expose the hardwood underneath). Eric managed to rent the room out to Cesar, an immigrant from Mexico (fluent in English, and with a professional background), in March.
New Year’s Eve reflected Eric’s feelings from the start of his 34th year. Having not been invited to an event, and the weather fairly mild, Eric decided around 11:30 pm to go for a walk. He wandered through the nearby ravine, and guessed as to the start of the new year with the distant jubilation he heard. The walk alone was in part what he needed; time to think and lightly reflect. In both his birthday fire and New Year’s ice reflecting Eric contemplated in part on where is life might be going, in particular regarding relationships and settling down (staying in Edmonton vs. moving elsewhere - eventually). Eric returned home a little chilled, his walk was around 1.5 hours, yet he returned the year after he left; leaving in 2010, returning in 2011.
As 2011 started, Eric started to look for teaching work. Knowing that he was lacking a little in experience with students, he contacted Ottewell Junior High, in his neighbourhood, about volunteering as a Study Buddy (working either one on one or with a small group of students during the school day) again. He was accepted and volunteered for his second time at Ottewell, his first in the fall of 2009. This was in addition to his continued volunteering with LSL Robotics Club.
While gathering all his documents for the school board applications, Eric also attended the University of Alberta’s Education Career Fair. What ended up for him to be “in the right place at the right time.” Stopping to talk to a representative at Metro Continuing Education, he happened to mention having done a course in Lego Robotics, and involvement with the LSL Robotics Club. Immediately he was directed to talk to Gerald, an assistant principal, who informed Eric that Metro was looking to implement a Lego Robotics after school course almost immediately, and was looking for someone to not only teach it but create the course. Within a couple weeks Eric had a job with Metro, and a couple weeks later he was in the classroom learning probably more than the students he was teaching.
The robotics course Eric taught was funded by a group that promotes technology skills for students in inner city / low income schools, and geared to upper elementary students (grades 4-6). The course was at four different schools, and consisted of 24 teaching hours. Eric was to be teaching the Lego Robotics for only 12 of the teaching hours at each school. Each school had a teacher that then taught the other 12 hours in other robot or technology related content, the teacher of those 12 hours also assisted in the classroom when Eric was present with the Lego robots.
The four different schools (Riverdale, Abbott, Delton, and John A. MacDougal) presented Eric with many different opportunities to learn. Not only was he learning how to create a course and the course content, but he was also learning the difference between teaching junior high and upper elementary. He took a couple opportunities to also showcase the robots through Riverdale’s open house, and an assembly at Delton. Despite the learning curve, Eric enjoyed his time teaching the students, and watching them demonstrate their final robotic program.
Metro was not finished with Eric with the completion of the after school program. He was hired on briefly to oversee the writing of diploma exams. However, his bigger opportunity came with the running of a robotics summer camp during Metro’s Cool Schools Summer Camps in July. This time he had 15 hours with the students working with the robots. The summer camp consisted of a one week course; three hours in the morning with upper elementary students (grades 4-6), and three hours in the afternoon with junior high students (grades 7-9). This was then repeated for at total of three weeks. Eric continued to learn through most of his time teaching the summer camp. He especially noticed the vast differences between the grade 4 and 6 students, which encouraged him to differentiate his teaching and expectations for the different ages.
During this time a few family matters were occurring: In June Geert, Eric’s brother-in-law, successfully defended his PhD thesis on the same day that Eric crossed the stage at the Jubilee Auditorium; receiving his diploma for completing his B.Ed. Eric was honoured to have his parents (father David and mother Chris) finally attend one of his university convocations, and family friend Robin attend both of his convocations; the previous convocation in 2001 for a B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering.
July had more family excitement, starting off with Chris’ 65th birthday, where family and friends from across Canada came to celebrate. Next, Samara (Eric’s sister) and family (husband Geert, son Sebastian, daughter Klara) moved to Belgium. There were many activities around this, including family photo session in June by professional photographers, farewell parties, packing and clearing out of their condo (which David owns) into August, and the bitter-sweet passing on of their car to Eric; sad in that they were leaving, happy to get a car running on all cylinders (see ’34.5 Side Story Conclusion’ for more on the fate of his old car).
July was by far the most life changing month. Aside from Eric’s first full time teaching, and Samara and family moving away (Eric enjoyed the time he spent with his niece Klara, and nephew Sebastian), the loneliness feelings Eric had at his birthday fire and New Years ice walk bore their foreshadowing. . .
Wednesday 13 July: David drove Samara, Geert, Sebastian and Klara to the airport. Upon returning home, Chris, who had been experiencing more difficulties due to her health conditions, requested to be taken to the hospital for observation and hopefully a readjustment of her medications.
Monday 18 July: Eric started his last week teaching the robotics summer camp. That afternoon, when Eric went to visit his mother, he could see she was not in the best condition. His heart sank at seeing her in a foggy condition from the medication, which was not just her normal meds, but others to help her fight off an infection she had contracted.
Tuesday 19 July: In the middle of the day Eric got a call from his father that Chris had got worse. David had to make a few tough decisions, which Eric agreed appeared to be the best under the circumstances. Fear started to grip Eric; fear that Chris would not pull though. Before bed Eric said a variety of prayers for his mother’s health, lighting a candle as part of the ritual. As sleep took hold of Eric, he blew out the nearly gone candle, with a tear in his eye and an unsettled heart. In the middle of the night Eric was awoken to the phone ringing, it was David calling to say that Chris had had a heart attack. Eric, unable to sleep, but too tired to drive to the hospital right away, spent about half an hour going through all his digitized photos, pulling out all the ones of his mother. Emotions racing through him as the thoughts of what this meant churned in his head. After finding the photos of his mother, Eric settled in for a few more hours of sleep.
Wednesday 20 July: Eric got up early and quickly showered before heading to the hospital, where he met up with his father at his mother’s side. Moments later the doctor came to talk to them about Chris’ condition, which was that any moment she could slip away; something not surprising after the events of the past couple days. Upon returning to Chris’s side, David and Eric found Robin, a good family friend, had also come in. The next moments were filled with silent respect as each one reflected on Chris’ life and the suddenness of her now passing. After the moment came, everyone said their final goodbye. Eric decided he would continue on to the school and work, partly because he knew it would be something his mother would want him to do; to get on to the important work, and mourn when the time is right. Also because Eric felt he had made a promise to the students to help guide them in discovering what they can make their robots do, and, as he found out during the day, the act of teaching kept his mind occupied long enough to get through the day.
As everyone deals with loss in their own time and manner, Eric is slowly dealing with it. At both the suggestion of his father, and the knowledge that his mother would say the same, Eric continued on with some of his plans for the rest of July and August. However he also spent time helping out and supporting his father through the funeral and Celebration of Life preparations.
Earlier in the summer Eric has entered a contest and won half off an all inclusive back country camping trip in Olympic National Park, Washington. This trip was the first weekend of August. Eric decided to visit Seattle before the trip, as he had other commitments afterwards back in Edmonton. It was Eric’s first time to Seattle but was grateful to be able to stay with friends of his sister and family; David Unger and family. While in Seattle he did the tourist things, like going up the Space Needle, visiting the EMP (Experience Music Project) science fiction and music museum, taking the Underground Tour, and walking around downtown. He also bought an utilikilt, and met some of his fellow campers before the hike.
The back country camping trip was part of the launch of a new wilderness guide company called Scenic Boy Adventures and was for four days: 2 days into the Enchanted Valley of Olympic National Park and another 2 days out. Eric enjoyed the scenery, the company (the great guides Dusty and Garet, and the other participants Jon, Brad, Guthrie, Scott and Jamie), and the chance to get away.
Back in Edmonton, Eric continued on with his plans: volunteering for the 30th Edmonton Fringe Festival, and making a quilt out of the t-shirts from his 20 years of volunteering (including this year’s shirt). As well as assisting in the preparation for the Celebration of Life for Chris at the end of the Fringe week. Because of this commitment Eric saw only three plays over the 10 days (all in one evening).
Chris’ Celebration of Life in Edmonton was a touching event, with many of her friends and colleagues showing up to pay their respects. Family members at this event were primarily Edmonton family (husband David, son Eric, niece Katrina & her husband Kris), with Samara and Klara returning for the occasion, and David’s brother Kem and his wife Sheila coming from Ontario. A second Celebration of Life, with more of Chris’ family, was held in Ottawa the following week. It too was a touching event, and Eric found it also a great opportunity to catch up with and meet many of his Ontarian relatives. (If you would like to read more about Chris, or leave a comment, feel free to check out the memorial blog in her name: http://chrisjonesmemorial.blogspot.com/ )
We end this chapter with Eric having spent a few days in Ottawa, after his mother’s Celebration of Life. He spent that time sightseeing during the day while his father, David, attended a conference. Eric’s friend and housemate Zack also joined David and Eric for those couple days, having a Liberal Party debrief after running as a candidate in the Federal election in May.
No comments:
Post a Comment