Confessions of a...

Well have I messed up counting or what…. I did not count the study week, or the promo-meeting week in my original total number of these confession e-mails so I now present to you 1 of two bonus editions of the confessions e-mail, the study week version.

Campus life
During the study week, when I am teaching I use the time to catch up on marking and curriculum planning and maybe some beauty sleep, but this week I have gained a new perspective on life at Seneca in week 7B. SEQ was a buzz of activity! Painters fixing walls and slapping a new coat of shine on some tired walls, technicians moving equipment, setting up new equipment or the all important repairing old equipment and students using the “no class” time to get caught up on their own work. So much so that according to their calculations, AV technical services is reporting that this was the busiest study weeks in recent years, so thanks to all for working hard this week!

Print Shop
The print shop has not only go through its own transformation over the last few weeks with regard to services and staff and procedures, but this week it got a face lift in the form of an early spring clean and don’t forget about “Anna’s Crazy Sale” that is still on with prices so low, the manufactures are not allowing me to advertise them here. Look for the late night infomercial soon on youtube!

Review Time
In my role, I would be remiss if I did not mention some official policy stuff about half way through the semester procedures. Now would be a good time to acknowledge the students in your class, that for whatever reason, are falling behind and may be in jeopardy of not passing the course. Sending the students an academic advisement form does two things. First it tells the student that you care and see a potential problem, and that you are willing to help them and second, it gives you a chance to avoid a possible misunderstanding with the student on their marks in week 14. Forms are available in the photocopy room, or I can send you an electronic version if you ask me.

Power of Positive
In the vain of the last thought about review time, it is a good time to pick 2 or 3 students that are going the extra mile, and send them an email with an acknowledgment of some kind. I know personally I work harder knowing my effort is being recognized and I am sure I am not the only one so take time to tell your students they are doing a good job, and you actually will feel good as well.

In closing
I am sorry, this bonus confessions e-mail is coming to a close and it ends up being much shorter then previous weeks, so I encourage you to take the extra time that you would have spent reading it to get outside and find a couple of signs that spring is around the corner!

Enjoy your weekend, hug a family member, and call an old friend you have not talked to in a while, and get yourself ready for the home stretch and week 8, coming in just 70 hours.

Thanks! 7 (+1) down and 7 (+1) to go.
Jim

With a very busy week that marks the halfway point of the semester I am pleased to present to you the fully inspired, fat free – lent addition of the confessions e-mail (I am giving up sarcasm).

Student Success x 3
I love to point out student success stories when I get them and I know that this was sent to all staff already but congratulations to Paul Morrison from the DMA program for winning the WordCamp Toronto Logo Design Contest. 167 students from Colleges and Universities across Toronto entered and the judges selected Paul’s submission. You can see his work and read more http://phug.ca/wordcamptoronto/index.php/updates/logo-design-contest-winner.

James Cullingham attended the Colleges Premier’s Awards as the guest of a JBC grad – Azra Rashid. Azra was a nominee and as such was acknowledged in a procession and received a plaque from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Seneca grad and part-time professor Igal Hecht will have his film “Shield of Solomon” shown on CBC’s – DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL March 3rd at 10PM. Congratulations to Igal for a ever growing body of work that challenges, makes people talk and brings to light issues around the world the effects us all. You rock Igal!

Thursday was the busiest day ever at Seneca…
CAB
The fourth semester CAB students presented their campaigns to a large group of faculty, staff students and industry representatives like Myan Marcen-Gaudaur form Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival who had this to say:

“I just wanted to convey my sincerest gratitude for the opportunity you granted Planet in Focus. I was bowled over by the sagacity, thoroughness and creative diversity demonstrated in each presentation. These kids have enormous professional potential and much of the maturity, talent and skills they embodied today are owed in part to the work, wisdom and leadership of the four of you.”

Congratulations to all CAB faculty especially John Adams, Tom Keane, Paul Curtin and Billy Sharma for setting this event up.

GRA
8 groups of 3 GRA students presented their TAVIS concepts to members of the Toronto Police services, including the deputy chief on Thursday and they did a great job. The deputy chief was very impressed with the work and effort to this point in the TAVIS project, right from the great research completed 3 months ago, to the creation of a new logo and tag line. They will now review the proposals and come up with a selection for the next aspect of the project.

JBC
The entire RTV470 – JBC documentary class attended a lecture on documentary filmmaking given to Public History M.A. students at the University of Western Ontario. The lecture was presided over by Sunny Yi (Seneca part time faculty member) and featured guest lecture – James Cullingham.

Weather Network
Representatives from the Weather Network dropped in to SCA this week to watch RTVT and JBC students put on their “weather” inspired news magazine show. They were very impressed with the students and the show, so much so they want to work out an agreement to work with Seneca more closely. This will add to our already good relationship with the Weather Network who have hired many of or grads.

Things you don’t know about me
After last week’s confessions e-mail, I received only a few “things you didn’t know about me” responses. I found it funny that two of our most loved and dedicated faculty members where each voted most likely to fail (Michael Smith and Peter Houston) so thanks for sharing guys! Thanks also to Ron Erwin for teasing me with a story about a picture he took in Temagami of his feet. I have nothing more of the story then that but look forward to buying him a couple of drinks at the upcoming SCA pub (March 18 in the Hive), and hopefully I will be able to coax more of it out.

In closing
4 years ago this week we lost a great Senecan, ambassador, professor, coordinator and a dear Friend, and I wanted to tell you how much Michael Monty meant to me. The first time I met Michael was as a student in a radio class at Seneca in 1990. An inspirational and motivating teacher, Michael held the classes’ attention like an orchestra conductor and was one of the first instructors to make me say to myself “wow, that teaching looks like fun”. He inspired me to always do my best and when I started to teach part-time he always had time for me and was willing to share and seemed to like motivating me to become a better teacher. It was Michael that got me involved in the BEAC and the OAB two organizations that he felt so strongly about and two organizations that have awards named in his honour.

I don’t often dream of work, but found myself this morning between snooze alarms. I was walking down a hall and passed by a room with some man sitting with Michael Monty. It was great to see him typing away at his computer and he looked up and smiled at me and was going to say something to me just as the alarm went off. I sure wish I was able to hear what he was going say… I do miss his voice.

For fear of ending on a little bit of a sad note, I will add this… My daughters are joining me today at work, thanks to a PA day at their school, and as they skip from Anna’s office to Karen’s and back again, I think to myself “wow remember when we where that excited about being anywhere?”
Well next week I am excited about being here all week! Safe reading everyone!

Thanks! 7 down and 7 to go.
Jim

I have to confess that in my last e-mail I made a few mistakes. OK well 2 mistakes and an omission. So the true confession edition of my weekly email look at SCA – for week 6 starts now.

Correction 1
After long debate, and a fruitless campaign, I was unable to convince Richard Slaven to change his sir name to my suggested “Slavin”, as typed in the last update. I understand how that trying to erase hundreds of years of history and in so changing his family’s lineage is both unfair to the established good name, and irresponsible on my part. I sincerely apologize to both Richard and his family.

Correction 2
Thanks again to JoAnn Purcell for pointing out in her response to the last e-mail, the mistake I made after attending her class. What I meant to say in my last e-mail was “add the complimentary colour to make it darker, ie. Add yellow to purple or green to red to darken its value instead of adding black.” I have arranged to attend an extra colour class in the future to work out my understanding complimentary colours.

Omission from last week
Thanks to Paul Shecter for reminding me that I did attend a meeting with his latest clients for the GRA class – Design For Social Change. In addition to the major project underway for TAVIS, the class, along with a large group of CAB students, under the guidance of Janet Symmons is developing the research for the next BIG SCA wide project for Traffic safety. Both Paul and Donna Saccutelli will the lead the GRA class and steer the involvement from a large group of SCA programs with the clients. Keep an eye out for upcoming updates and requests for meetings.

Budget!
Jed emerged from a darkened office, victories in a cents (like the play on words there?)… It looks like what he has been able to submit to the powers, is a budget only slightly lower then last year and that was a tremendous feat… considering that most every expense for SCA went up. He was able to move some software purchases to the remainder of this year. We will see what happens over the next few weeks when it is all reviewed with the entire budget.

In Class
This week I dropped in on Phillip Woolf’s 1st semester – AFD – life drawing class and I have the sketchpad to prove it. I have always appreciated the skill in being able to create a beautiful picture from a blank piece of paper, but having had the chance to try it in this environment myself, my appreciation is even greater. YES, Phillip did the best work in my sketchpad, while he used it to demonstrate the techniques of form and structure, but I have a couple of pages in there that I am a little proud of. Look for them on eBay one day or at least my office wall. Feel free to drop in and take a look. Thanks again to Phillip for inviting me. Next week, a Jim Zubkavich animation class!

Print Shop
The SCA print shop prices are going to be slashed!!! We encourage all faculty to pass the word onto the students that the prices are being reduced so please look for more information on this coming from Anna next week.

NHL stars??
I love sharing happy family news from SCA and this week JoAnn Purcell told me about a special moment her children Luc and Madeleine had playing timbits hockey between periods at a Leaf’s game last week. It would seem that Luc scored the only goal and was interviewed on the Jumbo-tron during a break in action. Look for both of the hockey stars to be featured in an upcoming “You Tube” video. Ric, the proud father and a talented filmmaker, had the whole thing covered in HD, from multiple angles, and should be putting together a feature real soon!

In closing
After getting my 3rd request on Facebook for doing “25 random things about me” list, I was thinking if I just had to narrow it down to 1 thing what would that be and I came up with this.

I was a science fair nerd in school and 25 years ago this week, my thoughts where on the upcoming Gordon A. Brown science fair. My best friend at the time and myself put together a plan to develop a “fuel efficient” car. We used the word “hybrid” before it was cool to use it! Our car had an electric drive system that was powered by a large battery array that was charged by both solar panels and a small propane engine that powered a generator. We build a small model of what the car would look like that had a working electric motor and solar panel but no engine (we couldn’t find one that was only 3 inches long!). We placed 1st at our school, 1st place for the board wide science fair and then represented East York at the provincial science fair. In the end, with Marc Garneau (the first Canadian in space) giving us our award, we placed 3rd in our division.

So what does it mean to you? I think we all need to remember where we have been, be proud of what we have accomplished, and remember to share it with others so now its your turn. Take a moment, and jot down something interesting about yourself and send it to me… I would love to share it with others in upcoming confessions e-mails.

Thanks! 6 down and 8 to go.
Jim