Confessions of the Acting Associate Chair – Week 3

With a busy week 3 wrapping up, I present to you my 3rd installment of my confessions email. The strike free addition! I am so happy and a little surprised at the number of people that have stopped me in the halls and commented on how much they look forward to this peek into and around the School of Communication Arts. Please keep the feedback coming (and maybe the criticism too).

What I learned this week!
Well this could almost be what I didn’t learn this week, as it started with a class visit to Michael Smith’s NAT150 – Human Sexuality class… Lets just say I was fairly confident that I would be able to handle the week three class on female / male anatomy, given my happy 12-year marriage (19 years together) and my two beautiful girls. That made the 62.5% on the 24-question true false test a little concerning. In fact, I had to rush home and hit the books and study all night. I am so glad that I found my original 1991 textbook from the first time I was a student in this same class with the same Mr. Smith (I earned a B on my transcript).

I turned my academic aspirations toward Corporate Media Production, and visited A CMP class on teambuilding, facilitated by Michael Curran. What a great class, with a very participatory group, narrowing down the big four of teambuilding to respect, communication, trust and leadership. It was great insight into the dynamics of the CMP program and their strong group of 4th semester students.

Faculty News
This week, there where two stories of “accomplishments in their fields” with SCA faculty, and although you may have heard some of the news before, I wanted to spotlight it again.

Peter Houston was acknowledged in an online story about the NEW CTV recording of the famous Hockey Night In Canada Theme. It would seem that our very own Peter was the original recording engineer and was consulted by the new team of engineers on mixing the latest version of the song. But it doesn’t stop there… Current TV faculty members, Michael Nunan and Paul Sellers were the supervising engineers and Seneca Grad – Brian Sheridan also worked on the project. Congratulations to all involved! For the Canada.com article here is the link!(http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=5d934378-322a-493e-a85c-39d2e6735473&k=62954)

Great news for IMP faculty member Linda M (www.lindam.org) who found out this week that her L.A. publisher is so happy with the interest in her work, and the placement of her songs over the last 5 years, that they have renewed her contract! Linda, an award winning songwriter shares the skill of crafting a song with her IMP students.

If you have some good news to share please let me know!

Baby News!
We are happy to report that Michael Curran welcomed to his family, a 102 pound golden retriever named BECKER. We were also happy to welcome a very young and cute visitor to the halls of SCA this week, with the surprise drop in of little Sheyla and her proud father Mark of course. For a great insight on family life for our Associate Chair, check out his great holiday video! (http://www.cyberstage.org/photos/sheyla_firstxmas/). Watch for her in the IMP program in 18 years.

Seneca / YORK Joint students
With the end of the strike, YORK has released their plan on an adjusted fall and wither schedule and it will certainly impact on our 46 Seneca / YORK joint students. As a result, of the increased YORK work / class load, we have asked all the coordinators to pass on messages to their entire faculty regarding doing what we can to support our students in completing what they need too do to get back on track. If there is anything I can do to help you or your students, please let me know.

On a Personal Note
Back to things I learned this week for a second… I personally am having a great time in this new role, and feel that I am learning something about the school, the faculty, programs and myself each and every day. This week, I was also taught things at home, that can apply to us all so I would like the share them with you. First my daughter Jordyn, who is 9, and very nervous about public speaking, got an A on her speech. This taught me that its ok to say you are scared about doing something, as long as you have a little support and you try it anyway – you CAN succeed. My 6-year-old Julia taught me the importance of positive affirmation… Nathalie and I read a great entry in her grade one journal… “My name is Julia. I am in grade 1. My eyes are green. My hair is brown. I like to sing when I’m at school. I like being me”

I enjoy singing at school and I like being me too!

Thanks! 3 down and 11 to go.
Jim