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Austin's LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | | 7:35 pm |
D&D and teaching
I had to write a short essay about teaching. I related teaching to RPGs. “In your role as Dungeon Master, you're the focus of the game. Dungeon Mastering involves writing, teaching, acting, refereeing, arbitrating, and facilitating. You'll find that you like some duties more than others. As in any hobby, focus on what you enjoy the most, but remember that all the other duties are also important.” (Cook et al, 5) “Increase your players fun quotient by following these simple principals: Read your players: Few players, even when directly prompted, can tell you outright what they're looking for in a D&D game. By observing indirect cues, you can get a better read on your players than they can usually give you. Something for everyone: Once you know what your players want, you can take steps to cater to each of them, collectively or turn.” Keep the energy level up: Maintain your focus and sense of excitement. Use simple presentational techniques to project that excitement to your players. Keep it moving: As in any form of entertainment, pacing is everything. Learn to nudge, shape, and prod the action to minimize boredom without taking away your players' sense of control over their characters' actions. Be Prepared: Whether you're blessed with loads of prep time or cursed with too little, ensure that you use the time you have to your best advantage.” (Decker et al, 5) The artifact I selected is a picture of one of the main rule books of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), with some selected quotes from it, and it's sequel. As one of the rule books, it represents the majority of my experiences with the hobby of Role Playing Games (RPG). This is because in most RPGs there are two roles, the role of the storyteller (known as a Dungeon Master [or DM] in D&D) and the role of the player (known as a Player Character [or PC]). I typically fill the role of the DM, while my friends are the PCs. RPGs are essentially about communal storytelling. The PCs improvise the actions and dialogue of the protagonists of the story, while the DM improvises for the supporting characters and designs a plot with objectives that the PCs typically follow. The interactions between the PCs and the characters, objects, and challenges around them ideally yield very interesting stories that are enjoyable for all. I selected this artifact because RPGs are a big part of my life. It's one of the things that binds my friends and myself, and it always provides interesting, if often unexpected, stories. However, something I realized during my Child and Adolescent Development course was how close the role of the good DM is to the role of the good teacher. A DM should prepare an outline for the session of roleplaying ahead. A DM should be able to guide his/her PCs back towards the main plot when they inevitably get distracted, but do so gently, so the PCs don't feel they have lost all control. A DM should be able to keep the PCs interested in what the DM has to say. While a DM is the source of the story, they must also recognize that they are not the protagonist, and that the PCs must develop in their own unique ways. Many of these duties closely resemble some of the things that teachers need to do to be successful. My strong attachment to RPGs and the constant presence they have been through much of my life has certainly had a hand in shaping me as a person. The Self/Teacher Development Knowledge Base Strand is definitely relevant to my experiences with RPGs because of all the unexpected similarities between the skills of a good DM and a good teacher. I've been playing various RPGs for 9 years now and I've usually been the DM for 8 of those years. When I discovered that DMs and teachers were so similar I learned that my favourite hobby, which I had long thought to be of little value outside of entertainment, had taught me many important skills, which were also very relevant to my chosen profession. This more than anything has increased the strength of my belief that teaching can and should be fun for both the students and the teacher. It has also made me look to other things I enjoy for inspiration and for possible teaching related lessons they may have inadvertently taught me. I am now regularly looking for other skills that RPGs might give me. I want to find out what else they have to offer me. I also want to find a way to share RPGs with others, whether they are my students or colleagues, though I fear that the stigma that often accompanies RPGs may be too difficult a barrier for many to overcome. | | 5:14 pm |
Thought for the day
I hate the word predicate. Why use that word? Why not use base, or found. No! He predicated his book on the idea of such and such. SHUT UP YOU FUCKER! HE BASED IT! BASED IT! FOUNDED IT IF YOU MUST! Predicate. Go die in a fire. | | Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | | 3:56 pm |
Thought for the day - Weird Dream
Last night I had a dream that I was walking home and my neighbour ran out from the side of his house in a bathrobe and slippers, and yelled "RUN! IT'S coming!" I looked at him as he ran past with a large kitchen knife. Then chasing him was a fucking deer. One of the big male ones, but without antlers. It ran at me and I dodged out of the way but then t turned and knocked me on the ground. It tried to bite me but bit my arm instead and wouldn't let go. I then realized why my neighbour had a large knife. I looked around for some kind weapon but there was nothing handy, so I had to grab a large pointy stick and stab the deer repeatedly in the neck. Finally it died, and my arm was only bruised from the bite not bleeding. My neighbour came back and I asked him "Why was there a deer chasing you? Where did it come from?" Then there was a rumbling and his eyes widened in fear. He started to run, and I realized there was probably a good reason for that. I started to run after him. There was a big crash sound, I looked back and there was a huge herd of similar deer that burst from my neighbour's house like in Jumanji. We kept running and then ducked into an apartment building, heading for the elevators. I pressed all the up buttons and waited for an elevator anxiously. Finally one came, I ran in and held the open door button as my neighbour caught up. He burst into the elevator and I started to let the door close, but I heard someone yell "WAIT FOR ME!" So I pressed the open door button again and Chris Tucker came into the elevator wearing a suit. The doors started to close again, when another person shouted "DON'T LEAVE ME!" and they stuck their arm in the closing door so that it started opening again. It was Sting. But before the elevator opened enough for him to get in he looked to his side and then ran off out of the apartment. A fat hairy balding guy in jeans and a wife beater ran after Sting holding a gun and then pointed it at us in the elevator and said "Don't try anything funny." He then headed after Sting. I realized that his gun was fake as he started to put a silencer (fake to my eyes) on his gun. I ran out and tackled him outside the apartment building. He dropped his gun, I sat on his back, and Chris Tucker followed me. I said "What were you thinking trying to scare someone with such an obviously fake gun." The fat guy said "What are you talking about it's real!" I replied with "Would a real gun be blowing away in the wind?" as the gun blew around in the wind and then disappeared down an alley. Chris Tucker said "You stupid motherfucker!" and slammed his face into the curb. Then Chris Tucker and I became bounty hunting partners. | | Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | | 3:36 am |
Thought for the day
I'm really glad I kept an lj during high school. I've got about 3 years worth of entries. They seem so funny now. Immature, unimportant, touching, sad, and fun. They make me miss the good things about high school, like hanging out at the art building with friends. I have no friends at UofT. I have acquaintances of course, but no friends, and I miss that aspect of high school. Heh, I reread my lj like once every 3 months. To anyone who actually reads this I'd recommend going back and rereading your lj. | | Thursday, February 19th, 2009 | | 5:13 pm |
Thought for the day
I wish that my passion was something that I could make a career out of. I'm in university for teaching but that's not really my passion. I enjoy teaching, and I think I'll be a good one, but it's not like I'd rather be in a teaching class than doing something else. I'm envious of those whose passions are profitable, and I wish I knew how to make my passion profitable as well. Unfortunately to make mine profitable risk is a necessity. I don't care so much for risk. | | Monday, January 26th, 2009 | | 10:46 pm |
Thought for the day
Optimism is to believe that things can get better. Pessimism is to believe that things will get worse. Optimism is to strive. To keep on keeping on. Pessimism is to not bother. To accept inevitability. Optimism is to live. Pessimism is to die. | | Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 | | 12:19 pm |
| | Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 | | 12:50 am |
Thought for the day
The Green Giant and the Kool-Aid Man should team up and fight crime. Bijoux would make lousy tupperware. Can you imagine if they did a Fresh Prince of Bel Air movie but made the whole cast white? | | Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 | | 1:43 am |
Thought for the day
Sometimes I feel like I no longer live in the real world. No longer live in the present. That only what I think about exists and I don't actually register what I see or hear unless I think about it directly. | | Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | | 12:19 pm |
Thought for the day
I just had my Children's Lit essay and it went ok. However, it was incredibly fun to write if only for the last paragraph of my essay question. I wrote about The Jolly Postman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jolly_Postman). Particularly about how he's a sad and lonely person who can only find solace in his work. His work then consumes him to the point where the only way he has to meet people is through delivering them their mail, which can be seen when he stays the afternoon at a child's birthday party but just sits in the corner alone. He's not even given a name further showing how his identity is solely based around his occupation. When he finally does finish work, rather than go out and have a social life, he sits alone at home READING MAIL. Such a sad little man. | | Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 | | 11:40 pm |
Thought for the day
I've been so damned busy I haven't had time for daily thoughts lately. Which upsets me. | | Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | | 5:59 pm |
Thought for the day
I wonder if the reason that birds don't usually get hit by cars is because they ride the air hat flows around the car like a wave. Is there any real difference between ignoring a beggar, lying that you have no change, or simply telling them you won't give them any? I like it when people ask me for directions because it makes me feel good, and like I am accumulating some good karma which I think I need. I wonder how a person walking down the street would react if you observed the look on their face and you came up to them and said something like "you look upset, are you ok?" or "I'm glad you're in a good mood." | | Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 | | 5:39 pm |
Thought for the day
There are some things in life between two or more people that are assumed to be known by all involved parties. These things maybe aren't said as often as they should be. They need to be said to remind everyone that they haven't been forgotten or are no longer true. If you read this, you should go to a family member you love or a friend you cherish and tell them so. They know it, you know it, but it can mean a lot to actually say it. | | 12:17 am |
Thought for the day
I'm jealous of my brother because of his music. Not because I wish I was good at musical stuff, but because I wish my hobbies could be appreciated by more people. I mean sure some people can admire a well executed RPG session (namely geeks), or a nicely painted warhammer model (also geeks), but if I tried explaining said session to my mom, or showing my model to a family friend they'd essentially go "Super job, sport!" and really have no fucking clue what I was talking about. That is why I'm jealous. | | Thursday, November 20th, 2008 | | 11:16 pm |
Thought for the day
I hadn't realized cognitively that it was snowing and all the implications that go along with said snow until about 11:30pm last night despite the fact that I had been out and about all day. It felt like spring outside today which was weird since it should feel like winter or like winter's approaching. Also, I almost wrote springtime. Then I RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGEEEEEEEEDD DDDDDDDDD!!! Fuck you Springtime! I hate your guts! | | Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | | 10:44 pm |
Thought for the day
I realized during Children's Lit that I seriously ship Pippi Longstocking, Tommy, and Annika in having a strange polygamist relationship thing. That's a bizarre thing to realize, it also makes me feel bad. Also Pippi embodies Rule 36 ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rule+36) in a way because the stories she tells are about how no matter what a person does it's normal to somewhere in the world which helps children readers deal with their quirks. Kind of similar. Also, turns out that a guy I hung out with in grade 6 is in my Children's Lit class. I really want to rekindle my friendship with him because he was the nicest guy I hung out with in grade 6. Lastly, I really like Doesn't Remind Me by Audioslave. Just thought I'd add that. | | 9:23 am |
Thought for the day
So I've got a little puppy now. I must have been insane to agree to helping take care of it. I'm the one who has to get up at all hours of the night to let it go outside to pee. I also came home yesterday to a very unpleasant kitchen. We kept Bijoux in the kitchen with a gate and my kitchen is what 3' by 6' at the most. We put down newspaper at the back of the kitchen and her blankets by the gate. When I got home the only thing that DIDN'T have shit on it was the newspaper. And of course I had to clean it. On a related note I had a VERY fucked up dream the other night. I was having dinner with my family when a knock comes at the door. It's a UPS guy delivering a package for me. I open it and inside is a DVD and several inflated balloons. The balloons, despite being inflated, have human feces inside. I'm WTFing and horribly embarrassed because my mom and brother saw this. After getting rid of the balloons I watch the DVD in confusion. It's from some chick who I had never met before. Apparently I sent her some chain letter that told a person to do their wildest fantasy immediately or they'd get bad luck then to email the results to the person who sent them the email. She had read it as "mail the results" and her wildest fantasy was apparently shitting in balloons and then inflating them. The DVD had her not only explaining the situation, and her thanking me for freeing her, but also a recording of her shitting into one of the balloons and then inflating it. Sometimes I hate my mind. P.S. I bought a digital audio recorder to record a) my thoughts, b) rp sessions, c) classroom observations, d) lectures, and e) inebriated ramblings. | | Saturday, November 15th, 2008 | | 7:53 pm |
Thought for the day
An interesting idea for a dystopia would be one where the citizens were preconditioned so that if someone said the commonly known trigger the person would have to tell the truth about a question. People COULD lie but if someone wanted the truth they could get it no hassle. But would they WANT to have this kind of access? There are some things where people prefer lies. Then there'd be a rare few who either have changed their trigger or don't have one at all for some reason and they could lie as much as they want and people would think it was the truth. | | Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | | 5:44 pm |
Thought for the day
I realized today that eventually I'm going to retire and when I do so I'm going to need shit to do. That got me thinking about my hobbies. Am I still going to be RPing when I'm 60? Hell, is D&D even going to still be around in 40 years? What about warhammer? All I ever hear about Games Workshop is that they are having financial troubles. Video games will still be around unless something drastic happens (I'm looking at you 2012) but what will they be like? Will I need some kind of implant to play? I fear the future if only for the sake of my hobbies. | | Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | | 9:08 pm |
Thought for the day
I need to finish making my warhammer. I've got models for 3 armies to make. A lot of models. As in 2 armies worth. I really spent a lot on them, but they were at huge discounts and this was a while ago so I don't feel bad about the expenditure. I recently discovered that I'm not nearly as screwed for tuition as I thought I was. I'm only $1000 short instead of $2000. Now I feel like I'm forcing it in this post. |
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