A Big Thank You

Thank you to all of you who will be participating in one of the first ever courses on black hair politics done online. All of the 50 participants are pioneers and part of history. I thank you all for joining. I apologize to anyone who wanted to join the group and could not. The participation far exceeded my expectations. This is absolutely terrific! God Bless you all!

The course starts on Monday, July 19th. The ebook from the course will be made available for free on Lulu.com and will let everyone know about it.

Research Participants

Hello!

I'm looking for as many participants as possible, from all different walks of life and cultural backgrounds, etc., to participate in a survey on my online multimedia magazine Donna: http://kakonged.wordpress.com. The topic is the politics of black hair. I look forward to your participation.

All participants will later be invited to be extraordinary students in a free online course linked to the politics of black hair that would last over four months and be targeted to young and old adults - and everyone in between like me. After completing the survey, please send me an email to both: dkakonge@sympatico.ca and dkakonge@gmail.com to avoid computer problems.

The cap of enrollment for the online global course is 300 people. That is about all this teacher, journalist, author can deal with at max. I would like to fill it to maximum, so please - participate, help, learn and grow. Times of the classes will be flexible and will be modeled after a University of Toronto course I have taken at U of T. U of T is also the school where I am currently a PhD student at.

Thanks again!

Cheers,
Donna

Unexpected Update

The power went out in my neighbourhood this afternoon. I'm at a local cafe sipping on cafe and waiting for the power to come back. It could of even come back by now. I miss my home.

I must say it was kind of nice having the lights out. I lit some candles and sat outside talking to my Dad who lives next door. I got some news last night about a dear, dear friend of mine and I have dealing with that. Really...the news is so devastating that it is something he is going to have to deal with for the rest of his life. It's a good thing that he is such a strong and stable person that I know he will get through it just fine.

I'm reading through some curriculum theory and actually starting to find it easier to understand. It's going to take me awhile with this one. I am sure after some years, I will be able to sprout all this theory into plain language and teach a class with it if I am so inclined. The prospects are exciting.

Well, off I go. I do not want my coffee to get cold.

June Update

Wow, how time flies! I can hardly believe we are all halfway through the year. This year has been an interesting one for me. Getting into OISE/University of Toronto was realizing a dream I have had for years now. I am so excited about being in the program and now I am coming very close to completing my first course in the program.

I'm currently working on a dissertation proposal on the politics of black hair. I am thinking of branching this idea out to discuss hair in general. There is so much to include on this topic, and so many great works that have come out since I started this research back in 1998 that I am really glad that I am revisiting it.

My teaching with Ryerson for the Spring/Summer semesters this year is drawing to a close. It has been a wonderful experience that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I have applied to teach there for the fall, and will be applying to teach for the Chang School again in the fall too. I am hoping that by keeping my bases covered, something will pan out.

I am also still waiting to hear about teaching with Seneca@York for the fall as well. I will be teaching there for the summer semester. The course I will be teaching is media writing. I am really looking forward to it, especially since this is a course I really enjoy teaching. I am fortunate that I consistently receive courses that I really enjoy to teach.

Well...it's getting late and I better start preparing for bed. Even though my inner financial advisor is against it, I am having Crystal Clear Maids come in and clean for me on Sunday morning. I tried cleaning myself again, however I am just guiltily addicted to the expert clean that this company provides. There is supposed to be a great Jewish Festival happening in Toronto on Sunday, so if you are in town, you should check it out. Plus, there are also great games with the World Cup to catch. An old friend of mine is hosting the games, Kim Brunhuber. He's doing a fantastic job. We went to school together at Carleton University.

Whatever you do tomorrow, especially if you are in Toronto, the weather is supposed to be cloudy, but a high of 26 C. Not too bad. Enjoy yourself!

May Update

Hello everyone!

I started my PhD program as a full-time student officially on May 3, 2010. I am taking one online course in foundations of curriculum with Dr. Heather Sykes and an in-class course with Dr. Stephanie Springgay on arts-based research. I am enjoying both tremendously.

With the online course, it is really interesting how you can respond to the discussion postings, as well as produce work that has links to videos, podcasts and include stories from blogs and photographs. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I have not received any marks back yet, however I hope the fact I am having a lot of fun with it is an indication that I am doing well.

The arts-based research class is a blast too. On the first day we all learned some fascinating things about the origin of arts-based research, as well as some of the schools of thought on the topic. On the second day, we went down to Trinity Square Video at 401 Richmond St. W. in Toronto and saw three documentaries and a piece of video art. It was a lot of fun. We all went to a café after and discussed what we saw. On the third day, we made felt in class and Dr. Springgay mentioned that unlike knitting, when you make felt it cannot be undone. It got me thinking that creating dreadlocks, or locks for hair, is like this too. Once you do them, they cannot be undone. Tonight I will be doing a presentation for that class. Soon I will also check Blackboard to see about my discussion posting for the new unit in the foundations class and then off I go to Centennial for the afternoon to present at a conference about a trip I took to Germany.

My teaching at Ryerson is thoroughly enjoyable. Last night we watched Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero. I really enjoyed seeing the film again, since it had been decades since I had seen it before. It's funny what you remember.

So these main three things are the bulk of my life over May and June. When July comes, I will be teaching media writing at Seneca College, plus taking two more courses at the University of Toronto. I will be taking Schooling in Hollywood Movies, as well as Education and Popular Culture. Both these courses are in different departments than the CTL (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning) one I am in. I am looking forward to them.

I hope everyone is enjoying May! The weather has been cool in Toronto, however I feel very optimistic that it will pick up.

More of an April Update

Things continue to go great through the blessings of God. I am really excited about starting my PhD coursework at OISE/University of Toronto. I start in May. I have now paid my fees and looking forward to getting my Robarts library card activated so I can make full use of their wonderful resource. OISE looks as though they have a good library too.

I found out some terrific news lately. I will be teaching a dramatic writing course at Ryerson University's Chang School. This is in continuing education. The contract should come in the mail by Thursday. I'm really looking forward to this. I have been sent the course outline and I now have the required text that looks really interesting to teach from as a base. I have seen the movies we will be screening and it's going to be a really exciting class over May and June.

For July and August I will be teaching the second half of media writing, taking over from the esteemed Roger McTair at Seneca College. I'm really looking forward to that too. I have an interview for another teaching job this Monday coming up, plus finally a face-to-face interview for some bilingual consulting work I have been working on in French and English. Things are looking good. I had another interview on Tuesday for some occasional work with a consulting firm working with the University of Toronto and I should know for sure about that by Friday.

I have completed my work at George Brown College. I learned a lot while I was there and the students were absolutely excellent. I'm just wrapping everything up with Centennial College and also wrapping things up for the winter semester with Seneca College. My latest book has been Teaching Curriculum Ideas. My book sales have not been too bad, however I am really looking forward to the booth I have rented at the Word on the Street Festival in September that takes place in Toronto.

My recent intern Chris Temelkos from Seneca College is working out really well. I found out that my hunch about Rachel Muenz's career was right. She is a former intern of mine on Donna, and now will be working for a newspaper in Saskatchewan, Canada. I'm so happy for her. She will do excellent work I know for sure. I know she will really enjoy her experience too. Another one of my more recent students, Jonathan McGill, who is actually related to one of the founders of McGill University, is an extremely talented singer. Please check out his MySpace page by following the link posted up on my magazine at: http://kakonged.wordpress.com.

I was recently a guest on a show with host Robin Marvel (her real name) on "Live out Loud." It was a lot of fun. On the show I discussed a lot of things, as well as a play I was going to be in at Artscape Wychwood Barns in my neighbourhood. It turns out I will no longer be in the play. The experience helped me to fully realize that I should stick with what I know - the nuts and bolts of what my business is about (freelance communication). Well, it was a great experience and I got a chance to work briefly with some really amazing people.

The wonderful thing about the play experience is that every black woman I met associated with it was wearing her natural black hair. It was a great experience and I am still pondering if this project could work into part of my research for my dissertation on hair and clothes politics, art and education. It sure was a refreshing experience considering that it is in the aesthetically dominated field of the creative arts. Something to think about.

I'm having a blast. It sure does help that my place is tidy. Thank you Crystal Clear Maids. I recommend them. I do not do it often, however, when I do - it really does help to clear my head. I also washed my hair and that helped too :-).

Until next time.

April Update

Things are going great. I'm starting my PhD in May. I have some great part-time job prospects on the horizon. I will most likely be working in French again - which I love. My students are terrific! I was just doing some marking today and the things they come up with are excellent. I'm so proud of them. I especially love it when they come to class. I'm taking on an intern from Seneca College's Journalism program. He will be working with Donna Magazine for a month at least. He's a very promising writer named Chris Temelkos and expect to see great stuff from him on the mag.

I'm coming up with a strong idea for my dissertation at the University of Toronto that will follow in the tradition of Salon Utopia and Afro Forever. Afro Forever was the original title of my thesis at Concordia University that I did more than 10 years ago. I'm loving the Macbook Pro I'm typing on now and I know it is going to come in very hand for the work I will doing over a few years.

One my former interns with Donna Magazine, Rachel Muenz, looks as though she is on the verge of making a huge career breakthrough. I'm so excited for her. Another one of my former students at Centennial College, Thandiwe Vela, will be reporting for the Edmonton Journal this summer. She is an extremely promising young journalist. Another one of my former students from Centennial College, La-Ttoya Comrie, just had a beautiful baby boy. I'm so happy for her and her partner.

One of my students, Michael Albertini who is now at Seneca College is promising material to be a MuchMusic of MTV Canada VJ. Anyone reading this who could give him a job, hire him now! He is absolutely brilliant.

I was in the Toronto Public Library doing research on my advisor at the OISE/University of Toronto, Dr. Stephanie Springgay, and I bumped into another one of my former students, Abbas Somji. Abbas is doing his master's degree in communication and culture through a joint program with Ryerson University and York University. He also recently contributed to a spoken word project.

The list can go on and on about all of the terrific things the students in my life are doing. I'm really looking forward to this summer and things are looking as though they will be really exciting. I'm learning a lot and enjoying every second of it.

Love at a Distance Published

It's here! My new book is called Love at a Distance. I published it this morning and I must say I love the ease and facility of the self-publishing platform on both Lulu.com and Amazon Kindle that can make your works of art come alive so fast.

The book started its creation at the end of February, and you will enjoy the script-like nature of the book. It is compiled from chats that took place with one person over Datehookup.com, as well as Gmail. You can buy it today at:http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged. You can also find it available on Amazon Kindle and Amazon in a few days.

New Book Coming Out

I have a confession to make. I have been in a long distance relationship over the past month. I've just decided today to write a book about it tomorrow that will be called Love at a Distance. The good thing is the publisher will be Lulu.com and it will also be available shortly afterwards on Amazon, as well as Amazon Kindle. Look out for it in the next day or so.

It's Been A Long Time

Hello everyone out there!

It's been a long time since I have posted to this blog site. I am fortunate that blogspot has forgiven me and not relinquished my membership. Things have been busy.

Last semester I had seven classes to teach. Three of them were at Seneca College's Markham campus and three of them were at Seneca College's York campus. I also taught a beat reporting class with the University of Toronto Scarborough campus (UTSC) and Centennial College's Journalism program. I co-taught that class with Ellin Bessner who is excellent to work with. I had a lot of fun and the semester was great. Of course there was some anxiety working on the front lines as a teacher with H1N1 being such a huge deal for many people. It was an interesting experience to navigate through the health issues of some of the students, plus dealing with my own bout of flu, that was not H1N1.

This semester has been extremely interesting. I am teaching two news announcing courses at Seneca College's York campus. Plus, I am teaching a magazine journalism course with UTSC-Centennial. This year, the magazine journalism students have a chance to get their stories published on my magazine Donna Magazine. As well, I started working at George Brown College teaching skills for college English. It is in the continuing education program and this is my first time teaching in the continuing education. I must say the students are great and I am truly enjoying the experience. Many years ago, I used to be a student taking an acting course at George Brown College. I have also taken French courses in continuing education at Concordia University - so I am not a stranger to continuing education.

There are many exciting things I have been up to. I have now written 35 books. My latest one is called Smoking. Even though I have not stopped smoking, I wanted to write something that would still help those people see how they could quit by including stories from people who have successfully quit. In my mind - I have set my quit date - and it will happen. I will write it down when I have a calendar that goes that far to make sure it is the exact date I would want.

I have also started a new online portal called Donna Magazine's Salon Utopia. It's a place for me to showcase some of the files I was able to salvage from the master's research I did at Concordia University that ended in part with my graduation in 1999. It's been fun to set up that site and I did it all myself. I did receive some excellent technical guidance from Register.com, HostPapa, my hosting company, and motivation from Kent James who I also did a story on for Suite101.com.

I have some writing work I am doing for an NGO, plus some other plans in the works. I am working on publishing another book soon and have been busy promoting my efforts. Having your own business is a lot of work - however, I would not call what I do completely a one-woman show. Many people do help in their own way.

Well...there's the update from me on how things have been going. Thanks to my student Jennifer Winters at George Brown College who helped to inspire me to update this blog. I will certainly make more of an effort to do so. For daily content, please do check out Donna Magazine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

If you would like to share in the magic of the season, please visit http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged to purchase one of my 30 books.

Faith and the Media Symposium

I attended a Faith and the Media Symposium on Thursday night that went quite well. Along with myself, there was another media representative there who is the managing editor of the Brampton Guardian.

The event was organized by some Muslim community members and they were kind enough to arrange to have me driven to the event, as well as dropping me off at home after the event. I brought my books to sell, however there really was not enough time for me to sell any.

The focus of my presentation was pointing out that there really are not any journalism and religion courses at many schools and this is not preparing young reporters to go out in the field to cover the issues. Some of things I am hoping to do are to rectify this situation by perhaps proposing a journalism and religion course at one of the schools I teach at.

The night was overall a success and I had a terrific time. Went to bed way past my bedtime, however it was well worth it.

Marketing the Key to Self-Publishing

It always surprises me when I speak to someone and they tell me that their books are not selling. Each and every time it is usually because no effort is going into marketing.

There are a lot of writers out there who depend on the their publishing company to do the bulk of their marketing for them. I'm one of those people who is a true believer that you, the writer, have the golden key when it comes to selling your books.

This is not to say that my book sales have been fabulous this month. There are a whole lot of things I could be doing that I have not been doing and at least I recognize that. Every time I am on public transit, I could be slipping my business card to someone with a book in their hand and telling them about my books. I could be hanging around outside bookstores and letting people who are coming in and out know about my books. I could be talking about them in casual conversations every chance I get. Perhaps it is my Canadian politeness factor that keeps me from being that aggressive. However, I am fully aware that I would be selling more books this way.

On an up note, I will be going to a "Faith and the Media" symposium on Thursday, October 1st in Brampton, Ontario. There will be 500 people at this event and I definitely plan to discuss my books. As well, I'm hoping to go to a Simply People festival in October and get a table where I can showcase my books. I just need to work out the timing so it will go well with my teaching hours. Today, there is Word on the Street that is a huge book and magazine festival in Toronto. I was planning to get a booth right after the last one happened called Writer's Block. This is something I definitely hope to work out for next year. My approach to Word on the Street has been "manana, manana," always tomorrow, tomorrow. Honestly, I prefer going to the event and it would be great if I had some business cards to let people there know about my books too.

Here's to self-publishing!

The Best of Donna Magazine Published

Take Donna Magazine with you anywhere you go. You can buy it now in hardcover, paperback or as an ebook at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged.

Get 20 Per Cent Off My Books

Lulu.com is offering a 20 per cent discount off all of my books for this Labour Day Weekend only. Enter the code "WHITE" on checkout and receive your 20 per cent off many books, a CD and two audio downloads. The online store is at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged.

School Year Starting

I'm still really excited about the new semester starting. I feel as though I have had enough time off, even though I know I could always use more rest.

One of the interesting things I have set up for all of my courses are the assignments already listed in Gradebook. Gradebook is a tool that is part of Blackboard that has become the electronic way to do everything from having a virtual classroom, sending out email to the class, sometimes even taking glances of students' pictures before the class starts. It is wonderful to have this technology as part of teaching these days. They did not have anything such as this while I was in school.

Another thing I have set up is that all of my lesson plans for the semester are prepared. When I was a waitress, as well as art model at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, there was this great woman I met there who used to teach at Seneca College. She still teaches art at the Arts and Letters Club I believe. She gave me a hint about being organized that has truly helped me out and made it possible for me to teach so many courses such as I do.

She said she would prepare all of her lesson plans before the semester starts. I thought at the time and still do think this is brilliant. The reason why is because before I knew about this, my weekends would be devoted to preparing lesson plans for the upcoming week, as well as marking. This meant I would have no social life at all. With this woman's excellent tip - I have still found it possible to do some social things, as well as write on the weekends and the early mornings, plus the occasional evening.

If you find this information helpful which I hope you do - please feel free to take full advantage of it. You can also find more information about teaching in my book The Education Generation which can be purchased along with other books at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged. Enter "LULUBOOK" on checkout and you will receive 10 per cent off for this month.

The Perils of Freelance Teaching

It is a good thing that I keep my eggs in more than one basket. This fantastic course I was so psyched about teaching at one of the schools I am at needed to cancel the course due to low enrollment. Now, because the chair of the program is a good person, she offered me another section of the course to teach. This was extremely - and I mean extremely kind of her. The problem is that I do wear a lot of hats and I am already booked for a job that pays better in a similar time slot. It's a shame because I would have loved to teach that course and I hope it works out for the winter.

So, all this to say that now I'm teaching nine courses instead of 10. Oh well, this will give me more time to write for sure and look out for more books from me soon.

Gearing Up for Fall

I will be teaching 10 courses this semester and it is a lot of preparation in the works. Someone who will be coming in as a guest speaker at one of the colleges I teach at said to me that many people do not know how much work teachers actually do. This is absolutely true.

In most situations, not only am I preparing the lesson plans before classes start so I can create some kind of life for myself throughout the semester, I am also coming up with specific assignments, doing pre-readings of textbooks to see which one to adopt as either the required or supplementary texts, answering a lot of email and sending out a lot of email to keep in touch with students and colleagues, creating course outlines - at times in consultation with colleagues and in one case a co-teacher, going to professional development workshops...the list goes on.

It is demanding work, however extremely rewarding. When you see the results of dealing with a class that is less knowledgeable about a subject at the beginning of the semester, then you see their eyes light up from time-to-time and that special "a-ha" moment near the end when many of them cannot deny that they did learn something - it is an amazing feeling. Oh, and I cannot forget to add how much I learn from them - this is enormous too.

I would not trade in the work I do for anything. I hope you enjoy your day.

The New Semester

I'm gearing up for an exciting new semester. I will be teaching six courses at Seneca College, two courses at Centennial College and two courses at Trebas Institute.

Since Trebas starts near the end of September, I will not be in the full swing of 10 courses for the fall until that time. It will be exciting and I am looking forward to it. Last semester, a year from now, I taught nine courses and that went well. I am looking forward to this extra work and the challenge of it.

The courses I will be teaching are two sections of news announcing I, one section of news announcing II, two sections of reading and writing skills, one section of English for academic purposes, global citizenship, beat reporting (where the students will be putting together an online magazine), plus the broadcasting industry and communications I. I'm really looking forward to teaching all of these courses.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION GIVES MONEY

More than a million dollars will be shared between schools in Kansas, Florida and New York. The money will be given by the U.S. Department of Education to help character development and citizenship responsibilities in students. This was announced by the U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on Friday.

The grants are called Partnerships in Character Education Program awards that will last up to four years. They are eligible to state and local education agencies to put together character education programs that teach children about civics, citizenship, justice, responsibility and respect for others, as well as for themselves.

Recipients of the grant need to show how they have implemented these core values into teacher training, as well as into classroom instruction.

The program also must involve parents, students and the community as part of the process.

The aim of the project to help students develop positive character, reduce discipline problems and improve academic achievement.

SOURCE: http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/06/us-department-o-8.php