TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 C6

ARTSTelephone: 250-380-5346 > E-mail: features@tc.canwest.com

During her 20 years as a highschool language teacher,Kathryn DaSilva has marked

and created more quizzes than shecares to remember.

And she says she grew frus-trated with having to porethrough several books on a singlesubject to create assignments.

Then came the “what if”moment that turned the Fairfieldeducator into an “accidental entre-preneur,” as she calls herself.

“Grammar is grammar, so whynot put everything in one place?”DaSilva wondered. It inspired herto collaborate with a former stu-dent to create four software pro-grams for students and teachersof French and Spanish.

Thousands of hours and sev-eral years later, her company,eStudent.ca, has wracked up$500,000 in sales to more than1,200 schools across Canada, theU.S. and U.K. of software that themother of two created and sellsfrom her basement.

“It’s like 50 grammar bookstogether,” she says, referring toone of her collaborative pro-grams with Garry Morse, a shystudent she once taught in Grade11 at Vancouver’s Roberts Educa-tion Centre, an alternative schoolfor disadvantaged youths.

Morse, whom she describes asa quiet genius — “the epitome ofsilent” — gave her a note one day.It praised her as “the greatestFrench teacher.” He offered towrite the code if she were willingto provide the content for educa-tional software.

“I must have written out20,000 pages by hand,” she says.“If I had known it would be somuch work when I started ...”

The result was Etudiant andEstudiante, two 20,000-pagegrammar resources for studentsand teachers, complete with averb conjugator and 3,000 prac-tice exercises. The productsdesigned for time-strappedteachers — Professeur and Pro-fesor — include two 8,000-ques-tion “test generators” that canalso be used to create exercisesand homework sheets.

DaSilva, 41, admits she wassurprised by the word-of-mouthpopularity of her resources thathave prompted accolades fromeducators in schools from Mon-treal to Nevada — especiallysince it was originally created for

herself and her students.“Neither one of us expected

this, and people are incredulous,”she said. “They say, ‘No, really,come on who made it?’ ”

Having taken on a life of itsown, her small business is nowcasting DaSilva as a TV personal-ity. After going to an audition atRoyal Roads University last Aprilon a whim, she was selected topresent her local business on anepisode of the CBC-TV showDragons’ Den that airs MondayOct. 6 at 8 p.m.

She says her husband, a salesexecutive, and her 11-year-oldson and eight-year-old daughterput her up to it when they werewatching the show where aspir-ing entrepreneurs who needfunding pitch ideas to businessmoguls, a.k.a. the “dragons.” Ifone or more of the dragonsagrees to invest the requestedamount, they get a percentageof the company stock.

DaSilva, who still teaches atRobertson Education Centre, wasflown in May to Toronto, whereshe found herself in the “deadsilence” of a studio with host

Dianne Bruckner and the fivedragons. This season theyinclude marketing guru ArleneDickinson (Venture Communica-tions); IT security tycoon RobertHerjavec; Jim Treliving, realestate developer and co-owner ofBoston Pizza and Mr. Lube;Kevin O’Leary, founder of TheLearning Company; and FirstEnergy Capital Corp’s W. BrettWilson.

“It was was a bit of a surrealexperience,” DaSilva recalled.“You walk in with nothing andthey can shoot you out of there infive minutes or you can staythere for an hour and a half.”

Admitting she was “super nerv-ous,” she said it was nerve-wrack-ing having to go into the studiowithout props or charts andknowing you could be veryquickly interrupted with questionsfrom such big-league biz types.

Deal or no deal — she can’treveal the outcome as she’s boundby a confidentiality agreement —DaSilva says getting access tosuch a high level or expertise andconnections and gaining exposureis reward enough.

“I went in just thinking, ‘Thesefive people are never in the sameroom other than this one week ayear,’ ” she said. “Getting achance to talk to just one wouldnever happen, never mind allfive. I had nothing to lose.”

Treliving says watching thewannabe entrepreneurs remindshim of when he made his pitch tobuy the Boston Pizza chain.

“Very much so,” he said fromDallas, Tex. “And they’re moreprepared than I was, although Ihad more time than they did.”

The RCMP officer-turned-business tycoon said some of thepitches he sees, where contest-ants have trouble making thedistinction between a great ideaand one that is workable, remindhim of his days in law enforce-ment.

“It’s like the bank robber whoplans every detail like crazy, haseverything in place to rob thebank and then maybe three sec-onds after he gets out the door hegets a flat tire,” he said.

One pattern he has noticed isan “overvaluation” of a product,and too much financial emphasis

on marketing.He advises potential pitchers

to know your product, whether itcan sell and whether you canreally make money at it.

“The great thing is that thereare lot of Canadians who havegreat ideas,” he says. “That givesme a good feeling.”

HANDOUT PHOTOSVictoria teacher Kathryn DaSilva will be seen on CBC-TV on Oct. 6, pitching her classroom software businessto such “dragons” as Boston Pizza and Mr. Lube co-owner Jim Treliving, right.

Into the Dragons’ Den

MICHAEL D. REIDBehind the Screenmreid@tc.canwest.com

Teacher takes her turn at being quizzed by CBC’s business gurus

FRANCOIS MARCHANDFor Canwest News Service

Cancer Bats frontman LiamCormier may have been shred-ding his lungs out on the roadwith his metalcore buddies formost of the past two years, buthe still has to do all the mun-dane things regular people do— such as patiently wait in lineat the bank — when he getsback home to Toronto.

“I find it funny when youhave to interact with peoplethat are kinda outside of ourcircle,” Cormier says. “Today,

I got the teller that I usuallydeal with and she was like, ‘Oh,you’re home from tour!’ Butthose first few times they werejust like, ‘Do you deal drugs?’‘Noooo . . . I just have $5,000wrapped with scrap paper in apouch — it’s totally cool, right?’”

He laughs. Fair enough,Cormier’s usual attire —black/grey items layered withother black/grey items, tattoosand punk hairdo — might turna few “regulars” off.

Musically speaking, though,the timing couldn’t be betterfor Cancer Bats to become allthe rage on the “loud” scene.

“It’s definitely a good timefor metal,” Cormier says. “I feellike heavy music is on a highright now. The new Slipknotdebuted at No. 1 in the U.S. Itbeat out the Game. That’s amaz-ing. Metal’s back on top.”

Cancer Bats caused quite acommotion with the release oftheir latest album, HailDestroyer, last April. With its

furious, hollering barrage ofsouthern rock, hardcore punkand crunchy alternative metal,Hail Destroyer quickly earnedthe band a five-star rating anda cover story from trend-set-ting British rock mag Kerrang!

“When we were getting

these reviews,” Cormierrecalls, “we were hanging outwith the Alexisonfire guys andthey were saying, ‘Well, we’venever gotten a five out of five;we’ve never gotten the coverof Kerrang!’ This is so insane.”

Cormier admits he originally

worried that everyone wasgoing to hate Hail Destroyer.

The band’s extensive tour-ing had led Cancer Bats toadopt a much heavier soundthan on their noteworthy 2006debut, Birthing the Giant, andCormier was expecting a bit ofa backlash from both fans andcritics.

Instead, the album was her-alded as a landmark. ForCormier, writing HailDestroyer was his own way toexpress the struggles of beingon the road and feeling likeyou’re always escaping fromnormal life.

“You get to a certain age andyou’re either in it or you’reout,” he says. “This is going tobe my life at this point. I’mprobably going to be a ‘deathbro’ forever.”

Also known for their intenselive performances, Cancer Batsare now back on the road foranother long stretch of touring,ready to reconnect with fans

and friends.“Little things like being able

to sleep at people’s houses orsomeone making us dinner at ashow is the hugest deal,” hesays. “If you have a job, it’s not.Whereas for us it’s like, ‘Uh,we’ve been sleeping in our van,can we take a shower here?Wow, you have fresh towels?’That’s pretty much what HailDestroyer is all about.”

The old metal guard betterwatch their backs. With moreand more bands like CancerBats breathing down theirnecks, it might not take longbefore the final nail is jammedin their coffins.

“Have you heard those newMetallica tracks? They’reridiculous,” he laughs. “I don’thate them, but it definitelysounds like they’re trying tograb at this older sound thatthey had — the Ride the Light-ning or Master of Puppets era.But bands don’t sound like thatanymore.”

Cancer Bats riding wave of interest in heavy musicMETAL

PHOTO CREDIT ALL CAPSLiam Cormier, left, feared a backlash against Hail Destroyer butit’s been hailed as a landmark for him and Cancer Bats cohortsMike Peters, Scott Middleton and Jaye Schwarzer.

IN CONCERTWhat: Cancer Bats, the Black Lungsand Johnny Truant When: Tomorrow, 4:30 p.m. (all ages)and 9 p.m. (adult)Where: ElementTickets: $15 at Lyle’s Place,www.ticketweb.ca, Ditch Records andthe Strathcona hotel

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