brief hiatus

settling back in after a week in chicago...


...will be back soon...

note to self...

remind me to figure out how to add pix to this thing... all text is rather monotonous.

for balance

being a good libra, i feel i need to balance yesterday's post with this:

A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO ALICIA HUIZAR!

thank you so much for your help with front-loading--you are indeed a master teacher! whittier's staff and students are lucky to have you! you personify the 3 c's, and that makes our school not only a great place to teach, but an even better place for our students to learn.

THANK YOU.

raison d'etre

sometimes i really miss the 3 c's (cooperation, collaboration, community) at my grade level and school... i remember these qualities being present in the past, but not so much now...

maybe it's geographical--my classroom is isolated from my 5th grade team (except for the wonderful wendy wahlen!) and the main school building--i'm in a bugalow::cough::trailer*::cough::
all the way across the playground!

maybe it's middle-of-the-school-year anxiety and stress.
(TESTING IS COMING--AGHHH!!!)
we just want to close our doors and teach.

maybe it's me...

this has been a very difficult (school) year personally and professionally, but i'm trying to stay positive and focused, so that when the 3 p's (politics, personalities, parents) get me down, i remember why i'm here--why i'm a teacher. i'm not here to make friends, socialize, or be part of the popular set...


I'M HERE TO TEACH.


*not like it's "class" warfare or anything, (i know--there's a special place in hell for mimes and punsters) but these "bungalows" don't have running water!


updated: edited for clarity, comedy, and a little humility--6:30 pm

second coming

i often tell my students that authors observe the world around them in an active way, noticing and reacting to things that "tickle their ears" or stimulate their senses somehow. i tell them that my notebook is where i keep things like that.

this week i showed my class how i'd gone through my notebook and marked (with sticky notes) all the quotes, random musings, and thoughts i'd collected that i hadn't used yet but was still planning on using. then i showed them how i'd integrated these ideas into a new piece (read: rap) i'd been working on called "the second coming" (i even read them the yeats poem--also in my notebook-- from which the title was "borrowed"). i showed them how i used the title and my favorite line from the poem in my new piece. i also showed them a line i'd written down from a tom waits' song i'd heard on the radio. then i read them the piece.

here's the beginning: (student-friendly version)

second coming

what stinks worse: your verse or a fart in church?
(your breath bring death like a hearse)
search me--got nothing in the trunk--
"no such thing as the devil, only god when he's drunk."
who would've thunk? jesus was a punk--
keep the temple holy like kobe jam a slam dunk!
:::sniff::: i smell a skunk--see the forest for the trees,
feel the breeze, buddha monk.
more fun than a touring funk band,
PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!
we're on a mission--finger flipped at fashion--
"all the best lack conviction, while the worst are full of passion"
the second coming-- it's about to happen...

a bit provacative, but that's good... hopefully my students will remember to go BACK to their notebooks after they're full (instead of just saying, "i need a new notebook--mine's full!") to find seed ideas for use in future pieces.

i'm still sore

we lost.

badly.

it wasn't even close.

3 guys over 6'
(one weighing easily over 2 bills)

and "cheryl miller."

we were the "washington generals" to their "harlem globetrotters."