the district vs. LB unified school district

the cover story in the feb. 25-mar. 3 edition of the district just might stir up a little controversy. basically, it asserts that my employer, LBUSD, is wasting money that should be used to teach poor/disadvantaged students on teacher trainings and professional development.

the article by diana bosetti begins with a disgruntled former teacher, tonina johnson, accusing her ex-principal, robert williams, of forcing her out of her job after her second year of teaching because she dared to speak up against a training at the UCLA conference center in lake arrowhead. it goes on to document some of the expenses LBUSD has paid for such trainings, while in the midst of a budget crisis, up until april 2008. it's not a flattering picture, to say the least, and bob williams takes the brunt of the criticism.

the interesting part for me is that i know bob... well, kind of... (probably not well enough to call him bob, but he's an acquaintance of my mom's, and we've met several times. she worked with him at monroe, before he was promoted to principal at lincoln.) he seems like a nice guy, and my mom, as well as my teacher friends at lincoln, have corroborated this. that's why the claims made in the article seem a bit odd.

it's clear from the story that tonina was overwhelmed by her new position. as any inexperienced, emergency-credentialed teacher (as i was) can attest, the first few years are tough, and any time spent outside the classroom can seem like wasted time that should be spent getting experience in the classroom. unfortunately, the first few years are chock-full of training--days spent away from your classroom and your students. i remember feeling very frustrated having to go to these all-day trainings (EEEI, open court, math, etc.) when i thought i was getting better training in my classroom with my actual students. so i feel her pain.

the part that bothered me the most though was the council members who hid under their desks when confronted by ms. bosetti about these necessary training expenditures. teachers need to be treated as professionals, and if that means paying for a training at a conference outside of town or a hotel in downtown, then so be it. give us the respect we are due! (and don't run and hide when you're asked about it, jon meyer, you sad sack!) team-building and professional development are of paramount importance to our district's mission of "every student, every day."

at least mary stanton, vp of the school board, didn't duck the questions and was openly supportive:

Stanton further asserts that there are benefits to holding retreats out of the area, suggesting that if they were held locally school employees might go AWOL and sneak home.

“If we hold these conferences across town, it doesn’t work because they can just leave,” she says. “Part of the problem with these schools is that the staff doesn’t talk to each other. They do not communicate, which is one of the reasons their school is in the place [underachieving] that it is. The superintendent believes very strongly in team building and that it leads to better communication between teachers, and I support him.” (emphasis added)

exactly.

no camp for me

so sad... while my fifth grade colleagues and most of our students enjoyed a winter wonderland at camp oakes in big bear, ca. i stayed behind... no 3 feet of freshly fallen snow for me. no sled runs. no snowmen or snow angels. ::sniffle, sniffle:: just me and 31 students whose parents were too lame or too afraid to let their children have this once-in-a-lifetime experience. (i realize that that last statement is a judgment call, but it happens to be true, which gives it the extra force of veracity.)

ultimately, this was my choice. since i've had so many things on my plate in my personal life, and since i didn't think it was cool to give the fourth grade teachers 6 extra students each, i asked the principal if i could stay behind with these students and take care of some unfinished business at home. this would not only help me, but eliminate the problem of placing more students in already-crowded classes--a win-win situation.

thankfully, he was cool with the idea, and thankfully, the students were great! the mutuality of their situation helped these students from disparate classes form an instant community, and we had an awesome little tribe by the end of our first day! we reviewed math concepts in geometry, did some reader's workshop, and i got to confer with students on their realistic fiction writing (my favorite). of course, i also had to get some buy-in, so i promised that i'd bring in my drum set on friday if their temporary tribe maintained decorum.

it worked. i brought in my kit, and the students took turns trying it out. i taught them all about the components of the set and how to make a simple beat. since one of the students already knew how to play, (he's been playing since he was 6.) we jammed together. it was awesome--i played guitar, and he rocked the beats, while all the other students sang and clapped their hands to their hearts' content!

v-day show!

we played an awesome valentine's show last night at a pirate-themed bar in LA called the redwood. it was even the LA WEEKLY pick of the week!! plus, there were star sightings, too! that creepy dude from lost (ben?) was there, and rumor has it, spiderman (t-mac, as he let's me call him) was also... my buddy james got ben's autograph, and after the show, kim fowley gave us his card and said he wanted to play us on his radio show! (kim fowley is probably most famous for creating the runaways with joan jett and lita ford--you can check out his wiki info here.)

we played a great set, and we got a great response from the audience. it was nice to have a whittier alum, laura velez, show up and support us, not to mention our wonderful LBC fans who made the trek on such a hectic/romantic night.

thank you all--i really appreciate everyone's support!

"we're just that lazy"

this is definitely NSFW, but it's just too funny not to post... especially since my former-favorite aunt lupe had one of these in her house in DF which we made fun of before we got kicked out!

enjoy!

trailing clouds of glory...

here's the wordsworth poem, "intimations of imortality from recollections of early childhood" that the blind mr. randolph knows by heart in the great gilly hopkins. mind you, it's 208 lines (7 pages in the oxford book of english verse: 1250-1900), but here's the beginning of my favorite stanza (line 59) quoted in TGGH:

our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
the soul that rises with us, our life's star
hath had elsewhere its setting,
and cometh from afar:
not in entire forgetfulness,
and not in utter nakedness,
but trailing clouds of glory do we come
from god, who is our home...

interactive read aloud

one of my favorite parts of reading workshop is the interactive read aloud. right now we are in the middle of the great gilly hopkins by katherine paterson. it's about an ingeniously manipulative and racist foster child that gets sent to live with an unflappable "religious fanatic" and a "mentally retarded" boy. throw in a blind neighbor who loves william wordsworth, a hippy mom who strings her "sweet galadriel" along, an african-american teacher unwilling to give up on her (titular) student, and you've got a compelling, newbury award-winning novel. my class is completely captivated by it. and it's the perfect book to stimulate students' "thinking journeys."

that's why when i was asked to demonstrate the interactive read aloud at our staff meeting today, i chose to read it instead of a picture book. the book is an instant conversation-starter, a book that causes adults' and students' metacognitive voices to literally scream reactions out loud. as a matter of fact, when i read it in my class, that's usually what happens: students' metacognitive voices burst forth, spilling from their brains out of their mouths! it's pretty fun to hear...

but our staff was a different animal. so stoic. so expressionless. so silent. as i modeled my thinking journey aloud, their silence made me very uncomfortable and threw me off my game. i'm used to the give and take "on stage"--the reciprocation-- whether i'm performing with an instrument or a book. i got next to nothing. i was about to read more, then i thought i should cut my losses because it seemed i was boring everyone...

once i got back to my seat, i did get a few questions and comments about the book, not to mention some very nice emails afterward, but overall it wasn't what i expected. i felt intimidated and a bit silly for putting myself out there. it definitely made me appreciate my class all the more!