StealthisScreenname

Uphill, both ways.

2012-01-24T21:21:00.002-05:00

As I listen to President Obama talk about the auto industry and the types of jobs American companies are creating, I am thinking about the students who I will soon be sending out into the workforce.

We're working on bringing technology into the classroom. But only on shallow levels- they're learning to hit the right buttons on vocabulary websites but not how to create the programs or troubleshoot difficulties.

We have smartboards in every classroom but use them as whiteboards and rarely let students touch them.

We spend huge chunks of the budget on technology that no one uses or that malfunctions and we have to outsource tech repairs (see: entering 212 grades 4 times because of website issues).

I'm studying education politics because I believe in public schools and public school teachers. I complain about the focus on 21st century skills because I don't think it should take over the school. I want my students to be innovators of technology rather than using it at a menial job and I want school to prepare them for that.

There's no software solution to this?

2012-01-10T20:43:00.002-05:00

Well it has been a minute since I've been here and like any job, my teaching responsibilities have changed quite a bit in the 3.5 years I've been working. Oh, no? In other jobs they don't change your responsibilities and tell you about it the day before you come back from a vacation? One more bonus to being a teacher.

Basically, I teach foreign language and like some of my colleagues around the city and other states I am now required to teach foreign language with Rosetta Stone. Never mind that I can't troubleshoot a not-very-good pc. Disregard that Rosetta Stone isn't aligned to state standards or ACTFL standards. Forget that I spoke with several of my supervisors multiple times to express the reasons I, licensed foreign language teacher and student of multiple languages, did not believe it was the best choice for our students. Ignore that the decision was made over the summer and I was informed, by the computer tech (who has been remarkably patient throughout this situation) on the Friday before the school year started. Yes, don't think about those things and the changes might seem manageable and even exciting.

Unfortunately, I do think about those things. Especially because this is my tenure year, round 2. I will be evaluated on my ability to be "highly effective" while spending the year creating a curriculum for multi-level classes in one class period that I was in no way trained for and am only minimally assisted with.

What brings me back is that I have reached out to teachers I know, teachers I don't know and classmates and professors at my previous graduate school and current graduate school and not been able to find many other people dealing with similar situations. This seems like an ideal topic to collaborate on and I can't find collaborators.

Initiative?

2010-08-31T22:00:00.002-04:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend yesterday. I went on ARIS to look at what I'm teaching and which students are in which classes. It was mostly what I expected- classes of 34 (and one of 35?) organized only by level. Not by grade, not by past experiences in the school, not by which students have failed the same classes 3 years in a row because they cut the last 2 periods every day.

Even though this is what I expected, I wasn't exactly thrilled. What do you do when you see 2 students in a class together who fought repeatedly last year? Seating charts, overplan so they never have time to fight, take their "temperature" every day when they walk in, know how to chose your battles, etc?

But I mentioned this situation to my friend and she asked why not just ask for one of those students to be switched to a different class? She views this as showing initiative to prevent a problem. I agree, but in my school such switches are almost never made. A teacher asking for a schedule change is looked at as someone who can't handle their classroom and has given up without even trying.

Maybe it's a different situation in other schools. I hope at my own the voice of the teachers reaches more ears during the school year than it has this summer.

Summer vacation= sunday morning tv

2010-08-29T19:04:00.002-04:00

I will watch any show Christiane Amanpour is involved with. Even the episode of Gilmore Girls in which she makes a cameo. Since she took over This Week on ABC I've been watching it religiously.

Today the guests were Arne Duncan, Randi Weingarten and Michelle Rhee. I was glued to the screen. Here's the video:

Michelle Rhee visited my grad school last year and was a topic of debate in every class I took in the last 2 years. I haven't agreed with all of her choices, but I support a lot of them, and I am willing to consider all of her suggestions because she talks about teachers as if we are professionals.

In the summer I start to romanticize my job. I spend time with people who treat teaching with respect instead of my students and administration who view us as someone around to serve and or annoy. I imagine that my opinions and initiative might be influential in my work environment and that I might be rewarded if I am successful. I forget that my evaluation will come down to checks in columns labeled "satisfactory" and "unsatisfactory," instead thinking that my hours and hours of work might warrant at the very least a few carefully chosen adjectives.

But then I get a welcome back email from my principal and remember that I work for the NYC DOE.

What the panelists on This Week seemed to agree about, and the reason that I tolerate the downsides of working in the DOE is that the goal is to give every child a quality education. But it is nice to imagine being treated as if that's what I were trying to do.

Neon expo markers? Yes, please!

2010-08-18T11:39:00.003-04:00

Getting ready for school seems so much harder than anything I do during the school year because finding a place to start can be really challenging. This is how I end up sitting in my room surrounded by stacks of lesson plans on one side, resources I've acquired behind me, school supplies on the other side, and a stack of to-do lists in front of me.

I've found a few helpful things so far.

I found out that you can buy school supplies on amazon.com. I'm sure everyone else already knew this, but finding a way to avoid the back to school rush at Staples seemed like quite a victory to me. Plus, they have these.

And I'm already excited about creating lessons on wordplay.com. It's a great new tool for Spanish teachers. Free, customizable vocabulary lessons, with sound. The best part? You can monitor how your students are doing at learning and retaining words, there are class and individual statistics. The developers of this website have been nothing but helpful to me, I highly recommend it.

Already?

2010-07-19T21:51:00.002-04:00

Now that I'm done celebrating Spain's victory in the World Cup (which I did mostly in Quebec City, where a surprising number of people joined me in running through the city with Spanish flags), I can't stop myself from starting to think about what I'll be doing next year.

Here is an excellent article about one way to use some summer time to get ready for the coming school year.

Of course, it would help to officially know what I'll be teaching next year. I like to start summer planning by rewriting curriculum maps for my classes and reflecting on how the order of the curriculum worked last year. And of course, watching movies from Spanish-speaking countries that I might be able to incorporate into my classes next year. But on a micro-level, I have a hard time planning individual lessons without knowing which students will be in which classes and if they'll remember anything by September.

With colleagues like these...

2010-06-23T21:20:00.002-04:00

Until the school year ends, I'll be a bad World Cup spectator. I recommend bolas y bandeiras for updates and great images.

With all of my students' Regents graded, I'm starting to feel the end of the year sigh of relief. But this seems to be the part of the year when politics take over and staff start acting like the students more than adults.

At least 4 of my coworkers won't be back next year and a lot of others are worried about being excessed. But they aren't alone in leaving the building- the cuts at other schools in our campus have been drastic and we are feeling the effects. One school has even asked for help with their test administration, which creates a lot of extra work for us. It's interesting, and disheartening, to find out how many teachers in my campus community will let politics and clashes with administrators take priority over what's best for the students.

What do you do in the summer?

2010-06-20T15:04:00.007-04:00

With 1 week of Regents and 1 extra day left in the school year, I'm faced with a challenge- how to use these 2 months off. As relieved as I am for the vacation, I wish that I could have been teaching during the World Cup. As a language teacher, I can't think of a better tool than something that captivates the entire world for a month.

Plus, it's an excuse to bring back the World Cup live-blogging project.

30:00- If Cote D'ivoire scores in this game, they would be the first African nation to score against Brazil in a World Cup. This is probably written in a soccer book that I haven't read.

35:38- The univision announcers just switched to Portuguese. Or else I had too much sangria at brunch.

38:44- The announcers have a man-crush on Kaka. Which brings me to a poll currently being conducted by one of my friends: If you could hook-up (whatever that means to you) with one soccer player, would you choose Kaka, Casillas, Bocanegra, Gattuso, Higuain, Cannavaro, or Luca?

43:40- Technical difficulties with google images. My vote in the poll was Casillas, but I highly recommend doing your research before you vote. The announcers have spent the last 2 minutes and will take us into halftime by giving the ball credit for everything that happened in this game.

45:00- 1-0 Brazil. We begin halftime with a teaser about paramilitary action in Colombia and a commercial in which a woman's boyfriend pays more attention to a 6-pack of Bud Light than he does to her. Hello, stereotypes.

While announcing the sponsors of this wonderful broadcast, Univision just obscured a lion's face with a McDonald's logo. I guess we won't be using halftime to learn about the nation hosting this World Cup.

Our other half-time viewing choices- Air racing on NBC (not as exciting as it sound) and the Yankees-Mets game which is spiced up with commercials that seem to be about a national geographic series about lava.

49:31- aaaaaand we're back. 4 minutes in I realize Univision restarts the clock just in time for

50:02- Gol (golazo on Univision, but I'm not quite so dramatic) por Luis Fabiano. Fabiano has been biding his time playing for Sevilla FC (campeones de mi corazón) and waiting for Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano to get old and slow so he could show the rest of the world what Sevilla saw in 2006 when he led them to the UEFA cup.

55:40- The announcers are having a lot of fun repeating Drogba's name over and over. So I did some research and found out Drogba was born in 78. Who is the oldest player in this World Cup?

58:14- Univision has seriously upgraded the graphics since the last world cup, and possibly since the game I watched yesterday at the gym. You really haven't watched a world cup game until you've watched one on a treadmill next to an angry soccer fan.

60:37- someone on the CIV team just kicked someone from Brazil in the back of the leg pretty hard. Brazil (well, Kaka) retaliates by kicking a ball directly at the goalie's face. No one benefits at all from these exchanges.

61:52- Gol! por Elano, who celebrated his birthday last week. The Brazilians now look like the NBA players who show up to play on West 4th during the summer. And the goal keeper for CIV looks like he wishes there were a a longer trip home.

62:00- Spain plays Honduras tomorrow. I will be spending the rest of the day thinking of reasons to get out of work.

65:00- Is Elano hurt or did the producers at Univison just decide to take a little break? Now we're watching footage of Kaka running backwards and staring lovingly into Elano's eyes. And a replay of Elano's injury. Maybe those shin guards with women's names on them weren't the most effective?

67:22- Kalou (CIV) limps out, looking relieved to watch Brazil dominate from the sidelines.

68:46- Maybe it's the colors of the jerseys, or it's that after every instance of contact, someone puts their hand up in an "I didn't do it" gesture, but I keep forgetting that I'm watching soccer and not the NBA finals.

70:28- Drogba is still playing to win, despite being down 3-0 with 20 minutes left. Some players on his team have moved on to arguing with refs.

73:45- Fabiano, still elated from scoring 2 goals in this game, attempts to slow down an opponent by hugging him from behind. Maybe Maradona is coaching Brazil on the side?

74:55- Michel Bastos' foot & ankle had a run in with an opponent's foot. Bastos procedes to roll several feet away and pound the ground with his fist, giving the ref enough time to decide on a yellow card for the CIV player with the vicious foot.

77:20- Robinho is ready to play. Sure, he's a little late to the game, but Brazil's been doing ok without him and maybe a warm-up now will get him read for the next game.

78:54- Gol! por Drogba. I miss the celebrations to answer the door, but it's safe to say everyone on the CIV team feels a little better about this game now.

84:24- someone just punched someone else in what Russ from Mighty Ducks 3 would call the "stick, gloves, shirt" attack. Everyone is angry. Fabiano is now on the ground, on his back, arguing with at least 3 players from the other team. Robinho is ready to take over. Or to lie on the ground and fix his socks.

88:00- The door, again. I clearly missed something, an injusticia according to the Univision announcers. And CIV attempts a goal but the ball rolls over the net.

90:00- +3 minutes. These orange shoes really make it easy to follow who does things they shouldn't during the game. An almost goal for CIV, some people even stop blowing those awful horns to yell. Univision finally throws in a few of their slow motion shots so everyone can see the goal tender's heroic leap.

91:30- Fabiano seems to be enjoying the "let's see who can pretend to be hurt most successfully" game. CIV builds the wall, no goal for Brazil.

93:00- 3-1 Brazil. Bastos & Drogba hug each other. The announcer makes a few more comments about Kaka's "explosiveness." Shirts are coming off.

Tomorrow: España!

"Time won't let me..."

2010-04-06T20:22:00.002-04:00

Out of all of the days we've just had off, I spent about 4 lesson planning, grading papers & uploading grades, and working on my thesis, which is due in a month.

The time off was a great chance to catch up on friends, rest, reading, etc. But the first days back after a break are always so unpleasant that I find myself wishing we hadn't had the time off. I've spent so much time on breaks planning activities to remind my students what I expect from them. The interactive do-nows involving the smartboard seem to have the most success, which means I have about half an hour before I have to ask my class "Can anyone remember the do now from today?"

In addition to the 5 books I read over the break, I also read a few interesting articles, including this one from EducationWeek about a school designed to give teachers the time they need to plan. My own school has started discussing how to build some planning time into the end of this year and beginning of next. The end of our time off always changes my perspective on how we spend our time at school. I'd love to know how successful schools and teachers plan their prep time.

"Drop me in the middle so I can make a ripple"

2010-03-07T18:46:00.002-05:00

Last week was my first Quality Review. I have never been so nervous at work before, even when I had a job that involved using power tools regularly. After the 2 day circus, and finding out the results, I'm not convinced I had anything to do with what happened.

From what I understand, the letter grades high schools receive are based on statistics like credit accumulation and graduation rate. And the rest of the quality review is based on classroom observation, student interviews, etc. So what if the reviewer picks a student we've never really reached? One whose guardian I've spoken to approximately every 2 weeks for the last year and a half, and never for a positive report? One who has 2 credits from freshman year and isn't on track to earn any this year? One who doesn't respond to teachers, guidance counselors or coaches?

Shouldn't there be some middle ground between a grade based entirely on impersonal data and one based on information from 5 teachers and 5 students? I was skeptical of the quality review before I experienced one, because schools that seem completely different to me receive the same barely informative grade or report. I saw some positive things last week, but I'm nowhere near convinced I'm working in the right system.

teaching health has taken over my life

2009-11-30T21:18:00.002-05:00

Thanks to budget cuts and extra responsibilities for everyone, I now teach health class to 11th graders, in addition to 3 levels of Spanish. At first I looked at planning for health class like studying for one of those college classes you have to take but don't care about.

One of the benefits of teaching health is when you're talking about reproductive health & emotional issues, students are almost automatically engaged. Another benefit is that if students develop or demonstrate an interest in something, I can run with it, as long as we stay on topic.

Some students don't understand why HIV/AIDS is something important for us to study. Some have very inaccurate understandings ("The government has the cure, they just won't release it!" "Only gay people get AIDS" "It doesn't show up for 7 years").

In honor of World AIDS day and the 33 million people living with HIV or AIDS, we'll be looking at some statistics and personal stories tomorrow and I hope many other teachers will be doing the same.

http://www.avert.org/

What If I Were a Student in my Class?

2009-09-29T22:19:00.003-04:00

I spent the last 2 day at a synagogue, mostly not thinking about school. But as I was reading pages of Hebrew, some of which I only see once or twice a year, I couldn't help thinking about my students. Despite the different alphabet, is this how my students feel when I hand them a reading or writing assignment in Spanish? For me, the strategy that works best with Hebrew is to start reading out loud and hope I can get through the word with reasonable speed, which gets easier as I go along. How can I convince my students to go out on a Spanish limb and not feel embarrassed or awkward?

I caught up on some tv while I was waiting to break my fast last night, and this scene from "Community" on NBC seems like a pretty accurate depiction of my life, except I have younger students and a little more chaos. The entire episode was hilarious, I highly recommend it.

Data for the New Year

2009-09-07T20:51:00.003-04:00

As this is the Jewish month of preparation, I've been doing a lot of planning, some of it has even been for school.

Mostly, I've been looking at the data:

210 -number of students I will be teaching

405- approximate number of students in my school

4- different classes to teach

7- sections of those 4 classes

34- students in most classes thanks to budget cuts

1 - piece of furniture in my classroom that isn't a student desk- a half broken file cabinet

2- approximate number of broken things in my classroom (discovered so far)

$500- approximate cost to fix broken things

30- number of textbooks in my department that were published in the last 9 years

0- number of those textbooks that are for my subject

3 - hours we will be spending in a meeting tomorrow

630- copies for the first few days of school, which I left in an unlocked room since I have

0 - keys that work now that the locks were changed on every room I use

$79.18- money spent at Staples in the last 2 days

23 - days until the 1st real day off (not counting Yom Kippur)

lifelong learning?

2009-08-31T12:00:00.003-04:00

Feeling stressed about preparing for school has me thinking about how my school is going to prepare me. I strongly hope they follow the rules on this list, thinking about how much time I spent in PDs last year that weren't relevant or practical makes me cringe.

Technology?

2009-08-31T11:30:00.002-04:00

For a few days, I was on a teacher roll, writing unit maps for all 4 (that's right, 4- 3 levels of Spanish and a health class) of my classes. Then I took my computer to the apple store to get the disk drive replaced.

They broke the entire top case during the hour that they were repairing the disk drive and I spent the next 6 days not doing work. It was hands down the worst customer service I've ever experienced. I drove a 10 year old car for 4 years and had less trouble getting it repaired. And now all of a sudden it's crunch time.

The beginning of the year is so much paperwork- rules handouts, interest surveys, mind maps, and I have to create them all. This is when I really appreciate my group of Teaching Fellows, we already have plans to get together and share what worked from last year.

"You can call me a hipster as long as you're a listener"

2009-08-24T22:03:00.002-04:00

This summer I have the incredible luxury of knowing which classes I'm teaching (every level of Spanish and a health class, NBD). So I've been able to work an hour or 2 a day at the handful of coffee shops in my neighborhood, which may or may not be part of williamsburg, depending on who you ask.

Mostly I've been writing skeleton unit maps, without writing all of the activities, which is going to mean more work later, but after last year I know I can handle it. I'm also working on catching up on movies in Spanish so I can put some themes in my units as part of my quest to convince everyone that Spanish is a real subject, with real academic consequences and benefits.

In between all of that hard work, I visited 2 of the cities with public education systems that have similar problems to New York.

In DC, everyone asked about my thoughts on tenure, which are exactly the same as many new teachers who got certified in non-traditional paths and have no families to support. Sadly I missed the release of the 200 page guide to effective teaching. Luckily I have no doubt I'll run into it during my thesis class this year. Maybe I can compare it to whoever decided that a good aim is all you need to have a good lesson and therefore consistently excellent instructional capabilities.

In Philadelphia, I watched at least 3 people yell at AMTRAK or SEPTA employees because they can only sell tickets for the transportation system they work for, not the other. It gave me all kinds of new ideas for tying English literacy in with Spanish literacy.

Probably the most valuable lesson from my summer adventures was that I shouldn't spend the whole school year saying "how are things? I'm coming to visit in the summer." I don't expect this year to be any less work (I actually expect it to be more), but since I couldn't stop being a teacher during the summer (thanks grad school!) hopefully I'll continue to be a human during the school year.

back to work, sort of

2009-08-12T21:06:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow I'm proctoring Regents, it should be a thoroughly boring experience as usual, but I'll survive, although I will miss the Today Show.

Last weekend I went to D.C. to visit a friend from high school (our appalachian high school which had the exact same graduation rate as the Brooklyn school where I now teach).

We discovered that if you watch only the deleted scenes and alternate ending of Titanic, the movie becomes infinitely better.

Then we went to the White House because my friend works for a government agency, and employees are allowed to take guests on tours on weekends. I was jealous until I remembered that I have 2 months of summer vacation while my friend has a government issue blackberry that must be carried around at all times. The West Wing was as impressive as I imagined, because I am a history dork and think such things are impressive. Security, of course, was also impressive, and apparently took 4 times longer than usual to agree to put my name on the visitor list. I wonder why?

Afterward we sat in the 98 degree weather talking about our jobs. When people ask about my job I usually tell the funny stories but I mentioned some of the problems my school, and the NYC public schools in general, are facing. So my friend challenged me: Make a list of the 10 biggest problems facing New York City Public schools today.

Her job is not in education and I've yet to solve any problem bigger than the time a member of the Crips was walking around the school tearing down posters for the Blood drive because of the word "blood," but I agreed, because who can say no to a challenge. And I have realized that this is quite a challenge. So, suggestions? thoughts?

What I Forgot on my summer vacation

2009-08-03T09:10:00.002-04:00

Since I happen to have 2 months off, I've been spending a little time watching tv. While I'm in Ohio I've seen quite a bit of the Today Show and it never fails to impress me. Not only do they not present the actual news, but they somehow manage to make even human interest stories as boring as possible. Highlights:

- A decorating segment using $12 beach backgrounds from Target to make fake family vacation photos, because "the nature thing is so big right now."

- The reenactment of the wedding party dance, which goes on for the full length of the song

-And, from this morning, this visit to a hospital to investigate a drug Michael Jackson may have been taking. In the interest of a position paper on grammar I have to write, I won't list all of the things that are wrong with this video.

I know it's a little early to start thinking about next year but...

2009-06-23T18:38:00.003-04:00

This plan to get rid of the 2 days with no students at the beginning of the year seems like a pretty bad decision.

Having missed those 2 days this year because I was hired after the year started I found that it took me weeks to catch up with various rules, policies and procedures. My school has already excessed some people and I don't think we'll have any new staff next year, or there will be fewer new people than this year, but I still think having a day or two to get everyone on the same page is a nice way to start the year.

"No more pencils, no more books"

2009-06-15T21:30:00.002-04:00

Ok, so school isn't completely over, but all that's left are Regents.

Today I wore my Ohio necklace from Brookadelphia. My students asked me what country it was. Others were pretty sure it was Texas. Fingers crossed for their US history Regents tomorrow!

Last week I had that odd experience of doing the same lesson for 2 classes and having it go really well with one class and really not well with another.

Last month I put a request on donorschoose for a set of La Dama del Alba, a play by Alejandro Casona. I read this play in high school and remember the absolute terror feeling upon being told we were going to read an entire book, in Spanish. But we did it and had a lot of fun acting it out, so much that I remember the name, plot, characters, etc, from 5 or 6 years ago. I knew it would be a challenge for my students who aren't at the skill level I was at in AP spanish, but I decided they could rise to the challenge as long as I helped them out in the right ways. My donorschoose request got filled in a week and a half. Maybe it's end of the year burnout, but I wasn't expecting the generosity of random strangers so quickly.

So I chose a scene, created a vocabulary list and pre- and post- reading questions. In the first class, one of my students actually said "Ooooh I love when we bring my favorite activities into the classroom, I can't wait to try and act this out." Maybe she was still in quality review mode? We read the scene individually, then twice together and they worked on acting it out. By the end of class it was practically like being in the Teatro Lope de Vega in Sevilla. Well, not quite, but I had fun and so did my students, who spoke more spanish in 40 minutes than they had in the last 3 weeks without even noticing it.

Then the next period came in. They took one look at the 3 pages of text and lost their composure. In a theater school, students losing their composure can be more dramatic than any play. After many attempts to convince them to try it, they took a second look and got a little angrier. By the end of class I had gotten them through maybe a third of the scene, with numerous stops for questions, explanations, and dictionary breaks. We were all equally frustrated I think.

Luckily one of the good things about teaching is that your students will forget particulars about your lesson pretty quickly, even if you don't. The second class didn't get back to the play before the end of the year, but they did survive some other reading and speaking activities and maybe even some knowledge of the Spanish language.

In other news, I bought these and filled them with Tart Cherry Stomp from Red Jacket Orchards. The best thing I've discovered for summer weather, if it ever comes back.

2009-05-30T22:02:00.001-04:00

This isn't the original article, but the responses are interesting.

Maybe I'm not 5 years older

2009-05-25T21:01:00.002-04:00

This week I decided that my students' behavior is definitely karmic retribution for some of my fine performances in high school. I tried to figure out if I still do things like that now, and the answer is definitely yes.

Well, it's been a while since I (with help!) changed all of the definitions on a vocabulary list to inappropriate words, snuck into the office to make photocopies of it, and distributed it (twice, we made extra photocopies knowing the first set would get confiscated). But I still have a lot of trouble focusing in grad school and in meetings at work. At work I know better than to act like I'm 17, but in grad school no one seems to mind.

In my AP English class in 11th grade, we read Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. I really didn't like it but her books have gotten so much praise I recently decided to try another one. I just finished Tracks, which I liked a little better, but not enough that I would recommend it to anyone. My little ikea bookshelf is overflowing and I didn't appreciate this book enough to give it any space there. The chapters could almost be short stories independent of the rest of the book, which I usually like because of my attention span issues. But there is something about her writing that I can't access. The imagery in some chapters is exceptional, maybe it's the characters? Maybe it's that I read Tracks as if I were still in high school, except without the helpful study guides my amazing teacher gave us. So I still don't like this writer, which is really a trivial discovery. I think that my attempt to read her again did help me understand what is happening with some of my students- the ones who are fully capable of the mathematical part of Spanish, but can't apply that ability to reading or speaking (without a script). I think what I'll be working on the last few weeks, besides Regents Prep, will be talking about how all of the things we've studied this year (grammar, cultural traditions, art, geography) can be accessed.

Some things are too easy to spend time on

2009-05-18T21:13:00.004-04:00

James Harrison declines an invitation to the White House. One of my sort-of students (one who goes to my school but isn't in any of my classes) fails advisory. I no longer feel guilty for being lazy or unmotivated.

"Sin prisa, sin pausa"

2009-05-17T20:09:00.002-04:00

All year I thought I didn't want it to be summer, because I would miss working all the time. Now that there are something like 5 weeks left, I'm ready for the unlimited free time. (Even though I'm sure I'll be bored after a week.)

But there is so much left to do! Getting ready for Regents, covering everything that (I think) needs to be covered in each level, writing a curriculum for foreign language at my school so that next year we know what needs to be covered in each level, observations by 5 different people at least, etc. And a new semester of grad school starting in a week. There aren't enough verbs in this paragraph, but I'm just going to admit that and accept it. I know that everyone in New York is moving now, but I just renewed my lease for another year because I love this apartment, my rent is way lower than it should be, and I just can't fathom finding time to look for an apartment and move into it. This will be the first time since high school that I've lived in the same place for an entire year (hopefully 2 years), it's kind of an achievement I think, for me at least.

As far as the last few weeks go, I have no idea what to expect. My students have been twice as crazy as at any other point in the year. The heat in my room sporadically comes on in the afternoons and I can't teach with my door open because of the craziness in my room and the students from other schools in the building who wander in to say hi. It's hard to keep track of who is suspended, who is on vacation, and who argued during math class and will fight in my class if given the opportunity. And, as the one who is supposed to be calm despite the students being insane, I am so ready to be done with the stress. My classroom faces a park and every time the weather is nice I'm ready to climb out the window as much as my students are.

I feel guilty because I am running out of the energy to plan lessons and grade work. I guess after a few years this gets easier, but it seems like a lot of people at my school are feeling this way. Lately I've been spending as much time talking to students about their grades or their problems or why they just got kicked out of class/in a fight/etc as I've been spending planning and grading. That's where the guilt comes from, but as much as I know my extra-peppy professors from last summer would hate it, I think I just have to do what I can to not go crazy in the next few weeks.

Pensamos con la boca a veces

2009-05-02T11:49:00.002-04:00

"Miss, when they cremate people, do they burn the eyes too? "

"But Miss, you're the only girl in New York who likes basketball."

"It's like he cares so much about his job, that if he doesn't do it, he'll die."

"I don't need to go to that class, I already know everything."

"So, in Ecuador there are are zombies all over the place, right?"

"I got you Miss"

2009-03-22T21:39:00.002-04:00

So Dominic James came back today and almost (almost) helped his team win, even though he didn't really play that much. Dominic James is just that good.

My coworkers are also that good and because one of my grad classes this semester is about collaboration I've really been appreciating that lately.

A few weeks ago I co-taught a class with the French teacher. I did a lot of co-teaching this summer because the teacher I was student-teaching with and I worked really well in that mode. Even though it was at the end of a non-stop day the class went really well. We started off with a dialogue in which we needed a cup of orange juice. While the other teacher was shaking the carton of juice, the lid flew off and waves of orange juice covered half off the classroom. But after we cleaned that up everything was great. I wish that my schedule and curriculum made it possible to co-teach more often. In a language classroom especially, the opportunity to hear more than one teacher speak the language can be so helpful. By bringing in one other teacher you can improve listening and speaking skills, vocabulary, and cultural awareness in so many ways.

I've also gotten to observe a few other teachers recently and wish I had more time for that. But I have decided that after fighting it for several months, I should really let the textbook do some things for me, like come up with vocab lists and write the countless example sentences I need to go over a complicated concept with my advanced classes.

Then there's the other type of collaboration that doesn't really add anything to my practice but makes so many weeks without a break 100% more tolerable than I think it would be anywhere else. The emails about the staff basketball pool are truly masterpieces of modern literature. A bad day or a problem with a class seems much better after 20 minutes in the teachers lounge.In fact, it's one of the best ways I've found to stop yourself from bringing a bad mood or bad experience with you to the next class. There is a fine line here between things that happen at work and things that happen after work, but despite many leaps (or stumbles) across that line I still feel like some of my coworkers are my best resource. And I really think that when teachers and staff work well together, students notice and it changes the environment in the school.

I blame my cousin from the DR

2009-02-18T17:28:00.002-05:00

Mid-winter break is mid-way over. I have 3/4 of my lessons for next week planned and have tackled half of a mountain of grading that rivals k-2.

Here is what I am not excited about:

After the 1st semester, students get new schedules. That means some of the students from my classes are in the other Spanish teacher's class, and some of his students are in my class. Which is fine, because I can easily stop in his office and say "hey, what did you do last semester?" Or, better yet, ask the students what they remember and plan some beautiful diagnostics.

What is not fine is that I also got some new-ish students added to my classes. Meaning they were in a class other than foreign language last semester (enrichment english or global regents prep, etc). If they pass Spanish 2 they will get credit for Spanish 1. But they are in a class with students who did very well in Spanish 1. It's hardly a matter of differentiation so much as teaching two entirely different classes. One class has the building blocks from the first semester and can sometimes be given individual assignments to improve those skills, but not always. They sometimes enjoy showing off what they know from last semester, and the new students appreciate learning from other students. That also fights off some of the "I'm black, I can't speak Spanish."

But the situation is still pretty trying, since the new students are clearly not really responsible for learning the material from the 1st semester and I have to completely replan a lot to deal with making sure each group gets a good amount of group and individual instruction. This is apparently the case at a lot of schools so I've heard some interesting ideas for how to deal with it. And to ease the transition back from break, I'm starting off next week with scenes from Viva Baseball and discussion in any language.

2009-01-09T20:56:00.002-05:00

This was read at my synagogue tonight and after all of the things I've seen kids go through in the past year I really connected with it.

I have been so busy at work this week that I haven't had a chance to talk about things like the Middle East, so I am taking the next 12 hours off.

"what will be will be and so it goes"

2009-01-08T22:00:00.002-05:00

(-Jack Johnson)

The insanity at work is snowballing and by the time we have our weekly staff meeting next week I am expecting something worthy of a telenovela episode. I guess my old jobs have just been especially calm.

Today I tackled my grading pile and got to the assignment where students compared places in The Motorcycle Diaries to places in their communities. The most common responses "they have cows," "people fight at parties in Argentina and in Brooklyn" and "we all eat greens but we cook ours."

Those answers are enough to put me in a good mood until the next time a student yells at me for asking them to stop talking in the middle of a lesson.

"Nothing always found a way in..."

2009-01-06T18:57:00.003-05:00

Today I got a surprise observation for the last 10 minutes of the last class of the day, and then an hour long lecture about it, ending with being told that some students hate me (with a smile, so I had no idea! what to say in response). I am not a fan of people saying "as long as you don't talk over your students, just wait for them to be quiet..." as if it will solve the problems of what to do when a career Blood doesn't feel like learning Spanish because it might ruin his high or the girl whose family member just died starts crying in the middle of class, but you don't know that happened because no one tells you.

Three of my Teaching Fellow friends have quit recently, which is not what I'm planning on, but it's only been 2 days since break ended and I'm really starting to miss the appreciation people showed me during the break.

"well, that lasted long"

2008-12-13T17:54:00.002-05:00

One thing that I have learned in the last month is that it's great to plan ahead but something crazy will inevitably happen every other day, at least at my school.

For example:

- the day after the election everyone was so happy. Students had debates about whether or not firing your gun when the results were announced was an appropriate way to celebrate and asked me "How do you say change in Spanish?"

- the day a student who I didn't know came into my class and refused to leave, so he spent 10 minutes screaming in my classroom because I couldn't get any deans on the phone.

-a student saying "you're the only Spanish teacher I've learned from." at the end of a terrible day

- and the latest- 6 fire alarms pulled in one week. Since the new school-wide policy is to re-scan every student from all 3 schools after an alarm is pulled, friday afternoon I spent an hour outside with no coat and several other freezing teachers (and students!), waiting for it to be our school's turn to go through the scanner. No one had coats because the alarm was pulled during our lunch and students can't go to their lockers during a fire drill, so teachers don't go anywhere to grab their coats either. So the rest of lunch and the last period of class were cancelled because by the time our school got inside there were 10 minutes left in the school day. Teachers and students ran around in the cafeteria and classrooms trying to distribute/collect report cards, which actually worked out pretty well. So far, everyone has learned that we should take our coats everywhere.

So last night after I warmed up from freezing (and having a cold already) for an hour, I went back to East End Temple which is always wonderful. And today I went to the union square holiday shops. Poor choice on a saturday, I spent a solid 5 minutes with a stroller hitting my back repeatedly because some lady thought ramming it into me would move the 300 people in front of me. But, I did buy a ton of jewelry from this guy who doesn't have a website but his email is mycopper@gmail.com. He gave me an extra piece of jewelry because I bought so much! I have seen a lot of jewelry in a lot of places and this stuff is definitely on the top 5 list of most beautiful. So if you are in New York and you still need a gift for someone, you know where to go.

I love holiday shopping. I can't stand the crowds, but I love trying to find gifts for important people that they wouldn't find for themselves. Plus, somehow I'm only 22 and all of the people I love are so spread out that I like to give them things that remind them of me so that they don't forget me in the long periods of time when we don't see each other.

Maybe if I had been a boy scout...

2008-11-01T17:33:00.002-04:00

This week I was reminded the importance of being prepared. I am almost always quite prepared for lessons, I always have a backup activity for when a class finishes early or something to do if the day is interrupted by something like senior pictures or a field trip. And I have the fire drill procedure memorized.

What I was not prepared for was trying to teach a class while girls came in and out of my classroom yelling about students from the school being victims of gang violence during lunch. That turned into 28 students insisting I let them go to the office (which has 2 phones) all at the same time to call their parents to get a ride home. And at least 10 of my students crying. And at least 4 or 5 running out of the classroom, collecting their friends, and leaving school well before the day was actually over.

I happen to think that I am pretty good in emergency situations. I haven't been in that many, but I stay calm and make decisions a lot faster than I do generally. But I have never had to deal with keeping 28 other people calm and inside one room because when they are in my class I am responsible for all of them.

So I called the dean to explain why they couldn't all make calls home at once and to reassure them that the school had extra police in the neighborhood. Then I gave up on my lesson and had them look up vocab words for the unit in the glossary in their textbooks, stood in front of the door and promised to wait with anyone who needed to stay at school waiting for a ride home. I think that was the right choice. And first thing on friday morning I asked someone at the school what the emergency procedure is, because even though no face slashings occurred during lunch, students were running around the hallways yelling and crying, which seems borderline emergency to me. The emergency procedure is that someone from the main office gets on the intercom and tell students and teachers what to do. That never happened on thursday. At the end of the day an administrator came into my room to tell me I should walk all of my students outside at the end of the class period, that was it.

So while none of the teachers were really too worried, having heard the face slashing rumors every year, all of the students were scared. And on friday 10% of our students came to school.

And I spent all of today planning lessons and projects because even after all of that insanity, I still love my job.

what if you couldn't see the bridge out the window?

2008-10-26T19:30:00.003-04:00

I have now had 4 flights in a row be on time in and out of jfk. It's amazing and I can only imagine that I will be stuck there for at least 5 hours on the way home for Christmas as payback for all of these easy trips.

This weekend I went back to Pittsburgh for homecoming. I stayed in my old apartment and went to all of these familiar places and took a break from being a person with a full time job and retirement account. I was kind of nervous about what it would be like to go back. It is always weird going back to places, which I do every once in a while since I have so much trouble staying in one place. It's weird because you forget that things happen while you aren't there. Different people live in my old apartment, even though some of my old things are still there. I've missed things that have happened and things that have happened to me didn't affect people there. But this weekend was fun and totally relaxing and I am already sad to not be there and want to go back for a longer weekend sometime, like mid-winter break. Sometimes I really miss it and wish I were still there, and sometimes I am really happy that I'm not in college anymore.

I think that is also how I feel about my job. I love it a lot, and I talk about it all the time (my college friends are probably happy I couldn't stay longer because I would have never run out of stories about teaching). But I'm not sure that I'm good at it and it's really hard. But I know that next year will be a lot easier since I'm teaching every level of Spanish this year, so I'll have a lot of things already planned for next year. It just seems especially hard because I work all day and then come home and work for at least another hour or two(, or seven on the weekends). I worked pretty hard in college, too, but I didn't have to get up at 6:20 and I never had discipline issues at my old job.

The on the way to school playlist

2008-10-02T20:40:00.002-04:00

The instructions for this game are to pick one line from the 1st 30 songs that come up on your iTunes. So I'm doing that with my "on the way to school" playlist. The other part is that whoever reads is supposed to guess what songs they are from. That is because I took the game from myspace. They are the songs that make me feel like I know what I'm doing and have the energy to get through a whole day of school.

1. I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then

2. draped and displayed would you still love me anyway?

3. please don't slow me down if i'm goin too fast (this by the way is a cover of one of my favorite bands, and it is good)

4. let's get together and feel alright

5. she was bruised like a cherry, ripe as a peach

6. oh that's what you get, oh don't get upset

7. mucho miedo y muchas ganas de poder vivir

8. don't reach too far you will fall over

9. je suis pas les secours, je suis qu'une petite qui se débrouille moi

10. not while walking is still honest

11. maybe because I made her cry when I told her I was down

12.fatter than my wicked wallet

13. hand me your stella and fly

14. way down inside woman

15. who could shimmer and rot at the same time through

16.I run so fast a shotgun blast can't hurt me not one bit

17. but I'm doin pretty good far as geniuses go (every line of this song is genius)

18.I'm so glad to be here tonight and I'm so glad to be home

19.step by step come what may

20.love is strong hearing as loud as gunfire away

21. don't lie, you love 'em

22. or the mountain should crumble to the sea

23. and I'll find a soapbox where I can shout

24. quiero que yo quiero y lo quiero ahora

25. te gusta cuando yo te azoto

26. when you're great it's not murder it's assassinate

27. soap opera says you've got one life to live

28. I've never been this far away from home

29. let's stick up the world and split it 50/50

30.bass for your face, highs for your eyes

Why teaching is like being a Cincinnati Bengals fan

2008-10-01T17:19:00.004-04:00

As my students' and possibly my own favorite rapper says, "somet things have just been terrible. Like the Bengals." And this being my first year teaching, I feel that way about my classes at least once a week.

The first similarity- the preconceptions. Anybody who knows anything, or thinks they know anything, about sports, has an opinion about what Cincinnati will or won't do this year. Because they study the statistics? Maybe, but very often it's just because the name Cincinnati Bengals just makes people think "terrible." A few weeks working in a high school and anyone will tell you stereotypes are alive and well. The number one phrase I hear every day: "Miss, I'm black, I don't speak Spanish." Despite my protests that anyone can learn Spanish, including the Russian-French Spanish teacher and all of the students in Spanish 5 and the ones who have passed the Regents and are not native Spanish speakers, there is a general feeling of defeat before I even start the lesson.

Next is the disparity between the end of one season and the beginning of the next. Or the end of one lesson and the beginning of the next, as the case may be. At the end of every (maybe almost every) season, the Bengals win a few games and everyone thinks they'll start out playing equally well the next season. Something happens in the off season, and they lose their first 6 games. My students do the same thing. At the end of one lesson they understand what I've been teaching, not perfectly, but enough to use it on their own. Then they go home, have a school day without Spanish class because of the scheduling at my school, and can't remember a thing when they walk into my classroom again. I can assign extra homework to help them practice on the in-between days. But I can't fine them when they don't do it and I can't create mandatory extra practices or team meetings. I heard on the radio today Marvin Lewis might lose his job because of the team's slow start this year, so I hope I figure out a way to combat this quickly.

Finally, like the Cincinnati Bengals front office, we consistently give students more chances than they may deserve. I might kick a student out of class for a day, give them a 0 on an activity, or call their parents to inform them that their child doesn't do his or her classwork, but the next day I let them back in, call on them to answer questions, and sometimes accept late work for no reason. The alternative doesn't really seem fair, and I believe in the right to a free and public education as much as the right to play a game and earn millions of dollars for it. Certainly there are students who earn their suspensions or placements in alternative schools, and no, Chris Henry shouldn't still be in the NFL, but my students give me another chance when I assign work that is too hard or don't explain something clearly and everyone "wants to win," we just aren't sure exactly how to do that yet.

Now if only I could find the big orange Cincinnati flag that I remember from when I was young to put up next to the flags from Spanish speaking countries I got today.

only 3 weeks?

2008-09-27T11:35:00.003-04:00

So may things happen every day that I can't even begin to list all of them. And somehow it's almost the end of the marking period. I have lost my voice from saying "no talking during the quiz" so many times and spending an hour after school one day calling parents.

I spent a whole day accidentally crip flagging, not the best choice in my school. I've kicked 3 kids out of class (just for the day) and next week I have to start doing cafeteria duty every other day. I haven't actually been in the cafeteria yet.

The other teachers at the school are really helpful with everything and are mostly pretty young teachers so the teachers' lounge is a fun place.

And for the 1st time in my life I don't have to skip school to go to the synagogue for the holidays because NYC public schools are closed for Jewish holidays.

I've had some particularly bad days, but it seems like every day is part great and part horrible which makes it easier to keep working on lessons when I should be sleeping than it might be if every day were all bad.

And the debate last night? No mention of the fact that the debate was taking place at the University of Mississippi practically on the anniversary of this:

And there's also this.

I feel like a babysitter

2008-09-04T18:02:00.003-04:00

Today I babysat A+ certification classes and intuitive calculus. I don't know what either of those are. After watching the students do the assignments I still don't understand even a little. Every different class that I have has at least one student who tries to spend the period telling me how good the school is and how hard they work and at least 5 students who make inappropriate racial or sexual jokes.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, at the public Exeter an unofficial statistic- 7 freshmen got jumped in attempts to steal their ipods or cellphones, TODAY. This is the 1st school I've spent time in here that doesn't have metal detectors and no one seems to care about enforcing the no electronics during class rule. There are usually security guards around, but I guess in such a large building they can't be everywhere...

In other news, high holidays are approaching. If I had furniture I would have to sell it to pay for tickets. But I have found a synagogue I really like going to, and even met some other teaching fellows there (we are everywhere). And then there's this...

Overheard in Brooklyn:

2008-09-02T20:49:00.002-04:00

The Principal of one of the top 5 (arguably top 2) public schools in New York saying "I hate teachers" this morning. Reassuring, no?

While at my old school which I miss dearly...

The 1st day of school?

2008-09-01T21:45:00.003-04:00

By virtue of my missing a phone call from a principal but having a phone with functioning voicemail for once, I have to call first thing in the morning about going in for an interview. Apparently there are still schools looking for teachers even though tomorrow is the first day of school. I hope that myself and the many many (I've heard as many as half of the math fellows alone) Teaching Fellows without jobs yet find places at these schools soon. There is a lot of unhappiness among the unemployed teaching fellows who feel that the program and the DOE accepted too many people this year. For me this means that I will probably have competition at this interview tomorrow, quite possibly from a more experienced teacher. However it also means less time at the school where I am a sub, which is a great thing.

Aside from the DOE and New York State government, there are plenty of other people who do not have the best interests of public school students in mind. Here is one of them, doing a sportscast in 1988, courtesy of my favorite website deadspin.com.

August is such a nothing month

2008-08-31T00:06:00.002-04:00

Very quick, Laurel-style, summary of August: my fantastic performance at Pianos (part of that may have been in july), the sexual fantasy conversation in chinatown, the episode at Virgin Mega, surgery/massive credit card debt (but hot doctors!), Olympics (swimming of course, President Bush slapping Misty May's ass, King James), countless interviews, psychic powers, Jersey, DRAMA, way too much talking on the phone, Vicky Christina Barcelona, and of course, the beginning of football. Oh, and I bought a plane ticket to visit Pittsburgh which I am already excited about, what could be better than my bffs and the turquoise couch and a reenactment of one of the top 5 most ridiculous weekends of Senior Year.

Anyway, as far as school, I have nothing to say as I am still unemployed (but I have a teaching job for next year... and a new career plan picked out just in case). Apparently people actually read this, so here is something of substance.

This is why I like the Giants, not the Jets

2008-08-07T21:18:00.002-04:00

Further proof that everyone in New York comes from either Brooklyn or the midwest- Brett Favre replaces Chad Freaking Pennington on the Jets (West Virginia is midwest, right?). Brett Favre has played football almost as long as I've been alive. And then...he retired. About 6 months ago. He may have forgotten, but I haven't, because it was all over the news. And not just ESPN, the news that people who don't care about sports watch every day to find out about politics and economics. He gave press conferences and morning show interviews about how much thought had gone into his decision to leave football.

And now he's back. Wearing the same color jersey, but in my media market. And this moves him to the #2 spot on the list of people I strongly dislike this week. Right below the everyone at the NYU medical Center and just above Governor Patterson (and much of the New York State legislature).

Those other 2 people are personal things though. I imagine many of the other NYC Teaching Fellows and recent graduates with degrees in education are feeling the budget cuts as well. And the City Council, etc, are working with schools, but way too much money is missing from the budget. Teachers who already have jobs are looking at cuts in supply money (as in not enough copy paper to make handouts for classes that already don't have textbooks). And I imagine my summer school students who were hoping to take saturday school so they could graduate on time will be pretty unhappy. Maybe Mayor Bloomberg should try listening to "justify my thug" or "public service announcement" instead of "Mother I made it."

And in regards to the election, if my mind hadn't already been made up about who to vote for, I would most likely be doing some serious research on the candidates' health care policies, having already spent $1200 and preparing to spend another $5000 or so on tests and a surgery that takes about 30 minutes and doesn't require an overnight stay. Wait until my DOE insurance takes effect in September? Absolutely not, I'd rather make credit card payments for 3 years than miss a week of school in my first month. That is, if I can get a job by September.

One good thing about this week- the purchase of Duffy's cd "rockferry." She is, in my opinion, an updated Carole King, which is one of the best things a singer could be.

"Why are you just a teacher?"

2008-07-29T20:37:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a perfect stereotypical day in a "high-need" school in the city.

I forced myself to go in to student teaching despite having been in the hospital all weekend so I was planning on just observing the whole day.

5 minutes into 1st period half of the girls in class jumped out of their seats screaming because a dead mouse fell out of the wall. I am not sure what to do in the face of a dead mouse, so I went in the hall and dragged in the assistant principal from the social studies department.

The teacher I'm working with never arrived so I started making up a lesson with the material we would need to play a Spanish version of MASH. No one came to inform me that the teacher wouldn't be coming to school so I had to leave the class alone to go find out. A sub came after the 2 hour 1st period ended. The regular teacher had left no work to do and the sub knew no Spanish so I was on my own for the entire morning, trying not to get sick or have my students running all over the building. These first 2 hours, by the way, were illegal since I am not yet certified to teach.

Lack of communication and support for teachers (and inexperienced student teachers!) is a huge problem in a lot of schools here. Sometimes it can be helpful to have the freedom that comes with a principal who doesn't monitor you too much. But when all kinds of things are happening and you have no idea what to do, it is distressing to say the least. The mice? Gross and probably a health hazard, especially in the non-air-conditioned building in summer heat. But also pretty common in schools (in Brooklyn at least). There was a shooting about 2 blocks from the school, involving an 18 year-old, over the weekend, so mice probably don't seem like a big problem.

I wanted to cry for pretty much the entire time I was teaching yesterday. But I survived, in one piece, and things went well in class today, so whatever I did yesterday didn't do any permanent damage. And at the end of the day (today at least) I love the students I work with, I love the language I'm teaching, and I love the city I live in. I can't fix all of the problems at my school. I'm ok with not saving the world, which is not something I ever expected to say. But there are things I can do and after 7 weeks of training I'm figuring out what they are.

bad person? maybe. good teacher?

2008-07-21T20:53:00.002-04:00

After the weekend I had (minus the amazing Santogold performance in the park sunday) I was expecting to have a horrible time during my evaluation this morning. But somehow it was the best lesson I have ever taught- my students remembered things we learned last week (maybe they studied for the first time this summer) and even the one who dislikes me so much that she usually leaves the room when I teach volunteered to share answers with the class.

Even after 3 weeks of actually teaching I realize that everyone is right when they say that you can't spend all of your time trying to change the world. I am happy if I can get everyone to write one complete, correct sentence by the end of the 2 hour class period every day.

me lo ha dicho el viento

2008-07-12T21:08:00.003-04:00

This week I needed some pictures from newspapers or magazines for an activity for my students. I used the papers and magazines I had in my apartment which may have been part of the problem. The problem being that I wanted to pick out pictures of different types of people (age, occupation, race, etc etc). I could only find pictures of wealthy white people and Barack Obama (who, by the way wants your kids to learn Spanish). For the next activity, my kids have requested Raven Simone (or however you might spell that).

The Spanish certification test actually included something from that lit class in Spain which con H, Greg and I spent looking at inappropriate newspaper ads in the back row and trading museli. And something from the class in which my group once answered "This poem means: red bull gives you wings." Luckily I pay some attention and I think I may have actually passed.

After the test I went to Central Park to write lesson plans on the back of a receipt from Shakespeare & Co, which I went to to finally replace my bookmark and buy some things as I'm reentering my beat writer phase, and to hear Julieta Venegas. Hear, not see, because summerstage was packed. But she sang my favorite songs of hers and everyone watching was happy. Partly of course because they weren't in line for the Bon Jovi concert for 10 hours where umbrellas, bags, and coolers were all prohibited.

I am once again too tired to do all of the things I should be doing, and managed to fall into the courtyard trying to carry my laundry basket to the other building. Every day of class someone comes in on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Although maybe if we hadn't spend 2 hours eating lunch friday we would be less stressed this weekend.

Aussi, bonne quatorze juillet! This weekend last year was so much fun, minus walking home from the Eiffel Tower and being woken up by the kids playing soccer in the hallway.

It's baaack

2008-06-29T14:39:00.003-04:00

The long awaited return of the soccer liveblog.

Pregame: Well, Enrique's song was pretty awful, much worse than whatever dance was on before that.

I'm happy to know that Sergio Ramos hasn't gotten a haircut since the World Cup.

espn.com is featuring an article about how the stadium where this game is being played was a site for medical experiments on Jews and other prisoners during the Holocaust.

Michael Ballack, who has gotten a haircut, is leading Germany in their anthem, which is the same melody as my University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater. Not weird at all.

Espn deportes is not showing the game, so I am watching in English.

1st half- the announcers remind us that Spain hasn't won this since before most of the players on the team were born and Franco was ruling Spain. So, will they perform like the Red Sox a few years ago or the Pirates every single year?

3:08- Sergio Ramos breaks out the arms up in the air "I didn't do it!" made popular by every member of the Duke basketball team. He really didn't do it though.

7:07- Per Mertesacker runs really fast, but Sergio's hair and "i didn't do it" leg stop him before he can get a good shot off.

9:31- This is tricky without DVR. But Podolski just did something to Sergio Ramos that isn't even allowed in Ultimate Fighting, which pretty much has no rules.

11:10- Torres has gotten 4 years younger since the last time I saw him play soccer.

12:21- Casillas has a better windmill than Michael Beasley (go see Gunnin for that #1 Spot).

14:03- Distracted by the announcer's pronunciation of Xavi's name, I missed most of that play, which looked close. Xavi followed up by kicking the ball into a group of 5 german players.

18:29- It's hot in Austria, shocking. Marchena, who I've never heard of, doesn't agree with the ref. Soccer players are great actors.

19:04- Torres' ankle just did about 4 360 degree spins.

22:07- A fantastic display of both soccer skills and what you should do if someone is shooting at you.

25:00- I took a facebook break. Nothing remarkable has happened. In other news, the Strand Annex is closing in August. Everything is on sale. Today I came home with Tender is the Night, a book about Jackie Robinson, and Americus by Ferlinghetti.

27:13- Germany has committed only 2 more fouls than Spain. But the fouls they commit involve remarkable choreography.

29:29- The announcer is criticizing the players' begging for fouls. The phrase man up comes to mind.

32:00- Torrrrrrrrrres! Puyol, who is old enough to be Torres' great- grandfather gives him a hug. The announcer just said something vaguely sexual. I need espn deportes.

33:00- Espn deportes is now en vivo at the game. I can't understand the announcers as well so I can't tell when they say awful things.

34:00- The Mets are pounding the Yankees again (that is vaguely sexual I guess). I live in a Mets neighborhood. Some German player is napping on the field. Play continues elsewhere.

36:7- It's Mertesacker I think. oddly the stats are in English on EspnD, but the scrolling stats on the bottom are in Spanish. Magglio Ordoñez, my favorite baseball player, is on the DL. Ballack appears to have been strangled, there are lines of blood up his neck. Unlike a baseball player, he comes back into the game.

41:35- Fabregas does some beautiful ballet. Which results in a pile-up and confrontation. The ref with the cards is wearing a masculine turquoise shirt. Iker Casillas got a yellow card for whatever just happened.

43:34- The Yankees are mounting a comeback. I am contemplating going to a bar for the rest of the game.

45:00 The announcer says something to the effect of this- Spain is playing more like their present than their past. I am headed to Nevada Smith's because soccer is better with Carlsberg. Check out deadspin for updates by someone who actually understands soccer.

It's a marathon, not a sprint

2008-06-21T21:15:00.002-04:00

I survived my first week of training! The first 2 weeks are a semester long class compressed into 9 days so it is pretty intense. Most of the stuff we are learning is interesting, and the work is challenging. If there is anything I will spend 8 hours a day taking notes on and talking about, this is it. When I was going in to the city on my second day of training I heard a woman ranting about her daughter's teacher, who she not-so-affectionately named "Big Bird." There are plenty of other reminders that what I'm about to do is as close to impossible as I can get, but after the first week I feel inspired more than discouraged.

My field training site for July is out in Canarsie, by where they filmed Half Nelson, so it should be a really interesting summer school to observe.

Some other things to note:

We used some videos from this site in class last week and some of them are very interesting.

2,200 children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation every year in New York City.

In non teacher news, I am sick, and am dealing with another aspect of moving- finding a doctor/dealing with insurance/not having my mom to make me chicken soup (that's been a fact for 4 years but I think it continues to be troubling forever).

Yesterday I saw Get Smart which was funny. Not hilarious, but about what I expected. And Anne Hathaway did a really good job, I hate to admit. Some guy in front of me in the theater said she was perfect. I wouldn't go that far, but his judgement was questionable as he actually answered a cell phone call during the movie.

Public Opinion

2008-06-16T21:15:00.003-04:00

When people find out what I'm doing with my life (which is hard to avoid since I talk about it a lot), they say one of two things. I appreciate both and I think both are meant to be helpful, but redundancy is no fun. What are these things I always hear?

1. "They're going to call you white bitch and stab you in the bathroom." or,

2. "As long as you help one kid..."

My grad classes start tomorrow morning and maybe after that I'll have some sort of appropriate response to those things. Today I thought about all of the stuff in the "experience" column of my resume. They are all things that were a few hours a week or part time at the most. I always put 100% into them, came home exhausted and they had such an impact on me. I can't imagine what full-time teaching will be like.

(I have big plans for things like cooking healthy food and going to the gym (to take boxing class!) to cancel out all of the side-effects.)

Also, in unrelated news, I finally did the research on the net gun which no one needs but I think would be endlessly entertaining. My financial/nutritional advisor, Whitney, and I have decided that it is far to expensive for someone with my job in New York.

Tomorrow

2008-06-15T18:03:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Teaching Fellows program. We start at Lincoln Center where presumably someone will say something inspirational (to cancel out all of the discouragement that comes from family/friends/strangers?) and we get to meet all of the other fellows. Hopefully this week I will be hearing back from some of the schools I spoke to last week about setting up interviews. Although I have spent most of my weekend doing the assignments we need to have completed before training instead of preparing a demo lesson for interviews.

This morning I went to the fledgling Brooklyn Flea to find some graduation gifts. I ended up with a rolling pin and Glacier State Park drinking glass (my Cola Cao tastes better when it comes from a glass with pictures of Montana on it), and some great vintage fabric for my cousin who is about to start earning a degree in fashion design.

Brooklyn has some of the small town characteristics that Pittsburgh is known for, so it feels very much like home to me. Also in Brooklyn- I saw a tiny old woman chasing after a cockroach with her cane, and met a guy in Brooklyn Bridge park who explained to me that I probably like hanging out down their because it is the part of the city that most resembles Pittsburgh.

Now, back to the pile of work on my desk in an attempt to not start out training being really far behind.

"Welcome to Brooklyn"

2008-06-14T15:07:00.000-04:00

I think everyone who moves to New York in their twenties is required to start a blog, so I'm following the rules. Training for NYCTeaching Fellows starts monday and I am incredibly nervous and excited. Everyone I meet keeps reminding me that I have chosen an impossible job in an impossible city. I don't believe them, but it gets tiring to listen to.

So far I love living in Brooklyn, and the idea of living in Brooklyn. I can get everywhere pretty easily, it takes the same amount of time for me to get to the upper west side as it does to get to the beach at Coney Island, and I am having fun exploring and going back to my old favorite places. My next challenges are to start meeting people and to find a school to teach at. I have always been able to move places where I didn't know anyone, so I'm not too worried about that (maybe I should worry more and put some effort into it though). The school thing requires a lot of interviews which I conveniently have a few hours for because of training.

So, that's enough until I actually have something to say, other than that I saw a Karate Kid tattoo on the subway today.