That was a nice little break from LJ.

My classroom was made available to me Th afternoon. The 38 student desks and chairs that I will need are now in the room. Space for walking is limited. Literally, I have about 2' maneuvering space between the student desks and the walls. That's tight. Once I have my sixth graders in there, movement will be limited. I will have a single computer in the classroom. So far, I don't have an overhead projector. Some of the supplies I ordered were delivered to the classroom, but the bulk of the materials is on backorder.

Yesterday was a staff development day. I went into my room at 8 a.m., just to check the status of "what's there, what's not there." No change. I turned the air conditioner on and left for my meeting. When I returned to my room at 11 a.m. the room was hot. The air conditioner was off. I turned it back on again, took a trip to the book room to pick up student texts, and when I returned, the room was hot. In fact, it was hotter. The thermostat read 90ºF. I took off for lunch--a quick trip to the market-- returned to the classroom and the thermostat read 96º. The fucking air conditioner was blowing nothing but air. I started to cry right then and there. I then went to the principal and informed her of the cooling problem. She assured me that it would be taken care of by Tuesday morning. If not fixed by the end of next week, I was told, I would be moved to the main building and remain there until the bungalow's air conditioner gets fixed.

This situation is not unique to me. I wish I could say that. But it's not. It's happening to other teachers in California.

Look, I work in an affluent city and in a well respected school district. Yet, the conditions that many of us are working in--Glendale and everywhere else in this state-- resemble conditions you hear about in developing countries. In the elementary school I last worked at, we worked in bungalows that were being eaten by termites. Roaches, believe it or not, were receiving a free K-6 education. Every classroom had them. Now I'm in a school were there is a dearth of everything. My computer for example is a frankenstein of parts cannibalized from other not-so-lucky computers. I have to beg to get things for my room and for my students. And now I have to cram 38 students into a room that was meant for no more than 20 students and hope, HOPE, that I don't have to deal with a medical emergency because the room doesn't have air conditioning.

One way to get rid of public education is by killing it slowly. Che Guevara was killed this way in Bolivia, tortured slowly (quema ropa), deliberately, and completely. His captors were sadistic and inhumane to the extreme. The same thing is happening to California's schools. The physical body of public education is being starved of money and resources.  It's being cut up and neglected.  As one part of the system atrophies and fails, another part of the system goes into shock, exhaustion, atrophy, and failure.  Eventually, the whole thing will die.   Detractors of public education are quick to say, "Well, the system is sick and deserves to die." They're wrong.

If we want a decent education for our students, K-public university, we have to support it with resources. That means money, leadership, community involvement.  If it is dysfunctional--and it is-- there has to be a deliberate and concerted effort to address those issues in a substantive manner.   If we don't attend to this sick child, it will die.  The only way out, at this point, is a massive transfusion of  tax money.  We need to fund the solution.

I assure you, private schools aren't necessarily better than public schools.  The market will not effectively separate the wheat from the chaff and eliminate the lousy schools; indeed, inferior schools will continue to exist, just as before. 

If public education is allowed to atrophy and die, the privatization of education will be disastrous.  The rich will be able to afford the best (think $20-30k for a single academic year at a high school).  The dwindling middle class will send their kids to schools in the mid-range ($10-20k).   And the rest of the masses?  Where will they send their kids?   They will send their kids to the educational equivalent of a 99 cents store.  Is this the solution?  Think about it.

In the meantime, Prop 13 has to die and property taxes should be raised.

If you are a parent, help your kid's teacher and school.  Join the PTA or get involved in any way to advocate for improvement.

If you don't have kids,  volunteer at your neighborhood school or library.  Vote for progressive candidates.  Participate in the discourse.

Enough is enough!

The tandem is here!  Santana delivered it to Rincon Cyclery today.  Tomorrow we ride!

It's candy apple red and smokin'!

Champion Cyclist and Now Champion Guzzler of Austin Water

According to this article in the NY TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/us/16lance.html, Armstrong is the #1 WATER ABUSER in the entire city.  His monthly consumption of water in July was 333,000 gallons!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF!

I have to design three electives for the sixth grade.  Each elective will run ten weeks and meet daily for 50 minutes.  That's a lot to create lesson plans for!

There is a fourth elective that I'll have to teach:  AVID (http://www.avidonline.org/.)    Basically, it entails coaching students about time management, organization, note taking etc.   Although AVID sounds boring, it is beneficial.  Eat your brussel sprouts!

Possible topics:
*Election Central:  all about politics, all the time.
*Logic-- spatial problems, word play, logic problems, brain teasers and puzzles
*"Shakespeare"--two or three of the plays.  Abridged and non-abridged, side by side reading and dramatization.
*Gardening I: designing a garden, soil analysis, soil building, plant selection
*Economics
*Sustainability
*Comics
*Movies as narratives
*Field research
*Bees
*Sun and solar energy
*Urban planning
*Baseball
*Poetry
*VUE
*Preparing a chicken for mummification
*Inference

I can always connect topics.  Mix and match.  Random couplings always produce interesting themes. Here are a few that my finger touched-

--poetry/comics    (Great way to effectively teach an epic like Gilgamesh or the Iliad)
--gardening/movies as narratives     (I'm stumped with this one.  Oklahoma!)
--urban planning/sustainability     (Design a city that can sustain itself)
--election central/movies as narratives     (This would be so much fun to do!)

Any suggestions for elective topics?    Think like a sixth grader.   Think of topics or themes outside of the normal curricula.

“The Bostonians paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering.”  1774

Someone please explain to me Obama's vote.   Apparently he was one of the 69 senators who voted to broaden government spy powers and give immunity to telecoms who aid in secret wiretapping. 

Open House is tonight.  We have quite a display of student work to show.   My classroom is bursting with projects and reports and essays, BEAUTIFUL ESSAYS!  This class of students is the BEST I've had in two years.

So, what to wear?

a)  Red cowboy boots, my rocket skirt, and a straw cowboy hat that says "Arizona!"
b)  Something conventional 'cept my bob raging with Neopolitan colors: strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla.

This is my last Open House at this school.  I'm lucky.   I'm ending on a lovely note.

The Phoenix will land--or crash-- on Mars in less than 8 hours!   I am soooo excited!

This morning I stopped at Porto's to buy three dozen papas rellenas for my students.  It's a ritual of mine: during the administration of the CST's I give my kids bagels or pasteles in order to sustain them through 2 hours of (almost) daily testing.  Since the papas are too heavy and the boxes are bulky, I drove my car to pick up the goodies.  I'll ride tomorrow.

This afternoon I had to stop at Whole Foods to buy a few groceries for tonight's dinner.  Rather than hop on the 134, I drove up Wilson Ave.  Guess who was on the road?  Evil Bus Driver.  I recognized him and his evil bus: The Glendale Beeline B64.  I wrote down his plate and bus numbers, noted the time, and checked his route number from the side of the bus.  After that, I shopped at Whole Foods and dropped a lot of money for a few yummy items.

Now I'm at home and I've done a little research to confirm the info that I wrote down about the bus.  There is indeed a bus numbered B64 on route 11 and it runs regularly on Wilson between 3:00 and 3:15 every afternoon, M-F.  With my handy info, I called the city of Glendale and filed a complaint against the bus driver.  They took my name and several phone numbers.  I gave them my school's phone number as well as my cell number.  When the rep realized that I was a GUSD teacher, she became angry for me and assured me that my complaint would be submitted to the appropriate parties.

I'm glad I was able to do this today.  The afternoon that it all happened (May 2) I was too upset and angry.   Any call of mine would have been tinged with emotion.  Today's phone call was calm and very matter-of-fact.    There's a lesson in here for me.

One month from now I will either be starting my summer vacation or teaching summer school.  Personally, I want my summer vacation in full.  I need it.

I need it because I (like the other sixth grade teachers at my school) have been stressing about next year's teaching assignment.  I still don't know whether I'll be teaching at the middle school or not.  So, stress be gone!  A nice long summer vacation away from ANY school is the antidote to my stress.

I need it because I want to write about baseball and math.  I won't write about baseball statistics.  That, silly wabbit, has been done in spades.  I'm interested in geometry and algorithmic art.   Promethean radiance!  What's really loopy about this ambition of mine is that I KNOW NOTHING SUBSTANTIVE about geometry or algorithmic art.   I know.  I'm naive.  I gotta start somewhere and learning something new is coolio.

I need it because I want to grow my family's veggies.  Urban farming is laborious and it requires a chunk of time and the commitment of my body and word.

I need it because I want to sleep in once in a while.

I need it because Mt Wilson and Ojai call my legs and wheels.

I need it because I love this life of mine.

I was almost sideswiped TWICE by an MTA bus this afternoon.   The first time, the asshole-driver drove his bus past me and then abruptly veered to the right of Wilson Avenue effectively squeezing me out of my right-of-way.  The second time he sandwiched me and I had to brake to a stop in order to avoid getting smeared against a bunch of parked cars.  

I am so mad.

Did I get the bus number or plate numbers?  No.  

Bus wins.  Today.

I'm joining the LA Bicycle Coalition.  From now on, I'm fighting.

A lot of my friends are supporting B. Obama.  They are cuckoo for Obama!  He stands for hope and change.  He stands for bipartisan solutions to our current problems.  He wants the US out of Iraq.  He wants to rebuild our nation's reputation.  He's inspiring!    My friends tell me that he's electric.  He inspires action like no other candidate since...Robert Kennedy or Frank Zappa or Ronald Reagan.

I've listened to him speak in the debates. I've visited his website. I've read his position on a variety of domestic and international issues.  I am not convinced that this charming man is the right person for the job.

I'm a material girl.  I like substance.  I like to see proof, sort of like Thomas, that bad ass disciple of Jesus'.   Like Thomas, I want to see the body. I want to smell the sweat and I want to see the crusty wounds of our Lord.  Obama, for now, is a figment of the political imagination. 

Hope without a body is a delusion.

Rain is good, the cold is good, but snow is GREAT! 
Mt Wilson is covered in snow and the view from my house is awesome.
More rain and more snow to come. It'll be a wet and cozy weekend for sure.

When	Friday, December 21, 2007, 7:30 - 10:30pm
Where	meet @ 7:30 pm - Mulholland Fountain ride @ 8:00 pm - through Griffith Park
Event type	Community
Contact	Stephen Box 323.962.6540
Note	Councilmember Tom LaBonge, the DWP, LADOT and the Department of Rec & Park(ing) have conspired to exclude cyclists from the Griffith Park Festival of Lights. Little do they realize, “We ARE the Festival!” Illuminate yourself with your brightest lights, meet at the Mulholland Fountain (Riverside & Los Feliz) @ 7:30 pm, ride at 8:00 pm. Remember, “We ARE the Festival!” Friday, December 21, 2007 meet @ 7:30 pm - Mulholland Fountain ride @ 8:00 pm - through Griffith Park (slowly and with much illumination and noise!) (wear surgical masks if you would like to make a statement about the noxious fumes caused by the thousands of idling automobiles polluting the largest urban wilderness park in the United States)
Link

For the record, I'm willing to fight for the Dalai Lama's right to party!

I'm done with my TAHG unit in American history!
I like it.

Did Jesus ever walk on eggshells?

So my letter to the Glendale Newspress/LA Times was published yesterday. Woohoo! Initially I expected it to be printed in the Letters to the Editor section, but instead I was "upgraded" to the Community Commentary section. This change gives my voice greater credibility and places me on par with the president of the school board whose piece appeared in the same section of the paper several weeks ago. Also, the likelihood of having my views read by the general public--esp Glendale readers-- increases with the venue change.

Yay!

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2007/03/27/opinion/gnp-comment26.txt

Mmmm Jeb, I think i'm a gonna hunt me down 5 greasy towelheads in Africa with ma big guns n stuff. I hopes i gets 'em cuz they're mean and nasty, hurtin' people n' stuff. By the way, brother, i wish i could fly that big plane with the big guns. It'd be fun n' stuff. Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh! Can'tcha hear the bullets zippin' through da air. Oh Jeb, I wish i was invisible too. That'd be fun too.