The Y-Dub Update

My school has been featured on a Chicago Public Radio series on education. The particular segment is ten minutes long and deals with private funding in public education in Chicago. You can hear it here; scroll down to the bottom of the April 25th show. In spite of all my complaints, I am proud of the school. The vast majority of students care, all the staff do, and, like our cheesy bulletin board says, "Something good is happening here," even if it's happening more noisily and more chaotically than I would like. The weather is slowly getting warmer, and I feel like I've made it past a wintertime slump. I'm beginning to genuinely look forward to returning to YWLCS next fall.

Blooper of the week: in a book report, one of the girls spelled Destiny (the name of an important character) as "Density." But everyone seems to comprehend the concept of surface area (for rectangular prisms, at least). Oh and you'll like this: one of my sneaky tricks to get students involved is to use their names in word problems (everyone does this these days), and to mix it up a little bit, I started using the names of their favorite rappers and singers. It's so brilliant that it's stupid!! All I have to do is put the name Chris Brown in my problem about selling hot dogs and corn dogs, and they're falling all over themselves to read it. On a page full of problems featuring Makita, Keyanna, and Alexa, everyone wanted to do the one with Bow Wow in it first. They were fighting about who was going to get to present it to the class (but then, they always fight over presentations. They love to give them, which is great; if only they were more competent at listening to other people's!)

In other news, I got a really sweet letter from one of my advisees, saying basically that she appreciates having me around, and I shouldn't let it get me down when nobody listens to me.

Only twenty-something days of instruction left!

Oops, I accidently pasted a link to the Department of the Treasury where my Chris Brown image was supposed to be. It's fixed now, but did you know, the national debt changes daily, and its current amount is easily accessed by the public? (Click on "current amount.") It's a pretty scary number.

Our Nation's Capital

Patrick's spring break was last week, so I took off two days from school and we flew to Washington for a long weekend. We had a great time staying with friends Steve and Sanne, and we enjoyed all of the free museums, too.

Our first stop was the National Gallery of Art. We spent all day there. The permanent collection showcases lots of French Impressionists, Italians, Dutch, Rodin, that sort of thing. Special exhibitions that we saw included Audubon birds and Dada. When we finally got museumed out, we walked to the Library of Congress to look at the books. (Guess whose idea that was!) Then it was Metro back to meet up with Steve and Sanne for Ethiopian dinner in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

The next day, we hit up the Botanic Gardens and gawked at their orchids for a while. The Museum of the American Indian (in the background in my photo) was looking crowded, so we walked on to the Hirshhorn and discovered Hiroshi Sugimoto, a very interesting photographer. We then spent an hour at the Sackler Gallery, which featured a gorgeous exhibit of Hokusai's prints and paintings. By then, our feet were getting tired, so we went to the natural history place and caught an IMAX movie about deep sea animals. In the documentary, teams of marine biologists and astrobiologists went hundreds of meters down, exploring what types of life might exist in the environments on other planets, which are sterile compared to a terrestrial rainforest but may be similar to the cold, dark waters deep in our oceans.

Besides walking around the monuments (White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, all more attractive at night), the other big tourist thing we did was go to the zoo. We saw the pandas, including the baby (who was trying to sleep and played an adorable game of peek-a-boo, covering and uncovering its eyes with its paw in an attempt to get comfortable). We saw the young elephant, too, and a video of its birth (probably one of the most dramatic moments ever captured on film: 325 pounds dropping in a wet mess from a distressed and flailing mother elephant). But the best part was probably the Bird House, where we walked through a room full of flapping, singing, uncaged birds. There was a similar set up in an outdoor enclosure, where I couldn't stop photographing the ducks. They were so beautiful. Whoever is in charge of duck design deserves a raise. On this blog, I'm only showing two of the half-dozen or so exquisite species that we saw. Their lines are so lovely; their colors are perfectly coordinated; they dabble and dive so sweetly.

Take me to your leader

In Humanities, the 7th graders are starting a unit on China. In this unit, they will learn that Chinese women had bound feet. I know because the 8th graders told me about it at the beginning of the year. They wanted to know if that ever happened to anyone in my family.

This year's 7th graders began yesterday by making a big chart on the board, listing things they already knew and things they wanted to learn. (This strategy is called KWL, and they will come back at the end of the unit and list what they have learned.) On the "already know" list:
1) Different decorations
2) They trade with the U.S.
3) Great Wall of China
4) China wanted boys instead of girls
5) Major cities have a Chinatown
6) Do carate
7) Eat very different food
8) Worship Buda
9) Known for wearing robes
10) Different calendar
11) Tounge cut off if you lie.

Good job, kids.

Want to know:
1) How long was the Wall of China around?
2) What gods do they worship?
3) Do they have a town for U.S.?
4) Why do Chinese people love cats?
5) Do they have responsibilities?
6) How do you make fortune cookies?
7) What's the aconamy?
8) Who is their king?
9) Was China made befor Asia?

I'm not sure what some of those questions mean.

Their other big idea is that since I got my hair cut, I look like Mulan. You be the judge.

We just planned Spirit Week (and I got the fun job of being faculty chair of the Spirit Committee. No, I'm not joking, it really is fun). Proposals for themes for each day included Jersey Day (but they tried that last year, and not enough people owned jerseys so it sucked), Pink and Purple Day (but not everyone likes pink and purple--thankfully), Backwards Day (rejected because "What if we have to go to the bathroom??"), Bum/Hobo Day (they had some other word, I forget what it was, but anyway I said no), and Favorite Rap Star Day (Brie came through, reminding everyone that they might "wear really big jeans and they might fall down and show our panties" or, alternatively, they might dress like a female pop star, which would be inappropriately hoochie for school, though I don't think she actually said hoochie). We ended up choosing Twin Day, International Day, Cartoon Character Day, and School Colors/Rally Day. I hope it turns out good ...

Problems

School is rolling along. I've really been appreciating the Middle School team lately. Shannell, who has been away for a long month on doctor's orders (the same vascular issue that Olympic skater Irina Slutskaya had), is finally back, and we've been having some good conversations. I'm learning more all the time about the school's functions and disfunctions, and how people on different levels are attempting to address both. I'm optimistic about the process.

Matthew from Mississippi had decided to go back, but now he's changed his mind. After getting laid off at the bank, he got another job at a public library closer to where he's living. He'll be making $9.50/hour, 6 hours/day, 5 days/week, and his rent is just $80/week, so he should be fine as long as he has this job. (I congratulated him and said, "So maybe you can start paying us back then, bit by bit?" He seemed happy to agree. We'll see what actually happens; I won't hold it against him if he doesn't.) He really doesn't want to go back to the South, he says; his people aren't there anymore, and it feels like a land full of strangers. Plus, he wants to pursue his GED, something he doesn't know how he would do back in Biloxi (again, the limitations of illiteracy).

He came over looking for some food to tide him over to his next paycheck. Patrick talked to him a bit, trying to clarify what happened after the hurricane, and expressing his frustration that there was no end to these donations of food and money in sight. Matthew was very understanding and told Patrick he was a good friend, and that he wouldn't be calling on us anymore except to say, "I'm still alive." Patrick also acknowledged that it must not be "fun" to have to call on us the way he has been. Then Patrick offered to take Matthew to the grocery store, since we don't have his kind of food in the house. At that, some red flags went up in my mind, and I put my foot down. I said something about how it wasn't an issue of generosity or some kind of personal thing, just of our needs at this point, and we could give from what we had at home at that was that. Patrick is working on his seminar paper right now, I'm working on my grades (due at midnight), we've already been to the grocery store today, and I just don't see accommodating someone every time they ask for something as a good way to show that you don't want them to ask you for stuff anymore. So I packed up some cans of corn, mac and cheese, cereal, fruit, kidney beans, and snack bars and sent Matthew on his way.

Patrick tells me that I was mean, but not to an unjustifiable degree. For my part, I feel like someone has to play the bad cop, and it's easier for me than for Patrick; also, my thinking has evolved to a point where I don't equate mean with cruel, and I think that sometimes a little bit of meanness, or hardass-ness might be a better term, goes a long way. Perhaps I'm also just fed up with being taken advantage of. Not always in deliberately manipulative ways, and not just by Matthew. But it seems like too many people think they can take a mile if you say you'll give an inch, and on some things, I'm not willing to give an inch anymore. Or I want to be really clear that an inch is an inch. I hope that makes sense. Thank you, Chicago Public Schools.

If that doesn't give you food for thought, chew on this: the most common misspelling of the word "problem" amongst my students is "promble." A handful of girls, in different grades and different sections, consistently spell it this way. I have no idea why.

Building Community

Accompanied Patrick to a talk given by a gentleman named Laclau at a cafe called No Exit this evening. Laclau is an Argentinian now at an English university, and he has just written a book about populism. He made some cutting remarks about Slavoj Zizek and said an awful lot that I couldn't make heads or tails of. But one of the questions that an audience member asked was, "Is it possible to separate the content of Hugo Chavez' message, his populism, from his unappealing style?" Laclau replied that while it might be theoretically conceivable in some imaginary world, it is not possible now in Venezuela.

I took a course in my last year as an undergrad called "Building Community." I'm so used to seeing people organize around common grievances that I wondered, "Is it possible to create a sense of community that exists in a positive sense, that does not rely on opposition?" I never felt that the class addressed that question at all, but now I realize that the work I did during the class proved that yes, it is possible. I was part-time at the Community School of Music and Arts, and everyone there was tremendously committed to the very positive goal of the school: promoting and providing art education for locals of all ages. Everyone put in more hours than they were paid for, and there were many small crises of all kinds. But although people got tired, they were never angry in quite the same frustrated, fed-up way that the teachers at my school are.

I just checked my email and a funny thing has come up. Being such a small school, the scheduling is easier if each class is split in two sections. So there are two 7th grade sections, 7A and 7B, and the girls stay with the same group all day. Lately, one of the sections has started bullying the other section. "We're better than you." "Your section is full of lames." (The part that reminds me of Iraq is where the teachers say to the disgruntled "lames," "Stay cool. Whatever you do, don't retaliate, we are going to resolve this," but amongst ourselves, we're all wondering what the heck to do.)

So anyway, a section of 7th graders has decided to rally around the arbitrary fact that they belong to one section and not another, and the strong point is their opposition to the other section.

How can we harness people's desire to belong and channel it in a more positive way? School spirit? A more responsible stewardship of our school environment? Does it have to be so stupid and counter-productive?

I picked up a note today that made me really happy. Usually I hate finding these things, because they're just full of incriminating crap. "So-and-so is a b----. I can't stand her. Why do you talk to her?" The other day, I confiscated a fortune teller (a folded-paper toy that's easy to make; in elementary school, my friends and I would fill them with fortunes like, "Your favorite color is blue," or "You're going to marry Ryan"). This one included fortunes like, "There's sh-t in your panties." Boy was that fun. Anyway, today's happy note basically said: "I'm so worried. I'm failing math and I don't want to do bad in school. I hope I can make up this Not Yet but I'm really afraid that I can't do it." The recipient wrote, "Don't worry, I got UR back. You'll be OK." The original writer tied up the exchange: "Thanks for being my best friend." Aw.

1172

Patrick and I started talking about a month ago about the possibility of buying a condo out here in Chicago. So I got online just to see what was available, and next thing you know, we've done it! It's in a building that is very well cared for, and though it's small, it has a good layout. Pictures of the interior are on Patrick's blog. The home inspection just happened today, and everything went very smoothly. We met the current owner, too, and she was really nice. Invited us to visit her and her husband at their new home, a farm in Wisconsin. We'll close in June, when the husband will officially retire from his professorship at the U of C and our lease at this apartment will end.

Went home for the weekend. Took grandparents out to yum cha, which felt good, though it was hard to talk. Noisy restaurant, plus the language barrier. Had a nice chat with Candice and Eric in the afternoon, then more gorging at Goong goong Herb's new year dinner. I don't know if I'm going to keep going back to meat at these things. Anyway I got sick again (probably related, I think, to the stupid Southwest flight I got that landed an hour late, at 1AM; sleeping wrong really weakens me and my immune system), but I'm doing better now ...

The guy from Mississippi who we've been helping out has been back intermittently. His grandfather died a few weeks ago, so we gave him a little bit of cash to help get him back to Mississippi for the funeral. When he returned, we went shopping with him at the Coop, where he bought white bread and canned meat (yucky!). The cashier asked, "Are you guys roommates?" (I guess it isn't common to see a mix like us together in a grocery store.) We all hesitated for a second before Matthew shyly replied, "No, just friends." The cashier said something about not rooming together being a good way to maintain a friendship, and I have to admit the profound truth of that in this particular case, at least.

So then Matthew's wallet got stolen. He didn't lose much, just his ID card (which it was a struggle for him to get) and a few days' bus money. Still, it really shook him, and all these events have given me a new (though still so obviously limited) sense of what it can be like to live on the edge of financial solvency, not to mention the limitations on you if you are illiterate in this time and place. Matthew is pursuing a GED right now, and he says it will take 8 weeks to get it. But that hardly seems likely, given that he can barely read more than his own name and can't even spell the name of the street where he lived in Biloxi.

Other events have brought to mind other kinds of literacy. Waiting for my plane at the airport (and eavesdropping on the inane conversations taking place nearby), I realized very concretely that students coming from white, middle-class homes have a cultural leg up on most of my students. It isn't just having parents who take them to the library. Perhaps even more important, it's the way of communicating that they bring to school; they talk one at a time, and they try rather hard to be agreeable to each other. Most striking, at the moment it struck me at least, is this: it isn't that other ways of communicating are necessarily worse, just that they harmonize much less well with the cultural standard. I guess this is what all those articles I read about the dominant discourse were all about. It's less that it was unclear to me then than that it's real to me now. I still am not sure what to do with that knowledge.

If you can help it, you should avoid flying Southwest. The last three times I've flown with them, they've done something stupid. The first time, they said one thing on the phone and another when I actually got to the airport (regarding changing a reservation to an earlier flight). The second time, they put my luggage on another plane without telling me; then, when I went to report it lost, they said it would be there in another 20 minutes, but it actually ended up taking over an hour. Most recently, my flights were delayed by about an hour each way, both coming and going, which is always inconvenient not only for you, waiting in the airport for all that extra time, but also for anyone waiting for you on the other end.

I think those are all my updates for the moment. Thank you to all the Louies for passing on lei-see for me, even though I couldn't be there to celebrate with you. Thank you to the Lems and Owyangs for remembering not just me, but also Patrick! Happy Year of the Dog to everyone. Sending all my runny-nosed love from Chicago.
Nicole

Madison, WI

Patrick and I took a vacation to celebrate Lincoln's birthday. At least, I think it was Lincoln's birthday. Anyway, I got Monday off! So on Saturday, we made the three-hour drive to Madison. We saw the magnificent (yet friendly) capitol building; a couple of good used book stores; the Monona convention center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and overlooking the now-frozen Lake Monona; a delicious Afghani dinner; a cheap motel called the Aloha Inn, owned (I think) by a Korean lady; Olbrich gardens, with a tropical indoor conservatory full of beautiful plants and an outdoor Thai pavilion; and the International Festival at the new Overture Arts Center in Madison, with more good food, free performances, and some interesting art-and-craft type booths. Here are some of the highlights in pictures.



The interior of the Capitol Building; Patrick at the Monona Convention Center; Lake Monona itself, with icy edges and abandoned Christmas trees strewn in the middle (why do they do that? there are some explanations of how to recycle Christmas trees here, but none of them seem to involve dumping them in the middle of a frozen lake); the view of a garden plot through the lens of a cool kaleidoscope at Olbrich Gardens; and the Thai Pavilion through the brush at the Olbrich conservatory.

New Snow

We went for a nice walk earlier today to Promontory Point to enjoy the sunshine and the fresh snow. It's hard to communicate what it really looks and feels like, but here are some pictures anyway. The walk to the Point is noisy; the streets are busy, and the snow crunches underfoot. But when you get to the lake, the sounds of the water crashing on the rocks drown out the city, and it's peaceful. We saw lots of skinny squirrels and some goldeneyes, diving ducks with beautiful black, white, and red-brown plumage.

A lot of the snow has already melted, but you can see where it has frozen on the shady side of the trees.


For some reason, these structures supporting the man-made lake edge fascinate me. I wonder how old they are. Parts of it look much newer: you can't see any bolts at all, just smooth concrete. The City wants to re-do the whole thing like that, but I hope they don't.


Patrick is doing very well. He loves his research, and is actually disappointed that it's Saturday because it means the archives are closed! I, on the other hand, am grateful for the respite. I worry that I will fail to find the academic/professional satisfaction that Patrick is enjoying. When we browse at the book store, I am struck by my lack of knowledge and expertise in every area, and it seems impossible to find somewhere to begin. I did find an interesting article on ethnic minorities in China; it was in a book that was mostly about Pakistan. What I came away wondering, though, is how is an ethnicity defined? What makes 93% of China's population Han, and what separates the rest? According to the essay, there was no way to say "ethnic minority" in Chinese until the early 20th century. With the Communists came campaigns of assimilation ...

I feel like my interest in education is waning. I have fewer questions now than I did at the beginning, I suppose because I'm currently preoccupied with being frustrated. I am putting less care into my 8th grade class, and it's showing; my lessons are less well-organized, and though I feel this should be an engaging unit with very accessible work, things are just not coming together. On the other hand, I should say that they are; though students' listening skills are no better, they have stayed more on-task lately. It's just a particular project that I assigned too early, and they aren't quite ready for it. And then I think there are wonderful things happening with the 7th graders, but only in one section. The other section can't stop complaining long enough to have a discussion and actually learn something. We discussed this habit itself last Thursday, and I still get worked up thinking about some of the things they said. Two of the girls said that the class was boring, and we just do stuff they learned in 3rd grade--and of course, when I looked at their work afterward, it was sloppy and incomplete, far from demonstrating the mastery they claimed. It made me even more infuriated with them to hear the brave words of another student who responded to them by saying that she was struggling with the work, and she knew she wasn't the only one, and that it wasn't fair of them to keep interrupting instruction because she was trying to learn. Her remarks were inspiring, and in a way, I can't wait for Monday because I am going to kick out half the class if I have to. I will send student after student to the office until it is quiet enough for us to really think together, and maybe then we will be able to come to some of the awesome discoveries that the other class has made.

The odd thing about it is that this all comes at the same time that I feel I have had two important realizations about my work. 1) I may see very little progress, especially socially, but that doesn't mean that the efforts I am making are not having an effect. It's simply that any effect will take years to manifest itself in an observable way. 2) I am actually very lucky to have the students and parents that I do. Even if many of them don't behave as I would like them to, almost everyone really cares about their academic success, and even about what their teachers think of them. These are such great assets.

So much is strange. I've been watching the 7 Up series on DVD; in it, a selection of British children are filmed at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and most recently, at 42. The basic question is how much one stage of life reflects on future stages, I guess. At the end of every episode, the narrator says, "Give me a child of 7, and I will show you the man," or something like that. Anyway, I just saw 28, and one of the most striking things is how the people I worried about or disliked when they were 7 have turned out OK. They have healthy relationships, jobs ... it isn't true across the board, I suppose, but overwhelmingly, people are resilient and decent and what more can you ask for. So part of me questions whether my work really makes a difference.

I am feeling very selfish, and I would just like to find something that might or might not make any difference to The World or Society but that would make me happy to do. That would make me excited about getting out of bed in the morning, and keep me up late at night without begrudging my wakefulness. It's only the very, very lucky who find work like that, eh? Maybe teaching will become that for me once I've figured some more things out. I don't know.

Eyes and ears

While back in the Bay, I paid a visit to Uncle Ken's office and picked some glasses. (Also chatted a little with Uncle Ken, which I enjoyed; it's funny, I never went there when it was ten minutes away, but now that I have to fly to get there, I feel compelled to go. Same way with everything in the South Bay. Ate at a wonderful, wonderful restaurant on Hamilton called Osteria for the first time, even though I've known about it for three years or something. Anyway I'm glad I went. Osteria = Yum.) They came in the mail about a week ago. I like them a lot. I wear them around at school and force people to take me seriously. Actually the girls seem to like them too; I've gotten quite a few compliments.

I can't stop listening to this song by Tanya Stephens. It's on a mixtape I got at Amoeba by El Dopa. It's called "It's a Pity" and it has a bit of a reggae thing going on, which I usually am not that into, but this song is sooo catchy.

Happy days, y'all!

Healthy Sex

This is a class that is mandatory for all students at YWLCS. I think most of them only have it one day a week, and they might not have it every trimester, it's hard to keep their schedules straight. Anyway, I love having time off; I can finally catch up on my blog. I found this assignment on the floor in my classroom a while ago, and it cracked me up.

It's called "A Small Party," and the situation is, "You've been going out with someone for six months and care for this person very much. There's going to be a small party at a good friend's house and the two of you can be alone. Your partner asks you to get some protection before the party. You're not ready to have sex. Your partner says ..." What follows is a dialogue where Partner 1's part is given, and one of my girls wrote in the responses for Partner 2 ...

Partner 1: I guess you don't really care about me.
Partner 2: Y wouldnt i care 4 u, If i been with you 4 6 months dont u think I care cause we both no If I didnt care i wouldnt wasted my time

Partner 1: I feel like a fool asking you. I never thought you'd act like this.
Partner 2: If we been 2gethe all this time And you'n no how I act what do u no

Partner 1: Are you starting to see someone else?
Partner 2: No, ARE U

Partner 1: Well, I thought you'd really want to do it.
Partner 2: Yeah I do but Not Now, not here + maybe Not with U

Partner 1: What if I got the protection?
Partner 2: OK so um um um

Partner 1: This takes the fun out of going to the party.
Partner 2:

Partner 1: I guess it's not so important, right now.
Partner 2: That what i was tryin 2 tell you when you first start talkin!

Keep scrolling down to see my pretty pictures, please.

More photos

Here are the rest of the noteworthy photos from my most recent expedition West. A moving train; a roast turkey; Dad and Kaitlyn; more roast turkey (yes I did eat a slice); the ferns at the back of the house; scarabs at the De Young's Egyptian exhibit (Patrick is blurrily mirrored in the right corner); and an interior passageway at the De Young, with their ferns in the background. All of the images will blow up if you click on them. (ka-boom!)

I'm home with a cold, but that never stopped Napoleon! Well it might have, I don't really know ... anyway, onwards and upwards ...

Back to Cali

Went back for a week with Patrick. Got rained on almost every day, but we had some spots of sun, too. Spent time with family and friends. Took a lot of pictures of Jarrett's Marklin steam engine; you can see it steaming.


Here he is tinkering with the controls. It's a pretty fancy train. Lots of bells and whistles. Literally.
Also went to the DeYoung, which I liked a lot. I have a few pictures but can't decide which ones to post, and I'm kinda tired right now.


Goong-goong Herb told some amazing stories, too, about growing up in segregated California and then serving in the Navy in WWII. Didn't get to see much of my grandparents or cousins, but did spend more time with aunts and uncles than usual. I had no idea Auntie Lorna's job in Customs was so interesting!

More later.

Winter is here!

It has started snowing in earnest. I keep thinking that we'll have some rain (because that's what winter means to me!), but it's too cold. We had a very nice snow on Sunday; you could actually see the tiny little snowflake forms, just like the ones you cut out of paper in 2nd grade, as they landed on jackets and stuff.

Patrick and I took a walk in Jackson Park (the Wooded Island/Japanese garden part, from the 1893 Columbian Exposition, right behind the Museum of Science and Industry). Here are some photos.

Me in front of the gate to the Japanese Garden, sporting Dad's old ski jacket. How long have you had it, Dad? A nice hat, too, from Auntie Donna. She actually gave it to my mom ... have you ever worn it, Mom? Anyway, it's very warm, and perfect for this weather. :)

Here are a couple more from the park. It's a nice place. The sun even came out a little bit!







My ideas about my future have taken another turn. Or I guess it would be more appropriate to say that they've glanced down a side street; no turns have actually been made at all. So what if, instead of getting a PhD in education and working to educate future teachers, I started working as an editor? I've always liked editing other people's writing, and it's the sort of work where my obsession with details could be really useful! And best of all, it would be much more independent than the crazy job I have now, where everything depends on 100 twelve- and thirteen-year olds. There's always auto shop, too; I think that's a career with real potential. I like doing things with my hands, and solving spatial problems ...

I Left My Heart ...

Hello! I made it safely back to Chicago. Yesterday (Monday) was one of the hardest days I've had this year; no one, least of all me, was happy to be back at school after the break, and I wasn't even that excited to be back in Chicago (though, helpfully, temperatures have been back in the 50s, nice and warm). It was great to see Patrick again, but ... I guess I just would've wanted a little more time to be with family. But we'll both be in SF for Christmas, and that's a big comfort. Also, today was much better than yesterday, work-wise. Besides remembering something this other teacher told me about loving your students (and realizing that I do really enjoy a lot of them as people), I discovered that several teachers returned from their trips yesterday morning before school, which made me feel like I couldn't complain about having a mere afternoon to get ready.

Photo time. First, the new paint job on a house just up the hill from my parents' place, on Teresita. You can't quite make it out, but there's a silver tinsel Christmas tree in the doorway. I sure do love San Francisco.
The redone De Young Museum was also totally hot. It's covered in copper plates with holes and impressions that make each plate unique. The streetlamps are also gorgeous. I'm looking forward to going inside next time.



Here's a photo from Thanksgiving at Uncle Dennis' house. Avery peers into the camera while his brother, Garrett, displays the action figures that he makes out of twist ties. Watching the latest Harry Potter movie, I found myself wondering when I would see the name of the oldest brother, Chris, on a rolling screen of credits. His just told me that he's thinking about going into film production. Cool!

Oh yeah, also, I got my ears pierced, as Candice's comment mentions. It was really nice to see her. I miss you too, Can!

Last of all, a picture of the quilt (inspired by Auntie Marilyn's projects with Allison's school) that another teacher and I made with our 7th grade students. The 8th graders did one, too. It features a square advertising "Respect, Caring, and Honesty" (done by a teacher, of course) right next to one with a big "50 Cent" (surprisingly, also done by a teacher)(just kidding).

Japan, schools, the New York Times

An editorial appeared in yesterday's New York Times, describing No Child Left Behind and comparing American ideas about education to Japanese ones. The writer, Brent Staples, acknowledges that Japan and the US are very different countries, but his analysis is nonetheless insightful.

It brought to mind something I heard or read by Michael Kirst, who I guess you could describe as an educational economist and the guru of California school finance. Anyway he said that historically, the quality of US schools has been measured by inputs, for example: the number of teachers per student, the number of computers per student, the amount of money spent per student. More recently, with the push for accountability, schools have been measured by their outputs, namely test scores. This seems reasonable enough. But the problem with NCLB and similar legislation of the last two or three decades is that--and I believe I have said this before, so excuse the repetition--it assumes that you can improve the outputs by simply focusing on them more diligently than you have ever focused on them before. It's like when a student is struggling to grasp a concept and the teacher, instead of explaining or asking questions or interacting at all with the intellectual task that the student is facing, simply repeats, "Think about it. Use your brain!" But the kid doesn't know how to solve the problem. Yelling, "Think harder!" won't help her. Similarly, to quote Staples' editorial: "What has become clear ... is that school systems and colleges of education have no idea how to generate changes in teaching that would allow students to learn more effectively."

Staples suggests that we look at what more effective education systems abroad are doing. One aspect of the Japanese system is the assumption that teachers have a lot of learning to do themselves, and that working with other teachers is a good way to accomplish that learning. This seems kind of obvious, but when you contrast it with the typical experience of a novice teacher in the US, you realize that it must not be. At most schools here, you get hired and you start teaching. There is little or no time set aside for you to work with or observe other teachers. There is little or no support for you to attend teacher conferences. Most of the time, professional development consists of a bi-monthly workshop led by an outsider, which has about a 50/50 chance of being relevant to what you're doing.

I do think we need a greater focus on inputs, particularly teachers. This is an important moment for teacher education and school reform! I can't wait to go back to school ... I love theory. Yet I am a horrible reader of non-fiction. That will be my downfall as an academic.

I feel really lucky to have had the experiences that I have as a teacher. STEP took teacher preparation really seriously, and YWLCS takes professional development really seriously. Even so, almost nothing about teaching is coming easily to me.

We're having parent-student-teacher conferences yesterday and today. The girls were very excited that I wore lipstick for them. One of the teachers commented, "That's really nice! You finally look your age." Thanks, I guess.

Shoes, etc.

The weather has finally gotten wintry. It's perfect, according to Patrick; we've gone from 60s and 70s to 20s and 30s in just a few days, bypassing a long dreary transition. There has been a little bit of snow, and I've been wearing down jackets, scarves, and gloves.

I realized that I needed some cold-weather shoes, so I went shopping today. I made the practical choice of above-the-ankle boots made by Khombu, an official supplier of the US Olympic Ski Team, "inspired by sherpas in the Himalayas" or something like that. Great. Anyway they were cheaper than the prettier shoes, more weather-proof, totally warm, and not ugly. I would feel comfortable wearing them to work, and comfortable wearing them out for a weekend tromp in some park. However, they did nothing at all to satisfy my desire to have shoes, so I've been browsing the gigantic shoe store that is the internet in an effort not so much to find shoes I would actually buy as to find shoes that I would really, really want.

This lead me to the Fluevog website. John Fluevog makes silly shoes. They have names like "Mini: Lily Darling," "Minstrel: Vibratto," and "Lip Service: Zig." This seems suitable. But there's also a whole line called "Peacemaker," with styles such as "Dalai," "John Paul," "Mandela," and "Luther King." I find it disturbingly tasteless to have fluffy tan/beige ankle boots with a faux fur cuff and a big buckle named after MLK. "Hey, are those new shoes?" "Yeah, I got them at Fluevog. They're called Luther Kings, which is so awesome. It warms my heart to know that I have a piece of a civil rights leader warming my feet."

And how about Kellogg's Corn Flakes? We were at the co-op yesterday and they had three different sizes: the small standard box with the cartoon rooster, a slightly larger box with the Disney Cinderella, and finally a huge ass box, super family size, with sepia-toned photographs of Cesar Chavez and Celia Cruz. What is that about?? Patrick jokes that they have to market the bigger boxes to Latinos, since everyone knows that Mexicans have big families (and presumably they need more corn flakes?). The box was quite bilingual, in fact, with "Celebrate Hispanic Heritage" or something like that in both English and Spanish. Good job, Kellogg. But seriously, what is this about?? Should we embrace greater inclusion of multicultural figures in the morass of American consumerism? Decry it as sacreligious? Just laugh?

I can't wait for Chairman Mao Captain Crunch. I'm totally going to buy some of that.



C is for Communism!

Ghetto Schooling

There's a book by that title by a woman named Jean Anyon. It's pretty fierce. Anyway she has a new book out, Radical Possibilities. I was just reading a review and it sounds like one of its major theses is that urban education is kind of screwed. That the work of education reformers is going to fail until the policies that create the macroeconomic and socio-political conditions in inner cities change. The review was stimulating; it definitely has me interested in the book. Anyway you can read it (the review, not the book) here.

Hurricane saga continues

Darrell and Matthew are back!

Matthew is looking a lot better. He got a job cleaning at Bank of America! He stopped by last week while I was out, and Patrick said it was actually nice to see him; I understood what he meant when the pair called on us this evening. Darrell is staying with a lady friend, I guess, but Matthew seems like he's made some real steps toward sustainability. He's got a hot plate, so he can do at least nominal cooking; he has a relatively dependable job (he showed me a copy of his job description and a map of the areas he has to clean, floors 32-35); and he has a place to stay.

That's not to say that this visit didn't involve some of the same things that the others have. It turns out that the landlord who was letting him stay at his vacant building in exchange for some work on the building upped and sold the whole thing and moved to Alabama. The new landlord is insisting that Matthew pay rent now; he can't wait until Nov 1, when Matthew gets paid. So Matthew wanted to know where he could get some help. He went to a couple of churches; he showed me their letters and their recommendations (they referred him to Cabrini Green legal assistance). I pulled a couple of other potential resources off the internet for him, including the U of C Law School clinic and another legal foundation that does pro-bono work, including landlord/tenant disputes.

And I gave him $40 toward his rent fund. He made vague references to paying it back, but I'm not really expecting him to. I would consider it a huge bonus, icing on the cake, extra credit if he did.

I don't know how much we've given to these guys, and I don't really want to know. There are so many places I don't even want to go as far as thinking about what's going on (e.g., the possibility that most of what I know about Matthew and Darrell isn't true, and whether it is appropriate to feel proud of the progress Matthew is making, and whether there isn't something totally blind or patronizing or both in my attitudes about the situation). I would like to just let it be what it seems to be, and be happy that people can and do go out of their way to do nice things to take care of each other.

Mom's visit

Mom came to town for the weekend. (Yay!) We went to Rockefeller Chapel, the Garfield Park Conservatory, and Shedd Aquarium. I did worry about being ready for school, but I made it through today, at least.

I was really impressed with the conservatory. Free every day, with nice outreach programs for families and stuff. Here's a photo of the Fern Room, a reconstruction of Chicago in the age of dinosaurs. There were some people getting married there. Not a bad idea, I think, if you have a small wedding. Pretty. The Palm Room was great, too: seven dozen varieties of palm, including the double coconut with its eight-foot fan-shaped fronds.

Um ... Rockefeller was gorgeous. And very effective at making people in it feel tiny and awed. The glass was unusual; all of the huge leaded windows around the nave (the long part) were ornate but in muted colors, mostly a greyish glass. Then at the head of the chapel, a star bursts with flames, rosying the arch around it. The attention to detail in the masonry was amazing, too.

Not sure what else to say. Honestly, I'm kind of brain dead, and tired of school right now. I'm impressed by Jalisa, though. She and Brie are heading up the double dutch team, which I am sponsoring, and she just said some remarkable things today about the unity of a team (if someone makes a mistake, it's as though all of them made it, and there's no "You screwed up" or "It's your fault") and being responsible for their image by doing stuff like picking up their trash after practice.

I guess I can start on this book, The Search for God. (It's from one of my students; she's a Jehovah's witness, trying to convert yours truly.)

Baseball

Go White Sox!

It's pretty exciting to come to a city with such a winning team. We thought about trying to get tickets to the World Series, but that thought died quickly. Even if it hadn't, I don't think we would've been able to get tickets. When they went on sale at noon last Tuesday, another teacher at my school took his homeroom to the computer lab, promising a Borders gift card to anyone who could get in to the Ticketmaster website where the elite few are randomly selected out of the waiting pool for the special opportunity to buy tickets. And even with all those people trying for him, he didn't get any.

Unfortunately, our TV doesn't get FOX. I don't know if the rabbit ears are broken or what. So anyway we've been listening to the games on the radio, and I'm getting tired of the dumb commercials, but my question for all of you is: in the Miller Lite commercial, where various guys give their testimonials in their various languages and the emcee of the commercial responds with a "Great job" or whatever in the same language, why do they match the Cantonese testimonial with a Mandarin response??