Rest in Peace, J.D. Salinger

We lost J.D. Salinger today.

There are a handful of books that I can honestly have changed my life, catalyzing epiphanies that transformed the way I look at the world. The Color Purple made me realize the bridge that literature could be between age and culture. To Kill a Mockingbird is the book that transformed me into a good teacher; it's the only book that I read in high school that I've taught, and I can track my growth as a teacher by how I approached the teaching of that novel. A Lesson Before Dying made me ponder the worth of the life of a man; I remember the moment that I realized that book was as powerful as it was, with the Class of 2008 as 9th graders, and I literally cried, it was so powerful. Some of Baldwin's essays just throttle me, particularly from Notes of a Native Son. Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which I read in Italy so will forever associate it with a wonderful time in my life, helped me realize how style, even the simplest style, can create poignancy that can give me chills. Both Bee Season and Life of Pi made me question my existence and place in the world. Song of Solomon, which I read for the first time when I was about 30, is about Milkman Dead, who is also around 30 and also, it seemed to me, at the same crisis of existence that I found (find?) myself in at that time.

Every time I read a new book, I hope it will have the power that these have. East of Eden, which I'm about to buckle down and read for a second time, has the capacity to be right up there. But it's, of course, The Catcher in the Rye that is today's topic of discussion.

I first read it the summer after I graduated high school, and I wasn't into it. Holden felt whiny, and I just didn't get the disaffectedness or the humor. Nothing seemed to happen. I had to re-read it, though, when I did my student teaching at Michigan State. By that time, I had gone through some great times and some tumultuous times in college, including a pretty nasty depression that enveloped much of my senior year. I read it again, this time at age 22, and, for some reason, it was like a new book to me. Holden's angst wasn't exactly my angst, but it was like it. I understood his dissolution and his desire to save the kids. By this point in my life, I was pretty content, but I had seen some of life's shadows that I hadn't seen when I was in my sheltered high school experience the first time I had read it.

So, I found it deeply moving and quite funny, about five years after I had read it for the first time. I realize the cliche is that you read Catcher in high school and move onto On the Road once you hit your early 20s, but I've often been a bit late on things, and this experience wasn't any different.

I re-read it again in my late twenties, as I was teaching the book again. I found my experience with Holden much different this time. Instead of feeling the same angst as Holden, I felt so much compassion and sadness for him. This kid was using cynicism as mask, and the book was actually hopeful, and very, very sad, sadder than that second time reading it. It wasn't so much that Holden wanted to save the kids as Holden needed to be saved himself.

And so it was through this text that I realized the power of re-reading, how our reading of a book is dependent on who we are at that time in our own journey. Holden was looking for a place in the world, and, in a way, Catcher in the Rye sort of lets me know my place. It's my lighthouse. So I named my thrice-adopted, thrice-returned dog Holden, because he was also looking for his place in the world. And I often think about this experience of reading and re-reading Catcher in the Rye as a transformative one, helping me recognize the power of a great book and how it helps define who we are at certain points in our lives.

Rest in Peace, JD. Thanks for writing one of those books that changed my life.

No Ning, sorry

I set up a nice looking Ning for my classes, something that would let my students discuss literature, share essay ideas, and practice assessments.

It's blocked at school.

Ugh. I thought they were starting to loosen some of these parameters and stop putting BCPSS students at a disadvantage with access to technology? It's so frustrating to follow along with great teachers around the nation are doing, then to learn about a system, and then to set something up, only to find it blocked.

I know, this is the same sad song I've sung for years. I just wonder, who is in charge of making all these decisions? It can't be the nebulous people who you submit a form to for unblocking that is returned without any feedback or reasoning and who don't answer questions once they're e-mailed, can it?

I'm going to try wikispaces next. I've heard rumors it's unblocked. I wonder how that passes the muster but Nings don't?

2nd Semester Fresh Start

As of today, I've listened to 42 IB Formal Oral Commentaries. Each take 40 minutes (20 minutes of prep, 15 minutes of talking, 5 minutes of setup/teardown), so it's a pretty grueling process, and I'm glad it's over. It was so interesting to see the results of what we spent all semester practicing and preparing for. For some students, it came easily to them, and what I did for them was just a tweaking throughout the semester. For others, I know it was hard for them, but they worked hard and produced greatness. For still some others, I don't know what happened. I know a few things I will do differently and a few things I will continue to develop. Overall, though, it was a success. And I'm really glad it's over.

One of the reasons I think teaching is such a wonderful job is the ability to start fresh every year. You tear down everything every June and start fresh every August. It's rejuvenating and mind-clearing and healthy. But what also is great is that you can do a miniature version of it in the middle of the year at the semester break. The school year this year is making it even easier, as this week is a two day week of classes (professional development looms, and today, Monday, was exam makeup day), providing a fulcrum from which to pivot into the next semester.

To emphasize the shift in focus, I completed a dramatic re-arrangement of my classroom today. My desk is in the opposite corner. The student desks are in a strange trapezoidal shape. They 9th graders will be freaked out, but in a good way.

I've also been doing some planning of the semester. I'm laying out the senior schedule for the rest of the year (they take their first IB test on May 4th), and it's jam-packed. We have four novels (The White Tiger, Native Son, East of Eden, and Oryx and Crake), or about 1800 pages, to read, discuss, and practice assessments with during that time, so our schedule will be demanding. For the first time ever, I have to deal with cases of senioritis, of students who have made it into college. I hope I've chosen good books that will keep them interested.

As for the 9th graders, they're set to begin the semester with a lecture about completing reading. The final quiz grades from A Lesson Before Dying show that only a handful of kids are reading, so individualize notes are going home and I'm actually going to give another quiz on Monday over the end. The first on their 2nd quarter grade and is hurting them, but I still need them to read the book - it will be the first real grade of the 3rd quarter. My lesson plan tomorrow, though, will involve a dual analysis of Dylan Thomas and Tupac Shakur. How very white-teacher-in-an-urban-school cliche of me, eh? It totally fits, though (the Thomas poem is his famous one about not dying without a fight, as is the Shakur rap), with A Lesson Before Dying, and I want to throw them a little bit of a bone after their lecture. It's a lesson from Hip Hop Poetry and the Classics, a book I've never used before. I'm excited, though.

Oh, Sheila

This story perfectly captures my shifting views on Sheila Dixon. Initially, when she took office, I was embarrassed by her vapid interviews and empty sloganeering. However, I grew to respect her work ethic and the things she brought to the city that directly made my life better - weekly single-stream recycling, more bike paths, more trash cans. The charges of corruption were disappointing, but I feel like they were out to get her. Her admission of guilt was just a Baltimore Tragedy. What a stupid and disappointing tenure she had, after such promising moves earlier.

The article also crystallizes the feelings I had about her predecessor. I used to be really impressed, but came to find him a carpet-bagger who never really cared that much about the city. Boo.

Bel-Air/Edison: We're #1.

My neighborhood, Bel-Air/Edison, as shown below, led all of Baltimore with 9 homicides last year. While it seems like it's mostly a function of how the neighborhoods are drawn (check out the tiny but dangerous Eastern District, which had 38 homicides last year but no "neighborhoods" that were amongst the top-6). Still, it's pretty scary. I never feel unsafe, and feel like my neighbors and I do a good job of keeping an eye out, but I have called the police a couple of times since moving in - mostly because people occasionally like to hang out in their cars behind my fence. (One time, I saw a couple smoking crack in a car. They were on the street but kind of using my private fence as a hiding place.)

Rising Tide: Baltimore's 2009 homicide toll goes against national trends by going up

When a 3-legged black cat crosses your path...

As I left school after a particularly draining day today, I noticed 3-legged black cat hobbling around the school parking lot. It kind of broke my heart a little bit, seeing it hobble, and when I crouched down, it purred loudly and, eventually, came up to me. It was well-fed and obviously cared for, but I doubted that it could survive hobbling around the street like it was for very long. I thought it had run away, and began to think about taking it home and, at the very least, placing an ad on Craig's List to see if anyone had lost such a distinctive cat, or, at the most, adopting it. I don't want three cats (specifically, I don't want to be a guy with three cats... I have my current beloved Tobey, who I've had for nearly a decade now, and took on a friend's cat about a year ago after allergy and dog co-mingling problems), but maybe one without that extra leg wouldn't take up as much room.

So I tried to pick it up and it bit me. Just a little nip on the arm, didn't break the skin. I guess that cat didn't want to go home with me.

It was kind of a fitting end to what was an especially draining and, towards the end, annoying day. The student stuff is fine and envigorating, but it's the Up the Down Staircase stuff that starts to take a toll on my mind. A 3-legged black cat crossing my path and biting me when I tried to save it? A fitting em dash to the end of the day.

Funeral Songs

This was a topic in a discussion board I'm part of, and it really got me thinking. Here are a few songs that I think should be played at my funeral, which I hope isn't for another 50 years or so.

"Satisfied Mind" by Jeff Buckley



"If I Ever Leave This World Alive" by Flogging Molly



"Unsung Psalm" by Tracy Chapman



"Sail Away" by David Gray



"Friend's Blues" by Murs



"Send Me On My Way" by Rusted Root



"Thank U" by Alanis Morrisette



"I'm Chasing the Moon" by Andru Bemis (I graduated high school with this guy.)

Intense day

Yesterday, I gave my 9th grade midterm (a traditional, seated, 2-hour writing and multiple choice) from 8:30-10:30, then conducted oral commentaries - 8 of them - for much of the rest of the school day.

Today, I had no 9th grade midterms scheduled, so I conducted the oral commentaries from 8:20-3:20, straight through. It was an intense day, complete with the highs of students who come in with pitch-perfect preparation and lows of students who clearly didn't read the book. There were also a couple of freeze-ups, including one with tears that I'm replaying in my mind. It's so wonderful to have a student who cares that much, and I'm sure she'll look back at the experience as a learning one, but it still was painful today. There are, unfortunately, do do-overs.

I came home today and, after a much-needed nap, have been grading all night. And watching Lost. I honestly don't remember ever working so hard.

I'm so into Lost right now

"This cross was worn by my brother, Yemi. Yemi was a great man. A priest. A man of God. And because I betrayed him he was shot and died. He was placed on a plane, which took off from an airstrip in Nigeria, half a world from here. Then the plane I was on crashed on this island. And somehow... here... I found my brother again. I found him in the same plane that took off from Nigeria. In the same plane that lies above us now. That has concealed this place. And I took this cross from around Yemi's neck and put it back on mine. Just as it was on the day I first took another man's life. So let me ask you... How can you say this is meaningless?"

Mr. Eko is probably my favorite character (of the moment, at least). Season 2, Episode 20. Trying to catch up by the premiere of season 6.

And, I'm finally seeing Harold Perrineau as Michael and not Mercutio. It took him shooting Michelle Rodriguez for him to break free in my mind. (There's a good chance I might not do Romeo and Juliet this year. If so, it's the 1996 Lurhmann film version that I'll miss the most.)

"The World of Alvarez" instead of In the Time of the Butterflies?

The 9th grade team, last year, switched To Kill a Mockingbird for In the Time of the Butterflies, in an effort to expose students to a more international curriculum and to fend off the multitude of students who read TKAM in middle school.

The issue, though, is that in our extremely heterogeneous classroom, the text could be too challenging for some students. We have a number of reluctant readers, a good majority had problems with A Lesson Before Dying. Alvarez's novel, written in multiple genres and mixing in a bunch of Spanish and history, would be a very rich novel to teach, but its complexity and length might turn the more reluctant readers away from reading, just when we have grabbed them a bit with A Lesson Before Dying.

The idea that we floated and discussed today is as follows:

-In the Time of the Butterflies is a long and challenging text

-We don't want to lose the reluctant and/or low level readers that we just hooked with A Lesson Before Dying

-We want to include some independent reading that gets the kids to self select, in order to foster lifelong reading

So we propose this...

-Our next unit is about the world of Julia Alvarez.

-Students choose to read one of her works that we offer them (novels, young adult fiction, collections of short stories and poetry collections)

-Our teaching focuses on skills, culture of Alvarez work and author's purpose

I'm part of the "we" above, but I'm still not sure. First, I haven't read any of Alvarez's other work, so it'll be a bunch of work in the coming weeks preparing. I'm very intrigured by Yo. I'm also concerned that her work overly emphasizes the immigrant experience in the United States, rather than a truly international experience.

I also thought about Dandicat for this, because of the new interest in Haiti, but we already had Butterflies in the syllabus and students may have bought it already.

Teaching The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The next novel for the seniors is The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, the 2008 Man Booker Prize winner. With such a recent book, materials for teaching are pretty non-existent. Hopefully I will create some interesting handouts and topics for discussion about the text, which I'm really excited to teach. Google searches are turning up nothing, so I'm on my own.

Batter up

Tomorrow, students will walk into the library and draw an envelope from the orange box that has been passed down to me from the previous instructor. Contained in each sealed envelope is a 40-line passage that I have culled from the four texts we read in the first semester - Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Baldwin's Essays, and Morrison's Song of Solomon. The 16 passages (duplicated 3 times) have been painstakingly chosen (they have to have plenty of meat in them, so students can analyze the author's techniques) and guiding questions have been written as according to IB Guidelines.

Once they randomly draw their sealed envelopes containing the passages, students will individually and independently mark up their passage in another room. In 20 minutes, they will be expected to create a cohesive and organized 10-15-minute commentary on the passage, with a thesis and interpretation that shows they know the text well and can analyze the techniques the authors use to create meaning. We have coached students how to do this: the introduction should include some context of the overall text plus the passage in question, as well as a brief summary of what is going on in the passage. Then, students must create a 3-part thesis with three devices, and run through the passage by device, developing their argument with textual evidence and concluding with a big "So what?", or Larger Implication.

After their 20 minutes spent marking up and planning their commentary, students will join me (individually) in a different room with a computer set up to record them, and then present to me. I am expected to take notes, score, and ask the student questions to push understanding or interpretation further. Each commentary takes 15 minutes. In a few weeks after this occurs, IB will ask me for ten students' scores, and their recordings will be burned onto CD and sent to Sweden to moderate my scoring of them.

I have 42 students, and each has been given a 40-minute time slot throughout the week. Colleagues are helping with the supervision of the 20-minute marking slots. It will be an intense and dramatic week for an assessment for which we have spent all semester (and the previous year) preparing, but we're ready.

I look to the left, I look to the right. Hands reach out to grab me from every side.

This has been a hell of a week. I'm glad it's Friday. Sing it Tracy.



On a happy note, I'm satisfied that the students are ready for the IB Oral Commentaries, which start on Tuesday.

Rethinking curriculum, midyear

For the last several years, the 9th grade curriculum has been all centered around the theme of Coming of Age in an Unjust Society. The texts we cover during the school year were as follows: Fences, A Lesson Before Dying, To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Persepolis

For the last few years, we have had an increasing number of students read To Kill a Mockingbird in their middle school English classes, sort of forcing our hand to change. Our curriculum also, probably, was too black/white, and jettisoning TKAM (which is about my favorite book and one I love to teach) was a way for our curriculum to diversify and make more worldly.

So, this year, the planned curriculum was as follows: Fences, A Lesson Before Dying, In the Time of Butterflies, Romeo and Juliet, Persepolis. (Of course we have a bunch of short stories and poetry in there, too.)

We surveyed the students recently and discovered a lot had read Romeo and Juliet in middle school. There are also quite a bit who read A Lesson Before Dying. I have no problem with students reading books more than once, but there comes a point where it's not really fair. And so many of them try to fake it and just go by on memory, it becomes hard to teach around. (By the way, this is also a time where I share that it makes me pretty mad that so many middle schools teach these books. There are so many great young adult books that they have open for them yet they feel the need to teach books the students will be getting in high school. I don't know why and it's disappointing.)

As we finish up A Lesson Before Dying and move onto the next text, we're sort of wondering what sequence would work best. In re-reading In the Time of the Butterflies - which segues nicely in theme from ALBD - I'm also finding it pretty challenging, at least from the perspective of a 9th grader. It'll be a leap. But that's good, in a way. But is it too great of a leap?

I'm also wondering what to do with the Shakespeare unit. I love Romeo and Juliet, but so many students have been exposed to it already (some students described to me the same sort of film scene comparison activities that I planned on doing with them), that I'm thinking of going another way. Our school is putting on A Midsummer's Night Dream for the spring play, and I was considering that for a while. But I (a) don't like Midsummer very much; and (b) don't know it very well. I'm already teaching 9 new texts this year (8 in senior year and 1 - In the Time of the Butterflies - freshmen year), and don't know if I can add another one. I also considered Much Ado About Nothing, which I taught this year to the seniors and enjoyed. I think it's a fairly simple play that students will be able to understand. I don't really like that sort of misogyny with 9th graders (which is why I absolutely will not teach The Taming of the Shrew, which a couple of my colleagues are considering), but because the guys at least sort of get what's coming to them by the end (unlike in Taming), it could be do-able.

Another colleague is throwing the idea around of pairing Swimming in the Monsoon Sea with Othello. That could be interesting, though that might mean sacking Butterflies.

Decisions, decisions without time, time.

Try again tomorrow (and good thoughts to Mondawmin)

It was not a good day for me - it was a strange, loose one with a weird schedule, state testing, and the capper: getting hauled down to the principal's office to meet with parents who had a complaint about comments on an essay.

I'm glad it's over.

Perspective shifts a great deal, though, tonight, as I follow Justin Fenton's twitter feed about what seems to be a pretty horrible shooting at Douglass High School, at a basketball game, this evening. The 17-year old kid apparently went running through Mondawmin Mall afterwards, spurting blood everywhere. Horribly sad. Puts my shitty day in perspective.

Yes, intense is a good word for it.

Next week, I will be conducting the IB Formal Commentaries (externally assessed, or at least moderated) for my 12th graders. It's exciting, challenging, and exhausting trying to figure out how to get every one of my students prepared for it. Indeed, I'm running myself more ragged than I ever recall in my career.

My friend and mentor, who I bounced ideas off of often, facebooked me about it: "You've noticed, right, that people don't really teach that class very long? It's intense." And, yes, it is. Very intense. I have enjoyed teaching the very advanced skills students; for the most part, they're good-natured, hard-working, and interesting students who do the reading and thinking required of the course. Really, I couldn't ask for anything more.

However, next week is the first real crunch, with those commentaries. I have been working hard (sometimes struggling) to get them ready for it, in between lots of interruptions, and we're now at exactly four days left of preparation. Tomorrow's class period is a shortened 30 minutes because of the Maryland High School Assessment (one unintended consequence of HSAs is that even if only a couple hundred 9th graders are tested for one of the subject areas, it sends the entire school into a tailspin of rescheduling and revamped schedules. The result is I see a handful of 9th graders who do not have to take the HSA for a period of nearly 2 hours, and my seniors for 30 minutes tomorrow.)

I asked the former teacher of the class to sit in on one of my intense preparation sessions today, and she gave me some good feedback. It's a demanding task for the teacher, as well, because we listen to the student's commentary (students get 20 minutes to mark up and plan a commentary about a passage from a text we've studied this semester) for 9-12 minutes, and then must ask the student questions, designed to probe understanding further, about their commentary. The whole thing is recorded (adding technology as another possible thing to go wrong) and sent off to the International Baccalaureate offices. It's very intense and I'm doing it by myself.

This is what I wanted, though, and I'm determined to make sure they do well on it. I'm nearly ready and they're nearly ready. But there isn't a moment free these days, and, tonight, I'm heading to bed at exactly 9:44 p.m. Hopefully I'll make it up to the gym early in the morning (my goal: 5:45 a.m. Spinning class), like I did this morning, because exercise helps push away the stress.

My Favorite CDs of the Decade

1. The College Dropout (2004) - Kanye West: An album that changed the way I listened to music, grabbing me 6 years ago and never letting me go. It's full of smart lyrics (from bombastic to reflective, funny to moving) and brilliant, soulful production that still sounds fresh, even after many, many imitators throughout the rest of the decade. There's not a dull track on here, and there there are songs that move me every listen ("Jesus Walks" is still powerful after all these years, "Get 'Em High" still makes me laugh, the Saul Williams-feuled "Never Let Me Go" gives me goosebumps), but my favorite usually ends up being "Spaceship," a stirring song that captures West's paradoxes in a classic American Dream narrative.



2. 70 People at 7,000 Feet (2003) – Melissa Ferrick and Brian Winton: Ferrick, one of the great live performers, was never better than in her years of collaboration with Brian Winton, and this Albuquerque-taped live show captures them at their finest. The sound is just acoustic guitar (Ferrick's frenetic work is terrific) and drums (Winton's chemistry with her is unflappable), but it rocks like no one's business. And the collaboration also makes her bare-her-soul lyrics sound more powerful, more universal. She needs to be on stage to be alive, and it's hard to listen and not get goosebumps. (Note: no videos exist with Winton on Youtube. I'll include this track, "Nebraska," from Youtube, which I'm sort of convinced is about Winton anyway. Hearing them perform it live, like on this album, is a thing of beauty.)



3. Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor (2006) – Lupe Fiasco: Kanye's protege ended up being as good as he is. Like the title, this album is balanced - the perfect meshing of intelligent lyrics and hooks. His songs are full of smart wordplay, social consciousness, and poignancy. And "Daydreamin'", his collaboration with Jill Scott, might be the best song of the decade.



4. Near Truths and Hotel Rooms (2003) - Todd Snider: Like Ferrick above, Snider has always been better live than in the studio and this, his first live CD, captures what being at a Todd Snider show is like: songs filled with humor and warmth, and stories personifying Snider as a sort of space cadet savant. His songwriting is top notch, and his gritty performance here gives us some of the best music of the decade.



5. There Will Be a Light (2004) – Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama: Harper has been writing great songs for almost two decades now, but he's never been better than in this beautiful gospel collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama. Whether slow and moving, like the title track, or foot stompers, like "Church on Time," this is an amazing meshing of styles.



6. Finding Forever (2007) – Common: It was a strange decade for Common, with two or three fucking great albums (Like Water for Chocolate and Be being the other two), and then a devolving into mainstream monotony towards the end of the decade. But this album is Common at his best. Kanye's production stone beautiful, making Common's poetic, reflective, and nuanced lyrics sound better than ever.



7. The End of the Beginning (2003) – Murs: I don't really remember how I discovered Murs - probably an outreach from an obsession I had with what had happened to the Digital Underground. And, indeed, Shock G does appear on one of this CD's best tracks, the hilarious "Risky Business" ("Yo, is your Dad's Rolls blue?/Cuz I got bad news..."). But Murs is more than a jokester; these story-songs - delivered in a heavy-mouthed, old-school lilt - are moving and reflective in the best way. It's Harry Chapin as a rap artist. And "God's Work" is a song that touched me as much as any other this decade.



8. Pink Pearl (2000) – Jill Sobule: The whip-smart songwriter offered up her strongest album here, full of smart wordplay and memorable characters.



9. Trouble by Ray Lamontagne (2004): The first time I heard "Trouble," I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and how timeless it sounded. And the rest of the album holds it all up with Lamontagne's gritty vocals and poignant lyrics.



10. New American Language (2001) - Dan Bern: Bern's best since his Chuck Plotkin-produced debut. Great lyrics and a rocking, Springsteen-esque vibe.



11. The Dusty Foot Philosophy - K'Naan (2005): A gutsy and poetic album that, despite the injustice it describes, is warm and melodic and often funny. Less produced and more powerful than his major label debut, Troubadour, this certainly represents one of the freshest sounds of the decade.



12. The Eminem Show (2002) – Eminem: This CD absolutely throttled me when it came out. It's like eavesdropping on a therapy session, very powerful. Eminem also released "Lose Yourself" this decade, which is right up there as one of the greatest musical moments of the last ten years.



13. Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool (2007) – Lupe Fiasco: Lupe neatly sidesteps the sophomore jinx with an album that is just as smart, tuneful, political, and catchy as his first one. "Paris, Tokyo", "Dumb It Down", and "Little Weapon" are all incredible songs.



14. 1000 Kisses (2002) – Patty Griffin: Griffin returned to form here after a mediocre attempt at rock in the late 1990s. "Making Pies" is right up there with her best work on Living With Ghosts.



15. The Black Album (2003) – Jay-Z: Most would probably say The Blueprint, but this is the one I heard first. Brilliant, funny braggadacio and contemplation. Bonus for its hand in creating The Grey Album, which I think is awesome.



16. Goodbye Blue Monday (2007) – Jeremy Fisher: A modern day Paul Simon releases one of the best folk rock albums of the decade.



17. Man on the Moon (2009) - Kid Cudi: Like Lupe, he's a Kanye protege. Unlike Lupe, who relies on deft wordplay, it's Cudi's production - to go with his early-twenties lonely stoner angst, which is both funny and moving at times - that crackles with originality.



18. Words and Sounds, Vol. 1 (2000) – Jill Scott: Poetry and a big, beautiful voice.



19. Faith and Courage - Sinead O'Connor: Unbeknowst to way too many people, Sinead O'Connor made a brilliant comeback in 2000 with this superb album. Still a brilliant mixer of genres, she incorporates rock, hip-hop, and Celtic music, which, together with her beautiful vocals, create her best work since I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.



20. Late Registration (2005) – Kanye West: His first album was brilliant, and this second one is nearly as good - a perfect blend of mainstream pop-rap and soul-baring lyrics. I thought he misstepped a bit with his 3rd album, and a bit more with his 4th.



21. Let It Rain (2002) – Tracy Chapman: Chapman has continued to make basically the same sort of music since she up in 1988 - songs about social ills and relationships - and that's fine with me. She's blessed with one of the greatest voices in music, and this album's Daniel Lanois production puts it front and center, and sort of adds some world beats to her atmospheric backdrop. It makes Chapman's music sound as fresh as it did back in 1988.




22. Justified (2003) – Justin Timberlake: It's okay that Michael Jackson never was musically relevant this decade (until his death), because Timberlake made the best Michael Jackson album since around 1990 anyway. Just a great meshing of R&B and pop. I have really great memories associated with the song "Like I Love You", which I remember thinking was so innovative at the time (a dance song built on an acoustic guitar hook!).



23. Amethyst Rock Star (2001) – Saul Williams: The great poet meshes his powerful words to genre-bending beats, and the result is enthralling.



24. Confessions (2004) – Usher: Usher made a concept album - casting himself as characters throughout - that was completely enthralling pop music. And "Burn"... woah. It doesn't get any better than that.



25. Cookie: The Anthropological Mix Tape (2002) - Me'shell Ndegeocello




26. Flavors of Entanglement (2008) - Alanis Morissette: Morissette hired herself a new producer (Bjork's producer), and the result was her best album since 1998.



27. We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions (2006) – Bruce Springsteen: This is such a cool, joyous recording. Springsteen continues to stay relevant (if I went top 40 of the decade, The Rising would be there for me, too).



28. Lifeline (2007) – Ben Harper: Harper released 8 albums in the 2000s, including several excellent ones. This is my favorite (other than #5 above), mostly because it contains the most beautiful song he's ever recorded ("Fool for a Lonesome Train"). The band sounds great here, too.



29. Room for Squares (2001) – John Mayer: Came out during a perfect time in my life to appreciate it, when I was going through my own "quarter life crisis," much like Mayer. Contains at least a couple songs that would be on the soundtrack of my life story, including, of course, the following:



30. Country Grammar (2000) – Nelly : Total mainstream pop rap, and I love it. Actually, that's probably not giving it the credit it deserves. "Country Grammar", the song, sounded so fresh and fun when it was released, and the rest of the album followed it up well. Holds up well, and the dude made a pretty nifty follow-up, too.



31. Back to Black (2006) – Amy Winehouse: What a cool CD this is, both retro and fresh at the same time.



32. Gold - Ryan Adams (2001): A great rock album whose indulgences I love.



Note: In the 1990s, I listened to new music all the time, somehow acquiring thousands of CDs and spending a lot of time with them. Getting a real job in the 2000s have made me much less of a wide-range listener. I now basically know what I like, and gravitate towards it. It changes all the time, but I still can't claim this to be any sort of thorough view of the music world in the 2000s. My 1990s list (easily findable with my name and google and "best albums of the 1990s") is probably more wide-ranging.

Still, this was an important musical decade for me. I branched out to other genres more than ever. I listened to college rock and singer/songwriters, mostly, in the 1990s, and added a lot of hip, mostly of the socially-conscious variety, in the 2000s. I didn't listen to as much but what I did listen to, I really listened to hard. I also never really fell for the mainstream critic faves. It's not that I don't like Radiohead, but I just prefer The Bends to Kid A. Speaking of other critic faves, I prefer Being There to Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and When the Pawn... to Extraordinary Machine.

Other than that, though, here were the CDs that I would classify as the best of the decade, for me.

Winter Weather

To the powers that be:

I can't really afford to miss school tomorrow for snow. Only 6 class days until midterms and those IB commetnaries.

I'll take a delay, though.

Holler.

Great in theory, but...

"But it's the chosen reading that turns kids into livelong readers."

The librarian said this, and I'd certainly heard it before. And I agree with it. But I've never known of a great way to integrate it into my classroom. The 9th grade curriculum - Fences, A Lesson Before Dying, In the Time of Butterflies, Persepolis, Romeo and Juliet - is pretty full. We're now only on A Lesson Before Dying, which basically is written at a 6th grade level or so, at least in terms of language. I don't have any issue with teaching it to my 9th grade classes. First of all, many of the students are struggling or reluctant readers, and the level works well. Secondly, the novel, despite its simplicity of language, is also very distinctively written (lots of parallelism) and quite complex in subject matter. At its simplest, it's about a man trying to teach another man to die with dignity, but there is so much else there - questions about what the worth of a human life is, issues of expectation and race and "wearing the mask", etc. It's a great teach, certainly one of my favorites both in my teaching and non-teaching life.

But so many of the kids aren't even reading it. We ended up through Chapter 10 before the holiday and the snow days, and most of the kids did not pick up the book between Dec. 19 and Jan. 4. Then, they returned to school - I gave them an extra day to get caught up with the reading the put off the reading check quiz until Jan. 5 - and just mailed it in for the quiz. Several turned in blank quizzes.

With this in mind, how can I integrate independent reading into my classroom? When? Some of the students are reading at a high level and are bored by the slow pace with which I'm reading ALBD. Others can't - or won't - keep up. And I'm so overwhelmed by everything this year (the planning is really intense; I feel like I work at school until 5 or 6 and then come home and work until 10 - nearly every night), that the thought of adding another dimension just seems impossible. I can barely get to vocabulary.

Bye-Bye, Sheila

Oh, Sheila.

I thank you for the weekly single stream recycling (I seriously recycle everything now, and love that it comes every week) and the new bike paths that seem to be sprouting up everywhere. It is not often that I get to thank a politician for things that directly affected my everyday life.

I wish you didn't screw up so badly. I share concerns with folks who think the prosecutors were out to get you, but even leaving yourself open for that sort of nonsense doesn't speak well of your intelligence or ethics. Additionally, I'm glad I'm not going to hear you speak anymore; listening to you was as bad as listening to George W. Bush speak. But, overall, I think you did a decent job. I'm not optimistic bout Rawlings-Blake.

I voted for Jill Carter, one of her 2.8%. I'd love for her to get back into the fray. She seemed the smartest, most focused candidate during that Baltimore mayoral election of 2007. But, admittedly, Dixon pleasantly surprised me during her tenure.

Post-vacation blues

I'm titling my post that because I asked a sighing student today if she had them, and she looked at me like I was speaking a different language. I said it three times and it never registered what I was saying. I think it was the prefix "post-"; she knew what I was saying after I said "after vacation blues."

With the silly leadup, though, I'm not having the post-vacation blues. Today was a good day. I had pretty strict reading schedules with both the 9th graders (A Lesson Before Dying and the 12th graders (Song of Solomon), and the three unexpected snow days to end 2009 required an adjustment. I expected the 12th graders to still have the reading completed, but formulated a "group essay" assignment for them that required them to review what they have read and discuss and articulate some of the main themes of the text. The quiz will be tomorrow. I expected most of the 9th graders would have little of the reading done that was scheduled for their holiday break, and adjusted accordingly with some analytical review questions that would help both the ones who read and the ones who didn't.

The 9th grade essays they wrote before break have been the bane of my existence throughout my break, and I still haven't finished them. I started off by giving a lot of feedback, and feel like I must continue at that pace in order to make everyone's feedback even. But the amount of work that is is just unbelievable. The fact that this assignment is only one of many both them and the 12th graders have done -- all of which are stacked around my classroom and my office at home -- is overwhelming. I also have to write a midterm in the next few days, plus, seemingly, to create lesson plans for every day for both classes. The 9th graders aren't as difficult -- I've taught A Lesson Before Dying for, I believe, nearly ten straight years. I concentrate on different things every year depending on the needs of my students, but a lot of what I do is fairly similar from year to year. For the 12th graders, though, and learning the new curriculum, this year remains a challenge to figure out how to make everything work for them and for me.

It was nice to get back up and at them today, though. The kids were in a good mood to return and so was I.

We are not swans. We are sharks.

Just saw Up in the Air. It really hit me hard. What a movie - the best of the year, at least so far, and one of the more evocative film experiences I've ever had.

The sad irony is that this film is about a man who eschews personal commitments and relationships with friends, family, and lovers in favor of an easy, connection-less life, and that I decided to go solo to a showing of the movie at 10:30am on a Sunday morning, partly because I didn't want to be bothered with organizing anyone to accompany me. I wanted to see the movie and get it over with and get on with my day, most of which wasn't exactly spent wisely (a few errands, a workout, some grading).

The film is still sitting with me, like a bricks in my stomach. I have never been one to mind going to the movies alone; I think it actually takes some personal strength and confidence to do so. Maybe I don't have that right now. Maybe it was mostly about the powerful movie, which was very sad. Or maybe it was because it was right after the holidays, which were wonderfully happy but also a reminder of the things I don't have (a more obvious reminder than usual - little sister is engaged to be married and inheriting a family with a 12-year old and an 8-year old, and we spent much of the holidays with them). I'm now back 600 miles away and went to go see a powerful and beautiful movie about our modern lack of connection - and, let me tell you, the conclusion to this film isn't very optimistic, as the last scene just sent chills up my spine - and it's getting to me.

2009 was a great year in a lot of ways but I have to get myself together. Getting myself in shape and healthy has to be job one right now, because nothing can emerge from the cocoon of overworking, overeating and underexercising that seems to have enveloped me this school year.

Seeing Precious

I finally went to go see Precious. I liked it, didn't love it. I'm a sucker for teacher movies, whether they are legitimately great movies (Dead Poets Society, Stand and Deliver, The Class) or even the mediocre ones (I loved Freedom Writers, get teary at Mr. Holland's Opus), and this one was interesting because it basically focused on the kid instead of the teacher. And most people know (and you can tell from the previews) that she's lived a horrible life, with a heinously abusive mother and a father who gets her pregnant twice through raping, and that getting some education helps her.

The film itself is powerful and pretty well made. I thought some of the dream sequences were overdone. But the acting is a tour-de-force. M'onique, in particular, is one of the greatest screen villains ever. Just an absolutely horrible person. Mariah Carey was also pretty awesome. So was the beautiful teacher, whose name I didn't catch.

I went to the movie alone, sort of on a spur of the moment thing. I was driving by The Charles, and thought to myself that if there were a spot out front, that it was a sign I should go see this movie, which I've wanted to see for a while. There was a spot. I went in. I was flying solo, and hoping not to run into anyone. Unfortunately, the film was being shown in one of the really small theaters there, and there were a whole row of students from my high school there. I made a big joke about it but it was still crummy.

The decade

2000: Became an Academic and Social Activities Coordinator of a dorm, meaning I got an apartment rent-free. Got my Bachelor's Degree. Began exercising.

2001: Student taught in Lansing, realized I found my calling not only as a teacher but also as a teacher in an urban school. Lost 40 pounds, started exercising every day. Made a lifelong friend in my mentor teacher. Threw a dart in a map and moved to Baltimore.

2002: Wound up first year of teaching. We were on the block schedule so I got a fresh group of kids the second semester. Second semester went way more smoothly than first semester, and I was asked back.

2003: Was in great shape, made great friends, one of best years of my life. Got down to 195 pounds.

2004: Double retina detachment gave me some permanent vision loss and pretty major eye surgery. But I'm better now. Went to Italy the summer. Became head varsity baseball coach at my school.

2005: Horrible credit card debt. Got a second job. Worked my ass off.

2006: Worked so hard. Rough year.

2007: Turned 30. Things started looking up.

2008: Quit second job. Awarded grant through NEH to study Shakespeare at Teaching Shakespeare Institute in DC for the summer. Got my Master's Degree.

2009: Became a homeowner for the first time. Bought a new car. Got to teach a cool new class.