Common as Othello, Me as Iago

I'm doing Othello with the 9th graders (35% of my students had read Romeo and Juliet in the 8th grade, so I wanted to change it up).

The cover of the wonderful-I'll-never-use-another-edition-of-Shakespeare-again Cambridge edition is here:



According to my students, the image on the cover looks just like me. One kid said that it's me and Common starring in a version of Othello. LOL.

A Decade of Blogging

Today marks a decade of blogging for me. I started on April 18, 2000: First Entry ever.

I was a senior in college and now I'm in the 9th year of my career. I would cringe if I ever read it all again, I'm sure.

Dance my pain away

During baseball season I drop kids off all the time. I don't like 9th graders waiting at the bus stop after dark, and happen to live in the same neighborhood as a couple of other players, so it's not a problem. Last week, after practice one day, I had the usual group of three kids in my car, waiting for me and fiddling with my radio. They came across a mixed CD with the Rod Lee's ebullient charmer "Dance My Pain Away." I love this song, which I think I first learned about on The Wire; I car dance and sing along whenever it comes on.

It's also a big time and long-standing (apparently, since these were 15-year olds and I know the song was released several years ago) Baltimore club hit, so the kids fiddling with my radio found it pretty amusing that it was on one of my mixed CDs. I was across the parking lot, when all of a sudden I heard the song blaring from my car; they got out and were dancing around it. That made me rush back to the car, but it was all in good fun; the ride home turned into a riff on me dancing to the song in my house and later at The Dox. We laughed a lot. Then, one kid said, "You've got it all, coach. Single, that big house, money, and going to the club whenever you want." Except for the last bit, he's basically right. Something to think about next time I feel like singing "I got problems / like woah, woah, woah".

Five times

I just stayed up until 1 a.m. grading papers to help give feedback before a test that students are taking on May 3, that I feel like I care about five times as much as my students do. Tonight, I coached a close, nail-biting game that we lost and I feel like I'm taking it five times harder than the student-athletes are. I don't know if it's my priorities that are whacked out or theirs. What I do know is that I'm so tired that I can barely move my muscles.

Battling disorganization of BCPSS

For those of you not in Baltimore, please know that it is absolutely beautiful here right now, and has been since Wednesday. It's even a little hot (temperatures today reached 88 degrees, but it's without all the humidity of the summer). Before last Wednesday, it rained for a couple days in a row. Yesterday, when we scrimmaged on our baseball field, I noticed a big puddle still in the middle of it. I was pretty surprised by it, and put an email in to my Athletic Director about it that evening.

No one can come fix it, so our game was canceled. Ughhhhh. We've had three games scheduled so far, and two have been postponed. But it's freaking beautiful outside today; it was a complete shocker that they couldn't get the field ready. If the city cannot get a field ready in a whole week without rain, how can we play at all? I mean, it's spring - it's going to rain at least once a week. Soooo frustrating, and it makes me so extra frustrated to see the kids come into my classroom to ask about the game and to have to tell them it was canceled because of beurocracy and inaction.

Also, today, this morning, on the last day of the quarter, we received an email saying the quarter had actually been extended another week. Yup, told the last day of the quarter. The last day. As if teachers don't plan for these things. Ugh. It was a frustrating day to teach in Baltimore City today.

The Final Push

Today is the day I started freaking out about going back to school. This is the letter I sent to my seniors and their parents:


I hope your spring break has been safe and relaxing and that you have been able to enjoy some of the beautiful weather in the area this week. I began preparing for my return to school today, and thought I would send out a brief email updating you on things you should know as we head for the final stretch. Your student has just 19 days of class until the IB exams begin on May 3rd.

Students' final book, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, was passed out on the Friday before we left for spring break, and students should have read the first ten chapters of the book by the time we return. It is a quick read and a good book, deliberately put into this slot as the last book we are reading because it's a contemporary science-fiction page turner that I thought would hold students' interest as the weather gets nicer and the end of the school year approaches. I recommend that, if they can, they go ahead and read the whole novel while they have this time off; the quiz over the rest of the novel will be on Monday, April 12th.

Also during this break, students should have logged onto our class wikispaces site (http://XXXXXXXX.wikispaces.com) and posted three discussion comments about the end of East of Eden. We were not able to talk about the end in class, so students should take some time and engage in the discussion there, making sure they check back to see what their classmates said. The direct link to the discussion is here -- http://XXXXXXXXX.wikispaces.com/message/list/East+of+Eden+Discussion -- if you want to see how the discussion is going so far. Several students opted to take their East of Eden quiz after the break to catch up on that reading, so some students will have two quizzes to take on Tuesday when we return.

And lastly, most importantly: congratulations, your student is almost done with their high school career. Please make sure he/she is in class every single day for the 19 days of class that remain. If possible, please do not schedule appointments or conduct trips during this time because the preparation for the final IB exams is crucial - especially in a school year that already saw us miss so much time due to emergency weather. Students will have two formal practice essays to write this month preparing for these tests, plus engaging in numerous timed practices during class. Every single day is critical. I expect every student to pass the IB exams, and all students are capable of getting a score of a 5, 6, or 7 and receive college credits and make opportunities for themselves in the future, whether saving money on tuition or saving time from taking lower-level courses next year. This is the home stretch, and I am excited to work with you and your students in this last push before we're done.