Health, Interrupted: A Plea for Help

Please help out my friend Kate, who really wants to be able to continue teaching in the BCPSS. Please give, and spread the word.

Health, Interrupted: A Plea for Help: "I wish to start this blog in the same way my middle school students liked to start their essays: in this blog I am going to tell you why the..."

(I had a hard time using the donation button with my credit card, for some reason. Will keep trying.)

DC Fires 241 teachers

D.C. fires 241 teachers

To my knowledge (based on a Dan Rodricks show I listened to this summer), Baltimore City fired 11 teachers last year. All were challenged by the union. D.C. is firing 241 this year, and 81 will be challenged by the office.

I am tired of working alongside ineffective teachers. I want a little dash of Rhee in Baltimore, as scary as that might be.

Music & Returning to My Roots of House Concerts

I've been thinking about getting back into house concerts now for a while. I did it for the first 5 or 6 years of living in Baltimore, hosting such musicians as Patti Rothberg, Wally Pleasant, Doria Roberts, Caleb Stine, Jen Chapin, Sam Shaber, and others in my living room. I'm not sure why I stopped. It had to do with a general funk I was in, plus it was harder to get people to come, and I was hanging with a different crowd, etc. But it was one of my 'things' and then I didn't have it anymore (I feel like I have very few 'things' anymore) and people have been asking me about it.

I have a house of my own now, and, while it might not be as conducive as the Walther Avenue house was for house concerts, I think it would work. It's just that now that I've taken so long to get back into it, the return needs to be someone good, someone who means a lot to me.

Rose Polenzani is one possibility. In a bout of Facebooking after some wine the other night, I asked her to play another one (she played one 5 or 6 years ago at my place), and I think she would, if she's in the area.

This song is stone beautiful:

And you kissed me one sweet night,

And you pulled me close and tight,

And you told me one sweet lie,

And I knew right then that I

was a poor man's answered prayer.

I was drunk, and you were there.




Another possibility, of course, is Brenda Kahn, the namesake of this blog. It looks like she's performing again, at least a little, and her new CD (her first in, I believe, 12 years) is due out in the fall.

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

* Am I really supposed to write it every time in lower-case letters?

Anyhow, I just finished this book, a re-reading of it after reading it for the first time about five years ago in one one-way trip on a China bus to NYC. It's that short -- a nice little 3-hour read.

I don't quite remember it being so moving before. We're hearing everything through the voice of Christopher, who is autistic and has some different experiences with processing what other people are doing. This makes the narration come off as detached, and he'll be describing something that his mother or his father does, and you can tell they're going through a gut-wrenching experience, but it doesn't register with Christopher; he just describes what he sees.

This isn't unlike, say, Scout describing the angry lynch mob in To Kill a Mockingbird. She doesn't have a clue what is going on, but, we, as good readers, do. But, I would never assign To Kill a Mockingbird as summer reading, at least with rising 9th graders at our school. Being able to step outside of the narrator a little bit and critically think about what he or she is saying is a crucial skill that I don't think many rising 9th graders have.

I'll be very interested to see how the kids approach curious incident for their summer reading. Social Studies picked it as the "both classes" text, and I was supportive of the decision, and, with re-reading, I'm stil convinced it's a great book to read for them. But will they have the compassion or background knowledge about austism (Christopher never actually uses that term in the novel, I don't think) to read this like they should read it? We're planning on spending a week on it at the start of the school year, and that's it, and I hope that's enough.

I'm teaching Summer Bridge this year, so I will be with all these students for 60 minutes or so during the week of August 9-13. I'll have to do a bang-up job with setting up some things about this novel to help them get everything out of it that they should.

Still, a great read, regardless. I hope they like it a lot.

Teachers and Facebook

I feel the need to add my voice to the national conversation about Teachers and Facebook.

So, here are my rules for Facebook:

1) I joined Facebook on the invite of a former student, and thought it would be a good way to stay in touch. So I've always approached it with the mindset of an educator.

2) When upperclassmen and former students ask to "friend" me, I generally do. I have found it to be an invaluable communication tool.

3) I don't respond to requests to "friend" 9th graders, who I just don't think can handle it.

4) I hide many students' statuses from my newsfeed. I really don't feel the need to know all about their lives.

5) I don't ask students to be my friend. Firstly, I think that's a little sad; secondly, I would never want any student to feel pressured.

6) It's nice to be able to post a status update about school work, particularly with my seniors, and know they will read it. It was invaluable during the three weeks of intense snow and missed school we had last year.

7) I totally used it as advertising for the baseball team this past year.

Now, onto the risks. I know about them.

1) A student could see something inappropriate that I post. I'm not really worried about this, because I never have the urge to post anything about getting drunk or anything dumb like that. Everything I put up there are innocuous details about my life (workouts, baseball), nothing serious. I don't discuss personal relationships or anything else I would consider "juicy".

2) One of my friends could post something inappropriate about me. It could be a photograph at a bar, I guess. I'm not too worried about this. I keep pretty close tabs on photographs of me, and would untag myself if alcohol were present. However, I'm not that worried about that, either -- it's not like there is going to be a shot of me doing a kegstand. I just don't do that kind of stuff.

3) Most importantly, I think there is risk with what my responsibilities are if I see something a kid posts that is illegal. Last year, I (accidentally) saw a video of a student that I thought I should take to my principal the next day. [I just decided to delete some details about the video, so sorry if this part doesn't make as much sense.]

A few of my colleagues have created "alternate" Facebook identities that are just school-related. I think this is an interesting idea, but it doesn't prevent #3, which, for me, is the biggest risk of Facebook -- seeing what the kids write and being legally bound to do something about it. I'm not sure if there is legal bounding or not. I knew when I saw the video, that I was obligated to do something about it -- at least by my own moral standards, if not professional (though probably professional as well). However, what if I had not seen the video. Similarly, if a kid writes, "I'm drinking straight vodka and am about to go driving" and I see it, then I know to do something about it, but, more than likely, I would not see it. Could anyone say I should have seen it and, thus, that I was legally bound to do something about it? Or, perhaps more seriously, if a student talks about hurting herself or someone else. What is my obligation, legally? What if, as I said, I have most of my students hidden from my newsfeed, or I'm not focused on my Facebook?

All this isn't to dissuade myself, because I do find FB pretty invaluable for me as an educator. I think I will expand it even more next year, as I plan to create a FB page for my senior class, as other teachers have done. But I go into it with my eyes wide open. I know there are risks.

I helped train his mind, now he's helping to train my body

In 2003, I taught a short mischievous kid with braids. I liked him a lot - he was smart and a good writer, which is nice, but also really funny and just a real neat kid to have in the classroom. He's since gone on to go to Morgan State, and then transferred to the University of Maryland, where is about to graduate (11 more credits) with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Biology. He plans to head to Law School the year after that.

I've seen him a lot in the last couple of years, as he works at my gym as a lifeguard. He's shorter than my 5'9", yet he's chiseled himself into the physique of a NFL player. He just got his Personal Training license, something I learned from Facebook, so I decided to approach him about taking me on. I've been doing a good job this summer with the gym, but want to make sure I'm doing some of my exercises correctly. Squats, in particular, feel wrong. I can never tell if I'm shifting my weight correctly.

Turns out, I wasn't. T helped me out on a lot of my excercises today, making sure I was doing them right. Squats were especially difficult. I ended up not even doing them with any weight beyond the 45-lb bar and, even then, they were challenging. I was doing them wrong. My posture and center of gravity are both terrible.

Lunges also killed me. I'm walking like grandma right about now.

But what I is cool about it for me is the whole circle of life idea. I taught T, helping to train his mind. Now he's teaching me, training my body. It makes me feel good, like I'm part of a cycle of something bigger.

TSI Reunion

This weekend is the reunion for the Teaching Shakespeare Institute, where I spent a month in 2008 learning techniques for teaching Shakespeare. It was an intense four weeks of scholarship (lectures by experts, Socratic seminars), research (in the Folger Library), pedagogy, and performance, and I've used much of what I learned there in my subsequent teaching of Shakespeare. And the month was a good one, an experience that continues to impact me and my students: I'm sure that even 30 years from now, I'll look at that month in DC as one of the formative ones of my career.

Sessions today started at 9 a.m., but I couldn't give up a day at the gym nor eliminate some other things on the to-do list, so I ended up planning on getting there for the 3 p.m. session. I left Baltimore a little before 2, so I knew I'd be cutting it close but I never imagined I wouldn't get there until 6 p.m. Traffic was stop-and-go on the Baltimore Parkway the entire way. I still made it to the big barbecue, though, and hobnobbed with folks from my year all the way back to the early 80s.

Back tomorrow, including for an event called "The Rare Book Petting Zoo". Yup, dorky!

Reading test?

I am looking for a Reading Test that I can give during the first week of school to my 9th graders that will determine their grade level in reading, so I can tell them, "You're reading at a 7th grade level" and help motivate them throughout the year while we take a similar test midway through and at the end. A benchmark, just for reading, with an easy extrapolation to grade level of reading skills.

Can anyone help?

What are you reading?

This past school year, I was part of a hiring committee for new English teachers in my school. In theory, our school would be a great place to work -- a lot of curricular freedom propelled by the mostly wonderful IB curriculum, mostly motivated students, a dynamic staff that includes several National Board-certified teachers and presenters at NCTE conferences. However, mostly because of Baltimore City (seemingly fueled by the Baltimore Teacher Union) rules about placing all displaced teachers (re: generally unwanted by their schools) before hiring the best and brightest outside the system, it turned out to be a fairly frustrating experience. We interviewed a lot of mediocre candidates and none that we eventually hired went through the pre-interview/demo-lesson/post-demo-lesson because the school year ended before all those displaced teachers were placed and before a new wave of hires for the system were allowed to be examined. I could not believe the restraints placed on schools for hiring.

Regardless, one of my favorite questions in the interview process is one that I learned from Jim Burke. I remember reading his English Teacher's Companion and him discussing that the most important question in his interview process is the question of, "What are you reading?". He says he didn't want to hire anyone who wasn't reading on their own, and didn't want to hire anyone who just was able to list a bunch of, say, Sydney Sheldon novels. He wanted English teachers who, in their own personal lives, actually took the time to read and remember the value of what good literature is.

The question always smarted a little bit, especially this past year, when I did all I could just to stay ahead of my students' reading. I am lucky to read 1 or 2 books for pleasure during a school year. Therefore, I made it a point of reading for pleasure this summer, and trying not to read everything just with a teacher's eye.

At least until at least August, that is. Now, I have a huge book that I assigned for summer reading, Wild Swans, that I have to start then so I can finish it and write a quiz. But, until then, I am reading for myself, and reminding myself what great literature can do.

With that being said, I just finished Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. It was such a wonderful book that I almost want to pick it up and read it again right now, just to see how all those characters fit together. In the middle, I felt a little like it was just barely chugging along, and there were a few characters who I just weren't interested in (there were eleven protagonists). But, by the last 100-150 pages, I was entranced. There is a section towards the back, narrated by a character named Gloria, that simply throttled me. I was reading with a choke in my throad and underlining lines that I wanted to go back to and savor. I had to hold myself from tweeting some of these lines, they were that beautiful. And then the ending -- which made me realize why one of the blurbs on the inside cover said it was the first great 9/11 novel -- was just so note-perfect. It wasn't note-perfect that it wrapped everything up tidily, but that it ended it in a way that just echoed the messiness of life that was within this book's pages. I cried. It was that good.

I'm now heading on to Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid, which has grabbed me early and might not let go. I wonder if I can go with a pace of about a book a day or two? I bet I could.

Summer

I am loving the summer so far. Here is what I'm doing:

1) A lot of exercise. I'm running a bit (treadmill, mostly doing 30 seconds on, 30 seconds sprinting, for up to 30-45 minutes... it's hard because my knee is hurting), spending time on the elliptical, and lifting weights. I feel great. I haven't done any classes yet, and I just haven't ran into one of them, but will soon.

2) Playing lots of softball. This has been excruciatingly hot, and our team is not very good, but it's still pretty fun. I must say that I'm aching for more real competition, though, to play in a league that is a little bit more about competing than socializing, like I used to play in, but I haven't really ran into one since that other league folded.

3) Lots of gardening. This has been quite an obsession for me this year, and I love it. It's also been a challenge to keep all the plants alive in the drought and heat that we have been experiencing, but I have been doing it. I'm still planing stuff almost every day, as I stop by Poor Boy's or Valley View Farms and grab something interesting to plant. It has got me to know the neighbors a little bit, as they stop by and chat. And it's good exercise. I feel a little bit like Adam Trask still, from the novel East of Eden, as I try to make my own Eden-esque garden. During teh school year, when I was so stressed, I felt like I was planting a lot to escape, to have something that I could call my own and control. Now, however, it feels happier; it's relaxing to be out there in the dirt. I love watching all the bees and birds around my yard, which is in a pretty densely packed and "urban" area. It makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

4) Lots of organizing. Summer is about rejuvenation and re-starting and I have done a good job with this so far.

5) Waiting Tables. Yup, I'm doing it again, and really liking it. I missed it.

That's about it. Now I just need to get reading some more.

IB Scores are in

IB Scores came back today.

First of all, I had no idea how the scores would be communicated to me. Would I be able to access them? Would I just have to hear randomly from the kids? I didn't know.

I received a couple of texts from kids telling me what they got, so it started off randomly. Then, however, I check my work e-mail -- which I am not in the habit of checkign during the summer -- and found an email from my IB coordinator with all the scores.

I was on my phone, and couldn't open the attachment, so I forwarded it to my gmail and was able to open it from there. It took forever and I was really nervous.

The night before, I spent much of the night lying awake, worried that I'd screwed something. For example, there is a clause that I know I read in one of the IB manuals about the "world lit" text that I could choose for Part III of the curriculum. It could be from their world lit list, or it could from elsewhere. The issue was whether the "world lit" had to be in English or not. There was a clause that said it did not, as long as the culture was different than the student's culture. Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger fit all these criteria, but I had all these fears that somehow it didn't, and that all of my students' scores would be invalidated because of that sort of technical screwup.

I also have a lot to live up to; my department has a several years-streak of 90-95% pass rates on the IB Exams for English, and this was my first year teaching the class, I had to live up to it. It all started with a guy who is my Teaching Mentor. He's since gone on to a different state, but is closely in touch with us. I'm the fourth one to have the class handed off to since this teacher's departure, and they all have been able to maintain the standard that he had set.

Plus, I taught the class of 2010 twice, so I really needed to do well because it was all on me. I've taught every class of students in the last decade of my school, at least once, and the Class of 2010 had its share of issues. The number of IB students in the class was considerably less than previous years, ostensibly because, overall, the class just had its share of issues. I don't know how else to put it, but "The Dimes," as they were called, were memorable for a lot of the wrong reasons -- despite a lot of great kids, of course.

Well, the numbers came back today, and 37 of 41 passed. That's a decent 90.2% pass rate. I'm a bit fixated on the four who didn't get it, but what I should remember about them is that they could have had 1's or 2's -- getting to a 3 was a big step for them. One of them hadn't passed the HSA in English, yet was challenging herself with IB. I love that sort of self-challenge and all those kids towards the bottom in terms of skills hopefully gained a lot of skills for college.

Slightly more disconcerting are the bright kids who I know could have done better. There were no 7's, just a handful of 6's and 5's, and mostly 4's. I think this is because the IB rubric really does reward what you do, so the average kid can pass -- it just takes a lot to move beyond that. Still... that's going to be one of my goals next year, to help those kids get 5's and 6's instead of 4's and 5's. Maybe even a couple 7's (which we haven't had, as a school, in a few years).

I've been reflecting a lot during the summer so far about the course and how I can make it better next year. I've already thought a lot about it, and this just adds fuel to my fire. Overall, this is a pretty good start to my tenure teaching the course, but, more importantly, a springboard to pushing myself farther.