Books about war that my kids will read...

They will probably be picking from the following:
1. All Quiet on the Western Front
2. Band of Brothers
3. Slaughterhouse Five
4. In the Time of Butterflies

Now can I have a research paper for one of my classes be on the cost of war? Like they write about the actual cost of a war?

Cliche= This post

But of course, as The Kite Runner points out, sometimes cliches are best.

Things I am thankful for:
1. Getting a chance to live near my brother and sister-in-law- two of the coolest people I know.
2. Friends who spend the large amounts of money/time out of their schedules to visit me in CA.
3. Having a job that frustrates me and excites me and brings out every other strong emotion I can have because I'm doing what I love.
4. Change which allows me to experience all sorts of things this midwestern girl never had before.
5. That I made awesome friends in high school and college that seem to just get better every time we hang out.
6. The chance to get to sing in a choir again. (also yay me taking time for hobbies each week- that can be hard to remember to do)
7. My parents that even other people find cool haha.
8. Marriages ahead! Mark and Jesse, Brady and Brit, Adam and Pam, Emily and David,

and so many more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Books that did not come up in my last list.

Read the list below. Weigh in. I'd say I did better than this list. Here are books that I strictly stayed away from:
1. Harry Potter. The whole series. These characters are too family friendly.
2. Animal Farm. I'm not into bestiality.
3. Macbeth. Some characters are too fucked up to be fucked with.
4. Kite Runner. See above.
5. Any book by Toni Morrison. Yeah there is something to that she doesn't write very attractive males.
6. Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Don't really have a thing for 90 year old men.
7. Julia Alverez books. I like them for their portrayal of women. The men are there to cover what the women can't.
8. Romeo and Juliet. Some stories may be over told. (And over fantasized)
9. Twilight series. Vampires, no thanks, and wolves that can attach to 2 year old children they will eventually marry? gross.
10. Sun Also Rises. I'd say pretty self-explanatory.

To improve on my boring self

Someone has pointed out my blog posts have taken a nosedive in the interesting category. True. Well I happened to also come across some blogger's list about what literary characters they'd like to get it on with, but I disagreed with the list (Macbeth, Heathcliff and Holden Caulfield were on the list... gross). He suggested I should make my own list SO here it is (and I don't include underage characters even when they're fictional. that is gross.)
In no particular order:
1. Edgar from King Lear: He's my Shakespeare choice. good guy, takes care of dad, and comes back to beat the crap out of evil brother. Many girls may go for the bad guys but deal. (Second choice- Benedick)
2. Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice: An overlap from the original list. Colin Firth's portrayal in the BBC made me love him forever.
3. Teacake from Their Eyes Were Watching God: My favorite book and one of the greatest love stories that manages to be not sappy and annoying. I want some of that.
4. Richard Mayhew from Neverwhere: The whole story gets started because he's the only person to notice a homeless girl. Hot.
5. Dave Eggers from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Ok so this is an autobiography but man if he weren't married with a kid I'd be trying to find a way to get to SanFran fast.
6. John Proctor from The Crucible: HOTTTTness. Shady since he cheated on his wife with an underage psycho girl but whatever. He saw his flaws.
7. Phillip Marlow from The Big Sleep: Not from the movie. I'm not turned on by Humphrey Bogart. But the character in the book. I could do that.
8. The Fool from King Lear in the book Fool: He's a crazy do it with anyone guy in the book but he's smart and must be pretty good with all that practice.
9. T.S. Garp from The World According to Garp: One of my other favorite books because this main character fascinates me.
10. I'm going to leave this one open and get back to you. I'm having more trouble with this than I thought I would...

Things I have to grade...

1. Reading journals for all 75 of my students.
2. Essays about the traits of a hero based on The Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou
3. Persuasive essays on topics from global warming to gun control to abortion to domestic violence
4. Games, survival guides, postcards, comic books, soundtracks etc. for The Odyssey
5. Stories, speeches and analytical essays about Animal Farm.
6. One day of reading circles for Kite Runner
7. One day of reading circles for Hound of Baskerville

Good thing the end of the quarter is coming up.

Halloween Approaches...

Yeah, school is keeping me very busy. It would keep me busy anyway, but doing a second first year of teaching make it definitely crazy. I've been using work on my current Halloween costume as a distraction. Here's a list of what I've been in the past:
1. Sleeping Beauty (mom made)
2. An Illini Cheerleader (store bought)
3. Evita (mom made)
4. Dorothy from Wizard of Oz (mom made very quickly)
5. Greek Goddess (when I figured out the college version of Halloween)
6. Ballerina (I needed something fast but comfy)
7. Pumpkin (Last year when I had to make a costume last minute)

I realize this is a pretty lousy list. in part because this seems to be all I remember and in part because the costume listed are pretty sad. Except Evita. (and of course the Illini Cheerleader)

My awesome 25th birthday

It was a great weekend celebrating my 25th birthday and here is a list of highlights:
1. I got some very thoughtful cards from special people even deeper than your standard happy birthday card with no personal message. :)
2. Say what you will about facebook, but it's pretty great to receive e-mails all day letting you know that people have said happy birthday.
3. I get to watch the pilot of Sports Night!!!!
4. Nothing like getting 4 new pair of shoes.
5. Brand new real CDs are so rare these days ;)
6. Figuring out where to hang beautiful artwork is a good problem to have.
7. A class of tenth graders singing at the top of their lungs have a pretty great version of Happy Birthday
8. Phone calls with special people is always appreciated.
9. Toy Story and Toy Story II at the El Cap was a good laugh.
10. If you have to go to a class, having chocolate cake there makes it infinitely better.
11. I had an amazing party with lots of wonderful friends and shared with a great person (I do love shared birthday parties) plus about 1000 pictures to remember it by (hopefully some of them are decent.)

Books I'm teaching next

1. The Odyssey
2. Fahrenheit 451
3. no idea....
Do we sense a problem?

In a dream world...

Book rooms are a tricky thing. Luckily I've gotten funding that has allowed me to purchase books for my students but it requires a certain amount of leg work (well internet work and begging work). Here is a list of types of books that if I had my way would be in the book room when I arrived at the school.
1. Books by authors who are still alive. I know it's hard to pick which books will become classics but we have certain authors who are at the top of their game right now, buy their books!
2. Books by authors who aren't white, but who are dead. Generally if the book room does have books by authors who are still alive it'll be a Sherman Alexie or a Toni Morrison as if white authors used to write all the books but recently other races have discovered writing. That's a load of bs.
3. Books that are easy to read and worth reading for 9th graders. The stuff for a good Junior/Senior English class is usually easily sitting on the shelf and Sophomores you can push through that difficult stuff in order to get them used to it, but when a Freshman class first arrives, they need something they can read without thinking reading books is impossible.
4. A play that is not Raisin in the Sun, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, or Shakespeare. Again you'd think there were only three playwrites who exist in the world with no mention of any other options. (Maybe an Antigone or Oedipus is in there).
5. Books of a variety of genres and purposes. Book rooms are mostly fictional sometimes with a bit of nonfiction as long as it's a narrative, but rarely will you see an informational text, a graphic novel, or a collection of articles someone may have written for a newspaper/blog- yet our students are expected to be able to read all of those. (ok so they don't have to read graphic novels, but they are expected to be able to talk coherently about political cartoons which can take many of the same skills)
6. Books of high interest (maybe low in canonical value- gasp!) that aren't just about gangs/ganglife. I get that a lot of students like books like Always Running and get really into them and that's fine, but our kids face a lot of issues beyond just gangs, but it seems that gangs are the only kinds of high interest, grab your attention books in book rooms. What about a Go Ask Alice to talk about drug culture, or a Jumping the Nail to talk about domestic abuse?

Soon I'll be at the donorschoose once again trying to get yet another copy of Maus. And this set will hopefully be the last one I have to go online to ask for.

Things that don't change about the first day of school

I've switched schools which means that the first day of my second year teaching that should be an easier event because I'm used to the school but instead it's like having two first years of teaching! There are however some things that remain the same with any first day...
1. It's annoying that there are names you don't know. I feel pretty shitty about how long it can take me to learn names.
2. I always forget to drink water/take bathroom breaks. Working at a school these activities take maneuvering. I'm not there yet.
3. It's great that every kid walks in believing this is the time they kick it into high gear. Some kids this is true, other kids not so true, but that first day is great.
4. A few kids will act as caricatures of their actual selves and others will be complete dwarfs of what they are.
Happy first day of school! (Like a month after Illinois.)

Dreams I had last night

I'm clearly a bit stressed:
1. Classic woke up in my dreams while it was actually like 12 pm rather than the 6:30 I meant to get up. Finally woke up in a start to find it was 3 am.
2. There was a massacre of Sudenese Refugees within the United States (yes I recently finished What is the What) and since I was apparently friends with the large network of the Lost Boys I went with them to DC (But we're talking very dangerous trip) and eventually saved the President from assassination.
3. I had to go to RIAP today (The first official day I need to show up although there won't be students) and afterwards got caught up spray painting props for a movie my friends were doing (they aren't making this movie). It required purple white and neon green and yellow on black pieces of clothing and shoes. I kept getting it on my clothes which was frustrating--especially when the others were all about 10.
4. I showed up at school late and the teachers were all sitting around a table (well ten of them) and one of them was handing out boxes of organic food and they had all brought food they had prepared (or were preparing there are the table) and were doing this as a part of the food movement. I hadn't brought anything.
Needless to say last night was not my best sleep night.

Return to the good ol' days?

There are certain social norms that we accept today that leads to novels being approached with an "ewww gross" from many of today's students. Luckily these days those "eww gross" situations are coming back!

1. "Ruby and the Rocketts" on ABC Family where one of the main characters is in love with his cousin and not in an "Arrested Development" kind of hilariously awkward way.
2. "17 Again" Yes I get that part of the awkwardness is a mom being in love with a 17 year old kid who is actually her husband, but come on, if that were the other way around gender-wise people would be upset.
3. "Twilight" Domestic abuse anyone?

I'm going to use these the next time for a little compare contrast.

Things I have learned about my new school.

1. They don't have the small school system very developed at all. We'll see how that works out.
2. I meet with the kids 84 minutes every day all year long. Hopefully this will make teaching novels easier!
3. The book room is limited. The school has been in existence for only two years so they haven't accumulated very much. Please give money!
4. They highly value professional development. We don't get out early for it weekly like at my last school but it will be much more structured and hopefully useful!
5. I should keep my mouth shut about district lessons/assessments. Some people at this school love 'em and some people hate 'em. Very different than my last school's passionate hatred.
6. I think I only have one class that another teacher teaches as well. Unfortunately they are very big on teacher independence, potentially to a fault.
7. IB is what humanitas was at my last school. Yay!
8. I should at max have 120 students! That's practically downright normal. (granted I'll have them in three classes.)

Job Received.

And it's at a great school! Highlights that made me know this could be a great fit:
1. The school is a neighborhood school. They take the people from the area into the school and that's it.
2. When they formed they took democracy to the construction process. The community picked the name, the school colors, the mascot, the colors of the building, AND the students picked out the uniform.
3. They have the same small school model that my last school had. I'll be in the Science and Tech one.
4. They have a 1200 person theater. :)
5. Each teacher has an opportunity to apply for a $5000 grant for a project they want to do in their classroom.
6. This is a school that worked hard to keep their laid off teachers.
7. I can take public transportation to work. :)

Favorite Interview Questions

I went to a really good interview the other day that reminded me of some of my favorite interview questions. They are favorites because they show the school knows a little something about what they believe in. (You'd be surprised at how many schools do "boxed" questions they pulled from the internet)
1. What did you learn last year as a teacher and what will you do differently? (this includes when they ask you about a specific unit that failed)
2. What specific types of strategies will you use to teach writing?
3. Our school is really pushing _____, how do you see yourself contributing to that effort?
4. We notice on your letters of rec that someone says you do _____. Tell us when and in what ways.

I'll let you know Monday how things went.

Top Ten Reasons to visit Lindsay in Nicaragua

1. Public Transportation is cheap. For a couple of dollars you can ride a bus across the nation.
2. The Pitahaya fruit is amazingly delicious in fruit and ice cream form.
3. Nothing like showering with cold water in a bucket to make you appreciate the joys of running hot water.
4. Your Spanish will improve. Even if you currently don't speak any Spanish.
5. Did you play Amazon Trail as a kid? How much cooler is to actually be in a rainforest.
6. They grow Coffee, Sugar and Cacao. Now I don't like Coffee but those other two make up for it.
7. The way they grow corn will blow your mind.
8. There aren't many countries you can go to that had a major revolution just 30 years ago and are currently very safe to visit.
9.When you try to come up with questions for Lindsay, you can ask the ones relevant to her life rather than "um tell me anything at all?"
10. Lindsay's pretty great to hang out with.

TV shows I wish I could be a part of

There are some tv shows I love to watch and others I really with I could live in. Here is a list of ones I wish I was a part of.
1. Sports Night (by far the one I wish to live in most)
2. The West Wing
3. Pushing Daisies
hmmm... I think that may be it. (Clearly dialogue is a major part of my desire... funny since I don't talk very quickly myself.)

Taking on TFA

One of the causes I had no idea I would get so passionate about is teacher preparation. I do believe that if you want to draw the best and the brightest, the education it takes to become a teacher should reflect a challenging curriculum. Nobody thinks oh I could probably walk into surgery and do just fine but there are many people who hold teaching as something they could just do. I do acknowledge that there are many classrooms that people could walk into and just teach and be just fine, but doing just fine isn't really working for the state of education. If instead we required the level of education it took to be in the medical field or even to be certified to practice law, we could raise the level of discourse and achievement in education.
In order to move towards this I want to do some research about Teach for America, an organization whose hearts I believe are in the right place but whose practice seems out of line with my beliefs. Before I begin my research I thought I'd make a list of flaws/improvements I would make to the Teach for America program based just on my experience and the experience of my friends.

1. Teaching is temporary: I know there is a large amount of TFA grads who continue to stay in the profession, but I also have heard in recruiting material "Hey come be a teacher for a while!" Teaching is a profession and while I'm all for methods to recruit people who would normally go into higher paying jobs, I want to recruit them to chose this as an employment path not view it as something they can just pick up for a while. Plus, acknowledging that even people in the teaching profession cannot handle staying in low performing schools, our lowest performing schools need the stability of good leadership rather than a revolving door of teachers.

2. Smartest minds in their field into the worst performing schools: Our worst performing schools need our best education professionals. In my first year of teaching I rarely tapped the knowledge I picked up from 19th century British fiction BUT I constantly thought about the discussions we had in our education courses and the numerous articles I've read about democratic classrooms, ELL language acquisition etc. In fact I was much more likely to draw from my subject matter courses that were geared towards english ed majors (writing theory, history of language, descriptive grammar) than I was to draw on regular English classes. Put the brightest minds in the field in that field and bring them in as mentors for students who want to go into that field or guest speakers on those subjects.

3.Your teacher education comes with your real experience. Yes I learned infinite amounts of knowledge by being in the classroom. My first year of teaching I had so much to reflect on. Coming from a failing, high-need school I feel I can speak about this- these schools often do not have a solid support for teachers. Sometimes they're working on it, but regularly part of the failing high need part is that they lack the educational support for their teachers. When I go into a classroom I have a lot scaffolded (to use and education term) about educational practices etc. so even if I don't get the support standing right next to me, I've got my professors' voices ringing in my ear. I can't imagine trying to learn the research and be in front of a classroom. It sets people up for failure, burn-out etc. People who could be REALLY good at teaching may not be able to handle this sort of information overload. I would much rather opt for TFA being a nationwide teaching college than the sink or swim in the ocean that it's currently set up as.

4. What's wrong with being a classroom aide? or a co-teacher? Here is my dream for TFA- it's an nationwide accrediation process that teaches you the educational research while lining you up for one year of being a teacher's aide (and getting some GOOD teachers to be aides to... come on they should be able to do that.) and maybe then one year of being a co-teacher or student teacher before you ever walk into your own classroom. I hated having to observe a classroom once a week so my partners and I would very quickly take over the classroom for our one hour twice a week or whatever it was WHICH IS FINE because not only by then did I have some educational research, a professor to help walk us through our practices, and a cohort of people going through the same thing BUT there was also an experienced teacher there to help along the way, watch what we were doing and discuss it afterwards. My best observation times came at my very first observation where we taught one class period, watched our teacher for a class period and were able to discuss with a regular class teacher and a special education teacher what we should be doing to alter our practice. I still obsessively write things on the board because of that experience.

I'm going to start with that, see where the research takes me, and I'll get back to you.

On this day

A list of events that happened on this, the day before the day we celebrate our independence:

1. Jim Morrison died.
2. Idaho became a state (Happy Birthday!)
3. George M Cohen (who wrote "You're a Grand Ole Flag" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy") was born.
4. Quebec was founded (Bon Anniversaire!)
5. AND the Battle of Gettysburg ended today, considered by many a turning point in the war.

Happy 3rd of July

School's out for summer

And now a list of the trips I'll be taking:
1. Rantoul to see my mom and dad. (and my dad's new job)
2. Springfield to celebrate engagements in my close group of friends
3. SanFran to see a couple of my closest MechE friends
4. Nicaragua to see Lindsay!!!!!!

Don't go into teaching if...

1. You are anti-intellectual. You can't expect your students to do more (like go to college) if you can't even cut it.
2. You are willing to wait for the worst kids to drop out. There are some kids that are difficult to get motivated etc. but they have their reasons and you waiting for them to just drop out is a disservice to the time they do spend in school.
3. You think that age is equal to experience. Students have experience, many of them very different than the experience you probably have but a lot of experience none the less and every experience (or even apparent lack thereof) is an experience.

Ups and Downs

Teaching has a lot of ups and downs. Today:
1. I had to deal with a teacher I had a confrontation with yesterday.
2. I had classrooms full of kids working on these awesome projects for the end of the year.
3. I thought I was going to miss tomorrow, our last day before finals, which rushed many things and created a sense of panic in me.
4. My students pulled through and I'm going to have some amazing skits on tape of some very powerful subject matter.
5. I got a letter in response to my complaint of having to miss school saying I didn't have to go AND that I was single handedly bringing down productive collaboration and teacher progress.
6. I had a student who has complained non-stop about his project that I've been bending over backwards to make sure it was complete and today he didn't complain once!
7. I found out that the letter saying I was a terrible asset to the teaching was also sent to one of my colleagues (who does understand my e-mail and not the response that came with it)
8. At the film festival, when they showed my drama students' trailer for the play their doing caused the people nearby to say "Now I want to see the whole thing"
AND
9. My SLC surprised me by giving me an award at the end of the evening. I was a blubbering mess at this point embarrassingly enough but it was very touching.

Similes better to describe the LAUSD cuts.

California just failed at passing 6 measures that could have helped to save the budget crisis. Today on the coverage, many lawmakers (our governor included) described this as the people haven spoken (less than 25% of the people but you know). What are the people saying? Apparently that "People don't cut their food during these times, they cut their HBO" or "While people are selling their motorcycles, boats and second homes, California needs to do the same." As an employee of the hardest hit area in this budget crisis- education- I feel like I could make some better comparisons for the budget cuts coming.
1. These budget cuts will be like trying to feed a family of 1000 with food for 10.
2. These budget cuts are like having to make the choice between medicine to live or food to live.
3. The California budget is down to cutting all meat and dairy from the budget. Luckily produce grows year round here or it would be a long winter.
4. California has as much money as it has water.
5. California's education system will look like a jail by the time the new cuts come in- overcrowded and useless.
6. This round of cuts is like cutting the crotch out of your shorts.

Yeah, stop thinking that money is boundless California and realize you've truly screwed yourselves over.

Highlights from proms

A list of the highlights of every prom I went to:
1. My mom and I made my dress Junior year. It was beautiful. Some of my favorite memories of that year actually come from trying to make that dress.
2. I got a date Junior year- I was completely caught off guard.
3. Senior year prom ended. Yup that was the best thing about it.
4. I had the most elegant decorations for last night's prom even if the other decorations were tacky.
5. Prom Court was full of amazing students, all of whom could have won and been well deserving.
6. Hanging out as a "chaperon" is boring but I had good people to hang out with.

So much to blog about

There are some things I could be blogging about BUT I have reasons that none of them are happening. Here is a list of what I could have blogged about:
1. Things that were annoying/upsetting/maddening about the meeting I went to today.
2. My journey through the stages of grief over my job.
3. The heroes my students are going to be writing research papers about (Anyone real or imaginary that they know or not from 1950 or later)
4. Potential job sites in my very near future
5. Best forms of chocolate to be found in CA.
6. List of graduates I have to celebrate next weekend.

Instead you just get a list of my thoughts.

People who have visited my classroom while I've been teaching.

1. My friend Kate, from Texas.
2. A group of people from the state trying to determine whether our school is following the plan they agreed to three years ago.
3. Superintendent Cortinez, who came today, just wandering into my classroom. I resisted the urge to tell him that he fired me but I think he figured that out when he asked me how long I'd been teaching.

I love most people who love Shakespeare.

I love Shakespeare and I've been lucky to have some amazing teachers who love Shakespeare to interact with. I was very excited to stumble upon a whole program (Shakespeare Festival LA) focused on education and Shakespeare and even more thrilled to see they offered a two day teacher workshop to assist me in teaching it in the classroom (And even more thrilled to see it was about romeo and juliet, a book I teach, but by far not my favorite so I have a hard time getting into it.) As I was listening to one of the presentations I realized how much I like a certain type of Shakespeare lover. Here is what the person must have:
1. They recognize that what Shakespeare is awesome at is word-smithing rather than amazing plot lines.
2. They have a child-like fascination with the English language that is fueled by the green light to discuss even letter choices within a Shakespearean text.
3. They are fascinated by the hegemony inherent in the plot rather than the "oh no, Romeo killed himself!"
4. While they may be able to quote some Shakespeare, they can't quote it all (unless they were in the play) and they only quote it if they have to. Mostly they just read it from the text.
5. They have an appreciation for adaptations and purity, falling prey to neither extreme.
6. It's not about Shakespeare being the end all be all writer. It's just about him being really good.
7. They understand that Shakespeare is meant to be ACTed. Reading it is just something we came up with.
8. They are willing to call Shakespeare on the bullshit that he does putting women down or the colonized down without having to apologize.

I miss having a University affiliation to get my scholar fix, but today I got it from the best kind of Shakespeare lover.

All of the good things about UCLA

Here is a list of ALL of the good things about UCLA:
1. There is a stretch of Sunset that you have to drive on to get there from here with no stop lights and curves that are big enough you don't really have to slow down. It may be my favorite part to drive in all of LA.

I've failed at writing this...

Here's a list of reasons I've failed lately:
1. I got the layoff notice.
2. Simon came to visit.
3. I've been sick the last few days
4. When my friends post, I forget that I haven't.
5. Some days, when you finish at school, you just need to relax. There was a big fiasco surrounding a conference we were supposed to go to this weekend and then it was off and then on and back and forth SO because I'm still under the weather, and I already have sub plans AND a sub, I'm taking a day off that will hopefully get me back mentally.

List of options for next year

There is a possibility that things will pretty much stay the same next year at school but there is an equally strong possibility that things will be VERY different. Here is a list of those options:
1. We'll start with the worst one: I get laid off. That would stink.
2. I continue teaching 3 of the 5 10th grade classes and 2 drama classes with the added 7th period Academic Decathlon.
3. I take the 3 11th grade classes that aren't AP and keep my two drama classes and the 7th period Academic Decathlon.
4. I teach 4 11th grade classes including the AP Language class and knock down to one drama class (and the 7th period you know)
5. I teach three 12th grade classes including the AP Literature class and keep two drama classes. (and 7th...)
6. Option four but I teach a newspaper class instead of a drama class
7. Option number 3 but one drama and one newspaper.
8. Option number 2 but one drama and one newspaper.
Who knows?

So I'm not in the best of moods

No idea why since I had an entertaining weekend. Doesn't change the fact that today I came to school angry. Here is a list of things I find myself wanting to tell people:
1. I can't take care of your classroom and my own.
2. I can't prepare your lessons and my own.
3. I can't spend the next two weeks preparing the tenth grade students for a high school exit exam.
4. I can't make the review slideshow you gave me to present in homeroom interesting.
5. I can't understand why the conversation you are having with your high school girlfriend is more important than you being in class.
6. I can't get behind your decision to paint graffiti for the rest of your life rather than at least graduate high school.
7. I can't help that you signed up for drama class, have been in it all year and now you decide that you don't want to participate.
8. I can't help you if you don't listen or ask questions.
9. I can't believe that you know everything when I don't even know everything.
10. I can't let you out of English class so you can take care of something for science, math, music, history, art etc. especially when I know you aren't going to make up the time missed in my class.
11. I can't let you work on other work for another class when I have assigned to you a task.
12. I can't give you an A just because you show up for class.
13. I can't let you keep Maus much as I'd like to- it's a $14 book making it the most expensive one in the bookroom.
14. I can't deal with your complete and utter apathy towards acts of genocide.
15. I can't understand why you're wasting my time by wanting to fail.
16. I can't improve this school's tests scores in the next month.

ok... maybe now it's out of my system. Let's hope so, or the ican't list may turn into things I have told my coworkers and students.

My responsibilities for Prom

Yeah so I didn't really get into Prom in high school but now I'm helping prepare it-
1. Making invitations
2. Buying favors
3. Buying 6 tiarras
4. Getting 5 sashes for the prom court males
5. Having my mom ship out a guys crown
6. Coming up with a decoration for the entryway of Prom

Let prom season begin!

Spiritual Guidance

I am a spiritual person, and a religious person. I believe in the power of religion to change the world (both good and bad). But I haven't found a church home out here yet. Yesterday I took some time to find some spiritual inspiration. Here is a list of what I most turn to:
1. The Color Purple:
"Here's the thing... The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit.
...
Yeah It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It.
...
Don't look like nothing... It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that and be happy to feel that, you've found It.
My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds, Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed.
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God love everthing you love-- and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else God love admiration.
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[God] not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
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People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see It always trying to please us back.

2. From the Bible:
Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, whatever is true,
whatever is honorable,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute,
if there is any excellence,
and if anything is worthy of praise
dwell on these things
The things you have learned and received and heard in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

3. Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others


May you find the spirit within you this day and with that find peace in the world.

Reasons to Celebrate in February

Who knew the shortest month of the year would have so much reason to celebrate?
1. 6 months ago today, I got in the car and started my trip here.
2. February 6th is the last day of my first semester as a teacher.
3. February 7th I'll be going to an Academic Decathlon event in preparation for me taking over as half of the coaching.
4. February 12th is Lincoln's 200th birthday and because I'm the teacher, we're doing a set of lessons to lead us there.
5. February 16th I get a day off of school for President's day. Being from Illinois, this will be my first President's day off (we always got Lincoln's Birthday.)
6. February 22nd is the oscars and then hopefully the insane commercials pushing movies for the oscars will stop :)

Things that make me excited about Illinois Basketball this year

Yes, I love Illinois Basketball. Yes, I bring it up to my students when Illinois plays and wins. (I feel justified in teaching them that there are universities past USC, UCLA and CSUN that they can consider.) So why do I love them so much this year?
1. We don't have anyone going to the NBA. I think it's obnoxious when teams recruit one-and-done players to get the championship. Who doesn't want to see an underdog team win?
2. Along the same lines, we were supposed to be bad. Last year we were bad, and this year we were supposed to be bad, but we put in the practice and now we're getting noticed.
3. They took the names off the jerseys. I used to think this was a cheap trick. I mean who really cares if the last name is on the back of the jersey? But hey it's been working and who am I to argue with something that could have been taught in psych 101?
4. Chester Fraizer is awesome. I know it hasn't been the most popular thing to say (neither was saying that you liked Derron Williams until his junior year,) but I like that he proves his worth in ways other than scoring. I think when players are good in ways other than scoring it improves the game of basketball. I also like that he makes no pretenses about what he wants to and can do- he wants to coach. Good fit.
5. We're deep. We have four guys on our team that average over 10 points a game and they aren't our 4 starters. National Championship team was great and the Flying Illini were great, but it's cool to celebrate the whole team.
6. Our fans stopped booing. That was embarressing and frankly those people who booed our team in Assembly Hall shouldn't be allowed into Assembly Hall. If you're that upset, boycott the game. Let your empty seat show your disgrace. This year? The booing has stopped.
7. We play the whole game. Nothing more frustrating than watching a team self-destruct in the final 10 minutes of a hard fought game. It's nice to see us lasting the entire time.
Go Illini!

Things I want to try in LA this year

Now I feel like I've done the basics of moving in (finally have car insurance set up!) so here is a list of the things I want to do to really get settled:
1. Find a community theater to be a part of.
2. Take an acting class.
3. Try out for a symphonic band.
4. Find a spiritual community.
5. Take a ballroom dance class.
6. Go camping.
7. Visit LACMA.
8. Go to Berkeley/San Francisco
9. Learn at least five places to take people to that are more off the beaten trail.
10. Get more people to come visit- COME VISIT!!!