January 2012
1 post
December 2011
2 posts
Last conversation before winter break.
Student from LifeSkills class: You're a mouse.
Me: I'm a mouse?
Student: You eat cheese.
Me: You eat cheese, too. Are you a mouse?
Student: No! You're a mouse.
My own Esquire-style interview.
I’ll never be famous enough to justify my own Esquire-style interview (or talented enough to conduct such an interview), so I’ve created my own:
* Anyone who wants to destroy the power of labor unions is inherently against free markets. Organizing is a legal right, and labor is part of a free market. Eroding that right is to degrade free markets.
* TV is the ultimate time burglar....
July 2011
10 posts
Even official-er.
Dear Student: Your written/oral comprehensive examination or graduate project has been graded by your committee; it is my pleasure to inform you that you have passed. The Graduate Studies office has received all required paperwork and grades from your department and you have applied and paid for graduation. You have met all requirements for your degree and are scheduled to graduate in August...
“You look him in the eye and you say ‘Your state economy is based on...”
– Guy at the table next to me at Starbucks making a surprisingly cogent argument against Gov. Perry’s potential campaign boast of job creation in Texas.
Excerpts from a letter to my Congressman.
Dear Rep. Culberson,
I am writing to you, asking you to commit to supporting spending on the social safety net programs in our country.
My wife and I both have great jobs, she as an XXX and me as a public school teacher. We have a great cash flow and hope buy a home and start a family in coming years. That said, please consider raising taxes on families like mine. Moving from X percent to X+1...
Realities of SY 11-12.
In the coming school year, I will teach a self-contained elementary class for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. I will be expected to teach curriculum across all subjects at four different grade levels.
The class will be twice as big as when I started two years ago. In the same time, the special education support staff has been cut by 33 percent.
Many of my students will take...
I'm not alone in my love for SodaStream. →
Thoughts on standardized tests and special... →
The link goes to a very thoughtful article by New York special education teacher Michael Loeb arguing for standardized tests for special education students. He missed out on tenure because his students didn’t show adequate growth in English and mathematics on said tests.
That led to me reflect on the situation in my district and with the tests. For special education students to succeed on...
Thoughts on the Atlanta cheating scandal. →
Cheating on high-stakes tests was apparently rampant at dozens Atlanta public schools in the past few years at the same time as the superintendent was lauded for success in turning around test scores.
My response: Is anyone really surprised by this? Given the sanctions places on teachers and administrators when schools, of course they acted to save themselves. As long as educational policy is...
Pure joy.
There are few better examples of pure joy in the human experience than a 3-year-old playing in a swimming pool.
I had the chance to experience this joy vicariously when some friends brought their kid over to our apartment pool today. He could have stayed in the pool, jumping from the side, playing in a tube and twirling around, for hours.
WatchDaniel Goleman on the awesome benefits of scaled-up social-emotional learning programs. This is what, I believe, is missing from serious educational reform discussions.
June 2011
5 posts
My next fitness fad -- swimming. →
I’m five lessons into my private swim lessons. Right now, I have a reasonably functional front crawl; a passable, if often non-straight backstroke and the nascent stages of a breaststroke.
And, given the issues with my knees and ankles, combined with the terrible summer weather in Houston, swimming might be the perfect cardiovascular exercise for my location and lifestyle. I just have to...
At work, not at work.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been heading to work to wade through and organize all the paperwork that needs to be done before the start of next school year.
But, I’m not supposed to be there. Well, I am. But, not. So I have to stay on the downlow while I’m there and not get in the way of all of the other summer machinations.
I’m cool with that. I’m there to work,...
Midnight.
My clock just rolled over to midnight. That means I am officially done with my Master’s degree program. Everything has been turned in. The final portfolio, all 50 pages of it, is in the hands of the committee. I am reasonably confident that my final project will be judged worthy of a Master’s degree in education.
That said, the odd part will be not having school work to do anymore. I...
Lyrics to Bon Iver, Bon Iver →
It isn’t very often that a band and an album come around that just radically change my perception of music. But, in the past week, Bon Iver’s Bon Iver has changed everything. Is it silly and trite to say that a band I’ve know about for less than a week makes the most astounding, beautiful music I have ever heard? If so, I guess I’m silly and trite.
Winning through losing.
I remember going to a basketball summer camp between 7th and 8th grade. The team I was on was terrible, but we had more fun than anyone else there. We through in zone defenses, full-court presses and strange inbound plays. We even played a game where our point guard sprinted up court every time the other team took a shot to try to get easy fast break points. It didn’t work. We finished like...
May 2011
2 posts
What the research says on social-emotional... →
I’ve jump started one of my main summer goals — learning as much as I can about social-emotional learning — with this book. Yup, I’m being all data-driven.
Sum-Sum-Summer time! (Is almost here.)
Dear readers,
I know I have let you down. No posts in months? A new standard here at Typing Habits. This shall not stand.
Summer is almost here. With it, more free time. So, I promise more awesome stuff here, like links to education reform information, notes on what I eat and musings on the genius of the Electric Light Orchestra.
More than a lack of time, I blame so few posts on Twitter....
April 2011
1 post
March 2011
3 posts
“Whatever I can do, I will, ‘cause I’m good like that.”
– — Billy Corgan/ Zwan
Can’t think of a quote more apropos of being an inner-city school teacher watching “Waiting for Superman.”
Government in action (not inaction).
I spent most of yesterday winding through the sub-basement of the Texas state capitol looking for legislative offices. My mission: Meet Republican lawmakers and somehow convince them that inner-city public schools are important. And, to an extent, mission accomplished?!?
One very conservative representative spent the better part of 30 minutes listening to a bunch of teachers plead for money that...
A lobbying we'll a-go!
Tomorrow I join many other members of the Houston Federation of Teachers to lobby at the state capitol in Austin.
Our goal? Pretty simple: spend some of that $9 billion reserve fund, conservative legislature, instead of risking cutting every fifth teaching position in the state, slashing extracurricular events, decimating support services, sending class sizes skyrocketing and generally exploiting...
December 2010
2 posts
Tuesday.
Day two of being on break. Another busy morning — got the brakes on my car fixed, hired a cleaning company, did some grocery shopping, started my year-end review. I might even put some portfolios together this afternoon. Or, I might be lazy and watch lousy television. Darn you, JAG!
Break time is here.
After today, I still have 13 straight days of not having to go to work.
On the surface, this is a beautiful thing. I can sleep in. I can watch as much “Cold Case” as my tiny, little brain can process. I can read and put together jigsaw puzzles.
The reality, however, is much darker. I spent my first official break day cleaning the apartment, getting a haircut, organizing files and...
August 2010
8 posts
Still waiting.
Today was teacher prep day at school. One big problem. My room isn’t painted yet. I moved furniture around, but couldn’t put anything on the walls.
Still, there’s plenty of time until the start of school. My room really is going to rock this year.
Vote Aarti! →
First day. Bleh.
So I went into school today to start prepping my room for the year. Not so fast!
The painting and furniture removal that was scheduled to be done this summer is, well, behind schedule. Thus, the room isn’t painted and there’s plenty of excess stuff in it.
Things should be resolved this weekend, so I can start again on Tuesday.
Wish I could be there to #doop. →
Apparently, I write like Cory Doctorow. →
Who do you write like?
(Note: I couldn’t get the silly, little badge to work on Tumblr.)
Has it been a successful summer break?
Probably. I’ll let y’all decide.
Things I did:
* became a Godfather.
* earned Red Cross certification for first aid, CPR and AED use.
* took two American Sign Language courses.
* lost about 10 pounds.
* finished two classes (earning six credits) in my M.Ed. program.
* became certified to teach elementary ESL.
* attended the MLS all-star game.
* watched every episode of Psych...
July 2010
3 posts
The best source for introductory ASL I've found. →
Although my zeal for learning hasn’t actually produced, you know, practice and results, I’m still hoping to work through all the American Sign Language lessons presented here by the end of July.
WatchIt’s alway good to launch a come back with an embedded OK Go video, says me.
February 2010
2 posts
Going without.
I didn’t have a drop of caffeine until 3:38 in the afternoon. I have no idea how I not only survived today, but, at times, thrived. Maybe it was the unexpected puppy.
I'm back.
Pardon the hiatus. Here’s some quick thoughts.
* I love teaching so far. Although, sometimes I think the teaching I do is akin to the surgery the folks on M*A*S*H* did. I do what I can, how I can, when I can and hope for the best.
* Sports no longer enthrall me. Sure, I want the Bears to do well. And I’ll watch a Brewers game on the tube. But, I’m not following anyone with any...
November 2009
1 post
Woo!
Just got accepted into grad school for a M.Ed, pending my eventual passing of the GRE.
October 2009
2 posts
Desk goes boom.
So I had my first desk tipping incident today. Luckily, that’s where it ended. I knew this day would come. Everyone stayed calm and everything go back to normal. I even got the desk flipper to talk about what X-Box games he would play this weekend less than 15 minutes after the flip.
Missing time.
Apparently being a school teacher means all of your free time goes swirling into some vortex, never to be seen again.
I absolutely love what I’m doing right now, although it scares me that I’m getting my 98 percent on instinct and 2 percent on knowledge/know-how. Obviously, that ratio should change in time. For now, however, I think I’ve been a bit too fortunate in a lot of...
August 2009
1 post
What happened?
I haven’t Tumblred in more than a month. And what a month!
Started teaching. Got sick twice (cold and headache). Wife started a new job. Got a big new TV and a Wii to play.
It’s Sunday afternoon. I wasted all Saturday watching TV and feeling sick with a head cold. That means today is all about trying to figure out how I’m going to keep control of/teach my tiny, yet energetic,...
The magic exercise.
Just finished up the two-week swim lesson. Most of the second week was just me swimming back and forth, instead of getting instruction. I mastered the crawl and breaststroke pretty quickly and others in the class were still learning to go under water.
All that means that I got plenty of exercise this week. Swimming seems to be magic. I took off around three pounds this week. And, now, my body...
July 2009
9 posts
Into the deep end.
My first Red Cross adult swim lesson last night was a slight disappointment. Let’s just say it started slow, with instruction in dunking under the water and blowing bubbles.
That’s OK. It was cool to get into a pool again. And I did some short, awful, laps with my lousy crawl stroke afterward.
Even though I still don’t really know what I’m doing when I’m swimming, I...
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs trailer! →
My second favorite picture book of all time is coming to the movie theater!
The room.
Got into my clasroom for the first time today — darn, it feels good to say “my classroom.” All the furniture had been pushed to the middle because the school is still in the midst of its summer cleaning.
I poked around, took pictures of much of the room and sat at my desk and thought. Next week, when I’m not wearing a dress shirt and slacks, I will dig in and figure out...
I lived in Aurora for nearly five years and don't... →
Up all night.
With a headache and a stomach ache.
But, I did get to finish reading “A Single Shard,” a Newbery award winning I’ve been stuck in the middle of for a month or two.