Exhibit A: It really is amazing to see my students graduate every year. Here’s Berhanu shortly after the ceremony. Berhanu wrote one of the best narratives I’ve read. Hopefully you read it too. Exhibit B: Is it absolutely necessary for our school to hold its graduation at the Sports Arena?
Spent part of Sunday morning watching last week’s LAUSD School Board meeting. Found the discussion on the Small Schools resolution interesting. I took a bunch of notes but they seem to have gone MIA on this computer. As a teacher that’s been in an SLC for the past three years, I do think that the [...]
I don’t really know where to begin. No, Your Name Here isn’t a book to be categorized as BSRAYDEKWTDWT – you start at the beginning and work your way to the end – but it is a book you don’t know how to process. And even that’s not quite right: it’s entirely linear. There’s a [...]
Saw Wall-E at the El Capitan on Friday. And while the El Cap usually does a great job turning a movie into a full event, the best added feature for Wall-E was the series of Hubble telescope pictures adorning the walls of the lobby. As far as the film, I can’t think of a more [...]
I spent part of Friday night watching MTV. Seriously. This post is not an admission of guilt (or another celebration of guilty pleasures). Actually, I wanted to take a moment of your internet-browsing time to talk about how MTV is changing the world of youth culture. Brief Personal Background Information There are two things about [...]
Wordle is my new friend. It turns a lengthy blog entry like this. Into this: Likewise, it turned Jon Brion’s overwhelmingly long rant into the rather zen: These are important times! This is a (newly emerging) literacy practice at work. And it’s fun!
Cody Chestnutt has released a new song! And it’s for Obama! And it’s afro-beat(-ish)! And it’s called “Afrobama”! Seriously, it’s called “Afrobama”! And you can download it here! Hooray! (I have other updates to come shortly and it feels like I’m ready to make a Headphone Masterpiece rant too. Stay tuned)
As usual, I’m juggling 4 long-ish books at the moment (and the unyielding commitment to finish Infinite Jest, even if it’s only at a 2-3 page-a-day pace). However, I’ve also been regularly thumbing my way through a handful of books of shorter material. Thought I’d share some of the highlights of these thumb-intensive texts: Separations [...]
Well, we’re an iDivision school. It’s official. I’ve already chimed in on this, as has my principal, as has our Network Partners. There’s a riveting story just under the surface with regards to Manual’s journey into the iDivision fold. I don’t think most of us will be able to really recount these stories any time [...]
I’m enthused to announce that I have an article about using MySpace in the classroom in the current issue of Rethinking Schools. I’ve been reading Rethinking Schools pretty much cover to cover since I started teaching and it’s the only teacher’s magazine that doesn’t make me gag when I pick it up. I’m thrilled by [...]