Day #90

Weeks on end of overcast gray days. Weeks on end of bitter blustery winds and temps hovering in the low 20s, occasionally climbing into the low 30s. Weeks on end of sleet and freezing rain and snow storms missing us by a few miles and occasionally dipping low enough to shut us down for a few hours. Weeks on end of frozen piles of crusty dirty snow. Weeks on end of ridonckulous heating bills.

And then suddenly, on Valentine's Day, a 65 degree sunny day. The kids were amped and unfocused, and I didn't blame them one bit. I wanted to be outside too. I opened all the windows in the classroom just to smell the air (yes, even Pigtown smells fresh and clean sometimes).

And it's supposed to get even nicer this week--up to 70 or more degrees by Friday? Holy shit, nothing will get done!

A brief rant

Ah, Baltimore City! I was so happy earlier this year when you re-surfaced Madison Avenue and painted the new bike lane down the street! I was even happier when you put in all the new sidewalks on my block, and the way you expanded my tree box pleased me no end. The neighborhood was so excited by these improvements that we all got together and busted out some more tree boxes and planted a few dozen trees. There was much joy.

But, being Baltimore City, you can't get anything right. After you spent all this money to put in new sidewalks and a new street and a new bike lane, etc, you sent BGE in to replace the gas lines. Bye-bye, new street and bike lane! Torn up and devestated for months on end. Also destroyed were some of the new tree boxes, and several trees we'd planted just weeks before were killed in the process!

Oh, and then, to top it off, BGE just blasted through the new sidewalks this week. They killed all the mums I'd bought and planted in my new big tree box, and the hearty pansies too. And despite their assurances that things would be restored to normal, things weren't restored to normal. The gaping holes in the sidewalks were filled in with ASPHALT. Looks great! That's some quality urban planning right there! Replace sidewalks and tarmac first, then immediately destroy all that shit to replace the gas lines.

I love B'more.

netflixed

Now and again I like to slum it with crappy horror flicks. The first installment was sufficiently crappy for me to check out the prequel. Despite the fact that a pool vacuum cleaner is a key part of the story, Paranormal 2 didn't suck. Well, actually it did, but only in the most satisfying ways.

Yeah, it's more of the same--more of the exact same, in fact--but again I found it cute enough to entertain. Turn off your brain, don't pay too much attention to the acting or the peculiar actions of the characters, and enjoy the cheap thrills.

Warning: you will have to wait for the cheap thrills.

Day #86

Have to have The Talk with the 7th grade boys tomorrow. I mean The Talk. You know, sexual harrassment. I heard them saying some very disrespectful things about a paraeducator who helps me out with them in the afternoons. She's perhaps 21, fresh out of college. She's very cute, very sweet, and they treat her like an 8th grade girl. I heard them saying things about her ass and a thong and let's just say I nearly did something which would have got me fired--namely beating up 7th graders who were acting way too grown with an adult female.

So in the morning we're going to have The Talk. I might extend The Talk to include other The Talks, like the Birds and Bees in general, and/or the drugs The Talk. I mean, we have Crew in the mornings to do character-building and to develop relationships, right?

So I'll have The Talks with them. I'm tempted to use the line Mr. Steigelman used on me when I goofed off at Hereford High School: "I know 50 ways to kill a man and nobody would ever know. Do that again and you'll find out." It never worked on me; I remained a jackass until graduation.* But I can still try.

*OK, I admit it: I'm still a jackass.

Book #5

The kind of book you can keep on the back of your toilet for a few months until it's finished. I've read better books about sacred geometry and the intersection of mathematics and various wisdom traditions, but this one is a reasonably erudite intro to the topic. I was hoping for more depth, more sophistication--but that's my bad. Any book which touts itself as an explanation of the math behind the DaVinci Code can't be too advanced. That said, if you're a fan of that stuff you can learn about the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio here.

If you're interested in math and numerology or numerical symbology, you could get a quality overview of such material from Shesso. There are a couple gullible chapters regarding the Priory of Sion hoax, but the rest is ok.

I should note that the book is not geared toward those curious about learning how mystics use math in their contemplation of the divine or mysterious (as I'd hoped): it's actually geared toward practicing magicians who want to use mathematical applications in either spell work or astrology.

Day #84

On Fridays my school closes early to have in-house professional development in the afternoons. On Fridays we alternate between academic days and what are called Crew or Community-Building Fridays. We have school-wide meetings where kids share art or learning, where they dance if they choose, and where we sing the "Quality World" song, and then the 11-student Crews spend the rest of the day with their Crew leaders, working on character, team-building initiatives, academic goals, sharing, playing in the gym--whatever.

Yesterday was a Community-Building Friday and the Phys Ed instructors came up with an awesome Amazing Race rip-off. They provided a City map, a list of clues, and a compass, and each Crew went out into Southwest B'more with a list of tasks: we had to find a bunch of vaguely described sites, answer some questions, and take a photo at each one. We had to cover about 3 miles and get back to school in under 2 hours.

I was along with my Crew but didn't really do much to help them out. The goal is for them to figure out who is good at what job and to work together to finish the mission. This isn't easy with our 7th grade boys, who get into conflicts over the stupidest things, who whine and complain continuously about every activity before starting it and then finding out its fun. So appealing to their competitiveness (something we usually frown upon in hippie charter schools) was a last resort.

And it worked. We finished all questions, we visited all seven sites, and we got back just before noon. I think my Crew returned to the building in fourth place, but some of the Crews ahead of us chose not to visit all 7 sites, hoping to score early return bonuses instead. We may move up a bit.

We saw the B&O Museum, the Babe Ruth house, Cal Ripken's number at Camden Yards, the Dentistry Museum, the Hippodrome, Poe's Grave, and the Irish Shrine and Museum. The kids were hilarious at Poe's grave: "Is he really in there?" "Where dat man who leaves flowers 'n shit?" "I'm scared to be here." "That's nasty to be buried with your cousin and her mom," etc.

The only problem for me was that after two years without a gout flare-up, I happened to have one the night before this activity. I hobbled my ass around on a painfully crippled big toe all day, but it was worth it. I even ran with the kids when they realized they had a chance to beat another Crew on the way back.

I spent the afternoon yesterday planning with the other Humanities teacher. We're working on an amazing exploration of different myths about the afterlife and Underworld (I call it "Excavating the Underworld") with the goal of finding out why people create stories to explain the unkown. I can't wait!

Now I need to rest, because I am SPENT.

Day #83

On Thursdays I have coach class after school for kids who read below grade level. We're reading the first novel in the Bluford series, Lost and Found, which is not at all literary but it's high-interest and suitable for the basics.

Often these coach classes devolve during discussion into shooting the shit about stuff in the community or in one's family. I think it's fine because this is how the kids make connections to the situations in the book.

Today the kids (there were only six of them) were riffing on "rapists" who hang out in Carroll Park. There are apparently a few old dudes who hover around and ask young girls to walk into the orchard with them. I've seen some suspicious cats over there myself--a couple weeks ago I took my boys to play football in the park on a snowy day, and one of them decided he wanted to play in the playground instead. I kept one eye on him while watching the 7th and 8th graders scrimmage each other, and noted a 50-something white dude who kept lurking around. He eventually ended up within a few feet of the kid alone in the playground area and next thing I knew he was talking to him. I shouted and banged on the fence and he took off at a slow lope across the frozen tundra.

The girls in coach class described guys in vans who drive up and order them to get in, lurkers in the alleys in Pigtown, creeps under the overpass, etc. Sometimes I wonder who is learning more during coach class--the kids or the teacher?

Day #82

Had a long meeting yesterday to discuss plans for the boy in one of my 6th grade classes who is leaving soon for Broadway. He'll be playing (young) Simba in The Lion King, and rehearsals start soon. We're trying to arrange a goodly chunk of language arts work for him to do with his father as instructor while they are on the Great White Way.

We're going to work out the logistics of assessment soon, but we'll likely be emailing work and comments back and forth, and there's some talk of Skype lessons.

The virus I've been fighting for months, and which I thought was finally ditched last week, roared back with a vengeance last night: dry hacking cough, painful throat, weakness, and fever. WTF!?