A Woman With the Misfortune of Knowing Anything

Moving Forward

2012-01-22T08:52:00.001-06:00

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The State of Education

2011-07-26T06:18:00.000-05:00

Update for 2011

2011-03-15T20:09:00.002-05:00

It’s been an unusually long time since I last posted, and I am genuinely sorry about that. I’ve been doing a ton of stuff – here’s a list:

Finding out about law schools – and filling out financial aid forms as a result. I’ll let you know when I make a final decision about where I am going.
Working with the Muslim Public Service Network – I am currently on the board of directors, and am trying to jumpstart the 2011 Summer Program. I am also working on getting MPSN on a solid footing for the long term.
This is all on top of work – which has gotten increasingly busy, but I enjoy that. I was bored before, because they weren’t giving me enough work. Now, with me travelling and monitoring for the School Improvement Grants, as well as working on various other projects, I am busy enough at work that I don’t have to stare at my computer screen wondering how I will fill all the time. (Honestly, they weren’t prepared for efficient workers, I think.)
Last week I was in CA for work and play – I got to visit a couple of school districts and see how they are turning around schools. Then over the weekend, I got to spend time with two of my best friends from college (it was wonderful to see the two of them). I am actually kind of going through withdrawal…
I’ve been training for the Cherry Blossom Run – which is a 10 mile run on April 3. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to do it though; I’ve been dealing with some injuries that may be getting worse as my ankle gets better.

It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s been filling my time, and I am trying to be good at all of them, and keep them up. What that means, unfortunately, is that my reading/blogging/everything else has fallen by the wayside. Ideas for upcoming blog items:

Commentary on current events (so much has been happening, that I have just been overwhelmed with how much I could be talking about);
Reviews of books/articles (I have finally gotten back to reading, and I am almost done with The Help, and I am starting to read the stack of papers/articles on education that I’ve been meaning to read.);
Education blog roll (it’s been a busy time in the news for education, and I think it’s time for me to put up the choice commentary I’ve been reading).

That’s all for now – blogging will become a more regular habit now that life is calming down a little bit and I have less to catch up on.

The Next Chapter

2010-12-06T18:47:00.001-06:00

I have not written in quite some time, because I have not had much to write about and I haven’t had a lot to update about. My life was an endless haze of personal statements, applications, and LSAC.org (as much as I hate that website, it makes applying to law school really easy). I can now say though that I have submitted all but three of my applications! Cross your fingers for me – I hope it all turns out for the best. I am setting my expectations low so I don’t get disappointed. As for my job, things have definitely picked up at ED, if only because of the School Improvement Grants. I am interested to see where this all goes. I hope I can go on some monitoring visits, so I can see some of these turnaround schools. I feel like it might reinvigorate my belief that we can have great public education. On the other hand, the monitoring visit could make me really depressed and hopeless. Let’s hope for the former – I don’t think I can take more disappointing education news.

As for future topics, I am going to try to write more about education policy, but also review some books, movies, and TV shows. All of those things have seriously suffered in my rush to finish all other life activities, but I have started to read some great books (The Passage, Zeitoun) and watching some new TV shows (Parks and Recreation – it’s hilarious!). I’ve started cooking and baking more, because I have more time! I’ll start photo-blogging my adventures in the kitchen, not so much to turn this into a foodie blog, but more just to show people that it doesn’t always turn out and that’s ok. Also, I started writing at this new blog called Policy Mic – my first entry is here. I’ll be writing more for that as well – so be on the lookout for my posts!

That’s all for an update – I’ll keep you all posted and try to write something enlightening in the next few days.

Why is education reform important to me?

2010-11-09T19:37:00.001-06:00

I recently posted that I needed some serious inspiration for my personal statements that I am writing for all the applications I am submitting this year. A friend of mine, who has decided to pursue his passion for Model UN and turn it into a business, shared this post with me. The leading question got me thinking about the title question of this post.

Of all the issues that I have worked on (bioethics, healthcare, women's rights, religious tolerance, religious extremism), why have I chosen to focus in on education? It's really for two reasons:

Education has been crucial to my upbringing. Not only was I provided an excellent education, the importance of education was something that was drilled into me. If I wanted to have a better life, I had to get a good education. If I wanted to make a difference in the world, I had to get a good education. If I wanted to be somebody in society, I had to get a good education. It was my family's answer to a lot of my problems with my life - change it by getting a good education.
More importantly, I see the interconnectedness of education to all the other problems and solutions in society. When I think about all of the problems facing our generation, so much of it has to do with the lack of a quality education. When I think about how we are going to solve these problems, it has to do with providing a quality education.

More on this second reason: one might argue that you can connect anything back to anything, so solving educational inequity is not going to cure all of our other societal maladies, directly or indirectly. I am just exaggerating the importance of education for my own benefit, you could say. However, if you really think about many of the issues dominating the news today, don't you think in your head: if only people knew/could understand? For example, don't you think that racial/ethnic/religious intolerance is rooted in lack of information and true understanding of the facts? What about the financial crisis? Isn't that rooted in people's lack of financial education, which affected their financial decision making? Poverty and violence - sure that has roots in oppression and failed political structures, but don't you think it would be ameliorated if those who have been held back because they were poor or lived in a violent area were given a quality education? Wouldn't that empower them to change not only their own economic circumstances and prevent them from turning to violence, but also empower them as citizens?

Maybe I am crazy that I see educational inequity at the root of all these problems, but my life's experience, which includes two years in the classroom, makes me think that I am perfectly right.

Review of The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch

2010-10-28T16:55:00.002-05:00

I have finally gotten around to reading this book, which has received a lot of praise and publicity in the education world. The author makes an about-face in the book – once a staunch advocate of choice and accountability, she has a realization that these reforms are not working, and makes a passionate case against policies that she once believed in. Ravitch is a well-respected educational historian and an excellent writer. This book was an easy read and she articulated her change of heart well.

I guess you could say that I am on the other side of the debate, but there are some aspects of the whole new reform movement that I am wary of. I am a supporter of accountability, but I don’t think that this movement has to be all about testing. Moreover, I don’t think that it’s wrong to teach to the test – if that test is a well constructed and rigorous assessment of high standards. I am a supporter of including student test results in teacher evaluation, but it should not be the only part in evaluating a teacher. I am a supporter of charter schools, but I don’t believe that charter schools shouldn’t be accountable for their results. I also don’t think that they are the way of the future – rather they are schools where experimental, but promising teaching practices can be used without the hassle of bureaucracy and regulations. And I feel that there are many people on the other side of this debate about public education that have this more nuanced understanding of various reform policies as well.

However, Ravitch argues in her book as if those who advocate for accountability/testing, charter schools, and a re-evaluation of teacher performance ratings are simplistic in their understanding of these policies. While there may be some people who think these are the cure-all, it seems unlikely that the majority of people who believe in them do. These policies are more geared towards making it easier to gain knowledge about how the public school system is working (or not) and making it into a system that is open to innovation. Advocating for these policies does not preclude other substantive reforms to curriculum and standards. I think in many ways, the accountability or “testing” movement has brought to light how much we need reform to curriculum.

Indeed, she spends a lot of the book advocating for common standards in all the subjects, not just reading and math, and an emphasis on knowledge in subjects like history and science. I completely agree with this point, but just because the testing and choice movement hasn’t resulted in these crucial reforms, that doesn’t mean that we need to throw out the movements. Once we agree upon common standards (which is slowly happening – 36 states have already signed on to common reading and math standards), how will we measure whether we are successful at teaching them? Sometimes reform needs to happen in pieces, and as Ravitch acknowledges, trying to come up with content standards is a very divisive and controversial task, so it might be better to tackle other aspects of the system that may not be working.

Overall, while well-written, I thought her understanding of those she is arguing against is too simple, which will not serve her interests in the end.

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 9 - 12

2010-10-16T16:53:00.002-05:00

I finally have time to write my massive (in scope, not length) commentary on the past 4 episodes of Mad Men. It's been a crazy four episodes, that's for sure, and I have heard a lot of speculation about this season finale. I am going to skip recapping the episodes, and just go into my points:

This season has been an interesting one for the women. We've seen a number of professional women, who take different paths and have different approaches to asserting their authority and commanding respect. I am still a big fan of Peggy trying to have it all, even if it seems just hopeless, she seems to be making headway with the journalist. I really like him, and I hope he sticks around in her life. As for Faye, I was excited for her to get together with Don, because it meant that Don finally had someone that was at his level, I've lost respect for her when she caved into Don's demand for help poaching clients. And Joan, well, she just makes me sad with her husband off in Vietnam and Roger acting like a complete ass when she told him she was pregnant. I am wondering how she will survive all of this tumult at the office, especially since I think she kept the baby.
Every time we think Don is going to change, he goes and does another dumb thing - this time sleeping with Megan. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I always watch the show hoping that Don (as well as other characters) will change. But the show is a lot about the predictability of unpredictable characters. Jon Hamm manages to portray Don as an insightful man who you always hope will actually act on some of his wisdom, but he never does.
I have loved the Don and Peggy dynamic since "The Suitcase" - he really respects her, sees her as an equal in the workplace. He takes her advice about changing the conversation about the firm and even looks for her approval when he writes the letter to the NYTimes.
I also like that Don and Pete are getting each other's backs - both with the background check and fronting the money for the firm. While neither activity is purely altruistic, it shows a level of camaraderie that isn't often found this show that paints a rather bleak picture of human relations.
I have kept the fact that Don told Faye about his true identity in the back of my mind. I feel like that is going to come up - and I wonder if it is going to be with Faye using it to her advantage. I feel like the woman might have a bitter/malicious streak somewhere, tracing back to her mafia dad.
I actually thought Don's letter to the NYTimes was brilliant idea. He may not know the how much tobacco and smoking will fall in the next few years, but he knows that the tide is turning against tobacco, and that tobacco will be unable to change for the better (because it can't). Now, I don't think it was fair of him not to include the partners (like Cooper said), but at the end of the day, Don had to do it solo, or else it wouldn't have been as brilliant of a letter. I am thinking that this letter will actually bring in better, more lucrative business than tobacco ever was, and the other firms are going to be trying to wash their hands of tobacco as the health effects campaign starts up again.

That's all for now! Can't wait for the season finale, but the withdrawal of not having my Sunday night Mad Men fix will be a very sad sight indeed.

I know I am late...

2010-10-03T17:04:00.001-05:00

...with my Mad Men posts, but I will have a super commentary after this week, when I will officially be done with the LSAT. Wish me luck!

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 8 - "The Summer Man"

2010-09-20T17:46:00.003-05:00

I am a little late with my episodes - I didn't get to watch this episode until last Friday night. I am about to watch Episode 9, but I figured I would write my thoughts on this episode first. While it definitely wasn't as good as "The Suitcase", featuring Peggy and Don (I mean, that was a hard episode to follow up on), I still really liked this episode. Unlike some commentators, I liked the voice over from Don - we rarely get to hear his thoughts, and I liked this as a one-time occasion. We now see that Don understands how far he has fallen and how much he needs to do to recover. He sleeps alone, cuts back on his drinking, and is less of a mess in general at work. I hope this trend continues, and that means that we see some awesome campaigns on the way. BTW - Don, I want to go anywhere in Africa too!

Don is very much in contrast with Betty, who has not matured at all. She's still insipid and "misbehaves" like a little kid. Some might have seen her gesture where she hands Baby Gene over to Don as a sign of her maturity, but the look of longing she has afterwards shows two things for me: she isn't over Don and she's bothered by Don's happiness/calmness without her. The other contrast was between Bethany and Faye. I can't help but root for Don and Faye to get together, because Bethany reminds me so much of Betty (I mean their names even start with the same sound, for Pete's sake).

The secondary story line between Joan and Peggy was interesting. When I was watching the actors' commentary about it, Elizabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks seem to think that Joan really tells Peggy what's what and shows her how the world works in the elevator scene. I didn't interpret it that way. Rather, I saw it as Joan constantly falling back on her old-fashioned manipulation and Peggy asserting her power. It's true that they can always draw another cartoon, as Joan said, but now they know that Peggy will fire them, and maybe they'll think twice. If Joan had gotten her way, it would have looked like Joey got a break, rather than a punishment for his crude behavior. While Joey was a dick, I really like Matt Long, so I am sad to see him go.

Ok - those are my thoughts for now...off to watch the next episode.

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 7 - "The Suitcase"

2010-09-11T20:23:00.003-05:00

I am little burnt out from a long week and a long Saturday in class, so my remarks on this episode are going to be general with a few questions sprinkled in. First of all, this episode was AMAZING. It's in the running for best episode of Mad Men in all the seasons thus far. I think I personally loved the episode so much, because the platonic relationship between Don and Peggy is validated in this episode, and that it shows that not every interaction between men and women on this show needs to be laden with sexual tension or condescension. This makes it more realistic - and relatable to those of us who have those strictly platonic relationships. Don and Peggy's relationship is based in respect and love. This episode illustrated perfectly one of my favorite quotes - "There are as many kinds of love as there are moments in time." They're relationship is not romantic or familial, or even friendly. It's different than all of those and that doesn't mean that it's shallow either. In this one episode, they do stupid things to each other, challenge each other, laugh together, defend one another, praise each other, really talk to one another, show tenderness and take care of each other. They even sleep together, but in a very chaste manner.

What I am wondering about are:

Will Don ever tell Peggy the whole truth? And will that make Peggy the new Anna? Is that what Anna's ghost was smiling about?
When will I get to see a full ad campaign and it be awesome?
What's going on with Betty, Sally and the therapist?
Did you all want to smack Trudy when she said that "26 is really not that old" to Peggy?
Did anyone else see the nervous look on Pete's face when he saw Trudy and Peggy walk out of the bathroom together?
Sterling and Mrs. Blankenship? Cooper and Mrs. Blankenship? Does anyone else really want to read Roger's book after that?

Looking forward to tomorrow's episode!

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 6 - "Waldorf Stories"

2010-09-06T08:43:00.003-05:00

I am sorry that this post is so late, and that it is coming after episode 7 has already aired. All the usual excuses - work, friends, etc. is distracting me. But today is Labor Day and I have some extra time, and I have NOT seen the next episode, though I immediately want to, because I have heard wonderful things about it.

As for "Waldorf Stories", this was the best episode of Mad Men this season (again, I have not seen the next one, so this could change). Throughout this season, I've spoken about Don's decline, both in his personal and his professional. At the beginning of this episode, we see that he's at the peak, winning the Clio award for his GloCoat commercial. As the episode progress though, we see that his drinking is affecting both his work and family life. He pitches someone else's terrible slogan to Life cereal (and then has to hire the terrible guy who came up with it). Did anyone else notice his rehashing of the nostalgia pitch from the 1st season? However, this time, it wasn't nearly as eloquent or moving - very obvious proof of how far he has fallen. Then he drinks so much that he skeezily hits on Dr. Miller (and subsequently gets turned down), and beds two different women, one of whom he doesn't remember even meeting. He was so drunk, he introduced himself as Dick. AND, he forgets to pick up his children. Oh Don, when are things going to start looking up for you? Is he going to have a Freddy Rumsen style intervention?

The side story is how Roger Sterling met Don Draper. Roger is working on his memoirs, instead of doing real work for the company, and he is trying to come up with memories of his adult life. As Don is receiving many accolades, Roger feels left out and jealous, because he feels that he found Don Draper. However, it turns out that he may not have even hired him. He had one of his blackouts, the kind that Don is having now, and Don insists that he hired him at the time. I am inclined to believe that Don weaseled his way in - it makes so much more sense about why Roger is hesitant about writing about his work experience. In actuality, I think Roger is someone who rested on his father's laurels - all the accounts he managed were accounts his father hooked in. And his greatest accomplishment, hiring Don Draper, it turns out is probably a fraud.

Ok - well, that's all for now. I'll write sooner about this week's episode. Now, I am going to watch it!

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 5 - "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword."

2010-08-29T11:06:00.004-05:00

The title of the episode comes from this book, which is featured prominently in the storyline, though I wonder if we were to read it, what insights it might give us into the characters of Mad Men. Apparently, the book "popularized distinctions between shame and guilt cultures". Isn't that what Mad Men is built on? Or is it a denial culture?

Well, this was a classic Mad Men episode - I loved it. Here are a few of my thoughts:

I am still torn about Roger's inability to work with the Japanese business men. My modern sensibilities would consider him racist and that it happened a long time ago, and he needs to get over it. But as someone who has not served in the military, I cannot even begin to understand how something as terrible as war gets erased from someone's memory. When you are fighting an enemy, killing them, you can't see them as human beings. It would make what you did during the war seem wrong. So, in many ways, Roger's reaction seems to me a way of him coping. If he deals with these Honda executives as businessmen, they are just like him, with friends and family who were lost in the war, and it would suddenly feel like they didn't deserve being killed anymore than his buddies did.
Pete really steps up in this episode and shows his true colors. See, I've never really liked Pete's character (though I love the dynamic the character brings to the show), but he does a couple of things that I respected. First, I think it's great that he's bring new business into the firm - it's what they need to stay afloat, and I think he's proving that he was the right person to bring on board. They don't know how successful Japanese cars will be, but Pete has always looked forward in terms of what new markets are popping up (like Don said in the season finale of Season 3). And he does this irrespective to race or ethnicity - he recognizes that money is money and it doesn't matter who its from. Now, that's not exactly why I want everyone to be tolerant, but it's a step in the right direction. Second, it seems that Pete's business sense is leaking into his moral world view. As they are looking at the Times report about events in the civil rights movement, Bert Cooper asks, "The Civil Rights Act got passed. What more do they want?" And Pete responds, "They are upset because Lassie can go to the Waldorf-Astoria, but they can't." Who expected such logic from the greasiest character on the show? Maybe becoming a father is changing him...
Betty is back! And what a return...I guess her relationship with Henry isn't falling apart, as I had hoped, but I wonder for how long Henry is going to father her and teach her how to be a good parent, before he's fed up with it all. This episode shows how juvenile and repressed she really is. She punishes Sally for the stupidest thing (cutting her hair), and then is only mortified about Sally "playing with herself" because of her own reputation. I really feel bad for Sally and honestly, as bad as Don is, I think he would be the better parent to Sally than Betty. Thank God that Henry is there to temper Betty and talk sense in to her. As for Sally going to therapy (and Betty going once a week as well), there has been a lot of talk that this will reveal that Sally was molested by her grandfather (and so was Betty), but I think that would be a little too obvious. I mean, Sally's not a sexual deviant because she's masturbating (and it wasn't in public, at least not from what I could tell). I think she's just going to explain what freaks her parents are to the therapist. I think this will be an interesting storyline though and I want to see where it goes.
So Dr. Faye's ring is a fake! HA! Her and Don are totally going to get together. And what will that mean? I mean she's the kind of person Don has an affair with (because she's smart and acts like an adult), but yet, she's a blond bombshell, who are the kind of women that Don marries. If they get together, I think it will be good for Don.
Ok - so his personal life is a mess, but Don got his stuff together when tricking the other ad agency. While I was sad that we didn't get to see an ad campaign, it was nice to see Don doing what he does best: being creative. He's exactly what Smitty says, "He's just brilliant." I liked him so much more in this episode, just because he took control of something in his life finally.

That's all for now - can't wait for tonight's episode!

P.S: Did anyone else notice the string of actors from Jack and Bobby? There's Matt Long (Jack), the receptionist (Courtney) and the mother who catches Sally (one of the graduate students in the show). Weird...

Recognizing Importance vs. Being Important

2010-08-20T17:18:00.003-05:00

Today marks the end of my first week at my new job. It hasn't been too bad...scratch that - it hasn't been too hard. Unlike my first week of teaching, where I was completely drained and the prospect of planning for another week was daunting, I am completely ready for this weekend (one that will be filled with studying, no doubt). I believe the 9-5 life is good for me...

On the other hand, the tediousness of it all is spiritually draining. See - when I was teaching, the job was done in the direct service of 30 students I saw and connected with everyday. While I am still helping students in my job at the Department of Education, I never see the children I am helping. Rather, I stare at spreadsheets and legislative regulations - trying to make sure that each state is compliant with that formula thingy...you get the picture, right?

It actually hit me while I was in this meeting where 7 people were trying to figure out a particular calculation made with grant money. Now, I recognize its importance - calculate incorrectly and suddenly the state has a million dollars less to deal with and a few hundred thousand children get a crappier, poorer education. But this is how grand ideas play out - in a room filed with bureaucrats who have been left with the unenviable task of implementing a visionary, yet unwieldy piece of legislation.

It felt so unimportant, mostly because, even though what were all doing collectively was important - it wasn't grand. It was miniscule - I mean, we were dealing with tenths of a percent, but yet, it had a large impact on children in a state far away from here. I wasn't particularly important to the task at hand (and no one was - everyone needed to be there), and so it didn't feel important. Moreover, the fact that what was outlined in such sweeping language by our president was being minced up, into the fine details that important thinkers don't worry about, made it feel even less important.

I suppose this will be a very grounding experience for my pie in the sky ideas.

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 4 - "The Rejected"

2010-08-19T17:06:00.004-05:00

A very apt title for an episode filled with rejection...

Here are my thoughts:

Pete is going to be a father...for the second time! I am genuinely happy for Pete and his wife, though I am unsure of how Peggy and Pete are going to handle all of this going forward. Peggy's reaction was appropriate, given that she once told Pete that giving their child away was like giving away a part of herself that she can never get back (season 2 finale). Pete will now enjoy something she won't get...at least not with his child.
Allison - way to stick it to Don! He has been a complete mess this season, and she's the first to acknowledge it. His drinking, his lack of focus and his emotional vacuum. I can't believe that she chucked something at him, but now Don can deal with Ms. Blankenship. And good job Joan, on reading the situation so well, and giving Don a secretarial keeper.
When are Don and Dr. Miller going to hook up? The tension between them is ridiculous. Moreover, I thought the focus group, with its secrets revealed and crying, was not academic or research based. It was hackery - and I agree with Don that the matrimonial ad idea is completely old fashioned. (And apparently, something that Ponds already did in the 1940s.)
Loved Peggy's foray into Bohemia - with its subversive religious art and lesbians. I hope the "real" writer comes back; I am sick of "Swedish way of love" guy. I think this is the point where Mad Men starts looking more like the 1960s we know, and less like the 1950s.
Another episode with no Betty! What is up with her? I am mostly interested to see how her sham of a relationship is failing. She'll probably be present in the next episode.

Other points:

Props to John Slattery for a well directed episode!
Speculation about whether Dr. Miller is married - what do you think? And what about Peggy trying on her ring? My thoughts are: Miller needs to get with Don, so she can't be married; it's just a ruse. And Peggy, well she is just showing some regrets, but nothing that will keep her from her career.

More next week!

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 3 - "The Good News"

2010-08-16T15:53:00.006-05:00

Again - a very heavy episode, with a lot of things going on! Because I was delayed in writing this out, so much so, that the next episode has aired, I will keep these remarks brief.

-This is the first episode where Don wasn't a complete and utter jerk. However, it doesn't seem like his life is going to come together anytime soon. Rather, his only real confidant in the world is terminally ill and he can't even tell her. The theme of Don and his messy life continues.

- Unlike some of the commentators at Slate (if you don't read it, you should definitely check it out), I like Don's trips to California to visit Anna Draper. Not only is it interesting to see Don in a female relationship where he isn't trying to get in the woman's pants, I like the fact that we get to see and call him Dick Whitman. That is his real name after all, and the mystery he carries around with him in Manhattan is gone. In short: when Don is in CA, he's "got to keep it real."

- Joan and Lane Pryce interaction is hilarious, but shows how much of a goody two-shoes Lane really is, in comparison to all the other male employees at SCDP. It also makes his night on the town with Don even more of a fall from grace. The question now is whether he will continue this behavior, and start to loosen up a bit, or if he will go right back to his tight-laced ways.

Ok, like I said before, keeping these remarks brief. I now have to go watch last night's episode on iTunes! I will definitely post my remarks on that episode in the next few days.

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 2 - "Christmas Comes But Once A Year"

2010-08-09T08:52:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the delay on his post - I have been busy setting up my place in DC. It's all done, so I will be able to post more regularly. There was so much to talk about in this episode...I probably won't touch on everything that came to mind, but here I go…

First few minutes: Glen is back, with his usual creepiness...and with sage advice for Sally, who is in the same boat as him now. What do you think is the big thing Sally will ask for before Betty and Henry have that baby that Glen warned her about? Maybe a new house...

The Christmas tree scene plus the following one where Allison is reading the Santa letter to Don are absolutely heartbreaking. She's buying a Christmas tree with a new stepfather, when all she wants is her father to come by and spend Christmas with them. Allison rightly chokes up; however, this may have softened her up a little too much for the later indiscretion between her and Don.

Freddy Rumsen is back; that's 2 characters! I hope they bring back some of the other characters from the old Sterling Cooper office. Freddy looks well and sober - and landing accounts like Ponds Cold Cream (I still remember my mom using that when I was little) through a "fraternity" called Alcoholics Anonymous. No one seems to understand though - is it just me or does everyone miss this in the office. They pour him drinks to celebrate his return and give him weird looks when he refuses. After a bender the Ponds Cold Cream rep has a crazy boozy time with Roger, Freddy has to run off and help this poor guy who has probably just broken 16 months of sobriety, and Peggy is clueless as to what's happening. I understand that attitudes towards alcohol and alcoholism were a lot more liberal back then, but were people really that insensitive to recovering alcoholics? I mean, it's not exactly the first time any of them had encountered it.

More on Freddy and Peggy: I like how Peggy is more confident and sure of herself. I see this when she realizes that Freddy is a hack, and not very good at what he does, or at least not as good as her. And she has the guts to call him out on it. Maybe she was being mean, but Freddy needs to know that if he's going to get a job at SCDP, he can't depend on other people's work as he did at the old SC office. They don't have enough staff to cover for him when he can't pull his weight.

Speaking of SCDP and not enough staff, it seems that things are really tight in the office. A non-existent Christmas party, Don typing for himself and paying for bonuses out of his own pocket - that's pretty bad. And then Lucky Strikes exec comes by and probably eliminated their Q4 profits with his demands. I've hated that character ever since he got Sal fired, and his "I want it now" mentality shows just how immature and ridiculous he is. Just to contrast him to his father, who we meet in the pilot episode, it is clear that he doesn't remember what it's like to build a business from the ground up and loyalty. I cringed when I saw how low Roger Sterling had to go to please this man; I really hope they get some more clients ASAP.

Don is absolutely pathetic in this episode, with his constant drinking and hitting on random women who take the time to take care of his pathetic self. I understand that this is a hard time for him, but I have a feeling that all this hard drinking during the holidays might lead to a drinking problem for himself. Moreover, he crossed a line in this episode that we've never seen him cross before: he slept with someone from work. Not just anybody, but his own secretary. We'll see if things get better for Don, but like I predicted from the first episode, he is out of order, and he is making poor decisions all around.

That's all I have time for now. There's so much more in this episode to talk about, but I have to go watch last night's episode, so I don't get too behind. Blog post on that later!

Comments on Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 1 - "Public Relations"

2010-07-29T20:23:00.005-05:00

For those who know me, they know that Mad Men is somewhat of an obsession. If you are a TV junkie, you have to love this show. Beautiful sets and costumes, wonderful script, excellent direction, and amazing characters and plots - there's always something to admire or talk about with this show. Given that I love it so much (and that I know longer have my CTA crew to discuss it with on Monday mornings!), I have decided to have weekly posts with my observations about the episode.

So I have had the chance to watch the episode a few times (honestly, there isn't a lot on television right now, so this is pretty much the only show I am watching), and here are my thoughts:

What?!? Roger Sterling is writing a book? Is it a response to this book, which Roger grumbled is "a book that everyone writes...it should be called A Thousand Reasons I'm So Great." (Season 3, Episode 7: "Three Blind Mice") What would Roger's book be about? I hope the show's writers follow up on this.
I've always liked the fact that Matthew Weiner decides to fast forward between seasons. In keeping with the always pleasant facade of the show, we don't see all the hard work that goes into moving from a hotel room to the TimeLife Building. Instead, we see the beautiful, open, and modern office, and it looks like SCDP has made it. But wait for it...
They have trouble keeping clients, with Lucky Strike being the majority of their business. And it doesn't help that Don keeps kicking people out of his office when they don't like his ideas. What he wants to say to Betty (who is still living in Don's house with Henry Francis), he ends up saying to the Jantzen executives. It's a sign to me that Don is blurring his personal life and his work life - something that hasn't happened before. This does not bode well for Don...
Speaking of Don's personal life...it's a drag, right? His house is dark and dank. He doesn't eat properly. He gets slapped by a prostitute when he should be eating a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and watching football (did they have that tradition back then?). It's interesting to get this perspective after we see how much he doesn't want to talk about himself to the Advertising Age reporter. I mean, who would want to talk about that life.
Let's talk about Henry and Betty. What a ridiculous charade...this relationship is going to become an even bigger disaster than Betty and Don. Henry's mother, while not exactly winner of Best Mother Ever award, hit the nail on the head. Betty is a silly woman, a terrible mother, and this relationship is not going to last. Moreover, Betty has not had to deal with in-laws (both Don's parents are dead), and I would love to see how she handles this bull of a woman.
Can't wait to see more of Joan, Peggy, Peter, and Joey (I love Matt Long). Because the firm is so small, it lacks a real hierarchy, and that seems to benefit the women in the office. Peggy seems more confident, less scared of Don, and more willing to speak her mind...and a cute subordinate to boss around. Joan, who has always been confident, has finally been given her own office to show her importance to the firm. Some things are changing for the better.
Loved the last scene in the episode (the music was perfect), and I like that Don, who normally thinks it's safer to let other people construct their understanding of him, is taking more control of his (and by extension, the fledgling firm) image.

Overall, a great way to start the season, and as always, I am looking forward to see how it all turns out.

Reflections on my Teach For America Experience

2010-07-29T17:24:00.006-05:00

UPDATE: I will return to posting frequently again. I have been busy moving from Chicago to DC - I will be working at the Department of Education. This summer has been filled with packing, boxes, moving quotes, and a little bit of LSAT studying on the side. In honor of embarking on a new chapter in my life, I've decided to redesign my blog. What do you all think? Comments please!

This is a letter that I wrote to my principal, in which I reflected on my experience with TFA and UNO Charter Schools:

As my two years with Teach For America come to a close, there are conclusions I have come to that are worth reflecting on. I am writing this letter, because I feel I have made some astute observations over the two years that I should share. Let me begin with my vision and goals for my students this year. I began the year with a goal that my class would average 2 years of growth on both reading and math as measured by the NWEA. My class last year had 2.2 years of growth in reading and 1.4 years of growth in math. I felt that with a bigger push this year and my growing competence as a teacher, my 2 year growth goal was ambitious, but feasible. Moreover, I knew that the average reading and math grade level of a student in my incoming class would be at the beginning of 4^th grade. Two years of growth would close the gap that many of these students were facing. Why did I want this kind of growth for my students? It was not because it would look good to those above me. Rather, it was because I wanted to put my students on a different life trajectory than the one predicted by their ethnicity, neighborhood or socioeconomic class. Even if my effort wasn’t that grand or life altering, at least it would be a nudge in the right direction. It got me to work early every morning and kept me up late at night, constantly trying to help my students achieve this goal, and hopefully, helping them defy the statistics.
Unfortunately, I have realized that not everyone shares in that broader vision – for these people, there is no big picture behind the numbers that are constantly being used to judge teacher performance. However, if there is anything that I have learned about data-driven instruction, it is that it is only effective when the passion for the growth and development of the whole child is behind it. For me, every data-based weakness or strength was analyzed in the context of the whole child, their life and interests. I understand that this may be more difficult when one is looking at data for 600 or 3000 students. Yet, I often felt that the vision that was supposed to be made clearer with the numbers, faded into the background, until it no longer mattered. I have always been invested in data-driven instruction, because I have always kept the qualitative in mind. That is not always going to be the case with your faculty, and instead of chastising them, one should always give them a reason to work effectively for their students. PowerPoint presentations about the numbers aren’t very rousing.

So, how have my students done? I am happy to say that my students made an average of 2 years of growth in reading as measured by the NWEA. Reading instruction has been my strength and the focus of my professional development as a teacher. Moreover, reading and language arts are the weakest aspect of our students’ educational background. With that growth, I have seen my students’ perspectives broadened and understanding deepened. At the beginning of the year, most of my students wouldn’t want to touch a newspaper. Now, with most of them at the reading level of major newspapers, my students gladly read the news and share stories that they’ve read in the morning. Where my students were unable to analyze something they’ve read and formulate their own opinions, the vast majority of my students can read, analyze, and support their opinions with evidence from a text. My students now read a greater variety of texts and are learning more from their reading than ever before, which is ultimately why we want our students to read. The test scores are affirming and provide an easily analyzed view of my students, but it is when I see the above differences in my students that I KNOW they are learning.

In math, my students grew an average of 1.6 years. While this is short of my 2 year growth goal, it is higher than last year’s growth. I believe my math instruction has improved. This year’s students have benefited from the trial and error I imposed on my students last year, trying to understand and best implement a scripted curriculum. However, my math instruction was not as differentiated as my reading, which was the key to my students’ academic success there. I needed to have leveled math groups that met the students where they are and filled in gaps in their knowledge before we covered a more difficult math skill. Meeting with math groups such as these would probably take a 2 hour math block, as we have in reading. I have spoken to my director about this before, but this is definitely something to think about when re-structuring the school day in the future. Math teaches such crucial skills that I feel my students miss, like critical thinking, problem solving, and logic, and can’t be taught in a 50 minute block. Furthermore, emphasis needs to be placed on math instruction. I fell into the trap of prioritizing reading over math, and my students’ growth reflects that. Reading is very important, but so is math. It is math (and science) that will help our students become global citizens and innovative members of society.

On the other hand, there are successes that are not shown by the numbers. Eight of my students who came into 5^th grade without knowing their multiplication facts at all will walk away having mastered them. Four of my students who struggled with one step word problems will enter 6^th grade being able to do multi-step word problems with ease. Ten of my students who could not identify the place value of a digit, have not only memorized the place value of digits within a number, but also have a deeper conceptual understanding of place value that will help them as the numbers get larger and larger in math. The growing confidence I see in my students when tackling new math skills is amazing and tells me that what growth has been made will last for a lifetime. I wish these successes were celebrated more often, because they make the bigger goal more visible, more achievable.

Looking back at my two years, I am most proud of two things: 1) how much my students have learned and changed as people and the role I played in that, and 2) my ability to always invest my students in the broader vision. Not only have my students learned a great deal over the past two years, I truly believe that my students have become more intellectual and mature. It may just be the process of growing up, but I like to believe that a little of me has rubbed off. I also feel like my students see their own goals, their own visions of their future life, a little more clearly, because of the hard work they’ve done. They are invested now - I just hope that they don’t lose sight of it all as they move to the next grade.

This is where the leadership and school culture come into play. As I see my students from last year come to grips with the ups and downs of adolescence, I get depressed thinking about how much my students have lost in the year that they were away from me. I have heard the whispers in the hallway, blaming it on the teachers. Yet, I know that much of it comes from the inconsistency within my school’s culture and a lack of investment on the part of the teachers and students in a greater mission. I recently attended a TFA alumni summit, where one of the panelists said that the education of a child is an organizational effort – a modern spin on “it takes a village to raise a child.” She said that high quality leadership is crucial to setting up a culture of achievement within a school (and its network), motivating staff and students toward the goal of academic success. This resonated with me deeply, because I see the negative effects of poor culture, investment and leadership.

At the end of your corps experience, TFA asks you how you feel you have changed after being a corps member and what role you see yourself playing in ending educational inequity. For me, the two answers are intertwined and have been greatly influenced by my experience at UNO. Prior to my time as a corps member, educational inequity has always been seen from two lenses – as a student, who started her educational career in the Chicago Public Schools, and as a policy analyst, who saw the greater implications behind the achievement gap. When I was a student, I did not understand the obstacles my peers and I faced. I knew that my school and teachers weren’t always the best, but I had no idea how much it could affect everyone and everything around me. As I grew older, and the achievement gap became an academic interest of mine, educational inequity was a series of facts that were holding the U.S. back from global leadership. As a teacher, the “on-the-battlefield” experience has revolutionized my perspective on the achievement gap, both personalizing and expanding it. I have seen first-hand how it impacts schools and communities and creates an unending cycle of poverty and oppression, while at the same time, I see the individual impact and lost potential of every student who receives a sub-par education. At the risk of sounding cliché, my two year experience, while short, has made a lasting impression on me, one that has definitely committed me to the mission of closing the achievement gap.

What role did my school placement play in this experience and commitment? While this reality will be harsh for many in the leadership to hear, UNO Charter Schools provided me with a dysfunctional model of charter schools – essentially charter schools gone wrong. The climate towards charter schools is warming, but it is important to remember that they don’t always work. It’s like what I learned at one of those many professional development days: it’s as important to learn the non-example as it is to learn the example when trying to master a concept. I am a believer in charter schools and their ability to innovate in an educational system that sometimes remains resistant to change, but my two year experience has taught me that we should always hold charter schools accountable to the same standards, if not higher.

What has the non-example taught me? First, every school, and certainly every charter school, should have a larger vision that influences every decision that is made. If that vision is not there, decisions are made without guidance, evidence, and on people’s whims. This leads to disorganization and decisions based on keeping up appearances rather than what’s best for the kids. Second, everyone has to be in it for the kids. If the leadership of a charter school is in it just for a paycheck or for personal glory, you won’t work as hard and your decisions will be flawed. A school should always look out for its students, first and foremost. All decisions should be made with the students’ interests in mind. Third, don’t try to do everything all at once. The director and founder of Amandla Charter School once said to me, “We learned that it was better to do 10 things 100% right, then do 30 things 75% right.” It is the complete opposite at UNO – ideas, projects, plans are put into motion without any well thought out planning or follow through, and it ends up being a shoddy product. Fourth, recruit and retain excellent faculty. I have found that the main difference between many charter schools and the local public schools were the staff. The staff was dedicated, hard working, and bright – and the leadership does whatever they can to keep these dedicated teachers in their school. By contrast, UNO is a teacher turnover machine, where a lot of potential and talent is lost, because they are not provided the support and tools necessary for success.

Not only will I take these lessons with me to hopefully open my own charter school, my real hope is that my observations are taken to heart with an eye on improving the schools that I have worked for the past two years. As many problems as I have had with my experience at UNO, I still care for the students and the families I have had the pleasure of working with and I am invested in their success. I want to see my students’ lives change, not just because they were in my classroom and I have personal investment, but because I want to see a system that is working for them and helping them achieve their goals.

Lessons from Chicago Alumni Summit

2010-05-08T21:05:00.007-05:00

Today, I had the pleasure of attending the Chicago Alumni Summit for Teach For America. It was a well-organized event, and I definitely felt re-energized in my work towards closing the achievement gap. I still have future issues to work out, but I am at least confident in the work that I am doing in the classroom, which I wasn’t feeling due to low morale at my school.

Here are some of the meaningful messages that I took away from today’s summit:

In the schools and districts that service our highest need students, there is a dearth of good leadership. One of the panelists from the opening session said that we need leaders that recognize that the education of a child is an organizational effort, not the job of a few talented individuals working within the classroom. This resonated with me, because I felt like my work is constantly hampered and set back by lack of or bad leadership.
We need a coherent state and federal policy. This does not mean that we lose local control, but rather in order to stay competitive globally, we must have strong centralized accountability.
We really need to examine what we mean by student outcomes – is it just standardized test scores? If so, what is the bar for these standards? The ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Test) has woefully low standards for what children should be able to complete at each grade level. This goes back to having strong centralized accountability.
Teacher evaluation and professional development needs to be drastically improved. The president of the Illinois Education Association said that too many teachers struggle alone, with little to no professional development and thus no growth. This is unacceptable.
In the “Rabble Rousers” policy and advocacy panel, one of the panelists gave excellent advice on what good advocacy looks like. Good advocacy assumes that everyone has some kind of positive motivation and it takes what motivates the people you are trying to sway and show them how it works for your issue. Simple, but almost so simple that people forget it.
Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and current superintendent of the Recovery District in New Orleans, spoke in our closing session. What struck me about what he is doing in his school district is how best practices are promoted and standardized across it – I wondered why CPS has not been able to do the same. Apart from the fact that Chicago politics can sometimes be detrimental to and hold up innovation within Chicago education, he brought up an idea that I think scares many people. That idea is that sometimes before we reconstruct something, we must deconstruct it. Without bringing Derrida into this conversation, he made logical and practical suggestions on how one would go about this within a school district, using Detroit as an example. The idea that sometimes we need to start with a clean slate is not an acceptable position in education, yet seems perfectly reasonable in other places.
Vallas also gave sound advice about how to lead a revolution. Rhetoric is important, and we don’t always have to be in people’s faces, particularly blaming certain interests who could be powerful allies in our movement for educational equity. Building coalitions is, and always will be, more impactful than alienating groups.

Those were just a few of the lessons I learned in today’s summit – they were the most though-provoking for me, and worth considering, regardless of how you may feel about the ideas initially.

5 Tips for Good School Leadership

2010-05-01T19:43:00.001-05:00

Having such a dearth of good school leaders at my own school, I have found myself reading a lot about what it takes to lead a school and be excellent at it. While I have no idea whether school leadership is in my future (I attended a session at today’s TFA professional development day which was all about how to start a charter school, and it sounded extremely hard, but also very rewarding), I feel like I need to keep up to date on all of the latest and best developments in educational leadership…just in case.

Here is what I’ve learned in my readings and observations (of good and bad leadership):

You need to have a clear vision – my school does not have a clear vision of what outcome it would like. Everyone seems to have ideas on what they would like the school to look like, but not what it will accomplish. This leads to tons of disorganization and bad decisions.
Be in it for the kids – if you are in it just for a paycheck or for personal glory, you won’t work as hard and your decisions will be flawed. A school should always look out for its students, first and foremost. All decisions should be made with the students’ interests in mind.
Don’t try to do everything all at once – today at my session, the director and founder of this charter school said, “We learned that it was better to do 10 things 100% right, then do 30 things 75% right.” It is the complete opposite at my school – ideas, projects, plans are put into motion without any well thought out planning or follow through, and it ends up being a crappy product.
Recruit and retain excellent faculty – today’s session leader said that the main difference between their charter school and the local public schools were the staff – her staff was dedicated, hard working, and bright – and she wanted to do anything she could to keep them there. This is a foreign concept at my school where the attitude is “If you don’t like it here, leave.”

These are my 5 main tips that I feel, if followed in spirit, would improve my dysfunctional school as well as others. What do I mean by “in spirit”? Every one of these tips come back to one thing: if you are trying to improve students’ lives and really put them on a different life track than the one that poverty and discrimination has placed them on, you would make every decision with that in mind. I think it would be hard to go wrong with that intention.

On Good Writing

2010-04-25T16:37:00.002-05:00

Again, as I do with many of my posts, I need to apologize for how long its taken me to write another post. I have all the same excuses, this time, it's that my job is killing me and that my life and insight has been very small lately. However, I have been a voracious reader lately, ever since I stopped studying for those damn LSATs, and I realized something.

I've been reading a lot of....well...everything. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, new books trying to become classics, newspapers and magazines. Almost all of it has been quality writing, particularly the books by critically acclaimed authors (I just finished Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road). The books that haven't been amazing writing were some of the children/young adult literature that I've been reading, to keep up on my book recommendations to my students. Don't get me wrong - some of that literature has been very well written, but many of them have not. The success of those books rely on the stories.

Yet, I have found myself enjoying the children's literature more than these seemingly well-written novels by very accomplished and talented writers. What's the deal? And here is my realization - these authors have adjectives, figurative language, complex sentence structure down - they are masters at it. Their characters are witty and pretty well-developed. Their prose is...well...awesome.

But their stories...they suck. I can't tell you how many times I have found myself in the middle of a great description of the bead of sweat running down some character's face, but then think to myself, "What is the point of this?" or "What's happened in this story?". The stories are not memorable; the plots are boring/slow paced. They spend so much time describing the smallest details in a scene that the story, the whole point of the book, gets lost.

It's ironic really; people have become such good writers that they've lost the skill of storytelling. That's not true of children's or young adult literature - if it doesn't have a good story, kids won't read the book. Sure, the Harry Potter books aren't the best writing, but they make a damn good story - don't you think? What I am looking for now is the adult version of J.K. Rowling - an author who really works on the plot of their novel, rather than the wittiness of their writing. Any suggestions?

Education BlogRoll - 4/3/2010

2010-04-03T11:41:00.003-05:00

Update: I haven't posted in a while about my life or thoughts - time and effort have been lacking in my life right now. Just finished up Spring Break in NYC and had an interview with Achievement First. Got fired up about a Rethinking Schools article about TFA...am thinking about what my response will be.

Again, education articles have been dominating my reading for the past few weeks. Here's some of what I've read:

This was from today's NYTimes - apparently unpaid internships may be illegal. Of course, I've always thought that when I don't get paid for work, it's a crime, but I thought it was just me.
Love the Learning Network - great blog post on how to promote authentic writing experiences.
NCLB promotes "readicide" - very interesting article for my teachers out there.
Learning Matter's analysis of Race To The Top - a video article which is definitely worth watching.

Hope this gives you food for thought - let me know what you think of the articles/videos.

Education BlogRoll - 3/6/2010

2010-03-06T22:11:00.002-06:00

A lot of interesting articles on education and teaching lately - I've pretty much had my eyes glued to my computer screen taking it all in. Here's the best of what I've read:

Building A Better Teacher - This NYTimes magazine article looks at the debate about what quality teaching looks like. I especially like the Uncommon Schools videos that they've featured in the sidebar of the article.
Teaching as Leadership - This is the new TFA book by Stephen Farr that explains the results of many years of research into best teaching practices and what makes an excellent teacher. If you are a teacher and want more information about this, check out the TAL website.
Mocking Black History Month - or at least it seems that way to me when you pick O.J. Simpson as an example of an African-American role model.
Reading Histories - excellent lesson plan from the NYTimes Learning Network on creating reading histories to promote reflection on reading growth within your class.
Good Ideas for NCLB - The Quick and the Ed makes some "modest" proposals for the NCLB reauthorization - I just think they are solid, well-founded ideas.
New Standards for Reading and Math - every other country that is schooling us in achievement rates have national standards that districts have to abide by - it's about time that the U.S. learn its lesson.

Some snippets of what I've found interesting in the past month. Let me know what you think - and if you disagree, I would love to hear your thoughts, because I am still undecided on a number of these issues.

Good News About Education

2010-02-04T14:18:00.003-06:00

I often hear so many disheartening statistics about the state of public education - sometimes it seems the problems that we need to fix are intractable. But here are some interesting facts I just learned from The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease:

A record percentage of African-American children now attend preschool, higher than even whites.
There has been no decline in student IQ, and the number of students with 130 IQ (gifted) has doubled in the last two decades.
Current NAEP math assessment showed 60 percent of seventeen-year-olds achieving advanced proficiency (up from 49 percent).
Today's faculties are the best educated in U.S. history. In 1961, only 23 percent of teachers had master's or doctoral degrees; by 1999, that figure had climbed to 52 percent.

There's more, but that's all I have time to type. At least, it's not completely hopeless...

Resuming Life...

2010-02-04T12:33:00.003-06:00

I have put my life on hold for the past few months, so that I can study for my LSAT and still be a decent teacher. In less then 48 hours, I will be taking the LSAT (as well as finding out if I got a new job).

I have spent so much time working and studying that I won't know what to do with my time after Saturday. I might throw some parties, watch a little more TV, catch up on my reading (and possibly apply to more jobs, depending on tomorrow's outcome). However, I probably will just veg out, because it's the easiest thing to do. And right now, I have a feeling that will be just what I need.

Education Blogroll - 1/30/2010

2010-01-30T09:03:00.003-06:00

Some interesting articles in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, particularly one about Race To The Top overhaul. Definitely check out the interactive graphic that gives a timeline for all the reforms. The few things that caught my eye is that they are going to scrap the ISAT, and make a tougher test and that 50% of a teacher's evaluation is going to be based on student achievement. Also, Teach for American will no longer need to partner with higher education institutions to give certification...so long Dominican/NLU.

This is not education related, but related to children, and it's about the doctor who first cited a possible link between vaccines and autism. He apparently did not follow scientific and ethical guidelines in completing his study. And here we have so many people not vaccinating their children based on a faulty study!

There was a profile of Arne Duncan that I thought was interesting in The New Yorker (just recently re-subscribed after getting a major discount). I would try to read it at the library if you don't have a subscription.

Lastly, I just recently received my spring issue of Teaching Tolerance and I read it cover to cover during my interviews, and absolutely loved everything written in it. It's chock full of wonderful articles, but I will share an article that I thought was particularly inspiring, and I am currently working on adapting this idea for my 5th graders. Vicki Malone teaches a Civil Rights Movement class at Macomb High School in Mississippi, where her students discover history and understand the movement at a deeper level, than just dates, legislation, and historical figures. Just one in many good articles!

Muslim American: NOT an Oxymoron...

2010-01-25T21:18:00.004-06:00

New video from the Center for American Progress and their Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative! I know a lot of the people in this video - good job to all of you!

Dream Jobs

2010-01-24T12:42:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking a lot of what my dream job would be. Unfortunately, instead of work exhilarating you, my school makes you think about all the amazing and rewarding jobs you could have if you didn't have to stay in this black hole. Don't get me wrong - love my students and love the work I do in my classroom, but my school leaves me without respect or appreciation, both of which are important to job satisfaction.

So, what would these dream jobs be? Here they are, in no particular order:

Campaign manager for a U.S. Presidential or Senate campaign: I want to be David Plouffe/James Carville/David Axlerod/Leo McGarry (I know he's not real, but he's still awesome like the rest of them). I think strategy and problem solving is fun - and I don't think there is any job that demands those skills more.
Literary columnist: I would get to read books and write about them - could there be anything more wonderful than that?
Run a charter school: In the same vein as campaign manager, there is a lot of problem solving and strategizing involved. Moreover, I would love to serve a certain community for many years and watch the children learn and grow.
Public defender: the law side of me has always found this work fascinating. The prospect of giving the accused a fair trial through excellent representation is very applealing.
Political pundit: I would get paid to give my opinions about culture and politics - I don't think it gets any easier than that.
TV critic/reporter: what I am talking about is what Michael Ausellio for Entertainment Weekly does - like going on press tours for hot TV shows, releasing scoop about the story lines of everyone's favorite shows, getting people to watch THEIR favorite shows. I love TV as a medium and I enjoy talking about TV shows - so this would really be a perfect fit.

That's all for now - are there any other jobs I should consider?

Learning about Darwin

2010-01-18T18:37:00.007-06:00

So my Darwin kick started with this book. Very readable, and in a comic form - what's not to love. Then it continued with these two new books: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith.

Now, there's this new movie coming out, called Creation, starting Paul Bettany as the famous scientist and Jennifer Connelley as his religious wife, who has a hard time coming to terms with her husband's new theories. I am so excited about this movie, because Darwin has always fascinated me as a character.

Here's the trailer:

I hope someone wants to see this with me, when it comes out this weekend!

Education BlogRoll - 1/17/2010

2010-01-17T13:10:00.003-06:00

I haven't done post like this in a long time, so I thought I would bring it back, especially since I've been reading a ton of education related articles lately.

The Chicago Tribune's analysis of Renaissance 2010 - short of it is that the Ren10 schools have not lived up to the expectations, but I believe there are still good lessons to be taken away from this experiment that will help reform education in the long run.
What Makes a Great Teacher? - article in this month's issue of the Atlantic Monthly that examines the criteria that TFA uses to determine who will be a great teacher.
Save the Muslim Girl - great article on how to avoid and counter stereotypes of Muslim women in children and young adult literature. This magazine, Rethinking Schools, is great, and there a quite a few articles in this quarter's issue that were thought-provoking.
Testing Kindergarten - another article from Rethinking Schools, about when does too much testing hinder the cognitive development and learning of our youngest students.
The Learning Network - a blog on The New York Times. This is my newest find in my search for free effective teaching resources. It has lesson plans, ideas, resources for covering current events - basically, a wonderful resource.

Have fun reading - let me know what you think!

The Taqwacores Trailer

2010-01-14T19:43:00.002-06:00

Extremely excited to see this:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Muslim Americans Serving in the U.S. Government

2010-01-02T18:31:00.003-06:00

Toy Story 3!

2010-01-01T18:58:00.003-06:00

I am more excited about this movie than I should be:

Insights to Guide the Next Decade

2010-01-01T08:00:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned before, I have been re-reading many of the books from my own personal library. In returning to these books, I find nuggets of wisdom that have more meaning to me the second time around. My latest reading has been Philosophy in a Time of Terror, which compiles dialogues with Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, two of the most prominent philosophers in modern times. The book examines what it means be in a post-9/11 world, and even as we enter a new decade, much of what these two philosophers discuss can guide us on how to look back and forward. Here are some of the insights:

"Believing that there is nothing more philosophical than history implies that real freedom begins with the realization that individual choices are formed in permanent negotiation with external forces. Freedom is thus measured by the degree to which we become able to gain control over these forces, which otherwise would control us."

"We in the West do live in peaceful and well-to-do societies, and yet they contain a structural violence, that to a certain degree, we have gotten used to, i.e., unconscionable social inequality, degrading discrimination, pauperization, and marginalization." How do we get past this? "The common background grants us the possibility of putting ourselves in other's shoes, symmetrical conditions of mutual perspective-taking. However, if the mutual perspective-taking for some reason cannot occur, speaker and listener become estranged from each other and indifferent to the redemption of their claims. This is the beginning of a distortion in communication, a misunderstanding or a deception, of which terrorism is the most extreme version."

In light of what we are finding out about the latest person to attempt this form of "distorted communication" and all that we have learned over this past decade, we realize that providing a real freedom of expression (one that takes into account the invisible external forces like poverty, prejudice, and powerlessness that may prevent it) and real empathy may be the key to solving many of this coming decade's problems.

Past

2009-12-31T21:04:00.002-06:00

We have to discard the past

and, as one builds

floor by floor, window by window,

and the building rises,

so do we go on throwing down

first, broken tiles,

then pompous doors,

until out of the past

dust rises

as if to crash

against the floor

smoke rises

as if to catch fire,

and each new day

it gleams

like an empty

plate.

There is nothing, there is always nothing.

It has to be filled

with a new, fruitful

space,

then downward

tumbles yesterday

as in a well

falls yesterday's water,

into the cistern

of all still without voice or fire.

It is difficult

to teach bones

to disappear,

to teach eyes

to close

but

we do it

unrealizing.

It was all alive,

alive, alive, alive

like a scarlet fish

but time

passed over its dark cloth

and the flash of the fish

drowned and disappeared.

Water water water

the past goes on falling

still a tangle of bones

and of roots;

it has been, it has been, and now

memories mean nothing.

Now the heavy eyelid

covers the light of the eye

and what was once living

now no longer lives;

what we were, we are not.

And with words, although the letters

still have transparency and sound,

they change, and the mouth changes;

the same mouth is now another mouth;

they change, lips, skin, circulation;

another being has occupied our skeleton;

what once was in us now is not.

It has gone, but if they call, we reply:

"I am here," knowing we are not,

that what once was, was and is lost,

is lost in the past, and now will not return.

- Pablo Neruda (translated by Alastair Reid)

Thanks and Sacrifice

2009-11-27T07:48:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving - I think you all know about that. Today is Eid-al-Adha, which is the Muslim holiday of sacrifice. It commemorates the time when God saved Abraham's son (Muslims believe it was Ishmael) from sacrifice by sending down a ram in his place.

I've been neglectful of writing in my blog - it just that to write something meaningful takes so much time. However, on these holidays, I think it's important to write about what I am thankful for and the small sacrifices in my life that happen to make me a better person. Of course, this is no particular order, but:

I am thankful that I have a job. On the news, I was constantly reminded of the millions of Americans who don't have one, and even though I hate where I work so much, I am extremely lucky to even have a job.
I am thankful for my family - even though they drive me crazy - they are all here on this Earth and healthy.
I am thankful for my health - that's a no brainer.
I am thankful for my education and the ability to help others - so many have not had the educational opportunities I have been afforded, and part of the reason I joined TFA is so that I might provide some of the students I work with at least a year of a quality education.
I am thankful for my friends - they are there for me when I need them, and hopefully I have been able to do the same for them.
I am thankful for the library and books - I almost spend too much money on books, and really I should cut down - and that's why the library is awesome.
I am thankful for the troops - I am not a supporter of violence or war in anyway, but governments choose to wage wars and use violence as a means of diplomacy, and I am so grateful to the people who volunteer to take on this responsibility. I could never do this job with all the atrocities they see, and yet so many of them have hope and optimism for the countries and the people they are trying to help.
I am thankful for living in a safe neighborhood - I haven't always had this growing up, and now working with students who live in unsafe areas of Chicago, it makes me all the more grateful that I can walk my street at night and not worry about being shot.

I am thankful for a great many things, but I think those are the most meaningful. What are you thankful for?

General BlogRoll and Update

2009-11-01T20:37:00.002-06:00

UPDATE: Happy Daylight Spending Time Day! I am sorry I haven't been updating as often. Work and studying for these damn LSATs are the culprits, so please forgive me for being so busy. School has been exhausting - the teaching has gotten easier, but the work that my school has put on top of that has only increased. On top of all that, I am trying to study for this blasted exam. The big day is 12/6 - same day I have to submit a job application for next year. Yes...it's been awesome.

Here are some articles I've read that I think were thought-provoking:

And something that I always enjoy reading, because I love the show:

Slate's TV Club Analysis of Mad Men, Season 3.

Let me know what you think!

Climate Change Education

2009-10-15T20:29:00.002-05:00

After my long day, I got an email (as well as a post it note to myself) that today is Blog Action Day 2009. The chosen topic this year is climate change. As a teacher, I am constantly thinking about the future of my students and how I help them understand how their actions impact the world around them. For those of you reading my blog who have forgotten what it was like to be a 10 year old - let me remind you that children at that age are extremely selfish, because they do not cognitively understand a world bigger than the immediate one that they see. It's one thing to imagine it, but it's a whole other thing to actually understand your place in it.

I try my best to integrate social justice issues into all areas of curriculum that I teach - climate change is just one of those issues that I cover with my students. Not only is it crucial that students understand the scientific principles behind climate change, it's important for students to understand its implications in a scientific way. Children should comprehend how the world will change because of the simple act of driving a gas guzzling car or running the lights in the house. Particularly for my kids, who are growing up in the inner-city, they need to see that even though they are disadvantaged in comparison to their suburban peers, they are for more advantaged than the children in other parts of the world. They should understand that their carbon footprint (after they understand the concept of carbon footprint!) is many times larger than a child in a developing country. As you can see, the topic lends itself so well to science and math curriculum.

However, we can't forget to teach our students about their ability to take action for an issue like climate change. In social studies, students can pick issues to lobby their representatives about - those students who fully grasp the scientific concept of climate change see how it will affect their future and realize the importance of working on this issue now as opposed to later. The work that they do on lobbying their representatives about an actual issue that's important to them leads to an incredible learning experience as well as socially aware children, which is the ultimate goal of a great education.

Climate Change and Action

2009-10-12T07:58:00.001-05:00

I've just signed up for this, and if you blog, you should too:

Mad Men and Sesame Street Collaborate?

2009-10-04T19:55:00.001-05:00

This video was brought to my attention by a number of my friends - enjoy!

Kandi

2009-09-26T19:34:00.004-05:00

Beautiful song and animated video!

A Must See Documentary

2009-09-26T17:15:00.002-05:00

Just finished watching The Principal Story, which aired on PBS - Point of View (POV). It follows two principals, one of them in Chicago, IL. It's an excellent look at the achievement gap from the administrative perspective.

Second Generation Experience

2009-09-18T05:30:00.002-05:00

I just finished this amazing book, Snow Falling on Cedars, which is about a number of things (I don't want to give away too much), not least of which is the experience of Japanese-Americans during WWII.

There was a passage in the book, told from Hatsue Miyamoto's perspective, which touched me. She is a second generation American like myself, and she expresses thoughts that I felt are relevant to many who are of that generation, particularly American Muslims in this post 9/11 world.

She was of this place and she was not of this place, and though she might desire to be an American, it was clear, as her mother said, that she had the face of America's enemy and would always have such a face. She would never feel at home here among the hakujin, and at the same time she loved the woods and fields of home as dearly as anyone could. She had one foot in her parents' home, and from there it was not far at all to the Japan they had left behind years before. She could feel how this country far across the ocean pulled on her and lived inside her despite her wishes to the contrary; it was something she could not deny. And at the same time her feet were planted on San Piedro Island, and she wanted only her strawberry farm, the fragrance of the fields and the cedar trees, and live simply in this place forever.

How many times I have felt torn between the "pull" of Bangladesh and my parents' understanding of Islam (motivated by my parents' repeated statements that I am a Bengali/Muslim girl) and the American-ness I feel from growing up here. This complex emotion is expressed perfectly in this excellent book.

VideoJug: My New Favorite Website

2009-09-13T14:10:00.003-05:00

VideoJug's tagline is "Get Good at Life" and it certainly helps you do that. The website is dedicated to how-to videos on everything and anything. I particularly like it for the cooking/recipe videos. For all of you who want to get better at cooking Indian food but are kind of clueless in the kitchen, VideoJug has a ton of awesome videos that break it down, so you can cook excellent Indian recipes and not mess up! To get you started, here's their video for one of my favorite recipes, Chicken Makhani or Butter Chicken.

Indian:
How To Make Butter Chicken

Reflections on the First Week of My Second Year

2009-09-13T09:32:00.002-05:00

I finished my first week of school on Friday, and I am about to start the second week tomorrow. So far, I haven't had any ridiculous outbursts in my class, unlike last year, but this class a little more chatty and less mature. I already have favorites - though that might change over the course of the year. I already have a student who is beginning to push my buttons, to see how far I will go. There are a lot of quirky students in my class, and they have been cracking me up - here's just a few things I have heard in my class:

Ms. G: You don't like pizza, S?
S: No...yeah, I do, but I am on a (as he points to his figure) low-fat diet.

C: On Sunday, after we go see God, we play hide-and-go-seek. But it's different for us - we call it immigrants.
Ms. G: How is that played?
C: Well, 3 of us are cops, and then the rest of us are Mexicans trying not to get caught.

A: I need to go to the bathroom.
Ms. G: Is it an emergency?
A: No, I have my problem.
Ms. G: Your problem?...OH...Did you just get it?
A: No, I've had my problem for 3 months now.

Ms. G: What are going to do this weekend?
S: Well, after I eat my low-fat bread, I will go camping in my backyard.
Ms. G: That's awesome!
S: My mom and me - we go walking to - it helps us with our diets.

Ms. G: Write about one memory you have of something that happened to you.
G: (raises his hand) I haven't had anything happen to me.
Ms. G: Oh geez....

I think I am going to have a lot of classroom stories from this class!

Is This Happening In Your Classroom?

2009-09-11T04:55:00.001-05:00

I sure hope it isn't happening in mine: Lesson Plans, 2009. [Hyperlink]

Tocqueville on American Politics: Still True Today

2009-09-06T18:53:00.002-05:00

Having unpacked most of my old college textbooks, I've been looking through a few of the more influential books on my thinking to look at the passages I marked back in the day. It's interesting to see whether what I thought was profound at the time is still so today. I was particularly struck by a note I left next to this passage in Tocqueville:

Scarcely have you descended on the soil of America, when you find yourself in the midst of a sort of tumult; a confused clamor is raised on all sides; a thousand voices come to your ear at the same time, each of them expressing some social needs. Around you everything moves: here, the people of one neighborhood have gathered to learn if a church ought to be built; there, they are working on the choice of a representative; farther on, the deputies of a district are going to town in all haste in order to decide about some local improvements; in another place, the farmers of a village abandon their furrows to go discuss the plan of a road or a school.

Citizens assemble with the sole goal of declaring that they disapprove of the course of government. To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows...An American does not know how to convers, but he discusses; he does not discourse, but he holds forth. He always speaks to you as an assembly.

I wrote right next to this "Nothing has changed in 150 years!" I don't remember what might have been happening at the time for me to write this, but with all the tension surrounding health care legislation, town hall meetings, and education speeches currently, this passage is particularly poignant. Despite the craziness of it all, I hope this scene always stays true of the U.S. - it is the foundation of our democracy, as this prescient Frenchman discovered.

PLC: What I Need At My School

2009-09-05T20:43:00.003-05:00

I have been reading a lot about PLCs, or professional learning communities, which is a way of reshaping the role and type of professional development provided to teachers. You can find a great introduction to it on SEDL website. AllThingsPLC is a website that shows the results of schools who have adopted PLC as a model and provides resources for other schools to implement it.

All I have to say is...when will my school do this!?!?!

Obama's Education Speech: I'm A Supporter

2009-09-05T11:11:00.002-05:00

I am really disappointed by the hullabaloo surrounding Obama's speech, which he is slated to give this coming Tuesday. He hasn't even given it yet, but people think its going to be some propaganda event. Really, people? Could we stop for just a few seconds so our kids could have their President speak directly to them?

It will be the first day of school for many public schools around the country, including my own. However, my time will be spent on managing students' fears and excitement as well as regulate a hot mess of a day (I still don't have a schedule...though I have stopped stressing for my heart's sake). I'll let you all know how it goes...if I am not completely wiped out.

Make Me Smile

2009-09-01T21:08:00.003-05:00

When I trudge back home on public transportation, I am usually in a state of dazed exhaustion, caused by the inanity of my workplace. Rarely do I even look up to see what's going on around me, I just follow the beaten path and suddenly end up home, without any thought. Fasting makes this worse.

However, today, something happened that left me smiling for the rest of the night. As I am mindlessly about to board the Blue line, and I am waiting for people in front of me to go in, this guy stops and motions for me to go in first. I don't know why, but I was extremely grateful. It's not that I am excited everytime a man is chivalrous - in fact, I really don't care about those things. But this act was done with the sincerest of smiles and was done because I clearly looked like I could use a lift in the spirits department. I said, "Thanks," and he said, "No problem, my pleasure," and in that moment, I felt like I had traveled back to a time when people weren't scared to be nice to strangers, and it felt good.

Now, I am not advocating for us to be overly friendly with complete strangers (that might ilicit some weird reactions), but I think it would be great if we could all take time to be kind to strangers. That man probably didn't realize that he had made my day, but I sure wish I could do that for someone. I suppose there's always tomorrow...

What do students need to be taught to succeed in the 21st century?

2009-08-31T19:32:00.005-05:00

Today, I was reading an article by Willingham and Rotherham, which was published in the ASCD Educational Leadership, and I came across this section that I think needs to quoted:

Greater emphasis on skills also has important implications for teacher training. Our resolve to teach these skills to all students will not be enough. We must have a plan by which teachers can succeed where previous generations have failed.

Advocates of 21st century skills favor student-centered methods—for example, problem-based learning and project-based learning—that allow students to collaborate, work on authentic problems, and engage with the community. These approaches are widely acclaimed and can be found in any pedagogical methods textbook; teachers know about them and believe they're effective. And yet, teachers don't use them. Recent data show that most instructional time is composed of seatwork and whole-class instruction led by the teacher (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Even when class sizes are reduced, teachers do not change their teaching strategies or use these student-centered methods (Shapson, Wright, Eason, & Fitzgerald, 1980). Again, these are not new issues. John Goodlad (1984) reported the same finding in his landmark study published more than 20 years ago.

Why don't teachers use the methods that they believe are most effective? Even advocates of student-centered methods acknowledge that these methods pose classroom management problems for teachers. When students collaborate, one expects a certain amount of hubbub in the room, which could devolve into chaos in less-than-expert hands. These methods also demand that teachers be knowledgeable about a broad range of topics and are prepared to make in-the-moment decisions as the lesson plan progresses. Anyone who has watched a highly effective teacher lead a class by simultaneously engaging with content, classroom management, and the ongoing monitoring of student progress knows how intense and demanding this work is. It's a constant juggling act that involves keeping many balls in the air.

Part of the 21st century skills movement's plan is the call for greater collaboration among teachers. Indeed, this is one of the plan's greatest strengths; we waste a valuable resource when we don't give teachers time to share their expertise. But where will schools find the release time for such collaboration? Will they hire more teachers or increase class size? How will they provide the technology infrastructure that will enable teachers to collaborate with more than just the teacher down the hall? Who will build and maintain and edit the Web sites, wikis, and so forth? These challenges raise thorny questions about whether the design of today's schools is compatible with the goals of the 21st century skills movement.

For change to move beyond administrators' offices and penetrate classrooms, we must understand that professional development is a massive undertaking. Most teachers don't need to be persuaded that project-based learning is a good idea—they already believe that. What teachers need is much more robust training and support than they receive today, including specific lesson plans that deal with the high cognitive demands and potential classroom management problems of using student-centered methods.

Unfortunately, there is a widespread belief that teachers already know how to do this if only we could unleash them from today's stifling standards and accountability metrics. This notion romanticizes student-centered methods, underestimates the challenge of implementing such methods, and ignores the lack of capacity in the field today.

Instead, staff development planners would do well to engage the best teachers available in an iterative process of planning, execution, feedback, and continued planning. This process, along with additional teacher training, will require significant time. And of course none of this will be successful without broader reforms in how teachers are recruited, selected, and deselected in an effort to address the whole picture of education's human capital challenge. [Emphasis added.]

I spent today in a useless PD that was supposed to challenge the way I think about reading instruction, but instead I walked away with nothing new and no significant training that would better my instructional practices. However, these authors tell the truth about what teachers need for their professional development.

Homework over the Summer?

2009-08-31T06:24:00.003-05:00

I say yes - here's what several people said on the NYTimes. If you look at student test scores from spring to fall, you'd be shocked at how much they lose, because they aren't in school.

The Power of Human Emotion

2009-08-31T05:45:00.003-05:00

I have always wondered to myself why God would create humans, when we cause so much trouble. However, in my daily reading of the Qur'an (one of my goals for the month of Ramadan), I came across these verses that never thought about until now.

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a viceregent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy name?" He said: "I know what ye know not."

And He taught Adam the names of all things; then he placed them before the angels and said: "Tell Me the names of these if ye are right."

They said: "Glory to Thee: of knowledge; we have none, save what Though hast taught us. In truth it is Though who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom."

Now, I've never been a fan of Yusuf Ali's translation of the Qur'an - it's what I grew up with, so that's what I keep reading. However, his notes are incredible, and if you haven't read them for this particular verse, they are pretty awesome. He refers to Shakespeare's Sonnet 94 (how can you not love that?), where he writes, "They are the lords and owners of their faces. Others but stewards of their excellence," to clarify this verse.

What Yusuf Ali is trying to get at (I think) is that even though the angels are perfect in their service and devotion to God, they are devoid of the passion and emotion (of which love is the highest) that defines humanity. Our service and devotion comes from our own will, and that makes it all the more valuable.

I think this is true of all the actions in our life - when we do things for good, the passion that comes with these deeds makes them all the more powerful and amazing.

Education BlogRoll – 9/29/2009

2009-08-29T18:54:00.007-05:00

I've read a lot of articles these past few days, despite the fact that I am working hard to set up my room and have my lessons ready for the new school year. There were two interesting ones targeting teachers unions – one in The New Yorker about the infamous "rubber rooms" and the other, an editorial in the NY Times on accountability with Race to the Top funding. Also, EdReformer reflects on the challenges of preparing students for college. And apparently, teachers teach better when they have skilled colleagues around them!

In my effort to supplement my social studies materials, I ran across this in my Google Reader (shared by a fellow TFA teacher) – free history and social studies resources! At the beginning of the year, the first unit in writing for most teachers is a personal narrative or memoir – here are some ideas for that unit.

I am going to leave this post with a link to Room for Debate on the NYTimes website, where they debate whether teachers need education degrees to be effective. What do you think?

Ramadan Mubarak

2009-08-21T20:52:00.003-05:00

Ramadan has officialy started, and to mark this highly religious month, I wanted to share a favorite passage from the Qur'an:

O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor; Allah can best protect both. Follow not the desires (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do. - 4:135

This verse always inspires me to do my best to help justice in this world, in all its forms, whether it be in the courtroom or in my classroom.

Michelle Rhee and TFA (Education Video BlogRoll!)

2009-08-21T20:43:00.003-05:00

So I recently came across a great website - Learning Matters. It is a website that focuses on the education reports of John Merrow, who reports on The NewsHour with Jim Leher. Anyways, there's a great focus piece on Michelle Rhee, a former TFA alum and current D.C. public school chancellor. Several videos, but definitely worth checking out!

Also, there was an excellent video where Merrow follows three TFA teachers in their first year of teaching in New Orleans, where Superintendent Paul Vallas (formerly of CPS) has been an fierce advocate of TFA. It's an interesting and honest look at the TFA experience, but also the TFA effect on a school district that has been failing.

And so it begins...

2009-08-16T18:43:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow, after what seemed like a very short summer break, I will begin work again. Thankfully, it's just professional development - the kiddies show up 3 weeks later, the day after Labor Day. Despite the slight queasiness I have in my stomach (a queasiness I got every Sunday night before the work week began), I am excited about the new year.

As it is for students, I feel like this year is a new start. A way for me to right all my wrongs, learn from the mistakes of my first year, and implement great new ideas and teach better lessons.

So here's to a better year...and more success for my students.

Education BlogRoll - 8/15/2009

2009-08-15T15:55:00.003-05:00

UPDATE: It's been too long since I last posted. A lot has gone on - I went to Boston to visit my sister and brother-in-law. When I got back, I moved to a new place on the North Side of Chicago. Then I went to Lollapalooza (which was spectacular, despite the scorching heat). And now I am gearing up for the beginning of the year - which means shopping, creating posters and routines, etc. So I've been busy, and my blog got set on the backburner. I apologize, and the blog will be updated more regularly as the school year starts (ironically). In the meanwhile, follow my Twitter.

I thought I would ease back with links to some of the many education articles I have been reading lately.

1. Treating Teachers as a Sustainable Resource

2. Where does your state fall?

3. Analysis of "Race to the Top."

4. Competing market for standards and assessment?

5. A Different Type of Teacher Cheating

6. Educational Tools for the 21st Century

7. 9th Circuit Court victory for TFA

And just for fun (and wholly unrelated to education, but fun nonetheless):

8. How rappers embraced soft power (think: international relations soft power).

Movie/TV/Book reviews, crazy stories from my classroom and more...to come!

Weber and the nature of creativity

2009-07-08T21:00:00.005-05:00

This is actually a blog post that I meant to write a long time ago (while I was still in college and taking European Political Thought). I was browsing through my drafts of posts I haven't written yet, and I stumbled across this one. Intrigued, I pulled out From Max Weber, which is one of the few college books that is on my shelf and not in a box. I started reading it voraciously, and it reminded me how much I enjoyed political philosophy, and Weber for that matter. Crazy as the Germans are sometimes, they had some intriguing philosophers.

Anyways, this blog post was originally supposed to analyze this quote:

Ideas occur to us when they please, not when it pleases us. The best ideas do indeed occur to one's mind in the way in whish Ihering describes it: when smoking a cigar on the sofa; or as Helmholtz states of himself with scientific exactitude: when taking a walk on a slowly ascending street; or in a similar way. In any case, ideas come when we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and searching at our desks. Yet ideas would certainly not come to mind had we not brooded at our desks and searched for answers with passionate devotion. (p. 136)

Reading this quote, I remember why I wanted to post about it. Creativity - inspiration is something that just hits us, but that doesn't mean that you aren't supposed to work at it. It's almost as if you work your whole life toward that moment of inspiration, and when you finally take that time to clear you head, the brilliant idea comes to you.

Sometimes truth just hits you - kind of like inspiration - and that's how I felt about this quote (and often when I am reading the best books). I just realized that I read a truth and that I need to live by it. So here's to having that Eureka moment - I look forward to it more than I think most do.

Education BlogRoll - 7/8/2009

2009-07-08T20:42:00.002-05:00

Few articles in the past few days on education that I have read and liked:

Are Chicago schools improving? - NO - at least according to this guy.

Making school lunches more healthy - I know my students could definitely use it...

The Council of Chief State School Offices released a report writing standards for K-12 mathematics and language arts - and guess what? They didn't consult teachers.

Dan Willingham on what makes a good fourth grade reader (and in that case, any reader). And an interview he did with USA Today on the importance of teachers in engaging students in school.

Last, but not least - for all my teachers out there who are dreading summer planning - how to make it fun (sort of)!

"Journey into America"

2009-07-05T16:11:00.002-05:00

I am excited to see the product of this amazing project. Here's a link to the review on Huffington Post.

Education BlogRoll - 7/5/2009

2009-07-05T16:00:00.002-05:00

With the 4th of July weekend winding down, I thought I would link you to a few of the articles I read this weekend. Promise - this blogroll will be much shorter than my previous one.

Free stuff in education? - SIGN ME UP!

High School Students' Bill of Rights - every high schooler should read this.

Arne Duncan's speech to the NEA - seeing reform possibilities in charters, inflexibility of tenure rules, and talent in the inner-city.

Strike against unions - why are you hating on AP classes?

Teaching critical thinking in our schools - I know I could use more help teaching it.

School building conditions are important too!!!

Let me know what you think about any or all of these articles.

Stickin' it to the Man (or Conservative Imam)

2009-07-05T15:58:00.001-05:00

Muslim Mayor's Gay Rights Drive Fights Homophobia in Conservative Amsterdam Suburb

Review: Away We Go

2009-07-03T11:29:00.017-05:00

Last Saturday, I wanted to go out and see a movie. It had been a while since I went to a movie theatre - and I wanted to see the new Transformers movie, despite the bad reviews. I don't know why, but I am sucker for big summer blockbusters. However, the rest of the crew thought it would be too confusing for them, because they hadn't seen the first Transformers.

We decided to go see Away We Go, which is a new movie directed by Sam Mendes and stars John Krasinski (Jim from The Office) and Maya Rudolph (SNL). I like indie movies, but I don't love/worship them like some people do. I thought this was going to be just another quirky movie with Juno-like humor. Of course, it was all that, but it was much more.

The movie is about a couple who are about to have a baby, and are scared shitless about the prospect of raising another human being. Thankfully, they have Burt's (Krasinski) parents nearby to help them. WAIT - no they don't - because his parents are taking a trip for 2 YEARS to Europe. Suddenly, they find themselves all alone without any help raising a kid - Verona's (Rudolph) parents died while she was in college. They decide to set off on a cross-country trip, trying to find the perfect place for them to raise their family. Along the way, they encounter different perspectives on parenting - most of them deranged or damaged - until they come to the one place they always knew was right for them.

It's clear that despite their progressive thoughts and habits (the couple will probably never marry - Verona doesn't see the point; they are not ambitious, brilliant, career-driven people), they are far superior people to the various married couples they meet on their trip. It is clear from the first couple they meet that their child will be well-adjusted, happy and wonderful. This could have been seen as condescending (and many movie critics saw it this way). However, I simply saw it as an affirmation that quality parenting isn't found in those who are more financially or intellectually prepared. As a teacher, I see this truth played out over and over. Money and book-smarts don't necessarily equate to common sense and mental balance. There was also the fact that there were a number of tender and heartfelt moments between the main couple in the movie. Cynically, it could have been seen as corny (and I found myself thinking during the movie, "This is corny"). Yet at other times, it seemed genuine and you believe that this moment has been played out with couples around the world.

Moreover, this movie had some hilarious moments. My favorite is when they go to Madison and stay with Burt's new age/hippie cousin, who has a parenting philosophy that bans strollers. She exclaims, "I love my children, why would I want to spend my day, pushing them away!" They had bought her a stroller prior to knowing this aspect of her parenting style. However, at a ridiculous moment during dinner, where Burt finally has had enough of their condescending tone, tempts their older child into the stroller ride of his life, around the house with both parents chasing after them. When Burt asks the kid, "Wasn't that fun?", the kid replies with a guilty grin and nod, as Burt and Verona run out of the house, having royally offended their hosts.

Not a summer blockbuster, but I was happy that we went and saw this instead. I felt happy as I left the theater, and despite it's corniness, a little more hopeful for the world, understanding that there are more parents like Burt and Verona then we, cynics, like to acknowledge.

Books, Economic Recovery and Health Care Reform

2009-07-01T22:40:00.002-05:00

To begin, Newsweek printed an article titled Fifty Books for Our Times, which is a list of books that provide insight into our confusing and often information-overloaded time. I completely agree with the information-overload - I struggle keeping up with everything. Anyways, definitely something to check out.

Next, there were two videos that I found on YouTube, created by my favorite think tank, the Center for American Progress. The first video is a breakdown of how the economic recovery plan will work - thought it was cute and very effective. For those of you who are naysayers or confused, this will explain it all.

The second video is about why Americans need health care reform. If you are happy with your health care and don't see any reason for all the hullabaloo, this animated video will explain why we need it - NOW.

Education BlogRoll - 7/1/2009

2009-07-01T19:55:00.003-05:00

So much is happening in the world of education, so much to link you to! I think the biggest thing that's happened in the past few days has been the release of the Consortium on Chicago School Research report on teacher mobility in CPS and it's affect on student achievement. You can download the whole report at the hyperlinked website. I still haven't read the whole 52 page report, but with summer break in one more day, it will get done, and I will be blogging my analysis of the report.

Next issue to tackle - teacher unions. Are they safeguarding teacher autonomy, work conditions and pay? Or are they just holding back education reform in order to preserve all teachers', including ineffective teachers', work and pay conditions? To help you and myself, Education Sector has done an excellent breakdown of the pros and cons of teacher unions through discussion between several players in the debate.

On EdReform, Tom Vander Ark has three crucial suggestions to improve the reform movement's legislative efforts. There was also an excellent policy brief on the effectiveness of Reading First, which was the huge federal funding initiative to improve teacher practices in reading instruction.

I previously linked an article on the recent Supreme Court decision on ELL, and just recently read an article on NPR responding to this decision and the question that it raises - how should we teach English Language Learners? This is an important question for me, because of my student population and my charter school's decision to have English-immersion be there ELL program.

At the NECC, Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink, Outliers, and The Tipping Point) addressed the group on instilling the value of hard work as key to success of our students. Esther Wojciki, a columnist for the Huffington Post, does an brief but good analysis of his speech and ideas.

Lastly, evaluating teacher performance and pay-for-performance. There was an editorial in the Washington Post previewing and praising Secretary Duncan's speech (which will be happening tomorrow) on pay-for-performance, a topic that I am still debating myself. It seems that you would want to reward effective teachers by giving them higher pay, but at the same time, what is the criteria for judging whether a teacher is successful? Do we go by just students' test scores? Isn't there a more holistic way of evaluating teacher performance? How much time and effort would that kind of evaluation take. This feeds into an article I read in the Washington Post that reported the use of peer evaluation to help struggling teachers improve. If the teachers did not improve in a given amount of time, they might be removed from their post. In the article, it stated that prior to this program that a ridiculously few number of teachers were ever removed ased on performance, which seemed to imply that the program was working. However, there was no explanation of how the teachers were picked to go into this peer evaluation program, and if the criteria was legitimate and effective.

I will end this post with a link to video from a recent CAP event, entitled "Using Teacher Evaluation to Improve Education." At the website, there are also links to two in depth policy reports on how teacher evaluation can become more effective and result in higher student achievement.

End of 1st Year

2009-07-01T19:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the last day with my students. I have survived my first year of teaching. Traumatic, incredibly difficult, at times, inane, otherwise challenging and rewarding. I am exhausted and I am so glad that I have 6 weeks to recover before heading back to work again. I know that when 3 weeks hit, I am going to get a little bored, but I am going to savor it, because when the students come, I won't have a chance to relax, let alone get bored.

So how did my first year end? It was a huge party for my students. I gave them little presents and an individualized note. Some of the boys who have given me trouble for a lot of the year came up to me and said they were sorry, and asked for a hug. I recieved some presents, including a bouquet of roses.

Overall, I will miss my students, who were trying sometimes, but in general a hilarious and wonderful bunch. I hope my classroom stories are as good next year. Having spoken to the 4th grade teachers, they say they will be...

Education BlogRoll - 6/28/2009

2009-06-28T09:44:00.002-05:00

I read an interesting article at EdReformer.com on school choice and equity, which is interesting in light of the article I linked in my first blogroll by Daniel Willingham. Then, there was an analysis of charter schools' reform efforts in Time Magazine, which linked to an older feature article about how to raise standards in America's schools.

Even though I am not in NYC, I follow what's happening to their public schools, given that its the largest public school district in the country. Mayoral control of the schools is up for renwal, but it doesn't look like Bloomberg will hold on to this control. So what happens? NYU history professor, Diane Ravitch, gives some background and analysis on the issue on the Huffington Post.

P.S: If you are reading my posts on Facebook, I've noticed that the hyperlinks do not transfer over, so make sure you go to my blog website to read the articles I have linked.

Banning the Burqa

2009-06-27T12:39:00.003-05:00

The French government has decided to ban the burqa. The debate has been going on for a couple of weeks, and today I read a response to the ban that I thought reflected exactly how I felt towards the ban. If the French are trying to protect women's rights, they have certainly gone about it in a shallow and typically French way - dictating women's fashion.

Education BlogRoll - 6/26/2009

2009-06-26T22:09:00.002-05:00

Even though we are inundated with MJ tributes on TV (I have watched 2 hours straight of MJ memorial shows - it's finally sinking in what we've lost...), I still have managed to find some quality articles on education and reform. First, an article on fixing teacher tenure, which some have argued has led to the impossibility of firing ineffective teachers. Then, there was the letter to the President by key Democratic senators about how to approach education reform. Lastly, an analysis of yesterday's Supreme Court decision, Horne v. Flores, which lifted the order to school districts to provide adequate funding of English Language Learners. This was particularly interesting to me, because of the population I serve as a TFA teacher.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T18:31:00.004-05:00

I am still in shock, but Michael Jackson is gone. I am listening to all of his albums in an all night marathon in his memory. Despite all his crazy moments, he was still an amazing artist and dancer, and I loved his music.

Education BlogRoll - 6/25/2009

2009-06-25T06:27:00.004-05:00

Only one article to post for today, but on the very important topic of high school dropout rates:

Dropouts: Attitudes and Antidotes by Tom Vander Ark.

Tom Vander Ark is a writer for the blog, edreformer.com. There are plenty of other interesting and intriguing blogposts there.

Later added - article refuting Duncan on the magic of charter schools. I am still torn about charters, and I am reading up on everything to make up my mind.

Overheards in my Classroom

2009-06-23T09:39:00.003-05:00

As a fun filler activity, I've been giving my students crossword puzzles for kids. Some of my students love it, some of them hate it. One of the ones who hate it, A, says he hates it. Here's the conversation that ensues:

Ms. G: If you think about a little bit, you'll be able to figure it out. You can do it!

A: I think a lot Ms. G, but nothing happens.

It was hard for me to contain the giggle fit that was about to overcome me.

Education BlogRoll - 6/22/2009

2009-06-22T17:16:00.003-05:00

I read a lot of articles on education today - a lot of them very good. I think the one most relevant to me and to all you charter school fans out there is the NYTimes article about Arne Duncan's speech on charter schools. Then there was the policy briefing on teacher incentive fund from CAP. CAP also produced two articles on helping community colleges and educating our entire workforce for 21st century success. There's a link to a PDF of the entire article/brochure for the latter topic.

Education BlogRoll - 6/21/2009

2009-06-21T16:48:00.001-05:00

This is the start of a series of blog posts that will link you to interesting articles about education and teaching that I have read recently. Here are a few so far:

How To Bring Service Learning to Your School by Maurice Elias

What Happens to School Choice if People Aren't Rational and Choose Bad Schools? by Daniel Willingham

Kindergarten is the Model for Lifelong Learning by Mitchel Resnick

Idea of the Day: Systematic Vocabulary Instruction by Center for American Progress

Fox's Glee

2009-06-20T16:07:00.014-05:00

With the season finales done of most of my favorite fall shows and news of my favorite summer show (Mad Men) being postponed to the fall, TV is kind of lame for me right now. Yet, there is a show that I am super excited about - Fox's Glee. The first episode is available for download on iTunes for free. I've linked you the Hulu website, but the pilot is not going to be there for very long.

It's got a great cast (Matthew Morrison, a Broadway heavy-hitter, and Lea Michelle from Spring Awakening), the music was awesome, and the humor - it was the right balance between dark and sweet. I could actually watch the pilot over and over again - it was that good. Plus, that's all I have to tie me over, because the rest of the season airs in the fall.

So for those of you who are in a TV funk like me, I would definitely download this show off of iTunes (I think it's still there) as well as the cast's version of Don't Stop Believing, which is amazing. Don't believe me - take a listen for yourself.

Learning from my Students

2009-06-20T15:57:00.005-05:00

As the year is winding down (the last day of school is June 30), I have been reflecting a lot on my teaching practice and reading a lot about how to improve teaching practice. In particular, I have been reading Danielson's Enhancing Professional Practice and educator websites like Edutopia. I just finished reading an blog post on this website about fostering student feedback as a means of improving professional practice.

When I first read the post, I was thinking that my students wouldn't take something like this seriously and would just finish it like they do most assignments - to get it out of their face. However, I realized that my hesitation to doing something like this might be coming from fear of the harsh criticism that my students might give me. There were definitely times when I was too rough with them, and my sarcasm came through - something you aren't supposed to express with young students.

On the other hand, it might be nice to recall moments like that so that I might be a better teacher the next time they arise. Anyways, the thought of having my students do a feedback survey might be helpful - as well as a survey for my parents - and reflecting on this feedback to help me be a more student-responsive teacher.

And who knows, I might possibly get some praise from my students...

GOP Moving Farther Towards Crazy Than Ever Before

2009-06-15T08:55:00.004-05:00

All my documentation:

Frank Rich's Op-Ed

Paul Krugman's Op-Ed

One of many ThinkProgress posts.

'Nuff said....

Sotomayor: Racist?

2009-05-31T10:35:00.006-05:00

These past few weeks' current events have had me thinking a lot about deeper philosophical issues surrounding the law, race and ethnicity. I am sure you have probably heard the accusation lodged against Sotomayor being a "reverse racist" by conservative pundits. Now, normally I would not even address this because Gingrich and Limbaugh are just trying to stoke fires that haven't been lit. However, her quote got me to thinking - why did I agree with her? Am I a racist?

First, I have a very strict understanding of racism, which has everything to do with power dynamics. Racism is not about calling people slurs or stereotyping; it is about a system of advantage based on race. In our socio-political climate, which provides both active and passive priviliges to white men, it is hard for Sotomayor to be a "racist." She may be prejudiced, but she is hardly a member of the power structure that has been built in this country, and therefore, racist is not the term I would use for her.

Second, I do not believe that anyone can be impartial, meaning that life experiences do not come to play when someone is looking over facts and making a decision. I see that as being completely impossible, for wisdom (a quality that society sees as crucial to making good decisions) is by definition the compilation of the lessons learned from life combined with good sense. When thinking of fairness, equality and justice, who knows better about these issues first hand than a minority woman. "The richness of her life experience" as Sotomayor would say, is exactly what gives her a profound understanding of the injustice and inequality. Thus a judge who is a minority woman would better understand the impact of her legal decisions on those who are most oppressed in our culture. That isn't to say that all minority women are down and out, but we live in a culture that systematically provides priviliges to white men.

Lastly, is it a problem that she's admitting the influence of her life experience on judicial decisions? I feel that she's simply stating a truth that we already know (or should know) - a judge that tells you that life experience doesn't play a part in his or her decisions is lying to you. Impartiality is not necessarily about having only the evidence laid out in front of you to make a decisions - it's about providing the logical reasons behind your decision, so that someone, no matter what background they are coming from, ca see that you could be right. I emphasize could, because even if you did come to a decision impartially, people will still disagree with your decision, because they are coming from a different worldview. There is nothing in Sotomayor's decisions that lead us to believe that she would do otherwise in her judicial decisions - in fact, she probably wouldn't have come as far as she has if she hadn't.

Ultimately, to answer my titular question, no, she's not a racist - I don't even think she's prejudiced. I think all of this "Sotomayor is a racist" rhetoric is just an indirect way to attack the president and rally the Republican base, who don't have a solid leader to take this challenge on. In the end, she will be confirmed - she has the qualifications and the votes, and unless she is a dynamic judge, it is unlikely that this appointment will shake up the Supreme Court's ideological slant, with conservative justices outnumbering the liberal ones.

I hate to hear this Judge will vote so and so, because he's a Democrat -- and this one so and so because he is a Republican. It is shameful. The Judges have the Constitution for their guidance ; they have no right to any politics save the politics of rigid right and justice when they are sitting in judgment upon the great matters that come before them. - Mark Twain

In Memoriam

2009-05-25T20:16:00.002-05:00

Another Memorial Day weekend has passed - I went to Michigan to visit family, did our BBQ yesterday, so that I can finish the tremendous amount of grad school work that was due this week. I haven't had a chance to to really reflect on the meaning of this day.

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I am not a big fan of the military establishment. It's not just my pacifist side that rejects the military, but also my individualist side, because to have an effective military, every person must respond as a cog in the machine. I don't want my students to join the military as an alternative to college/real life - most of them have no grasp on the dehumanization of yourself and the enemy in order to be trained to kill.

On the other hand, I also realize that we do not live in an ideal world, and militaries are necessary national institutions that help us stay safe and (before I say this, reminder - I am a bleeding heart liberal) protect the freedoms that I enjoy in this country. Regardless of whether you signed up to serve your country or because you didn't have other opportunities, I want to honor all of those men and women who sign up to join our armed forces (many of them Muslim) and fight the battles that I do not have the strength (physically and psychologically) fight. I appreciate all that sacrifice for the country - much of which I will never begin to understand.

With that said, let's acknowledge what an emotional toll war takes on our soldiers, and provide access to better mental health care. It's not weakness to be traumatized by violence...it's human.

Review of Frost/Nixon

2009-05-15T17:29:00.007-05:00

I just finished watching Frost/Nixon, which I rented off of iTunes and then using technological magic, viewed it on my new flat screen TV (it was awesome, I am not going to lie). I had wanted to see the movie for a while, and I am glad that I watched it on the small screen.

For those of you who haven't heard of the film, it is about the historic interviews between David Frost, a British television personality, and former President Richard Nixon, who had fallen from grace because of the well-known Watergate scandal. It is orignally based on a play and the movie takes on a documentary format, where the sideline players reflect on the experience as it is shown to us in real time.

I think the most memorable part of this film was Frank Langella's portrayal of Nixon. Let me preface what I am about to say with a conversation I had with my father at the start of the film. The movie starts with Nixon's resignation, and my father reflects that that was a sad day. I quickly retorted that Nixon was a crook and he should have resigned on many things, not just his role in Watergate. However, as the movie went on, I couldn't help but feel pity and, oddly enough, respect for Nixon (or at least the Nixon of the film).

Langella portrays him as a man who was made for politics, equipped with shrewdness and a wicked type of wisdom. His intelligence and love of the political game was what I found sympathetic, partially because I love politics myself. What was scary though were the lengths to which he would go to keep power, and as he says in the film, show those who doubted and challenged him, who was right, even if it meant doing what was wrong. The moment when he realizes that he can never get back into the political limelight was heartbreaking, even though it was Nixon. That speaks to the power of Langella's acting, which takes a person who I have been thoroughly indoctrinated to think of as the besmircher of the U.S. presidency and makes me empathize with his sad fate. Even though Nixon lived in the lap of luxury, it was a prison for him because he was away from the work that he loved. In many ways, even though we never saw Nixon formally punished, the movie makes us realize how much his disgrace was the perfect punishment for him.

"Men are not punished for their sins, but by them." - Elbert Hubbard

A Sunday Afternoon at the Steppenwolf Theater

2009-05-03T19:59:00.008-05:00

Today, I had the pleasure of watching Of Mice and Men with a friend, at a discounted price (yay for matinee shows!). It's been a while since I've enjoyed live theater - hadn't seen a play since right before graduation.

My friend and I got rush tickets, which are available an hour before the show, and lucky us - they were front row, close to the aisle (so almost center). I loved the adaptation - it was faithful, yet creative in its production. The acting was superb - ran into the mother of the actor who played George, and had only good things to say to her. I almost cried at the end (for those of you who haven't read the book, I won't spoil it for you), but the girl next to me cried enough for the both of us.

It's always interesting how easy it is to suspend disbelief with theater. Theater has it hard in comparison to movies - no matter how hard they try, theater can never be as realistic. In this production, the set was sparse, but I still felt like I was there with George and Lennie, and experiencing the characters. I actually shut my eyes (which is something I only do with very violent movies) when Lennie was crushing Curley's hand - it felt that real. It must be how dark it is - the sensory deprivation must make it easier to believe what's happening on stage is real. Then, the actors come out on stage, limbs in tact and still breathing, and suddenly, I feel better knowing it wasn't real. With movies, I can't say that feeling ever returns.

"The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental.
It's so much like life."
- Arthur Miller

Little Ones and the Ridiculous Things They Do

2009-04-25T20:28:00.004-05:00

It's been some time since I last posted - I have not been keeping up with my resolution to blog at least once a week. Hopefully, with this new post, I will get back on track. Nothing profound to state or examine - only updating those of you who read my blog about my life.

I have kept up with my other resolutions - I am reading a ton of books from my GoodReads list and from the Top Ten List of the NY Times. I am also keeping up with young adult literature. I have also been taking it easy on the weekends and doing things for myself. It's been a little hard with my certification classes, which give me more busy work than I thought humanly possible. I have restarted my collage-making. I was inspired when I bought one of my artistically-talented student's art, who was so happy to just see her art on display at a gallery. I went on an east coast tour for my spring break, which was a lot of fun, and I didn't do ANY work the whole time.

My students are still a little crazy, which is part of the reason why I have been so negligent in posting. I have been trying to keep myself and my class together in these last few months of schools. There's been a lot of planning for field trips and end of the year hoo-ha.

Today, I got interviewed by a Muslim woman, who is in the sociology department at the University of Chicago doing her MA. She is interested in studying Muslim women who are involved in or interested in social justice issues, so I qualified. She had a very interesting background, and even though the interview took a good three hours out of my day, I was glad that we met. It was quite possibly the most intellectually stimulating thing I have done in a long time, and made me nostalgic for school, yet again. I always excelled at being a scholar...

However, I will end this post with a story about what happened to me on the L on my way back home from my interview. It was both unreal and hilarious at the same time. A family with three young boys got on the train, and one of them was particularly precocious. He sat away from his family in front of me, and watched me reading a comic book. Since the comic book was rather violent, I put it away as soon as I noticed he was looking at it. He asked me, "What's that?" And I told him it was a comic book, but now I was going to put it away. After this point, he played a game that seemed like a combination of hide and go seek and peek a boo with me. When he realized that I wasn't really paying attention, he began looking out the window, breathing on it to fog it up. He noticed that it was dirty, so he decided to lick his hand and clean the window. After this, he licked his hand AGAIN, and began started cleaning the window again. He repeated this about 5 times, and I was cringing, wanting to tell him to stop. He eventually stops and plops down with his head leaning against the metal bar that people hold on to when they are standing. His mom then yells, "Get you head off that dirty pole. You are gonna get sick."

At least she cares....?

Spring Break

2009-04-09T15:10:00.001-05:00

I am currently coming to you from in front of the NYC public library, a few blocks from Grand Central Station. I am actually blogging from my Blackberry - cool, huh?

Anyways, I am having an amazing break, and can't wait to tell you more once I get back. For right now, I am going to enjoy the wonderful weather in NY.

It's Raining Girls!

2009-03-27T22:46:00.004-05:00

It is definitely spring, folks! Which means that my 5th graders are going a little crazy, and the boys....well, they are girl-crazy! I have dealt with so much "boyfriend-girlfriend" drama in the past few weeks - it's insane how fast their love lives are. I can't keep track - and it's bringing my "with-it-ness" as a teacher way down.

The craziest has been my wonderful boy, M, who is incredibly sentimental and sweet, but with a facade of a toughness. He had been "dating" a girl in the other 5th grade class for 2 weeks (I KNOW - I thought it was ridiculous too!), when she broke up with him. He's been heartbroken ever since (it's been about 3 weeks now). In my efforts to cheer him up, this conversation happened:

M: I don't understand why she broke up with me. I was nice, made her laugh, and I liked her. What's wrong with me?

Ms. G: Nothing's wrong with you - you are great. Sometimes, though, people just don't click. You just gotta brush it off, M. Not only are there many other fish in the sea, you are only 11 years old. I need to you think of the big picture, and how young you are.

M: But I dated her for a whole two weeks!

Ms. G: I know that seems like a long time and you are hurt, but don't worry - when you get to be my age, you won't even remember this.

M: You don't understand, Ms. G, because you are a girl. Guys remember this stuff forever - it's only girls who forget, because they are evil. And you are old - it's different now.

(Silence - trying to gather my thoughts and refrain from bursting out laughing)

Ms. G: Only 11 and so cynical already! Well, even if you are heartbroken, that doesn't excuse you from your math homework...

M: Man, Ms. G - my dad always says that women NEVER give you a break....

Children - they say the darndest things....

Nostalgia

2009-03-15T18:08:00.006-05:00

In my young life, the things I remember most clearly are the late night conversations I have had with family and friends. They have been so memorable and influential that I have written a number of personal statements and essays about how they have affected me.

I recently remembered a late-night conversation I had with a friend, where we were pouring over The Book of Questions. One of the questions was, "What is the best emotion to feel?" or something along those lines. My answer had been nostalgia. My friend thought I was crazy, because nostalgia wasn't a fun feeling like elation or ecstatic, which were some of the other answers in our roundtable discussion. I couldn't explain it then, but nostalgia is more than it's literal meaning from the Greek - pain from an old wound.

Then while watching an episode of the amazing show Mad Men, there was a scene that perfectly explained all that I thought about nostalgia in the eloquent and visual manner that only TV (and in this case, advertising and marketing agents) can pull off. As Don Draper says, it is potent and provides a deeper connection that we want to go back to, love to go back to. I can't help but enjoy the feeling of nostalgia that swooshes over me when I look at pictures from college and my childhood.

Imagination equals nostalgia for the past, the absent; it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality. - Cyril Connolly

Ramayana Reloaded

2009-03-14T19:33:00.002-05:00

Beautifully animated and humorously told - watch it!

http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/indies/indie-sita-sings-the-blues/241/

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation. - Walt Disney

Officially Not Cool Anymore...

2009-03-07T10:05:00.005-06:00

Or was I ever?

Well - the point is, yet again, my students remind me of how they are cool and I am not. Here's the story:

Ms. G: Who can tell me what today vocabulary word is?

N: Facade

Ms. G: That's right - it means to have a dishonest or fake appearance. You know - when people say that person is frontin'?

(Crickets chirping)

Ms. G: You've never heard that before?

M: What is that Ms. G? Some ol' school slang they used in the 70's.

Ms. G: Oh lord...just forget it...

"Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work." -- Carl Sandburg

Lamenting Newspapers

2009-02-28T19:05:00.006-06:00

Over the past few weeks, I have read and seen various news articles covering the slow demise of newspapers, including an analysis of the situation in The Atlantic and ABC World News Tonight's coverage of the closing of the Rocky Mountain News.

Newspapers have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I learned how to read through newspapers. The routine of opening the front door and have the multi-section newspaper there, ready to be enjoyed, was my favorite part of Sunday mornings, and still is. I continue to subscribe to my local newspaper and encourage my students to read the newspaper too (though they don't seem to enjoy it as much as I did when I was their age).

So as you can imagine, it is sad for me to hear that newspapers are dying, because of the rise of the Internet and this economic recession. As an individual, I have contributed to this - I still read The New York Times every morning - online. There is something so much more convenient about this format - and it's free! It has been these sentiments that have led to the downfall of the newspaper. Some people also peddle theories about how different free news sources like blogs have been a factor in newspapers' decline in sales. I don't think that's true - a real news junkie will not give up on the superior reporting done in a newspaper. It's the news junkie, like myself, that has access to multiple newspapers at their fingertips, and will not subscribe to a newspaper that I can read online for free. This has led to a decrease in advertisement sales and sounded the death knell of this treasured American institution.

However, I continue to subscribe to the Chicago Tribune, because I enjoy the feel of reading a physical newspaper (and secretly, I enjoy the gray residue it leaves on my fingers). Not to mention, it's much easier on the eyes than staring at the computer screen. I don't subscribe out of some need to help the flailing industry, but because I want to keep in touch with what's going on in my city - and I hate the newspaper's website. There is something familiar about a newspaper's organization that is comfortable and sensible - it cannot be reproduced on a website.

In one of the news articles I read/saw, an expert had said that newspaper companies need to stop whining about these developments, but grab onto the innovation and take charge of it. While I agree that newspaper distributors could really take advantage of the Internet and its ability to reach so many more people (I would gladly pay to get online content), I don't think that newspaper companies are whining. As someone who marvels at technological development, I still find it hard to let go of the idea that I could get my newspaper in print. There are so many memories associated with newspapers, as with all established ways of life, that it will be a personal day of mourning when companies decide to produce all their material online. It'll be like the day the Kindle takes over the publishing industry, and books as we know it are obsolete...but I am getting ahead of myself.

"The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and
improving him as a rational, moral and social being.” - Thomas Jefferson

Even More Wisdom of a 5th Grader

2009-02-26T17:15:00.004-06:00

I know I haven't posted a lot of substantial insights lately - it's been kind of hectic at my school, with a lot of new standards being imposed (all of which I will talk about later). But this is a story of something that happened today that was so ridiculous, I can't help but put it up.

J: Ms. G - I looked up Yale to see what sports it's good at, and it said basketball.

Me: I don't know if Yale is known for any of its sports, but it's good to hear that.

M: (Snicker)

Me: What's so funny?

M: It's just that smart people don't play sports.

Me: Why is that?

M: Because then what would dumb people do to make money.

Me: Oh dear. [silence] Where do I even begin with that?

Yet another day in my classroom with my wonderful, but misguided, students.

More Wisdom from my 5th graders

2009-02-08T09:11:00.003-06:00

J: Ms. G, I just don't understand the whole North and South Dakota thing?

Me: What don't you get about it?

J: They are right next to each other, right?

Me: Yes.

J: So why can't they be one whole "Dakota"?

Me: I don't know, J., I truly don't know. But good thought....

I couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes after that.

Correlation between Hot Chips and Mexicaness

2009-01-25T21:30:00.005-06:00

J: "Hey, A - do you want some of my hot chips?"

A: "Nah - I don't like hot chips."

J: "You don't like hot chips?! Even Ms. G likes hot chips!"

L: "Basically, J is saying Ms. G. is more Mexican than you."

A: "She doesn't even know how to speak Spanish though."

J and L together: "Doesn't matter - she likes hot chips."

"No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive." - Mahatma Gandhi

My Hopes for the Inaugural Address and the New President

2009-01-18T19:27:00.009-06:00

This Tuesday, something historic will happen - we all know that. Obama has to recognize the moment and have his speech rise to that moment. I have no doubt that Obama's rhetorical flourishes will be at their best, and will make me shed a tear or two in front of my students, who I will be watching the entire event with.

That being said, I still have expectations, or things that I hope Obama will remember to include in his speech and in his actions as president. So, here is my request for inclusion to the new president - though he may never read my blog.

You have so much to tackle as you become the first African-American president of the United States of America. I have faith that you will be able to handle all of it - though I do not expect anything to happen overnight, over the next few weeks, or even the next few months. Yet, people are short-sighted, so remind them that Rome was not built in a day. The crises we face also cannot be solved with speed and rash decision-making. That approach has never helped anyone.

Do not only ask citizens to pace themselves for the change to come, but to also recognize the interconnectedness of the dilemmas we face. Attempting to solve our problems in isolation will only lead to failure. The economy, the environment, education, terrorism, war - the answers to these issues may not be perfect at our first, second or third attempt, but if we understand that the solution lies in tackling them together, we are already ahead of the curve.

In dealing with the economic meltdown, it is important to remember those Americans who have never seen economic success. In the past eight years, almost 6 million more people have slipped below the poverty line. For them, the unemployment line was something they had to face long before this economic recession ever happened. Many of those impoverished citizens are children, who have relied on the generosity of philanthropic work for survival. It is not enough and yes, government has the power to do some good in these children's lives. Tell the Republicans in Congress and your right wing critics this...

As a teacher in the public schools, I encounter the inequity of not just our educational system, but also our social system, every day. These students come into my school without enough money to eat a nutritious breakfast or lunch. They have parents who work long hours, cannot keep track of their children or help them with their school work. Moreover, these students must contend with their violence-riddled neighborhoods. An improved public education system could lift them up and provide them with unparalleled opportunities. As a teacher fighting for this within my classroom, it would be amazing if another advocate lived in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. However, don't forget the back-breaking, sprit-crushing poverty that these students and their families live in, and expect miracles from a newly edited No Child Left Behind Act.

As a Muslim, I would appreciate it if you could please use the power of this moment to talk about the forms of discrimination that exist today. We Muslims are working hard on that matter, but it wouldn't hurt if the president, who has Hussein as a middle name, could put in a few good words for us. Include your brothers and sisters of the unacknowledged Abrahamic faith in your discussion on domestic and foriegn policy - you won't regret it.

Speaking of faith, you became elected on faith - people's faith that you would bring change to America and to the world. You spoke of how it wouldn't just come from you, but from all of us. Instead of paying lip service to the great American spirit, entrust faith in the human spirit, embodied all over the world in small deeds and great actions. We may be focused inward, but what Americans face, the world faces as well. We might as face it down together.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow." - Albert Einstein

My Classroom Vision

2009-01-17T09:01:00.003-06:00

On this frigid day in Chicago, I think it's important to keep me movtivated and inspired with my classroom vision:

I want my students to be inspired and excited everyday by the posibilities presented to them. I want them to be excited in school and anticpate their academic future, whether that be long term or to the next grade level. I want my students to be confident in their academic abilities and how far these abilities can take them.

Graduate Class...

2009-01-13T19:50:00.003-06:00

It sucks...I don't know if I will survive this.

Clearly, I am not learning a lot if I am blogging during class....

"If you don't feed the teachers, they will eat the students." - Neila A. Connors.

More Pearls of Wisdom from My 5th Graders

2009-01-11T20:27:00.003-06:00

L: "Ms. G, you want to know why my little brother and I have different names?"

Ms. G: "Why?"

L: "Well, my parents had me before they were married, so I got my mom's last name."

J: "Naw, man - we all know that's not how you do it. First, you gotta get married, then you gotta make money - like $5000, and then you have a baby."

Ms. G: "You need to be a peer advisor, J. That's wisdom I've never heard from someone so young."

J: "My parents taught me right..."

Again - just another conversation with my students. The things I learn...

First Day Back

2009-01-05T21:39:00.005-06:00

Today was my first day back at school after a two week break. I didn't realize how much of an Energizer bunny I was prior to this break, and last night, I could not for the life of me go to sleep. The anxiety of going back into the classroom was killing me. I will have one day off for the next 3 1/2 months before spring break and this fact only compounded my depression. It definitely did not help to find my room looking like the Tazmanian devil had passed through (the cleaning folks had torn apart everyone's room so that they could put a smooth coat of wax on our floors).

Thankfully, today was much better than I could have expected. In fact, one of my toughest students gave me a belated Christmas gift (and he stayed on green all day, which is an accomplishment for this student). The students were calm, and on task for the most part.

I am crossing my fingers that the days run as smoothly as today did. I am, of course, being a little too optimistic....

Reflections on 2008

2008-12-31T18:41:00.004-06:00

It's going to be a new year and I thought I might as well write one last entry before 2008 comes to a close. It's been a crazy good year for me, now that I think about it. I graduated from Yale with both my masters and bachelors in political science. I had a good time with all of my friends while I did all of that work - it was a good end to my Yale career. I got accepted to TFA in Chicago, and then went to the West Coast for the first time in my life. LA institute kicked my butt, but it was nice to be around other people who were going to be in the same boat for the next two years. Plus I bonded with L., though I had to leave her there, and that's one low point.

Then I moved to Chicago, 4 blocks away from the school where I teach, which happens to be brand new (though not without its faults). I have great TFA colleagues there, and couldn't ask for a better co-teacher. My students are great, even though I complain about them a lot. My neighborhood, while not exactly young and trendy (more family-oriented, if anything), has everything I need closeby, including an awesome grocery store, Target, "El" stop, and a Chicago Public Library branch.

History happened this year - an African American was elected President, and you know how much I love politics. In fact, 2008 was an amazing year for a politics addict like myself. I read some great books, all of which you can check out on GoodReads. Google Reader came into my life - and I have been keeping up with all my internet reading ever since.

There were some bad things about 2008. For one, leaving all my friends from college. I miss my old friends, who are all over the country, and struggle to keep in touch with them. Second is where I decided to live. Sometimes, I feel a little isolated where I live - not a lot of TFA people around me. I am going to try to solve both those problems though, as I said in a previous post.

Yet - 2008 has been a pretty good year for me, and I am hoping that 2009 will be as good.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

The Religion Discussion

2008-12-16T20:16:00.004-06:00

Yes, I had it with my students. They asked me if I celebrated Christmas and I answered them honestly: no, I do not.

First problem: "So we can't have Christmas party?" "No, we can have a holiday party."

Second problem: "You don't get presents then?" "I do, just not around Christmas." "That sucks, no offense, Ms. G." "None taken - I am doing alright."

Third problem: "Ms. G - how can you not celebrate God's birthday? You are going to go to *whisper* hell!" "Well, I have a different set of beliefs. You know not everyone is Catholic." "Everyone in Mexico is Catholic!" "Good thing I live in America."

Fourth problem: "So you don't care about Mexico?" "No, it's not that I don't care about Mexico. Just that I live in America, so I care more about America." "That's just not right, Ms. G. And everyone around here thinks your Mexican."

That is just a snippet of the discussions I have with my 5th grade students. There's philosophy in it, no?

Netanyahu on Peace in the Middle East

2008-12-14T12:29:00.002-06:00

Anyone who knows me would probably be surprised that I would be posting an editorial by Benjamin Netanyahu, ninth prime minister of Israel and candidate for the Likud party in the upcoming election. I read this editorial in today's Sunday Chicago Tribune. It intrigued me not only because of the proposal contained within it, but also by who was proposing it. So, I am going to put the link up - you tell me what you think of his proposal.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-perspec1214netanyahudec14,0,5904366.story

Should he become prime minster again?