In my 1st period on Monday I had a shortened SSR so that we could do a study test. I handed out the study guide and gave them time to answer questions. Then we played the Rock, Paper, Scissors game to two teams. I'm going to have to come up with better games and better ways of drilling info into students' heads. I got ideas... but fuck they are a pain to implement. I think that's one of the hardest things about teaching. Implementing things. There is always so much more to be doing. New and better things that I can try. They just take planning and practice. And there isn't enough time in the day. Coming up with shit for 3 classes is hard. I mean I could just come up with shit to have them do. Busy work shit. But I don't want to be a party to that. That's not why I got into teaching. But I realize that I got a long way to go and I'm not tripping too hard that I suck right now. I'm a rookie. Rookies always get growing pains. Eli Manning stunk it up last year in front of the entire US. This year he's balling. I don't think my learning curve is like that, but I can only get better.
In second period, we talked about revolution and change through violence. This in contrast to revolution through non-violence a la Gandhi and MLK. I know that white people liked MLK a whole lot better when the other side was a Malcolm X. Nothing makes things happen faster than violence. As much as I don't like GWB, there has been a ton of action and change in the Middle East as a result of him invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Syria out of Lebanon. Ghaddafi giving up his WMD ambitions. So we read about Emiliano Zapata and I talked about anarchism with them. I tried to talk about real anarchy and not the "Anarchy=chaos" propaganda. Zapata was influenced by anarchism and since he's Mexican I thuoght more students would relate. But anarchist anti-hierarchical, anti-vanguard elitist, and anti-oppressive thinking is intriguing to me.
In 3rd period, I handed out a reading about why Oriental is a bad word. We read it and I talked with them about what the reading meant. I took Cornell Notes at the same time. They were into this cause they teenagers always want to hear about the taboo stuff. The racist stuff.
In first period today we had the test. After the test, we talked about France and the riots going on there. I showed them a timeline from the BBC and we read it. The riots were actually somewhat timely considering my class. We were talking about the French Revolution and Islam. Students had an understanding (in widely varying degrees) of both subjects. I have an opinion about this that isn't so popular with some people. I think the riots are French karma for their history of imperialism. The muslims in France that are rioting are mostly from countries that France colonized. France has enriched their country through the plundering of other countries. This is a natural and karmic consequence of their actions. The US has racial problems cause the US had slaves, committed genocide on natives, stole land, etc etc. People shouldn't be shocked or surprised.
In second period we finished up talking about Anarchism and then I had them write about their personal philosophy. Bad choice on my part. They don't have a personal philosophy, but what a good time to start thinking about one. Then I read about the French riots with them. I need to do more current events shit. I should make Thursday a current events day. So maybe next quarter, Monday: SSR with typing tutor, Tuesday: Journal Write, Thursday: current events day, Friday: Student led discussions.
In third period we finished up Orientalism, then we read about derogatory Asian names, and finally we read a poem about being Asian American. The poem was written by Joyce Miyamoto but it could have been yesterday. We're coming to the end of school and kids are getting bogged down. I had signup sheets in all of my classes for presentations. But I think I'll have to change things cause we might not have a normal Friday cause of Native American Heritage Month celebration on the last Friday of the quarter.
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