Reflections on Christmas

I'm not Christian. But Christmas is everywhere in America. I understand that. This is a predominately Christian nation. There is the ideal of secularism but not necessarily the reality of it. How very American. Lofty lofty ideals...not so much in reality. But Krishna bless America for having those ideals, cause we can use it like a promissory note. Of course, that promise needs to be exacted, but still it's there.

So here's the thing. AL celebrates Christmas. Not in the Christ-Mass way but in the secular pagan way. The ritual of it. The assurance of it. That's fine. But I don't. And I don't really want to celebrate it. I mean I'm down with what Jesus was all about, but Christmas definitely isn't the embodiment of his values and ideals. Jesus was the cat that went around and hung out with all the people at the bottom of society. The beggars, lepers, prostitutes and tax collectors. He said you can't serve both God and Mammon. He overturned money changers' tables in the temple. He said God judges us by how we treat the least among us. He turned water into wine making him a party favorite. He said don't judge others lest you be judged. When do I ever use the word lest other than when quoting Jesus (or rather the translation of translations compiled into text by the fair and just Roman Empire.) In short, Jesus was down with the people. If he was around now he'd be killed all over again. He was cool. But Christmas now is a perversion of that spirit and his actions. It is an emphasis on his birth rather than how he lived his life. It is a Roman usurpation of Mithra's Day. Old Saint Nick? Christmas Trees?? Fevered Consumerism??? My interpretation of Jesus's life, words, and actions doesn't see Christmas as what he'd want for people. He'd want people to give a damn about people. Not just the people we know, but the people we don't. The people on the bottom of society. He'd want us to live authentic lives. He lived the life that he wanted for others, except for that whole crucifixion thing. That was his cross to carry. That was his thing. Jesus loved everyone like they were his family. What a fucking cool guy he would have been to hang out with.

All this controversy over saying happy holidays instead of merry Christmas is stupid. Christmas is a federal holiday. I'll take a day off for it, no problem. I do feel that having it as a federal holiday is a violation of the 1st amendment. I also know that those in government don't give a rat's ass what I think. The real thing is that the corporates wants to make their money and so they will try to stay as neutral as possible and that pisses off the fundamentalists. The fricking fundamentalists.

I'll stop and think about all the cool revolutionary shit that Jesus did. I'll even wish a Merry Christmas to those who do celebrate it. I just don't want to feel compelled to celebrate it. Obligated. Talk about societal pressure. What do we call people that don't celebrate Christmas? Grinch. Scrooge. Pagan. Could I have some more secularism in government please? Just a bit more. Insert young English Dickensian voice.

PostSecret

I have to put in a plug for one of my favorite websites ever. It's called PostSecret. People make postcards of their inner thoughts and send it to this person that puts them up on the internet. The things that he posts up are so refreshingly honest. The anonymity of it allows for people to reveal what is behind the facade that we create when dealing with society. It knocks me on my ass, when I think about the fucked up shit that I have done to people in my life and then I read a postcard of someone that might have been on the receiving end of similiar actions. I check out this website weekly.

Life

I hope everyone had a Merry Mithra/Happy Solstice/Happy Kwanzaa/Happy Chanukah/Merry Christmas. I've become a Home Depot convert. AL and I painted the office Emerald Lake Green aka Crayola green. We read up on color therapy beforehand and apparently green is good for concentration and calm. We were going to paint it chili pepper red, but wisely decided against it. The paintjob was so-so, but we learned a lot from having done it. I also bought a 5 tiered stand alone shelf that I installed in the storage space we got. Then I hung up bike hooks from the ceiling and now there is a ton of space in our storage unit.

Since we were painting the room we also decided to rearrange it. I've ended my homebase business but I had major remnants of it in the office and this was a time of purging. The business was always a mental/emotional drain on me. I had too much familial karma with the business and it made me miserable. Teaching was a far better though less profitable choice for me. But money isn't everything.

Ever since the wedding things have been pretty crazy and hectic. Teaching is...all consuming. Then throw credentialling classes on top of that. AL and I haven't really had time to just relax and focus on us. This break has been great because it was the first time that AL didn't go back east for the holidays. We just chilled out together. This time together has really made me feel adult and grown up. It's fricking weird. I've moved into a different stage of my life and I can imagine our future together. I was talking with my older friend John and he clued me in to a sobering realization that he had made. He was slowly seeing the generation above him pass away and he was slowly moving towards being the elder in the extended family. What a strange time that will be when I am the oldest generation. My life has always been about youth and being young. This adulthood thing really gives you a sense of mortality.

Hindus believe in 4 stages of life. I am now in the Grihastha (householder) stage. Erik Erikson talked about 8 psychosocial stages of life. According to that, I'm in the young adulthood stage. It's a trip to see one's life as just playing out this formula. I wonder about my ancestors 10 generations back. Did we have ways of thinking in common? Am I trodding in the steps of my ancestors? Did I have an ancestor that was down with the Dao? Was he or she a teacher? Did they oppose the patriarchy and stifling aspects of Chinese culture? Apparently my grandfather was a real hard ass and this is probably where my father gets it from. My brother has also taken on this mentality. How many generations back does this violent angry energy go? Who was the guy or girl that helped to make the following generations mental? Can that transmitted energy end with me and my generation? Can I live a free life?

Funniest search that turned up my blog

So someone in Finland was looking for "Sex rubber clothes" and my blog came up in a search. Funny Finns. Weird though that my blog came up.

Day 113: The Praxis of Pedagogy

I started off Friday with a community building exercise. I had students pull popsicle sticks to create pairs. Then I had students get into those pairs and for the next 7-10 minutes I told them to find out everything that they had in common with their partner. When the time expired I had them circle up and they shared the stuff that they had in common with their partners. After everyone had gone, I asked them questions about the exercise and how they liked finding things in common with their partner. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and wanted to do more of it. I enjoy community building activities too and I think I need to do more of it. Creating a low affective filter (fancy teacher talk for making everyone feel comfortable) is really important when teaching, especially with the kids that I'm working with. If it's one thing that I've learned working with urban youth it's that rapport is everything. If you don't have a relationship with the kids then you can't get shit from them. They won't do shit if they don't think they can trust you. And if you can't control a classroom they won't respect you. The hazing that I went through when I first started... It's like the kids are trying to see if you will stick around when they give you shit. If you do, then some trust gets built.

After the community building exercise, I gave an oral quiz on metacognition. I went around and called on students and asked for a question from one of the 3 elements. It's a serious problem when a kid can't even give me one meta-cognitive question and we've been discussing it for a while. Thankfully, there were more kids that could give me a question then not. Still, this is going to be the foundation of my teaching so I better find more ways to get them to learn metacognitive questions. I dropped the ball on flashcards and so when I get back from break I'm going to make them create flashcards. Then we are going to drill for 3-5 minutes everyday until they know it. I had told them they were going to have a quiz on it and most were happy that I decided not to. They had checked out already and giving a test on Friday would have set myself and them up for failure. It's hard enough to get kids to study for stuff, but a day before a 2 week break...forgetaboutit!

So now I'm on break and still have to finish up a bunch of work for credentialling classes. The problem is that I'm burned out. I'm totally burned out with university and all the classes I'm taking. That on top of being a new high school social studies teacher. This break will hopefully charge up my batteries so that I'll be good to go again.

Day 112: The Praxis of Pedagogy

Good health and happiness to you. For what it's worth, I offer you blessings. How corny is that? Blessings for everyone! Even the terrorists. Terrorists get different blessings, but still a blessing. They get the Jackie Chan blessing to one day sit down and have a drink of tea together. Peace.

Chinese love stories of morality. In Japan Lisa Simpson is how they sell the show. In the US it's Bart and Homer. Lisa is a fascinating character. A child genius surrounded by kitschy Americana. I bet much of the world feels like that. But no one goes off like the French. Bless them for freaking out too. They would know about cultural imperialism. They got that universalist cultural attitude too. Nationalism and the French Revolution anyone. The French empire. I learned French in middle school. What the fuck does a Chinese kid living in the Bay need French for? Give me an Asian language or Spanish or Portuguese. I think French hating Americans are secretly jealous that French does sound so cool. I admit it. The shit is smooth. Like the Merovingian in the Matrix that loves to swear in French cause it's like wiping his ass with silk.

So today I read Disposable People with my first period class. I just read it to them and they followed along. In 2nd and 3rd I read "The Second Coming" by WB Yeats. This was the poem that Chinua Achebe got the name for his book "Things Fall Apart." I got every kid in the class to interpret something in that poem. I just asked them the right questions. It fucking rocked. I stressed to them that I wanted them to decode things. Break it down. Be in on the code the secret. The 411. Then I had them draw me a picture of how they imaged the poem. Visualize the poem. I'm trying to get to the other types of intelligences. I would have hated that shit in school. I hated arts and craft and drawing and all that shit. But it was no doubt enrichening for the sheer and simple fact that I knew I could never make a living doing arts and craft. It's not my gig. I'm going to have to bring in the Book on CD of Things Fall Apart so that I'm not reading all the time. I don't know how to pronounce those African names. Seriously. It's some hard shit. I know I'm mangling it.

After doing that shit, I put up a transparency that I made of the 3 elements and various questions. Then I paired students up and had them group the metacognition questions onto a piece of paper that they had folded up into 3 sections. At the end of class, I went over the questions and grouped it with them. I also told them there was going to be a test on metacognition tomorrow. But I don't think I'll give it to them. I think postponing it will be good for me and them. Why give myself more to grade over break and I'll give them more time to learn it later. Plus telling them that there was going to be a test will have forced some to study, so at least they'll get it.

Good health and happiness to you.

Day 110-111: The Praxis of Pedagogy

So on Tuesday I had the psychosocial test in all my classes. I started off with letting kids study for 10 minutes. I know that studying for 10 minutes isn't really going to help them but it made them feel better so whatever. After test I gave out a reading on pros and cons of the death penalty. After they read it, I had a seminar with them on it. First period was dead. 2nd period better and 3rd period was the most active. One thing that I did differently from 1st to 2nd was hand out the reading right after the test. In 1st period I didn't until they all finished. It's the little things like that to make the classes go faster. But right after tests they have just flushed their brains of knowledge. Some more than others but anyways. I think those are the perfect time for seminars. Gets them talking. But classes aren't open to each other yet. People still feel nervous speaking up. There so much in the details. Coordinating a classroom full of people. When done properly it's an orchestration. When done poorly... Lord of the Flies. I'm not fucking kidding. Kids are interesting. The kids I work with are physically bigger than me, but they are just kids. Thinking about Erikson, adolescents are now developing as a result of what they do and not what is done to them. What a challenge. The emotional development. Adolescents are just developing other relationships in a much more physical and emotional way. I've had my heart broken once by a girl and that rocked me. I mean I was out of control heartbroken. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't eat. Pathetic really. I never wanted to be hurt like that by a person ever again, but the quality of my life is better for having experienced it. I remember having felt like a jack-o-lantern. Like someone had cut the top off my heart and dug the insides out and put the top back on. Just empty inside. But you heal and refill the tank and look for alternative energy sources that won't deplete you and destroy the environment around you. How's that for a lot of metaphors. My relationship with my wife is the most healthy relationship I've ever had. It's ridiculously good on a physical, mental, and emotional level. But they aren't going through that. They are white belts. I'm just got my black, not even close to the 3rd degree.

It would be interesting to create some sort of ritual thing in my class. Some representation like a belt in martial arts. Some way to signify having achieved mentally. Students could go up in rank. However, I wouldn't want to create an environment where those that felt bad academically felt worse. Perhaps a rank through effort. I don't know I'll think of it. Thinking about Erikson and rites of passage is interesting. Joseph Campbell lamented about the lack of rites of passage in America. Getting trashed and puking when you turn 21 just doesn't seem quite so cool. I can get trashed!!!! Now I'm a man!!!! YEEEAAAAHHH!!!

So today was Meta and Journalism. In Meta, we read with them the philosophic statement from our school. The philosophy is in 3 paragraphs. The first paragraph states the problem of the haves vs. the have-nots. The second states the symptoms of this problems in innercity America. The 3rd paragraph states what the school is trying to do to address those problems. I read the whole thing with them and then had them fold a piece of paper into 3. Then they drew or wrote what each paragraph was about. However, the third one we also asked what their vision for the school was. After they did this we shared. Then in the remaining time we talked about community and decided on a community service project.

In Journalism, Jeremy and I laid out what students needed to do and then we told them that they would work in their departments and we would meet up at the beginning of the 2nd hour. It was a productive session but it has to move beyond the planning sessions. Only 2 writers out of 6 turned in anything. Our production crew have things going. It's the writers that don't have anything. In the beginning of the 2nd hour we decided that students would try to get businesses to contribute $10 or buy a business card ad space for $10. We also scaled down production run to 100. That may still be ambitious. We'll see how everything goes. I don't think students realize how fast the production date is going to come up on them. Whatever the case, this is turning out to be a fun class.

Day 109: The Praxis of Pedagogy

Oh my God! Here I am again. It's 4:00 in the morning and I have no business being up. I thought I had kicked this early morning wakeup habit but here I am again. Part of the reason I went to bed so early last night was because I'm fighting off an illness. My wife has been sick all weekend and I've been teetering on the brink of full blown illin'. I know exactly what's going to happen too. I'm going to make it to the winter break and then just get laid out. That's the way it goes. My body just has enough gas to get me to the break and then it's over. It's a shitty way to start the break. That's the thing with being a teacher that they don't tell you about. Illness. Kids are vectors. All they do is carry disease from place to place with their poor hygiene habits. When I first started teaching at the elementary school level I would get crazy sick. Little kids are even dirtier and will get you even sicker. But apparently after a few years of getting crazy sick your body adjusts and you don't get sick that often. However, I'm starting to question that considering my wife has been teaching for like 7 years and is still getting sick.

Anyways, in my classes yesterday I started off with a short SSR and then I counted students off 1 & 2 and broke them into groups. In these groups, I handed out the study questions for the test and had them work together to come up with the answers.

While they were doing that I called students up and gave out their student ID numbers. I posted a list of grades with student ID numbers in the back of the class so students can check their grades on a regular basis. That is going to be one of my goals this quarter. Last quarter, I really wanted to get discipline down and I feel that I got that going. Knock on wood. This quarter I need to work on keeping up with grading shit. I hate grading. It's a pain in the ass. My least favorite part of the job without a doubt. But putting things off doesn't help me or the students, so I need to do a better job with that. I don't have many assignments so far so most students had really good grades. One student that had an A commented that he had never seen his grade at an A before. Sad. Hopefully seeing their grade on a more consistent basis will provide more motivation to do things to raise up their grades or keep them good. Hopefully.

While they were coming up with answers for the study questions I also collected their meta-cognitive plan of action. Meta-cognition as I'm teaching it has 3 elements. A before, during and after. I assigned over the weekend the before part. This homework assignment was also points on their test. So it was a homework assignment slash take home test. Sadly, I only got about half of the assignments even when I gave them by the end of the day to turn it in. Their homework/take home test points for today is to do the during part of meta-cognition. On the test I'll have the after part of meta-cognition. This is not a hard assignment. There are basically about 5 questions for each element. 5 questions about their own thinking. All they have to do is write down what they are thinking. Not even an essay. I was accepting short answers. Shit I was accepting pretty much anything. Turn something in.

So after about 20-25 minutes of group studying we played the rock-paper-scissors game in teams. I told classes that whatever team that won would get extra credit points. My 1st and 2nd period classes tied but in the 3rd period class one team got slaughtered. We'll see how meta-cognition works for them. I'm going to make this another goal in my class and have them do meta-cognition stuff for every test.

So we have a gang problem in my school. I work at an inner city urban school so it's not surprising. Nortenos vs. Surenos. But they aren't the problem. There is another group of kids that have started their own gang. This new gang is composed of the outcastes in the school. This gang worries me more than the other gangs. A lot of kids in the Nortenos and the Surenos are trying to get out of gangs. They deal with real daily violence. They come to my school because we have a zero tolerance fight policy and they feel safe there. This new gang has a bunch of kids that need to prove themselves. A lot of kids that don't deal with the daily violence that the real gang members deal with. Plus, talking with the school counselor and my own general observations tells me that these kids are brimming with anger. 2 words pop into my mind. Can you guess them? Trenchcoat mafia. But I doubt that most of those kids will be coming back next year so hopefully we can break up this little group.

Day 106-108: The Praxis of Pedagogy

On Wednesday, I had meta and journalism with Jeremy. Not a single kid did the homework assignment. The assignment was to get all the staff members to sign their names on a treasure hunt. 10 staff members. An entire week. More than half the students are taking the class again. What the fuck??? Talk about fucking frustrating. The task really doesn't consume much brain power. You nicely ask a teacher to sign. Anyways, after that we broke students up into pairs and had them come up with definitions for community. Then we took the definition and synthesized it to make one definition. After this we had students make a list of the good and bad things about their community. 5 minutes later we talked about the list and then talked about how people outside of their community viewed it. We didn't get to finish this because we had this great guest speaker come in and talk about the prison industrial complex. She is part of an organization called "Books not bars" that is trying to shut down the CYA. I've seen her presentation before and it's always good. At first the kids weren't really receptive but then she soon gets them into it. It is an incredibly disturbing fact that the state of california spends more on prison inmates than on educating kids. It's just a clear example of profit before justice.

In Journalism, our student editor had kids do a deadline project so they would get the feel of a deadline. Too bad homework doesn' t have the same effect. Next, we had students decide on the size of the zine, and after we told them about the various departments they chose 3 jobs in the zine they wanted. They really seem to be into this project but I just hope they follow through with it. It's great having a student editor cause she has far more invested into it then Jeremy or me. Our idea is to really have it student led with jeremy and I playing consulting roles. We provide a structure and a wider outlook, they produce the product. In my opinion, this is one of the ideals of education. As Bruce Lee would say, "It is like a finger pointing to the moon. don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

On Thursday, I started off 1st period with a read along to the book "Disposable People." The kids were blown away to find out that there was modern slavery. As we finished this up, I had one of the mentor teachers from my credentialling class come in and observe me first period. It was totally unexpected and totally sucked shit. Getting observed makes me really nervous. Then when I tried to organize the students into 2 concentric circles, they were totally lost. In the concentric circles, I had outside student tell inside students and vice versa things about Erik Erikson and the psychosocial stages of development. The silence was deafening. To make matters worse, when I moved to the next task I totally couldn't find the handouts that I had copied. This had to have gone on for a good 2 or 3 minutes. You know when you have a mini-panic attack that starts in the middle of your chest and you're like "Shit, fuck, shit, fuck, shit!!!" Luckily, I found the work and a crisis was abated. The handout was on Meta-Cognition and it's elements. I want them to think of doing things with a plan of action. In order to explain the plan of action I related it to trying to pick up on a girl that you like. You got to have a plan of action before you approach the girl. Then, when you are executing the plan you have to constantly evaluate the plan. How am I doing? Is what I'm saying to her working. After I laid out my pickup scenario, I would lay out how to make a plan of action for learning information to take a test. 1st period ended on this.

In 2nd and 3rd period, I started read along with "The Jungle Commission" by Jomo Kenyatta. It's this great allegory about colonialism. At first the kids didn't understand it. But then I started to break things down with them and they started to get it. I'm getting better at providing students the space to make the necessary mental connections, but I still sometimes give them too much information. The story of European colonialism in Africa is much the same as European colonialism in North and South America. Native people getting fucked over big time. My 3rd period class rocks. What a great bunch. They get into the activities and they are eager to answer questions. I even got one of the tough gang member kids to be into things. He's a good kid and one of the things I did was to acknowledge that from the beginning and agree/praise the statements he would make. Now he volunteers to speak up and show his intelligence. It fucking rocks.

Today...was Friday. I'm just happy for that. In all my classes, I started off with a "What's in your wallet" activity. I paired students up and they showed and explained to each other an object of importance that they carry with them. Then the pairs got up and introduced the other person and their objects. I think it will be really important and will pay off in the long run to do these community building activities and games every Friday. Anyways, after that I finished up talking about meta-cognition and evaluating your plan of action. Using the previous partner, I had students come up with 8 good questions on psychosocial development that I would use on the test. I told them that if I used their question on the test I would give them extra credit. I assigned them homework to come up with a plan of action for getting an A on the test. I told them that on Monday their homework would be to wrute up the monitoring and maintaining their plan of action. Finally, on Tuesday I would have the evaluation of their plan on the test. I also told them the homework wasn't normal homework but really a takehome part of the test. Doing the homework would actually give them points on the test. I also gave students 3 notecards to make flashcards on the 3 elements to meta-cognition. So they will be using meta-cognition to learn about meta-cognition and psychosocial development. I love it! It's delicious.

Day 105: The Praxis of Pedagogy

I have no idea what I'm doing up this early. This is the second time in a row where I've gone to bed early and woken up early. I hope this isn't a start of a disturbing trend. I've ALWAYS been a night person. I don't want to become one of those...gasp...morning people. They are all weird freaks that are far too peppy in the morning. I've always secretly...ok not so secretly hated morning people. My wife is a morning person and yet I still married her. However, she's learned not to talk to me too much in the morning. She only asks questions I can grunt no or grunt yes to. Anyways, today I'm totally up.

Ok. So yesterday I started off with journal writes. I asked students to think about their school experience and tell me study skills that they learned that worked and didn't work for them. Then I asked them to tell me about a project or time in school where they were successful and what did they do that made that so successful. Finally, I asked what study skills could they apply to school right now to make themselves more successful. After they wrote I asked for people to talk about what they wrote. It was sad to hear some students that feel they have never had a successful time or project in school. This is the situation that I'm facing. This journal write was to be the intro to talking to them about meta-cognition. However, I didn't get to that cause I needed to finish up psychosocial development. I did total physical response and had them stand up if they agreed with the answer. I think I'll have to warm up to this one cause some students just sat there cause they didn't want to do anything so I don't know if they don't know the answer or are just lazy. Anyways, they seemed to be into the adolescent phase especially when I was talking about rites of passage. I focused on the particular rite of passage of turning 21. Everywhere you go people buy you drinks and you drink to excess. And when you're on the corner puking your brains out people just say, "oh he's turned 21, it's ok." Strange. Class ended relatively perfectly when I finished the last stage. The classes seem to be doing ok. Discipline doesn't seem to be a problem. Now getting work done...

Day 104: The Praxis of Pedagogy

On Monday I started off all the classes with SSR. While it's been recommended that I read with the students during this time, I used the time to do some basic prep work. I got 5 classes that I have to prep for with no prep time in school so I gotta do it when I can. That means afterschool and sometimes during school. Sometimes I feel like I've been put into a situation that is setting me up for failure. We have a staff of 8 teachers and half of us are new teachers. People are overwhelmed and if we keep this up we will be burned out soon. To help matters I listen to the wise words of a staff member that has been there 30 years. "Drink heavily!" she said.

After SSR, I had students write on a piece of paper who the most important people were in their lives from birth to 18 months, 18 months to 3 years, 3 years to 5 years, 6-12 years, and now. Next, they wrote about what their lives were like (were they happy or sad, what was important to them, and what memory were they most proud of) during those time periods. Then I paired them up and had them share with their partner what they wrote. I'm really trying to do a lot more paired work and student to student interaction this quarter. After they shared with each other I called on people to share with the class. I got a lot of good answers and they really wanted to share the moments they were most proud of. I ask a lot of personal questions, but they put it out there. It's pretty cool. This was my intro into Erik Erikson and psychosocial development. The reason that I want them to study Erikson is that I want them to understand that they are in a stage of development right now. What they do now affects their future and they are still growing. In relation to history and multicultural literature, I want to be able to analyze people in history and characters in books using some basic psychology. If they learn that people act in certain ways because of past social experiences, then perhaps history and characters in books will make more sense. They really seemed to be into this. When I was their age, I found it incredibly interesting how humans worked. The idea that there was some explanation as to why life was so crazy helped me out a lot. Classes ended mostly around play age 3-5.

Day 102-103 Praxis of Pedagogy

Thursday was the first day of regular school. I totally wasn't ready. Didn't have my attendance sheet. Fucking ridiculous. Monday and Tuesday I spent scheduling my CTM into classes and meeting with their parents. 3 hr plus meetings. Bureaucratic paper nightmare. Doing all the shit to get ready. Wednesday after school I had to go to credentialling classes.

So in all my classes I started off with a talking about classroom norms and expectations. There are some kids that I am concerned about behavior/discipline wise. 2 kids we had in for staff meeting. One of the kids I finally recognized what the look was on his face at staff meeting. Contempt. He seems to have a general contempt for everyone including his mother. If he becomes a problem, I'll have to call him on that. After the classroom norms, I had them do "I am" poems. Then I paired them up and they read their poems to their partner. Finally, I had volunteers get up and read their poems. All 3 classes ended with me explaining meta-cognition and how that is going to be a part of how classes are taught. I'm really going to try and get kids to think about their thinking. That will really fuck with their heads.

On Friday it was cool cause all 3 of my classes got to see performances of the "Theatre of the Oppressed." It's this cool organization that performs a piece about military recruiters. The first time around they perform the entire sketch. The second time around, students can call freeze and then add a character or replace a character and interact with the scene. This helps students problem solve and come up with alternative endings to the scene. I was impressed with some of the interventions and scene replacements. The troupe was very cool and the students really seemed to enjoy it. It really made my Friday a million times easier too. At the end of the day, I hand wrote report cards. We have easy grade pro and we're going to have everyone using it this quarter, so no more of this stupid handwritten shit ever again. Yippee!!!!