tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80361042024-03-07T00:50:43.823-08:00SerendipityI believe that societal ills often affect the most vulnerable populations first.
That being said...this is a blog of my thoughts and reflections on life, love, teaching high school, and whatever other crap I think of.Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.comBlogger321125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-3336993422957780272010-02-25T21:23:00.000-08:002010-02-25T21:23:21.069-08:00I just wanna...dance!!!<span style="color: lime;">I still got work to do to make people happy. I was talking to my Native American coworker, BY, about how to make this situation about the circles better with the Native community and our students. One of the we decided to do was not talk to the students because we don't want to put them in the middle of it. Good call by everyone else. In my stupid exuberance, I started to talk to some of the kids that had written letters and explain my position and try to allay any fears or reservations they might have. Anyways, he says that I should talk to the one of the mothers of our students that is an alumni and an activist in the local Native community. Also to talk to two members of the community that work with the school and our students. </span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">We get to talking some more and I find out more of what is ruffling feathers in the Native community. Apparently there was a RJ training that happened at a hotel located at the desecrated Shellmound site in Emeryville. Ouch! Also, BY again brought up some lady that the organization said was sundancer, sweat lodge keeper and a leader in the Native community that the local Natives didn't know. This is the lady that he said gave him that Ward Churchill feel (Local Natives here question Churchill's Nativeness <i>I'm making up words here</i>) I was also getting the vibe that why was the RJ organization outsourcing when there is a Native community here doing circles and a relationship hadn't been built here. I think that right now we're under a microscope and everything that is done is being hyperexamined and scrutinized. Then there is the inevitability of the "telephone game" where things get embellished or misconstrued. </span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">To make things whole again, we gotta have a a sitdown and talk to some people. All I want to do is have restorative justice for my students and the people around me. But we fucked up the execution of the process and pissed off some people that hold the circle really sacred. If I could get to the restorative part without circles I'd do it. I'll do whatever is necessary to get some RJ. Stand on one leg and hop? What you want? But this issue of cultural appropriation and sensitivity is bigger than me and I have to help be a bridge between the local Native community and the RJ organization. Also, we got to make it right for our Native students at the school. I just want to get back to the process of helping students get to that restorative justice place. Circles are a process towards liberation for me and it drives me crazy that everything can't be smoother. This is meta-restorative justice. Our RJ needs some RJ! </span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-31510470335834875572010-02-21T15:45:00.000-08:002010-02-21T15:45:13.909-08:00Circles now called community dialogue<span style="color: red;">So on Friday my coworker, LS, ran the staff circle. It was attended by JC, GB, NL, CFG, and me. I have to say that LS did a great job running that circle. She started off reading a poem called Wild Geese and then we did the check in. Along with how we are doing she asked what did we want to be when we were younger. Me...I wanted to be Curly from the 3 Stooges. When I was in elementary school I was Curly Crazy. I would rush home from school to watch the Stooges and I could imitate all of Curly's noises and gesture. "I'm a victim of circumstance!" "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk" "OH Wise Guy!" </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">So the big topic was talking about what was going on with RJ and what were we going to call the circles if we weren't going to call them circles anymore. I conveyed my talk with BY to the staff and how he would be ok if we just called the circles something else. As I've said before, I'm fine with calling it whatever as long as we can do them. We went around discussing how we felt about the change and what was going on at our school. People voiced their displeasure about having to change things. In particular, JC thought it was bullshit that we had to change anything and thought it was lame that we had to use different terminology. CFG commented that her job was tied to restorative justice and in particular with circles as the process to get there. GB understood where BY was coming from and said what I've said before that this is a bellwether of things to come. The Native students that we work with are part of the Native community in this area. We have to make sure that the relationship between the Native Community and us are cool. When the talking piece got back to me, I actually found myself in the ironic position of defending BY and the native students' views. This is something sacred to the students and BY and we need to be sensitive to that, especially considering the history of the US and Native Americans. With the history of genocide and assimilation, we don't need to be viewed as appropriating their culture for our uses. For as much talk as I do about oppression, I don't want to be oppressive. One of the better quotes I've read recently is, "</span><span style="color: red;">One does not need to denigrate that which is holy to others, in order to emphasise the sanctity of the freedom of speech." (Undskyld Muhammed) from a facebook page apologizing for the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Muhammed. We want to be restorative, but we're not doing restorative justice when we face a situation where we are being oppressive to others. This discussion lasted two rounds with everyone having their say about the situation. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">After hearing where we were at, we decided to talk about what our new name for the circle process would be. GB really wanted the term "community" in the name and I wanted something like forum or dialogue. LS synthesized our ideas and now the new name is community dialogue. The talking piece we will call the one mic and we will actually have to figure out what we will call our circlekeepers. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">LS ended the dialogue with asking us what got us into doing the work that we are doing and to share a story. Interestingly, GB, LS, and CFG all got into things by first doing prison work. NL had a family history of math teachers so it just seemed genetically fitting. Me? I got into doing this thing while working at an afterschool program. I was running my promotional items business and started doing an afterschool thing because the business was sucking my soul dry. I found that when I was working with the kids I was happy and joyful and I felt my interactions had meaning. The kids were happy to see me, gave me hugs, and I loved what I was doing. Why ever then did I go to teach high school? </span><br />
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</div>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-62934754326258099612010-02-17T22:19:00.000-08:002010-02-17T22:19:39.861-08:00A shitty day with a good ending<span style="color: red;">So Tuesday was a shitty day. I was tired and my classes sucked. Student energy was low and so was I. So 3:30 comes around and I am ready to get the fuck outta Dodge. As I'm sitting in the office, I strike up a conversation with BY my Native American coworker. I asked him if his position on RJ circles was set in stone or was there wriggle room. <i>Backstory: He didn't like the way that circles were being done at the school and he had gotten complaints from the Native students as well. As a result, he did not want to participate in circles anymore.</i> Knowing that he had collected letters of complaint from the Native students, I asked to read the letters. All the students described the disrespectful nature of the circles and unhappiness that they weren't being done correctly. I stated that I agreed with the students and that we had stopped doing our weekly CTM circles as a result. Now we were doing voluntary circles more in line with the philosophy of restorative justice. I said that we needed to talk to the Native students and find out how they felt now that we had changed up the way that we did our circles. Yet, BY still had reservations. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">I probed him more to find out his problems with our circles. I come to find out that he participates frequently in circles and that he was even married in a circle. For him, circles are a religious ceremony and he expects to be smudged and pass the pipe around. I noted to him that I would feel uncomfortable doing that. Also, he was having some problems with our RJ coordinator, CFG. He preferred our previous coordinator and the person that trained us, RA. He felt that she did circles with an appropriate amount of ceremony and solemnity. I agreed with him that RA was a very effective and good circlekeeper and coordinator, but that CFG also had things to offer. I stated that I think the problem was that CFG had some big shoes to fill and that she had come to the school when the program was being very poorly run. CFG's style is vastly different from RA and it wasn't fair to judge her based on RA. I would say that RA's style of circle keeping is more like a conductor while CFG is more like an emcee. Both have their places, but I understood that people preferred the RA's style and experience. I recognized and validated his concerns with CFG, but reiterated my support for her. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">However, I expressed my strong commitment to restorative justice and my belief in it. He agreed with me that RJ was a great thing but he didn't like the way that we were doing circles. I told him that I believed that circles were a means to an end. I used the Buddhist quote of Buddhism being a raft to cross a river but that once you crossed the river you discarded the raft. I also used Bruce Lee's quote from Enter the Dragon, "It is like a finger pointing to the moon, don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory." To me, circles are just a finger pointing to the moon and not the end itself. To me it was just a practice to actuate my values and beliefs. What matters most to me is the effect that circles have on the students and not necessarily circles themselves. I gave him the example of the student BC that we just had a circle with and how he was able to sit still and respectfully for 2 hours. Circles helped to create the environment where he was able to do that. I believe that circles create a space where people can experience true democracy, egalitarianism, right modeling of appropriate behavior and accountability. I asked him what should we do instead if he believed in RJ but wasn't down with circles. He brought up something that one Native student said, "Why don't we just call it squares?" I said I'll sit in a square, ellipse, oval, or whatever. I asked if we just called it a forum would that be better. He said that if we did that he would feel better about it. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">What was so important was that we can continue with the restorative justice work at the school we just were going to call it something else. Names are important. If calling the same thing something else makes BY happy then I am happy to do it. We can call the talking piece the one mic whatever. Let's just get restored.</span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-92071474285279710092010-02-16T01:33:00.000-08:002010-02-16T01:34:31.599-08:00BC's circleOn Thursday the 11th, we had another circle for one male African American student, BC. BC is a great kid. Dynamic, positive, loud, with a lot of leadership qualities. However, he lacks a lot of self control and as a result is a disruption to classes and himself. I wanted to have a circle for him because his unwanted and sometimes wanted advances from our girls was going to get him into trouble. His interactions with females are totally inappropriate for a school environment and will get himself thrown out if his behavior doesn't change.<br />
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Before the circle happened, BC was experiencing a lot of anxiety. He was feeling that it was going to be a bashing thing and that he was going to yelled at or called out. He was trying what he could to get out of it. Finally, I just talked to to him directly and told him that it was voluntary and that he didn't have to go to it if he didn't want to but I wanted him to. We have a good rapport and so when he was assured by me that it was going to be cool he showed up. AV and JC from staff showed up and UL and MH showed up from the after school. 2 of his friends showed up, QT and MM. Unfortunately, they couldn't stay for the whole thing.<br />
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I started off the circle by reminding everyone that this was not to be a reprimanding circle. This was not a circle of blame but one of concern. Then I opened with reading from chapter 33 of the Dao De Jing. This is perhaps one of the most important philosophical passages in my life. This chapter has done a lot to influence my life and I had shared it with BC in summer school.<br />
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After that we just did the check in and created a list of agreements. It was important in the agreements/guidelines that we stressed that we were coming from a place of caring and concern. This all went very smoothly like previous circle had. Then my opening question was, "What was something that you liked about BC that brought you here to this circle?" Everyone recounted stories about the energy that he brings to the environment and how much we liked having him as a student. Couching it in this framework I used that to segue into our concerns. His sexual harassment of students, his uncontrolled behavior in class, and his lack of academic effort were all put on the table in what I think was a very gentle way. We actually had 3 rounds of talking about the situation and putting things on the table. BC's dad is in jail. He's a lifer. BC's been shot. He has a crazy life, but he's still maintained a very positive affect. He's been diagnosed with ADHD. <i>I really wonder about this. I read that kids of color are sometimes over medicated and I would say that in many (not all) cases that I've seen and experienced. Sometimes teenagers are just full of energy and if you had the lives that many of them do, you'd be a bit crazy too. </i>But regarding the ADHD, BC sat through the entire 2 hours speaking when it was appropriate and calm and still. He wasn't walking all around or anything. If anything AV and I were the ones getting up out of the chair. I said that I see BC having to make some very serious choices soon. This kid in my opinion is either going to be a hero or a zero. His personality doesn't really have a middle ground. He is either going to be a force for good or bad. We all prodded him to bring out his good side. BC brought up his concerns that his mom was sad at his situation and that he kept feeling like he would take 1 step forward and ten steps back. He also recognized the need to push himself. We addressed his sexual harassment of females and I had brought up the idea with him before that he would not want to have any guy talk to his sister or mother the way that he talked to women. We stressed that he needed to treat women like they were his sister or his mother. <br />
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After laying out the situation, we talked about the impact of BC's behavior and how it's affected us and left us feeling. This was also on a positive note as we talked about all the things that we liked about him, but everyone seemed to agree that we were tired. It was work having to work with him. The constant shushing and controlling detracted from the education of the others around him.<br />
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When we talked about responsibility we really talked about the responsibility that BC has to himself. UL stressed his need for insight and we all stressed the need for discipline. But discipline as a practice not as a punishment. When we talked about needs and what did we need from BC, we mainly talked about the need for self control. He needed to act the way that he was acting in circle in class.<br />
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When we got to solutions and what specific things that BC was going to do to make things better he had very vague answers. He said that he was going to take in everything and reflect. He was going to go to afterschool rigor room more and that he was going to stay away from all the girls. We just all laughed at the last thing about the girls because it was totally unreasonable and for him impossible. He needed to exercise control not avoidance. It was at this point that I unfortunately had to leave to take another student to a meeting. I had AV finish it up for me with only UL and MH left. <br />
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But before I had left and through our talk I stressed the need for BC to do some practice. I've talked to him about going to a vipassana meditation class after school with me. I've been looking for a place to practice. I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm down with the Buddhist idea of transforming suffering. I've been feeling that I need a community of practitioners that I feel comfortable with, but it's so hard to find a place were I can be cool with the people. I checked out this place online that in between home and work. It was later on that night and was a sitting group for people of color. <br />
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When I left the circle to take my other student to a meeting it was 5pm and that meeting lasted about 1hr 15 min. Then I headed over to the meditation group and called up BC to come and meet me. He did but not before I talked to his momma and she tore into me. She got on and started yelling that I needed to tell her beforehand what we were doing (she was right) and that she needed to know what her baby was going to because for all she knew it could be devil worship (which it wasn't). I calmed her down and assured her that everything would be fine and she allowed BC to go. He came and he did a sitting meditation for 1 hr and he never spoke out or got up and moved around. The kid has far more self control than he displays or is given credit for, but he just doesn't practice.<br />
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For the RJ program to work, the students and staff need to practice and have a practice.Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-49558013540184520882010-02-11T23:50:00.000-08:002010-02-11T23:51:51.853-08:00Staff circle<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: lime;">On Monday, we had another staff circle with AV running it. I was excited about this because he was taking the initiative and we were getting more staff buy in on the circles. I mean we all got trained in it and were all behind it so it was good to see that people still believed in the process. I think that people realizing that we had to make it happen collectively for it to work. The process of restorative justice is a commitment. It is a different way of living. This was also a meeting that included all of the teachers on staff. This was the first time to happen since we started rebooting the circles.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: lime;">AV started with asking questions as to how we would run staff circles and when. A problem that I saw was that everyone was having a say but there was no one taking notes other than me and so no consensus was actually made. We said what we wanted to the answers but we didn't actually make any decisions about them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: lime;">As we moved on, the circle invariably moved to a venting session. It's telling that our circles keep becoming a venting session. Teachers are frustrated. The students are dropping out like flies. This time of the year is always very hard for people. Winter is always a hard time. Christmas heightens the awareness of students' disparity. The sun ain't out. SAD Seasonal affective disorder. LOL! It was around this time that all the craziness was going on last year. Winter is a fucked up quarter. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: lime;">We also recognized that the staff circle was incomplete without our principal and BY. For RJ to work at our school we need complete buy in and not having BY a part of RJ is a serious problem. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: lime;">Probably one of the best things that came out of the circle was our recognition that we have to hang out more as a staff. When our school works best, we are a family. RJ is a way for our family to hang out. Also, it was a way of interacting with a new staff member (NL) that I rarely interact with. </span></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-83842679425737409982010-01-31T21:44:00.000-08:002010-02-07T21:54:20.392-08:00Young Men's Restorative Justice Circle<span style="color: red;">On Thursday, I did my first circle focusing in on one student. This circle was done the way that circles are supposed to be done. It was composed only of guys and was for the one student (IF) that I had written about before. Since one of the problems with circles that we had been having was that we mandated it, this circle was totally voluntary. I asked IF, his brother OG, and his friend SBP if he would participate in a circle and they all said yes though SBP had to drop out the day of because he wasn't feeling well. For the adults, I asked his JC, SDS from the afterschool program, and UL and MH from the afterschool tutoring program.<br />
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I started off talking about the purpose of the circle and reminding everyone that they have sat in circle before and to please respect the process. We opened with a rap from UL that set a positive tone and then we did the check-in. From the get go the vibe was really positive. That's the thing when circles are voluntary. People act right because they want to be there. From there we created a set of guidelines that we all wanted to follow. This all flowed very smoothly.<br />
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For my first question, I asked everyone why there were here for IF and what did they like about him. I recounted a story about watching him spit a piece and being impressed because he was the only one up there without notes and the poetry was about love and it was pretty deep. Then everyone told a story about him and when the talking piece got to him I had him say something that he liked about himself. Starting off with all these nice things, we then moved to the issues that we were concerned about. But what was great was that this didn't come from a finger-wagging place, but a place of genuine concern and the difference was obvious. His CTM JC started first and everyone in the circle got to say their concerns. When the talking piece got to him he told of some of his recent problems, but it was done very inarticulately and disjointed. A far cry from his spoken word pieces. It was really important to have his brother OG there, because he was able to express his concern for his brother which seemed that he had never directly done before. Guys aren't so great with the communication so that's understandable. OG was also able to tell his brother's business coming from a place of concern and not it be a snitching thing.<br />
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After we talked about the issues, we talked about the impact and how IF's recent behavior has affected everyone. This was also a place where we were able to express our concern for him but also let him know the effects that it has had on us. This was powerful, because one of the things with teenage boys and this kid in particular is that they have a hard time seeing how their actions affect others. They are so intently focused on themselves that there is a tunnel vision. It's almost a solipsistic thing.<br />
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From there we moved to taking responsibility. Everyone talked about what they felt their responsibilities were to IF and what they would do for him. This was an interesting things to do, because I've never really sat in a circle where we talked about the responsibility component. Reflecting, I see that this really adds to the community and inclusion part of the circle. That everyone takes responsibility for IF and for him to hear that was important. It allows us to build that web of relationships. It helps to break that teenage egocentrism.<br />
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Next I asked about what were the needs of the people in the circle. This was interesting, because then it made IF think about what he needed to do for the people around him. Once again, I don't think that he ever thought about this. He's had everyone controlling his life and telling him what to do. In some ways, he's been living in a reactionary mode, as most teenagers do. To hear what people needed from him in a non-forceful punishing way was a departure from most of his adult interactions. I think one of the things that makes restorative justice work is that it is totally different from most people's typical experiences. Plus the restorative version of justice immediately strikes a chord in people's lives that are used to the punitive version. The values of restorative justice are the values that we create in the circle.<br />
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After talking about the needs, we moved to solutions. I asked what was he going to specifically do to better this situation. He talked about the things that he needed to do (e.g. talk to people, not hold things in, work harder, get his hours off). What was incredibly amazing and powerful about this was that he had found his voice. He was talking in complete sentences and it made sense. He was no longer mumbling one word answers bouncing from thought to thought. It was also great to hear him say what he wanted to do to make things better instead of him just saying the "right" shit because he wanted to get people off his back. He words rang truer and hopefully they will be. Next we asked if this would be enough for the people in the circle. We all agreed that if IF did what he said he wanted to do that that would be enough.<br />
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Finally, I asked if anything was missing or there were any last words. And for the closing, I asked everyone to share how they were feeling at the end of the circle. That was the way that circles are supposed to be run and organized. It was a vastly different experience and all the participants agreed.<br />
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The next day I talked to the adult participants and they were all really happy to be a part of the circle and want to do more. JC texted me and said now that he's been through it, he understands the process better. This has got me juiced to do more circles and I've got others that want to participate.<br />
</span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-90805054061535925152010-01-27T00:10:00.000-08:002010-01-27T01:42:53.529-08:00The Rebirth of Circle<span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">Since my last post, we've had two staff circles. One on Friday the 22nd and one on the 25th. Since then, I've learned to not schedule circles on Fridays. People are just done with the week and want to get out. Sitting mindfully in circles requires discipline and dedication. The meeting on the Friday was good because there were returning faces, (LS, CFG, and me) and then there were two different people (BS and SDS). NL and JC just had to cut out. I understood. SDS has never sat in a circle before and so it was good to bring him in and have him get acquainted with the process. The circle was really positive and we seemed to make a commitment to have more circles among the staff and also that we needed to have a rebirth of circles. We needed to make the process more organic and less forced....we needed to get staff into circles.<br /><br />I can tell my Native American coworker, BY, is totally checked out of circles. An interesting problem has occurred. <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Backstory: </span></span>BY was saying that the Native kids at our school were offended by the circles and that they didn't want to do them. Circles were sacred to their religion and students' misbehavior and disrespect within the circles were disrespectful to them. BY was obviously also not into them at all. He and some students spoke with other leaders in the local Native community and they came by the school to sit in the circle. CFG is new to the school and was running the circle and found that everyone just shut down. She felt like she got backdoored and the circle police was brought in on her. Then after a staff meeting some of us were sitting around and discussing the state of circles and we decided to scrap the Thursday circles that we had been doing with the kids. The problem was that CFG wasn't there and no one told her about it until Thursday. She had planned to do things with the students and felt backdoored again.<br /><br />Anyways, after all this had happened is when we started to do staff circles again. I should note that CFG is our new restorative justice site coordinator, so it was kind of fucked up the situations that she has been placed in.<br /><br />The circle that we had this last Monday was larger and so that was positive. I was able to bring in the 2 tutors and their site coordinator from the afterschool program and AV showed up. This one was again attended by LS, BS, SDS, CFG, NL, JC, and I. The more people that we can get involved in the circles program the better. I want to bring one of the Black male tutors, UL, into the community and culture of the school and he seems open to it. He has developed a rapport with a number of the Black kids and they need a positive role model like he is. He is also interested in sitting in circle with JC and me when we have one with the young black kid, IF, I spoke of before.<br /><br />So now circles are going to be more organic. My goal is to get the teachers to start leading them. I had left the Monday circle early to go to another meeting and asked AV what he had thought of the remainder of the circle. He said he started getting antsy around when I left and I gathered from what he was saying that he thinks CFG talks too much. CFG does have a tendency to speak at length, so I told AV that he should lead the next circle. He said he didn't want to step on any toes and I said I would talk to CFG. She was down for it so AV is going to lead the next one. That AV is willingly going to step up and lead a circle is great news. He can be real pessimistic and cynical sometimes so to have him wanting to lead a circle is good news. It's funny, we got trained in circles about a year ago but it took us until now for the staff to actually start having staff circles. I think that right there was the essence of why it didn't work. Part of what makes circles effective is that it gives self empowerment to the participants. We as a staff gave our power away to "site coordinators" and left things in their hands. Not that the site coordinators weren't or aren't good people. It just that we had to take responsibility for our community and not just expect some outside power to fix things for us. It doesn't work that way where I work. We have to make things happen ourselves. The site coordinators must help us find our own power. <span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-1069094548338308232010-01-15T00:20:00.000-08:002010-01-15T00:48:01.759-08:00Growing pains<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">We've been having some problems with our restorative justice program. The circles have become a chore and students are not liking them. I think perhaps that we have been too ambition with the process and that it hasn't been an organic growth. We have foisted restorative justice circles upon students and told them to go be restorative while we ourselves have not embraced the process as a staff. We are telling students to go and do something that we ourselves do not do. Of course it won't work if that's the case. We had a circle among a few staff today after school and that was the first time that I have sat in circle with the staff pretty much since we got our training. I think there was one time that we tried to do that in the staff meeting but that was it. It was refreshing to be in a circle with people that wanted to be there. I think that we need to change ourselves before we can ask students to change. We need to be the leaders that we want them to be. We have to model the behavior that we would like to see from them. I think that a problem with many of the students is that they either have few models of good behavior or a many models of bad behavior. We would like for them to sit calmly, but they are not used to calm.<br /><br />It was really important for the participating staff to have a forum where they could vent their feelings and concerns and feel heard. We get so busy and caught up in our work that we don't take the time to check in and see how the others are doing. We don't get time to just be with ourselves sometimes. There was a lot of crazy shit that went down yesterday and I found myself scrambling to deal with that and then I worked myself up into a lather.<br /><br />I would like to see circles no longer be a forced dynamic and instead that we as teachers sit in circles together, but also to just take small groups of kids and work with them in a circle together. The circles were meant to be something that was voluntary and by making them nonvoluntary they lose the essence of what they bring to the table.<br /><br />We have this one young Black kid that I think in particular would benefit from circles. He just recently had a staff meeting, hasn't been following through with what he said that he was going to do, brought out a knife in the school and started carving up the table, and doesn't seem to get the ramifications of what he has done. His dad isn't a part of his life as much as he should be and the kid gets high way too much. Throw a possible learning disability on top of that and it's a recipe for disaster. To be able to pull this kid aside and talk together with him I think would be the perfect way of implementing circles. It would be smaller and more intimate to just have him and a few of the teachers and his friends to run the circle. That is the space that I think that we could get some good work done.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-9539890656255978612010-01-02T15:20:00.000-08:002010-01-12T21:50:31.778-08:00Setting up a revocable living trust<span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">So having a kid is a big deal. There are all these things that you have to do to take care of them. One of those things is setting up a revocable living trust. I first heard about a revocable living trust from my </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"> lesbian </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">financial guru, Suze Orman, so I decided to read more up on it. One of the main reasons that people get trusts is to avoid probate fees when you die. Probate attorneys and judges take 4% of your 1st $100,000, 3% of your 2nd $100,000, and 2% of every $100,000 thereafter just to execute your will. Fuck that. A trust essentially bypasses probate. Probate courts can take from 6 months to 3 years to execute your will, while a trust can be executed as soon as you have the death certificate.<br /><br />Another good thing with a trust is that they are much harder to contest than a will. I have two half brothers that I have no contact or relationship with and they could contest a will that I made because they are related to me. Wills are public information while trusts are done privately and confidentially. That way there won't be will-chasers sending "information" to Lil B on what to do with the money.<br /><br />Trusts also allow AL and I to set terms for Lil B to receive his inheritance should anything happen to us. We have it so that he can't receive any money till age 30, has a college degree or some trade school equivalent, and has a stable job more or less depending on the economy. This is an interesting part about a trust and something you can have in place if you know how your child is with money. We also have the exploding turkey scenario about what to do with our estate if an exploding turkey kills AL, Lil B and me. AL is going to give her half to her family while I am going to give my half to Kiva.<br /><br />Also included in the trust is the advance health care directive that states what we want to have happen if either of us or both should become incapacitated. And finally we have three deep lineup of who would care for Lil B if anything should happen to AL and me. So we have it so that AL's mom is first, her brother is second, and her cousins in Hawaii are third. Why no one from my family...cause they are crazy and bad at handling money.<br /><br />There's a reason rich people get trusts and I highly recommend it to anyone that has kids. My attorney cost us $1525 to do the whole thing and $100 for amendments. I checked around with other estate planning attorneys and that is a very competitive price.<br /></span></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-45625669315252201002009-12-28T07:56:00.000-08:002009-12-28T07:56:24.366-08:00Fatherhood and work<span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">I'd rather stay home and hang out with my child than go to work. I love my child more than my work. He is something/someone that I'd totally rather be with than my students. This is one of the most meaningful and fulfilling relationships I have and will ever have in my life. In the Confucian belief system, this is the most important relationship after ruler and subject. <span style="font-style: italic;">Confucius was such a hierarchical suckup! </span>Sorry had to say it.<br /><br />Anyways, I've been using my sick days and taking Wednesdays off to hang with the lil guy. I'll probably only do it a quarter, but this is time well spent. I don't feel that I am lacking anything when I am hanging out with him. It's pretty fucking cool. It is a heavy duty responsibility to raise a child in today's world. It's not something I take lightly. I see the effects of poor parenting on a daily basis. All my male students that don't have fathers in their lives are royally fucked in the head. I call them ships without rudders. They go where the wind blows.<br /><br />I want the best for him. The cat, that I still love, has been kicked down a rung. It's pretty fucking sad. But there is an attention pie, and the cat gets the crumbs.<br /><br />But the work that I'm doing at school, I feel is the best that I've ever done. I feel like I'm getting more historical knowledge and skills across to the kids in an accessible and interesting way than I've ever have. I actually am starting to feel like I'm doing a good service to the kids as opposed to my previous years of teaching. But that work has less meaning to me now. Not that I don't want to have a better and more just world for him. I would just rather spend my time with him than do pretty much anything else.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-7402610233108065552009-12-13T19:27:00.000-08:002009-12-13T19:28:25.519-08:00My favorite Hawaiian song<object style="height: 344px; width: 425px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HI0hkdyU1tY"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HI0hkdyU1tY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />NostalgiaMehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-38886554635142325622009-12-07T17:16:00.000-08:002009-12-07T18:20:14.053-08:00My favorite Brazilian song and version<object style="height: 344px; width: 425px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fl2WJdn3qOE"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fl2WJdn3qOE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />This is my favorite Brazilian song written by my son's namesake Baden Powell. The lyrics are by Vinicius de Moraes. This version by Bebel Gilberto is my favorite version. Bebel's version is happy and sad and sensual all at the same time.<br /><br /><strong>Lyrics to Samba Da Bencao (Samba Of The Blessing)</strong> :<br />(Baden Powell, Vinicius de Moraes)<br /><br />E melhor ser alegre que ser triste<br />Alegria e a melhor coisa que existe<br />E assim como a luz no coracao<br />Mas pra fazer um samba com beleza<br />E preciso um bocado de tristeza<br />Senao nao se faz um samba nao<br /><br />Fazer samba nao e contar piada<br />E quem faz samba assim nao e de nada<br />O bom samba e uma forma de oracao<br />Porque o samba e a tristeza que balanca<br />E a tristeza tem sempre uma esperanca<br />De um dia nao ser mais triste nao<br /><br />Poe um pouco de amor numa cadencia<br />E vai ver que ninguem no mundo vence<br />A beleza que tem um samba nao<br />Porque o samba nasceu la na Bahia<br />E se hoje ele e branco na poesia<br />Ele e negro demais no coracao<br /><br />[Translation:]<br /><br />Samba Of The Blessing<br /><br />It's better to be happy than sad<br />Happiness is the best thing there is<br />It is like a light in the heart<br />But to make a samba with beauty<br />It's needed a bit of sadness<br />If not the samba can't be made<br /><br />To make a samba is not like telling a joke<br />And who makes samba like this is worth nothing<br />The good samba is a kind of prayer<br />Because samba is the sadness that sways<br />And sadness is always hopeful<br />Of one day not being sad any more<br /><br />Put a little love in the cadence<br />And you'll see that in this world nobody wins<br />The beauty that a samba have<br />Because samba was born in Bahia<br />And if today it is white in it's poetry<br />It is very black in it's heart. <br /><span>[ Samba Da Bencao (Samba Of The Blessing) Lyrics on <a href="http://www.lyricsmania.com/" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.lyricsmania.com/</a> ] </span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-70950771861728496382009-11-28T20:01:00.000-08:002009-11-28T20:02:31.216-08:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tgbNymZ7vqY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tgbNymZ7vqY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-87657270814087448112009-11-25T13:42:00.000-08:002009-11-25T14:01:07.543-08:00Baby life and living overseas<span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">I am a baby satellite. Everything that the little man wants he gets. Life with a newborn can be a stress. AL and I have shorter tempers (lack of sleep) and we snap at each other more. But at the same time he has brought us closer than ever before, because we are united in our goal of having a good and happy family. My mom is super excited. I've never seen her so excited and gushy. It's kind of weird. I see her now more than I ever have. It's a good and bad thing. It's kind of weird. I hate to say it, but when I hang out with my mom it's work. We can't just hang out and everyone be cool. My mom has to fret about something or be catered to for this and that.<br /><br />So now I want to put lil B into a house. On two teachers' salaries living in the Bay Area, it's going to be a challenge. But I really want to have a yard for him to play in. I don't want him playing out in the streets. To come up with the money, AL and I have decided to teach abroad. We've always wanted to teach and live abroad and lil B is young enough that it wouldn't be that hard. I want to work in a place where I can learn to speak Spanish fluently. So Eastern Spain, Central or South America would be great. Depending on where we teach, I read that we could save $12,000 on one salary. With both of us teaching that's $24,000 a year. If we up to 4 years we could save $96,000. That's more than enough for a 20% down payment on a house within our price range. Plus I gotta get out of the US. I'm getting tired of this country. The healthcare debate is fuckin ridiculous to me. We have this HUGE military budget and soldiers all over the world, but we are cutting money to education and healthcare. Our priorities are whack! Just because we had lil B our insurance costs have tripled. This just ain't right. So we're probably looking at Fall 2011 to teach abroad. I feel like since I got married I'm really living more and having more adventures. We've traveled around the world, had the little one and will embark on more adventures. Who says that life stops once you have a baby?<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-84347571534871632582009-11-11T12:06:00.000-08:002009-11-11T12:48:36.414-08:00It's been a while<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">It's been a while since I've blogged. What's happened to me since...I suppose the biggest news is that I've had a baby boy. On October 1st, 2009 my wife delivered a beautiful baby boy 7 pounds 15 ounces. It was a 40hr labor!!! I don't even want to do things that I like for 40 hours. Being the trooper that she is, she went 32 hours without an epidural! Ridiculous right? At the 32nd hour, she was just sleep deprived, in pain, and loopy. So we had a safe word (borrowed from kinky sex) that she would use to signify that she really wanted an epidural and it was time. That safe word was "mercy!" Good one huh.<br /><br />It was an amazing experience and I actually got enough courage to look. You know...down there. That was the traumatic experience for me. After the delivery it was like something out of CSI. Blood, vomit, and other bodily fluids everywhere. Some shit had gone down! At one point during a contraction, AL actually bit my hand. It was hella primal. But the end result was the important one. We got our healthy baby boy.<br /><br />I was so happy when he was born and I made a promise to him right there that I would do everything and anything to take care of him. Also, I promised I wouldn't let him sit in his pee or poo for very long if I knew he had soiled himself. I mean babies can't do anything. They are completely helpless. Their quality of life is completely dependent on what we do or don't do for them. I'm not trying to have my boy being a materialist, but that is a material thing where I will make sure he is well taken care of.<br /><br />It's an interesting thing having a baby. It's powerful. It changed my life and it's not like I had to work at it. You just change because you want to be around your kid. When I'm at work I just can't wait to get home to my lil guy. I just want to hang out with the lil man. I've also planned to take Wednesdays off at work to just be able to hang out with my kid. While my family with AL has always been the most important thing for me, it has taken on a new meaning and power with the addition of the lil one. I mean AL is a grown ass self sufficient woman. I don't need to cater to her all the time. But the little one...he needs us. For everything. Priorities shift.<br /><br />An interesting added benefit with having a baby is that its given me more leverage with students. They want to know about how we're doing and how hard it is and how I plan on raising him. Kids have very strong and powerful views about how you should raise a kid and what is right and wrong behavior. Having lil B, allows me to ask them what would be the right thing for me to do as a parent if lil B was in their position and what would be the right thing for lil B to do. Then I just transfer that to their situation. It's deep.<br /><br />I also try to talk to kids as often as possible about how hard and expensive it is to have a kid. I talk to them about the lack of sleep and frustration of dealing with a crying child. I also tell them the story of when I was changing Lil B's diapers and wiping his shit covered ass. When I went around for the second wipe he shit into my hand. There I was staring at my shit covered hand and all I could think was "Goddam teenagers are assholes!" I know I was. Here parents are cleaning their shit and all they get back is attitude. So now I say to students don't shit in my hand and they get it. Here I am trying to take care of you, don't shit in my hand, cuz you ain't a baby.<br /><br />babies...gotta love em!<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-31748011793666821302009-08-23T23:55:00.000-07:002009-08-24T00:45:28.139-07:00Praxis of Restorative Justice<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It's been a while since my last update. Things got a bit crazy last year. I have to say that I was happy to have it be over. Looking back, I am really happy that we started and are continuing a restorative justice program at my school. Over the summer, I taught summer school and I did 2 RJ classes. The two classes couldn't have been any more different.<br /><br />The first class was with students that had been in the school last year. This class was really amazing. We got deep and I was able to connect to these students in a way that I am not normally able to do. That's one of the things that I like best about RJ is that it helps create a community. Students brought up topics and issues that we discussed as a group and it was real. When I speak to the kids in my normal speech they listen better. I thought that was important too because I am always talking to them about code switching and so they found it interesting and surprising to listen to me talk when I'm not trying to be a "teacher". The informal communal nature of it also allowed me to bust on kids in a caring but real way. I was able to express my frustrations with them and they were able to really hear me and know that what I was saying was coming from a good place. The class also allowed for us to talk about relationships and offer advice based on our experiences.<br /><br />The other class was painful. It was like pulling teeth. There were some young boys coming in as freshmen and I had forgotten how young freshmen boys could be. They had very little to say and didn't have very many thoughts on issues and the topics that I would bring up. There were a couple of students that wanted to talk about the issues and topics but it quickly became a very small discussion among me and the 2 students. The rest just sat there. In short, it was painful. I was reduced to asking them very basic getting to know you type questions. Questions that I got from the book "Moving beyond icebreakers". I didn't want to do a questionnaire type class but there was very little participation and interest in really going any deeper. The students that did want to talk expressed their frustration about no one speaking...but what could they do.<br /><br />Looking back at RJ at my school, I think that there needs to be some things that we do to make it more successful. First, I think that teachers need to participate more in the circles. We ran circles but we tried to have students run the circles. When students were running other students a number of times it just descended into apathy or chaos. I think when teachers are in the circles it sets a different tone and creates a different atmosphere. Students need teachers to model appropriate behavior and we have not been doing the RJ circles long enough for students to know how to act appropriately within the circles. As a result, some of our student led circles were less than successful. Second, I think that us teachers need to have RJ circles together to talk about our issues. Restorative Justice is something that all of us need not just the students. When teachers sat in and had circles together it was powerful and there was greater buy-in. The kids aren't going to buy it if we don't. Third, teachers need to start using RJ circles within their own classes and CTMs. I started to use the circles but I was the only one. I found them to be very useful and very helpful in my classes and CTM, but the other teachers didn't do them. This was weird too because everyone bought in to the idea, but what was missing was the praxis.<br /><br />Self and community transformation ain't easy. It takes work. School starts tomorrow without the kids and the next week they come in. It's going to be a hard year because we are losing one of our most amazing teachers. She is leaving to take an administrative position at a middle school. I am going to miss her a lot. She is an inspiration to me and someone that I respect greatly. I marvel at her energy, rapport with students, and commitment to social justice. I am jealous of the school that is going to get her, but so happy for her because she will do amazing things with her greater position and role at the new school. Also, we are scrambling to look for another math teacher. The teacher that we had last year didn't find favor with the boss lady. She was looking to replace him but didn't tell any of the staff except the one leaving. I went into school on Friday and was told that math teachers were being interviewed. We have a staff of 8 people and we are looking for 2 new teachers. This is some fucked up shit. When I first got there it was a 4 person turnover. Things were crazy. When the math teacher came in last year in the middle of the year it was crazy. We have 2 new teachers that are going to be hazed and have to get used to the school and students that I work with. The other fucked up thing is that the math teacher doesn't know that he is being replaced. In fact, he joined us in a RJ training on Thursday.<br /><br />As much as I enjoy the work that I am doing and love the staff, I am really disturbed by the system that we have. We are under-resourced and always seem to be putting out fires. If it's not one thing it's another. The teacher turnover rate is too high and we don't have the resources to keep good teachers. If I went to work at the regular old public school in my school district, I would immediately get about a $10,000 raise, more benefits, and do less work. It kind of fucking ridiculous. I love my work there, but sometimes it can be quite disheartening.<br /></span></span></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-39447661185728122482009-04-02T23:46:00.000-07:002009-04-03T00:43:46.332-07:00Praxis of Restorative Justice<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">So I've been doing circles to start and end the day in my CTM. I saw that I had to do it when one day a kid asked me what another kid's name was, but the other kid had been in my class for over a year. It was bad. There isn't a community or family atmosphere in my group. And in large part I'm the one to blame. The praxis of restorative justice forces me to change it up. I can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results. It's making me cuckoo for coco puffs.<br /><br />As a part of my "getting to know you questions" I've been asking the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Actors_Studio">10 questions</a> that James Lipton asks all of his guests. Then I started asking some from the Proust questionnaire. This has inspired other kids to start asking questions. I mean people, myself very much included, love doing the questionnaire type shit on facebook. I've spent way too much time doing the 25 Random Things about Me and 20 albums that changed my life.<br /><br />I'm excited to try and create a community where one should naturally exist. I think that will be part of the key to creating a better atmosphere and school environment.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-34598520957598293332009-02-20T00:19:00.000-08:002009-02-20T00:23:28.204-08:00<span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">At the top of my blog, I wrote that societal ills affect the most vulnerable populations first. Even though I wrote it, I am understanding it now more than ever. The past 3 weeks have been truly crazy. One of the missions of the school is dropout prevention. But we've been kicking out kids left and right. Right now the tone and environment of the school is the worst that I have ever experienced. Talking with the principal, she was saying this is the worst that she has remembered...and she has been there 35 years. Just in the past month, we </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">expelled 1 kid for drug dealing and being high in classes, </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">2 kids suspended for almost fighting, and 4 kids expelled for fighting. And I believe more expulsions are on the way. Girls are getting pregnant left and right.<br /><br />As bad as it is right now, I want to believe that good will come from this. Students and staff want to make things better. We have been trained in restorative justice and this is a situation where we really need it. Kids weren't moving on having circles, but this is the light under their and our asses to make it happen. We are fortunate to have a process to deal with our situation. </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">In response to the situations, we have had 2 student run talking circles. The one last Thursday was intense</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"> because it involved more staff and more students. I went to both of them. A lot of emotions were put out at both of them, but the Thursday one had people crying.<br /><br />The stories that kids tell me about their lives boggles my mind. It often really puts my life into perspective. The things that they go through... I'm not surprised that they aren't into their education. When families are scraping to get by...it's not shocking that kids don't want to read.<br /><br />But back to what I was saying about societal ills...it's the economy. The ones with the least are having to get by with even less. Funding and budgets are getting cut. People are losing their jobs. The ones that continue to work are working like slaves because they have to do the work of more people and they are happy just to have a job. People with impressive resumes are competing for jobs with people with high school degrees. People looking for just anything. People aren't buying and so businesses aren't expanding. I wonder where the bottom is.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-16809754054523375442009-01-30T23:07:00.000-08:002009-01-31T01:26:11.287-08:00Praxis of Justice<span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">After my little success with circles in 3rd period, I conducted a circle in my film class. It was cool because I really got a lot more feedback from students. I don't like it when I just stand in front of a room to silence and blank stares. We talked about what was their favorite movie of all time, then about what movie they liked the best in the film class. It was interesting because students either loved Clockwork Orange or they hated it. Films that elicit a strong reaction are great for discussion. Doubt was like that most recently for me. Then my final question was, "Had they ever been in love and how did it make them feel?" After they all answered that we started watching "Eat Drink Man Woman." It was cool because the circle set them in the proper mindframe to watch the film. It's been a while since I've seen it, but watching it again was still fun. We didn't get to finish watching it that period, so it's been making me think about it. I want to talk to them about the theme /metaphor of Life without love and honest human relationships is like food without taste. Looks nice and you'll live but there is no je ne sais quoi. All that beautiful Chinese food that makes me so hungry watching it. An interesting cross cultural exchange, when the two sisters are fighting while washing dishes they don't look at each other. They stand side by side. One of my black kids yelled out why aren't they looking at each other. My Chinese student and I both at the same time yell out that it's awkward to look at each other. I notice when I speak sometimes in circle I look to the ground when talking about my feelings.<br /><br />So come Thursday I wanted to do circles in all my classes. As my opening ceremony, I played a clip from "Enter the Dragon". The one where Bruce is talking to his student about Emotional Content and a finger pointing to the moon. Then I talked about the finger being the circle but the moon being justice. The finger is important in that it points but it is not the thing that is desired. In the circle, we need Emotional Content. Don't think, FEEEEEEEEL! Then from there we created the guidelines. In 1st period, I was able to do some icebreakers and then move onto content on Chinese Lunar New Year. It was cool because it engaged one of my students that is going through some crazy ass shit and she just wants to put her head down on the table. She sat up and participated in something in class.<br /><br />My 2nd period was a more interesting circle. There are some children in there...and I mean children. It's the part about working with teenagers that is sooooo lame. Remember how back it the day people used to say "Oh my God, you are like soooooo immature"? Watching the interactions and behavior sometimes, just pulls that phrase from the recesses of my mind. I just want to say "pffft! WHATever!" Anyways, the idea of two talking pieces came up and my more obstinate young ladies decided that they wanted to run with it, but they did it by respecting the one talking piece and we did it in circle with each person passing and having their say. Their argument was that if they wanted to ask someone a question or respond to something someone was saying they should be able to have two talking pieces going. The argument that I've read and agree with is that the talking piece gives each person a voice, allows those that have trouble talking talk, and helps control dominant voices. If there were 2 talking pieces then things could easily descend into a back and forth shutting out all others. I said that if they had something important that they wanted to say they could either write it down as I was doing or they could just remember it. At the end of class, one of the young ladies just started saying how she knew she had a bad attitude and would go against things just to go against them. That little girl has it hard. Her story is sad. Unfortunately, she plays out her inner turmoil in classes and on the people around her, especially authority figures. On Friday we had to come back to this, but it was good because I really got a better feel and understanding for building a consensus. A consensus is something agreed upon by everyone but it's also the idea of is this something you can live with. After more rounds of trying to gain consensus, I also better understood the power of the circle as a socializing tool. More and more students that were getting impatient about the obstinate young ladies voiced their opinions on the importance of one mic. This changed the attitude of the girls as they saw that the community was getting restless and they decided to drop the idea of two mics. But the group did agree on suspending the talking pieces and using the terms, "clarify" and "louder" when someone had spoke. Those could be interjected between bowl passing.<br /><br />The circle worked well for my second period class because that was the class were I had the students with the most behavioral problems. It's the class that needs to build the most community. Through building the community, then we can all become accountable for each other's learning.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-68616102602378652072009-01-27T19:36:00.000-08:002009-01-27T21:15:22.097-08:00Getting trained in restorative justice circles<span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">So on Sunday and Monday I got trained in restorative justice circles. I trained with my staff and 7 students. Unfortunately, 2 of my coworkers, my principal, and one student weren't able to make it but we'll get them up to speed. If you've ever done workshops or trainings often times they suck. You come out of them feeling like you just wasted a whole bunch of time and what do you do now. This training was completely the opposite.<br /><br />Before we did the training, my coworker Gina and I identified 8 students that we would like to have trained in restorative justice. These were kids from various backgrounds that had "bought" into our school and we felt could reach students of different backgrounds. Then I composed a letter essentially honoring the students for being chosen, explained what restorative justice was, and created a permission slip for their parents to sign. Then I met with all the students read the letter to them and stressed how important this was and if this was something that they wanted to be a part of. Each student was very excited and flattered to be chosen. This was the buy in on their part. No problem. Then I had to convince my coworkers. Getting them to come in on a Sunday and Monday for a training from 8:30-5 was not something that they wanted to do, but they begrudgingly came along with me telling them how much I loved them and how great they were. A few gave me that "kiss my ass for sucking up to me" look.<br /><br />So come Sunday, we get there and we immediately start in on getting to know you activities. Real fun icebreaker stuff that everyone that's ever done a workshop/training has done. Then we move into other activities where we ranked our top values on a paper plate and wrote our most important value on the other side. The whole time these activities are being conducted using circles. These activities got us through most of the day and towards the end of the day is when we got to the heavier shit. We started to talk about the impact of harm and the an example of when we were harmed and what are needs were after that harmed happened. Then we talked about a time when we did someone harm and what we needed that led us to committing that harm. It was some heavy ass shit. I mean people got deep and dirty, but the facilitators had done such a great job with creating a safe, respectful, and trusting space that people went there. We had people crying and letting out some shit. At the end of the first day I was wiped out. Two of my coworkers drove me home and we hung out afterwards and just talked about the experience. I was elated because they were all into it. They totally got it and they wanted more of it. After they left I just passed out. No more energy.<br /><br />Come Monday, people were excited to be back and we wanted to get to the nuts and bolts of it. How can we make this happen. This time the facilitators gave us this exercise that we had to do in silence with blocks. I had read about the exercise in <a href="http://www.livingjusticepress.org/index.asp?Type=PRODLIST&SEC=%7B9643748B-1735-4115-A479-FA6F18327BAD%7D&DE=%7B496161D4-61BC-4CB5-BE66-46FD532A7905%7D">Carole Boyes-Watson's</a> book, but only after having experienced it and only now as I process it, do I start to understand the subtle brilliance in it. It was a fascinating sociological experiment on the dynamics of human relationships through silence. After this exercise, we discussed it and then moved into talking about the history of circles and different uses for circles. The final thing we did was plan on making a circle for a fictious case example. We did this paired with students and their perspective was invaluable. It really fleshed out a lot of things. After this, we discussed it and there was a closing ceremony.<br /><br />In my 3rd period today, I conducted a circle in class. I saw this as a community building circle. So I explained to them the format of the circle and what the talking piece was (I used a singing bowl). As a centerpiece to the circle, I had my plant sitting on a nice shawl. As an opening, I played Bob Marley's War. My first question was how were they and how was their 3 day weekend. After that, I asked them to answer, "They felt respected when..." next asking, "They felt disrespected when..." Then I had them say something they liked about the school followed by something they didn't like about the school. Next they said something they liked about their hometown and something they would change about it. The last series of questions being something they would change about themselves and something they like about themselves. Finally, I had them stand up and then go around telling what they thought about the exercise and putting their questions next to the centerpiece. Almost every single one enjoyed the experience and many stated that it was a calming experience. Immediate success I'm hooked.<br /><br />One of the things that I like about this is that this is the praxis of my views on justice. I don't like the punitive system. It's not what I believe in but it's all that I've ever known. I realize now the punitive system is also the easiest of responses and a bandage solution. I recognize of course that</span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> there is a time and place for a bandage, but I'm trying to move to where knives won't have to be drawn in the first place and how to get back to that place after someone does draw a knife.<br /></span></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-23011926287726280402009-01-08T17:46:00.000-08:002009-01-14T01:16:02.234-08:00Compassion and restorative justice<span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">In case you didn't know, I should tell you that I'm a vegetarian. I started doing it as a religious thing. It's a compassion training thing. I figured working where I was going to work...I should have more compassion. More empathy ain't bad either.<br /><br />But I don't feel that I have had the opportunity to express my compassion through the system of punishment at my school. When students get less than an 8 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday on their contracts, they have that many hours loaded up in detention. You get a 3 then you have 5 hours. I make my kids do them. You can't have no accountability. If I want something different I've got to have something to replace it with. My problem with our system is that it is just a form of punishment. It doesn't make the person not want to do what they were doing, it just makes them not want to get punished for it.<br /><br />I would like restorative justice to transform me. I'm hoping the process will be the tool to create the type of social environment and community that I want to be a member of. Restorative justice requires me to change my own mentality. Of course, the irony is that for it to be successful, the qualities that it requires from me are the ones that I need to work on the most. You know, things like listening and patience, and shit like that.<br /><br />Last week Tuesday I went to see this guy Howard Zehr. He's this guy that's been involved in restorative justice for a while. He talked about the stories of victims. It was some heavy ass shit. Made me really rethink the way that I do things. Too often I focus on the offender to the neglect of the offended. His talk made me think about all the ways that I handled interactions in ways that weren't in line with my core values and beliefs. I have found in my life that when I my values and my actions are in harmony my mental state is as well. The more I move towards praxis the greater the self integration the greater my personal peace. I am hoping for some restorative justice for my self and greater peace. Either way, I feel going through the process of trying to make this work will be purifying for me.<br /></span></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-80494014594557080352008-12-06T09:04:00.000-08:002008-12-07T20:12:15.068-08:00Restorative Justice<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">So on Thursday, my coworker Gina and I went to see Kay Pranis speak. Kay is the OG of restorative justice and and all around cool lady. A cool quote that she used is "Crime is a wound and justice is healing". With that in mind, here are some notes from our discussion on restorative justice.<br /><br />First Kay started talking about isolation and disconnection leading to some wrongdoing that causes harm to someone. When someone in the community is harmed this is also a harm to the community. As a result of this harm there is a response to this harm. Usually this response focuses on the person that committed the harm. Oftentimes, focus is so much on the person that committed the harm that the person that was harmed is neglected. As a result of the focus on the harmer and the neglect of the harmed, this can lead to greater isolation and disconnection.<br /><br />Restorative justice focuses on an intervention in the response to the harm caused. This interventon should strengthen the community, create new or strengthen existing relationships, connect the community to a shared vision, and build skills to listening.<br /><br />So then we started to explore what types of intervention leave the community stronger than before the incident. We discussed making amends, peer mediation, a capacity for the community members to self regulate without coercive force so there is less of a reliance on authority figures, an inclusive intervention, and finally an intervention that is a safe space to share stories and break down social distance.<br /><br />In the restorative framework, Kay talked a bit about the responsibilities that the community has,<br /><br />1) The community must rally around the one harmed.<br />2) The community must support the person who caused harm in making amends.<br />3) The community must attend to its own healing.<br />4) The community must pay attention to the pattern and what that says about the community.<br /><br />In the traditional justice framework the question is what do we do to the harmer. In the restorative framework, the question is what does the harmer need to do to create peace. A lot of the discussion we had was focused on creating a community and framework where people could be heard and when they are heard they are more open to looking towards solutions.<br /><br />At the end of it all, I was really excited to see a circle in action. But I'll have to wait to get a training. I really want to institute this at my school. Right now, when a student is a problem or does something that harms a person or the community, they either are dealt with by their CTM or they have a staff meeting where they appear before all of the teachers with their parents. They are supposed to only get one staff meeting and after that they go. Restorative justice circles would be an intermediate step between CTMs and staff meetings. This would be a way to take the pressure off of teachers but also give students more of a buy in to the school. Circlekeepers would do peer mediation and discipline would be be less authoritarian. We'll see how this works and I'll keep posting as more happens.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-83011651449137128552008-11-30T12:32:00.000-08:002008-11-30T13:18:22.823-08:00<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">A black president!!!??? I feel like I'm in a modern day version of Blazing Saddles.<br /><br />Now that I've had more time to reflect on things, it's pretty amazing. Obama is part of the democratic revolution that has been and is taking place all over the world. For a country with a population that is 75% white and a very racist history to elect a black man to the highest office is pretty cool. While it is pretty cool in racial terms what Obama has achieved, in terms of policy I still have many problems with him.<br /><br />Here's an <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/20-6">article</a> by one of my favorite reporters Jeremy Scahill on the team that Obama has selected so far to surround himself with.<br /><br />Here's the thing... if Obama really wants to change shit up then bring in some people that would actually be a sign of that. With regards to the wars, why not tap Barbara Lee to be the Secretary of War. My bad "Defense". Why not tap Bernie Sanders? John Lewis? Cynthia McKinney? Sheila Jackson Lee? Could you imagine Ralph Nader as Secretary of the Treasury? You can believe that there would be a lot more transparency and this bailout would play out a whole lot differently.<br /><br />One of the most important pieces of political/economic advice I ever learned was, "Follow the money". With that in mind, here are the list of <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638">Obama</a> and <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?id=N00006424&cycle2=2008&goButt2.x=13&goButt2.y=9&goButt2=Submit">McCain's</a> top campaign donors. Then compare this to the companies receiving money from the <a href="http://bailoutsleuth.com/2008/10/">federal bailout</a>. With this in mind, I'm not so confident about the financial system getting "fixed". Another thing with the Federal Bailout is that the process is already nontransparent. Dirty ass financial companies getting tons of money out of the American people and nothing being done to fix the problems that got us into this situation. Just give them more and more money.<br /><br />During the election, a lot of friends asked me what would make me vote for a Democrat. There's actually something that someone could say to me that would make me want to vote for them. Tell me that you are going to cut the military budget. Just a little. Instead of 1 trillion dollars a year for the military... how's about 850 billion dollars instead. $900 billion? $950 billion? Something! Boys with their toys are dangerous.<br /><br />People have been guzzling the Obama Kool-Aid and I'm worried that they won't pay attention to politics like they did under GWB. That's the thing with GWB... he got people involved! Obama gets points for being the first black president... but that's where it ends cuz his policies aren't so different from historic US foreign policy. Is the US going to stop being an imperialist power? That would be some change that I could get behind.<br /></span>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-15404845240696770252008-10-26T19:55:00.000-07:002008-10-26T19:57:01.853-07:00More on credit default swaps<embed src='http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4x3.swf' FlashVars='link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecbsnews%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fwatch%2F%3Fid%3D4502673n&partner=cbssports&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&releaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=ih5WfcpuJ8p7c8_mOqMfY6pSqBl5I1Lu&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='425' height='324' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br/><a href='http://www.cbs.com'>Watch CBS Videos Online</a><br /><br /><embed src='http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4x3.swf' FlashVars='link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecbsnews%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fwatch%2F%3Fid%3D4546583n&partner=cbssports&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&releaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=29MTeFqVojCxuRHUQN9ahuw65TE7x6pK&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='425' height='324' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br/><a href='http://www.cbs.com'>Watch CBS Videos Online</a>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036104.post-53047411829435020162008-10-26T19:53:00.000-07:002008-10-26T19:54:39.994-07:00Derivatives<embed src='http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4x3.swf' FlashVars='link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecbsnews%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fwatch%2F%3Fid%3D4501762n&partner=cbssports&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&releaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=hYsu6Ta0DI3ZKUZYguADMiTzTSDujaN4&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='425' height='324' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br/><a href='http://www.cbs.com'>Watch CBS Videos Online</a>Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686953436496671325noreply@blogger.com0