Weekend's over, and way way too quickly. Actually had a pile o' work to do today, considering this was the first weekend after having a class that actually turned in assignments, so spent a big chunk of the day grading papers where a lot of the kids seemed to miss out on what exactly I was asking them, although work quality was way way up from Harte.

Also watched Evolution today. Rotten film, but the whole film redeemed by getting to watch Fox Mulder, Stiffler, and the 7-up guy sing "Play that Funky Music Whiteboy" as they drive down the road in a totally superfluous scene. You should watch it. On second thought, just get the DVD, watch that scene, then take it back to blockbuster and claim that it was scratched or something and use the store credit to rent something real.

Well, nuts. It seems like the last post, in which I lovingly and in great detail wrote about the environs of my new school, did not (for some reason known only to the evil gods whose mission it is to fuck with whatever computer I own at the moment) make it from the screen to the web. I suppose I'll try again, as opposed to abandoning the entire effort altogether.

Chester W. Nimitz middle school. Already the name alone is a step up. The new school: named after a brilliant admiral whose tactics greatly helped win the Pacific theater in WWII. Old skool: at worst, a professional wrestler, at best, some guy who wrote westerns.... or maybe the other way around. In short- I no longer dread waking up (although it's almost an hour earlier now- Nimitz starts at 7:20 and I'm 25 miles away), I actually feel like a teacher instead of a prison guard / zookeeper, and now I have two (2!!!) overheads in my classroom, neither of which I had to have swiped from another district, even though my main one blew a bulb yesterday (you know that something in life has irrevocably changed when your bad dreams involve going into work and trying to teach, but having forgotten to change the overhead projector's lightbulb... I'd almost take monsters under the bed again).

Just finished up the first week at the new school, and things are going so well (at least in comparison) that I think the interest-level of this blog might suffer from lack of ridiculous stories... although I think my ridiculously old and cranky (but highly entertaining) history dept. coworkers might provide some, and the villains will probably change from incompetent local administration to incompetent district level administration.

Surfing is hard, as the ocean is bigger, stronger, and faster than I.

Found out on thursday (after interviewing) that I have the position at Nimitz middle school. Still teaching evil 7th graders, but according to my roomate, who's also teaching there, these kids are pretty good. Of course, as no good event can happen without its karmic balancing event, I arrived home that day to find that somebody had been negligent paying the power bill, and the house was without electricity. Apparently Con Ed came by and, without warning, shut off the power and padlocked the box. So, after a frantic journey out to a shady check-cashing place to try to get same-day reconnection failed, we settled in to the encroaching darkness. Somewhere in the middle of a tea-light illuminated cribbage game, the punk band arrived. Some background- my roomate BL is friends with one of the guys from The Imports, who are in the middle of a failing west-coast tour. Apparently they played on Warp(ed?) tour last year, but are not drawing so well on my current coast. Anyway, they had been by before, but this time, they arrived because (and I shit you not) their hotel had lost electricity.

Enjoying my last weekend day, and hitting the beach before I have to prep for my new assignment at Nimitz tomorrow. In typical brilliant district fashion, I wasn't on some sort of list, and therefore can't start teaching tomorrow, but have to go up to the district office in the AM for some sort of further processing, then back to the school. Love it.

Well, looks like I may be escaping what has slowly turned into some degree of hell at Bret Harte Middle School. I think the combination of my inexperience and lack of any planning time before I got started led to one helluva got-off-on-the-wrong-foot. Anyway, my roomate JY got me an interview at his school, for a permanent middle-school social studies position. I'm really hoping that it's A-track, so that I actually have summer vacation off. With luck, the mistakes that I made with my current class can be avoided, and the viscious cycle of negativity can be avoided this time. Of critical importance right now is the degree of honesty with which I answer the inevitable "how long ya gonna stick around" question at the interview tomorrow. JY said he was sure it would come (he got it) and suggested that I tell them what they want to hear. They certainly don't want to hear that I'm already rounding up law school recommendations, I'd imagine.

Friday was another "ups and downs" kinda day. On the plus side: AT, one of my 'difficult' students first period, was screwing around as usual during class. I had to take away his test because he was talking, and eventually I wrote him up for detention, but hadn't given him the note yet. We moved into groups to finish up the memorial flag project for Sept. 11th (a great, but ultimately doomed idea), and his group more or less alone among all of them, was accomplishign their project, and not only that, doing an amazing job of it. So I quietly spoke to him and told him he was doing a good job, and that I'd tear up the detention note if he kept working. His group finished up, with a great flag, and I ripped up the note and tossed it into the garbage as he left... he went from being confrontational all the time to swinging by to say good-bye to me at the end of the day.

Negatives... hah, too many to list, but I'll put the top one up- narrowly avoided a really ugly situation when one of my Latino students, LR, who is ALWAYS giving me problems (i've had to physically restrain the kid 3 times to keep him from hitting other students... fun fun fun!) started fighting with a black student, and both were shouting racial slurs at each other, and other students in the class were starting to take sides... fortunately things were de-escalated (at the expense of zero teaching done in the class) and I was really helped out by one of the more popular students in my class (who is black, but friends with LR) who helped calm him down and settle the whole mess.

Most entertaining moment of the week. Grading one student's map/travel exam, I got the most ridiculous answers I have ever seen.

Q: List and explain three methods of travel that were used in both 500ad and 2002ad
A: 1.) One like going in little space and in big spaceships.
2.) When you were going in boats and in Airplane.
3.) Like in cars and know in 2002 we go in Airplanes, in trucks, and helecopters.

Q: What were four reasons that people traveled in 500ad?
A: 1.) How we travel in 500ad it was in cars.
2.) Along time ago you went running to get here.
3.) In boats little boats and ugly ones.
4.) Sometimes they bring you and if you get resident they send you back.

This student also identified Europe on the map as South Dakota... I suppose I have my work cut out for me.

Back in the classroom... damn the place is a circus. It's getting to be absolutely ridiculous, there are really only 2 classes where I actually 'teach' anything at all, which tends to mean that I'm not so much doing my job. The rest of the time is spent chasing kids around, trying to get them to sit down, or not insult each other, or not hit each other, or worse. Today I had to deal with a possible threat of a gang beat-down that one of the kids gave another, and spent another 5 minutes with a kid who wanted to read his WWF magazine with wrestling women in bikinis on the cover during silent reading time. The Sept. 11th memorial flag project is now extending into 3 days, and half my kids can't identify North America on a map. Gotta get back to the basics, I guess... no more projects, group work, nothing, until they can sit and take notes and find out which fucking continent they live on.

Sub training was less useless today... we spent a lot of time on classroom management, but it left me feeling a lot shakier than before I went in. We went over all sorts of "proven" management plans, systems, etc... which initially I thought would give me a lot of good ideas. Then as we went through them all i could think of was that I'd tried them and they didn't work, or wouldn't work in my class... which is entirely the wrong attitude I know, but I'm having a hard time shaking it. Every time I think about going back into my class, I get this nervous feeling in my stomach I haven't had since 7th grade, when I'd get it every day around 7th period as a prelude to getting pounded on in football practice. Hopefully the new, positive approach (8-1 ratio positive/negative comments) and the seating chart will help out tomorrow.
I've come to the conclusion that I'm not nearly as stress-free as I used to think I was. I always figured I handled stress well because I'd never freak out about stuff, always could stay chill about most things, but it seems that it's found a way to bubble out subconsciously... with teaching, and my thesis beforehand, I've found I get really worked up in the middle of the night for no reason, like there's something really important that I've entirely forgotten to do... I'll lie in bed, semiconscious, not entirely sure what i'm freaking out about, then eventually fall back asleep, and only vaguely remember it in the morning. Really not so much fun, probably should find a better stress-reliever or something... or maybe just get my shit together, figure out how to make my class work, and then i'll sleep well. Worth a shot I guess.

Useless sub training today... probably the highlight of the day was listening to NPR on the way to and from training. As expected much of the content focused on the anniversary of Sept 11, and two of the programs that really caught my ear were about music that has been composed about the tragedy. The first program discussed a theater/music mini-festival in LA about Sept. 11th, and featured music from broadway composers who wrote about it, one of them- the Ballad of Mary O'Connor, was really really moving... the 2nd program, on the way home, featured a record company exec who was talking about all the unsolicited compositions she had received from garage bands and other random folks who were writing songs, most of which, she said, were pretty much crap. The point that struck home, however, was that for a lot of folks, Sept 11 was a call to do something different, even if it was only to send their crappy band's crappy song to a radio station or record company.

Also occurred to me that (sorry for this maudlin phase here, but there wasn't anything ridiculous in teacher-land today, and the mood of the anniversary is getting to me) if it wasn't for my choice of jobs last summer, I would have been in NYC last fall- almost having worked for Scott Stringer's Public Advocate campaign, I definitely would have been there with the primary the next day- not that it would have put me anywhere near ground zero, I probably would have been schlepping around Harlem with crates full of "walking around money" trying to get out the vote, but still... somethin' to think about

Is it too pretentious to have a latin name for this blog? Is it still pretentious when I tell you that it came from a bumper sticker on a freshman car in the Dunham parking lot at Ham Tek? So anyway, it's 6:40 and I'm still trying to get going on my lesson plans for my substitute for tomorrow. Tried to call a parents of 2 kids who skipped my detention on Friday. I checked in w/ CR and got some advice for how to approach the parents (her suggestion, quite usefully was about 200% less furious than my previous ideas on how to do it...) but then was kicked in the ass again as my kids have apparently given me fraudulent phone numbers on their info cards. I'm powerless... duped by 12 year olds... shudder.

Had a long talk w/ my dad today, and got some good advice... I need to approach this the way I'd approach any situation with a bunch of adults- work the room. Start with my allies (the kids who want to volunteer info, pay attention, etc.) then move to the difficult kids... a "keep your enemies closer" kinda deal. At that point I should at least be able to make some progress and get to the silent majority snoozing in the middle of the class. My allegory has been all wrong so far- I'm thinking army style, demand instant respect and punish disobedience, but I really need to think politics... that's what I'm good at, and probably how I'll win this class.

In non-school related news, RGH and I rolled down to Long Beach today to check the place out. I needed to get out of the house, get some sunshine and wander around. The LBC is way less dodgy than I thought it would be- I pictured a grim looking seaport with lots of surly longshoremen hauling things around, cursing, and smoking. Nope, shiny new skyscrapers, nice parks... a little too much touristy kitsch around the Queen Mary (must all attraction designers append a quaint faux-euro village to every theme park and 2-bit tourist trap?) but overall very nice. Encountered an interesting subculture that would be pretty intriguing to study if I was in ethnography not politics-of-7th-graders- the group of folks who fish off the pier, some of whom I think are doing it more for nourishment than for pleasure, and a disproportionate number of whom own chevy astrovans.

Okay, I hate 7th graders a little less (although a couple of them still get lots of wrath). What I do now dislike significantly is the Los Angeles Unified School District and its damn bureaucracy, because... guess what? I can't keep my 7th grade class. Apparently, middle school social studies is an "easy-to-fill" position (despite my class last year having been taught by an uncredentialed full-time substitute, not an actual teacher). Consequently, they aren't allowed to fill it with me, an uncredentialed new teacher. However, the district is still paying me as a "pool-teacher", assigned to the school, so they have me filling in that spot until something opens that I can teach, at which point I'll become a Sub-for-America or something, or perhaps tutor students, or observe other teachers. This while they PAY somebody else to take my class over... likely a credentialed teacher, but one without a history degree (they currently have the same teacher covering english, math, and social studies in 8th grade). So to top off all the other ridiculousness, I have to NOT teach my class Monday and Tuesday, but have the district pay a $300 to a sub to cover it while I go to sub training myself, so I can be useable when they get me out of my current slot. Anyone else confused?

That last post was more bitter than it should have been. In actuality I like quite a few of my students, and I really like it when they swing by and say hi in the halls and whatnot between classes, or when I see them after school. It's just a handful that make things more difficult than they need to be. I definitely wish I could curse in the classroom, I think it would make me more effective. Also if I could duct-tape kids mouths shut and epoxy them to chairs. And control the weather.

I hate 7th graders. And the school policy of only giving me one trashcan. And the damn school store and its damn spicy hot cheetos, sugar water, and starbursts. I like my gifted class and some nice kids in the other classes.

Ahh 2nd day of school today. Somewhat less hectic, although probably more stressful than yesterday. The longer I'm there, the less I can pull the "I just started and have no idea what to do" game. Today just did rules and regs in class, which is the most boring stuff imaginable, but everything takes twice as long with 39 kids in the class... it's impossible to get them quiet. Think of all the little comments in a 15 person class in college, multiply times 3, subtract tact and discretion that comes with not being in 7th grade... and there you have my room. I'm experimenting with just standing silent in front of the class and not trying to yell over them, see if i can eventually wear them down. I think I can out-wait them, but not sure... I wish I could just put all of the good kids in one class, and actually teach them, and just let the other kids shoot the shit. Anyhoo, at the end of the day, I had to deal with the mother of the kid I wrote up and got in-school-suspended yesterday for fighting. She came in, initially really defensive, not so much speaking English. With a discreet "con su permisio," another teacher ushered us down to the bilingual coordinator's office so he could translate. I was accompanied by my drama-queen neighbor teacher (more on her tomorrow probably) who had also had problems with this kid, and the mom proceeded to burst into tears because her kid was such a twerp in general. Working on getting through to him, but may be tough... kid's 11 and in anger management counseling... damn.

First days of school- Just got back from my 2nd day at Bret Harte Middle School... my tenure there has been a monument to TFA and LAUSD brilliance. Let's go back a few days, shall we, to last Friday. Jim comes back from the TFA office with a school name, address, and instructions to show up there on Tuesday at 7:30. I was jumping at straws at that point, having been totally without a job, and only one interview (up against 2 bilingual TFAistas to boot) that I didn't get a job from. So I figure I'll head down, meet the principal, and see what's in store for me. Now, the memo I got didn't specify WHICH Bret Harte school I'm headed to, so I look in my trusty Thomas's guide to LA, and find Bret Harte school in Burbank. Fucking Burbank?!? An hour and a half away on a good day!? Needless to say, I was somewhat less than ecstatic about that option. Had the alarm clock set for 5:00am and everything, and at midnight prior to the appointed day, figured out that it might be another school. Called up the phone number, and got the recorded message saying Bret Harte Middle School... Middle School? hmm... I didn't even like myself in middle school, much less other kids. Oh well, so reset the alarm for drive-to-Inglewood-not-Burbank time (5:45) and went to bed.

Next day, up and at-em, fired up, show up at the school (a nice 10 minute commute on the 105-how-i-loooove-thee-Freeway) get to the school, talk to Principal K. and realize... wait for it... that they have no idea who I am and what the hell I'm doin there. Lovely. So, quite nicely, instead of asking me to get off the grounds, calling the police, or whatnot, they interpret my explanations as something about "Teachers of America" and decide to let me observe. A bit into the observation, somebody rushes into the room, shouting that "This class hasn't had a teacher there for 40 minutes!!" and once more into the breach I go, my friends.

Anyway, I babysat that class for about half an hour, until the teacher returned from inexplicable absence and then went down to see the principal again. Taking me seriously now (after I answered an emphatic yes to the "so you're a real teacher?" question) he called somebody at human resources, determined that I was indeed hired by the district, and allowed me to talk him into giving me the recently vacated 7th grade social studies gig. So, I rolled into that class, aided by a sub who had taught the class before, and got all set up, and started teaching that day, 4th period. Things went pretty well until my last period class, where I had to move one kid for talking, then he insults a girl in class, for which I called him onto the carpet. A couple minutes later he was about to swing at another kid. So my first day of school ends with me diving between two 3' tall 11year olds and preventing punches. Lovely.

LA itself: There’s a really bizarre, almost surreal feel to large chunks of this city. Due I think to expanding so rapidly without much zoning or thought going into layout, one finds random globs of industry, commercial towers, small-town main streets, strip malls, and residential areas all thrown in together all over the place. My city, El Segundo (while not part of LA proper, it’s certainly lumped in) has five big office towers- DirecTV, Hughes, Oracle; an honest-to-God “Main Street” with little townie bars, a great hamburger place, etc.; the beach; an enormous Chevron refinery; lots of nice residential areas, and the Hyperion plant, known around here as the Shit Factory; all within about a 2 mile radius. It’s also got Sepulveda Blvd. running through it- one of the most glaring commercial meccas that I’ve ever encountered. From Santa Monica to Long Beach, Sepulveda serves up a never-ending repetition of furniture stores, fast food, oil changes, car washes, surf shops, Ralph’s supermarkets, and anything else that one could possibly want. There is some kind of charm to the mix of emporiums, specifically that there are a lot of non-chain stores, and odd CA-only chains like Koo Koo Roo California Kitchens, El Pollo Loco, the above-mentioned Ralph’s (home of 24/7 double coupons) and so forth that, at least for now, keep it from seeming too generic.