ECONOMICS:

Trade was very important to the Mongols because they could do things like clothes from the horses fur or the goats too. It's learning how to create and manage the institutions and infrastructure required to function effectively in a market economy. The new knowledge and technical skills that are required by it's developing. Another thing is that it's learning how to build effective trading relationships with foreign markets, and protecting against he negative side-effects of market driven economic activity and its tendency to leave some people out of its benefits. [sic]

-excerpt from research paper on the Mongol Empire

I've been trying to think about what effect (affect?) this blog has on the readers. Most of the time, I've focused on the difficulties, because those are often more entertaining to read about, and in any event sound less like TFA promotional material, than any triumphs or successes that I've had. Consequently, I have to wonder whether y'all are getting a skewed view of what my kids are like, or the community in which I teach. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop telling the stories of hellish things the kids have did (new one for Friday- used sanitary pad on my chair... fun fun fun), but I figure I should probably include something useful in here as well. Like how on Friday, all hygenic products aside, I had one of the better days I've had so far, because the kids seem to be getting in line with my new hard-ass policy of grading them on their behavior (err, work-habits and participation, in case anybody from District J is reading). I was working under the assumption that my previous discipline policy was too confrontational, and the kids wanted to be kicked out, or yelled at, or whatnot, so they kept acting up. This denies them the chance to show off, and it gives them a decent incentive to play by the rules. With the screwing around cut down a little bit, I'm able to actually get some instruction done, so we got through a unit (Scientific Revolution) in a record week's time.

Also in the process of looking for new housing, and trying to decide if I'm looking for 3 person lofts or 1 bedroom places with nice kitchens and hardwood floors. Looking like that will be cleared up by tomorrow or Tues. at the latest, so I may have some news there soon. Either way I'm probably going to end up in Silverlake, which is where I went last weekend for the Pattern hootenanny. Did some house hunting this weekend and was really happy with the places that I saw, so definitely looking forward to ending up in that neighborhood, no matter how the chips fall.

Definitely needed a break on Friday. The day started off reasonably well, my homeroom kids finished an astonishing 9th day in a row of State testing, and the kids were figuring out the difference between knowledge they create and knowledge they consume. Maybe it was due to the Friday-ness, the end of testing, general squirrelyness, or whatnot, but everything went to hell after lunch. Within three periods, I had a student walk out of class (she showed up 5 minutes late, and then spent the next 10 asking repeatedly to leave to go to the restroom, which I was not inclined to allow), a condom placed on my chair, and various other difficulties, culminating in a disastrous attempt at detention at the end of the day, the details of which are too traumatic to put down in words.
Fortunately, got some relief that evening. Went with my indie-loving roomate BL to see The Pattern, a white-stripes knockoff who were actually damn good. Started out at the SpaceLounge in Silver Lake, which was a really entertaining retro-futuristic 80s joint, replete with a sit-down Ms. PacMan table and spaceage chairs. Unfortunately, the firemarshalls shut the place down after the opening band, possibly due to some illicit smoking in the back room. Despues de las problemas, we were outside on the sidewalk conferring with the band on where they should go--BL tried to offer our place, which I reminded him had had the cops called on it two weeks ago when nine people were talking loudly in the garage past midnight--they opted for somebody's loft on Santa Monica & Hoover. Awesome place and definitive hipster hangout, also handily close to a 7-11, where we rolled down to buy some beer along with about half of the crew from the Space Lounge. All in all a good night, just what I needed to recharge and tackle the 12 year old menaces tomorrow.