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By Kyle, November 30, 2008 2:19 pm

Belle & Sebastian: “O Come O Come Emmanuel”

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What is perhaps the very best part about the weekend of Thanksgiving is the fact that more often than not, it ends with a beginning, namely the beginning of the Advent season!

And as much as I consider Mosaic my church family, one of my biggest gripes is that we seem pretty oblivious to about 2000 years of Christian history and what can be a pretty amazing season of celebration and expectation goes largely ignored. Oh well. I guess that’s one of the nice things about the 6pm gatherings — it frees up the mornings to go celebrate advent with communities that do get this right.

All in all, it’s been a much needed relaxing 4 days off from work, and as I go back tomorrow and face the ba-jillion (if that’s not a real number, I hereby appeal to the MAA for it’s official incorporation) tasks to be accomplished between now and December 19th, the final day of school before the winter recess. On the immediate docket: decimals, percents, commissions, markups, taxes, etc… which should be easy to incorporate into my students real lives as they start drooling over the sales and gadgets at their local Game Stop, and/or Best Buy.

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By Kyle, November 25, 2008 8:05 pm

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I always thought that the point of propaganda was to be fiendishly effective in converting an audience to your own perspective. And certainly with all the inadequacies and administrative bumbling that has plagued the Los Angeles Unified School District over the past few years, now is certainly the time for it.

But come on. Come on! Beginning today’s press release with the phrase "Move over Oprah for the next talk show host of prime time — Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent David L. Brewer III." First of all, who cares about Brewer’s ability to host a television program. I’m more concerned with his inability to lead our school district! Second of all, what does it say about the desperation of the school district to grab for any positive press, no matter how ridiculous it is!

And so in signing off, I offer up a plea. Move over Oprah! Hire Admiral Brewer for a full-time television gig, and leave the school district in more capable hands!

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By Kyle, November 23, 2008 9:41 am

Why Magnet Schools from rustum jacob on Vimeo.

Disclaimer: This video is what my students would term “bootleg”.

Regardless, it’s up, it’s running, and hopefully it will help some parents and kids be more aware of their options for high school!

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By Kyle, November 20, 2008 1:01 pm

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Yesterday as I walked into school, I was greeted by a fellow teacher who asked me “Are you having the UCLA students in your room today?”. Darn it. I had totally forgotten about the fact that I had volunteered (seemingly months ago) to be an “observed teacher” for a cohort of UCLA education students who were spending yesterday and today observing Cochran Middle School.

Unfortunately, as I quickly reviewed my lesson plans for the day, I realized that my lesson for the two said days were, at most, innocuously boring. Writing decimals as fractions. Wahoo! In other words, warm-up, announcements, quick review, new lesson, practice, practice, practice. I guess the upside to all this is that it appears that a majority of students actually understood the lesson very well, but we’ll see on tomorrow’s quiz.

In the meantime, I find myself taking a large amount of time to work with a fellow teacher on putting together an effective means of communication with students and families about magnet schools! We have a web site (albeit with nothing on it, although I like the domain). www.hopechangechoices.org

Signing off!!!

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By Kyle, November 17, 2008 8:07 pm

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Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. Yes, that is Ben Folds. Yes, that is a giant “frowny” face. And yes, that is a keytar.

And yes, it is extremely refreshing to see an entire audience hyped up over a rock group centered on the amazing musical prowess of the pianist!

Speaking of other, far less amazing pianists, this weekend my roommate Ken and I performed our second coffeehouse in as many months at Unurban Cafe in Santa Monica, in front of a rocking crowd of about 9 people. We played a short set of 6 songs, two of which were written by Ken, and three of which were genuinely co-written by both him and myself. It was just him on guitar and myself on my keyboard (which honestly sounded much better than the incredibly out-of-tune piano they house at the cafe), so as you can imagine it was a pretty mellow set, but the feedback was mostly positive (or so I’ve heard). Next steps: (1) Find drummer. (2) Book Staples Center.

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By Kyle, November 14, 2008 3:51 pm

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Yikes!….

This is how I’m feeling today. (Although I must admit, that I find this photo a highly appropriate image of the uses of a mac).

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By Kyle, November 11, 2008 10:32 am

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This is weird. Truly weird. A few weeks ago I was in a cemetery in Hollywood for a film screening and passed by a gravestone which apparently demarcates the place where one Magardich Tavitian is buried. However, there is one small thing…..Magardich Tavitian is still alive. I can’t imagine why on earth someone would want a full-scale photo grave headstone before one has even passed away.

But that’s what I get for living in such a weird place as Los Angeles.

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By Kyle, November 9, 2008 8:00 am

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Admit it. You knew it all along. After all, it’s why everyone moves out here to Los Angeles in the first place, right? Our mail carriers, our trash collectors, our Starbucks baristas, all of them have a screenplay in their back pocket, simply waiting for the right director, producer, or other star to shop it to. And just like I once told myself I would never own a cell phone, I told myself I would never do anything with film. And alas, the road to hell is paved with these good intentions.

But seriously, my first two film scripts (thematically inspired by the style of RSS In Plain English) won’t be winning any Oscars anytime soon. Rather, they are both efforts to create 2-minute instructional videos for the parents of my students regarding the process of applying to some of L.A.’s best magnet schools. The process of getting into a magnet school (which are some of the best in the country) is unnecessarily complex, and the cynic in me says that it is once again LAUSD’s way of underhandedly cutting my kids and their families a raw deal.

Well, we’ll see about that. A co-worker and I have been meeting regularly and are actually gaining some momentum towards creating a developing some information resources for families who are interested, these instruction videos being the very beginning! And as we get going with this, I find myself once again biting off something much larger than I could possibly chew.

It’s times like this, though, that I’m glad I’m not alone!

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By Kyle, November 6, 2008 4:57 pm

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I’ve got to rest up. Tomorrow begins one of the annual traditions of my classroom at Johnnie Cochran Jr. Middle School; the quarterly Pizza / Movie party to celebrate success on the LAUSD district assessment. This quarter, my 7th graders rocked the test, with every class averaging in the Proficient category. Yes, they had lots of practice, but I’m excited to celebrate with them.

After school, a horde of 7th graders will head on over to our auditorium to celebrate with pepperoni pizzas and sodas. Then we’ll be watching what was one of my favorite films from this past year Kung Fu Panda. However, there are two things that are making this quarter’s pizza party better than any before!

1) Another teacher is extending the same motivation to her students, effectively doubling the size of our party (hopefully giving it some added hype), and —

2) We’re being funded by the school for the first time ever! Yay! My wallet thanks you! Now if we can only keep this up for the next four quarters as motivation and attention begin to waver, and begin to drag.

My next post will be from a very worn out, and very tired version of Kyle, who is still wondering how to teach his students fractions when they don’t know how to multiply.

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By Kyle, November 4, 2008 6:00 am

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Polls have opened here in California and by now, you should have decided already which Presidential Candidate you are going to vote for as you head to your local polling place today!

However, thanks to the glorious ways in which the California Constitution governs elections, in addition to a simple choice for President, California voters are being overwhelmed with a myriad of options on the state, county, and city level that represent all three branches of government! Reading the Official Ballot information guide sent by our county registrar is much akin to reading War and Peace (in the original Russian).

And while I am not very vocally political, having a blog certainly gives me a convenient forum to voice my opinions! So what follows is partly a guide, partly a confessional, and partly a forum for commentary upon the ways in which I will be voting today! Enjoy!

President / Vice-President: Barack Obama / Joe Biden

US Representative (33rd D): Diane Watson

California State Assembly (47th D): Karen Bass

Superior Court Judges (Offices 72 / 82 / 84 / 94 / 154): Hilleri Grossman Merritt / Cynthia Loo / Pat Connolly / Michael J. O’Gara / Michael V. Jesic

Los Angeles County Supervisor (2nd D): Mark Ridley-Thomas

California State Measures “Yes”: 1A, 4, 12

California State Measures “No”: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Los Angeles County Measure R: No

Los Angeles Community College District Measure J: Yes

Los Angeles Unified School District Measure Q: Yes

Los Angeles City Measure A: Yes

Los Angeles City Measure B: Yes

Whew! Like I said, it’s all a bit confusing, but hopefully people will drive safely and get out and vote today!