Comments (1) Queen – Hammer to Fall
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…this is what it might look like. I took this photo in front of my current (for two more days) apt of the La Cañada fire that is going crazy right now. Seems like this happens just about every year around this time.
Judas Priest – Breaking the Law
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Today was the last day of our professional development at Cochran Middle School, the desired outcome of which was to put finishing touches on our classroom, curriculum, and preparations for the beginning of the year.
Yet, at 2:30pm today, our principle called the entire staff into the library for an “emergency” meeting to let us know that many teachers’ fall classes and schedules will be changing entirely in the next few days before school begins, thus effectively wiping out the schedule teachers had signed up for last spring.
The culprit? The school had scheduled all of the honors classes to occur within a single house (a la “Gryffindor, etc…” from Harry Potter) as well as all the ESL classes in a single house. (This move, done over the summer, was seen by many as subversive in and of itself). The problem? Placing kids by ability in a single house is viewed by some higher ups (and lower downs) as tracking kids, which is illegal.
So now, with a week off coming up before school begins, the staff is even more clueless as to what will actually occur day one that school starts!
I just hope I don’t end up teaching 6th grade Phys-Ed.
Brahms – Ein deutsches Requiem: Selig Sind
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God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference!
Sly and the Family Stone – Everyday People
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This week was the first week of staff development at Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School, a week in which time is filled up with meetings, meetings, and more meetings.
The Good: Despite losing some great teachers this past year due to budget cuts and a desire to teach in high school, it seems like the new math crew will turn out to be a really cohesive group. After hours on end in the same room together, planning b***s*** common assessments, everyone is really coming together to sift through the junk, and focus on working what will actually help our kids together. In addition, our math intervention (Kids Mastering Math) training with the 13 teachers went really well today, and as much as these teachers are enthused to be teaching our program, we are even more enthused to have teachers like them teaching it!
The Bad: In the midst of all this, I’ve still spent a total of 0 hours getting ready for my own five classes that are getting ready to start on September 9th. At some point, I’ve still got to figure out how to balance all of this with teaching of my own kids!
The Ugly: One thing I’ve learned is the importance of quality people! The reason KMM is going to work this year is because their are amazing, quality people who will be teaching it (seriously, by getting none but volunteers, we ensured ourselves the best teachers to teach it….they’re really amazing folks)! Unfortunately, the converse of this statement is true as well. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, suffice it to say that one of our administrators is perhaps well intentioned, but somehow continues to make arbitrary, uninformed, and unilateral decisions that not only do not help kids, but create divisiveness and frustration among our staff. The “ugly” part of this is that it is already taking an inordinate amount of effort and energy from our staff to quell the negative momentum with which she takes things, energy and effort that would be far better spent serving our kids!
The Eagles – Wasted Time
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Holy Cow! Today, the Hunsblog turns two! On August 17, 2007, I inauspiciously began blogging from this website, much to the chagrin of my readers. A year ago, the Hunsblog celebrated it’s first birthday.
And as this day comes and goes, I once again, offer my sincere condolences and apologies to those of you who have faithfully put up with the random ranting and musing that occurs with due frequency here on this blog.
For my part, I can attest to roping even more unlucky victims readers into this blog through the exponential growth of new media, particularly the ways in which Twitter and Facebook provide little tech tweaks (here and here) that make gathering a large audience rather simple.
Anyway, seriously, THANK YOU to those of you who are frequent, semi-frequent, or clicked-an-incorrect-link-here-wtf’s-the-hunsblog visitors! Hope you all have an awesome year!
Any suggestions to make this blog better? (i.e. comment! comment! comment!)
R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
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Not only do the La Brea Tar Pits reside at the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Curson Ave. here in the heart of the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, but also at the intersection of the barrage of post-Fugitive Tommy Lee Jones’ films and the mid-90s disaster movie binge the country seemed hooked on.
Yes, that’s right. For those of you privileged enough to have seen the 1997 film, Volcano, you may remember how cool the premise of the film seemed back then. It’s amazing how 12 years can dramatically shift a movie genre from action flick into comedy. For those unfamiliar, spoiler alert: a volcano erupts in Los Angeles, through the La Brea Tar Pits, causing massive mayhem and destruction. Lucky for us, Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard comes to save the day.
For those of you already confused, this past Sunday evening, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (that’s the NHMLAC, for those of you acronym collectors out there), put on a screening of Volcano right directly next to the Tar Pits. The best part was that pre-film, there was a panel of scientists in front with microphones giving a mini-discussion about all of the bad science present in the film. You can barely make it out, but the middle scientist in the photo above is actually dressed as a volcano. I’ve got to say, that it was nice to actually learn something about plate tectonics, the difference between magma and lava, and what exactly is seeping up through the ground a mere 2.2 miles from where I live (it’s asphalt).
Next up for the Natural History Museum? Godzilla vs. Mothra. No joke.
Jimi Hendrix – Long Hot Summer Night
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At Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School, each classroom is equipped with a single desktop computer, to be used at the teacher’s discretion and minimally, to take daily attendance online.
Well, leaving this PC turned “on” for hours/days at a time inevitably gets the CPU fan a’ whirrin’ quite loudly, a sound which has only amplified itself in recent weeks.
Thursday, Rustum and I decided to finally investigate the excess noise coming from the PC, and lo and behold, aside from storing spreadsheets, documents, and mp3s, this computer had been in the business of storing California’s dust, a fact only fully realized after scooping an inch-thick layer from the bottom of the case.
At this point, some of my readers are no doubt wondering what is this blog coming to, when I’m posting about subjects as mundane as the dust in my computer.
Point conceded.
Meat Loaf – Everything Louder Than Everything Else
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I was late for work this morning. Not a mere 5 minutes, but a whopping 50. Luckily, it’s summer (no kids) and I could simply tag on an extra 50 minutes onto the end of my work. Phew!
Summer is quickly slipping away here….we’re already nearly a week into August and the idea of the beginning of school had frequently graced my mind.
The biggest news as of late is that I’ve finally finished BTSA!! For those of my readers who are LAUSD teachers, you’ll immediately understand how big a deal this is. For those of you who are currently unfamiliar with the bureaucratic depths to which LA Unified forces it’s teachers to descend, it’ll sum it up. BTSA, or “Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment”, is the program that the State of California requires all teachers to complete within 5 years of their teaching, in order to get a “clear” credential (i.e. a permanent credential).
What exactly is BTSA? Well, imagine the perfect storm of endless paperwork (enough to make a Minnesotan logger shed a tear), visionless (“blind” seems not a harsh enough word) leadership, and incomprehensible communication.
Luckily, many districts in the state accept other items that waive the BTSA requirement, for example, a Master’s Degree, or prior education experience from another state. But no, not LAUSD. Despite having a masters from LMU (which already earns me a whopping $1.50 a day extra pay), it’s not good enough for LAUSD. BTSA is the only option.
Anyway, a year ago, I decided to grit my teeth and bear it, and thanks to the AMAZING help of a colleague, BTSA became surmountable.
And now it’s finally done! Yeah. Now Arnold Schwarzenegger fully owns my soul! Let’s just hope he doesn’t ship it to New Jersey.
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