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By Kyle, December 29, 2009 5:22 pm

Rolling Stones – 2000 Man

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In celebration of the end of the year 2009, I thought I’d publish a year-in-review retrospective of this blog. My thanks to all of you wonderful readers this year who keep on reading, and keep on commenting, despite your better instincts. For those of you who have read all of these already, I apologize for the Simpsons-clip-show style of this, if some of these postings are new-to-you, then enjoy!

  #5 [tie]: “5 Years in L.A.” / “How Twitter Saved Me $50”. In mid-summer, I returned to Los Angeles from vacation to Costa Rica and much to my surprise, used a much-maligned technology to secure a ride back from the Los Angeles airport! Yay!

 #4: “Help! I Need a Dentist Drill Playlist”. As I went in to wisdom teeth removal surgery this past Halloween, I solicited your help, and much to my delight, nearly a dozen of your replied with an ideal dentist drill playlist! The bad news? I actually had the playlist all ready to go on my iPod, but they actually gave me general anesthetic, so my enjoyment of the play lists didn’t actually occur until my Halloween weekend recovery! Thanks for your insight!

 #3: “You Know You’re Staying At Work Too Long When This Happens…”. In mid-September, I took this photo of the parking lot. The good news is that the photographed event only rarely occurs. Thanks to some amazing teachers, Kids Mastering Math, and Hope Change Choices are running extremely smoothly and effectively. I can actually leave school around 5 or 5:30 now! I’m not the last one anymore….usually there are about 5 or 6 others.

 #2: “New Appetites”. In late August, after 5 years living in wonderful Mid-City Los Angeles, I moved to a new apartment, furnished by it’s very own new kitchen. The past four months have been filled with learning not only to make staple foods to keep myself from starving, but try new concoctions that have as often failed as succeeded. It’s still quite fun learning how to cook, although being busy certainly limits the amount of time and energy I’m able to spend doing things like cooking.

…AND THE NUMBER 1 HUNSBLOG POST OF 2009….

 #1: “The End of Social Promotion”. At the end of September, I linked to an article regarding Denver schools that had finally done something about the social promotion that exists as a reality within large urban districts. It seems that finally some school district did something about it, and instituted a proficiency promotion policy, rather than a policy based on age. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it seems to have been helpful in helping students actually attain success, rather than simply getting further and further behind in the courses they are enrolled in. It is perhaps a bit unsurprising as well that this issues facing kids and schools today was the most popular as of 2009.

With the start of a new year just days away, 2010, I look forward to continue to blog, wasting more of my time, and yours!

Happy 2010

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By Kyle, December 24, 2009 9:05 am

Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Canon Rock

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I took this picture in a mall. A MALL!

Not to worry, there is still one shopping day before Christmas!

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By Kyle, December 20, 2009 2:42 pm

Aimee Mann – Calling on Mary

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At the closing of this morning’s church service, celebrating the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, Pastor Mark did something dangerous. He invited anyone in the congregation to come up on stage and to join the choir in a singing of Handel’s “Hallelujah” from Messiah. Unable to resist my better judgment against doing so, I walked up on stage along with probably 150 other semi-musical laypeople to instantaneously dust the cobwebs from my memory of what was the last time I sang this piece in public, nearly a decade ago (remember the Clinton administration?).

Thankfully, my memory served me well enough to realize that joining the “tenor” section would have been disastrous. Handel manages to squeal out notes up to a high “A” (roughly a major fourth higher than what I am comfortable with), and so with this in mind, I gladly joined the bass section, an act which instantly makes one feel somehow more “manly” anyway.

Well, the ad hoc choir made it through, and made it through quite well, and in the process reminded me that there is a substantial difference between hearing music and playing music, and even MORE of a difference between hearing sung music and singing music. And as much as I love distorted electric guitar power chords, and dazzling piano scales and progressions, there’s nothing quite like a community of people simply singing; sometimes a bit off key, sometimes missing those notes (and at times more obviously, the rests), sometimes jostling you a bit from the right to make some more stage room for themselves. There’s something uniquely human about this, something that is core to who we are, something that almost can’t be described (despite my pitiful attempts to do just that on this blog).

….now if only I could get my kids to sing some algebra songs….

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By Kyle, December 17, 2009 6:51 pm

Joe Satriani – HMC

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Wow! I just got an email Christmas card from LAUSD school board member Monica Garcia. Apparently, she sent it to everyone in the school district, including the nearly 5,000 employees she just authorized layoffs for.

Nice.

In other news, and in what is likely just shameless self-promotion, an article detailing the complexity of the Magnet School application process has appeared today on the USC Annenberg School of Communication webpage. It’s author, a grad student in journalism,  highlights both parents determination to learn the process as well as Hope Change Choices, the “organization” (if, by organization, you mean three people) which I’ve been a part of for the last two years to help inform families of their options and advocate for equal access to quality schools.

You can read the article in it’s entirety here.

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By Kyle, December 14, 2009 11:53 am

George Harrison – I’ve Got My Mind Set On You

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Yep….this is a laser disc. I can’t say that I had ever seen a whole collection of them prior to this past Saturday evening. The opposite of portable, I suppose the only advantage that they provided over the common VHS that prevailed in that day was a resilience toward wear and tear, as well as a significantly superior picture and sound quality.

I hear they also make pretty decent Frisbees.

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By Kyle, December 11, 2009 4:14 pm

The Easybeats – Friday On My Mind

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It’s Friday, and we’ve only got a single week to go until the glorious Christmas break! It’s crazy to believe how quick this semester is going, much to the chagrin of some of my students who are a bit worried about how quickly their final fall grade is going to be posted.

I’m about to head home from school here. Despite getting well into a rhythm of getting things done, I still consistently find myself here at school after 4pm and often until 5. Oh well, I tell myself, it’s simply part of the job, and working hard at the after-school bit, makes the 8-3pm bit so much more enjoyable.

Even more enjoyable that this amazing track, which I randomly heard online a few days ago, fell in love with again, and can’t get out of mind no matter how hard I try! Enjoy!

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By Kyle, December 9, 2009 6:47 pm

Radar Bros. – Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

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It’s been one year to the day that our illustrious LAUSD Board of Education voted to buyout the remaining years of beleaguered Superintendant Brewer’s contract, effectively issuing a no-confidence vote in him.

Frustration levels were at an all-time high a year ago and many were not at all saddened to see the admiral go. Yet, one year later, it seems like the Admiral jumped ship at just the right time. Forget “women and children first”, exiting the district prior to the financial meltdown we’re currently embroiled in seemed now the wisest move in retrospect for the leader who honestly never took the helm of the ship of LAUSD. In the past year, LAUSD has nearly completely buckled under the financial pressure of a district whose resources for personnel are strapped dangerously thin. While it would be easy to blame the district for this, the problem is largely symptomatic of the greater economic trouble that the entire state finds itself in. A progressive state, California has developed countless programs and services we can no longer afford. Something’s gotta go.

Last night, on the 1-year anniversary of the vote to buyout the previous Supe, the LA Board voted on a budget that will layoff 5,000 employees next year without union concessions. This is a really tough position to be in, and it didn’t seem that any of the six board members in favor really enjoyed voting that way.

What a time to be in LAUSD!

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By Kyle, December 7, 2009 7:18 pm

Sufjan Stevens – Sister Winter

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It’s finally winter here in Los Angeles, and for those of you who don’t know what winter is like, imagine a cold and rainy October day in the Northeast or Midwest. That’s basically it.

In the meantime, the steady trudge towards Christmas break and the end of 2009 continues. Current on the docket is the overwhelming efforts of folks in LAUSD to simultaneously fight off a 12% pay reduction, furlough days, and even the possibility of a charter takeover (the latter being the most temporally remote). The situation does look pretty grim, yet there are sparks of hope in the midst.

Today after school, I had planned on working for a few hours in my classroom, grading papers, planning for test review, and generally getting on top of things. Yet, much to my surprise, I had a former student (from my first class ever as a teacher) who is now a senior drop by with some questions about applying to Fresno State. We caught up a bit, worked on the application, delved into some upper level-math problems. Gotta say, despite all the negative stuff that goes on in the systems of school and LAUSD, it is the people who continue to make me hopeful and the difference that is made in individuals that makes the day-to-day grind and bureaucratic frustrations more than bearable.

Yay!

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By Kyle, December 4, 2009 6:10 pm

AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill

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I will never own a gun. Never. In fact, guns kind of scare me. They’re loud, they’re powerful, and they can kill you.

So I understandably had a bit of hesitation when our school tech coordinator invited a fellow English teacher (pictured above, declining some choice verbs…) and myself to a firing range in downtown L.A. today after school.

Yet, after firing several dozen rounds out of a 9mm, a .357 Magnum, some sort of rifle, and the above pictured .500 Magnum, I can say I’m definitely glad I went.

It was loud, it was powerful, yet firmly under the safety controls of the range operators. Each fired round felt like a small (or large) cannon exploding right in your hand, and for two of the weapons, the kickback was like being on the receiving end of a punch.

Yet, I’m glad I did something that initially frightened me, but followed through anyway. Although I must say that I am now more than ever inclined to raise questions about the 2nd Amendment.

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By Kyle, December 1, 2009 8:31 pm

Oasis – Champagne Supernova

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Two days back! Just two days we’ve been back and already I’m feeling the weight of the final three weeks of school before Christmas, none of which actually have to do with my particular kids or my particular classes.

Part of the fun involved convincing someone at the downtown Beaudry building that libraries are not sufficiently equipped to handle all the Choices applications that people are requesting. I hope this doesn’t actually involve calling up all our neighborhood libraries tomorrow, but it just might.

The other fun part is running a department meeting where we are charged with amending a very significant document and only given an hour to do it. So while the meeting was actually really productive (we’ve got freaking amazing teachers), there’s still much work to do, and it all must happen within a very short amount of time.

Anyway, we’ve only been back two days and it already feels like we’ve been back two weeks. Thank goodness for the advent season that is nonetheless here, keeping me sane!