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By Kyle, August 23, 2007 11:55 am

Some of you know that I live approximately 1.5 miles from school, which leaves me little excuse to do all that driving to and from work each day. So my personal goal for the next month as school gets going is to either walk, or ride my bike to and from school as often as possible. It’s actually nice to be able to have about 30 minutes before school to mentally get ready (as opposed to being at home and then 5 minutes later being at work).

The above picture is one that I took from the West St. Bridge looking east over Venice Blvd. What’s interesting is that many of my kids will take this same route when they walk to and from school. And although I haven’t run into any of my kids so far, I have run into several of my former students who now attend Los Angeles High School (located approximately 450 feet from my house)!

Anyway, I’m hoping that once school starts, I’ll stay in the habit of walking to school although those extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning are awfully tempting!

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By Kyle, August 20, 2007 11:22 pm

My eyes did a double-take as I walked through the parking lot last Friday. I happened to be in La Mirada, California visiting two friends and on the way to a movie, when I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye a strange looking automobile that I’d only seen on TV and never in person. Yes, it was an actual De Lorean DMC-12, one of only 6,500 believed to still exist today. The only place I’d ever remembered seeing one before was in the immortal Back to the Future film trilogy. Well, this one was parked in a mall parking lot. In La Mirada no less. Aside from this rather unusual sighting, I did have a great evening. And although the film we saw, Ocean’s 13, was clearly not the classic that Back to the Future was, I had a great time hanging out with two of my buddies.

Anyway, the countdown has begun. We are just over two weeks away from our first day with kids! I’m looking forward to seeing my kids again (I’m “looping” this year, which means although I taught 7th grade last year, I’m teaching 8th grade this year in order to keep my same kids). I’ll be sure to write back later although these next few weeks are looking like they’re going to be absolutely crammed with busyness as I continue to prepare for the school year to begin!

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By Kyle, August 17, 2007 10:13 pm

Today was our second day of our professional development neighborhood visits. Today was definitely not as interesting or exciting as yesterday. At 9am, we boarded a bus and headed to East Los Angeles, during which a local college professor talked to us about the history of murals in Los Angeles, particularly those done by Chicano artists. Again, the relevance was not immediately apparent to us as we toured from location to location.

The “highlight” of the day occurred at around 11:00am when our tour bus blew a belt.The good news is that we had brought along two buses full of teachers. The bad news was that there were now six more teachers than available seats. They say that opportunity knocks but once. Sensing what was perhaps my only moment for escape, I quickly volunteered to forgo the rest of my tour in favor of a Los Angeles Metro bus ride home. In total, there were approximately 10 of us who stayed behind. Some took cabs, but my colleague Raul and I ventured to take the Metro bus from East LA, through Downtown, and then on to school.

In retrospect, it was actually a pretty fun experience, and I got to eat at this great Salvadoran restaurant on Grand/Venice (for those of you who know L.A. streets). Anyway, it’s off to bed to rest up for another busy weekend!

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By Kyle, August 16, 2007 3:56 pm

As part of our continuing professional development at Cochran Middle School, we were told that on August 16th and 17th, the faculty would spend two days touring neighborhoods in our community, supposedly to learn about the perspectives that our students come to school with. Today’s theme was “The African-American Perspective” (African-Americans make up approximately 25% of our student population). At 8:30am, the faculty boarded two charter buses, and took a drive east along Washington Blvd. through many of the neighborhoods where our students live. We did not venture off the bus.

Our final stop of the morning was St. Elmo Village, a series of residential duplexes and condos that have over the past 40 years have been converted into an interactive arts community, complete with residences, galleries, workshops, and gardens. Founded in the late 60s, by some residents who decided to begin to take some pride and work to beautify their neighborhood, St. Elmo Village educates community members, holds art sales, and welcomes people to come and express their creativity. After touring the grounds, we spent the next hour making “object art”, which essentially were collages of items that would normally be overlooked, but were in this case, converted into art.

Finally, we headed down to Leimert Park, and during our lunch of Caribbean jerk chicken, listened to a local group of jazz musicians as they played and spoke about jazz and the importance of connecting kids with the arts in school.

Anyway, I think everyone had a great time, although it’s hard to completely grasp how this experience has much to do with our students. If we truly wanted the student experience, we should probably focus more on hitting up the Jack-in-the-Box, 7-Eleven (a.k.a. “the liquor store”), all while skateboarding from location to location.