"Three Moods: Presidential Election 2008"
--A triptych. Burque Babble guy. Zeroes & ones, electrons. 2008
"Cautiously Optimistic"
"Blue Tidewater Option"
"Giddy That My Very Own Church of Christer Mom in Missouri is Voting Obama"
P.S.: Less "art" and more "science" (i.e. coin-flips and wishful thinking) to come shortly in a post combining my geekiness and high coffee intake this fine, fine, superfine Election Day morning.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Monday, November 03, 2008
Burque Babble's Rockin' Election Eve 2008: A Look Back at 2006 Looking Back at 2004
I wrote the following in early November 2006. I reprise it now as both a cautionary tale of taking things for granted, and a bitter memory of that early November night four years ago. Remember that night, the eve before our one-term buffoon "W" was most certain to be dethroned? The evening before the evening that kicked our stomach so hard the scars have yet to really heal? Hearken back to that day seemingly so long ago...yet....
November 6, 2006:
About two years ago tonight I was plopped down before C-SPAN watching John and Teresa Heinz-Kerry introduce Bruce Springsteen at a huge election-eve rally in Cleveland. The Boss praised the Kerry's for a bit, then sang "Thunder Road" in the chilly wind of an early November in northern Ohio. Even in the single-camera world of C-SPAN it was clear that the audience was ebullient and confident. Only a few hours remained until the Democrats would take back Ohio, the Electoral College and the country.
I sat there watching and it was hard not to get choked up.
For the roughly half of us who saw the George W. Bush years 2001-2004 as one continuous collective surreal nightmare, Election Eve '04 was like a combination of Christmas Eve and the night before the Prom rolled up together. We knew the next day was gonna be great, just knew it, but a frail, small voice within us wondered "what if it's not as great as we think it will be?"
Then The Boss sang about "Mary" and her dancing "across the porch as the radio plays" and that inner voice was easily subdued. Even for some of us more cynical types.
After months and months and months and years of waiting, maybe Kerry really could win. Okay, we weren't that excited about Kerry...he seemed about as much like us as the cartoon aliens on "The Simpsons", he was richer than most South American countries, his sense of humor was somewhere between Margaret Dumont and Anderson Cooper. But he wasn't Bush, and he was what we had, and Bruce was singing to him and his wife and 100,000 or so chilly people in a state we had to win. Just had to.
Many of us woke up not only happy because of a day off, but because we had somehow become convinced it was gonna be the first glorious day of the rest of our soon-to-be-George W. Bush-less life. It was especially great to be in New Mexico, because we happened to be living in a state where votes mattered. It was gonna be close, but we were gonna prevail. A bit of work, a dash of worry, and then a loud, and somewhat boozy chorus of "Born in the U.S.A." when it was clear we had taken the country back. It was gonna be great, small voice be damned.
It was gonna be great, and then it wasn't.
Which brings us to Burque Babble's Rockin' Election Eve: 2006. LIke any good soap opera, the plot really hasn't moved that much forward in the last two years. We're here again, the night before something potentially fantastic, almost probably so, really. At least one house of Congress should go to the Democrats, and while that's not the same as giving W the personal boot, it's as close as we're gonna get until that happy day in late January 2009 when he slithers out of D.C. for good. We've got a shot not only to smash the congressional rubber stamp, but to make a electorally verified statement to the world that we aren't quite as crazy as we appeared back in '04.
But we're also two years older, and just two years removed from the stomach punch that was '04. So we are filled to overflowing with worry. We obsess on the magic of Karl Rove, the dark mysteries of Republican GOTV, the villainous shenanigans of "Robocalls" and electronic voting. We also think way back, to 2000 and the mother of all villainous shenanigans, where the Republican GOTV for nine robed justices far surpassed the Democrats.
For a few months after Election Eve '04 I avoided anything having to do with politics. Like many others, I investigating relocating to other parts of the world, read with amusement web sites created to provide U.S. citizens with photographic proof to the rest of the world that not every American was crazy, and rehabilitated my perforated stomach through a steady diet of politics-free news.
I don't remember exactly what drug me back into caring, what combination of event and personal healing brought me back to following things political again. But here I am tonight, stomach scarred and acidic, trying to stay brave and face another Election Eve of hope and apprehension.
A few things are different. First, I'm avoiding C-SPAN like a karaoke bar. Not risking that again. Second, I'm trying real hard to avoid any contact with any blog this evening, regardless of how politiporn sexy the many "Robocall" voter suppression blogthreads are. Just a quiet night here with the family....at least that's the idea.
Third, and most obvious/important: we won't get fooled again. Or should I say, I won't. Like the guy who's prom night date leads only to a soul crushing break-up, I'm not emotionally investing myself in the Madrid/Wilson race. I'm not gonna go into a multi-month fugue state if the Democrats don't take a house of Congress. I'm gonna just keep remembering those really corny lines from really corny songs like, "The Sun will come out tomorrow" from "Annie" and "There's got to be a morning after" from the original "Poseidon Adventure".
Yes, I realize that humming these horrible songs to one's self is probably worse than just about any possible pain caused by a election defeat, but you didn't see the condition of my punched stomach on Election Night '04. Even songs from "Annie" don't compare with the ugliness that night produced.
So, Happy Rockin' Election Eve: 2006 everybody! May we all enjoy tomorrow as the great expression of democracy it so certainly is, and have a blast following all the wacky results about 24 hours from now. Regardless. Really.
P.S.: Like all of us, especially those one-day unemployed teacher types who have "Election Day" off, I'm gonna throw some wild-ass "prognostications" out tomorrow morning about everything from Senator Obama to NM Constitutional Amendment #5. Meanwhile, I'm going to sleep tonight thinking better thoughts than I ever did in '06 or '04. Still, remember November 6, 2006? How can we not remember that?
November 6, 2006:
About two years ago tonight I was plopped down before C-SPAN watching John and Teresa Heinz-Kerry introduce Bruce Springsteen at a huge election-eve rally in Cleveland. The Boss praised the Kerry's for a bit, then sang "Thunder Road" in the chilly wind of an early November in northern Ohio. Even in the single-camera world of C-SPAN it was clear that the audience was ebullient and confident. Only a few hours remained until the Democrats would take back Ohio, the Electoral College and the country.
I sat there watching and it was hard not to get choked up.
For the roughly half of us who saw the George W. Bush years 2001-2004 as one continuous collective surreal nightmare, Election Eve '04 was like a combination of Christmas Eve and the night before the Prom rolled up together. We knew the next day was gonna be great, just knew it, but a frail, small voice within us wondered "what if it's not as great as we think it will be?"
Then The Boss sang about "Mary" and her dancing "across the porch as the radio plays" and that inner voice was easily subdued. Even for some of us more cynical types.
After months and months and months and years of waiting, maybe Kerry really could win. Okay, we weren't that excited about Kerry...he seemed about as much like us as the cartoon aliens on "The Simpsons", he was richer than most South American countries, his sense of humor was somewhere between Margaret Dumont and Anderson Cooper. But he wasn't Bush, and he was what we had, and Bruce was singing to him and his wife and 100,000 or so chilly people in a state we had to win. Just had to.
Many of us woke up not only happy because of a day off, but because we had somehow become convinced it was gonna be the first glorious day of the rest of our soon-to-be-George W. Bush-less life. It was especially great to be in New Mexico, because we happened to be living in a state where votes mattered. It was gonna be close, but we were gonna prevail. A bit of work, a dash of worry, and then a loud, and somewhat boozy chorus of "Born in the U.S.A." when it was clear we had taken the country back. It was gonna be great, small voice be damned.
It was gonna be great, and then it wasn't.
Which brings us to Burque Babble's Rockin' Election Eve: 2006. LIke any good soap opera, the plot really hasn't moved that much forward in the last two years. We're here again, the night before something potentially fantastic, almost probably so, really. At least one house of Congress should go to the Democrats, and while that's not the same as giving W the personal boot, it's as close as we're gonna get until that happy day in late January 2009 when he slithers out of D.C. for good. We've got a shot not only to smash the congressional rubber stamp, but to make a electorally verified statement to the world that we aren't quite as crazy as we appeared back in '04.
But we're also two years older, and just two years removed from the stomach punch that was '04. So we are filled to overflowing with worry. We obsess on the magic of Karl Rove, the dark mysteries of Republican GOTV, the villainous shenanigans of "Robocalls" and electronic voting. We also think way back, to 2000 and the mother of all villainous shenanigans, where the Republican GOTV for nine robed justices far surpassed the Democrats.
For a few months after Election Eve '04 I avoided anything having to do with politics. Like many others, I investigating relocating to other parts of the world, read with amusement web sites created to provide U.S. citizens with photographic proof to the rest of the world that not every American was crazy, and rehabilitated my perforated stomach through a steady diet of politics-free news.
I don't remember exactly what drug me back into caring, what combination of event and personal healing brought me back to following things political again. But here I am tonight, stomach scarred and acidic, trying to stay brave and face another Election Eve of hope and apprehension.
A few things are different. First, I'm avoiding C-SPAN like a karaoke bar. Not risking that again. Second, I'm trying real hard to avoid any contact with any blog this evening, regardless of how politiporn sexy the many "Robocall" voter suppression blogthreads are. Just a quiet night here with the family....at least that's the idea.
Third, and most obvious/important: we won't get fooled again. Or should I say, I won't. Like the guy who's prom night date leads only to a soul crushing break-up, I'm not emotionally investing myself in the Madrid/Wilson race. I'm not gonna go into a multi-month fugue state if the Democrats don't take a house of Congress. I'm gonna just keep remembering those really corny lines from really corny songs like, "The Sun will come out tomorrow" from "Annie" and "There's got to be a morning after" from the original "Poseidon Adventure".
Yes, I realize that humming these horrible songs to one's self is probably worse than just about any possible pain caused by a election defeat, but you didn't see the condition of my punched stomach on Election Night '04. Even songs from "Annie" don't compare with the ugliness that night produced.
So, Happy Rockin' Election Eve: 2006 everybody! May we all enjoy tomorrow as the great expression of democracy it so certainly is, and have a blast following all the wacky results about 24 hours from now. Regardless. Really.
P.S.: Like all of us, especially those one-day unemployed teacher types who have "Election Day" off, I'm gonna throw some wild-ass "prognostications" out tomorrow morning about everything from Senator Obama to NM Constitutional Amendment #5. Meanwhile, I'm going to sleep tonight thinking better thoughts than I ever did in '06 or '04. Still, remember November 6, 2006? How can we not remember that?
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Education Isn't All About the Negative. Really. Some Of It Is About the Affirmative.
In trying to offer up a blow-by-blow of a school year, Burque Babble has largely eschewed the political since August, instead electing (get it, "electing"?) to prattle on and on and on about the mundane, the bad and the ugly of working in the public schools, circa 2008.
Looking back there's been rants about bad teachers (many), Winston Brooks, standardized testing results, the Pledge of Allegiance, school counselors, school "Instructional Coaches" and school secretaries. There's also been running theme of "school-day wasting activities" from fundraising assemblies to Jackie Chan movies.
And no, I'm not writing anything else about the "Jackie Chan movie". I promise*.
Quite noticeable from a quick perusal of school-based posts since August is the high percentage of ranting negativity about public school, teaching in the public schools and, in general, K-12 education in the early years of the 21st Century.
Dear reader, I applaud your cast-iron stomach for ranting negativity, and offer up the following little anecdotal (as we teachers call them) as faint proof that your humble blogger is not ALWAYS negative about the K-12 teaching profession. In fact, he quite loves the job. Really, he does. And yes, he is talking about himself in the third person, which is irritating.
Also irritating is that the little positive anecdotal is about something going on in his own classroom, which not only stinks of braggadocio, but might give the impression that your humble blogger thinks that only his own classroom is doing things "right", and every other teacher is "bad". Nothing could be further from the truth. There are tons of fantastic teachers out there doing unbelievable things. In APS. And I see these teachers/students from afar all the time doing their wonderful things.
Your humble blogger has just made a mental note to start writing anecdotals about these other teachers in the very, very near future. This, however, is not going to be one of those times. Instead, it's about what we're doing in my class and throughout campus tomorrow. Your humble blogger also notes that the build up to this "anecdotal" has hyped it so much that when it finally arrives you, dear reader, will inevitably be letdown and wonder why the Hell your humble blogger has bothered writing about it in the first place.
Oh well. Here goes....
Over the past week the students in our (my co-teachers and I) little program have been frantically preparing speeches, etc. to get ready for a series of debates to be held in classrooms throughout campus tomorrow. Given that our little program has about 220 students, and that 20 debates will be held over the day, the total number of students impacted will be something like 600-650.
Moreover, in trying to keep these debates relevant to this year's Presidential Election, we chose four issues that are not only topical, but complex as Hell. Namely, there's Health Care, Immigration "Sanctuary Communities", Invading Pakistan and Abortion. Yes, you've got that right folks. We're debating abortion at my little middle school. I must say that I have been the "stick in the mud" when it comes to the whole Roe v. Wade thing, and that my co-teachers have been the positive catalysts. My principal has also been completely fantastic in supporting us in the endeavor (well, except for the whole Jackie Chan movie thing, which we're not talking about anymore).
Student response to tackling these terribly complex issues (resolutions, issue packets linked above) has been inspiring. Despite being given only a few days, these 11-12-13 year-olds have leapt to the challenge, already demonstrating astounding ability to both comprehend difficult issues and creating admirable arguments/rebuttals. I think anyone suffering from a negative outlook regarding today's public schools couldn't help but get at least a glimmer of hope watching the proceedings, even one who tends towards ranting negativity in his blogpostings.
Of course the actual in-class debates are tomorrow, and your humble blogger might be jinxing the whole enterprise. Still, I've already seen enough to be very, very proud of my students and their ability to work hard, work as a team, and not give up when faced with incredibly complex materials. It's been a sight to behold.
Especially thinking back to last Friday morning. Let me set the scene. It's Friday. It's Halloween. Jackie Chan and crew are filming scenes for a movie immediately outside the door to my room. You can't open the door to my room without hitting a production assistant or high-intensity light standard. In fact, we've been told to not let students go to the bathroom because Jackie Chan is cartwheeling down our hall, or something. We can literally hear the director yell "Action!" from inside my room.
And my 6th/7th/8th Graders don't miss a beat. Not only do we have "practice debates" but they are of a high quality. We are having meaningful feedback discussions about the best way for "Affirmative" to explain "sanctuary cities" to other middle schoolers, while a Jackie Chan movie is being filmed outside my room on a Halloween Friday.
Those unfamiliar with middle school and middle schoolers might not understand me when I say: wow.
Wow.
So, dear reader, if you catch me in future months on my 42nd straight rant about how much public schools suck, and that American K-12 education is beyond collapse, and that No Child Left Behind blah, blah, blah, blah... stop me and remind your humble blogger about the time those kids were having a completely focused argument over whether drone aircraft alone can slow down al-Qaeda in Pakistan while a Jackie Chan movie was being filmed immediately outside the room on a Halloween Friday. That should shut me up for a bit.
Have a good Monday everybody. Mine is looking pretty good, I think. And so is Tuesday, now that you mention it, but more about the "Election" and all that noise tomorrow night.
*I admit it, I'm lousy when it comes to promises.
Looking back there's been rants about bad teachers (many), Winston Brooks, standardized testing results, the Pledge of Allegiance, school counselors, school "Instructional Coaches" and school secretaries. There's also been running theme of "school-day wasting activities" from fundraising assemblies to Jackie Chan movies.
And no, I'm not writing anything else about the "Jackie Chan movie". I promise*.
Quite noticeable from a quick perusal of school-based posts since August is the high percentage of ranting negativity about public school, teaching in the public schools and, in general, K-12 education in the early years of the 21st Century.
Dear reader, I applaud your cast-iron stomach for ranting negativity, and offer up the following little anecdotal (as we teachers call them) as faint proof that your humble blogger is not ALWAYS negative about the K-12 teaching profession. In fact, he quite loves the job. Really, he does. And yes, he is talking about himself in the third person, which is irritating.
Also irritating is that the little positive anecdotal is about something going on in his own classroom, which not only stinks of braggadocio, but might give the impression that your humble blogger thinks that only his own classroom is doing things "right", and every other teacher is "bad". Nothing could be further from the truth. There are tons of fantastic teachers out there doing unbelievable things. In APS. And I see these teachers/students from afar all the time doing their wonderful things.
Your humble blogger has just made a mental note to start writing anecdotals about these other teachers in the very, very near future. This, however, is not going to be one of those times. Instead, it's about what we're doing in my class and throughout campus tomorrow. Your humble blogger also notes that the build up to this "anecdotal" has hyped it so much that when it finally arrives you, dear reader, will inevitably be letdown and wonder why the Hell your humble blogger has bothered writing about it in the first place.
Oh well. Here goes....
Over the past week the students in our (my co-teachers and I) little program have been frantically preparing speeches, etc. to get ready for a series of debates to be held in classrooms throughout campus tomorrow. Given that our little program has about 220 students, and that 20 debates will be held over the day, the total number of students impacted will be something like 600-650.
Moreover, in trying to keep these debates relevant to this year's Presidential Election, we chose four issues that are not only topical, but complex as Hell. Namely, there's Health Care, Immigration "Sanctuary Communities", Invading Pakistan and Abortion. Yes, you've got that right folks. We're debating abortion at my little middle school. I must say that I have been the "stick in the mud" when it comes to the whole Roe v. Wade thing, and that my co-teachers have been the positive catalysts. My principal has also been completely fantastic in supporting us in the endeavor (well, except for the whole Jackie Chan movie thing, which we're not talking about anymore).
Student response to tackling these terribly complex issues (resolutions, issue packets linked above) has been inspiring. Despite being given only a few days, these 11-12-13 year-olds have leapt to the challenge, already demonstrating astounding ability to both comprehend difficult issues and creating admirable arguments/rebuttals. I think anyone suffering from a negative outlook regarding today's public schools couldn't help but get at least a glimmer of hope watching the proceedings, even one who tends towards ranting negativity in his blogpostings.
Of course the actual in-class debates are tomorrow, and your humble blogger might be jinxing the whole enterprise. Still, I've already seen enough to be very, very proud of my students and their ability to work hard, work as a team, and not give up when faced with incredibly complex materials. It's been a sight to behold.
Especially thinking back to last Friday morning. Let me set the scene. It's Friday. It's Halloween. Jackie Chan and crew are filming scenes for a movie immediately outside the door to my room. You can't open the door to my room without hitting a production assistant or high-intensity light standard. In fact, we've been told to not let students go to the bathroom because Jackie Chan is cartwheeling down our hall, or something. We can literally hear the director yell "Action!" from inside my room.
And my 6th/7th/8th Graders don't miss a beat. Not only do we have "practice debates" but they are of a high quality. We are having meaningful feedback discussions about the best way for "Affirmative" to explain "sanctuary cities" to other middle schoolers, while a Jackie Chan movie is being filmed outside my room on a Halloween Friday.
Those unfamiliar with middle school and middle schoolers might not understand me when I say: wow.
Wow.
So, dear reader, if you catch me in future months on my 42nd straight rant about how much public schools suck, and that American K-12 education is beyond collapse, and that No Child Left Behind blah, blah, blah, blah... stop me and remind your humble blogger about the time those kids were having a completely focused argument over whether drone aircraft alone can slow down al-Qaeda in Pakistan while a Jackie Chan movie was being filmed immediately outside the room on a Halloween Friday. That should shut me up for a bit.
Have a good Monday everybody. Mine is looking pretty good, I think. And so is Tuesday, now that you mention it, but more about the "Election" and all that noise tomorrow night.
*I admit it, I'm lousy when it comes to promises.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Everybody Forcibly Kung Fu Fighting II: A Fistful of Loathing
In the aftermath of my little post about the filming of a Jackie Chan movie at my school, I've had the chance to do some thinking about careers, jobs and my views on various occupations. No, I've no plans to run away from K-12 teaching like my professional hair is on fire. Really, I haven't. It's just that the Hollywood movie-making "experience" (which really hasn't even happened yet as "shooting" is supposed to start tomorrow), has evoked in me certain feelings, feelings I knew I had, but not in the copious, dense amounts o' feeling I seem to possess.
As I put it in a comment late yesterday: I love film. I hate the film industry.
Okay, let's not use the word "hate". "Hate" is overused, and should be reserved for Nazis, neo-Nazis and Diane Anderson's haircut. Let's say "despise" or "loath" instead. I loath and loathe the film industry. Now I could go into all the reasons Ihate loathe the film industry, but I've noticed that when it comes to ranting about the film industry people who don't loathe the film industry just stare blankly at me, the ranting person. They don't get why I loathe the film industry. They don't get why anybody would loathe the film industry.
I mean this is Jackie Chan we're talking about here.
Which frankly, is one of the reasons I loathe the film industry, because it's exactly that sort of irrational fandom which drives me crazy. A fandom that allows the film industry to treat potential "extras" as little more than cattle, disrupts daily life with the ersatz allure of "Hollywood Magic", and can make people do the stupidest things all on the pretense that they may one day appear doing that stupid thing on a movie screen.
But again, I'm not going to bother ranting about the film industry. Doing so would waste both your and my time. Especially if you have the blank stare of "Hollywood Magic" on your face.
Instead, I'd like to present a sort of chart. I got to thinking while bike riding home yesterday about my personal answer to a question. How would I rank various professions/industries? To be specific, how would I rank these professions in terms of whether I would want a representative from said industry to appear in my classroom, telling my kids about their profession, what they do in it, etc.
My bikedreaming led me to think that I should rank these professions from top to bottom, but put spaces in the listing to show distance between quality of profession/industry. For example, instead of ranking baseball players like this:
Babe Ruth
Scot at Burque Babble
It would be...
Top
Babe Ruth
Scot at Burque Babble
Bottom
You get the idea. Also, I figured this way I could have the single longest Burque Babble entry (by inches) in history.
Here we go (a very, very limited list):
Top
Peace Corps Volunteer
Homeless/Domestic Violence Shelter Director
Medical Researcher
Mortician (always wanted to have one of those talk to class)
Psychiatrist
Commodities Broker
Insurance Salesman
World Series of Poker Champion
Real Estate Agent
ROTC Commander (at least they're honest about it...sorta)
*Discount Stock Brokerage Schlub
Film Industry Person
TV News Anchorperson
"Blogger"
Robo Call Center Manager
Robo Call Scriptwriter
Political Advisor Responsible for Robo Calls
Bottom
Those bored at work today, feel free to add occupations in the appropriate blanks, or rewrite the list entirely. I plan to do the same while bikedreaming my way up the river bike path this morning.
*I have been one of these. God, what an awful job.
As I put it in a comment late yesterday: I love film. I hate the film industry.
Okay, let's not use the word "hate". "Hate" is overused, and should be reserved for Nazis, neo-Nazis and Diane Anderson's haircut. Let's say "despise" or "loath" instead. I loath and loathe the film industry. Now I could go into all the reasons I
I mean this is Jackie Chan we're talking about here.
Which frankly, is one of the reasons I loathe the film industry, because it's exactly that sort of irrational fandom which drives me crazy. A fandom that allows the film industry to treat potential "extras" as little more than cattle, disrupts daily life with the ersatz allure of "Hollywood Magic", and can make people do the stupidest things all on the pretense that they may one day appear doing that stupid thing on a movie screen.
But again, I'm not going to bother ranting about the film industry. Doing so would waste both your and my time. Especially if you have the blank stare of "Hollywood Magic" on your face.
Instead, I'd like to present a sort of chart. I got to thinking while bike riding home yesterday about my personal answer to a question. How would I rank various professions/industries? To be specific, how would I rank these professions in terms of whether I would want a representative from said industry to appear in my classroom, telling my kids about their profession, what they do in it, etc.
My bikedreaming led me to think that I should rank these professions from top to bottom, but put spaces in the listing to show distance between quality of profession/industry. For example, instead of ranking baseball players like this:
Babe Ruth
Scot at Burque Babble
It would be...
Top
Babe Ruth
Scot at Burque Babble
Bottom
You get the idea. Also, I figured this way I could have the single longest Burque Babble entry (by inches) in history.
Here we go (a very, very limited list):
Top
Peace Corps Volunteer
Homeless/Domestic Violence Shelter Director
Medical Researcher
Mortician (always wanted to have one of those talk to class)
Psychiatrist
Commodities Broker
Insurance Salesman
World Series of Poker Champion
Real Estate Agent
ROTC Commander (at least they're honest about it...sorta)
*Discount Stock Brokerage Schlub
Film Industry Person
TV News Anchorperson
"Blogger"
Robo Call Center Manager
Robo Call Scriptwriter
Political Advisor Responsible for Robo Calls
Bottom
Those bored at work today, feel free to add occupations in the appropriate blanks, or rewrite the list entirely. I plan to do the same while bikedreaming my way up the river bike path this morning.
*I have been one of these. God, what an awful job.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Everybody Was Forcibly Kung Fu Fighting: A 99.9% Barack Obama-Free Post
I know the election is eight days away. That somewhere around 47 bazillion people saw Barack Obama in Albuquerque last Saturday. That somewhere between 8 and 23 people saw John McCain in Albuquerque Saturday. That the stock & commodities markets are collapsing, gyrating at hyper-speed. That the U.S. is evidently invading Syria, Pakistan, and Canada (okay, I made that last one up, I think).
It's a crazy, action-packed time for our city, state, nation, world. And I should probably waste some of your time writing about one or more of these action-packed subjects. In fact, it would be a colossal misuse of the internet airwaves to ignore these fascinating subjects. Only an idiot would avoid touching on these myriad hot button issues this fine morning.
So let's talk Jackie Chan movie.
This week my little school will be the shooting location for the upcoming Jackie Chan movie. As near as I can tell, this Thursday & Friday (and yeah, Halloween is Friday) the halls will be filled with lights, cameras and poorly scripted, kung fu action. Students are being inveigled into becoming "extras" through some hazy selection process involving birth certificates, GPA scores and genetics. Students are supposedly being paid to be "extras". My little school is supposedly going to get a nice, fat check for its inconvenience. My little school is also, supposedly, going to have its school marquee and other distinguishing features appear in the final cut of the film.
Many at the school, particularly my principal and every single student, are thrilled by these developments.
A few of us, horrible curmudgeons incapable of laughter, fun or even a wry smile, are pissed off. Of course we are teachers, and hence quite familiar with being horrible curmudgeons. Still, the gap between the wanton glee of our principal/student-body, and a few of our most curmudgeonly teachers is vast. A not-so-grand canyon, one might say.
I stand at the North Rim of that canyon. The far less-populated, wintry rim. I see the Jackie Chan movie as an example of a school prostituting itself. I see a school throwing its lot, and students, in with morally bankrupt Hollywood. And no, I don't mean "morally bankrupt" in the sense of making dirty movies with unmarried pregnant women. I mean "morally bankrupt" as in Hollywood: makers of vapid, crappy movies that value film quality last and box office first and only.
I am the school's "film teacher". As such, I get the impression I am supposed to embrace the Jackie Chan movie. As if I am to somehow integrate it into my curriculum, revel in this "brush with filmic greatness", tell my students "if you work really hard, maybe you can make a Jackie Chan movie someday".
Pesonally, I would rather my film students smash their DV cameras on the ground, and vow to become anything but Hollywood movie schlubs. I would rather they get careers as politicians or commodity traders over working in a Hollywood film crew, perhaps making claymation movies on the side designed for nothing more than obscure YouTube viewing and maybe, just maybe a one-time-only showing at the Guild during a "stopmotion festival".
But I'm, as I mentioned above, a curmudgeon. I'm the outlier. I'm the "get off my lawn" old guy screaming at a sea of gleeful, Hollywood-laced zombies. I'm an old stick-in-the-mud. I'm the crazed shirtless guy with the "The End is Near" sign standing at Harvard and Central, while passersby try to determine whether to throw pennies at me or not.
That's okay though. I'm a teacher. I'm used to it.
Have a good work week everybody. Jackie Chan included.
It's a crazy, action-packed time for our city, state, nation, world. And I should probably waste some of your time writing about one or more of these action-packed subjects. In fact, it would be a colossal misuse of the internet airwaves to ignore these fascinating subjects. Only an idiot would avoid touching on these myriad hot button issues this fine morning.
So let's talk Jackie Chan movie.
This week my little school will be the shooting location for the upcoming Jackie Chan movie. As near as I can tell, this Thursday & Friday (and yeah, Halloween is Friday) the halls will be filled with lights, cameras and poorly scripted, kung fu action. Students are being inveigled into becoming "extras" through some hazy selection process involving birth certificates, GPA scores and genetics. Students are supposedly being paid to be "extras". My little school is supposedly going to get a nice, fat check for its inconvenience. My little school is also, supposedly, going to have its school marquee and other distinguishing features appear in the final cut of the film.
Many at the school, particularly my principal and every single student, are thrilled by these developments.
A few of us, horrible curmudgeons incapable of laughter, fun or even a wry smile, are pissed off. Of course we are teachers, and hence quite familiar with being horrible curmudgeons. Still, the gap between the wanton glee of our principal/student-body, and a few of our most curmudgeonly teachers is vast. A not-so-grand canyon, one might say.
I stand at the North Rim of that canyon. The far less-populated, wintry rim. I see the Jackie Chan movie as an example of a school prostituting itself. I see a school throwing its lot, and students, in with morally bankrupt Hollywood. And no, I don't mean "morally bankrupt" in the sense of making dirty movies with unmarried pregnant women. I mean "morally bankrupt" as in Hollywood: makers of vapid, crappy movies that value film quality last and box office first and only.
I am the school's "film teacher". As such, I get the impression I am supposed to embrace the Jackie Chan movie. As if I am to somehow integrate it into my curriculum, revel in this "brush with filmic greatness", tell my students "if you work really hard, maybe you can make a Jackie Chan movie someday".
Pesonally, I would rather my film students smash their DV cameras on the ground, and vow to become anything but Hollywood movie schlubs. I would rather they get careers as politicians or commodity traders over working in a Hollywood film crew, perhaps making claymation movies on the side designed for nothing more than obscure YouTube viewing and maybe, just maybe a one-time-only showing at the Guild during a "stopmotion festival".
But I'm, as I mentioned above, a curmudgeon. I'm the outlier. I'm the "get off my lawn" old guy screaming at a sea of gleeful, Hollywood-laced zombies. I'm an old stick-in-the-mud. I'm the crazed shirtless guy with the "The End is Near" sign standing at Harvard and Central, while passersby try to determine whether to throw pennies at me or not.
That's okay though. I'm a teacher. I'm used to it.
Have a good work week everybody. Jackie Chan included.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tonight's Obama Shindig Isn't Just About Lousy Parking
This certainly may be a case of faulty objectivity on my part, but given the wildly huge numbers forecasted for tonight's Obama shindig at UNM, don't you think the Journal is slightly underplaying this event? Outside of the above, and another brief mention of how much parking is going to suck for the blue hairs going to the Popejoy show tonight, that's it.Obama in Albuquerque: Gates open at 7 p.m. for Barack Obama's rally at the University of New Mexico's Johnson Field. Tickets are not required, but an online RSVP at www.NM.barackobama.com is "strongly encouraged" by the campaign. Comedian George Lopez and Gov. Bill Richardson will start things off. Parking for the Obama rally tonight might be difficult, in part because of a symphony concert at nearby Popejoy Hall. UNM is urging Obama rally attendees to park in its T, M and Q lots or at University Stadium — though it is not offering shuttle service. The Obama campaign urged rally-goers to carpool or use public transportation.
-from "McCain, Obama Focus on N.M.", Jeff Jones, Albuquerque Journal, 10/25/08
- We're talking thousands and thousands of people, folks.
- We're talking most probably at least two typical Lobo football crowds of folks engulfing the SE corner of the UNM campus.
- We're talking George Lopez.
- We're talking sizable numbers of folks milling up Central throughout Nob Hill.
- We're talking about the outdoor seating at Kelly's being assimilated into the huge circle emanating from Johnson Field.
- We're talking folks trying to decide whether to park at Marquette and Carlisle, or Silver and University.
- We're talking about UNM parking lot Q, R and Z, and we have no idea what the Hell "parking lot Q" means.
- We're talking Bill Richardson, even though nobody really cares about Bill Richardson at this point.
- We're talking Saturday night at the cultural epicenter of our little town as the site of a combined Mardi Gras, Halloween carving party, political rally and mega-State Fair gone ballistic, people watching freak show.
- And we're talking Obama, Barack Obama, who not only looks like the next President of the United States, but better bring his Franklin Delano Roosevelt A-Game from Day One starting January 20th or we're gonna be in even worse shape that the crazy bad condition our current condition is in.
Objectivity or no, tonight's show has to be about more than crappy parking.
P.S.: Hope to see some of you there (even me, anti-social dude, has about 457 different friends/acquaintances I'm scheduled to run into). Let's treat it as the first in a series of ecstatically happy Bush Administration, New Orleans Jazz Funeral shindigs. I'll bring the big bass drum, you bring an umbrella.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Parent/Teacher Conference Day and Some Way Too Early In the Morning Professional Daydreaming
After 6.5 hours of continuous parent/teacher conferences yesterday, I get the feeling I know what it must be like to run for public office. For 6.5 hours at least. How those people can do it 24/7, day after day, for months....I can't even begin to tell you. I don't know whether that says more about me, or about the folks running for public office.
Some teachers really don't like parent/teacher conferences, and not because they're angry burn-outs who despise parents. Only a few are like that. Others don't like them because it's such a different vibe from the typical school day. It's like trading in the kids to become a car salesman, or someone working Aisle 7 at the electronic superstore.
As for me, I rather enjoy it as a chance to tell parents (usually) that their kid is quite wonderful. I realize teaching "Gifted" students might have a slighter higher incidence of the "quite wonderful" speech. It's also cool because it's the only day we get to go into work at 11 A.M. and work until 6. I literally drool with the thought of doing that everyday, and after 15 years of teaching, the once-a-year 11 A.M. start is like professional Christmas or something.
And now professional Christmas is over, and it's 6:15 A.M., and I'm shoveling coffee into the bloodstream as quickly as my esophagus will allow. At 7:45 there's an IEP meeting, a day full of ranting email teacher reaction to all the "Tier II Intervention" BS noted in my last post, a ton of student research paper presentations, a 30 minute duty-free lunch spent trying to get ready for a Election Debate Seminar next week, etc. etc. etc.
No complaints, but going through the list above kinda makes me misty-eyed about the 6.5 hours of parent/teacher conferences yesterday. Maybe I should run for some public office where the entire campaign lasts 6.5 hours. Maybe I should get one of those red shirts and work Aisle 7 at Circuit City, especially if I can get the 11-6 shift.
No, I think I'll stay where I'm at, but with the same caveat currently in use by each and every public school teacher imprisoned in NCLB-Land '08: If the testing, the "interventions", the "Baldrige Continuous Improvement" and other teaching-devoid, consultancy contract-rich bullshit goes on much longer (say two more years), I am out of here. Eleven A.M. starting time or not. Quite wonderful kid speeches or not.
Hey...School Board. Hmmm....any chance we could get that position paid from here on out.? Say something in the $60-$70K range? Those school board meetings never start before, like, 5 in the afternoon, right? And all I have to do is talk about the same number of folks that I saw yesterday in parent/teacher conferences to vote for me, right? Hmmm...sitting next to Robert Lucero and Mary Lee Martin....there are pros and cons here. But get that $60-$70K thing worked out by 2011 and get back to me.
Some teachers really don't like parent/teacher conferences, and not because they're angry burn-outs who despise parents. Only a few are like that. Others don't like them because it's such a different vibe from the typical school day. It's like trading in the kids to become a car salesman, or someone working Aisle 7 at the electronic superstore.
As for me, I rather enjoy it as a chance to tell parents (usually) that their kid is quite wonderful. I realize teaching "Gifted" students might have a slighter higher incidence of the "quite wonderful" speech. It's also cool because it's the only day we get to go into work at 11 A.M. and work until 6. I literally drool with the thought of doing that everyday, and after 15 years of teaching, the once-a-year 11 A.M. start is like professional Christmas or something.
And now professional Christmas is over, and it's 6:15 A.M., and I'm shoveling coffee into the bloodstream as quickly as my esophagus will allow. At 7:45 there's an IEP meeting, a day full of ranting email teacher reaction to all the "Tier II Intervention" BS noted in my last post, a ton of student research paper presentations, a 30 minute duty-free lunch spent trying to get ready for a Election Debate Seminar next week, etc. etc. etc.
No complaints, but going through the list above kinda makes me misty-eyed about the 6.5 hours of parent/teacher conferences yesterday. Maybe I should run for some public office where the entire campaign lasts 6.5 hours. Maybe I should get one of those red shirts and work Aisle 7 at Circuit City, especially if I can get the 11-6 shift.
No, I think I'll stay where I'm at, but with the same caveat currently in use by each and every public school teacher imprisoned in NCLB-Land '08: If the testing, the "interventions", the "Baldrige Continuous Improvement" and other teaching-devoid, consultancy contract-rich bullshit goes on much longer (say two more years), I am out of here. Eleven A.M. starting time or not. Quite wonderful kid speeches or not.
Hey...School Board. Hmmm....any chance we could get that position paid from here on out.? Say something in the $60-$70K range? Those school board meetings never start before, like, 5 in the afternoon, right? And all I have to do is talk about the same number of folks that I saw yesterday in parent/teacher conferences to vote for me, right? Hmmm...sitting next to Robert Lucero and Mary Lee Martin....there are pros and cons here. But get that $60-$70K thing worked out by 2011 and get back to me.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
We Have Met The Enemy And the Borg Is Us: APS, the Testing Low-Down, and My Little School
For starters, yesterday I misspelled the name of Ruby Ethridge, APS Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools. I'm sorry, and, of course, blame someone else for this mistake. Namely, I blame the still-awful disaster known as the APS website. Clearly, blaming and attacking the APS website is like Tom Udall slamming Steve Pearce for being bald. Too easy and unnecessary. Still, didn't Winston Brooks say he was going to bring this website into the 2000s, if not at least 1998?
Okay, enough buck passing. I messed up. I avoided going to the APS website and misspelled the woman's name. Sorry.
Speaking of messed up, here's a short report of the meeting Ms. Ethridge held with my staff at a hastily-convened "mandatory" meeting yesterday. Despite having personal doubts about Superintendent Brooks creating a new position of "Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools", I have come away with both a positive impression of both Ms. Ethridge herself, and the need for the newly created position.
Now the bad news. A couple of big reasons for this positive impression are:
So yes, dear reader, that means we are tyying to do something really fast, utilizing three dense layers of bureaucracy (State, District, individual schools) and rapidly changing players. And that's leaving out the whole Feds, Election '08, No Child Left Behind revision angle.
Odds of quick, beneficial implementation: Far higher than those lucky folks who last March bet on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (and yes, they are still the "Devil Rays", I don't care what anybody says) to win the World Series at 200-1. More like 100,000 to 1. And that's with Ruby Ethridge. Without an "Associate Superintendent of Middle Schools" were talking 1,000,000 to 1.
I won't bore readers with the more arcane elements (those hard-core teacher types can email me and I'll pass on what I learned), but basically we have to:
And yes, this means some non-Math classes are gonna get left out, at least for some of our students. Last February I wrote a little piece about the issue of lost electives for high school students in the same situation. In that I brought up the unfairness of a school schedule in which some students were deprived electives, and that lawsuits were soon to follow.
Well, yesterday I was told there haven't been any lawsuits. And my question is....why haven't there been any lawsuits? Are parents of these electives-deprived kids so cowered by today's standardized testing mantra that they aren't fighting this? In a political climate in which even John McCain wants to tinker with No Child Left Behind, and large segments of the population wants to absolutely annihilate it, why are we putting up with this?
Like most such meetings, I came away with more questions than answers. Still, my school might have learned enough yesterday to do the most important thing. We need to work together to create a schedule that fulfills all the little "mandates" of Feds, State, & District, while preserving what we know is really important for our kids at our school. Failing to do this will result in some dictated "standardized middle school schedule" that will kill electives, create some teaching-to-the-test zombie land, and leave our powerfully unique institution blandly indistinguishable from a glorified Sylvan Learning Center.
And we better act fast, because "Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools" or no, I'm still betting heavily against the Feds/State/District doing anything that is both "quick" and "beneficial". Anybody want to lay a little money on the bureaucracies doing the right thing (you pick the criteria)? Anybody?
*P.S.: Evidence of the "quick" nature of these changes, it is still unclear as to whether the cut-off figure is 60% or 70% for Math. Aw, what's a few percentage points of test results here or there? Let's get out some darts and just pick a "really large number".
P.P.S.: I realize some might get the impression from the above that I am treating all the entities outside my school as the "enemy". I'm not. Instead, I just want the decision-making flow to go from our school up, instead of seeping or flooding downward from above. The reasons for this are not based as much on my disregard for bureaucracies (which is admittedly sizable), but the knowledge that my school is quite different than any other in the District for reasons that would probably bore the Hell out of the casual reader. Hardcores can email me for follow-up on this point. Or maybe I'll decide to bore the Hell out of everyone and get to this minutiae in a future post.
Okay, enough buck passing. I messed up. I avoided going to the APS website and misspelled the woman's name. Sorry.
Speaking of messed up, here's a short report of the meeting Ms. Ethridge held with my staff at a hastily-convened "mandatory" meeting yesterday. Despite having personal doubts about Superintendent Brooks creating a new position of "Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools", I have come away with both a positive impression of both Ms. Ethridge herself, and the need for the newly created position.
Now the bad news. A couple of big reasons for this positive impression are:
- The new Superintendent and "District" intend to make sweeping changes to raise test scores;
- These sweeping changes are intended for quick, beneficial implementation and APS has historically really, really, really sucked at combining the qualities of "quick" with "beneficial".
So yes, dear reader, that means we are tyying to do something really fast, utilizing three dense layers of bureaucracy (State, District, individual schools) and rapidly changing players. And that's leaving out the whole Feds, Election '08, No Child Left Behind revision angle.
Odds of quick, beneficial implementation: Far higher than those lucky folks who last March bet on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (and yes, they are still the "Devil Rays", I don't care what anybody says) to win the World Series at 200-1. More like 100,000 to 1. And that's with Ruby Ethridge. Without an "Associate Superintendent of Middle Schools" were talking 1,000,000 to 1.
I won't bore readers with the more arcane elements (those hard-core teacher types can email me and I'll pass on what I learned), but basically we have to:
- Take a test result from Spring 2008;
- Find out all the kids who didn't score 60%* or better on the test in Math;
- Take the rest of this year trying to figure out how to help these under 60% kids without blowing up our entire schedule and having a block schedule for Math;
- Find out who's still under 60% after trying this stuff for the rest of this school year;
- Blow up our entire schedule next year (Fall 2009) and include a double period for Math.
And yes, this means some non-Math classes are gonna get left out, at least for some of our students. Last February I wrote a little piece about the issue of lost electives for high school students in the same situation. In that I brought up the unfairness of a school schedule in which some students were deprived electives, and that lawsuits were soon to follow.
Well, yesterday I was told there haven't been any lawsuits. And my question is....why haven't there been any lawsuits? Are parents of these electives-deprived kids so cowered by today's standardized testing mantra that they aren't fighting this? In a political climate in which even John McCain wants to tinker with No Child Left Behind, and large segments of the population wants to absolutely annihilate it, why are we putting up with this?
Like most such meetings, I came away with more questions than answers. Still, my school might have learned enough yesterday to do the most important thing. We need to work together to create a schedule that fulfills all the little "mandates" of Feds, State, & District, while preserving what we know is really important for our kids at our school. Failing to do this will result in some dictated "standardized middle school schedule" that will kill electives, create some teaching-to-the-test zombie land, and leave our powerfully unique institution blandly indistinguishable from a glorified Sylvan Learning Center.
And we better act fast, because "Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools" or no, I'm still betting heavily against the Feds/State/District doing anything that is both "quick" and "beneficial". Anybody want to lay a little money on the bureaucracies doing the right thing (you pick the criteria)? Anybody?
*P.S.: Evidence of the "quick" nature of these changes, it is still unclear as to whether the cut-off figure is 60% or 70% for Math. Aw, what's a few percentage points of test results here or there? Let's get out some darts and just pick a "really large number".
P.P.S.: I realize some might get the impression from the above that I am treating all the entities outside my school as the "enemy". I'm not. Instead, I just want the decision-making flow to go from our school up, instead of seeping or flooding downward from above. The reasons for this are not based as much on my disregard for bureaucracies (which is admittedly sizable), but the knowledge that my school is quite different than any other in the District for reasons that would probably bore the Hell out of the casual reader. Hardcores can email me for follow-up on this point. Or maybe I'll decide to bore the Hell out of everyone and get to this minutiae in a future post.
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