July 31, 2007
· Filed under Teaching
Yesterday my summer-long commitment ended. In May, I had been hired by a parent to tutor her son who was required to be in tutoring in order to have permission to go to the next grade. I tutored Kyle for five weeks, 3 times a week. As our time came to a close yesterday and I said goodbye to him and his mother, I asked him to come by and say hello the first week of school. The truth is that I had grown attached. I felt somewhere between a mom and a big sister in the way we related, and over the course of the five weeks, my affection for him grew and I could feel that I very much wanted the best for him and wanted him to come to believe in himself. Maybe it was all those hours that we spent across from each other going over direct objects, prepositional phrases, and many other grammatic principles that he won’t use much, if at all, after middle school. Maybe it was writing essays where I saw his passion and love of skateboarding, boogie boarding, and skim boarding. Perhaps it was when we would discuss where to find all natural food and he told me that he was “pretty much a vegetarian.” But probably it was when we would tease each other and he grew comfortable enough to call me a ‘punk’ at times like when I picked up a quarter on the floor and insisted that it was mine, when really I knew it was his.
Those days of tutoring turned out to be a very fulfilling way for me to spend a large amount of my summer. Kyle will go to the next grade, he will now not have to be retained. Yesterday he earned an A on his final exam. And what is more is my sense that I touched his heart and brought good moments and memories into his life.
And here I am, the day after sending him on his way, left with a little hole in my heart, missing my student, and reminded what is so cool about being a teacher.
July 28, 2007
· Filed under Movies, Social Justice, The Presidential Election
I will vote for the first time in my life in the next presidential election. I conjecture that it may be the first time for lots of other young adults who were 18 or older and could vote in the past election, but just didn’t know or care enough about politics to vote. I remember explaining my decision to not vote by saying, “I’m a firm believer that my vote doesn’t count.” I’ve changed my mind about that. I have learned to see the importance of using my voice at the ballot box. Theoretically, in terms of democratic ideals, one vote is very powerful and represents the beauty of democracy: that with citizens’ voices raised together, we can steer the direction of issues important to us. That sounds so nice. I wish it played out in reality as well as it does in theory. But the grim reality of the very powerful hold that lobbyists and private interest groups have on our elected officials is enough to let me simmer in cynicism and rage.
But I cannot. Or I will not. So I’ll vote. I’m not sure who I’ll vote for yet, but I’m sure he or she will be a Democrat. I, like millions of others, am very wary and weary of the current administration and am ready for change. In fact that seems to be the buzz word in the recent Democratic debates: change. I like how Barack is younger in the political world simply because it gives me hope that he’s not as bought by the aforementioned private interest groups as the other candidates. Even though he was given record amount in donations. But, I’m also hopeful because he’s made comments about taking back power that the private interests groups have. That sounds really appropriate and necessary to me. Money mongrels shouldn’t have the power. The people should have the power and we should elect people who have OUR best interests in mind and will be a public servant.
On a similar, but separate note, Chad and I recently saw Michael Moore’s new documentary, Sicko. It was fabulous. Despite being all but demonized by the conservative Right, I find him to be intelligent, fair, funny, creative, and kind. More on that documentary later. I think it deserves its own post
July 15, 2007
· Filed under Books, Teaching
My principal asked me to teach the eleventh grade class next year. I agreed to do so and will now be moving on to eleventh grade with all my tenth graders that I taught last year. I feel very blessed to be in their lives for another year and it will be nice to go into the next year already having built relationships with my students and also knowing the ins and outs of their academic strengths and weaknesses. With my regular and honor students I will be teaching American Literature, which will include such books as: Huckleberry Finn, The Glass Menagerie, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (my personal favorite), the Great Gatsby, along with various American poets, essayists, and orators like MLK Jr, Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
My other two classes will be AP Language and Compostion courses. I was sent by my school to a one week training class so I could be taught how to teach this course. This course will deal mostly with non-fiction writings and will focus mainly on analyzing an author’s use of rhetorical devices, writing persuasively, and synthesizing sources to form an original argument.
I’ve been doing some brainstorming, lesson plans, and reading this summer to get ready but I have a hard time doing things so far in advance. I am a procrastinator and work well under pressure. My students don’t know that about me. I try to keep it under wraps. Procrastination has always worked for me and, after all, as I’ve heard so many times in the teaching world, “95% of teaching is merely performing.” It goes something like that. What a funny quote.
July 9, 2007
· Filed under Organizations, Social Justice
I found about this organization, No More Victims, after reading about how it is providing a young Iraqi war victim with prosthetic legs. Read the article about the girl here from Yahoo News. How wonderful that it seeks to help war victims and to also encourage positive, peaceful relations between Iraqis and Americans.
