Posts under ‘creativity’

So often life is about the bad and the ugly.  Not today.
I’m helping three of my 5th graders apply to private schools for next year.
This is a private school in LA:

And this is a public one:
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
The application process is, as you might imagine, lengthy and complicated.  Not quite a [...]

Not just a couple of weeks, but a couple of months.  I needed to get FAR away from the wild things, and I did.   I roamed all over.
But now tomorrow’s the first day of the new year, and today was wrap-up of last year.
We got our scores today, both last year’s class’s results and this [...]

Really I am ready for the school year to end.  As are the kids.  Just had to say it.  More later.

This week I had the chance to observe a fellow teacher.  It wasn’t pretty.
Her classroom was being run by 6 boys who did what they pleased when they pleased.  They giggled, cracked jokes, were sarcastic,  played with balloons and stickers, ignored instructions, roamed around the room, called out.
I don’t think it was their fault.
It was [...]

Los Angeles is an industry town.  Amongst my friends, so many people are involved in The Industry.  They’re actors, writers, directors, camera people, directors of photography, trailer editors, set designers, warm-up comedians, blah blah blah. They’re in film, tv, and theater.  Our kids have been filmed since Day 1, and by tween or teendom, are [...]

Do you know those moments when suddenly a different path opens up before you?  There you are, doing something that’s second nature, talking to your child or colleague or spouse or friend, in the comfortable, well-worn groove of a conversation whose basic path you’ve walked a hundred times before and you’ll walk a hundred [...]

I had to do it again today.  Call the Department of Child and Family Services to report a parent.
This one haunts me for different reasons than the last one: last week, I knew the mother intended well but just needed some parenting help; today I know the mother intends bad.
This mother instructed her seven-year-old child, [...]

This week I had to make the phone call all teachers dread.  To the Department of Children and Family Services.  The supreme form of tattling.
Kelly walked at the front of the line holding a water bottle with ice in it.  The last time Kelly was carrying a water bottle with ice in it, she’d brought [...]

He’s back!  He’s better than before!  He’s José!
I met with his mother yesterday.
And his brother.
And his social worker.
You’d be surprised how many kids come with entourages these days.  It’s my second social worker conference this year.  The other one (surprise!) was Griselda’s (I just knew they had a connection).

If only their entourages brought them movie [...]

The first month of school is a crucial time in the life of a classroom. Don’t meld them into a working group, and you pay for it for the rest of the year. Classroom life is chaos. Teaching and learning are repeatedly interrupted by stretches of wildness. Days are exhausting. [...]