Posts under ‘teaching’

It’s been a while.  A new grade, a new curriculum, new standards, 33 beings each with his or her own concerns and quandaries, and not to mention my own in-house proto-teenager draped over the couch in poses of iPodded distress.  Not a lot of energy to write.  Complete sentences.  Even.
When there are that many kids [...]

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 [...]

Today a mother came to visit after school, four children in tow.  Her son Efrain was a 2nd grader with me last year, and her son Elijah is a fifth grader with me this year.  They are both behind grade-level in all subjects.  They are both small, sweet boys with broad, white smiles and a [...]

Driving home from school today, I waited at an interminable red light tapping my fingers and half-listening to Scott Simon interviewing some expert about some new type of robot-armed eco soda machine of the future. Blah blah blah blah. I knew it was important, something about fluorocarbons and the ozone layer and blah blah blah [...]

The marathon is over.  The Wild Things have gone home (or what passes as home).  All that’s left is bits of ratty paper and crumbly memories strewn through my room, through me.  A school year.  Nine-ish months of intense proximity.  Just like a pregnancy, only with 20: viginitituplets?  Puts Octomom to shame.
As I look back [...]

They came to cart our couches away today.  One month after declaring them a fire hazard.
Our Very Nice Custodian:  We’re here for the couch.
Kids: No!!!
Me: Now guys.  You know it has to go…
Kids:  Why?
Me:  It’s veryveryvery dangerous.
Kids: Why?
Me: Don’t you know, couches have a disease.  It’s called random spontaneous combustion.  Can you repeat that?
Kids:  Random.  [...]

We finished Day 2 of testing today.  Day 2 was much better than Day 1 when my well prepared students seemed like they’d been sucker-punched, even though we’d spent the whole year covering the material (antonyms, synonyms, word usage, phonics, syllabification, reading comprehension, etc.).  And we’d spent the whole year doing a bit of test [...]

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 [...]

Teachers need it.  They REALLY do.  And I am taking one.  On a warm beach.
A cheap warm beach, given our furlough days and other sneaky salary cuts this year.
See you in two weeks!

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 [...]