Losing Control In Class
Soon, the days will blur together, and I won't be able to tell you whether I taught three days and three nights in my sixth week or six days and six nights in my third week. In fact, I spared you some of the details of my fourth and fifth day as a substitute teacher, despite the eccentricity of my day in auto shop at LL High School (no teaching went on, I assure you), or my day teaching science at Middle Middle school.
But I am now substituting for the second time for the same teacher, and my reputation precedes me, so I have to reach deeper into my bag of tricks to keep the attention of the class.
In fact, the kids seem quite happy to see me, but as my friend (and fellow teacher) Fran points out, this could mean one of several things: they really are happy to see me (because I'm good? Because I'm easy?), they're pulling my chain, or they think they can get something out of me. Worst yet, these are not mutually exclusive, so it could be a mixture of all three. Rae reminded me of the depths of sarcasm that can be reached by middle-schoolers.
I choose to believe they genuinely like me, and that it is because I am good, but then that's the kind of person I am.
I was compelled to write about today because I lost control of two of my first three classes, and I think I know why. An overdose of democracy. In the case of first period English, I asked the kids if they wanted to watch a video. I should have just shown it to them after we finished the vocabulary review. In fourth period drama (the rambunctious Drama II crowd), we were playing the theater game "Dr. Know It All" when things got out of hand. Again, because I let the kids influence me on my judging. (I need to learn at least one more theater game). My last three classes are study halls--I'll use them to study myself, as I have a test on the U.S. Constitution today. I think it is a good thing that the state of California requires all teachers to demonstrate a working knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.
Anyway, classroom management is something that both my ex-teacher mother and my ex-teacher wife had their doubts about. I need to dispel their doubts, and my own. I think I can impose my will on a room full of people half my age. If only I could arch my eyebrow like my mother can.
We're No. 57
Rae ranked 57th out of 120 women's epée fencers at the Junior Olympics in Columbus, and, at one time, held a lead of 8-7 over the No. 2 ranked fencer in the tournament.
Confusion Cental
My good friend Larry King crafted tales from the insides of a large publishing company which he emailed to me years ago under the rubric, Tales from Confusion Central. I am going to run one a week for a few weeks. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
If you think of yourself as endlessly shoveling coal down a chute--i.e., copy onto the desk--I am the chute endlessly transporting coal. You assume the chute needs coal; I assume the coal must go somewhere. Beyond that, we cannot say what purpose we serve, where the cycle begins or ends. Where does the coal come from? Where does it go? Is it used for anything? Is it perhaps the same coal, sliding down the chute and back onto the pile from which you shovel, so that I merely serve as the means by which you can continue to enable me to serve as the means by which you continue?
Jon Carroll Cat Column
Back from the hiatus he took as the result of a death in the family, Jon Carroll has quickly hit his stride with a new cat column.
Escalation of domestic hostilities
Jon Carroll
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
This is a column about the eternal verities of life itself, but some might think it's a cat column. More fools they.
THE PRIMARY NATURAL enemy of the domestic house cat is the baby. Cats that will, with grace and abandon, gambol about in moving traffic quail at the sight of an advancing infant. Some eventually achieve peace with the child, because the baby seems to be attached in a significant way to the food- dispensing entity, but the cat is never happy about it.
Do not write me letters about how little Fluffy loves little Dylan. Little Fluffy does not love little Dylan. Little Fluffy does not even love you.
As I said once before: Cats do not believe in all things bright and beautiful. Cats believe in sporadic succor, temporary alliances, dark prospects. Cats keep their options open...
Adair Lara on Writing A Personal Column
I tell you this as a friend
Adair Lara
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, February 21, 2002
MY FRIEND PETER Sussman wrote: "The theme of writers ransacking their private lives for column fodder is one of the great, largely unexplored issues of writing a personal-experience column. So many of the columnists I have known are unable to truly experience their lives because the muse floating over their shoulder is forever whispering in their ear, 'Is this a column?' You're having an Intense Family Experience with a spouse, parent or child, and all you can think about is whether it can be developed for the entertainment and edification of others, thereby getting you off the hook for another day or two."
Sad News About America
Richard Dalton found an ABC News Poll and wrote me about it:
This is some of the most discouraging news about the American people that I've seen lately. Wonder where Atilla the Hun would rank if he were included?
The top presidents, according to the American people?
In order, they are: Lincoln, Kennedy, G. W. Bush, and a tie between Clinton, Reagan and FDR. As they used to say on Sesame Street--which two of these don't belong? Heck, which three of these don't belong?
A similar sad note: Fran Strykowski says her 8th grade history class can ID Reagan, both Bushes and Clinton as well as JFK, but does not know Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson (for the most part), Eisenhower, Truman or FDR when they see them on videotape. That is pathetic beyond comment.
Mark Your Calendars: Paul In Concert
Mark your calendars and don't miss these event. If you don't live around here, fly in for it. The music will be great and the narrator and second tenor saxophone will be... well, modesty forbids.
Gala 20th Anniversary Concert
Saturday, April 27th, 2002 8 p.m.
Hofmann Theatre
Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts
Walnut Creek, California.
Tickets are now available. Call the Regional Center Box Office at
(925) 943-SHOW |
