Yo Mista!

This was made by a student at my school. It's completely her work and her voice. I posted it with her permission, of course. The task was create a reflective piece on yourself, your community, or whatever you feel like. Sounds like a pretty open-ended assignment, but the true purpose was to foster creativity. Although I don't have her as a student in the classes I teach, I'm still proud of her.

This week, I took my first day off since I started teaching in September. The perfect attendance streak is done. It's weird but that doesn't bother me so much anymore. Perhaps this is a sign of growth? Weird, but not unexpected. Generally, if a teacher is absent at my school, a substitute teacher gets called in to cover for the day. Sometimes substitute teachers are unavailable which means the full-time teachers have to give up their planning period and that period. It doesn't really matter who is covering for the day, because our kids generally get nothing done on days their primary teacher is absent. In fact, in my experience, students come knocking on my door during random periods: "Yo Mista, Ms. So-and-So ain't here and that sub is mad whack. Can I come in and chill?" This happens quite often. Sometimes, they don't even knock - they just cut the class and use it as an excuse to go home. I can't figure out if our kids are just extremely loyal to...

In high school, I remember my teachers used to get really excited near the end of the week. They would say, "Don't worry guys, it's almost Friday! We're gonna make it!" I couldn't figure out why they got that excited about weekends. I mean sure, I loved the weekends: waking up late, no homework, hanging out with friends, the list goes on. Don't teachers just stay at home, grade papers and read books? It wasn't too long before I figured out why my teachers were so excited about Fridays: the job requires the energy of a nine year old and the last time I checked, I'm not nine (though I still giggle at the word "penis"). I'm a believer in mind over body, that is, if I think I'm not tired, then I won't feel tired. When I worked on Wall Street, I could pull some really late nights and still meet friends at 1 or 2 in the morning. Even if I worked 80-90 hours a week , it was pretty much assumed I still went out on Saturday night t...

For anyone who has seen It's a Wonderful Life , you'll love this video I found through a friend's away message (Thanks Rhick). As an outsider who was once a part of this system, I'm still shocked I participated in this crap. Big, nasty institutions more powerful than politicians earning billions off decent people who are losing their homes - yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just trying to be as rich as Mr. Potter? But then what?

On Saturday, May 1st, 2010, Faisal Shahzad allegedly left a SUV packed with propane gas tanks, firecrackers, and fertilizer in Times Square with the intent to blow things up. Fortunately, the vehicle was spotted smoking and authorities were able to dismantle the explosives just in time. When I first heard the suspect's name was Faisal Shahzad, I thought, "Shit, that name sounds Pakistani." When his background was revealed over the past week, I thought, "Fuck." It appears Faisal Shahzad is not only Pakistani, but he's also an American citizen. He's married, he worked in finance and has ties to the city of Karachi, Pakistan. That's... me (and a shit ton of other people I know). Apparently, I wasn't the only one who made this connection: "Yo Mista, that terrorist look just like you. Ain't you say you was from Pakistan too? AND you was in finance, right? So did you know him or something?" Yeah, all Pakistanis know each other and ...

My school utilizes an online "referral spreadsheet" that is used to maintain a log of all teacher-submitted referrals which have to do with students misbehaving, acting inappropriately, etc.  This helps provide our Dean with some written evidence in the event a behavior results in a suspension. Last week, a colleague of mine had a very interesting experience with our beloved student, Kevin. In case you're wondering who Kevin is, read this . Here's the referral my colleague submitted online: Kevin was engaged in a verbal altercation with another student.  I was ignored when I asked Kevin to stop using profanitites in my classroom, to which he responded:  "He can suck my dick."  "Why you coming at my head?" I asked Kevin to come to my desk (to conference) in an effort to short circuit the exchange.  "He can suck my whole dick" was the response.  I asked Kevin to step out the room into the hallway.  He said no and loudly continued to t...