Take me to your leader

Obama announced his pick for the VP, Joe Biden, yesterday.

It's a safe pick, far safer than what I was hoping for or expecting from Obama. Another old white guy? I was hoping for someone to be excited about, someone like Bill Richardson. Richardson would have given Obama the same experience boost Biden does, plus he has even more polished foreign policy credentials AND of course he appeals to the Latino vote which has, until relatively recently, quietly become the second largest group next to white people in the United States.

A woman would have been a smart pick, too. Not Hillary, of course. But Hillary supporters who are threatening to abandon the Democratic party would have reason to give Obama a second look. The first "black" President (Pam always points out that he won't be the first black President - he'll be the first biracial president) and the first female Vice President would be something to get excited about.

But he picked Biden, a guy who famously called Obama clean and articulate. Obama's exciting enough on his own, I suppose, but it's disheartening to think that he felt he couldn't win the White House with an edgier running mate. Henry Clay, a similarly eloquent man who ran (and lost) for President five times said, "I'd rather be right than be President." Maybe Obama doesn't share Clay's preference.

But I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately. Last weekend I started my administrative credential program at Loyola Marymount University. The program is called the Institute of School Leadership and Administration and I'm in the Charter School Leadership Academy. I hope it lives up to the impressiveness of its name.

We're only a week and half into the school year and already there's plenty of political drama going on at school, something I thought we might have left behind us with the departure of our former principal. As one of the lead teachers, and as the most veteran teacher, I'm going to have to say what I feel I should say, and I'm anticipating some fireworks.

I've spent the last few minutes looking up the etymology of the word "lead," and it's related variously to words that mean "to show the way," "to travel," and "to suffer." I think that about covers it.

One Year Later

A new school year has begun, this time finding myself reinvented once again, now as an 8th grade teacher and as a student in an administrative credential program.

Five days of school have now passed - five relatively blissful days, in fact. A stark contrast to my welcome last year, when by day five I was already fully under siege.

Going through my old papers as I set up my new classroom, I rediscovered this poem written as a free choice homework assignment by one of my more clever students. It captures the zeitgeist of last year quite well.

Torture
by J.

The name of my education sensei
is Mr. Darron A.
This is his story
Of how his students sucked his glory
And tortured him at CCPA.

As a new teacher, we tested him
We tried our best to wipe off his grin
The class was successful
In making him vengeful
And bringing him home to some gin.

As we continued with the torment
He put on a good performance
We threw him a bone
He showed how much he'd grown
And we were impressed
How much he progressed.

So now to this day
He was thankful he prayed
Because this was a miracle,
Nothing short of a spectacle
That's how things have changed
And he is still not deranged.

The Other 17 Hours

There are many writing projects my students labored through during the course of the school year. Indeed, my writing instruction was more intense than ever, partially due to the fact that all California seventh graders have to take a writing test in March in one of three genres: narrative, response to literature, or persuasive. You don't know which one it's going to be, so you have to prepare your students for all three, meaning pages and pages of practice, draft after draft. When the day came, I felt confident. The seventh grade team had created plans for each genre that we made the kids memorize and practice over and over again, plans that, if followed, would ensure that the students included all the different pieces the scorers would be looking for (for example, a persuasive essay *has to* anticipate the reader's concerns and include a response to the reader's concerns or else it doesn't stand a chance of scoring above a 2 out of 4).

My kids did very well, but it's not like they enjoyed it. They had to respond to a specific prompt, had to follow the plan, had to include all the different aspects they knew the scorers would be looking for, but missing from most of those essays was their real voice and personality. Technically, they knew how to write a quality paper, but had I helped make writing a useful or valuable form of expression for them?

In May, after state testing, the kids asked me if they could do their own version of "Tell It Like It Is," an anthology of the best of LA Youth that I had given them as a surprise gift for all their hard work. They were really touched by the stories it contained, of kids writing about their experiences growing up in Los Angeles, dealing with themes of gang violence, sexual identity, peer expectations... They wanted to do the same thing but for Huntington Park, to tell it like it is growing up in HP.

And so we did. I gave them free reign to choose whatever topic they wanted, anything they felt would give outsiders an idea of what they go through every day at school and at home. The results were dramatic. Kids that rarely put any effort into writing projects the entire year all of a sudden were producing pages and pages, multiple drafts, asking for my input to help make them better.

I learned a lot about my students. I learned a lot about what goes on in their lives the other 17 hours a day when they're not with me. Those 17 hours, I learned, are filled with heartache, fear, resentment, guilt, pride, confusion, regret, and love. It's not easy being thirteen anywhere, but I think it's especially difficult being thirteen in Huntington Park.

You can read/download it here.

Potpourri #5

* I hit the 2,000 mile mark on my bike today. It's only been about 5 months since I hit 1,000. Not too shabby. I had been harboring a dream of riding my bike up to the Bay Area and back this summer, since I was actually taking the summer off, but Mark didn't have the same weeks off so, obviously, I couldn't do it.

* Some things that are obvious to me but apparently not to everyone:
1. Sorry China, but Taiwan is a country.
2. Creating Israel right *there* was not a very good idea.
3. People who voted for President Bush in 2004 are really, really ignorant.

* Today is my last day of summer vacation. The coming school year means I will be teaching a new grade (now giving me experience in grades 5 through 8) and making substantial progress towards an administrative credential so that Mr. Evans can become a principal. I think he'd be pretty good at it, but we'll see.

* Power Bars and Gu gels do not taste very good, but when you've been riding 50 miles in the heat and your legs are starting to complain, they are absolutely delicious. Funny how that happens.

* This is my 252nd blog. I'm still way ahead of Menace World.