CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!

In the words of the immortal Porky Pig, “That’s all folks.” Well, it is definitely not all, but it is two weeks of vacation. I haven’t been out of the Delta since Labor Day and tomorrow after-school I embark on two weeks of fantastic awesomeness. We will write Christmas story problems in class, have our faculty grab bag and food fest, which will be delicious. Some of the faculty are excellent cooks, some buy at Kroger, and I made tofu mac and cheese. Ha, in the Delta, they will definitely laugh at me if I tell them the ingredients.

Then I’m out. Jet plane leaves at 9am on Wednesday and arrives that evening in the Big Apple. I am pumped. Three days in the city, three days on the island, and then 5 days in Tahoe. What is this? A dream, it is clearly a dream and I could not be more thankful. I will celebrate birthdays and holidays and see friends I haven’t seen in months and some for over a year. All right I am bubbling with excitement. See many of you very soon. Otherwise, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Live Music

Live music has been playing a more prominent role in my life recently. I have been catching live tunes in a variety of places. This week I went to Memphis on Thursday night with some friends to see the Black Keys, a blues-rock duo out of Akron, Ohio. They were awesome and rock hard. They are only two guys but their sound is huge. The show ended at about 12:30, but I live 2 hours from Memphis and had school in the morning. G… and I were exhausted. We took turns napping and driving, switching roles every thirty minutes to ensure our safe home.

Friday night I went to Poor Monkey’s, a dilapidated shack a few miles down a gravel road towards the middle of a cotton field. They have live music about four times a year otherwise their regular night is Thursday evening and I have been told they employ ‘full service strippers’. Lightning Malcolm and T-Model Ford were playing. There was no one there. The Delta was blanketed in exceedingly thick fog preventing people from heading out for entertainment. At the high point there were 8 people in attendance. By 11pm I was the last one in the establishment, and received a song played solely for me, which was awesome.

There is a regular circuit of musicians that play at the local venues. I have been developing a taste for the blues. It is cool to hear the same guys and get a feel for the different nuances in their music. New Year’s promises to be fantastic. Super Chikan is in town playing the Ground Zero blues club and he always rocks the house.

9 weeks tests have arrived

Let me tell you they are beautiful. Small font and crowded pages. They give us a pacing guide and say teach this stuff. Then they change the pacing guide. Then they ask if we taught everything and if we say no, they say too bad fit it in. Then.... they don't test on all the benchmarks, so in theory we could have taught to a greater depth of knowledge and understanding.

At least I can focus my review sessions now. SCORE!!!

I can't lie. I enjoy chaos. It gives everyone an equal opportunity to thrive. The structure is so dysfunctional that it becomes a survival of the fittest. We listen and we don't really listen. We do enough to appease the powers that be, but there are so many loose ends that we hide in the shadows and sneak around corners to ensure that the kids are getting a well rounded education, not just lessons in multiple choice testing. I hadn't thought about the political skills I have been developing by working at the Shelby Middle School. And I say SMS in particular because I have been told we are in a particularly difficult situation. I have an upcoming interview for a summer job. My program director suggested I emphasize my cool collectedness in dealing with a challenging administration. Challenging may be an understatement. It's all good fun, just need to keep your head on straight and your wits about you.

I am visiting Goldman when I get back to NY. The comparisons in managerial effectiveness and efficiency are immense. It’s their third straight year of record profits at Goldman. Average comp per employee was about 600K this year. Granted I may have been earning something over a 100K at this point compared to the thirty I get now, but like a MasterCard commercial this experience is priceless.

I have been smiling as I composed this entire post.

Oh, so that’s the problem.

A parent came to observe my class this week. She is a particular parent, a parent that loves to voice her two cents and complain about everything. She refuses to talk to the principal because of pre-existing beef, if anything goes wrong she goes directly to the superintendent.

I do not let my students leave the classroom during direct instruction to go the bathroom. They will miss what I am teaching then be lost. If I did allow them to leave at this point I would have to re-teach the same material I just taught. They may use the restroom during independent practice.

Ms. G, the parent, told me that was unfair and that I must let the students use it. I told her that the students are aware of the policy and they need to have some self-control. She told me that that was absurd and people can’t control when they have to go. Personally I think that is absurd. We were talking during my planning period, or maybe a better way to describe the scene was that she was berating me during my planning period. I have seen and heard some wild stuff down here so I am not particularly offended by anything anyone says.

She asked me what my nationality is. I said I was Italian and before Irish left my lips, she looked me up and down and stated, “That must be the problem. I dated and Italian once and that must be the problem. You don’t understand our culture and you have a problem with black people.” I looked back at her and responded, “That must be the problem.” I figure there is no way she would understand that the problem is that she is a total psycho. She continued on her course explaining to me that the culture of fear in my classroom is not conducive to learning and that if I missed one, just one child, then I have failed at my mission. Uh-huh…culture of fear, yes lady that is exactly what is happening in the classroom.

I let her know she was more than welcome to come and observe the class anytime she pleased and if she would like to participate she may as long as she gives me advance notice of her intent. Thank you Ms. G, as always, it has been a pleasure speaking to you and now I must be returning to work.

And they said,

K... was drowsy in class and his eyes were droopy. "K... what's wrong?" "Mr. C, ( I wish I could express the way this kid talks. He is smart, but I often call on him becuase I like the intonation of his voice.) I'm tired and my stomach hurts from the medicine I took this morning." K... still has an enormous scar/wound/mark from this spider bite about 4-5 weeks ago.

"J..., why do you think your group members are aggravated with you in class?" "Because I kick, curse and steal." Good I am glad we know what the problem is.

"C..., I put out new Sudoku puzzles today." She turns to her partner and gives her a high five and an emphatically whispered "Yesss!"

Meet me in the club.

I went to the club or realistically a club, but everyone down here says the club in reference to going out at night. I was supposed to meet up with a few co-workers, which fell through and I ended up heading down to ‘the club’ with a few friends. I had heard that there was going to be a live performance by Yo Gotti, an underground hip-hop artist recently gone mainstream out of Memphis. He raps about hustling, hoes, money, shootings blah, blah, blah.

The atmosphere was tense. It was not an environment of peace and love particularly when the DJ is firing off shot-gun explosion sound clips at every chance he gets. The majority of music was violence related, people were intoxicated, and bouncers were tossing thugs out of the way. Through the three hours I was in attendance the DJ kept hollering, “And you know we got Yo Gotti in the house gonna perform a set for y’all.” After hearing that about four hundred million times along with endless shot-gun sound blasts, Yo Gotti finally did perform at about 1:30 am, thirty minutes before closing. Leading up to his act his whole crew came to the stage to spit lyrics and rap. The progression was clearly leading up to a main act. The first person to perform was garbage and the others became increasingly more polished along with bigger bling and better grills. Yo Gotti, leader of the camp was the obvious head-man with biggest and brightest chains and flashiest grill. I am not going to lie, his image was impressive with lights beaming of all his ice and flashing a diamond studded smile. However, the club turned the lights on when he came up to start his set. I was aggravated. Yelling at my friend, “Why are the lights on? This would be endlessly better if they were off. This is killing his performance.” Then a bouncer disposed of an individual who was getting to rowdy. Oh, the lights are on so no one gets shot or stabbed in the dark during the performance. Gee, why didn’t I put that together?

The evening was awesome. I was the only white face jumping around in the middle of the pit. The energy was intense. And then hearing shout-outs to the surrounding communities…Shelby in the house. Really, Shelby, town of 2000, it was way different than hearing ‘What Up! NYC’. Overall: a rock solid experience.