Russia here I come

"It has been a month of buckling down and focused preparation." That's what I wish I could have written now that I am four days away from my next major international trip: a 2.5 week teacher exchange to Russia. I've re-designed my blog in honor of the Russian flag, which I'll be living under from March 6-21. But the onerous task of preparing for a goodwill trip in the middle of a school year, involving the collection of artefacts and lessons to take with me and the preparation of 2.5 weeks of lessons to leave behind, has been like juggling cushy teddy bears with revving chainsaws.

I now realize why it is so rare to find research and hear of mid-year projects from public school teachers - it is very hard to do. Still, I aim to do the best I can and to make the most of the opportunity. I'll be traveling to Korablino, outside of Ryazan, located 3 hours Southeast of Moscow. No, the weather will not be a respite from the temperate climate of Central California. But the warmth of my host teacher and school will. I'll be serving as native speaker celebrity in a handful of English classrooms in the area, visiting local officials, and enjoying cultural performances and International Womens' Day during my time there. I expect to come back with closer ties to Russian teachers and students, a renewed appreciation for Russian culture, and plenty of stories and pictures to share with my students and friends back home.

I hope to be documenting my trip on a regular basis with this blog, as well as my professional observations on my teaching blog. Thanks for reading!

Destination: Monterey

After a year of searching for a good fitting ESL-teaching job in Long Beach, I've had to face facts that the local school district isn't offering me just that. So I set my sights further afield in California. And I got a nice offer from a school district in Salinas, home of John Steinbeck and the nation's summer vegetables. So it made a good excuse for a road trip. Just as soon as I finished an interview in West Covina, I drove straight up I-5 through the San Joaquin Valley and arrived in Monterey about 6 hours later.

I spent 3 lovely nights on cousin Jessica's couch cushions on the floor in her apartment, which happens to be the apartment we lived in together when I was studying at MIIS. Wednesday and Thursday were spent catching up with friends, talking to the career/alumni director at MIIS for job leads, and talking to some of those leads. My challenging experience at Constellation made me think twice about teaching middle school again, so I've been considering to teach at community college, adult school, or university levels. It was a good feeling to get some offers to teach at the MIIS ESL programs just by showing up. Woody Allen was right, 80% of success is just showing up.


Thursday afternoon was Jessica's birthday. We celebrated with her ornithology labmates at Lover's Cove in Pacific Grove. Jess was surprised and we all enjoyed the hot dogs and cake!



Friday I went over to Salinas to meet face-to-face with the assistant Principal at La Paz Middle School. They've been very enthusiastic about hiring me, so it was a good feeling to met her and get a tour of the school. There was a bit of a snafu with the district office with what position they could offer me, so I ened up going to another middle school in town that also had a position available. Both schools extended offers of great support and desire for me to work with them. This is 180º from what Long Beach USD as given me with a year of subbing and cold shoulders in HR (with the exception of Constellation teachers who always had my back), so I left there in the afternoon with a smile of strong consideration towards how my life could change if I took the position.

Fast forward a week. I accepted La Paz's offer to teach ELD on Wednesday. Now I'm frantically trying to get packed and moved to Salinas/Monterey by next Tuesday. I have certainly accumulated a lot of stuff here in the past year (no fault of my own as my sister sent a lot of things out for me to keep the family legacy alive). Craig and I will sort it out on Sunday.

Sadly, though, I had to cancel my Jamaican vacation because school starts in Salinas on August 22. Well, hopefully I can go in December with 3 weeks of vacation. Nice! Next stop: Albuquerque, New Mexico!

The Chimney Swift

I was unlocking my bike after church today when I heard a soft “thump” on the sidewalk followed by a rapid sweeping sound. I turned around to find a bird with long wings and the shortest legs trying to get off the ground. I walked up to it, knelt down, and scooped it up gently with my biking gloves. He didn’t panic or try to fly away. Perhaps he was stunned from having flown into the building. His feathers were entirely grey, with some lighter shades approaching white on his tail and coverts. Pardon my lack of scientific words for these parts, ornithology was my lowest grade in college. I held him for about two minutes, looking him over carefully. He had a few white clumps on him (aerial poo?) and he kept winking his right eye while the left remained opened (did he have a secret for me?).



After I prayed a few good thoughts for him, seeing that he wasn’t fading on me but rather gaining strength, I gradually let go of him and released him to the sky. He fluttered his wings rapidly, not losing any air to fall but climbing in altitude next to the World Trade Center where he may live. He circled once over my head, then headed off to windier breezes.

Seeking my own purpose for being in Long Beach, I found a metaphor in that Chimney Swift. We’re all designed with a purpose to fulfill a niche in life. When we find ourselves suddenly out of our element, we struggle to take off again. Sometimes it requires a helping hand to calm and reassure us that we can get back to soaring. My international teaching career has felt like I’m always traveling, clinging to high cliffs for shelter, and never feeling the salt of the earth. But some creatures aren’t designed to feel the salt of the earth, to hunt for worms and peck at grounded birdseed. Now humans are more adaptable than birds, but when relocating from a windy cliff to an urban lawn, it can feel like its hard to take off. I need to take stock of all those who have come to help me get soaring again. Thanks.

The Critic is "IN"

Gilda and I saw Freedom Writers tonight. I got in free with my school district paystub. With me paying for Gilda, it was like two for half price. Anywho, I was touched by the movie but felt it ended with more story to tell. Probably what anyone who's read the book before seeing the movie would say. I knew it would be hard to put a very prose-based book (a compendium of 150 students' diary entries that chronicle their 4 years together) onto the silver screen. Yet, producers Danny DeVito and company did a good job. The movie shows a lot more of the background drama of Erin Gruwell, teacher, with her husband and father not entirely appreciating the sacrifices that she's making for her students.

I give props to the movie for filming on location in Long Beach. Wilson High School looked like Jordan HS in North Long Beach, but the credits thanked LA Unified District. Some of the class procedures seemed to casual: like Gruwell inspecting her classroom just minutes before the first day bell was to ring, a supervisor waiting in the hallway to break up fights, and the entire campus going berserk instead of into lockdown when gangsters come to rough some guy up. But aside from the Hollywood drama designed to keep viewers' attention, I thought some of the scenes were very touching. Hearing the own stories of Holocaust stories always brings a tear to my eyes. Hillary Swank did a good job of sounding and looking like a white teacher not entirely down with street culture. Instead of being a teacher-as-hero movie, I think FW balanced the voices and scenes of students with teacher.

If you're a teacher, you've got one more day to see it free. But, in the end, I would pay money to see this movie just to see the views of Long Beach, stories of students' lives, and a positive message. This critic gives it *** 1/2 stars!

Free Movie for Teachers

As I was subbing at my favorite school in Long Beach, Birney Elementary, I saw a notice from Erin Gruwell, teacher and editor of "The Freedom Writers Diaries", saying that AMC and Paramount Pictures are making the movie Freedom Writers available free to teacher for a week from Janauary 26-Feb 2. All you need is your k-12 school id or pay stub and ID. Go see the movie. I'll see it this weekend and maybe again at this rate!

Already seen it? Lemme know what you think. I have a feeling it'll be shaped by the typical Hollywood "hero teacher helps underpriviledged students" genre but I hope there's something in there that breaks the mold. The book was very honest about students' own lives in around the Long Beach of mid-90s.

Freedom Writers

I don't plug too many movie recommendations on my blog, so you know this one is special. It's actually about the school district where I teach: Long Beach Unified. Set just after the 1993 LA riots, Freedom Writers takes place at Wilson High School. The local paper ran an article about two months ago about students' reactions to the YouTube previews. I agreed with them that the racial tensions at school are almost unrecognizeable to how they are portrayed in the movie. So when you go and see it, remember that it's a period piece: things are a lot better these days!

I'm in the middle of reading the book that the teacher, Erin Gruwell, edited from her students' writings: The Freedom Writers Diary. The raw descriptions of after-school life and the lengths that their teacher will go to connect them with individuals who have moved beyond hate to tolerance is awe-some. Gruwell doesn't mention it in the book, but her work resonates with Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed: giving literacy and voice to the voiceless. I'm still in Chicago until Jan 8. The movie debuts Jan 5. I wonder what the buzz will be like in LB? If you're at all interested in where I work, the plight of urban education today, or looking for a teacher inspiration movie, please go see this film!