"Mexican can go to college"

When we took some of our "bubble" students on a field trip to OU, I had no idea how profound the learning experience would be.  We were trying to encourage those on the cusp of math success that maths can be fun.  OU's K20 center put on an excellent set of algebra-related activities.  We toured the engineering building, where the engineering students told us about the Latino Engineering Club.  If the students learned nothing else, this summary makes it worth every hour of late-night planning.

"We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?"
-Nelson Mandela

The Thrill of Hope

"The thrill of fishing is the pursuit of something that is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope."

-Brian McLaren

Immigration Debate

"I would invite all Latin people to do nothing for about two weeks so you can see who really, really is running the economy. Who cleans the sheets? Who cleans the toilets? Who babysits? I am here to give voice to the invisible."

-Carlos Santana

gems of teaching

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence

life on the other side lately

I've been too busy for my blog lately, but thanks to a massive snowstorm am locked in my sister's house with enough time to finally update. So, for those of you who don't know, I'm finally teaching. I'm at US Grant High School, in Oklahoma City, which is quite an interesting school. It's a turnaround school, which means it's had such poor results that they were allowed to fire over half of their teachers last year, and start almost from scratch. It's 70% Latino, 90% eligible for free lunches, and has quite a reputation to overcome. Almost 1/3 of our students are significantly late on a regular basis.

And I love it. I love teaching, because I have fantastic and creative students. Their creative energy is not always focused at the most productive targets, but they are a blast. A challenge and a blast. The first day of class I was reading the rules, because everyone told me to come in and lay down the law, and a student interrupted after the rule "No inappropriate language." He said, "What the F#&* is inappropriate language?"

Aside from the fun behavior management issues, I've been doing my best to find ways to make maths interesting. I found a really cool website with statistics that I may be able to incorporate into linear correlation lessons of some type. And if you have 20 minutes to spare, here's a really good video about it. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

Also, for you Sydney-siders, I highly recommend at least going to see Shane Claiborne in March, though it looks like the whole conference would be pretty cool. http://surrender.org.au/

"We're going to stop complaining about the church that we've experienced and try to become the church that we dream of."

-Shane Claiborne

I may never get tired of Anne

"Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down. Perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways. Perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music. Perhaps...perhaps...love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath."
-L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

I like my job

but I am still applying for teaching jobs.

There is a strip of Doonesbury, in which Mike Doonesbury is sitting on a stone wall, contentedly snacking on a sack of something while being harangued by the self-appointed campus radical, Mark Slackmeyer. "Doonesbury, this country is being torn apart!" Mark rages. "I just can't stand by and watch it happen!" He vows to "fight 'till death to make this country great again!"

Then, with Mark still mid-rant, Mike tilts the open sack toward him and politely interrupts to offer a chocolate-chip cookie. In the last frame, Mark is wearing a boyish grin of rapt delight as he bites into one cookie, his left hand buried deep in the bag to grab another. Having silenced his friend, Mike gazes out at the reader with a smile of his own and observes, "Even revolutionaries like chocolate chip cookies."*

There is a contradiction within many people in this world: we, on some level, long for social justice; but, we also want chocolate chip cookies for ourselves.

As much as I enjoy crawling around ceiling tiles breathing fiberglass, I'd rather be doing something more with my life. And really, the principle of making air conditioning more energy efficient is a bit of an exercise in fashion flaunting. It was GORGEOUS today! Turn the air con OFF!

Speaking of fashion, the peace and love signs of the 60s are making a small comeback, in clothing at least. Tragically, I can already see it diffusing into apathy and materialism once again.

"The counterculture revolution of the 1960s began when people said, “Something is missing. Something is wrong. There must be something greater than this.” And they were right! There must be something greater than eating and drinking, working and sleeping, existing. There must be something greater than the American Dream. There must be something greater than simply getting a good education so that you can find a good job and have a good family so that your kids can get a good education and find a good job and have a good family so that their kids can a get a good education . . . . Is this really it? Is this why God put us here on this earth? There is more!"
-The Call

*I lifted this description of the comic from The Atlantic, October 2010.