May 3, 2010
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The Daily News
1 Sharks!2 How fun IS this anyway?
3 Well, I LOVED last night's game.
4 Something's happenin'...
5 Let's let it marinate. It's all so hard to believe. Believe it.
6 Moving on, Part the First: Went to my Dad's and enjoyed the Giants' game, even though they didn't quite do it. Didn't matter. I was with the best man ever. My Dad is a gentleman and a scholar, and continues to make me love life, and to laugh.
7 Too bad the Giants lost, but it didn't really matter. I was with my best friend ever, my Dad. When I was young, he used to call me "Pal".
8 All he said when I had to go home was this: "Well, Buddy, thanks for the chit-chat!"
9 Haha!
10 Good times, good times.
11 It was important, because Tuesday is my Mom's birthday, and Sunday is Mothers' Day. Last year, my Mom passed away on May 17. Pretty emotional times, and yet I had SUCH a beautiful day with my Dad! There's this beautiful picture of my Mom on his fridge,and it was JUST like she was there with us, laughing and trying to enjoy the baseball game.
12 Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, a hummingbird appeared outside the window. My Mom was an artist, and every now and again sketched away. In her later days, she was paralyzed, and many of her sketches were of hummingbirds, because there was a feeder right outside her window. They would come by and say "Hi!" all the time. They would bring the sunshine and the niceties of the world.
13 So the hummingbird came to the window during the game and said "Hi!" to me and my Dad. It didn't really help, because despite my Mom's incredible influence on Heaven, the Giants still managed not to hit!
14 But she had her pink rally cap on, I'm quite certain. And I'm also pretty sure she was right there with us, rooting our team on.
15 Moving on, Part the Second: Today I get to teach my students all about poetry. It's always a fun day, because I love my lesson. I've got this new thing where I want to turn teaching into an art, and to work doubly hard as ever I did to create lessons that are completely designed, each day, from top to bottom.
16 Well, like all of us, I realize that it will take time, patience, and care to make it real, but my lessons for years just sort of repeated. What I began last year was a series of lessons that were designed, so this week I hope to improve on that.
17 Friday, for example, is a day when I convert my class into the Cafe Verona, complete with Starbucks-type lamps, lava lamps, jazz music, mandatory sunglasses, fruits and donuts, and Starbuck's Cafe Verona coffee, which I will for a nickel. Donations will go to Haiti relief.
18 Last year, it ROCKED. I also bought my classes kids' sunglasses so they could do an open mic poetry reading and snap fingers for the true poets. That didn't work so well, because they didn't fit the kids, but they still laughed and had them hanging off the edge of their noses and stuff.
19 So I am looking WAY forward to today!
20 I began at YB teaching what we now call Honors English classes, but a shift took place that had me teaching Comp/Lit in my later days. I always loved the Comp/Lit students, because I always thought that many of them were bright beyond words. But I also had a lot more discipline issues, which could wear a person down after fifteen years. At EV, almost all my classes are Honors, so the discipline is different. There is a margin of respect that is a huge step up, and quite nice. They still goof around, but a raised eyebrow can get instant respect. A raised eyebrow at YB would be met with, "Hey H, what's wrong with your eye?" Ya gotta love it.
21 In many ironic ways, the "gifted" students are always a little slower in the creative areas. They tend to like structure and specifics, and if I ever say something like, "Just let your mind be free!" they get a little scared. "What do I have to do to get an A+?" is the mentality, and they need it spelled out. But last year, my poetry assignment worked, and it was magic! But I had a rubric to beat the band.
22 Nothing could ever replace the kids who "got" the JFK sessions. But this is a different school, with a different approach. One thing I've learned as a teacher is that EVERY single student is a gifted student. My Comp/Lit students always enjoyed my JFK lessons. At EV, I don't do that unit, even though I teach Julius Caesar. They simply wouldn't get the connection, and might ask, "Why are we learning this?" That's a shame, because the Comp/Lit students ALWAYS got the connection.
23 So I am convinced that every single student is "gifted" in different ways.
24 Every single student.
25 Bold?
26 Nope.
27 They are all miracles to me.
28 Looking forward to the week.
29 Looking forward especially to Friday, and amazing people and things.
30 Every single person you meet is amazing, if you just give them audience.
31 There's hope, man.
32 You just have to get out of your own ego and appreciate that.
33 Tell a kid you believe in them today. You could change a world.
34 My parents believed in me. Hummingbirds appear. Miracles happen.
35 You may just be creating an amazing world for tomorrow. Help a kid.
36 Happy Monday.
37 Peace.
~H~
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