A Day in the Life...

 The Daily News

1   I'll be honest with you.

2   I was scared yesterday. No matter how cocky a teacher acts, the Opening Day jitters are palpable. The truth is that you don't know WHAT is going to happen. You don't know if you are going to get angels from Heaven or blasts from Hell. Once the bell rings, or the horn honks, or whatevs, your destiny for the year might be sealed.

3   It's a gamble, and you want a good hand.

4   The Dealer had a hot hand yesterday.

5   Fun student after fun student poured through my door yesterday. Some fun, some serious, some totally goofy, but all friendly.

6   It began when I arrived fashionably late yesterday morning. Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a teacher might be like? Well how about an OPENING day in the life of a teacher? I'll be honest with you. We all begin scared. All of us. So today's DN is going to be a look behind the scenes. Without further ado, let us jump down the rabbit hole!

7   Yesterday morning was for students to get ID cards, classes straightened out, and really, just to get acclimated. Teachers didn't start school until 10:35 a.m.

8    So I was fashionably late for 8, but right on time for a 9:30 arrival. I thought 9:30 a nice time to roll in. When I arrived, the parking lot was about a third full, so even though it felt late, it really wasn't. I even had time to laugh and talk with a few friends before heading for my classroom.

9     When I got inside, I hooked up my laptop to my Altec system, and it still didn't quite have the sub-woofer sound I had searched for the day before, but it really did sound great. I  threw on the same Muddy Waters' mix that I had played the other day, and absolutely loved it.

10   Suddenly, my door opened, and around five very familiar students stood frozen, looking like something out of Dickens.

11   I invited them in out of the "cold" and they still approached me strangely. One really familiar student asked, "Are you the same Mr. Harrington as Mr. Bud Harrington?" I raised an eyebrow, then chuckled inside.

12   I couldn't lay off that pitch. They must have put "George" down on the students'  schedules. I played along. "I'm actually his twin brother George."

13   All five were crestfallen. It worked.

14   But I didn't have the heart. "Hey ya dummies! I'm the same guy you had two years ago!!! I don't have a twin brother; I have twin names!" They all lit up, had a group hug that involved jumping straight up and down for around fifteen seconds, and then they jumped away enthusiastically and high-fived me, low-fived me, and just kept jumping.

15   One girl became really sad, and I looked up and said, "What's wrong with your friend?"

16   "She doesn't have you this year."   =(

17   I said, "Well, we have a GREAT staff here, so chin up! I get super-mean anyway, so you should know that!" The girl truly felt left out. Not much I could do, since our student population is close to twenty-seven hundred. Uh...schedule change? Hardy-har-har.

18   Very quickly I turned to the others and said, "You guys, I'm SO excited about being your teacher this year, AND teaching SENIORS!!! It's World Lit, and I'm thinking of us going on a World Tour, complete with T-Shirts and all the rest! A history of the world and all its lit. I'm gonna start with ancient Messapotatoes and we'll move to the Sumerians and Gilgamesh and those cats!" They started up jumping up and down once more.The girl who was left out smiled anyway. It wasn't THAT sad! I don't really think they had any idea who Gigamesh was, but it didn't seem to matter. I could have said "Felix the Cat" and they would have jumped up and down.

19   It wasn't really me. They were excited because it was their Senior year, and they were just giddy with emotion on the first day of school. You all remember what that was like.

20   Of course, I LOVED it. I started talking about all the ideas and hopes I had for the class, and they lit up.

21   It's pretty easy to be a rock star in that sort of surrounding. I got them all "hyphie", and by the time the bell rang for them to get to class, they had already gone on to a different location. I just smiled. I felt like an ol' grandpa. I'd seen this scenario many times before. It never gets old. I looked over the top of my glasses and smiled again.

22   I don't know that I ever get old either.

23   Days like yesterday make me feel twenty years younger, no question. I sometimes wonder if, like the great Merlin of Arthurian fame, am I youthening?

  ?????

24   AnywayZ, my first class came in, and some of the best of the best students from last year streamed in with a lot of students I didn't know. The atmosphere was upbeat, almost carnival-like, as I began all my schtick. I decided to throw some of my classic stories and openings out there. Might as well use my best pitches.

25   It worked. I had also done my homework, and knew who was coming in, so that I could say, "Hi Alex!" without worrying that I might have forgotten someone's name. I did really well, especially for the first day of school. It's nerve-wracking.

26   I was happy to realize that I remembered every single student's name, and much of their hopes and dreams.

27   "Hey Mose, still playing ball?" Moses was in my class last year. Looks like a teenage Ringo Starr. Mose sported a new, dapper orange mohawk, and a great ol' smile. "Yep!" came his reply.

28   The day danced wild and wonderfully after that. My posse from the morning came in swiftly for my second class, the one with the Seniors, and from the moment the door opened up, students I had three and four years ago came in for a reunion, and to give this ride a second go-round.

29   This continued for the remainder of the day. It was a complete carnival atmosphere. The class after break actually arrived around seven minutes early, which was one of those strange moments. Some bell rang, and everyone got quiet, but my watch said that class didn't start for five more minutes, even though the entire class had already arrived! It was a bit strange, to say the least.

30   So to break the pregnant silence, I just said, "Hi, I'm Mr. Harrington!" and I heard a few "Hi's". So I announced it a second time, and it perked up the room and gave a resounding, "Hi Mr. Harrington!" Whew. Seemed the carnival was back in motion.

31   And then they fell silent. Again. Really strange. And there were still around three more minutes until class would even start. Why were they all so early? I decided to begin my lesson anyway, because it was so darned strange sitting with a class awaiting the tardy bell.

32    Well, the trouble with beginning early is that you end early too! I found myself with almost fifteen minutes to kill, which does happen on the first day of school. The relativity of time distorts the entire day. The same lesson that takes almost the entire period early in the day could fall as much as fifteen minutes short later in the day. A lot of it is controlling adrenaline and remembering not to leave anything out.

33   I realized that I had forgotten to take roll, which on the first day takes a little longer so you could write down phonetic pronunciations of names, as well as nicknames. And since I had already started five minutes early, AND that I had to stretch the other lessons an extra five minutes, I found myself facing a fifteen-minute gap! It's like a bad outing for a relief pitcher. The innings get lonnnng pretty quickly.

34   I opened a Q and A, and then took roll. With five minutes left, I asked if there were any more questions, but they were already engaged in catching up with their friends. I said, "If there are no more questions, you're free to catch up with your friends." It got louder and more normal, and I got past that very weird moment in the day.

35   The next period had 35 students physically present. That usually means automatic noise, no matter HOW good you are. But they were wonderful and cooperative and an incredible audience. Well timed, and perfect. I tried to you tube John Sebastian's Welcome Back at the end of the period, but it didn't work. Nice try, but they got away. Every day I want to improve my lesson as the day progresses. Constant criticism as to what worked and what didn't. Teachers. I swear. Perfectionists. And never happy with how it went.

36   Once they were out, it was my prep period. I was a bit hungry, flew down to this little Asian hole-in-the wall, got some shrimp balls and water, and shot back up to the school. I really couldn't wait for my last class. It had lots of students that I already had.

37   They came in, and I prepared myself to deliver my smoothest lesson of the day. It worked. I concentrated on my story, had better rhythm, better pauses, and almost a perfect sense of timing. I took it to two minutes, stopped, and they applauded! I instantly went back to my computer, just as they were packing their stuff, and managed to put John Sebastian's Welcome Back through my stereo. The sub-woofer kicked in, just enough to work perfectly as the bell rang, and they were leaving to the distant voice of, "Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back!" Absolutely perfect!

38   Amazingly, last night as I was finishing writing all this, the PBS show entitled Legends of Folk: The Village played while I was writing. I didn't even put it on. Just as I was writing about John Sebastian, his face came on the special, and he talked a little about the mid-sixties, and the "hip" scene. Some of the artists talked about how each show they would try to top the previous one.

39   I looked up and smiled, because that's almost what I had spent my entire first day of the school year trying to do, to give the best I could before the end of the day. That's an interesting part of teaching. Each period is like  another "show", and you want perfection.

40   Throughout the day I would have my timing off a little on the story, or I would say a word or two too much. As I would speak, my mind, my inner coach would say, "Cut it short, pause a little longer here. Stop and look left. Don't say that." Honestly. All good teachers do that, every single day.

41   I don't know that I've ever taken the DN crowd through a day in the life of a teacher, especially an opening day. It could have been a dreadful disaster, but yesterday wasn't. At all. After school another teacher flew into my room and asked how my day went. I told him it was completely electric and amazing, a few small slow moments, but overall, great vibrations, great classes, and wonderful students.

42   He said that his day was the same! We talked about some successes, as well as some of our failures last year. Turns out he's also teaching English 2A, and we exchanged a few ideas, talked a little department stuff, and then wrapped it up. I didn't even need to bring my texts home because the rest of the week is pretty much ready to rock!

43   So that's it, the first ever inside look at a day in the life of a teacher, first day of school. That's what it was like. Lovely opening. Honestly, they aren't always. But yesterday was really fun, and I can't wait to go back today for more!

44  I could get taken down on the kickoff today, but the fact is, you don't know one day to the next what might happen.

45   But like anything else, it is always nice to start strong, and relax and enjoy the students and the school.

46   Hope you enjoyed this inside look.

47   More to come.

48   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

We're baaaaaaaaaak!!!

The Daily News

1   There's an old joke that goes something like this: A guy dies and goes to Hell. He meets the devil, who tells him he has been a chump in his life, but because he wasn't a total chump, he will be given his choice of how to spend eternity. The devil walks the guy down a hallway that ends with three doors. The devil tells the guy, "Okay, I need a cup of coffee. While I'm gone, check out each of these three rooms. They are your only choices of where you will spend eternity."

2    The devil goes off, and the guy is left staring at the three doors. He opens door number 1. He is horrified to see people all on fire, and the floor has shattered glass. People are screaming in horrific pain. He instantly closes the door, frightened of his own fate.

3    He reluctantly opens the second door. Inside, every manner of torture is happening before his eyes. Thumb screws. The Rack. The Brazen Bull. The Iron Maiden. Guy gulps.

4   Terrified, the guy slams the door, heart pumping. He looks for an escape, but the hallway has disappeared. He turns and gives a  frightened glance to the third door. Reluctantly, he opens the door and looks in.

5   But this room isn't nearly as bad as the other two. There are people standing up to their necks in poop, but they are all listening to Bach and sipping extremely bold and robust coffee. They all seem to be used to the poop smell, and all seems fairly pleasant.

6   The devil returns and asks if the man has decided which room he would prefer for eternity. With no hesitation, the guy says, "I choose room number 3!" The devil gives him a demonic smile, and says, "Very well. Room 3 it is!"

7   The guy goes in, horrified at first by the foul stench, but quite soon a waiter comes by and gives him a cup of coffee. After a fashion, he begins meeting people, and even having a laugh or two.

8   Suddenly, the lights flash on and off, and the devil appears. He shouts to the room, "Okay, coffee break's over! Back on your heads!"

9   Ha.

10  Welcome back to the 2010-11 school year.

11  The Daily News welcomes you, and hopes you enjoy your stay.

12  I didn't really mean all that about the devil, and coffee breaks, and such. It just sorta poured out of me.

13  I'm actually quite excited to stop vacationing and sit by a jackhammer every day for the next nine months.

14   So...the DN is now in its SIXTEENTH year, the world's first "blog" before "blog" was even a word. It is approaching its seventh or eighth year online, depending upon when history, if it really gives a hoot, places it.

15  Somewhere around 2002 I began placing my DN's on a website called ybdrama.com, which went out of business when I upgraded my geocities account and was still not given "premium" access.

16  It was a fun site, but it sorta died in the weeds. I finally had forgotten my password, and it had gotten invaded by wayward people unrelated in any way to the Drama Workshop. It was like looking at some old gazebo in your backyard, withering away with weather and rain, and with lots of wet bugs.

17  But the Xanga site goes back nostalgically to 2004, and has always treated the DN pretty well. I changed it up for about a day last year so that it would look like a 2011 Lexus, but backed off when I realized that you can't really make a silk ear out of...

18  Out of a sow's purse.

19   Something.

20   Moving on, Part One: No matter how much I avoid it, I absolutely LOVE visiting my fellow teachers on our first day back.

21   Amazingly, all have come refreshed and with wonderful ideas for the coming school year. My friend Chris Kuch, for example, found that she will teach psychology this year, and was pretty excited. She borrowed this plastic blue brain that lights up and swirls with lights inside. She was so excited about teaching psychology that I got  caught up in the giddiness. She was particularly interested in an entire generation that is completely immersed in social networking, and the social implications of that immersion. The topic is explosively interesting, because it is right where we are as a society. We talked about that topic, and the idea that maybe we both should bring it up in discussions.

22   What's cool is that she is right "down the street" from me, like maybe thirty meters, and we will both have Seniors. We got diabolical, and started thinking of perhaps crossing English with Psychology. She definitely plans on teaching Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which Frank Foehr used to teach at YB.

22  She also wants to teach journeys and roads and things, and so do I. Legends and myths and things like that. It's all open, and we are pretty excited, since both of us are teaching new things.

23   I may even bring back my entire unit on the King Arthur legend. Tennyson and Rick Wakeman, shields and chivalry. That used to end my year before Shakespeare took over, and I STILL get him too!

24   After school, I ran into a science teacher, sort of a Ponch sort. Mock evil. But benevolent. I asked him what he plans on doing this year. We were in the parking lot, chlling at the T000000NDRA. He looked pretty spiffy in his straw hat and shades. I thought he was a spy. Might as well have been.

25   Anyway, I asked him what stuff he had up his sleeve for this coming year. The sun shone off his sunglasses. He said, "Gonna make me a still!"

26  

27   He proceeded to tell me that he and a couple of others who shall remain nameless are seriously thinking of getting together and making a still, with HVAC parts and copper tubing. Yup. A still. Hooch. Moonshine. Not at school. But a still. At home.

28   I asked if it was a little dangerous, and he assured me that once you get a certain ingredient which shall remain nameless out of the way, that you could make some pretty clean hooch.

29   I loved it. His partner in crime came up and concurred. We began to set up an alliance among us based on a little thing it was rumoured we used to have done at YB. Allow me to digress...

30  Back at YB, according to legend, several of us who shall remain nameless, but who were part of the infamous Burrito Gang on Fridays used to have a contingency plan if a disruptive student should run into our rooms in a "hyphie" state. It isn't rocket science to figure out when a hyper student is "hyphie". So we came up with a plan. Allegedly. At some point early in our lessons, we would ask the student if he would like to do us a favor. Purportedly.

31   Again, according to legend, those students ALWAYS wanted to do us a favor, because it meant he or she could leave class. Our mission went something like this; I've put it into a short fictional play. It's called Sam: 

Sam

a short play by bud harrington

Curtain.

Classroom. One desk, the teacher's. His name is H.

Enter Sam, a student in a hyphie state.

H: Sam! How would you like to do me a favor?

Sam: Me? Sure!

H:  Do you know who Mr. Russell is?

Sam:  Yeah.

H:  Do you know his room number? 

Sam: Yeah. Well...I think so. No. Yeah...

H:  What  I need you to do is to go over and ask Mr. Russell if he has any left-handed chalk.

Sam:  Left-handed...?

H:  Chalk. Yeah. It has a bevel.

Sam:  Left-handed chalk.

H:  Yes.

Sam: Bevel.

H:  Yes.

H writes Sam a pass. He points off. Sam looks down, looks up, looks at H. He exits.

Blackout.

Curtain.

The end.

32   Commentary: What Sam DIDN'T know was that there were enough teachers in on this that we would send him from room to room until the period ended. NOBODY would have left-handed chalk, of course, but we'd think of suggestions for Sam as to who MIGHT have it.

33  This was usually instituted on days when we would KNOW that Sam was off his nut, and was going to turn other students nutty instead of them focusing on our lessons. And yes, one guy does have the capacity to disrupt an entire lesson, and wind up in detention. This was a brilliant means of keeping order AND keeping Sam busy and safe from detention at the same time. Win-win.

34  So I shared that with a couple of like-minds at EV yesterday afternoon. They were rollin'. Hey, if they're making a STILL, then they could clearly be trusted. That's how it works.

35   Of course they wanted to institute left-handed chalk instantly at EV, but I told them that we are far too professional and serious to allow such debauchery to surface, especially in the somber atmosphere of education in 2011. And besides, the story I had shared was simply a legend, and not a fact, as far as people know.

36   So we decided against it, but did have a hearty laugh over it.

37   Because most people who know me KNOW that even with my little evil streak, and even if I HAD participated in such boorish behaviour, that I have outgrown those sorts of puerile tactics and thoughts when it comes to bringing brightness and edification to our youth.

38 

39   So we had a few laughs, and the first nameless teacher invited me over to his house when the still is complete. Heck, I might even help them make the thing. It's right out of the Beverly Hillbillies.

40   As you can see, we are tanned, rested, and ready.

41   Wish all of us luck. We have very few supplies, very few rubles, very many cutbacks everywhere we turn, and yet the conversation was all about teaching, stills, and left-handed chalk.

42   I always give the younger teachers a couple of tidbits of advice. Some of you younger teachers out there might heed these words of wisdom.

43   First, regarding teaching: if you are a week behind, you are a week ahead; a truer word was never said.

44   Second, if anybody ever asks, "So you're a teacher? What do you teach?" the correct response is this: "Students."

45   ;  )  <---------sideways way-cool winky guy

46   You then place tongue firmly in cheek, and respect the person who is inquiring. It's always a nice moment. They'll always ask. And you will always answer: "Students."

47   Because that is the truth. Subjects are subjects; standards are standards; English is English, science is science, drama is drama. But students are people.

48   We teach young people how to learn.

49   At least we try to.

50   I do.

51   So do you. In that regard, we're all teachers. If you are six and your brother is three, you are a teacher. All of us are. The greatness is thrust on everyone. <poof!>

52    So here's one for the ages. I appreciate the job that you do. Just do it well, with kindness, humor, and care. And maybe even some left-handed chalk. You just do it , and you do it well. Help make young people succeed. It's all you need do.

53   And for all you do...

54   Game on. Coffe break's over. Let's roll.

55   Peace.

~H~