Month: March 2013



  •  
    The Daily News

    1   Have a happy Spring Break! See you after Easter week!

    ~H~


    www.xanga.com/bharrington











  • The Daily News
    1   Anybody looking?

    2   <pssst>

    3   Wednesdays are easy.

    4   You know it.

    5    I know it.

    6    Wednesday is the most unassuming day of the week.

    7    I can slip past a Wednesday the same way a red-headed schoolboy could sneak his slingshot past a yard duty.

    8   Thank goodness.

    9   I hope you are all as slippery as am I.

    10  Moving on, Part One: We get Friday off. 

    11  Yay Cesar Chavez.

    12   What a brave man, and a snappy dresser. 

    13   Union guy. Nice to see that we have a day that pays tribute to people brave enough to put themselves out there for higher wages, better working conditions,  and more hope.

    14   Controversial guy, to be sure, but certainly worthy of a holiday.

    15   Sadly, it is only in three states, and one of those is Arizona. 

    16   For whatever reason, the struggle for human rights continues.

    17   We might think about that this week. 

    18   Moving on, Part Two: I can’t believe that in 2013 anybody cares who falls in love with whom. 

    19   Or who marries whom. 

    20   Whom.

    21   Argh. I’m so uppity.

    22   It was nice to see a whole bunch of people putting up red signs on Facebook supporting equality in marriage.

    23  In America, shouldn’t we have equality in everything?

    24  People talk a good game, but come on. 

    25  It is 2013. 

    26  I don’t think it is asking too much to let all people love and marry the people they wish to love and marry. 

    27  You either believe in freedom or you don’t. 

    28   I’m not even trying to be controversial here. 

    29   Twenty years from now, people who were against giving everyone the right to marry are going to look like prejudiced, moronic hypocrites.

    30   Count me out on that one. 

    31   Ah, yeesh. 

    32   Just leave people alone. 

    33   I guess nothing logical is easy.

    34   Moving on, Part Three: Anybody looking?

    35   My trouble with opinions is I know I’m always right.

    36   That’s most people’s trouble with opinions.

    37   Every time I start writing about how I feel about things, I know the DN is going down in flames.

    38   It’s just when it comes to basic human rights, I find it difficult to give any credence to close-minded morons. 

    39   I have to call them out. 

    40   Sorry.

    41   I love living in this country because of its basic premise of freedom. 

    42   It has nothing to do with being a liberal or a conservative. 

    43   It has to do with being an American. 

    44   Moving on, Part Four: Anybody looking?

    45   Yesterday a student came into my room, looked at my new hat and said, “Hey Mr. H! I love your fedora!”

    46   So gangsta.

    47   I got this new hat that is called a Bogart.

    48   You can’t even imagine. 

    49   It has a feather and everything. 

    50   I love hats. Wait. Let me go Facebook weirdtalk: I love me some hats.

    51   Know why?

    52   ‘Cuz I know how to wear them. 

    53   I’ve been a hat guy my entire life. 

    54  Nothing is funnier than a person who wears a hat, but isn’t committed to it.

    55  I like old movies and hats. 

    56  That’s not asking for too much. 

    57  It’s into the three a.m. and I think I gottago. I‘ve insulted enough people for one day.

    58  Remember what I said about Cesar Chavez and gay marriage. I am pro both. I just want to go on record as having said this. 

    59  I even hope I pissed a few people off today. 

    60   Too bad. Learn to respect people’s rights, and stop being stupid. You might actually learn what freedom is about. 

    61   I’m going to wrap myself in an American flag and drift off in a patriotic slumber now. I find great comfort in freedom and human rights and all.

    62   So there. 

    63   Gottago. See you again.

    64   Peace.. 

    ~H~
    www.xanga.com/bharrington















  •  
    The Daily News

    1   In my haste to get the evening over with last night, I speared a potato chip into my gums. It swelled up in the night and is now painful, albeit untragic.

    2   I may need to schedule a dentist appointment. 

    3   What’s a good time for a dentist appointment?

    4   Why, tooth hurty. 

    5   Anybody looking? 

    6   Moving on, Part the First: So how’s the day so far?

    7   Tuesday going into Spring Break. This party animal wishes the end of Tuesdays, as most of you by now know. 

    8   If there were no Tuesdays, today would be Wednesday. Our teachers voted to eliminate this Friday as a day of the week. Can you just imagine if we had no Tuesdays? Learning would be pointless.

    9   Of course the nerd in me sees all of this as an opportunity to do more planning, get more organized, and catch up on my grading. 

    10  Party animal, indeed. 

    11  The cupboards are filled with Crystal Light and Nutella.

    12   Oh, and party hats and birthday blowers. 

    13  Whoopie.

    14  Moving On, Part the Second: Day-um.

    15  I had another of those dreams where this thing was already written.

    16  I awakened, went to see if I had written anything yesterday, and it was an empty cabinet.

    17  I have people over, so I’m in the living room with a pen-flashlight in my mouth, swollen gums, and no ideas.

    18   I think it is all tied into Spring Break.

    19   I am gonna par-tay.

    20   With school stuff. 

    21   Moving On, Part the Thoid: One thing I did do yesterday was haul my guitar and a couple amps up to the school. I am in the process of turning my classroom into the Cafe Verona, an open-mic jazz/poetry place with ambient lighting, guitars, keyboards, amps, and microphones. 

    22  It’s a slow morph, but it eventually looks like some Bohemian Starbuck’s, a perfect combination of past and present. 

    23  Many readers of the DN are Shakespeare aficionados, so they take most of Shakespeare for granted. 

    24  If many of you travel back through the mists of time, you may recall when you didn’t even know the plot of Romeo and Juliet.

    25  Yesterday I pulled out all stops. On a Monday going into Spring Break, I got us all the way from the prologue to the Romeo/Benvolio scene where we discover after the fray that Romeo is gaga over Rosaline. The lesson had it all: the iambic de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, the Samson/Gregory “Do you bite your thumb at me?” scene, the fights, the introduction of Benvolio and Tybalt, and the passion of the Prince. “Three civil brawls bred of an airy word, By thee O Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets!” The iambicly perfect ending, “…have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets!” had students patting their hearts. 

    26  The majority of my students have no idea how this will all go down, but they clearly were getting it. I put them in a large circle, gave each a script, introduced it all, and then I read it to them. It might sound vain, but any other technique simply doesn’t work. Having them read it silently would result in more corpses in my class than there are in the story. 

    27   Giving different students parts would result in some guy reading so quietly and so slowly that most would want him put up on charges for attempted murder. He would then be tried by a jury of his peers, the Bored of Education. <groan.>

    28   I do have these CD’s put out by our textbook publishers, but the voices are so wussy and tepid that nobody is going to believe that this play has any passion whatsoever. 

    29   Nope.

    30   Here’s a unique concept: teacher does all the work, and the students learn. Maybe we should hire a committee to see if that’s a good formula. Maybe the state should do studies, hold seminars, pay teachers, pay committees, and do case studies to see if a teacher actually teaching is a good idea. 

    31  Moving on, Part Four: I know that I had somehow engaged the students yesterday. They were proud that they understood the language, but more importantly, they began enjoying the rhythms, rhymes and music of the language. 

    32  I also knew that they didn’t need the WPC to come in with their glasses and clipboards, and shake their heads. 

    33  Moving on, Part Five: My sophomores were a bit more of a challenge. For the second year in a row I chose Much Ado as my main squeeze. I have Julius Caesar on hold, but I find that they enjoy Much Ado About Nothing much more. 

    34   I was on pins and needles, because with Much Ado, I need my updated Folger copy. Their copies they have lousier notations. I need to use a different book, and lining the two up became a little challenging. I made a few early mistakes, but got them going on it slowly at first, but once the plot took off, they were looking like they were watching a Disney cartoon, especially with the villainous Don John and his ruffians. Perfect Disney villains. Evil for the sake of evil, and double entendres everywhere. Mr. Censor was poised and ready, just for the record.

    35  Mr. Censor is this stick-figure guy that during any butt scenes in the movies I put up on my teevee screen. The static from the teevee makes Mr. Censor cling to the screen. I had to make copies of Mr. Censor with Much Ado because of the opening scene, when all the men coming home from the wars take off their pants and dive into fountains. I showed them the opening a couple of weeks ago, just as a sampler. 

    36   I had to pay Mr. Censor overtime on that one, which prompted one kid to make a Mr. Censor, Jr. to aid in the conquest of immorality. 

    37   Sometime when I think of it I’ll take a picture of Mr. Censor and post it here. He and his colleagues are at school making sure nothing immoral happens. 

    38   Ah, sweet sanctity.

    39   The nice thing about doing both R and J and Much Ado is that it was all text and reading, no film yet. I did give a few quick-peek samplers, yes, but we won’t go to the films until Thursday, which this week is our Friday. 

    40   I fully intend to spring Midsummer on all my classes when we get back, go through a poetry unit that involves the Cafe Verona, and end with Taming of the Shrew in the theater, in full stereo. Oh, somewhere in there we are going to have testing and other interruptions, but meanwhile, it is officially Spring!

    41   It is especially nice when everything is planned. My entire philosophy about Shakespeare and poetry is that I don’t want them just to learn it. It isn’t going to get them a job, unless they go into teaching or acting, both of which only a lunatic would do for a living. 

    42   My philosophy is that they should embrace Shakespeare and poetry as lifelong gifts to themselves and to their children. 

    43   I place great emphasis on the arts in my classroom. We prepare students for the working world, but if that’s all we do, then we develop drones. Bringing culture, art, poetry, and music into their lives trains them for the days when they aren’t working, or when they are cursing the jobs they worked so hard in school to get. I emphasize art, especially in the Spring.

    44   No data will tell me that I shouldn’t be doing that. No state committee nor state test is going to measure any of that. 

    45   And nobody on this planet is going to tell me that what I am doing is anything but enrichment, and that you can teach with music, drama, art, poetry, and laughter. 

    46   Whew. What a rant.

    47   Going to bed now. 

    48   Have a beautiful Tuesday, and I hope many of you are looking forward to some sort of Spring Break. 

    49   I sure am. 

    50   And yes, I will bring Shakespeaere with me, even if I get to the beach. I’ll give homie a pair of Ray Bans, and we’ll rock to the sounds of the booming waves, and to the occasional squawk of a gull. 

    51   And my heart will go de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum.

    52   Gottago.

    53   See you again.
    54   Peace and sunscreen.

    ~H~
     

    www.xanga.com/bharrington










  •  
    Phoebe and the Rocket.
      


     
    The Daily News
    1   I finally had a little time on my hands yesterday and decided to go to the car wash, long overdo.

    2   I decided I might as well get some gas while I was there.

    3   A message on the pump read, “Do you have a Loyalty card?”

    4   I hesitated and then saw that the Loyalty card was the one that Lucky and Save Mart give you so I answered with a resounding “Yes.”

    5   It then said, “Please slide your card.”

    6   I slid my card and the pump put me on hold for a bit while it processed. 

    7   After much processing, it finally flicked this message my way:

    8   “Loyalty unavailable.”

    9    ”Well!” I thought. “Then you really ain’t so loyal, are you?”
    10  Loyalty unavailable. I felt jilted.

    11  It reminds me of Benedick’s line in Much Ado: Ha! “Against my will I am sent to bid you come to dinner.” There’s a double meaning in that.”  That’s okay. There are other pumps in the sea.
    12   Moving on, Part One: On Thursday a student came to my desk, hesitated, and then said with a straight face, “Mr. H, may I please go to the room at which we may rest?” He looked at me and then broke into a wry grin. 

    13   You gotta love stuff like that.

    14   I threw that on out on Facebook and a few people got it. 

    15   It almost got by me.

    16   Smart kid. Fun moment. If you missed it, I just thought I’d put it up in here for you. I was amused.

    17   Moving on, Part Two: I think I’ve figured out a way to control the situation that occurs when the dog needs to get up in the middle of the night.

    18   It requires my going to sleep a half hour earlier each evening.

    19   It’s almost like fishing. I have some new bait.

    20   I make just a little food for her.

    21   I then give her a bowl.

    22   Her modus is to eat swiftly, and then run out in the yard in search of night creatures she can bark at. 

    23   At which she can bark.

    24   I used to go out and try to silence her. I would turn the light on, which would only make her prowling more intense. 

    25   I now give her the snack, open the door, turn off all the outside lights, and then I close the door. I turn off all the lights inside the house as well. 

    26   Within seconds she is back at the door begging to come in. It seems cruel, but she is up and back down within around three minutes. It used to be a nightmare. I never knew if she would come in, wake up the neighborhood, or stay up wandering around the house unsettled. She will bark until she loses her voice.

    27   The new plan works. At least it seems to work. If you haven’t noticed, dogs figure things out pretty quickly. They can sniff out a trick better than Holmes.

    28   Right now she takes the bait each time. 

    30   This is significant news for DN readers.

    31   At least in my ridiculous mind it is. 

    32    Phoebe, my wonderful dog, has been a champ at staying asleep through my nightly insomnia, and the second I finish writing the DN and drift off, she barks me awake right around 4:20 each morning, prompting me to nickname her “4:20.”

    33   This often would cause me to go to bed early, awaken, write this, almost drift off, and then awaken for the day. 

    34   Not good. 

    35   I’m usually okay for my morning classes, but by my last class of the day I’m ready to conk out. 

    36   Lately I have used a literal bait-and-hook to get her into the yard and back inside and to sleep within minutes. 

    37   We both get more sleep in the end, so it works.

    38   Her real nickname is Charley, because during this last summer she and I became good pals. I was reading Travels With Charley by Steinbeck. I spoiled her all summer by throwing her into the T000000NDRA every chance I could, and taking her all over the place. “You wanna go for a ride, Charley? Do ya?” She would shake and jingle her collar. We went all over the place. It was grand.

    39   When school started that ceased. I miss it, but I’m pretty sure that her behaviors at 4:20 were prompted somewhat by all of that. 

    40  She’s my pal. If I threw her into the T000000NDRA every night at two a.m. she’d be a happy camper. When school is in session, that just can’t happen. I have to control my rest so that I am awake and alert during my classes. I teach with lots of energy, so I have to be rested each night. It takes training.

    41  I’m glad I could get some rest, but I’m also looking forward to summer, and traveling again with Charley. 

    42   I never seriously called her 4:20. I do seriously call her Charley. 

    43   She’s a good girl, and an awesome pal. 

    44   She’s swell.

    45   Moving on, Part the Thoid: Monday going into Spring Break, always a fun time. 

    46   We get the week after Easter off. It works beautifully because it is close to the end of the grading period, and this gives us a lot of time to get our grades done. This is huge. Everyone else is at the beach. I’ve actually brought my papers to the beach. I just couldn’t find a beach that allows bonfires. Just kidding. 

    47   I found out that my daughter Nicole’s school isn’t off for a couple of weeks. That’s astounding. It has been my experience that most school districts have either the week before or the week after Easter off. Those are the traditional time zones of Spring Break. 

    48   That’s too bad in a way, because she has a dog is who a mini-version of Phoebe. His name is Rocket J. Dog, and is the cutest thing on four paws. 

    49  We could have gone on excursions to the ocean next week. We took them to Bean Hollow a few weeks ago, and they both had a ball.

    50  Ah, vell.

    51  It’s Monday.

    52   It is into the four a.m.

    53   I think I might actually get some rest this day. 

    54   Phoebes is sound asleep. 

    55   An old movie is flickering. Some Jean Harlow venture.

    56   All is well. 

    57   I think it is time to put this to bed. I think it’s time to put myself to bed.

    58   Hope you have a GREAT Monday.

    59   See you again.

    60   Peace.

    ~H~

     

    www.xanga.com/bharrington















  • The Daily News
    1   I don’t know when I have looked more forward to a Friday in my life.

    2   Stressful week, that’s for sure. 

    3   It’s nice.
    4   It’s really nice.

    5   I missed life this week.

    6   Nice to have it back.

    7   Moving on, Part One: I don’t have a music store near home, so yesterday I went into our local Target to get guitar strings and Nutella.

    8   I bought some lousy guitar strings a couple of weeks ago but the e-string broke when I tightened it. 

    9    I thought my days of doing that were over. Evidently I was wrong. 

    10  I now have three guitars, each missing a string. 

    11  And for me personally, this is guitar season. I am right in the middle of my Shakespeare unit and will soon convert my classroom to the Cafe Verona for my annual coffeehouse poetry readings, complete with jazz, ambient lighting, and sunglasses. 

    12  It culminates in my playing a couple of songs for my students. 

    13  You don’t do that with a five-string.

    14  I have been practicing singing already.I joined the cast of Grease last year as a cameo Teen Angel. One wonderful gift I got from that experience is that I learned a few new singing techniques from our vocal director. 

    15  I have been traveling a lot of late, going up to Dad’s in Millbrae and visiting Helene’s brother Ron in Martinez. When I go to Dad’s in the early morning there are few cars on the road. I am comfortable practicing songs on the highway. 

    16   Early morning isn’t always a good time to practice, but midway through the ride I could usually do it. 

    17   Saturday’s coming home from Dad’s are usually the ideal time to practice. I leave his place at around 6 p.m. and take 280 back to San Jose. It’s about a fifty-minute trip. I recently blew the dust off my Beatles’ Love CD, the one produced by George Martin and his son Giles. The music is the backdrop to the popular Cirque du Soliel show.

    18  The opening of this jewel of an album begins with an a capella version of Because, followed by the drum solo from Abbey Road, which morphs into Get Back with an emphasis on Paul’s booming bassline.

    19   By the time I hit 280, I’m in the area in which I grew up, and on the freeway traveling home with Get Back blasting through my cranium. I easily hit all the notes with heart beating and joy ranting. It is a freedom and soul that is almost inexplicable. 

    20  Get back clears the pipes for Eleanor Rigby. It’s all great fun, and a lark. 

    21   The Lennon songs are much harder, and require singing from the gut. 

    22   Great practice, good for listening and refreshing the head to lyrics. Strawberry Fields is particularly good for getting the mind to lock into lyrics. 

    23   Yesterday on my ride home from work, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away came on the radio. I hadn’t heard that one in a while. I loved the raspy voice on that tune, because I was so exhausted from the week. I rode the back roads home from work and felt like something old and dusty. It all worked. 

    24   The Beatles are fun to sing because they are a bit of a challenge. Paul’s songs swing easily with me because falsetto is fairly easy. Lennon’s songs are gut wrenching and require a lot of belly and head. Ringo’s stuff is easy as pie. That should surprise nobody. George’s songs are soulful and wonderful. 

    25   Each needs different approaches. All are fun and wonderful. 

    26   Interestingly, the two songs I sing at the poetry read are not Beatle songs at all. In fact, with all the music I play in my classroom, I seldom put Beatle songs on. 

    27   I put on obscure background music, music from all parts of the world, blues, karaoke Disney, one-hit eighties, and each song meticulously placed, creating a fun backdrop to the group workshops I conduct. 

    28   The two songs I sing at the poetry read are Simon and Garfunkel songs. They work much better in my voice range. One is America, a song I absolutely love and always will, and the second one is one I put into the poetry read just last year. 

    29   It’s a breakfast song, an obscure little gem called Punky’ Dilemma. It opens with this line: Wish I was a Kellogg’s cornflake, floatin’ in my bowl a takin’ movies…

    30  It is a can’t miss. The students LOVE that song. 

    31  I’m so glad the visiting team is gone. 

    32   The entire staff is relieved.

    33   We can get back to our lessons again.

    34   We have our lives back. 

    35   The students can feel the school landing safely on its feet.

    36   Moving on, Part Two: It’s fun that coincidences continue to happen. Yesterday morning a skit reminded me of how later in the year, the students will be able to teach each other “by any means necessary,” which usually translates to making videos, writing poetry, doing skits, writing songs, or anything else that could fit into that category. 

    37   I thought of this student I had a few years ago. He was particularly intelligent and clever, and always brought fresh things to discussions. I wondered if he was still at the school. I then thought to myself, “You will  see him today.”

    38   I go out to lunch many days, since I have a prep period right after lunch. On my way home, a truck pulled in front of me. It had a color picture of the Pigeon Point lighthouse, a place I go to every now and again when it gets too hot to stay in San Jose in the summer. It’s a cool place, literally and spiritually. It’s nothing big, but I thought about it for a second yesterday, and then this truck pulled in front of me. I followed the picture up Quimby road to the school.

    39  I thought of Pigeon Point just the other day when an ex-student posted a picture of it on Facebook. I smiled when I again saw it on the back of that small truck. 

    40   When I go coastal in summer, I occasionally go there just to feel a cool breeze.

    41   I got back to school, watched a few skits in my last class, and left the second the bell rang. 

    42   On the way to the parking lot, I looked up and the student I had thought about earlier in the day was walking right next to me.

    43   I told him about the coincidences of late, and he loved it. 

    44   I got home, took a nap, made a nice dinner, and rested my eyes. 

    45   I awakened to a Beatle’s song.

    46   Turns out that American Idol has been having Beatles’ nights all this week. 

    47   Amazing.

    48   It is well into the four a.m. and I must needs get a bit more rest before I have to go back in and tackle what should be a pretty easy Friday. 

    49   It’s nice. 

    50   It’s really nice. I’m loving the magic.

    51   Have a lovely day.

    52   See you again.

    53   Peace.

    ~H~
     

    www.xanga.com/bharrington










  •  

     
     






    The Daily News
    1   Yesterday morning before school I had a terribly strange dream.

    2   I dreamed that when I got to school yesterday, that our hallway seemed to have very few students in it. I saw bright floors reflecting odd silhouettes of students.

    3   I opened the door to my room and found all the desks gone, and a small group of seniors huddled on the empty floor holding on to one another for dear life.

    4   It looked as though everybody had boycotted the morning except for this select group.

    5   I sat down against the wall with them. They had gathered by the middle of back wall of my classroom. There were about fourteen or fifteen of them. They looked scared and a little bewildered.

    6   There was this sense of mourning going on. 

    7    I sat down with them, totally understanding their worry. There was a sense of mourning, and of eerie loneliness. 

    8    The scene morphed back to the hallway of our building. A cleaning lady was screaming at her dog, who was running through the hallway. He came over and jumped on me enthusiastically. It made my day. I patted him on the head and played with him. 

    9   And then I woke up.

    10  I was in my living room, staring into darkness and the strangeness.

    11  It’s that strangeness that happens into the three a.m.

    12   It’s that strangeness that has familiar surroundings in darkness, but with thousands of LED lights in various areas of the house. Each year there are ten more, twinkling and blinking. 

    13   It’s that strangeness of complete silence, and of absolute oddity.

    14   I rarely talk of dreams.

    15   In fact, I don’t usually remember dreams. 

    16   This one woke me up. 

    17   I’ve a theory about dreams. I believe they are simply a culmination of feelings and emotions that have been all over a person for weeks, months, or even years, mingled with feelings and emotions that have been happening recently.

    18   The raging stresses of the visiting team coming to my school this week certainly spawned a part of it. The seniors facing uncertainty may have spawned part of it. Only seniors know what it is like to be on that precipice.

    19   My own dog waking me up in the middle of each night probably spawned the dog part. 

    20   Yesterday was the day the visiting team was to finish visiting, and was going to let us know how we did. 

    21   The seniors huddled in the classroom were the students who had been through this with us. They knew our school was awesome, yet they also knew that somehow the report was going to again slap us in the face. There was an aura of uncertainty that was palpable.

    22   Because this is a public forum, I won’t go too much further. Our school has literally thousands of high achievers. Our students study until all hours every night. Our school has morphed into what I think is on the verge of becoming a great school.

    23   I have watched it go through it’s early days, and the awkwardness that happens to schools when they are first trying. I was an integral part of that process, having run the school’s activities for two years in some of its earliest days. 

    24   In the eyes of this Old Brown Shoe, I thought this year was a breakthrough. This visiting team saw a lot of what I have mentioned in the DN. Our students are polite. They hold doors for people. When we hold doors for them, they say, “Think you!” They are the sweetest students in the entire state. They are polite, intelligent, and caring. 

    25   They are the best part of my job.

    26   Yet each year a visiting team comes in to judge us.

    27   The visiting teams always praises us on our school. They praise us on our high test scores. They praise us for having a clean, safe campus. They even mentioned the politeness of our students. They always say a lot of nice things.

    28    But each year, they come in with a longer list of “areas of growth.”

    29    Yesterday they brought our staff together to give us their report. 

    30   They had Cougar Hall designed like a church. Cougar Hall is our cafeteria, but it is also my former office. It is literally a glass house that works as not only a cafeteria, but as a place for meetings, dances, award ceremonies,banquets, fashion shows, and even dinner/theater productions. It is a versatile place that is the centerpiece of our school. I used to re-direct clubs to Cougar Hall so that our theater would remain pristine. 

    31   I had never seen it designed like a church before. They had the custodians take the metal lunch benches and line them up like church pews. 

    32    The superintendent sat near the back of the church.

    33   The visiting team sat at the altar. 

    34   Is it any wonder wonder that I have dreams of fearful seniors holding on to one another for dear life, and of dogs running down hallways? The stage, as it were, was set.  

    35   I knew exactly what was going to happen. We were going to get our now annual “however” review. 

    36   When I first started out on this frabjous career, I used to joke about getting “however” letters after I would interview for teaching jobs. 

    37   Teaching jobs weren’t around when I started. I would drive all over the state chasing after jobs. I would drive as far as Ukiah dressed in shorts and tee shirts, pop into a gas station rest rooms, and emerge looking like the Prince of Wales. I would go on different interviews. I would feel that I could be the greatest teacher who ever lived. I would have stunningly great interviews.

    38   And a week later I would get my “however” letter in the mail. 

    39   I finally went into substituting in the San Mateo Union High School District. I had seen that a lot of teachers became teachers through subbing. I eventually got a call from the principal at Mills High School, my childhood rival high school. 

    40   He looked at my resume and saw that one of my hobbies was drama.

    41   Another was baseball. I could have wound up a baseball coach. My major was irrelevant. I majored in English. I majored in pondering.

    42   The director at Mills was away on sabbatical, and I was asked by the principal if I could direct a play. I said, “Yes, of course I could.” I grew up with music and shows, but really had a few bit parts in high school, and one major part in college. I knew nothing at all about directing plays, except that I had been in a few, and that I love theater.

    43   The director was on a sabbatical. Who gets sabbaticals? Where do you sign up?

    44   Anyway, my true experience with theater was that my family loved musicals and plays, and that my high school put on amazing shows. It dazzled me. 

    45   In my sophomore year our department staged Oklahoma. We had two theaters at my school, Capuchino High School in San Bruno. One was the large auditorium, and just off stage left was a metal door that led to a “little theater” where drama classes happened. 

    46   The director of Oklahoma thought it would be awesome to make members of the football team play dancing cowboys, so they would come in and rehearse dances in front of my eyes. 
    47   I lived  around fifteen miles from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, and loved their work. ACT was THE place for amazing drama in Northern California at the time. No other place had that sort of quality and brought in breathlessly experimental and interesting plays. 

    48   The principal at Mills asked if I could direct a play. I said that I could. The reality was that I was young, and had directed only one play prior. My friend Charlie and I were in a summer program for cadet teachers and co-directed a show at my middle school. It failed miserably when the lead kid kept running off stage to throw up because he had severe stage fright. 

    49   Those were my credentials. 

    50   Fortunately,the drama program at Mills was a sensational one. Years before my interview, I had seen a production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying directed by an immortal director, the late Allen Knight. He was the teacher who was on sabbatical. That show knocked me out. My friend John and I went and watched the production every single night of the run. We loved it.

    51   To this minute I think that was the best show I have seen in my life. It was brilliantly directed and produced. 

    52   Allen Knight directed that show. I interviewed for his job, and the Principal asked if I could direct a play.

    53   Of course I could. 

    54   There is a saying in theater that you don’t go on stage after babies or dogs. You will never be as good. You also don’t try to direct after a man of Allen Knight’s stature. 

    55   The principal hired me anyway, gave me my first set of keys, and immediately afterward I dashed to the theater.  I opened the door and went in. It was dark. I was excited. What a moment. I had keys to my own palace.

    56    I remember running down to the stage, going off right, and looking at the light panel. I turned different lights up and down, and finally pulled up a blue cyc. “Cyc” in theater means “cyclorama,” or really, back wall of the stage. You project colors, clouds, slides and things on a cyc. 

    57   I then found an old wooden chair back stage and brought it out, and then placed it at center stage. I played around with the lights once more, and found a light that came down directly on the chair. 

    58   I lit it perfectly, then ran to the back of the audience, turned around, and saw my first production. A blue cyc and a dusty chair, both lit beautifully. I was charged. I was about to become the greatest teacher in the world. 

    59   I never did become that, but it was quite a moment. 

    60   I was suddenly a teacher and a director. Allen gave me a lot of pointers. He was an artist. I went on to direct four shows at Mills. I thought all four were amazingly fun. 

    61   I continued subbing and directing. This built my resume. I eventually got hired at Yerba Buena, built a wonderful drama workshop there, and finally left after hundreds of productions, talent shows, club events, and all the rest, to wind up at Evergreen. 

    62   All of which culminated in the odd dream I had yesterday morning, which brought the results of our visiting team yesterday into Cougar Hall. 

    63   It felt that my dream foreshadowed our results. They told us that we were an incredible school, and that the students were intelligent, amazing, and polite beyond words. 

    64   However…

    65   Crushing. 

    66   Was there any sort of hope?

    67    Well, yes. The lady who came in and watched my own class teaches at El Camino High School in South City. I lived in South San Francisco for the first ten years of my life. Mom is buried at Holy Cross cemetery, right up the street. She is on top of the hill right under the American flag. The lady who came in was named Bonny, and she clearly loved my class. We had eye contact at the meeting. I’m thinking of writing her and thanking her for being so supportive for my students. 

    68   After she left my room, they gave me a standing ovation, on my prompt, of course.

    69   She burst back into the room amid the clapping and shouted over it, “I teach English!” She pumped her fist and exited. There’s a teacher.

    70   Another person on the committee said, “I teach at Mills High School in San Bruno, and I just LOVE your school.”

    71   I just smiled at the coincidences, as I always do. They often bring good things into my life.

    72   I’m hoping we’ll get a six-year accreditation. Having two people on that committee from my hometown area felt wonderful. 

    73    I’m hoping we get the keys to the palace.

    74   We’ll see. They have to submit the report to people who have never set foot in our community. So we’ll see. In a way I’m still huddled in that dream with those seniors. We’ll know in June.

    75   Gottago. Longest DN in history. Thanks for listening. I mean that. Pray for us. 

    76   See you again.

    77   Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington

  •  
     















     






    The Daily News
    1   Anyone else a bit mixed up?

    2   JAY-zuss.

    3   My students had no idea as to what town they were in yesterday.

    4    Yeesh.

    5   Neither did any of us. 

    6   I swear to you. 

    7   This, by the way, is coming to you LIVE from 6:06 p.m. yesterday.

    8   I just got home from working, and am now engaging in a glass of ice cold Crystal Light and a spoonful of Nutella. No lie.

    9   I don’t think anybody was prepared for Tuesday.

    10  Certainly not this guy.

    11  Monday was extremely stressful.

    12  The accountability people were here, and we all stepped up. 

    13   Coming off a weekend which started with Spirit Week the week before and ended with St. Patrick’s Day, we killed it. 

    14   Yesterday was the day my students had to re-do their skits using Shakespearean language. It was supposed to be the culmination of the last month of work. 

    15   <basketball buzzer>

    16  The students were completely burnt out yesterday. They didn’t do Tuesday very well at all.

    17   They didn’t seem to know what town they were in.

    18   They forgot scripts, props, lines, and themselves.

    19   This was across the board. I won’t say I was astounded; I will say that I should have seen it coming. 

    20   They have been challenged, tested, poked, prodded, and drenched. Their faces melted into their hands, which rested with fingers curled on desks. 

    21   They looked like people who had given up on everything. 

    22   The best students in the district were finally burnt out. 

    23    I gave them time to rehearse their skits. 

    24    They were clearly not ready to perform. On Monday, they were pretty ready, but had shown signs of exhaustion. I wrote it off as poor but deliberate planning on my part. 

    25   I didn’t realize how much stress we as a staff had probably put on them. 

    26   Nor did I realize how much stress we as a staff had probably put on ourselves. 

    27   The visiting committee had no idea of the zany stress their visit had put on the entire school.

    28   It showed yesterday.

    29   I was glad that I had already had the team bring a member to visit my class. 

    30   The students were done. Kaput.

    31   I think in a way that I was too. 

    32   I allowed them to practice, but it looked like we dragged something out a little too long. The enthusiasm hit its peak last Wednesday when I was absent and had my sub remind them they had to take the skits they had written and already performed and morph them into Shakespearean language. 

    33   I was there the day I told them that I wanted them to do that, but it was at the end of the day. They accepted the challenge with incredible enthusiasm.

    34   Unfortunately, the first day they had to work on this, I had to be out. I had no choice. I’m rarely out, but last Wednesday I had to. Family stuff. It will always trump school stuff. I had to be there for my family. 

    35   I also had to go up to Dad’s this past weekend and spend time with him. 

    36   All of this led to yesterday’s burn out.

    37   The students can sense the interruption of our normal pace. Like any job, we fall into a certain rhythm, and things naturally unfold. When visited by outsiders, the entire rhythm of business gets disrupted. The stress starts at the top and rolls downhill, if I may sidestep the cliche. 

    38   Add to that a major school event like a spirit week, followed by Battle of the Classes on Saturday night, followed by St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, followed by the visit on Monday, is it any wonder that the entire place showed up torn and tested on Tuesday?

    39  Personally, it is obvious to me that we it was an extended lost weekend. 

    40   The student were supposed to do their re-worked skits yesterday.

    41   From my first class I could see that wasn’t happening. 

    42   I’m hoping they will have had more rest today.

    43   I couldn’t even get mad at them. I was completely burnt out myself.

    44   The entire ordeal has been looming in the background all year. I wasn’t alone. We all got pushed too far. 

    45   The entire day seemed to be a psychological push-back. 

    46   Happens. 

    47   I feel that I had to put my real lesson plans on hold until this entire thing blows over. 

    48   It ends today at 2 p.m. The committee is going to report its findings to the staff at 1:30. They are done visiting classes at 11:30, and then they will go into a room somewhere to deliberate. 

    49   I don’t know what the results will be. Fortunately they didn’t walk into any of my classes yesterday, because the students looked like dazed people in an asylum. 

    50   Fear not. 

    51   Once we get back into a rhythm, all will be peaceful. 

    52   As a staff member, I simply didn’t appreciate how much stress this stuff had put on the students. I must confess that I pushed and stretched my normal lessons more than I usually do. Multiply that times five, and you get some idea of how much our stress rolled down to the students. 

    53   I will apologize first thing each period today, and perhaps encourage them to step up their game tomorrow. I don’t see quality happening today. I see more of a hanging on for dear life. 

    54   Poor kids. 

    55   I could see them thinking, “Make this all go away!”

    56   Schools work best when outsiders stay outside. The students do pretty well when they aren’t being watched, tested, examined, poked and prodded, as though they were subjects of some wild scientific experiment. 

    57   They are simply students. All the testing and pressure came to a boil yesterday. One could sense it everywhere. The entire feeling was, “Make these people go away! Just leave us alone!” 

    58   Just being honest. 

    59   That was my own feeling yesterday as well. 

    60   I am done with it. I just want to get back to normal lessons, and normal days. 

    61   Hopefully it will begin today. 

    62   My guess is it will begin tomorrow. 

    63   Thank goodness. This an insider’s view of how schools work. Hope you find it helpful. Or at best interesting. These are the true inner workings.

    64   Thanks for listening.

    65   Time to sleep, then to go in. 

    66   Enjoy your oatmeal. 

    67   See you again.

    68   Peace.

    ~H~

     

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

  •  
     








     
    The Daily News
    1   Is it fitting that I awakened into the three a.m., clicked on the teevee, and Julius Caesar flickered before my weary eyes?

    2   We’re talking THE Julius Caesar, the one with James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius, and Marlon Brando as Marc Antony.  It also starred Louis Calhern as Caesar, Greer Garson as Calpurnia, Edmund O’ Brien as Casca, and Deborah Kerr as Portia. 

    3   Sometimes life throws these coincidences at us. Yesterday we had a visit by the WPC, my euphemism for White People with Clipboards. 

    4   It is much more serious than that, of course, but I think even they would chuckle. 

    5   In any business, accountability is always stressful. Our entire school has been on edge all year about this visit that seems to be an annual event. 

    6   With a school of our stature, we should be getting a six-year accreditation.

    7    The visit was scheduled on the Monday following our version of FANTASTICS, which is called Battle of the Classes. That happened last week, and THEN we had a Sunday night St. Paddy’s Day. 

    8   One would have to say that the odds were clearly stacked against us. 

    9   I was a wreck, but I also knew that I had to be a soldier. Last week I had my students doing skits that they had written. We were getting WAY into the Shakespeare.

    10  I had them write skits a few weeks ago, practice them, and just last week I gave a list of 36 essential Shakespearean terms, and told them that they needed to convert their scripts into Shakespearean language, a little thing I invented around four or five years ago, and which is always awesome. 

    11  A few years ago, I was delighted when a multi-cultural group did their skit. Four students knelt down and looked straight out at the audience.

    12  The first student to speak said this: ” ‘Tis cold!” The second student said, “That is because we art ice cream.” They went on to talk about how they were all different flavors, but that they were all experiencing the same world. 

    13  That skit knocked me out. I originally didn’t want skits being worked on during the visit by what is really called the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges), who visit schools to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. 

    14  Last Wednesday I had some personal business that caused me to be sick. 

    15  Yeah.

    16   This changed all the lesson plans, and made it so that I HAD to have the students working on skits this week. I decided to let the students practice yesterday and do the skits today. 

    17   At the beginning of my first period, a student gave me a handshake on entering the room. He said, “Thank you, Mr. Harrington.” I said, “For what?” He said, “Everything!” That started my morning, and several other students shook my hand as they came in. It was a telling moment in my long career. It set the tone for the entire day. WASC was on campus, and could visit my room at any second.

    18   That class began working really well, but later in the period got off task. I was a nervous wreck. They started chatting about everything except their skits, which I quite expected. I’ve done this for a while, and know that an entire period cannot be dedicated to practicing skits. I usually have around three different things for them to do in the hour classes. Three works nicely. Yesterday I had just two: one was to explain who WASC was, and two was to practice their skits. 

    19   Everything went swell until the last fifteen minutes. 

    20   I circulated around the room, which is a terrific way to get people LOOKING like they are on task. Proximity can be pretty intimidating, but they were all a bit out of it, so it became the longest fifteen minutes of my career, I swear to you. 

    21   Still, I had trouble getting upset with them. They came in with so much support, but I think they got a bit bored by the end. I expected it, but was still sweating bullets. 

    22   My second class of the day is what I call my Disney class. They are this absolutely charming group, spirited, and all things Disney. They are the quintessential ears-and-braces class. They just click. I did the same lesson with them, and they were much more awake and spirited than my first class. 

    23   I knew that they would run out of gas as the period progressed, because it really wasn’t one of my better plans. I popped on the Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson. That is the theme album of my classroom. His Upside Down triggers the group work every time I play it. It pumps them up, but it also slows down when the slower songs hit. My students are used to working in groups while I throw some background music out there. It keeps everything free and breezy. But it won’t last for an entire hour.

    24   With fifteen minutes left, they too got a bit off task. One guy had conked out, and he was one of my better students. Really good students often do that because they are up ’til all hours studying. I was nervous, but I could see that if the door opened, these guys could awaken and practice in an instant. 

    25   That’s exactly what happened. 

    26   The door opened, and this lady from the visiting team slipped in quietly. I think they were told to do that. I immediately walked across the room to greet her so that the students could visually see that a team member was in the class. Good instincts, if I may say.

    27   Interestingly, I wasn’t the least bit intimidated. She had a huge smile on her face the second she came in. She said, “I LOVE your masks on the wall! Are they working on Romeo and Juliet?” I instantly got excited about all we have been working on. 

    28   “These are sophomores. They’re doing Much Ado. I decided not to do Caesar this year, although I’m going to do a mini-unit on Caesar. Needless to say, they LOVE Much Ado!” She immediately got it.

    29   For the layperson out there, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is arguably his most frivolous play, and it is a lark. 

    30   As for Caesar, I gave a mini-mini unit on Friday, which was the Ides of March. Again for the layperson, the Ides of March is simply March 15, the day Caesar was assassinated. I fully intend in my mini-unit to bring back the assassination of JFK and show my students the parallels. We studied the assassination in November. 

    31   But I digress.

    32   I always digress. 

    33   AnywayZ

    34   This lady was really smiling and supportive. I might have been a bit overzealous, but I wanted to share what we were doing, and what a fun unit it is. I pointed to the board, which had my substitute’s lesson plans written in much better handwriting than mine. 

    35   I said, “I had a substitute last week, so he wrote these lesson plans on the board. I left them up there so you could get an idea of what we are doing in here. This isn’t a show on your behalf, by the way; it’s just the way I work.” 

    36   I then instinctively pointed to my handwriting so she would know the difference. “Those standards on the board are my handwriting. Notice how they slant downward.”
    37   I enjoyed the visit. 

    38   I then said something that was perhaps ageist. I said, “You know, a lot of our younger teachers are intimidated by WASC. I think it’s great. It causes us to use formative assessments, music, technology and Socratic Seminars. I think the entire concept of students teaching each other is awesome.”

    39   She agreed, and I told her about my own. “I have this old skeleton key to open my Socratic Seminars. I play music from Ancient Mesopotatoes, and tell them that I need four quotes for them to open the doors of wisdom. I keep thinking of putting dry ice in a vase and having it steaming to the music. I also have a running joke each time they hit three quotes. I will say, ‘Okay, we have three quotes. One more quote and we have a gallon! Who’s got another quote?’ ” Her eyes twinkled. 

    40   A few of my students always get that joke. She did. So suddenly Jack Johnson’s Upside Down came around a second time; the students were all working, and I found myself enjoying everything around me.

    41   After around ten minutes she slipped out with a smile. I looked at my students and we had this silent moment. 

    42   I then said, “Well, don’t you think I deserve a standing ovation?”

    43   It broke the tension and the class broke into applause, and half the class began standing when the door opened. The lady from WASC broke into a yet another huge smile and said, “I’m an English teacher too!”

    44   Laughter everywhere.  Applause for WASC. Good vibes. 

    45   In the afternoon we met with the visiting team. It was a bit tense at first, but soon our younger teachers started to step up, proud of what they have brought to our school.

    46   They not only fielded each question professionally, but somewhere in their tone came a maturing that was unfolding before my eyes. I saw that happen years ago at YB. They knew that they had grown and matured as teachers. I actually blew a question. They asked if we used data to measure our students’ progress, and I was the only English teacher in the room. I said, “Yes, we have both a district benchmark test and a Degrees of Reading power test, all of it put into Data Director.” 

    47   I was proud to hear that I could represent my department. She then said, “And what do you do with that data?” Well, we measure the progress of each student, and we use some of the data for placement. My mind went blank though. “I’m not really sure. I’m not really a data guy. I majored in English. We majored in pondering.” Laughter, but I really dropped the ball on that one. Fortunately, other departments chimed in on how our benchmarks work and all. 

    48   Amazing thing. The entire school delivering the goods. The enthusiasm and good vibes in the  room were palpable. 

    49   The committee is going to be here for two more days, and I’m really excited to have them. 

    50   And I have already been visited, which takes a lot of the pressure off. 

    51   I’m proud of my school. I always saw the potential, but watching my staff’s eyes open to all the good things they do was rewarding. The younger teachers in particular stepped it up. 

    52   Awesome Monday, against all odds. 

    53   I gottago. It is deep into the four a.m. and I must needs get a little more sleep.

    54   Thanks for listening; it was a wonderful day. Hope you enjoyed this inside look at education. I can’t say it enough: it was a wonderful day. 

    55   I hope you have a wonderful day too.

    56   See you again.

    57   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington



  •  
     
       
    The Daily News

    1   I woke up this morning in dire needs of generic Crystal Light and Nutella.

    2   When did it come this?

    3   I was into the four a.m. as usual, and dry as a donkey.

    4   I gotta hydrate.

    5   And I am in dire need of fake chocolate with a nutty, buttery flavor.

    6   At what point in life did it come to this?

    7   Post St. Paddy’s cravings.

    8   Oy.

    9   Dog just walked in, ate, passed wind, and went back to sleep.

    10  That just about sums it up.

    11  It was a poem, I swear to you.

    12  Hope you have a remedy.

    13  I’ve reached the point in life that I celebrate St. Paddy’s with generic Crystal Light a spoonful of Nutella.

    14  When did it come to this?

    15   Ah, who knows.

    16   Moving on, Part One: I spent the weekend going up and visiting my Dad. He’s supposed to need care, but you wouldn’t know it.

    17  We spent the weekend eating, talking, gardening, and watching old teevee.

    18  We had utterly nothing to do with Crystal Light or Nutella.

    19   Nope.

    20   For the record, those things didn’t exist when we grew up together.

    21   Oh, I also tended to my grading, and preparing for this week’s maddening accountability meetings.

    22   I managed to get my work/prep boushit done.

    23   My time with my Dad trumped all of that.

    24   I’m supposed to watch his diet. That’s my job every third weekend.

    25   I did great. 

    26   He has a bajillion things going wrong, but you wouldn’t know it.

    27   When I got there Saturday morning, he had already cooked himself a grand breakfast.

    28   I was only about ten minutes late, but he had scrambled a fabulous breakfast that was perfectly fine according to hospital rules. 

    29   I think he didn’t know I was coming, and was enjoying his freedom. 

    30   When I took his blood sugar, it was absolutely fine. 

    31   We then talked and talked, and joked and joked.

    32   It set the tone for our entire weekend.

    33   We spent the entire St. Paddy’s Day weekend outside, gardening, sunbathing, and talking about old times. 

    34   When we were inside the house, we watched re-runs of Roseanne and Golden Girls. 

    35   How excellent.

    36   The rest of the world was getting ruined on alcohol and fizzies. 

    37   We were two Irishmen loving life. 

    38    Yesterday we went to the cemetery to visit Mom. Both of us remembered, and then forgot to get flowers from the garden in the front.

    39   We remembered, then forgot. I can’t emphasize that enough. Apple. Tree.

    40   I told him, “We can surely find flowers from here to the cemetery.”

    41   We laughed, and hopped into the car.

    42   On El Camino Real in South City, I saw this little family flower shop. I pulled over, looked at the displays, and made my choice.

    43   Carnations.

    44   My Mom was not a rose person. She LOVED carnations. This place had large carnations for $7.99, which I thought was a bargain.

    45   They had mini-carnations for something like $3.99, which I thought was a steal.

    46   They were absolutely charming. They smiled at me in their quaint perfection. The guy in the store said, “You want me to cut these short?” You gotta love it. Somehow he knew we were on our way to the cemetery.

    47   I bought them and said to Dad, “I think Mom will  LOVE these!” He said, “She always loved carnations.” 

    48   We went to the cemetery. The sun shone bright. It was glorious. There were tons of people and flowers there. One family had brought balloons. Must have been someone’s birthday.
    49   I put the flowers into the holes they provide. They looked up at the sun and smiled beautifully. Dad and I had a quiet moment. I loved it. He did the sign of the cross. He then said, “That’s about all I can stand.” He meant it literally. He can’t stand for long periods of time anymore. I chuckled  and said, “You’ll be hearin’ about that one next time you see Mom!”

    50   He said, “When I get there, she’ll say, ‘What were you thinkin’ when you wore that shirt?’”

    51   <sigh>

    52   I could go on, but I won’t.

    53   We later enjoyed the sun still more, and then a wonderful dinner of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and rye bread. 

    54   A pot of gold. 

    55  That’s about all I can stand.

    56   For now, we’ll shorten this.

    57   All that needs to be said for today has been said. 

    58   Gottago.

    59   Peace.

    ~H~


    www.xanga.com/bharrington


  • The Daily News
    1   I don’t know when it happened, but the DN is suddenly getting followers from all over the world.

    2   I have things coming to me from Ukraine, Washington, Ireland, France, Taiwan, and the far reaches of Europe.

    3   They are listed under my “visitors.” I don’t think I know anybody who lives in any of those places. I don’t know many people who live past Tully Road.

    4    Odd. 

    5    According to Xanga, I still have no friends.

    6    AND I still have no subscribers.

    7    But I do have visitors. That sounds almost extraterrestrial.

    8    My “visits” have increased substantially in the past couple of weeks. 

    9   Anybody looking?

    10  Moving on, Part One: I think part of the reason I’ve increased visits is word got out at my school that I write this nonsense.

    11  I know I have a few colleagues at school who  are now onto this nonsense. Welcome aboard!

    12  Rumor has it that a few students have cracked the secret code of the DN.

    13  <dramatic old-movie music> dun dun DUN!!!

    14   <valley girl voice> like, em…heh-LOW.

    15   The DN was originally written for students duh.

    16   It is officially in its seventeenth year.

    17   That’s a lot of years. That’s older than a lot of students who might be looking at this. I’m not sure about the French, and I’m WAY not sure about the Ukrainians.

    18   Fear not.

    19   Some are amazed that I have not one, but TWO Facebooks! WHAAAEEEEEEET???

    20   Yup. I didn’t want to be left out of the picture.

    21   Sue me.

    22   Sue me.

    23   Shoot bullets through me. 

    24   I love you.

    25   Those are lines from a song from the very excellent Guys and Dolls, which started all this folderol. 

    26   At the risk of putting off regular listeners, the history of the Daily News is that it was a means of communicating with the company of Guys and Dolls years and years ago. 

    27   Directing a musical has little to do with art, and LOTS to do with communicating what needs to be done, where, and when. 

    28   Guys and Dolls is a huge show. It needed a lot of organization, but instead of handing out schedules of who needed to be where and when, I just posted little ten-to twelve item DN’s on the wall of the Performing Arts Department at Yerba Buena High School. It would include deviations from the regular schedule.

    29  Thinking back, I imagine it was probably a pain for the Company, but that was sort of how we rolled back then. 

    30   The DN always had its basic essence of my commenting on world events, sports, goofiness, and puns. From the start it was a complete lark.

    31   And often amusing. There was never a time that I thought I wrote it. 

    32   I had little control about what would wind up on that wall. These thoughts would enter my mind like stray birds, twitter at me, and fly off. 

    33   It became a morning ritual for all of those involved in producing and staging that show. 

    34   The name was of course picked from the New York Daily News, and directly picked from the song Guys and Dolls from the selfsame show. 

    35   It used to be on various colored papers and posted with a thumb tack.

    36   Students slowly got into it and would arrive early just to read all the stupid stuff I would post each morning. After a while it had little to do with who would be where and when. 

    37   It was a rallying point in the morning, and became a ritual of laughter, of amusement, and of high-fiving. I wanted people smiling in the morning, and we smiled an awful lot. Laughter filled the building each morning. I have always loved my job, because I could cause good days and good times. I used to tell Ponch, the music man, “Mr. Ponticelli, we are in the business of making memories!” He and Shawna, our choir director became my best friends. It was a fun trio. Ponch and I were the bad boys on the block, and she was always the gracious, wonderful counterpart who brought class and charm to everything, a perfect contrast to our Wild West show.

    38   Somewhere around 2004 I began posting the Daily News online. Historically, that’s pretty advanced. Most teachers had cheap websites that went through the school. I eventually put up two websites, one that was unique to YB Drama, and the other that was for the entire department. 

    39  I used Yahoo Geocities to post a lot of this stuff, and to archive everything. I stopped after a few years because they claimed I had stopped paying them when I clearly hadn’t. 

    40   I wish I had taken a little more effort to keep those websites, because the YB Drama one took me ages to set up. It had a history of the Workshop, a comment thread, and a feel for what that entire world was. 

    41   It now is rusting somewhere in some weeds. It was a rocking website that had all sorts of fun areas to travel, including the entire Heidi story, the story of the Theatre “ghost” who purportedly haunted the Theatre, and even a link to Strong Bad, the bad-ass cartoon character that I believe is still rocking laughter all through digital space. He’s the guy that stands in front of the sign that says, “I’m using technology.”

    42   Fun stuff. 

    43   When I finally left YB because of administrative cluelessness about the Performing Arts, I landed at Evergreen Valley, became their Activities’ Director, and stepped up the DN to the snappy look it has today.

    44   To this day, people who were in Guys and Dolls still rally to read this, and many former students and colleagues get this nonsense sent to them each day. 

    45   But really? Until a few weeks ago, I probably had a pretty small following.

    46   Hardly anybody would hit the actual Xanga website. Most people who read this nowadays are on one of my two Facebook accounts, I’m quite certain. I have one site for school people, former students, colleagues and former colleagues, friends, and another for family and friends from home.

    47   The reason for the separation originally was to spare my school peeps from having to see me do a cannonball into a swimming pool. 

    48   Family has seen it, so it won’t burn their eyes. 

    49   But my professional persona doesn’t include swimming suits or too much family goofiness. Privacy policy.

    50   AnywayZ

    51   The DN in recent years has been re-hashed to reach everyone all at once. I retained Xanga because there was an era earlier this century when everybody had Xangas. I kept it for nostalgic reasons. The DN has little to do with shows anymore, although my cameo appearance as one of three Teen Angels in EV’s Grease last Spring brought a lot of the old stuff back. It was a blast working on that very special show and watching a show that I had thought of when I first arrived as the activities’ guy come to fruition. 

    52   They are doing High School Musical this year. Occasionally I see students who were in Grease, and there is this sort of fond smile that comes of it. 

    53   Do I miss directing?

    54   <basketball buzzer>

    55   Nope. 

    56   People ask me that all the time. 

    57   “Don’t you miss directing?” Like anything, I have fond memories of a lot of it, so the answer is actually “Yes.” But when I think of the stress, of the outside groups suddenly appearing and interrupting rehearsals, of the constant fights with admin about theatre usage, and the lonnnnnng tech Saturdays, I smile and relax. Nope. No thanks. I’m done being an artiste.

    58   I like being in careful touch with the Performing Arts’ Department at my school. I do occasional lights and sound for concerts. I enjoy the tech booth. I like that I support the arts unconditionally. 

    59   But I LOVE that I don’t have to do it anymore. I get all the perks and none of the responsibility. I don’t have to fight all the battles. I don’t have to worry about flaky performers. 

    60   And I can still jam with rock bands, sing with people, and perform in musicals, talent shows, and variety shows, most of which are for good causes. 

    61   I prefer at this point to make classroom teaching my art, even though the students don’t know it. My entire set-up has a cheery, fun yet academic air to it. I have a gorgeous classroom in a brand new building. It has vaulted ceilings and cathedral windows with curtains that go up and down at the push of a button. They look out on the fabulous East Hills of San Jose, which are lush and green this time of the year. 

    62   It is the Cafe Verona. It morphs to that in the Spring. It is designed after Starbuck’s ambient lighting, and Disney’s imagination. There is always music, laughter, ears and braces. 

    63   It is my new art. It is a silent art. I wish to improve each minute, each period, each day. It is seldom perfect. Yesterday, for example, I messed up getting my third period interested in Much Ado. I must fix that in the next week. Fortunately, I saved it at the end of the period. I had absolutely BORED them when we read it in a read-around that blew up in my face. Eight heads conked out. That simply can’t happen.

    64   I rescued it the next period by reading parts of it briefly, bringing in the double entendres, and then firing up Kenneth Branagh’s epic film of the show. 

    65  It worked in my third period after the eight heads had come back alive when all the butts started appearing on the screen (no worries; I put Mr. Censor all over the screen. He’s a cartoon censor originally designed to hide Romeo’s butt, but he was on the job yesterday.), so there was sense of success. It worked MUCH better in my fourth, where eyes lit up and everybody loved the language, the music, the “sigh no mores” and all the rest. 

    66  So the art came back with twinkling eyes, ears and braces. 

    67   Great fun!

    68   Well, the clock tells me that I have timed out, so have a GREAT weekend, and we’ll see you again!

    69   Peace.

    ~H~

     

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