WARRIORS!!! NOT BACKING DOWN!!!

The Daily News

1   I loved the headline in today’s Merc regarding the Warriors: Not Backing down.

2   And they’re comin’ home!

3   Anybody looking?

4   Awesome game. Klay Thompson steps it up. 

5   If you have tix to the next home game, you’d better bring sunglasses.

6   Good times. 

7   Moving on, Part One: I have to move fast here because I slept through the night. 

8   Amazing what a playoff win can do for slumber. 

9   And we’re talking a bona-fide insomniac over here, complete with old movies, Crystal Light, and Nutella for midnight snacks.

10  Slept like a little lamb.

11  Wonderful.

12  Moving on, Part Two: I told my students that I’ll be teaching Julius Caesar into next week, and one kid asked, “What’s he like?”

13  Just kidding. 

14  That stuff happens, but that one didn’t. I just wanted to get in a few more column inches before I have to bounce.

15  I’m giving a bubble test today.

16  That’s around six thousand of those things we have given, and I also have to give another next week.

17  That and furlough days literally stole my best practices, which I usually save for the end of the year. 

18   Never mind taking a day to return books (BEFORE finals!) and handing back papers.

19   Next Friday is our last day before finals. 

20   I had at least four wonderful lessons that have been replaced by bubble tests.

21   Oh.

22   Some of you might not know what bubble tests are. 

23   They are those tests that you used to take that you needed a Number 2 pencil to take. STOP. DO NOT GO ON TO THE NEXT PART OF THE TEST. Remember those?

24   Most of those were either district or state tests. 

25   In my early days, I remember older teachers who would look to the stars and cry out that they would NEVER teach to the test. 

26   I understood why, even in my early days. 

27   A part of me felt that it held us accountable for teaching what we are supposed to be teaching.  I get that. Public funds and all.

28   But if the students are constantly being prodded and tested, they are going to get exhausted. 

29   And just teaching them something doesn’t assure mastery. 

30   We have to follow up, and constantly remind them of what we have taught earlier. 

31   That process gets constantly interrupted every time a new test is thrown their way, especially when it is almost a pop bubble test.

32   There is also an inherent danger anytime the state threatens to take over the minds.

33   That’s what scares me. 

34   That becomes no longer education. 

35   It becomes totalitarianism. 

36   Fear not. 

37   I let my students know about The Man. 

38   I taught my JFK unit again this year. It was a lot of fun blowing the dust off those old books.

39   The new books are LYING about all of that. I’m not lying here. They are, and it is out of control. 

40   “It happened years ago. Why is it relevant now?” ask the young ones. 

41

42   Julius Caesar happened years ago. People plot an act of terrorism: the assassination of Caesar.

43   How do they first approach each other with the notion?

44   How do they get someone else manipulated into joining the conspiracy?

45   That’s not relevant?

46    Anybody looking?

47    I’ll probably get carted away today for twice using the word “terrorism” in this piece. 

48   Scary times, man.

49   Moving on, Part the Thoid: Heck, they might even take me away for deliberately misspelling the word “third.’

50   It tries men’s souls.

51   I’m not really sked. 

52   Anybody looking?

53   This stuff is too stupid usually for anyone to take it seriously. 

54   What are ya kiddin’ me? Anyone who takes me seriously is a moron. Or not. 

55   I gottago.

56   I just wanted to give you another day in the life. This is how teachers view the world. You’re getting it live, each day.

57   Have a GREAT day, and fly low. I mean that. Take care. 

58   See you again. 

59   Peace.

~H~

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The Daily News

1   SHARKS!!! SWEEEEEEEP!!! FIRST TIME IN HISTORY!!!

2   Had me scared for a bit.

3   OKAY. I think it’s time we start to make some ground rules for Bay Area Sports.

4   Dudes.

5   We LOVE our teams.

6   Except the Giants, at least for a moment.

7   I can say that because I bleed orange and black.

8   But dudes.

9   The number one ground rule, of course, is to kick everybody else’s butt.

10  That rule is tantamount.

11  The second rule is this: Win in nine innings. Win in regulation time.

12   You have fans.

13   Rabid, hard-working fans.

14   Overtime and extra-inning thrillers must pump your blood.

15   They pump ours too.

16   Only a lot of us have to get up and go to work early.

17   Keep that in mind.

18   I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a Bay Area sports’ fan who lives on the East Coast.

19   I’d probably have to give up sports, because of the time differential.

20   My west coast bed time is between 8:30 and 9:30.

21   I need my beauty rest, as anyone who knows me knows.

22   I not only have to get up early to write this mumbo-jumbo, I also have to stand in front of people for hours on end
 talking.

23   If I walk in looking like something the cat drug in, I would be the only one listening.

24   Yesterday I didn’t look like something the cat drug in, even though I slightly felt like it from the Warriors horrific loss the night before.

25   I scrubbed up, shaved, put on bright clothes, and even wore my Disney hat, which my daughters bought for me. It came directly from
 Disneyland. I wanted to look like the All-American Guy.

26   The trouble is, I was returning from an absence.

27   Returning on a Monday following a weekend is tough enough for me most times, so I always make sure I am tanned, rested and ready every
 Monday. I am usually WAY more prepared than I should be on Mondays, just so I am on the offensive. It is like preparing for a sporting event.

28   Most people are pretty dumb about Mondays.

29   Not this sly fox.

30   While everyone else tries to squeeze in late barbecues and parties, I am reading and preparing for Mondays each Sunday.

31   And it is still AMAZING how out of sorts even a person who is prepared for Mondays can feel first thing in the morning.

32   Returning on a TUESDAY following a family memorial and not being as prepared AND following a horrific Warriors’ double-overtime loss to the Spurs
 was anything but a good formula.

33   I was still prepared, but early on I was a bit out of step. I let down my guard during my morning class. I lectured, had materials all set, had my story sequenced, but by the time I was able to let the students watch a bit of Julius Caesar, the cell phones were out, and I looked out in horror to see that nobody was paying any attention.

34   That was only one class, but it was my early class. I decided not to start my week with talking to them about how utterly rude that was, or giving them a pop quiz today. It was my own fault.

35   I patched it all up immediately during my second class of the day, and for the rest of the day I became vigilant. I had the story down by nine a.m.

36   I still messed up a bit on the sequencing and names in the story.

37   Storytelling has always been a strength for me, but when you tell stories, then read summaries, then present excerpts from the text with personal commentary, and THEN show how it all sequences with scenes from a film, it is easy to screw up somewhere: to mix up a name, or to mix up the sequence, that sort of thing.

38   Okay.

39   That didn’t come out right.

40   Let me see if I can illustrate with an example. Remember that I am up against a deadline here.

41   In Julius Caesar, Cassius has a plan to write letters from the citizens that cry for the removal of Caesar from a position of power. They aren’t really from the citizens, they are forged by him. He then intends to throw them into the house of Brutus in order to convince him to join he and his cronies in killing Caesar in public that very morning, the infamous Ides of March.

42   There is an entirely different scene that same morning, when Brutus is having fears and doubts about joining the conspiracy. He begins a soliloquy similar to Hamlet’s To Be or Not To Be soliloquy, only it is more like To Kill or Not to Kill. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the director, has this beautiful shot of James Mason as Brutus hanging around a bare tree, beginning his recitation. He suddenly stops and calls a boy named Lucius to bring him a taper, or a candle.

43   I inadvertently told one class that the reason he needed a candle was so that he could forge the letters from the citizens.

44  

45   And throw them into his own house.

46  

47   This is what happens to you when you are trying to multi-task following a Warriors’ horrific loss.

48   I’m still not really sure why he asks for a candle. I think it shows that he is frightened of the night, and of the storm, and of the darkness.

49   For the record, when I teach stories, I usually re-read them each year, make lots of notes, and have everything bulleted and in order. I do scan ahead on the classics, but even with the best of preparations, it is easy to mix things up a bit, or to say the wrong name, especially if the same story is being taught in all five classes, which I do on occasion.

50  I had that same thing happen a couple of years ago when I taught The Odyssey. Greek stories are filled with prophecies, and then the fulfillment of prophecies. The trouble is, if you are telling the stories because you can no longer have class sets of books, it is quite easy to forget mid-period if you are in the middle of telling the prophecy or of the fulfillment of the prophecy.

51  That is why a teacher has to stay on his or her game, every single day, every single period.

52  I must confess I did say that about Brutus because I simply mixed him up with Cassius, and today I have to go in and straighten some of that out.

53  The kids will laugh. They know teachers make mistakes. It is impossible to be in front of people every single day and not have a mistake or two happen.

54   That is why I go Disney early in the week. If I look like I just fell out of a bus, I would be one of those old geezer teachers who should be run out of Dodge.

55  I could FEEL like that, especially after a double-overtime loss that kept me up an hour and a half after my bedtime, but I must NEVER look like that.

56  As I have gotten older, I have realized that I no longer want to look good, I just want to avoid looking bad.

57  Disney dapper works for me.

58  You can get away with having a guy write letters and throw them into his own window if you look like you are running the Jungle Cruise.

59  Anybody looking?

60  Just thought I’d share. I’d love to report every day that everything always goes wonderfully up at the Chill, but it doesn’t. It does more than it doesn’t, but every once in a while, it just doesn’t.

61  I ain’t trippin’.

62  But I’d better get a bit more rest.

63   See you again.

64   Peace.

~H~

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The Daily News

1  That awkward moment when you realize your Bay Area Sports’ teams are not invincible.

2   Last night was a nightmare. The Warriors came apart in front of God and everybody. They STILL fought to the bitter end, but let one get away that
 they should have nailed.

3   And they kept me up late.

4   I had the Giants game on in the other room, but the Warriors/Spurs was a dazzling game. And fear not, Warriors’ fans: if they were that intense on the road,
 they should be able to get the Spurs at home. We’ve all seen it.

5   It’s funny when you see that sort of game. But it all must be put into perspective.

6   Moving on, Part One: My family had a quiet service for my brother-in-law Ron yesterday. Very intricate, peaceful, and later on filled with laughter. Ron wanted a quiet service, and a pizza party afterward. We were more than happy to grant him that wish. We all gladly gave up our diets to enjoy some good food in a good-vibe place. Laughter and memories ensued. 

7   Thoughtful, intelligent man with an enormous heart and a sense of humor. He was a drug and alcohol counselor who not only served his country, but who helped hundreds of people live clean lives. He built a playhouse in the yard for my daughters. They played Taps at his service, and presented his Mom with an American flag.

8   You don’t know proud until you’ve had it with a loving family and a bowl of spaghetti with a giant meatball on top.

9   Thank you for everything Uncle Cool Guy. You loved everyone. And everyone loved you.

10  Still do.

11  Moving on, Part Two: I had to get up to the school yesterday morning to put out my assignments. I had everything set up for a sub on Friday, but forgot to put the materials out for the sub. I was in a hurry to get home so I could freshen up and get back to school to watch the school play.

12  It was High School Musical, and was a lot of fun.

13   I went with my wife and daughter. I don’t think it was any sort of coincidence that as soon as we walked into the theater, Seasons of Love was playing as pre-show music. I know that David Chavez, our director, likes to do what I used to do, and that was make the pre-show music an integral part of the show. His theme?

14   Musicals.

15   Magical theme.

16   The show was a fun one, because he had lost a LOT of seniors last year, and had to rely on veterans and a youthful group that brought spirit and excitement to a perfect evening.

17   What they may have lacked in experience they made up for in pure fun, youth, and joy. For many it was their first experience on stage, and the excitement and spirit drove the entire performance.

18   It was a perfect evening of theater, dance, and Disneyesque joy.

19   And the seniors were amazing, as they have been for the past four years.

20   It completely dove-tailed with what was happening in Bay Area sports all weekend. The young and the old playing it together and making magic.

21   It was just what was needed, and I send out a huge congratulations to the cast and crew of High School Musical. Pure fun.

22   You made each of us feel the spirit and the message of the piece.

23   Moving on, Part the Thoid: In my haste to tell you about Friday night, I forgot to add Metallica Night at the AT&T. I caught the end of the game after the musical, but I didn’t catch the beginning until yesterday morning when I drove up to the school to put out the classwork.

24   I was listening to KNBR summing up the entire vibe and magic of the weekend. Murph and Mac were on, Mac having just flown in from the Rolling Stones’ concert at Oracle. It was WAY early, at least for me. I pulled into the school at around 7 a.m. just as they played a recording of Metallica doing a live version of the National Anthem. I was wearing my American flag tie in honor of Ron and the other vets, and pulled into the upper parking lot.

25   It was no coincidence that the second I pulled in, two teachers who are famous for being rock fans were walking to class. I rolled down my window and blasted Metallica so that they would turn around. Great moment. They knew who was playing, and broke into smiles. It set the tone for the entire day. That version of the anthem rocked the morning. I don’t think it woke anyone up because my window faced away from the houses on Arcade. I know sound and how it travels. I aimed it at two huge fans of rock.

26   Sometimes you just do that. I had my Disneyland hat on as well for perfect incongruity.

27   Nothing was going to ruin the day yesterday. Ron sent down Metallica to play the National Anthem to begin his day.

28   It also made me want to get back in there and teach today.

29   I’m well prepared for the morning. I can’t wait to see my students today. It’s funny, because I always celebrate the last few weeks of school. I realize that each class has its own personality, and that it becomes almost like a family that has bonded by the end of the year.

30   Any teacher will tell you this.

31   And even if there are days that might annoy me, I appreciate that this is all just a memory, and I remember to remember the little moments.

32   One of my favorite moments this year was when I was giving a vocabulary test. The way it is set up is this: I say the word and the students have to spell it correctly and prove to me in their definition that they have learned the words.

33   I gave the word “amenity.” A student raised his hand. “Could you use that in a sentence?”

34   Without blinking I replied, “Sure. We thought she was a mermaid, but we later saw she was amenity.”

35   At least five students in each class got it. I had nothing to do with it; it just popped into my head.

36   Those are moments.

37    At the end of the year I remember all the good, and all the goofy moments. I do a mini-unit on the poetry of Paul Simon, teach some poetry, teach some Simon and Garfunkel tunes, and then play two of them live. We later in the year, perhaps the last day of real classes have an open-mic poetry read (not slam, heaven forbid!) and have fresh fruit, orange juice, granola bars, and an all-day celebration of poetry, and of the entire year. My room becomes the Cafe Verona a-la Starbuck’s.

38   That’s what I head into as I go in today.

39   Oh, I have to give some bubble test on Romeo and Juliet on Thursday. I am dead-set against it, but the visiting team from the state wants accountability with data and all that blah-blah-blah so I’ll do what I’m told. To me, the whole purpose of learning Romeo and Juliet is that it is a gateway to the beautiful language of Shakespeare. It also gives some background to all of the allusions to Romeo and Juliet that have pervaded all literature, art, music, poetry, and yes, even High School Musical.

40   If you don’t know, the musical they are working on in High School Musical is a student-written version of Romeo and Juliet. It is called Juliet and Romeo. The theme of High School Musical mirrors the theme of Romeo and Juliet in many ways, but on a lighter scale. It’s funny, because I was never really familiar with the show. While I was teaching Romeo and Juliet, I kept saying that no matter how many productions of this i see, it will never end happily. I always want Romeo to get the message that Juliet isn’t really dead and that they could somehow live, and run off together, and live in Mantua.

41   That is exactly what happens in High School Musical. A student has written a musical that has a happy ending, in which the couple winds up living, and then dashing off to…Albuquerque!  Two students are interested in trying out for the play, but the girl is new to the school and joins a competing brainiac group, and the boy is a star on the basketball team. The two hang out at auditions, eventually falling in love with each other. Society, parents, cliques,and warring fashions prevent them from doing what the would love to do, which is to be the star-crossed lovers. Their own lives become star-crossed.

42   I kept telling my students that I wanted to write an ending that would make it all end happily so that future generations will have a couple of choices as to which they would like to see.

43   My students who were in the show were probably laughing at my naivete.

44   And that’s why I want to get back today.

45   I want to enjoy every moment I have with these wonderful classes before they are forever scattered to the winds. I want the end of the year to be a magical place, where madness swirls everywhere with the exception of the Cafe Verona, my classroom, my sanctity, and my place that gives them their youth for the very last time.

46   It’s all downhill from there kids.

47   Just kidding.

48   I just like them to see that life can be enchanting for long periods of time, and to make as many wonderful memories as possible.

49   I think that a lot of teachers feel that way.

50   If they don’t, then they are in the wrong profession.

51   So smile and laugh today. Shake off the losses, they are nothing. Look up at the sky and think of someone you know who lives up there.

52   Give them a smile and a thought.

53   And perhaps even a military salute.

54   There is nothing braver than someone who has lived.

55   I gottago.

56   See you again.

57   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1   Ronald Kenneth Van Iderstine. March 10, 1950-March 28, 2013. Services today. I’ll follow this up, but he was my bro, a father, a brother, an uncle, a son, a grandfather, a vet, Uncle Cool Guy, and a friend to patriotism, and to other vets. He loved his Mom. And he loved our country. Bless him, forever.

~H~

 

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The Daily News

1   Warriors win greatest sloppy game ever!!!

2   The Warriors wound up winning last night despite something like six-thousand turnovers.

3   With all due respect, they deserved to win against those polecats.

4   Just sayin.’

5   Bay Area sports.

6   Exhausting.

7   But a lot of fun!

8   Moving on, Part One: Speaking of exhausting, waking up in the middle of the night trying to hit a deadline gets pretty exhausting as well.

9   What is especially exhausting is adapting to Windows 8 AND massive changes on Xanga.

10  It is annoying, even though I’m quite sure I will adapt to all of it.

11  It’s sort of like when someone moves your trash about six inches to the left.

12   You wind up with crumpled paper all over your floor.

13   I’m liking it in many ways because the fonts are working, and the automatic spelling fixes things instantly.

14   The verdict is out, but I think once I get used to this stuff, it is going to be faster and better equipped.

15   Meanwhile, I had to hunt down pictures. I had a huge library of DN pics I use all the time, and they seem to have disappeared.

16   I’m sure they’re around, but we’ll see. I went on my land desktop computer and they are all gone there as well. I also can’t control color background our outlines. 

17   The uploads have been annoyingly slow lately, but I think it is because Xanga is trying to upgrade.

18   Fine time.

19   They have been irritating me this entire year.

20   It’s all good.

21   Moving on, Part Two: It’s Frideeeeeee!!!

22   Our school is doing Disney’s High School Musical at 7 p.m. tonight and tomorrow night.

23   I’m going tonight, if I’m not too exhausted from staying up all night trying to figure out Windows 8 and Xanga.

24   It’s the talk of the town.

24   Everyone and his brother should go. Ah, good old theatre. Always fun. Google Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose for an address.

25   Moving on, Part the Thoid: We did masks yesterday.

26   I enjoy the mask project. The students make Renaissance masks and explain to each other little things they learned about the Renaissance. I play Renaissance music when the enter class.

27   We sit in a circle like first-graders and share the loves, the hates, the irritations, and the triumphs of getting the project done.

28   At the end of the period I play some more Renaissance music and have the students who want to put their masks on the wall of my classroom.

29   Many do it, and their masks become a permanent part of the history of my classroom.

30   It’s now an annual tradition.

31   One group got a ladder and put their masks just above the center of my whiteboard.

32   No group had ever done that before. It’s like having a California poetic license on the front of  a classic car.

33   At one point time stood still. Students stood in a room filled with lovely music from the Elizabethan age and watched other students putting

these beautiful masks all around the room. It was a carousal of fun. No outside visiting teams. No bubble tests. Just pure enrichment.

34   Oh, there was a little bit of  anger. When projects don’t work for some kids, they feel a bit left out.

35   Happened to me when I was in high school.

36   I was a senior. We were given an assignment where we could do anything to “express ourselves.”

37   It was in my Humanities class, this wonderful class where we learned about nearly everything in the world.

38   At the time, I was a relatively untalented cat.

39   My claim to fame was that I played reasonably evil characters in school plays.

40   And I could sort of write.

41   Beyond that, I wasn’t nearly as talented as most of my peers.

42   I had decided to make a clay statue of either a Greek or an Egyptian.

43   The idea was for me to try my hand at sculpture.

44    He was a little guy.

45    I worked on him for hours. When I was happy that I would survive, I put him into a lunch bag and brought him to school.

46   When I got to class, the other students had ridiculously cool projects. One group wrote and sang a song, complete with guitars and

harmonies. Another guy brought a bust of his own head. Artists brought paintings in that looked like they were stolen from the Louvre.

47   I looked in my lunch bag.

48   My little guy was all crumpled and ruined.

49   When nobody was looking I threw him into the trash. I was crestfallen.

50   My friend Charlie took the bag out of the trash and gave it to my teacher.

51   She pulled me aside after class and said that my project was fine.

52   I wanted to kill Charlie, but after a bit of thought, I thought it was pretty cool of him to have come to my aid.

53   It’s a story I share with my own students.

54   You get better at things.

55    To this minute my own students can kick my butt on any project.

56    I’ve just had a lot more success in the other things I naturally like. You do get better at things. I have to tell them that.

57    It’s all a part of it.

58    Well, I’m WAY up against the clock. Think I’ll get while the gettin’s good.

59    Have a GREAT weekend.

60   See you again.

~H~

<can’t find purple cool guy pic> = (

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