The Daily News

1   Oh, Warriors.

2   Thank you for an amazing run. 

3   If ever a team gave everything they could, you did it in front of the entire nation.

4   You don't always have to win in order to be winners. 

5    We all salute you and the great games we will forever enjoy.

6   Thanks again for an amazing run.

7   Moving on, Part Two: Sharks.

8   You're still playing. Here is a word of advice: Don't lose ever again to a team whose initials are L.A.

9   Ever.

10  Especially at home.

11  We still love you.

12  But dudes.

13  Just don't.

14   Let's get that job done at home. 

15   Moving on, Part Three: Giants' pitching. It's okay; I've submitted it to the lost and found.

16   All is well. We can score ten runs a game to compensate.

17   Argh.

18   We are becoming the kings of come-from-behind wins. 

19   This is not a good thing.

20   I'll still take first place and seven games over .500.

21   But dudes.

22   Ah, nevermind.

23   Moving on, Part Four: On my end, I had a winning afternoon yesterday.

24   First, I finished off getting graded papers into the hands of the students, and out of my cubbies. 

25   Okay, so it's not a game-winning three by Steph, but metaphorically, that was a great shot.

26   I also got all those number-two pencil tests into the system and out of my sight. 

27   Sixteen bazillion pieces of paper suddenly disappeared from my room, allowing me to break down an eight-foot table that held them.

28   This cleared the way for a guitar stand, a guitar, mic, amp, and a couple of Starbucksy lamps to appear in the front of my room. 

29   The Cafe Verona magically appeared yesterday afternoon. My room cleaned up, and now looks pretty snazzy.

30   I  strapped on my guitar and practiced a couple of songs that I am going to sing for my classes today.

31   I am going to sing Simon and Garfunkel's America in a higher key than I have previously sung it, because I like how the guitar sounds in the background.

32   I'll have to sing a bit in a falsetto voice. 

33   I once had a student who had a false setto teeth. 

34

35   Anybody looking?

36   It does get a bit high, but I was able to reach all the notes. I see it as a sort of tribute to the amazing voice of Art Garfunkel. 

37   Last year I would have cracked, but my experience of having a cameo as Teen Angel in Grease last year gave me a larger range, in main part because of our vocal instructor, Rachel.

38   I don't remember her last name and don't have a program handy here in the seven a.m.'s.

39   I am also going to perform an rare gem called Punky's Dilemma, which I did last year during my Cafe Verona breakfast. It is a song all about breakfast, sort of similar to Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes. I  think breakfast is a great theme for a song. I'm thinking of writing a song about bacon, since bacon is suddenly hip. 

40   I doubt it will reach the top 40, or that it will ever get written. 

41   Every time I get inspired to do music, something flies into my life making it impossible to practice. 

42   I guess that's just an excuse, because a real musician knows how to get around those sorts of things. 

43   I play guitar. I don't claim to be a musician. 

44   Anybody who know music knows the difference. 

45   I play thanking the Lord for my fingers. I can't use picks very well. 

46   I also play reasonably quietly now. Paul McCartney talked about that once on some teevee special. He talked about how you can trick the listener into thinking you played a note that you didn't by syncopating. 

47   He also talked about how he is always nervous when he performs. 

48   Amazing. 

49   I'm not nervous today. I think I sounded great yesterday, although I had the  mic turned up a bit loud in order to get a little echo. 

50   I should probably upgrade my amp. 

51   I think I got it at Target for around a hundred bucks. 

52   I like it 'cuz it's tiny and therefore easily transportable. 

53   It's this La Bamba thing I have. 

54   Anyway, I'll try to win a championship today. My room is clean, it looks like a Starbuck's, I'm going to play and sing a couple of fun songs for my students, and then we will enjoy The Taming of the Shrew, which I have shown at the end of every school year since I first started teaching. 

55   I have shifted and turned for every lunatic around, and I am STILL going to end this school year on my own terms. 

56   I will win my own personally stupid championship today. 

57   Anybody looking?

58  

59   I gottago. Wish me luck.

60   Have a GREAT weekend.

61   See you again.

62   Peace.

~H~

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

The wheel is turning and you can't slow down

You can't let go and you can't hold on

You can't go back and you can't stand still

If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will.

                                                            ---Robert Hunter

1  Great song.

2    It was written by the venerable Robert Hunter.

3    Sorry kids. It was NOT written by John Mayer, although at least three internet lyric sites stake that claim.

4    I'm thinking about throwing a bunch of boushit out there into the digital cosmos just to see how many idiots would see it as Truth.

5    Something like this might work: In 1962, President John F. Kennedy fired Vice President Lyndon Johnson over a dairy scam, and hired Jerry Mathers as his new VP. Mathers as most people know, was that laughable, spankable Beaver Cleaver in the television series Leave it to Beaver. Few people know that he went on to become JFK's right-hand man. 

6    Anybody looking?

7   The Wheel. What a great tune. It was played at Jerry Garcia's funereal celebration in Golden Gate Park about a bajillion years ago.

8   Hey, it's Dead week. A little bit of Deadly trivia never hurt anybody.

9    If you recalI, I started this year off with The Dead's Uncle John's Band.

10   Why not end it with the same guys?

11   Somebody somewhere already ended the year prematurely anyway.

12   Anybody looking?

13   Here's a bit more:

Won't you try just a little bit harder

Couldn't you try just a little bit more?

Won't you try just a little bit harder

Couldn't you try just a little bit more?

Round, round robin run around

Gotta get back where you belong

Little bit harder just a little bit more

Little bit further than you gone before

14   Fun stuff.

15   Three websites have John Mayer as the lyricist. Jerry Mathers and Bill Kreutzmann evidently wrote the music.

16   There's a reason I have a job.

17   Moving on, Part the First: I started writing this folderol at precisely two a.m. It was, of course, totally different.

18   I was asleep.

19   I awakened to a blank entry.

20   So I did what any normal, red-blooded American would do.

21   I went back to sleep and hoped it would write itself.

22   I awakened a half hour later thinking that the task had finished itself.

24  

25   I missed the meeting yesterday. I felt a little woozy.

26   Anybody looking?

27   I also had a TON of work to get done, not the least of which was emailing parents, running off study guides for finals, and slamming Crystal Light and chewing down spoonfuls of Nutella.

28   Yummy.

29   Space food.

30   Dust and chemicals. Always a good glue.

31   Moving on, Part Two: I had to allow time yesterday for passing back the sixteen-thousand sheets of paper I had graded. I put on some Jack Johnson mix which made the whole thing go sweetly. A couple of students in my Disney class asked if they could go into the staff lounge next to my room so that they could study for finals. Despite all the attacks on our staff in the last few days, I allowed it. Nobody is ever in that room during class, and people on our floor let students do that all the time.

32   I opened the door and let them in. They all joined in thanking me, and telling me I was the best teacher ever.

33   I sometimes think that I could point to any teacher in my building and say that they are the best teacher ever.

34   We have an excellent staff at our school, despite what the lunatics think.

35   AnywayZ...

36    It's "anyway" dude, just for the record.

37   AnywayZ...

38   I went back into my classroom and watched the paper-passing back in full swing. The lights were ambient and Starbucksy, and the atmosphere very friendly and loose.

39   I noticed that I still had a ladder in my classroom. I had gotten it from the selfsame room next door.

40   I used it to let students hang their Renaissance masks on the walls.

41   I thought of the students in the teachers' lounge next door, and decided to bring the ladder back into the room and check on them at the same time.

42   I took the ladder down, swung it over my shoulder and walked to the teachers' lounge.

43   The students were quietly studying. I said, "It's just me. I'm returning this ladder to the room. Keep studying."

44   One girl looked up, all ears and braces, smiled and asked, "Is that where teachers go to get high Mr. H?" She stared at the top of the ladder.

45  

46   Hilarious.

47   I said pointedly, "We don't do THAT!"

48   I am a punster. I do puns all the time. I always tell my students, "Sorry, sorry. I'll  never do that again." But I always do it. 

49   It's my personal form of Tourrette's. Did I spell that correctly?

50   Anybody looking?

51   Dead Week. I wonder if they ever did anything in A-flat minor. Unfamiliar with that key? Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.

52    Hope you don't mind my having a little pun at your expense.

53   It is into the 5 a.m. and I think this is a good time for me to get outta here. 

54   I'll see you again.

55   Gottago. Fly low. Happy Dead Week.

56   Peace.

~H~

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

Small wheel turning by the fire and rod

Big wheel turning by the grace of God

Every time that wheel turn round

Bound to cover just a little more ground 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1   I'm glad that I don't live and die for Bay Area sports.

2   If I did, then I would have died last night.

3   Yeesh.

4   I like to take the high road though.

5   I woke up last night, looked at my toe, and there wasn't a tag on it. That is a good day by anyone's standards.

6   But once again, yeesh.

7   Oh, well.

8   Today is a new day, AND a Wednesday.

9   Argh.

10  I just remembered that Wednesdays are meeting days.

11  Always a plus on any job.

12  And yes, I meant that sarcastically.

13  fjdkfdd;fajdsjf;jf.

14  At least the dog woke me up somewhat early last night.

15  It was fairly easy to get to sleep early.

16  Who wanted to stay up and watch all that?

17  Thankfully I'm fine.

18  I have faith in those teams. They have all given us so much fun and excitement I can't let one imperfect storm get all over me. It's been quite a ride and it ain't over 'til it's over.

19  I'll just let all of that roll.

20  You should too.

21  There are worse things dude.

22  Moving on, Part One: School has become officially over on my end.

23  I had planned so many fun activities that have since been crushed by bubble testing. And by stupidity at the highest levels. 

24  Number two pencils.

25  Rampant stupidity.

26  Paranoia.

27  I won't go into it, but my usual fun end-of-the year activities have been squelched by outsiders who honestly know nothing about the reality of life in the classroom.

28  I tried.

29  Anyone who knows me knows that I don't give up.

30  I didn't give up this year.

31  I was thieved by morons.

32  I can't even explain it here because a lot of it takes too much time.

33  It has a LOT to do with testing and number two pencils and all.

34  For example, some tests come complete with answer sheets, pencils, and all the rest.

35  I have always been fine with that.

36  That is the natural order of things.

37  Unfortunately, when the teachers have to generate the answer sheets, it becomes a nightmare.

38  We have to deal with programs that are convoluted and involve learning how to go into a computer program and figure things out.

39  And after hours of pushing buttons that tell us that they don't work, we get whatever we got saved on a flash drive, and THEN have to try to make the flash drive work on copiers that have been around since the eighties.

40 

41  All of which is thrown at us the last two weeks of school.

42  I wound up taking my stuff to private businesses, which charged me a bajillion dollars to get the stuff done faster and with more precision.

43  I'll cut to the quick, because this stuff makes for lousy copy.

44   Because of all the time it took to create these idiotic tests, I had to shut down my best lessons. I had to can them.

45   I had to shut down my poetry lessons.

46   This included poetry from poets that I have personally had pizza with. With whom I have had pizza. Sorry. Published poets. Local poets. San Jose poets who are in literature books.

47   I had to shut down the study of living, award-winning poets who taught me when I was in college.

48  Real people.

49  I had to cancel Maya Angelou.

50  I had to cancel Walt Whitman.

51   I had to cancel my open mic Café Verona poetry read, in which my own students come in my room wearing sunglasses, enjoying a breakfast complete with fresh fruit, orange juice, pastries, Starbuck's coffee, and jazz music.

52   Bubble tests and massive stupidity obliterated that stuff this week.

53   The only thing I have left is The Taming of the Shrew, which I usually am able to do in our theater, on a big screen with stereo sound.

54   It will now be in my classroom, which isn't at all that bad, but still not the way I had it over the years.

55   It will somehow serve as a sort of lava lamp for the signing of yearbooks.

56   As the Rolling Stones once put it, "Sad, sad, sad."

57   My mini-unit on the songs of Paul Simon is now scattered to the winds.

58   I accept that. I will still strap on my guitar and sing two songs. That will be a nice moment, but nothing as intensely fun as I originally planned, and that has been the symbol of my entire year each year I have been at the Chill. 

59   I just hope that I don't have district people coming into my room and unplugging the mic.

60   Could happen.

61   Engagement and real teaching is being squelched as we speak.

62   The lunatics, as they say, are running the asylum.

63   I'll make it safely to summer, and then I will need to plan a new method of staying ahead of the game.

64   This was an outrageous ambush, if I may be so bold.

65   I'll re-group and figure it all out.

66   It's too late to save this year. We were attacked and stripped down of all human interaction.

67   If I sound a bit like a mad man, well then let it be.

68   I openly admit that I am a mad man. Not a madman. A mad man.

69   There are still remnants of Shakespeare and Dylan floating in the wind.

70   Sad, sad, sad.

71   Just so you know, I'll keep fighting, adjusting, and making things happen. I'll never stop being a teacher, despite all the lunatics.

72   I'm just sorry that my students have been robbed of enrichment beyond what they would ever have believed could happen.

73   Longest DN ever. I really didn't expect this. I woke up because the dog wanted to go out in the yard.

74   There's a certain irony in that.

77   Welp, you have a GREAT Wednesday. Fly low.

78   I gottago. See you again.

79    Peace.

~H~

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1   Yesterday I had this dream that a bajillion multi-colored file folders merged together in some sort of gotham central and morphed into an enormous monster.

2    It had dinosaur movement and it could breathe fire. 

3    I thought I was safe in my classroom, which has a cathedral window that overlooks the east hills. It is nowhere near any sort of central urban city setting. It overlooks suburbs, ranches, farms and churches. It is my sanctity.

4   Reasonably peaceful, and certainly free of any dinosauresque, multi-colored file-folder monsters.

5   I was sitting in my classroom looking at stacks and stacks of  papers that needed to be put into folders.

6   I had worried so much about so many other things as the year comes to a close that I underestimated how many papers I had graded during the semester, and I had not given enough class time to handing them back to the students.

7   I just wanted to keep grades current and lessons flying. I was much more concerned about keeping my students engaged, and bringing everything I could to each day's lessons.

8  

9   I had forgotten that the state and the district have gone bubble-test mad, and that people who are out of the classroom have become data crazy and power mad.

10  So as I graded, planned, and brought everything I could to my classroom, the graded papers stacked up.

11  Anybody looking?

12  So there I was in my dream, or in my reality, or whatever in my classroom looking at all the papers that needed to be filed, when I looked at my room.

13  I had stacks of papers and stacks of multi-colored files all over the room.

14  I tried to get my students to hand back all the papers and files, and for the students to file all their work.

15  By the end of the day it was clearly evident that I had not allowed enough time nor organization to make that happen.

16   I was too preoccupied with juggling bubble tests, answer sheets, number two pencils and all the rest, to have even given a thought to getting the thousands of papers I graded into the hands of my students.

17   By my last class of  the day, it became evident that I was going to be staring at stacks of folders and papers.

18   It was then that I had my dream.

19   I was wide awake and in front of my class when I daydreamed the folders all coming together in somewhere like Times Square, and morphing into this fire-breathing monster, with fiery veins pulsating in intense madness.

20  The thing would swing through New York, or some comic form of New York. It would be angry and evil, because in the movies those sorts of creatures always are.

21  It usually isn't their faults, at least in the older films.

22  They are hated just because they are monstrous looking.

23   This creature, however, was created from pure evil.

24   I kept looking at my students trying to hand the papers back and getting them into the folders, but it was simply not happening.

25   I thought of the creature in the urban setting, blowing flames at the police and at the helicopters and all, its tail knocking cars and buses into the sky.

26   I had to do something.

27   I put up my right hand and a metal glove came flying from God knows where.

28   It had some sort of glowing circle on the palm.

29   The circle had power, and it glowed brighter and brighter.

30    Suddenly two pieces of metal flew at my shins, and clung to them like catchers' shin guards.

31    Armor then came at me at magnificent speed.

32    Before I knew it, I became suited in shiny, amazingly colorful armor. When I walked, I clanged. It was a bit unwieldy, but it was just what I needed. A little clangy, but I rarely worry about trifles. 

33   The only thing I didn't have was a face guard.

34   Within seconds my door blew open and a face guard came at me at lightning speed.

35   "NOT THE FACE!!!" I shouted.

36    It heard me and slowed down.

37    I then heard a rumbling.

38    I looked out my window to the East Hills and saw nothing but suburbs, ranches, farms and churches. A tiny gaggle of geese flew one way, and suddenly reversed direction in perfect unison.

39   I looked at the work I had to do, as I often do, and then looked once more at my window.

40   Dun dun DUNNNNNNNNN!!!

41  The monster's head appeared, much larger than I had imagined. It turned fire-red, and it shot a powerful flame that shattered the glass and nearly hit me. It roared in agony, reared its head, and shot another flame that got my on the wrist. I was aflame!

42  I looked at my wrist. The fire continued, but the wrist was untouched. I then looked at the glowing circle. It animated before my startled eyes, turned, and shot a fierce ray right into the eyes of the monster. 

43   The thing screamed in terror, and knocked the roof off of my classroom.

44   I knew what I had to do. I looked up and created a vortex in the sky. The clouds darkened and spun. I then shot myself up to the vortex. I had no idea why, but it is evidently much easier to take care of fire-breathing, multi-colored file -folder monsters from way up high.

45   I got up there and realized that I somehow had to do a kamikaze attack by going directly at the monster at the now-cliche' lightning speed. 

46   People screamed.

47   I circled, a bit hesitant, but knowing full well that this was for God, country, school, and the American Way.

48   I thought to myself, "You dumb ass. Just fly to some remote island that has blue waters and beach shacks stocked with Crystal Light and Nutella."

49   But no.

50   The school needed me. The suburbs, ranches, farms and churches needed me. Education needed me, for whatever reason.

51   I decided I was going in.

52   I flew at it a bajillion miles an hour, and exploded the thing into a bajillion pieces.

53   People cheered. I passed out.

54   I had a deep cut on my nose.

55   I awakened in the arms of a gorgeous nurse named Peggy. She looked down at me and said, "You passed out."

56    I thought, "Uh...do you think?" Looks aren't everything, as we all know.

57    I heard a bird chirp. I heard people cheer. I was a hero.

58    I saw bits and pieces of the charred, bloody monster blowing through the trees.

59    And then I saw pieces of paper become uncharred.

60     One flew down lightly, like a peaceful feather. It fell next to me. A minute later, another came down and landed on top of the first. 

62    Then another.

63    A red folder drifted out of a cloud and landed next to the paper. And then a green one. and then more papers stacked on to the growing stack. 

64    A wind blew through the hills. The sun set, the music came up, and the credits rolled.

65    See you again.

66    Peace.

~H~

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE!!!

GO WARRIORS!!!

 

 

 

The Daily News

1   Gotta love the Woyers yesterday, but gotta hate the need for heart pills.

2   They threw bricks all through the game, but as usual, the third quarter hit, and so did the boys.

3   And they became beasts in overtime.

4   Nice to see. Major win.

5   If you've been following these fellows.

6    Great game.

9   Moving on, Part One: I missed a deadline on Friday.

10  Not my fault.

11  The entire computer world is going through the change.

12  I'm not sure what sort of change, but whatever it is, it is irritating as hell.

13   I'm all about changing and moving forward, but when the changes run into my personal time, I get a bit frustrated.

14   The trouble is, it doesn't make for good copy.

15   I spent a few hours writing this stuff on Thursday night, but had also worked lights for a music concert.

16   The concert was SO awesome that I got home late and then tried to lights out as soon as possible.

17   Well, it worked.

18   I not only slept peacefully through the night, but OVERSLEPT by almost two hours, something that never happens with me.

19   I'm normally a nervous wreck about nearly everything nowadays, so a peaceful night's sleep is an anomaly.

20   The Band/Orchestra concert last week was overwhelmingly good.

21   It was other-worldly.

22   I came home dazzled and proud of our music program, and of our maestro Steve Barnhill.

23   I've watched the guy conduct for a bajillion years, knew him from my drama days, and always held him in high esteem.

24   Anybody looking?

25   Is it safe to say that as the guy gets older, he gets more awesome?

26   Since I have been up at the Chill, Mr. Barnhill's students have received numerous awards and accolades, as well as two performances at Carnegie Hall in the past few years.

27   Impressive.

28   And Thursday the entire program had home court advantage.

29   They got a minimum of three standing ovations on Thursday night.

30   I got home completely enchanted. I wanted to share the fun.

31   I was so relaxed and charmed that I slept through the night.

32   That's nothing to your ordinary citizen, but to a hopeless insomniac, it says a lot.

33   Even though I ran late Friday morning, I still popped a DN into the mix.

34   But all of the new programs and computer advancements started in on their inability to be compatible.

35   Which is okay ordinarily, because I assume I have to make adjustments in order to keep up with technology.

36   I again couldn't get Xanga to cooperate with pictures.

37   I again punched my ordinary buttons to get this out to the masses.

38   And again things blocked me, stopped me, and made it difficult to get this stuff out.

39   With end-of-the year deadlines and stresses, I had to throw it all to the winds.

40   I have one shot in the middle of the night to write all this idiocy, edit it, add fun pics, and then mail it to the masses.

41   It's always a bit of a chore, but I like it.

42   I never really intend to write any of this, but something takes over and makes me throw it all out there, because I clearly have people
who share the nonsense and enjoy hot oatmeal going through their noses, or a quick sip of coffee doing an "Olay" to the morning. Ah, vell. I'd better change course here. It's too early, and I don't want to sound like a crank.

43   Wanna hear a joke?

 

44  

45   What do you call a fake noodle?

45

 

46   An impasta.

47   I'll never do that again.

48   AnywayZ...

49   I think I'll get outta here while the gettin's good.

50   Have a GREAT Monday.

51   Fly low.

52   Peace.

~H~

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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> = (

 www.xanga.com/bharrington