We are moved into our new home (sort of), the youngin is adjusting to going to work with daddy two hours before she has ever been awake, I have mowed (and stressed about) my lawn for the first time since I was 12 (and that was a small patch of Arizona Bermuda grass that was only long enough to cut a couple of times a year), begun teaching a class I have not taught since student teaching in a new school and used all of my Jedi [edited to remove the fucking "e" type-o] training to deflect the unending requests to head or assist every committee, club, athletic team and student group from which sponsors and coaches have run screaming, in a way that conveys my desire to be a part of the learning community (I ain’t a first year teacher who cain’t say no) while attempting to maintain at least a cordial relationship with Ms. Smithie (hope that’s not too paternal). SO, blogging has taken a back seat to me trying keep from having a visit from the nice young men in the rope soled shoes and/or a nice young lawyer.
So far this year has been a liberating experience. The students at the new school are excellent, A People’s History of the United States has been used as a class reader for the last several years and I have half as many students as I have ever had before. With that said I hope that I can reflect my new found enthusiasm for teaching and other things in this here web log. However, teachers with soft ears may occasionally want to avert their eyes as my tirades may get a little rough around the edges, but dammit I’m teaching Howard Fucking Zinn to Junoirs in high school and I’m excited about it! My inner activist has been...well, activated...finally.
8 comments:
welcome back...
bdh
Don't you know Jedi does not have an 'e'on the end? I thought I raised you up a little better than that. The money I spent taking you to those damn movies, the toys, the tapes, all that, and you put an 'e'on JEDI. The father of the smithie speaks! ps My 10th graders, none have seen the original movie, so I'm showing them your old tape of it.
This is what I get for telling my father about blogs at all much less my own.
I was wondering where the hell that copy was. At least you are showing the original cut, Han Solo shooting first and all, though it's not letter boxed.
HE'S BACK.. And he gets to teach Zinn. What great luck. Best wishes on the new digs, home and work-wise.
Hi Smithie - sorry to throw this comment in here (I couldn't find a mailto link on your sidebar and I'm currently having to email over 200 bloggers). My old domain at proprietary typepad was snatched up and they're capitalising on my old/existing inbound links (including yours) to send traffic to porn sites. Soooo... please immediately remove the link to my OLD blog and I'll give you the new one (if you still want to continue linking to my words and voice).
My old URL (please remove it from your blogroll): http://chandrasutra.typepad.com OR (depending on which one you were linking to: http://chandrasutra.typepad.com/chandra/ )
My new URL is: http://chandrasutra.wordpress.com/
DO NOT LINK TO MY OLD BLOGGER ACCOUNT (that I'm using in order to comment here)
Feel free to delete this comment as soon as you get the info. Apologies to all others in this fine thread - sorry for this drift.
PS - and this goes for everybody: keep in mind that if you ever cancel a blog somebody else could snap up the domain. Thus the reason I held on to my old blogger account.
Chandrasutra: Done, thanks.
Joe,
Yes I'm still in KY despite repeated efforts to get back to your neck of the woods. Turns out making a living as a teacher in the AZ is MUCH harder than it is here.
I know this is about a month late, but I just now discovered your blog.
You're teaching Howard "f*&^ing" Zinn in a high school!?!
Way to go. It's even more amazing that it's in Kentucky (I live in Ohio). There's still hope for public education.
Glad you found me.
The Zinn book is an abridged reader with chapter questions and discussion points. It has been used a the school for about 6 years as a balance for the traditional texts also used. It is exciting to see the kids think as they compare the two versions of history, yes, even hopeful.
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