"Returning to memories of growing up in the social circumstances created by racial apartheid, to all black spaces on the edges of town, I reinhabit a location where black folks associated whiteness with the terrible, the terrifying, the terrorizing. White people were regarded as terrorists, especially those who dared to enter that segregated space of blackness. As a child, I did not know any white people. They were strangers, rarely seen in our neighborhoods. The "official" white men who came across the tracks were there to sell products, Bibles and insurance. They terrorized by economic exploitation. What did I see in the gazes of those white men who crossed our thresholds that made me afraid, that made black children unable to speak? Did they understand at all how strange their whiteness appeared in our living rooms, how threatening? Did they journey across the tracks with the same "adventurous" spirit that other white men carried to Africa, Asia, to those mysterious places they would one day call the "third world"? Did they come to our houses to meet the Other face-to-face and reenact the colonizer role, dominating us on our own turf?
Their presence terrified me. Whatever their mission, they looked too much like the unofficial white men who came to enact rituals of terror and torture. .. . .
In the absence of the reality of whiteness, I learned as a child that to be "safe," it was important to recognize the power of whiteness, even to fear it, and to avoid encounter. There was nothing terrifying about the sharing of this knowledge as survival strategy. . .
Even though I live and move in spaces where I am surrounded by whiteness, there is no comfort that makes the terrorism disappear. All black people in the United States, irrespective of their class status or politics, live with the possibility that they will be terrorized by whiteness."
--bell hooks, "Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination" in White Privilege: essential readings on the other side of racism. 2nd ed. Ed. by Paula S. Rothenberg, 2005, Worth, New York, pp 22-23.
February 5, 2011
February 1, 2011
Mother Teresa quote
"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you; Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating others could destroy overnight; Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten; Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give your best anyway. You see, in the final analysis, It is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway." - Mother Teresa
January 31, 2011
Top 5 Bible Verses
2 Corinthians 4: 8-9 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
Philippians 4: 6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Matthew 11: 28-29 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
Philippians 4: 6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Matthew 11: 28-29 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
January 17, 2011
Top 5 Bible Passages
Isaiah 43:1-3.
But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
Revelation 21: 1-8
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Genesis 32: 22-31
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
1Samuel 17: 28-37
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”
2 Corinthians 3-4
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
Revelation 21: 1-8
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Genesis 32: 22-31
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
1Samuel 17: 28-37
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”
2 Corinthians 3-4
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Man with a Guitar on the Train
"It's taken me 11 years to figure out how to play this thing and avoid the police."
"I love all the people--the Puerto Rican people, the White people, the Mexican people, the crackheads."
The middle-aged, black man sitting across from me with the Nike fitted and blue hoody jacket is laughing his ass off. I am, too.
"Who can guess who sang this song?" Then he starts strumming that old Latino favorite and belting out, "Poh-lice Navidad, Poh-lice Navidad. . ."
I wanted to say, "Richie Valens." But I was almost positive that was wrong. And then it would come off as racist or something because that's the only old, famous Hispanic singer a white girl would know. And then I would be drawing attention to myself. . .
So this other guy shouts out, "Jose Feliciano" Was that a mistake or what? Especially since he said it in a serious sort of way. Most people know better than to play into these people's games. The rest of us watched on, always interested to see what'll happen.
But the man with the guitar responded, "You didn't hear what I said? Police Navidad."
A man gives him some change. "You got the idea, man."
Then he starts walking up and down the aisle with his bag open. "I take Mexican, African, food stamps, turkey leftovers, weed (if you have it), college credits, school lunches."
He sits back down at the other end of the train from me. "This is for the white lady with the brown coat on," as he looked at me. (There was only one other white lady on the train.)
"I've got Sunshine
on the #2 Train.
I guess you say,
you must also do cocaine.
My girl, my girl
Talking about that white lady, my girl."
"I love all the people. This is for the Chinese lady standing in the middle of the train. I learned Chinese songs. I checked out 2 books from the library. This is what they taught me."
"And they were Kung-Fu fighting. Dahnnanana, Dahnanana"
"I love all the people--the Puerto Rican people, the White people, the Mexican people, the crackheads."
The middle-aged, black man sitting across from me with the Nike fitted and blue hoody jacket is laughing his ass off. I am, too.
"Who can guess who sang this song?" Then he starts strumming that old Latino favorite and belting out, "Poh-lice Navidad, Poh-lice Navidad. . ."
I wanted to say, "Richie Valens." But I was almost positive that was wrong. And then it would come off as racist or something because that's the only old, famous Hispanic singer a white girl would know. And then I would be drawing attention to myself. . .
So this other guy shouts out, "Jose Feliciano" Was that a mistake or what? Especially since he said it in a serious sort of way. Most people know better than to play into these people's games. The rest of us watched on, always interested to see what'll happen.
But the man with the guitar responded, "You didn't hear what I said? Police Navidad."
A man gives him some change. "You got the idea, man."
Then he starts walking up and down the aisle with his bag open. "I take Mexican, African, food stamps, turkey leftovers, weed (if you have it), college credits, school lunches."
He sits back down at the other end of the train from me. "This is for the white lady with the brown coat on," as he looked at me. (There was only one other white lady on the train.)
"I've got Sunshine
on the #2 Train.
I guess you say,
you must also do cocaine.
My girl, my girl
Talking about that white lady, my girl."
"I love all the people. This is for the Chinese lady standing in the middle of the train. I learned Chinese songs. I checked out 2 books from the library. This is what they taught me."
"And they were Kung-Fu fighting. Dahnnanana, Dahnanana"
January 1, 2011
Some funny stuff they say
"Miss, I'm going to go kill myself, and say it's your fault." --April 17, 2015
November 24, 2010
Top 5 Funniest Movie Moments
1) Will Farrell praying to the little baby Jesus in Talledega Nights
2) Trying to wake up Bill Murrey in What About Bob?
3) Large Marge in PeeWee's Big Adventure
4) James Franco's aborted ascension into heaven in This is the End
2) Trying to wake up Bill Murrey in What About Bob?
3) Large Marge in PeeWee's Big Adventure
4) James Franco's aborted ascension into heaven in This is the End
October 29, 2010
Advice to a New Teacher
This was a very long e-mail I wrote in 2002 to a friend of a friend who was looking for some advice about starting out as a new teacher.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Avik,
Thanks for thinking of me for next year. I'm actually not going to be in Boston. I'm in Brazil right now, and am pretty positive I'll be staying here over this next school year. (But things are still up in the air.)
That's great that you're going to be a teacher. Honestly, I haven't heard good things about the Teach for America program. Basically, because they put kids into the hardest schools with no support and then they burn out and don't become teachers. My first year I worked at an inner city school in Houston with no training, etc. And honestly it almost killed me. I didn't sleep for three months. Everything about the school was crazy. Somehow I did manage to stick it out, even though the kids and everyone else expected me to drop at any moment. (Because all the other teachers do.) And then I moved to Boston and came to a much better school.
As for advice, I could give tons and tons and tons.
Hmmmmm....
1) Get Wong's First Days of School. I'm not sure if that's the correct title or author. And I've never read it, but everyone says it's good.
2) Make sure you really, really like kids, and that you enjoy them. If you don't like kids and don't like being around them, DROP OUT NOW. I've actually seen people who are in classrooms who don't particularly enjoy kids. Why torture them and yourself?
3) Expect it to be really, really, really hard. Make friends with other teachers and help each other out as much as possible. Having supportive friends and mentors in the building makes all the difference in the world. They're the reason I continue to teach.
4) Managing your time is really, really important. Since you don't know what you're doing, it's going to be hard to be efficient. After four years, I've come up with systems for grading that save time. Ask every teacher about their systems for grading, for conducting class, notebooks, letting kids go to the bathroom, etc. See what people do. (I can tell you mine in another e-mail if you want.) Try not to make school your entire life. But your first year, it probably will be. Try to set up some boundaries with work. Don't bring it home every night, etc.
5) Classroom management will be the hardest thing for you as a first year. (And it's still hard for veterans.) Everyone has their own philosophy, and most of it is trial and error. Don't beat yourself up when things go badly, because they will. So here are my classroom management tips.
---In the classroom, what you say goes period. Don't negotiate. EVER. You'll see how they try to negotiate everything. If you come up with a bad assignment or whatever, learn from your mistake, and make a better assignment for the next time. But don't let them think they can manhandle you.
---Spend as much time as possible with them outside the classroom. Hang out in the halls, before school, after school. Do after school activities. Talk to them. Get to know them. But not in class, because then class would be a joke, and your class has to be serious, where work happens. But do everything possible to establish rapport with them and to know personal things about their life and remember them. KEEP A JOURNAL. And then when you see them in the halls, follow up on conversations.
---When a kid is absent, ask about it when they get back. To show that you noticed they were out. And if you're really, really good (which I never was) you'd call home after 3 days of no-show.
---When a kid is obnoxious and rude, talk to them one-on-one preferably side by side, not confrontational face to face and have a little conversation.
It kind of goes something like this:
It kind of goes something like this:
"Do you know why you're here?"
"No."
"Well, you got up in the middle of class and slapped Tommy on the back."
"some sort of garbled noise."
"So what are we going to do about this, because you can't get up and hit people, ever, and most especially during class."
"Well, he started it. ... ." (Most of the time, they shift blame and never take responsibility for anything.)
"Okay, but we're not talking about Tommy, and I didn't see it. I saw you hit him. So, because of that, you're going to have to XX( whatever punishment will work, that really depends on the school, the community, etc.) So that you don't have to do X again, what are you going to do next time Tommy calls you a fag."
Hopefully, you get the gist.
Those little conversations are way, way important. The kids do want to voice their opinions, but at the same time it needs to be made perfectly clear, they did something and there are consequences for their
actions.
---Avoid power struggles at all costs, like "Give me that magazine/cell phone/etc." Just walk by them, and tell them to put it away. (The cell phone thing also depends on the building policy, just stick to whatever it is. I decided last year to just give up on the cell phone thing--I don't want to see it, it better not go off in my class. But I treat it kind of like cursing, if it goes off, I give them a disapproving look, which means turn it off or watch it, and usually they apologize and feel bad and turn it off.) Of course, you will have to say "Okay, Johnny, move to this seat up in the front." And Johnny will say no. So then you repeat yourself, and see if they do it. And then if they totally refuse. You say "We'll deal with this later." And then a serious punishment needs to happen.
---Become best friends with the dean of discipline/assistant principal. These people will save you. Hopefully, if they're good. If they're no good, that makes your life harder. You should try to deal with as much stuff as possible in your class. Again, establishing rapport with the kids is key.
---I read somewhere that good teachers are highly compassionate and highly dominant. They communicate that they care about the kids and genuinely like the kids, and at the same time, it's clear that the teacher and not the kids are in charge of the classroom.
---You don't want them to be your friend. They should think Mr. Chatterjee is a serious teacher. We do work in that class. Do everything possible to ensure that your classroom is serious and work happens, and that you maintain high standards. It's so easy to give into the kids and to school and to all the messed up stuff around you. This sounds really easy, but you'll see what I'm talking about once you're in it. You communicate you care about the kids, when you do everything possible to make sure they have a good education, which means not giving in to their complaints.
---They will always complain. Just say "Too bad, so sad." Don't take anything personally. They love saying, "This is boring." Again, too bad, so sad. They'll do whatever they can to get under your skin.
---Most of the time, like 95%, they're lying. Accept this fact and don't let them get out of stuff because of whatever story they make up. Sometimes they're grandma really did die. It's always a tough call. But if they're trying to get out of something, then most of the time they're lying. Don't look like a chump by believing everything. But then don't be an insensitive jerk if something really bad happened, because really bad stuff happens all the time. This is a balance, just like everything.
---Try to be as down as possible with everything. If I didn't speak Spanish, that would have been very, very bad because then I wouldn't have understood what they were saying in class. Pay attention to what they're saying. Don't be clueless. Start studying popular culture NOW. Listen to all the hard core hip hop stations. Know the songs, because they're going to be referring and alluding to them. Watch movies. Figure out all the ghetto lingo. Walk and drive around the neighborhood. Know about the McDonald's they go to after school. The BJ's they shop at. Etc. You want to pepper your lessons with stuff from their lives. "So when you go to Royal's, get X." Know streets, buildings, etc. The more you know about their world, the better. You'd be surprised how much this stuff helps in the classroom.
---Have eyes and ears in the back of your head. Just pay attention to everything. Be constantly vigilant. Just about every bad discipline problem could have been prevented. An adult's active presence is crucial. It's never really like the whole class just all started doing X. Someone started it. When you're vigilant, you can say "Tommy, you're going to start that again." And wow, you just saved yourself a ton of hassles.
---Kids love shows. They want to be entertained. School is boring. If they can upset the teacher, and make the teacher really mad and frustrated, so that they're cussing or even better crying, then that's fun. Do your best to show that they're not getting to you. Remain calm, and maintain an attitude like, I've seen this all before, and it'll pass. Because it will, especially if they don't get a reaction out of you.
6) Don't take anything personally. And try not to beat yourself up about things. |It's really easy to get into the "I suck" mentality. You will probably get really depressed, not just because you think your class will suck, but because of the harsh reality of life. The kids have really, really hard things they're dealing with, and it's really, really overwhelming. A big part of my depression the first year was coming to grips with the reality of most kids' situations. I had the opportunity to go to school in a stable environment with everything supporting me. It's really, really painful when you realize all the things your kids don't have, and how unfair everything in the world truly is.
7) Kids are fun. Don't ever lose your sense of humor. But try not to laugh when they're being obnoxious in class. (I always do, and that's probably really bad. But hey, it's how I cope.) Fall in love with the kids, and pray for them. I don't know if you're a religious person, but in tough situations, you'll realize that you can only do so much, God really needs to take care of the rest.
Feel free to e-mail me about anything. Veteran teachers have always saved me.
Just remember you're not alone. Every teacher has gone through this. . . And that you don't suck.
Good luck with everything,
Jane
Edward Said quote
A sense of citizenship and of critical awareness will allow you to see the whole of human history as a common enterprise, and not as a kind of Darwinian race for domination and supremacy. Cultures are. . . in a state of continuing development and dynamic change. . . As citizens your obligation towards your community is also a commitment to the existence of other communities, and that is what the poet William Butler Yeats called the dialogue of self and soul in the dialogue taking place inside us as vigilant seekers after truth and justice, without which there can be no real education, no dialogue of cultures, no real understanding.
Edward W. Said, AUB Commencement Speech, June 2000
MainGate: American University of Beirut Quarterly Magazine, Fall 2006, Beirut, Lebanon, “From the AUB Archives: In War and Peace:” p. 39
October 26, 2010
A Desk Job
"Behind such a desk, a man resembles an invalid in an orthopaedic brace. He cannot stand up normally to shake hands, but must first disengage himself delicately from his chair and cautiously rise, attending more to the desk than the visitor, as it takes only a nudge for this rickety, spindly-legged contraption to collapse with a roar on to the parquet. The seriousness of a whole office disintegrates into sniggering when instead of an official enthroned behind a monumental sculptured desk it sees a crouching, cramped wretch imprisoned in a miniature cut-rate snare. I cannot suffer a desk!"
Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Soccer War, 1986, pp. 145-146
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