News Flash:
For the first time ever, Bears and Penguins comes to you from an airport. Normally I never use airport internet, but then I realized my atm card had fallen out of my pocket somewhere between downtown Baltimore and the airport. Thus I had to find the number of my bank for to cancel the card, order a new one, and determine how I was going to access my hard earned money for this weeks travels. No ATMs for me this week, I must organize myself as I have to walk into the bank and interact with actual people to get the green.

April Fools:
Parked my car. Got my stuff out. Snow started falling from the sky. True story.

Northeast:
While checking in for my flight, I ran into a fellow TFAer who teaches middle school at Northesast, which has been getting a lot of press lately because teachers are being attacked. One teacher, my colleague told me, was beaten with her own cane. My friend said other teachers had been asking when that teacher was going to come back. My friend said, "Never. No one would go back. If you got beat with your own cane you would not go back." I agreed. The violence is part of gang initiations. Laine said that students are always flashing gang signs in the halls. She said she flashes her Language Arts sign (form L with both hands, turn left hand upside down so thumbs form arm of L and crossbar of the A) I just laughed.

If you're not in the middle of it everyday, it might seem scary of dangerous or horrible or any other number of things, and it is all those things, but I guess we learn to be in it and not get torn apart by it. If I thought n depth about all the terrible things, the violence and poverety and everything else, I'd never set foot in my classroom again.

Always Teaching:
Yesterday, the third and foruth grades went bowling (except there were little balls and pins) and because only one of the third grade teachers and no third grade parents went, I got to watch over some of the babies. Anyway, this one little girl LaShawna, had clearly never been bowling, this was true of a lot of the kids, but she would just kind of walk up to the line and heft the ball by flicking her wrist like you would a frisbee, she would turn so that she threw from the hip sideways. So the next time her turn came up, I said, "What's your name?" "LaShawna"
"Okay, LaShawna, let me show you."
So we got her ball, and I put her hand underneath it, not on the side, and we practiced taking two big steps, and then a little one while bending our knees and laying the ball right between the arrows. We practicecd a couple of times before letting it go. When her turn came up, her concentration was visible "Big step, big step, bend and go."
We watched how Mr. Samuels took his steps and released the ball. By the end of the day she got a couple of strikes. And I was right behind her when she came back with her hands up for a high five.

***
Spring break, y'all.
I got my boots on.
I'll be under a Texas sky.
I'll be west.
I'll be home.
As of now, I am G.T.T.

Go well, stay well.

Putting it in Perspective:

The toughest kid in the whole fourth grade is frequently described as "street" meaning basically that he has to fend for himself cause ain't no one else looking out for him.

He is angry. Disruptive. Manipulative. And many times, mean. He is often completely anti-social.

I kept him in the class today from his music class because of his behavior, and after the requisite "Man, I didn't do nothing," we settled into a tense, but peaceful silence, punctuated by his occasional soliloquies. Once he startled himself and jerked. "You okay?" I asked.

"I was daydreaming" he said.

"Good dream or bad?" I asked.

"Bad." he said. "About the devil."

The following has to do with something he hears frequently from another teacher.

"Talk. Talk. Talk. I'm going to jail for talking. Going to jail for talking. Well there are worse things than going to jail."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Going to hell."

"Well, I guess that's true," I said.

And though he is street, he posesses a child's earnestness.

Bad daydreams. A devil on his way to snatch, and a stop in jail on the way. Pants that don't fit, clothes that aren't clean. Bouts of ringworm and an aching hunger. Is it any wonder that he's mad at the world?

I would be too.

Stream of Consciousness Continues:
Completed the A section of my iTunes and am now in the middle of B. Sometimes it is painful to not skip a song, either cause I'm not in the mood to hear or because it's something weird, but soldier on I do. (Caleb, Simon and Garfunkel's America came before Bernstein's, becase the artists were listed as Various, and obviously S comes before V.)

And now friends, the answer is blowing in the wind. After that I embark on the 14 songs in my library whose titles start with the word "blue" or "blues".

Thoughts thus far: Pat Metheny seems to have gotten a lot of play in the A section. Also some things are difficult to listen to out of context of their larger work, so that by itself, one little Allegro from Handle is a little bizarrish when it comes between two pop songs. Copland's Applachin Spring got listened to out of movement order because of the alphbetation, but this presented a fresh listen to the music I'm very familiar with. Because I also have many instances of the same song by different, and sometimes the same, artists it's been interesting to compare interpretations. For example the difference between the An American in Paris conducted by Gershwin, versus a version conducted by Bernstein.

Biggest surprise: Since the first time I heard An American in Paris in roughly middle school, I've thought I hated that piece. But it turns out I don't. Go out and listen to it.

Glory Hallelujah
Totally forgot it was Palm Sunday weekend, until I ventured to the grocery store Saturday evening and saw people lined up with Palm Fronds outside the Cathedral, it still took me a minute to put it all together. "What are all these people doing, and why do they have palm fronds?...."

Church! Faith! Thoughts!
Thought this was going to be a long section, huh? Nope. A friend of mine did ask me this weekend what I believe and why. This is always a challenging question. Not the what so much as the why. I'm still not thoroughly satisified with the answer I gave - I believe I probably could have expressed things more clearly. But it's always an interesting question to ask yourself - Can you give a good answer?

Also, I went to St. Paul's Episcopal on Sunday. I really appreciate the Easter season, for me it's where the heart of Christianity is wrapped up. And so there's no better time to ask the what and why then right now.

You know you teach in the inner city when:
A good portion of your faculty meeting is spent discussing the rise of gangs in the community and what colors to monitor and ask students to remove - this is a bigger issue in the middle school, but more prevalent in the elementary than you would think. We were also reminded that gangs recruit via MySpace - clearly technology makes everything better.

Recommended Reading:
If you're looking to be completely freaked out by the reality of drug culture in the inner city, the effects of poverty and lack of structure, then rush right out and get The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns. It follows some Baltimore residents through a year of life. I won't say it completely changed my perspective, but it did give me a few missing puzzle pieces to understanding this city and culture.

If you're looking for lighter fare: Well, I probably can't help you, it's not my thing. I'm currently reading Watership Down on Melissa's recommendation - initial thoughts: This book is weird, why are rabbits talking (Hlao-roo, and flay-rah). But it has since hooked me.

I finished Lonesome Dove last month, but I can't talk about it yet, I'm still a little emotional over it.. You should read it though. Thanks to Blythe for bringing it my way.

And the whole comments thing:
Four comments on the last post is good, more is better. Come on folks, give me a shout out here. I recognize the writing is not up to Bears and Penguins usual standard, but gimme a break, gimme something. Consider the comments like instant validation for me - yes, I know it's selfish to ask, but there it is. It is to be hoped that Bears and Penguins returns to a higher standard in the near future...