My Experiences with Shakespeare

I’m currently in a very intensive, two week, summer Shakespeare Institute. The institute itself is a great deal: $250, 2 weeks, 6 or 7 presenters who are pros in the Shakespeare, theatre, and voice worlds. For that $250 we get lunch daily, entry into two paid plays and one free one. AND, entry/parking into 3 museums. To top all that off, it’s worth 5 salary points, which if you work in LAUSD, you know that’s a lot.

One of our homework assignments was to write about our life’s experiences with Shakespeare. Since I haven’t posted here in FOREVER, I thought I’d go ahead and share…who knows if anyone still reads this?

MY EXPERIENCES WITH SHAKESPEARE

I don’t really recall a relationship with Shakespeare before college. I’m pretty sure I read “Romeo and Juliet” in high school. I even think I can remember the class; set up in traditional rows with one half of the class facing the other with a gap down the middle like the parting of the Red Sea. If my memory serves me correctly, we did the traditional and boring way of reading: up and down the rows when reading novels and when reading plays, of course we read our parts. This is all I remember.

When I entered San Diego State University I was older than the average college student. I was about 27 and a half and much more experienced in both life and education. I don’t know why nobody told me not to do this but my first semester I was enrolled in four literature courses. One lit course would have been enough, as this was when I signed up for Renaissance Literature with Professor Peter Herman.

Professor Herman was incredible! I loved and hated the class equally. It was interesting and exhilarating while overwhelming, challenging, and frankly a bit intimidating. From day one I was told that Herman did NOT give A’s and it was very hard for anyone to earn one. We studied, obviously, the Renaissance period including the explorers, all those love sonnets by this king and that queen, and then there was Shakespeare. This was my first real introduction, interaction, and investigation of Shakespeare.

I remember we studied both “The Tempest” and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” (MSND). For my first essay, which was an analytical essay with the requirement of using a minimum of five sources; I ended up using nine. I wrote my essay on MSND. I analyzed Bottom’s obsession with food and came to the conclusion that Shakespeare was making a social commentary on the state of the economy, famine, and access to food during the period. I recall I got one fact quite wrong and the professor definitely noticed. I earned a B on that first draft. I was determined to get that impossible A and after a hearty revision, earned an A. I was extremely proud. It was during this course that I learned to truly appreciate Shakespeare. However, it was only after I learned how to read his works from an historical lens. Ironically, my memory for historical facts is horrible; yet, this is what allowed me to appreciate his works.

My next two interactions with Shakespeare came during an honors critical writing course and a Shakespeare course at SDSU. To be honest, the Shakespeare course was terrible because of the professor. I know I earned a B but I truly do not remember doing any work for that class. Odd. In contrast, the critical writing course is where I think my true appreciation blossomed.

Like my students, when I can find a real world connection to a piece of literature, I can engulf myself in it and really draw out an understanding. In that critical writing course I wrote an essay about “Othello” and the power names. I discussed and analyzed how Iago refuses to call Othello by his name and only refers to him as “the moor”. I looked at what happens when the group in power takes ones’ name and how that dehumanizes a person or group. To this day I love this essay. When I was applying for teaching positions the professor of this course wrote me a letter of recommendation and even quoted my own essay! I was flabbergasted in the best of ways. She quoted me with the following excerpt. In all honesty, I can’t even believe I wrote this. Sometimes I wonder where that skill went.:

The power of naming is a key factor in the progression of the play. Iago consistently refers to Othello not by his name, but by “the Moor.” Shakespeare clearly suggests that Iago’s refusal to call Othello by his real name is his final attempt to cast aspersion on Othello’s character. The power of naming is a process by which an oppressor attempts to divest power from another. This theme is commonly found in writings of Shakespeare’s and is evident in the literature of the explorers of the Americas. Just as the explorers took land from the natives, renaming it, and calling it theirs, Iago attempts to steal Othello’s name. In doing this, Iago seeks to defile Othello, seizing from him his honor and his power.

When I began student teaching I taught “Othello”. It went quite well considering it was my first attempt teaching Shakespeare and I wasn’t even a teacher officially. It was a great experience and although I’ve never taught seniors since then, I look forward to building some sort of Project Based Learning unit for a second semester Shakespeare experience for my students. I do believe it is of value to teach Shakespeare. Oddly, my father (a 30 year retired metal shop teacher) asked me this SAME question the night before I knew I would be writing this reflection. My answer to him has not changed. I think it’s important to expose students to Shakespeare because we learn from the greats, we learn from mentors. It’s important to understand history and not only that, Shakespeare helps us to use and teach skills that are, in and of themselves, challenging to teach: critical thinking, analysis, connecting self to texts. I believe it should be encouraged for all English teachers, where appropriate, to teach Shakespeare. He is one of our classics for a reason. Finally, if we don’t expose students to the challenging texts, to the unpopular texts, to the texts that they fear and “think” they can’t read – then when will they learn it? When will the read it? Likely never. This, if for no other reason, is why it is my responsibility as a teacher to expose my students to Shakespeare.\

Sharing what I know

Thought I’d share an email I just sent out to colleagues who were requesting information on how to teach Greek and Latin Roots. I got some of the ideas from a web site a long time ago. I have the link at work.

This is what a good plan looks like that’s easy and not hard. Before I lay it out. Let me say that research says that looking up definitions in dictionaries is not the most effective way to learn vocabulary. Perhaps I can share a couple methods at a PD (Ugh, did I just volunteer). Or I can do what I do best and email . Below is how I introduce Etymology currently. FYI, my 11th graders have received this intro already.

1. Write Etymology on the board. Explain that Etymology is “The study of the early form of a word”. I show this by breaking up the word ETYM (early form of a word) and OLOGY (the study of). I further explain that learning the most common roots will help them in ALL classes and especially the SAT.

2. Next I write HIPPOPOTAMUS on the board. HIPPOS means “Horse” and POTAMUS means “River”. So I have fun telling them how every root has a meaning and they may not see these two, they can see how roots are put together.

3. Write MALARIA on the board. Underline MAL and ask what they think it means. They always guess “Bad” since it’s that in Spanish. I use this as an opportunity to explain that Spanish, English, French, and Italian are all Latin languages. Next we break down MALARIA: MAL = bad, ARIA = air.

4. At this point you’ll see the LOVE doing these. This is when I give them the work sheet which I will attach. This is easy to edit for each week of Roots. We go through each root and the kids popcorn out what words they know that have that root. I have them try to guess the meaning based on the similarities of the words being yelled out. I give them the meaning if they can’t guess it and I break it down a little like this:

CRED: Kids yell, “Incredible” “Credible” “Credulous” “Creed”. They try to guess. Then I tell them CRED means BELIEVE so if it’s INcredible it’s NOT believable.

VERT/VERSE: Kids yell, “vertical”, inverse, reverse, perverse , etc. I usually use INVERSE and ask what do they do when they do the INVERSE operation. Someone figures out that it means TO TURN.

This site has an alphabetical root dictionary that is very thorough: http://www.learnthat.org/vocabulary/pages/view/roots.html#a

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need more information.

Teachers…How do you grade?

I’d love for any teacher readers, if you’re out there, to share what sort of grading system you use. When I was a student teacher we used weighted grade scales. For example, essays might be 35% of total grade with homework being 10% etc etc. The problem I found with this is that nobody told me this is really only accurate if all assignments have same point value. Do I have this wrong? I mean, if I am only giving 20 points for homework, 50 points for quizzes and so on, then the weights are thrown off.

The past few years I’ve just done a point system which was dependent upon what I felt the assignments were worth. Not the most scientific. Basically, warm ups are 5 points. Basic class work 10. Homework 20. Quizzes 40, essays 100.

So, what do you do?

Coco’s Variety Store, a Hidden Gem in L.A.

How many stores do you know who sell everything from used books, weird toys from Japan, random bike parts, Basil Panniers, Nantucket baskets, water and water bottles of all sizes, and BIKES, both new and used? None right?  Coco’s Variety in Silverlake is quite a unique gem. They seriously carry all sorts of cool and whacky. I drove by this, what I then thought was a refill your water store, for at least 4 years before I finally went in. And when I went I was pleasantly surprised.

I have been looking for  Basil pannier for a long time. They are very hard to find in L.A. as they come from Holland and aren’t cheap. The one I want is $75 at Coco’s which is a fair price since I’m buying local and won’t need to pay for shipping. Even better , if I bring them homebaked goods or something from the farmer’s market, I get a 10% discount . Though, that means I’d need to spend less than $7 to make the price lower—even so, the idea is homey and neighborly

Today I was on their blog and discovered something new and cool about Coco’s, they will LEND OUT THEIR TOOLS TO CUSTOMERS! Unheard of yes. Very cool indeed! I’ll likely never use the tools as I’m a bring it in to get fixed kind of bike owner. But, I think their generosity, willingness to trust the public, and their uniqueness in general is something worth mentioning. 

Go check out Coco’s on the corner of Riverside and Fletcher. It’s the place with all the bikes out front.

Relieved

Today I spent a few hours at high school where  I spent my first three years teaching. I went  to observe and chat with  the ESL teacher. I’m not an ESL teacher per se but I will most likely be teaching ESL 1 or 2 next year along with 4 sections of American Lit/Comp. I am determined to feel comfortable with this and am actually excited.

Before observing the class I went to visit a couple teacher friends. One was on her prep period followed by lunch. The two of them are next door classroom neighbors. We hung out, chatted, listened to the ins and outs of what’s going on there. Mostly she listened to me talk about my own school and the process of becoming a pilot school. After lunch I went and observed the ESL class and then visited with another teacher friend afterwards.

The best part of the day was my 9th graders of four years ago who saw me and came and said hi. It’s always refreshing when they’re happy to see you versus seeing you and rolling their eyes and walking away. I’m happy to report I usually get the first reaction.   I also fully enjoyed lunching and hanging with two of my friends. It’s funny that I’m now becoming closer to them, three years after leaving that school.

What I discovered is that there is no doubt in my mind that leaving this school when I did was a VERY wise move. First, there will be large structural changes which will cause about half the teachers to move to other schools. A new school is opening and this school will provide about fifty percent of the students and therefore teachers too. Nobody likes the principal and when I ran into other teachers I didn’t like what I heard or felt. I got lots, “You like your new school?” (with raised eyebrows). People at this school are simply old school. So many teachers have been there for 12+ years. There are many teachers who have been there 20+ years. As a matter of fact, tons of teachers actually graduated from here.

Point being, I’m VERY HAPPY and thrilled even to be at the school I’m at. Sometimes we just need a new perspective to remind us to count our blessings. I have amazing colleagues. I have a beautiful classroom with a great view of the city. I’m happy and relieved that this decision I made turned out to be awesome!

Cycling Helps Renew Love of L.A.-Try It!

When you spend a day in Venice, well, you get a taste of all the ethnic and cultural wonder that is Los Angeles. You’ll see what I mean even more on my FLICKR SET.

Today I headed out on a solo trip to Santa Monica Pier. The pier is exactly 13 miles from my front door according to Google Maps. I threw my bike in the back seat and headed out before 1pm.  Traffic wasn’t horrible, just a couple of slow patches on the way.  Tip: If you’re driving to the beach to ride your bike, park  a few blocks away and ride over. I found parking very easily over near the SanMo Civic Center.

I arrived at 1:30 and was very hungry so I rode the couple blocks to the pier, walk ed the bike through the plethora of interesting people locals and tourists alike.  Tip: The corner behind the Ferris Wheel and Coaster is pretty empty. No benches to sit on but also a no smoking zone . So I perched my sandwich on my seat and took my time watching screaming kids on rides, the ocean, and the shoreline. I a lso took a moment to pause and reflect on the Arlington West living memorial located next to the pier. The memorial acknowledges the living price of war.

Next I headed down to the boardwalk and rode  south towards Venice Beach. Little did I know that today is a VERY busy Venice day as it’s the Hare Krishna Festival of the Chariots. This means the Krishnas take over Venice Boardwalk with a festival which included a music stage, food tents,  mediation tents, a children’s theatre stage, and oodles of other things. They even had a FREE FEAST tent, vegetarian of course. Of course the Hare Krishnas are just one interesting thing about this great city.

Another joy of the day was checking out all the different bikes and various modes of transportation…Besides bikes I saw Segways, skateboards, rollerblades, kids bikes, adult tricycles, tandem bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrids, dogs on bikes, Jews pulling kids on bikes, bikes that were so tripped out I don’t know what to call it bikes .

Have Meter Stick Will Travel

Guest post from a friend who I’m trying to get into blogging. He posted this on his FB page. PLEASE comment and show him how awesome he is at writing!

Yesterday at 8:49pm

This summer I’m teaching Geometry at Fairfax High School. Every day has its rewards and challenges, but today I had 3 especially noteworthy interactions with different students.
The first occurred at the end of first period. A female student brought up some work to turn in. She was quickly followed by a male student. There in front of me, he proceeded to ask her for a hug. She was nice, but made it clear that she was not interested. But he was undeterred and kept asking, practically begging. I finally spoke up. "Keith, I don’t blame you for wanting a hug from Brittany. She’s very cute. But if she doesn’t welcome it, it’s harrassment." He kept insisting a little longer but finally gave up. When he was gone, I told Brittany, "Let me know if he or anyone else in the class keeps bothering you. You’ll be doing yourself, AND THEM, a favor." She thanked me and left the room.
The second interaction occurred five minutes into second period. There is a fifteen-minute nutrition break between periods, followed by a five-minute passing period. I was still trying to hustle kids into the classroom from the hallway when 3 of my boys walked by casually as if they had all the time in the world. I yelled at them that they needed to hurry inside because they were five minutes late and one of them said, "I had to take a piss." I let the other two boys come in, but before Michael could enter I closed the door from the outside. We were both in the hallway. "What did I do?" He asked angrily. I told him, "One, you’re coming to class 5 minutes late. Two, instead of being apologetic when I correct you, you’re over here talking about ‘piss’, disrespecting me and yourself." He wasn’t having any of it, so I reminded him that when he showed up to class on day 4 asking to be added to the class, I had done so willingly. "I did you a favor, Michael. Si o no?" He was quiet for a moment and then he said "Si." "Then why are you disrespecting me now?" Then he said those magic words that never fail to shut me up. He said, "I’m sorry.’ Whether he was sincere or just knew enough to say that to get me off his back, I can’t say. But he was well-behaved the rest of the period and we even exchanged pleasant words near the end.
Number three concerns Felix. Felix is a student with a learning disability that requires that he have an adult taking notes for him in class every day. For some reason, Felix dislikes Tony, his note-taker, and bristles at any attempt by Tony to correct him. At one point, Tony was trying to get Felix to take out the Trig Table he would need for the test we were about to take and Felix yelled at him that he didn’t need it. "Felix, why are you yelling in my classroom?" I asked, unable to stay quiet. "I wasn’t yelling," he said. "Yes, you were, Felix. There is no need to yell. It’s a small classroom. It’s not Grand Central Station." (This, by the way, is a line I stole and paraphaphrased from that Nick and Norah movie last year). "I’m sorry, mister," he said. "Don’t apologize to me. I’m not the one you yelled at. You should apologize to Tony." I don’t think he did apologize, but Tony was happy. He gave me a thumbs up.
About 20 minutes later, after the test had started, Felix threw his arms up in disgust and put his head down on the desk. Apparently, he had found the test too difficult. Tony came over and tried to offer encouragement and to get Felix to sit up and take the test. But Felix snapped at Tony. I waited a few minutes and then called Felix. He came over to where I was standing and I asked him to take the attendance roster to the main office for me (Felix likes to volunteer to pass stuff out for me and to run errands). "While you’re outside, I want you to breathe in and out slowly, and when you come back into the room, I want you to sit up, relax, and try that test again." He said he would, and when he returned, he did so. I don’t think he did much better on the second try, but at least he got to feel better about himself (I think. I hope.).
I often feel that my job is about more than teaching math. Sometimes I feel like I’m that guy Kane from the Kung-Fu show of the 70′s. I travel about, school to school, dispensing my wisdom, my teachings on love and acceptance and manners and decency and kindness and accepting responsibility and self-respect and consideration of others and forgiveness. And sometimes, I just need to kick some motherfucka’s ass.

Philadelphia is a great place for veggies!

When I found out I was headed to Philly for an educator’s conference, the first thing I did was some googleing for vegetarian and kosher restaurants. To my wondrous surprise I was staying across the street from the infamous Reading Terminal Market which has a Vegan food stand! SCORE! I stayed at the downtown Marriott and being a vegetarian AND kosher; well you can imagine I run into challenges. Although I don’t keep to a vegan diet, many of the places I choose to eat at are wholly vegan or cater to vegans as well as vegetarians. While in Philly I tried two different places that I thought I’d share.

New Harmony Vegetarian (and Vegan) Chinese- This place is OFF THE HOOK. First, it’s a REAL chinese place that is Veggie and Kosher certified. You go in and it FEELS like a proper Chinese restaurant. When you are seated you are immediately brought complimentary tea. My colleague and I could not choose off their enormous menu which means we over ordered and wasted (oops). Appetizers we tried: Almond chicken (crisy disks of soy chicken covered in almonds) andGreen Onion pancakes,YUM. For entrees we had Orange Beef, Tofu Lo Mein and the most divine General Tsao’s Chicken you will ever taste!

The Basic 4 is a gift in the middle of the city. My favorite item was my breakfast scrambler: Eggs (or Tofu) scrambled with sauteed onion and peppers, soy cheese, and home friends wrapped in a flax seed wrap. TASTY! I also had their Chicken Salad (seitan) sandwich which was so hearty and full of flavor. Of course, being in Philadelphia I had to have a Philly Cheesesteak. Their vegan version of this was tasty and fun and HUGE!

Another amazing thing I found was the 7-11 across from my hotel. They had TWO shelves of ready to go vegan food! I was completely amazed by this! SO…GO TO PHILLY! It’s hip, it’s clean. They have the largest number of public murals in the nation. It’s very much like DC with a lot more veggie options.

Interested in more pics? Check out my FLICKR SET HERE! Trust me, there are far more interesting ones

Bean Sprouts Vegetarian Chinese

It’s time for me to revive this blog and so why not start with a restaurant review.

Today we were out doing errands in the Arcadia area just east of Pasadena.  Arcadia and Alhambra have a large Asian and specifically Chinese population which means the vegan and vegetarian restaurants in this area are very different than the ones we find in our neighborhood which consists of mostly of Vegan Thai.  We love vegan Thai but  eat it often and were happy to try something new.

When we’re out and about and hungry, all I have to do is click my VegOut iPhone application and voila! we get a listing of the nearest vegetarian restaurants. I love that I can customize the program to only find me vegan or vegetarian and not “vegetarian friendly” as Avi and I, because of the kosher thing, won’t eat where meat and milk are served.  Besides, I don’t eat any meat and Avi will not eat non-Kosher meat. 

So, there we were buying some sunglasses at REI and I clicked my trusty iPhone app and discovered that just around the block was a Vegan Chinese place called Bean Sprouts, so we went for it.

As we entered the first thing we noticed was that the majority of customers were older Chinese folks speaking Chinese. We also noticed the place was cute and clean.  The “specials” board was written in only Chinese. this was a good sign as we weren’t getting the ‘same ole same ole’ Thai Vegan.  As we perused the menu we discovered that this place had almost all very traditional dishes. 

As we both ordered two items each it didn’t occur to us that this was going to be a place that does everything in family size…oops.  I went crispy fried chicken which was fried with basil. The crispy fried basil was so good. The chicken was about the closest thing we’ve had vegan that is similar to KFC! It was so freaking good and seasoned amazingly.  I also ordered Won Tons in Hot and Spicy Sauce. These wontons were delish! They were spicy and filled with water chestnuts, tofu, and mushrooms.  Avi ordered the hot and sour soup which unfortunately was the only thing we didn’t really care for. He also ordered  fried rice with soy ham. The ham was tasty though in general I don’t do ham. I only had one bite.  The nice thing was that this was not some unhealthy fried rice but rather very traditional white rice with carrots, peas and ham. 

All in all we enjoyed our meal. If you’re ever out the Arcadia way, definitely check it out.

My Lulav and Etrog Shake When I Walk

During Sukkot I like to wear this necklace.  I long forgot the artist’s name but after some clever Googling I found the artist’s site.  This special Sukkot design is part of the Images From Galilee collection by Israeli artist Angie Olami.  It’s really unique and lovely.  My chain is different and I don’t have the earrings but other than that mine is identical to the picture here.  In my research I discovered another reason I like this artist besides her beautiful work, SHE’S GREEN!

 

As of July, 2007, the sterling silver used in all Angie Olami’s jewelry collections is 93% recycled (alloys, which comprise 7% of sterling cannot yet come from recycled materials). We are very proud of this fact and hope you will share it with your customers.

Angie Olami has also launched a new collection for Fall 2007 which, in addition to the recycled materials above, also uses recycled component parts from electronics such as computers and radios: hi-tech motherboards and transistors provide a striking contrast to the Ancient roman Glass. The Collection is called TOTALLY GREEN and is already being featured in many websites and fine galleries across the United States.

So, go check out some cool jewelery.