november 30

JOURNAL TOPIC:
This morning I drove around a bend in the 101 -- and traffic stopped.  I got off the freeway (feeling not very free at all, and looking for a better way) and drove into more traffic.  Very, very frustrating.  Then I came over a hill and saw the accident that was blocking the 101.  I quickly realized that the drivers of those crumpled cars were having a much worse morning than I was, and I felt very, very fortunate to be alive, safe, and on my way to work.

We are all aware of the obstacles in our lives, but what about the good things?  Describe something that makes you feel lucky to be you today.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Two Things

net neutrality

Do you have any idea what is going on?  The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is planning to end Net Neutrality.

What does that mean?  It means we're screwed.

Right now, when you go on the Internet you can get to every website at the same speed.  If there's a delay it's a delay for every website, not just the one someone else doesn't think you should see.

But if the FCC goes through with its plan, it will give ISPs and big, wealthy websites (think Facebook) a huge advantage.  These sites will pay the ISP to "fast track" their information to you, and everyone else will be stuck in the slow lane.  This is terrible news for individual bloggers (like us) and small businesses.  Under the FCC's proposed plan, if you want anyone to see your website you will have to pay AT&T, Verizon, and the other huge corporate ISPs for the privilege.  Otherwise, you'll be stuck behind people and companies with more money.

This will make Internet access harder for everyone except big companies and rich people. (Huh.  Is that starting to sound familiar?)

But there is something you can do about this.  Go to https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express
and fill out the quick form.  I just did. See the image below; you can copy the Proceeding # (17-108) and the comments (I support Title 2 oversight of ISPs and I support net neutrality.)


If saving the Internet isn't worth 2 minutes of your time, then you don't deserve to use it.

november 29

JOURNAL TOPIC:
It's often been said that, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."  What does this mean to you?  Who are the impressive people in your life, and what impressed you about them in the first place?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Work Wednesday: poetry analysis, blogs, Big Questions, life after HS

november 28

JOURNAL TOPIC: (Today's Tunes: "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love & Understanding" by Elvis Costello & The Attractions)

Every culture throughout history has had some idea about peace.  Some cultures do peace better than others.  What do you think is necessary for peace?  You can think about peace within yourself, peace within your close circle of family or friends, or peace between nations.  How can you relate the idea of peace to Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Immigrants in our own Land"?

AGENDA:

1. Journal

2. Table discussion:

a) Consider Jessica Parra's blog entry about the poem

b) Compare your answers to the questions about theme, tone, mood, and devices

c) Change your mind about (at least) one of your answers based on the conversation and update your blog

PLEASE NOTE: Either every single one of us will have a blog entry to show for this week's thinking about the poem, or we will have a gut-wrenchingly difficult in-class exam on the poem Friday.

immigrants in our own land

Immigrants in Our Own Land 

By Jimmy Santiago Baca

We are born with dreams in our hearts,

looking for better days ahead.

At the gates we are given new papers,

our old clothes are taken

and we are given overalls like mechanics wear.

We are given shots and doctors ask questions.

Then we gather in another room

where counselors orient us to the new land

we will now live in. We take tests.

Some of us were craftsmen in the old world,

good with our hands and proud of our work.

Others were good with their heads.

They used common sense like scholars

use glasses and books to reach the world.

But most of us didn’t finish high school.

The old men who have lived here stare at us,

from deep disturbed eyes, sulking, retreated.

We pass them as they stand around idle,

leaning on shovels and rakes or against walls.

Our expectations are high: in the old world,

they talked about rehabilitation,

about being able to finish school,

and learning an extra good trade.

But right away we are sent to work as dishwashers,

to work in fields for three cents an hour.

The administration says this is temporary

So we go about our business, blacks with blacks,

poor whites with poor whites,

chicanos and indians by themselves.

The administration says this is right,

no mixing of cultures, let them stay apart,

like in the old neighborhoods we came from.

We came here to get away from false promises,

from dictators in our neighborhoods,

who wore blue suits and broke our doors down

when they wanted, arrested us when they felt like,

swinging clubs and shooting guns as they pleased.

But it’s no different here. It’s all concentrated.

The doctors don’t care, our bodies decay,

our minds deteriorate, we learn nothing of value.

Our lives don’t get better, we go down quick.

My cell is crisscrossed with laundry lines,

my T-shirts, boxer shorts, socks and pants are drying.

Just like it used to be in my neighborhood:

from all the tenements laundry hung window to window.

Across the way Joey is sticking his hands

through the bars to hand Felipé a cigarette,

men are hollering back and forth cell to cell,

saying their sinks don’t work,

or somebody downstairs hollers angrily

about a toilet overflowing,

or that the heaters don’t work.

I ask Coyote next door to shoot me over

a little more soap to finish my laundry.

I look down and see new immigrants coming in,

mattresses rolled up and on their shoulders,

new haircuts and brogan boots,

looking around, each with a dream in their heart,

thinking they’ll get a chance to change their lives.

But in the end, some will just sit around

talking about how good the old world was.

Some of the younger ones will become gangsters.

Some will die and others will go on living

without a soul, a future, or a reason to live.

Some will make it out of here with hate in their eyes,

but so very few make it out of here as human

as they came in, they leave wondering what good they are now

as they look at their hands so long away from their tools,

as they look at themselves, so long gone from their families,

so long gone from life itself, so many things have changed.

meet jimmy santiago baca

Baca by dpreston1441 on Scribd

november 27

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe your Thanksgiving.  Start with the details: Who was around your table?  What did you eat? 

Then think back:

What were you especially grateful for?  As you look back on last week and consider today, what are you grateful for right now?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Every good story suggests a question for us readers.  Today we will ask it of each other. 

About the next few weeks...

What Happens Next?

 

3. Meet Jimmy Santiago Baca

november 17

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Just now, on my walk from the classroom to the parking lot, four different people said to me, "Man, almost there..."  I suppose many people on campus are giving thanks that we won't be here next week. That's totally understandable, and also a little bit sad-- wouldn't it be nicer to spend our days where we WANT to be, doing what we WANT to be doing?  Today we're going to focus on what we choose.  Start by writing in your journal about why your Big Question is interesting to you.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. The Week in Review
3. The Week of You

Here are some things to think about as you plan for next week (please feel free to add more with a comment to this post):

• How do you want to invest your time in general?
• Regarding your Big Question:
• What do you want to read?
• What do you want to watch?
• Who do you want to meet?
• What do you want to write?
• What do you want to create/build?
• What do you want to practice?
• What do you want to listen to?
• What do you want to...
• What do you WANT? 

november 16

JOURNAL TOPIC:
How did you use the class period yesterday?  Be honest-- did you follow the steps you planned, or did you get sidetracked?  How is it for you to have more independence in how you use your time in class?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Return Emerson essays and discuss next steps (post to your blog; title ON SELF-RELIANCE)
3. Return résumés and discuss next steps (type a version and bring on Friday or...)

crap detection

We're going to deal with this.

november 15

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Yesterday we all got a little clearer on our Big Questions.  (Hooray! :)  Today you have the period to think and work.  PLEASE USE IT.  Begin by writing in your journal-- list three things you can do that will help you learn more about your big question.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Post to your blog about your Big Question and what you have accomplished in class yesterday and today (title: ROOM TO THINK)

HW:
Get your minds right and catch up on anything you haven't done.  We have a big day tomorrow!

november 14

Today we are celebrating "Low-Tech Tuesday" in class with a conversation about your Big Questions.  At the end of class please write in your journal on the following topic:

JOURNAL TOPIC:

At this point in my life, what am I really interested in learning?  How can I use the weeks without school over the next two months to learn more about it?

november 13

JOURNAL TOPIC:

What's the point of tests?  Why do your teachers and the school give you so many?  Describe a time you did well on a test and/or a time you did poorly.  Are you prepared for today's test on "Sound of Thunder"?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Test

november 9

JOURNAL TOPIC:
One year when I was a kid I went to a summer day camp.  At the pool on at hot, sunny San Fernando day, a guy named Brick (I don't know if that was his real name :) was trying to impress a girl.  "I love the rain," he said, "it washes away the..."  I don't remember hearing the end of the line.  I don't know if it was poetry or his personal philosophy.  But for the last 40 years or so since I heard him say it, every %&*$!!! time it rains, I find myself saying silently, "I love the rain, it washes away the something something something..."  Literally.  I finish the line with something something something.  This is both funny and deeply dissatisfying.  So, dear colleagues, I am asking for your help today.  Whether you love the rain or not, please rewrite this line with a better ending.  Mahalo.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Résumés

HW:
Finish reading "The Sound of Thunder" and post a response to the ending of the story (title: A THUNDEROUS ENDING)

november 8

Today is only a test.  Meet in the MMLC.

(Extra credit if you can explain why I included the image above.)

the power of the phone

I love teaching because every day I have a chance to learn.  This morning before period 2, I looked around the room and it hit me again: our tools have changed our behavior in very powerful ways.  It seems like every conversation about technology is infused with marketing/celebration, or judgement/criticism.  I'd like to continue building our awareness without all that.  I'm just curious about how we can adapt to the changing technology around us.

november 7

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Time Warp" by Richard O'Brien from The Rocky Horror Picture Show*; "Time" by Pink Floyd; "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce]

Think of a moment you'd like to last longer.  Or go by quicker.  Or that you'd like to revisit in the past.  Or go back to long ago.  Or see in the future.

Describe the moment in detail.
 
AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Discussion: journal and "A Sound of Thunder"

HW:
1. Write a vignette in time

*The Rocky Horror Picture Show came out in 1973-- it was a cult classic when I was in high school.  Midnight shows with audiences in full costume and makeup, rocking out in the aisles of the theaters.  Or so I was told.  I was at home doing my homework. :) 

résumé objectives

Here are templates and examples for the three types of objectives we discussed in class:

1. FOR A SCHOLARSHIP

(template)
To win the [AMOUNT/NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP] Scholarship that will help me pay my tuition at [NAME OF SCHOOL] where I will earn my degree in [MAJOR/FIELD] and realize my dream of [CAREER/ACCOMPLISHMENT].

(example)
To win the $1000 Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce Scholarship that will help me pay my tuition at the University of California Los Angeles, where I will earn my degree in Biology and realize my dream of curing Asthma.

2. FOR A JOB

(template)
To apply my experience in [SKILL] and my knowledge of [FIELD] as a [JOB TITLE] at [COMPANY].

(example)
To apply my experience in customer service and my knowledge of cosmetics as a Makeup Guru at Sephora.

3. FOR UNIVERSITY ADMISSION

(template)
To apply my passion for [FIELD/MAJOR] as a student at [NAME OF SCHOOL] in order to earn my degree and become a [CAREER TITLE].

(example)
To apply my passion for law as a student at Harvard University in order to earn my degree and become an environmental attorney.

our ta is really a TA

In high school, the term "TA" is often reserved for a student who had a free period and got a teacher s/he liked to sign off on a form that ensured one free period a day would be reserved for doing a whole lotta nothing much.

As she has done with everything else she takes on, Lesley Aguilar has destroyed the mold.  Without me asking, Lesley has taken on the role of TEACHING ASSISTANT.  She participates in (period 2) class discussions, she is taking on a/nother Big Question, she posted a translation of "On Self-Reliance," and she has posted her personal email address in class for anyone who needs help.

Now she is offering yet another support for those of you who need it.  As you've seen in some of your other courses, the "Remind" app can help you with those things you still haven't managed to record and remember elsewhere.  To access the reminders that Lesley posts for our course, please text 81010 @d36694.

And when you see Lesley, please thank her.

november 6

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Put two hands on your heart.  Think about a moment that made you grateful.  Click "Pause" on everything else.  Wait a couple moments after you think you're done.  Then pick up your pen and write.  (Did you notice any change in yourself?  Does this exercise feel the same as the first time you did it, or do you notice change over time?  What is on your mind now?)

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Big Question work
3. Begin "A Sound of Thunder"

HW: Finish and test your "Big Question" page on your blog 

résumé template

Please see below-- we will discuss in class. 

AP Resume Embed

november 3

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe something you count on in your life.  This can be a person (a parent will not move your entire household out of state today while you are at school), an assumption about the physical world (the ground beneath you will not give way so that your next step will land you in free fall for eternity), or a social contract (if you attend and stay out of trouble, you will graduate high school and live a life better than your parents').

What is the benefit of depending on our perceptions of people, the world, and society?  What happens when our trust in these is shaken?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Feedback on Literature Analysis & WHAT'S NEXT
3. Resume template
4. Preview of Coming Attractions

HW:
1. If you haven't posted your Literature Analysis yet, it's late-- please get to it.
2. Please comment to this post with your Big Question
3. Please preview "Sound of Thunder" here -- we will discuss next week.

november 2

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Emerson's transcendentalist contemporary (there's a mouthful!) Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Men have become the tools of their tools."  What do you think he meant?  Do you agree?  Why/why not?

 

AGENDA:

1. Journal

2. Table conversations: What's next?  How can we transcend our current circumstances?  How can this learning experience help us?

3. Please comment with your personal takeaways to this post

4. Please post your thoughts to your blog (title: WHAT'S NEXT FOR ME?) -- suggested ingredients: a) what you've learned in this course so far, b) the assets / opportunities you have available to you, and c) action steps.

isn't this what the internet's for?

Awwwww...

november 1

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Oh Well" by Fleetwood Mac; "In One Ear" by Cage the Elephant]

When is it best to speak up and be honest even though you know it's going to piss someone off?  When is it best to "go along to get along"?  Do you think Emerson would ever recommend following the herd to fit in, even when it goes against your best self or your truest instincts?  Why/why not?  Explain your answer.

AGENDA:
1. Journal/ collect Emerson revised essays
2. Standing out & fitting in
3. Brag sheet --> résumé

HW:
In a post to your blog, describe what you've learned from "On Self-Reliance" in one paragraph that any ten year-old could understand (title: EMERSON FOR THE YOUNG BUCK)