Mood Music

In a world where life's pressures often feel too much to bear, and inner peace feels too fleeting to hold onto ... it's hard to choose to be happy. Yes, happiness is a choice - not some tangible person, or event, or goal you chase after. It's a way of living - a way of being open to possibilities of a greater purpose. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that if Holocaust survivors, like Viktor Frankl, were able to find spiritual resistance and resilience in that hell, so can we all.

That being said, sometimes we could use a reboot; like a frozen computer screen, we get stuck and can't seem to process the world around us in a positive way. The power of music over mood and physical well being is scientifically established ... But you don't need medical journals to tell you that; just go into any mall department store and listen. Clothing stores utilize music to increases confidence and sales, just as bars use music to boost booze consumption and endorphins.

Still skeptical? Try this little experiment that I do with my English classes to teach the difference between "mood" and "tone". Listen to Hey Ya by Outkast and then the version of Hey Ya by Obadiah Parker. You will feel an involuntarily shift in emotion.

We subconsciously mimic the mood of the music we listen to - so when you're feeling depressed, resist dwelling in cathartic sad tunes for too long and opt instead for songs that pass the American Band Stand Test: they have a good beat and are easy to dance to. (Ps. I personally am guilty of putting on lonely, crooning songs when down. In fact, my mom knows every Depeche Mode song by heart because as a teen, when I was upset, that was my go to band for my "Depressed Mode" soundtrack.)

Below are my top five music videos that help me shift gears and change direction when I'm going in circles: Ms. Jackson by Outkast, I Like the Remix by New Kids on the Block, Sitya Loss by Eddie Kenzo, Weapon of Choice by Fat Boy Slim, and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.

'Ms. Jackson': The supporting cast of animals grooving along to this song in the video are as smooth as Outkast's catchy lyrics. My personal favorite extras are the cantankerous kitten and hooting owl. Fun fact: the song features an altered version of "Bridal Chorus" from the opera Lohengrin by German composer Richard Wagner (also known as the "wedding march").

"I Like the Remix" by New Kids on the Block is a blast from my 80s past - just updated.. It features one of the best statements on inner beauty I've ever seen in an overly sexualized industry. This video is sure to boost any girl's confidence thanks to Artemis Pebdani's sassy attitude. * Urban Dictionary definition SASSY = possessing an ungodly amount of cool.

I fell in love with Ugandan children while working with the Invisible Children project 9 years ago. For more than 30 years, Joseph Kony has kidnaped over 30,000 Ugandan children, and through unspeakable acts of machete brutality and psychological torture, forced them to become child soldiers in the LRA. Luckily, grassroots movements seem to finally be effectuating change; just yesterday, CBC reported that Kony's LRA army is on the run. This video shows Ugandan children dancing to an Eddy Kenzo song (Ugandan singer). If these kids can find joy, what's stopping us? PostScript: Kenzo promised not to leave the kids behind, and has kept his promise - finding them a home and taking them along with him for shows. The featured "ghetto kids" no longer wear tattered clothes and are malnourished - a drop of humanity in an ocean of human rights abuses against Ugandan children.

If you've never seen Christopher Walken's dance swagger - you need to see this Spike Jones directed Fatboy Slim video immediately, if not sooner. I dare you not to smile. Fun fact: the line "halfway between the gutter and the stars" refers to a line in Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan: "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons has Lou Diamond Phillips, a radioactive pink teddy bear, and an underground puppet fighting ring that harkens back to Jabba the Hut scenes from Star Wars. Need I say more?

Finally, my bonus "feel good" pick has to be Stephen Colbert's 'Get Lucky' Music Video. (It is a Comedy Central clip so you have to chase it a bit on the internet. Totally worth the search.) I'm a huge Colbert Report fan, and was lucky enough to see this air live. What a treat! Colbert and friends try out their best dance moves ... set to Daft Punk’s 2013 summer hit ‘Get Lucky‘ - featuring appearances from Hugh Laurie, Jeff Bridges, Jimmy Fallon, Bryan Cranston, Henry Kissinger, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Nick Cannon and the Rockettes. Classic.

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Summer Grammar Refresher #wordcrimes

I'd like to interrupt your regularly scheduled lackidazical summer with a little grammar refresher ... After all, Back to School sales are everywhere - even though we have only been out of school for about 2.5 weeks.

Weird Al did this spoof on Blurred Lines by Thicke .. If you are having sound problems with the above embedded video look it up on YouTube -  it's worth the extra 2 seconds .

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Yo - Anyone See Hamlet?

Our school year went long; my last day was June 30th! At least some of my students gave me a few end of the year chuckles on their final exams and projects.

The above is an answer to a 12th grade exam question: Why do you think Shakespeare left Hamlet out of Act 1 Scene 1? (Btw Act I.i takes place outside.) #Elsinorishellabig

My favorite project: 10th graders created IPod playlists for the characters in King Lear. Students had to choose songs that their character could theoretically identify with, and pick out the lyrics their selected character would like best, with an explanation as to why. This sweet, quiet, incredibly polite boy came up with the song Loyal, and specifically the lyrics: "These Hoes Ain't Loyal"... and nailed his explanation. #CordeliaOG

I've got the best job in the world...but I'm glad for the break from my 126 darlings until September.

 

 

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To use a skull or not to use a skull... That is the question

Every year my senior honors students perform soliloquies and scenes from Hamlet. I couldn't help smiling when I got the below email ...

Grace nailed it by the way - using a stuffed Abby Cadabby doll that I keep in my classroom (a gift from my dear friend Christine while I was in Sloan Kettering) instead of Yorick's rotted skull.

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Yea, I'm THAT Viewer... aka no longer one of Bethenny's girls

When I was a kid hanging with grandma, anyone who crossed her was subject to "a nasty letter." These were not empty threats. I can still see her clearly, sitting at the kitchen table ... Laying down beautifully scripted letters onto one of her many charity adorned notepads (you know - those long skinny pads of paper that come with donation envelopes)... a seemingly unending roll of stamps within arms reach. Her words were elegant and biting; she was a school teacher after all.

Fast forward to 2013... Now even lazy, inarticulate people can write "nasty letters" through social media. However, many of these "joe-lunch boxes" fail to put any thought into composition, audience or purpose. These days verbal tourettes seem to have replaced constructive dialogue. Well, this week I took a page outta grandma's play book, and fired off an angry message myself to the talk show host Bethenny - of all people.

My Bethenny Facebook post lasted maybe 5 min before it came down ... But I finally got what grandma has known for so long - speaking one's mind to "strangers" whom need reality checks is a cathartic experience worth the effort. My Facebook post was about the nauseating twitter backlash to the new Miss America, and Bethenny's failure to address a serous epidemic in this country: racism. ( See below)

Racist Tweets Against Davuluri:

 

My Facebook Post on Bethenny:

 

Back to School and Extinct Indians

It's been a while since I last wrote; you see, the month of September for teachers is like April 14th for tax attorneys.... an insane blur. Days are filled with new classes, new students, new administrative demands, back to school nights, open houses, faculty meetings, department meetings, summer reading projects, 5am alarms, essays, quizzes, and dress code detentions.

I primarily teach upper division literature honors courses, but this year I also have one section of 10th grade American Lit Honors. During the first week of school, one of my sophomores reminded me that I have to readjust my expectations a bit for my younger students....

Me: "Alright everyone, what do we know about Native American culture?"
10th grader: "All I know is that Native Americans are extinct."
(other students nod enthusiastically in affirmation)
Me: "Respectfully, I think a lot of Native American people would disagree with you on that."

During the rest of the class, my mind kept conjuring up visions of an "extinct Native American" stoically standing next to a Woolley Mammoth in a display at the NY Natural History Museum - spear in hand, ready to take down the mighty tusked beast.

Let the year begin....

The Spider Grandmother did give two rules to all men, not just the Hopis. If you look at them, they cover everything. She said, "Don't go around hurting each other" and She said, "Try to understand things." - William Least Heat Moon.

Today's Grammar Lesson

Today was the first day back from Spring Break. I started classes by innocently asking them to "spell the word grammar"; more than 1/2 of my students spelled it grammEr. I shook my head and told them to get warmed up for "grammar bootcamp" this week.

For fans of the great book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" - here are a couple of Monday giggles for you. Enjoy.

We started out discussing the importance of commas using the above lesson; and interestingly nearly 100% of my high school students punctuated it like the "college males"

We then moved onto this funny, yet accurate example of word misuse...

And finished with attempted ardvark murder charges...

Oz and Onions

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" - The wizard from The Wizard of Oz

I teach literature. More than that... I (at least try to)  teach how and why we study literature.

I use the analogy of an onion with my kids, and explain that you only truly "feel" the onion when you peel back its layers ... when you reach its core - that's when your eyes water and you get that catch in your throat.

It's the same with literature... whether we are connecting  Freud's theory of the id, ego and superego to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - or comparing the dream of a better life in 1920s America (Great Gatsby) to 1950s Apartheid South Africa (Master Harold and the Boys) ... I do my best to help unravel a deceptively simple package so that my students can see the true meaning of the work - and feel its full artistic potency.

It is about this time of year that I get students telling me, with HUGE smiles on their faces, that I've ruined their lives... today was no different. One junior came bouncing up to me in the hallways and said, "Ms. Johnston - I hate you, I just saw the movie Oz The Great and Powerful and found all this symbolism in it. I can't just watch a normal movie anymore - now I see everything! My boyfriend was really annoyed." (I told her to find a smarter boyfriend.)

Over the weekend, I received two big compliments from recent graduates about my teaching strategy ... sometimes as teachers we never know if our lessons carry beyond the walls of our classroom. Like the "mighty" wizard in Oz - who was just an ordinary, little man - we all need to be reminded from time to time that just because we are minor characters in most people's lives - that doesn't negate our impact in their life story. Thank you to all my students who truly give my life and work meaning.

Instagram from one of my seniors who graduated 3 years ago

text from one of my seniors who graduated last year

Back to School

"The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called the truth" - Dan Rather

One of my recently graduated seniors - passing along motivation for me as I return to work :)

I started teaching again - hesitantly. I get these pain spikes that are almost seizure like and crippling. It's hard to predict them, and my walking was still very weak when I first returned to work.

Luckily, the physical aspects of teaching (including standing for 40 min at a time) have really helped to reverse some of the atrophy in my quads, and some days, my walking is as fluid and seamless as a flowing stream. Other days, I'm shaky and clumsy ... there really isn't any rhyme or reason to it.

The first week of school, I told my students about my general health status. I basically said, "I want to stop the rumor mill before it starts, and as my students I'm going to share something with you that I believe you have a right to know. I have an illness that causes me pain sometimes, and I may start shaking in class. You may see me walking down the halls, and I may look like I'm really hurting. Do not worry or be afraid, I am fine. I am not dying - I'm not leaving you. I assure you, the pain is not as bad as it looks and my Carcinoid cancer is under control. If you want to talk more about this privately, I'm happy to do so."

I teach the honors English courses for juniors and seniors, and my kids are amazing; they totally get it and have adjusted accordingly. For example, sometimes my writing is too shaky because of the palsy like tremors in my hands, and a kid will take over at the chalkboard.  If I need to sit (which I can only do for a few minutes at a time because of my animated teaching style), they become eerily quiet so that I don't need to raise my voice beyond a normal speaking tone.

I was having great days the first couple weeks of school, and even better lessons... until I got a pain wave last week after 1st period. When these waves hit, it feels like my entire body is in a trash compactor and my bones are being broken. I had to be driven home by a friend, and then Mike and Rob drove my car to my apartment later that night.

I was embarrassed, and almost didn't want to return to school... I started questioning whether or not it was fair to my students to continue teaching given my illness; I felt guilty that the pain prevents me from preforming at my absolute best, and I am uncomfortable with the fact that there will be days I have to miss because of the unpredictability of my symptoms.

I returned to school two days later to find a beautiful card from my 3rd period, and had every kid rushing up to me to ask me if I was alright.  Many of the teachers (including the librarian) said that my students were really worried, and kept asking them if they knew anything about my condition ... one teacher even remarked, "I can't believe how attached they are, and how much they love you after only a couple of weeks!"

Card from my Current Juniors 2012

My kids' reactions, along with the overwhelming, genuine concern and compassion of my colleagues, made me realize that I had the support system to continue, and my students are better off with me (even if I'm not 100%) than without me.

As long as I can stand, talk, and breath - you can find me in room 126, discussing Beowulf, Ramayana or life choices... challenging kids to think about their identity, and pushing them to understand that they must create their own opportunities in life. Below are just a few pictures from the end of the summer / start of school... I am grateful that I am able to live my passion every single day.

Pictures: After my students graduate, I allow them to "follow me" on Instagram, and give some of them my number in case they need anything.

(Instagram Photo) One of my students (at Rutgers) showing me that she is writing in the journal I gave her for graduation

(Instagram Photo) College Send Off Lunch 2012: love these boys and their constant shenanigans (never in my class of course)

(top left - email from one of my students from last year who won the Gates Scholarship... love the subject line; top right - taking two of my recent grads out to lunch... these two are super special because I taught them both Jr and Sr year - and they're awesome of course; bottom - email from parent following last week's Back to School night -- I taught her daughter (North Eastern) as a senior 2 yrs ago ... this year I have her son.

It's texts like these that make me smile....

When I returned to my classroom after being sick for two days, I found a zebra sitting on this photo of a grad whom I still mentor on a weekly basis. My current students must have put it there! (Zebras = symbol for Carcinoid cancer).. on the right is a recent trip to Annamaria's home so I could visit with "momma"

This comment (on a recent Instgram photo my sister took of me) is from one of my students whom I had for Jr and Sr year... he and his best friend Kalyn recently told me, "we miss you like a child misses his mother" - such wonderful kids

A Love Poem...

I shared this poem today with my seniors... it's one of my favorite "love poems" - Happy Valentine's Day.

Poem: "I Love You Sweatheart," by Thomas Lux 
from New and Selected Poems: 1975-1995 (Houghton Mifflin Co.).

I Love You Sweatheart

A man risked his life to write the words.
A man hung upside down (an idiot friend
holding his legs?) with spray paint
to write the words on a girder fifty feet above
a highway. And his beloved,
the next morning driving to work…?
His words are not (meant to be) so unique.
Does she recognize his handwriting?
Did he hint to her at her doorstep the night before
of "something special, darling, tomorrow"?
And did he call her at work
expecting her to faint with delight
at his celebration of her, his passion, his risk?
She will know I love her now,
the world will know my love for her!
A man risked his life to write the words.
Love is like this at the bone, we hope, love
is like this, Sweetheart, all sore and dumb
and dangerous, ignited, blessed - always,
regardless, no exceptions,
always in blazing matters like these: blessed.

Halloween Treats

"Cinderella" - Halloween 1976

At school, we have a tradition of allowing the seniors to dress up on Halloween (which is even that much more of a treat for them because the rest of the grades have to wear their school uniforms). Since school was canceled Monday (Halloween) due to the weather, seniors had to wait until this past Friday to wear their costumes.

The great thing about Halloween at PC is that everyone dresses up - not a single senior wears a uniform that day, and the creativity is overwhelming.

Halloween is my favorite holiday; there aren't any romantic expectations attached to it or a big price tag - just the fun of playing dress up and being rewarded in chocolate for your efforts. We all wear masks; Halloween is a time when our masks are of our own making, and not those we feel compelled to wear out of insecurity or shame.

"Angel" - Halloween at PC 2011

Halloween gives us complete freedom to morph into a new identity and use our imaginations. As we grow older, we are so busy with trying to keep up with credit debt, and family obligations, and job duties, and the latest technological advances that the simple power of "pretending" is lost. This is why, for me, Halloween is so wonderful. It is a purely self-indulgent holiday, filled with giggles and smiles from children and adults alike. It's ironic that Halloween is the one day when everyone looks crazily different, yet everyone is unconditionally accepted for how they look... if only every day were more like that.

Having a snow-day on Halloween made the holiday that much sweeter, and I used the extra day off to treat myself to a lazy day of grading and watching a fantastic "B" movie: Bubba Ho-Tep, which I absolutely loved.

Bubba Ho-Tep is an unlikely buddy movie that tells the tale of two nursing home residents - one who believes he's JFK (Ossie Davis) and the other who believes he's Elvis (Bruce Campbell) - as they battle an ancient Egyptian mummy that is sucking the life out of the near-dead elderly residents. It's quirky, off-beat, and delightful - and served as the perfect ending to a strange and wonderful "winter-white" Halloween in Jersey.

The Importance of Hair

My New Hairdo 9/28/11

Hair is important... just ask any guy spending $19.95 a month on rogain, or the average woman who spends well over $100 every 5 weeks for a cut and color (don't even get me started about the additional cost of a blowout).

Millions of dollars are spent every year in salons and on styling products, and networks are starting to create reality TV shows (e.g. Tabathas Salon Takeover; Shear Genius) that showcase the "real" trials and tribulations of bobs and bangs. Even Sarah Palin's hair salon is getting its own series: Big Hair Alaska, "where the personalities of the owner and her staff are as big as the hairstyles they create."

Why all the fuss?

Hair has long been considered a source of mythological and cultural strength. Some Native American tribes believed that scalping was a way to capture their enemy's strength. In the Bible, Samson is granted unimaginable physical strength by God on the condition that he never cuts his hair. (Samson of course loses his power when Delilah finds out his secret, and has his head shaved.) Even today, certain faiths still forbid their followers to cut their hair, such as Amish women and Sikh men.

Hair is important... just ask any cancer survivor who has gone through the trauma of losing it.

I've been a frequent flyer at different cancer centers these last 15 months, always with a full head of hair. While I am grateful that carcinoid cancer really doesn't have a treatment path that leads down the way to baldness ... my locks always make me feel like a bit of an impostor - like a weak warrior on a battle field of combat veterans who wear their shiny bald heads (delicately lined with thin blue veins, wrapped in colorful silk scarves) like fierce battledress.

In the new Seth Rogen comedy, 50/50 (opening this weekend) two 20-something bosom-buddies find out that one has cancer - with a 50% chance of survival. The trailer plays a familiar scene in which they use a "questionably clean" set of body trimmers to shave off the one friend's hair, before the chemo and radiation can melt it away.

This film scene isn't fiction for one of my seniors - Tim - who did the same exact thing, two years ago. (Except he used very clean trimmers of course!)

In tenth grade, Tim was diagnosed with advanced stages of Hodgkins Lymphoma, and had to complete the year through home-tutoring and painful cancer treatments. He returned his junior year and organized the first ever PC Relay for Life, which raised over $43,000 dollars for the American Cancer Society. He and I were the speakers at Relay's opening ceremonies, and formed an instant bond. We were both thrilled that he was in my English class this year, and for the past two weeks, we have been working on his college essay.

Tim started his college essay with a memory from the day his pediatric oncologist told him, "you have cancer" for the first time. At this point, his immediate thought did not turn to the fear of dying, but to the fear of going bald. Apparently, Tim was absolutely obsessed with his hair and couldn't imagine living without it. Eventually, he decided that he needed to be the one to take his hair - not the cancer... so first he gave himself a Mohawk, and then he shaved his head.

Having the privilege of getting to know this young man, I can unequivocally state that Tim's spirit and strength could outmatch a follically endowed Samson in any battle - any day of the week.

So I think the mythology got it backwards. Hair in and of itself does not pass along secret powers to its owner... rather it is the act of losing one's hair in a deadly, knockdown-dragout fight against an invisible enemy that makes one truly heroic.

Teaching About 9/11 (in English Class)

During my senior of high school, my mother, sister and I moved to an orange farm in Ojai, CA; before that, we lived in Ridgewood, NJ in Bergen County. Three years ago, I moved back to NJ and began teaching English at Paramus Catholic HS - just a few miles away from where I grew up... a full circle.

Bergen County is a suburban area that is heavily populated by Manhattan commuters; and before my family's cross-country relocation, both my parents worked at what's now known as ground zero. Sadly, many of my students lost family members in the tragedy.

The beginning of our school year always inevitably corresponds with the anniversary of 9/11. This year, we had orientation on Thursday (September 8th) and started classes on Friday - two days before the 10th anniversary of when everything changed in America.

While I could have spent the first day of classes jumping right into Unit 1 - an introduction to the ancient texts of Mesopotamia, I felt it was important to recognize the magnitude of 9/11.

After I began the class with a prayer - remembering all those affected by the terrorist attacks, I asked students to raise their hands if they had ever read The New Yorker before - not one of my 118 seniors raised their hands.

I explained that The New Yorker is basically a literary magazine, filled with a datebook, cartoons, short stories, essays, fiction and poems; and that it would provide an important literary voice for reflecting on the 9/11 attacks. Then, I passed around my advance copy of The New Yorker's 9/11 edition (reason #637 why I'm not a Kindle fan - passing around a Kindle version of The New Yorker to students whom had never seen it before just wouldn't be the same).

I then read from an essay in the magazine's 9/11 edition: "Speechless", by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Literary Non-Fiction Essay

"Speechless" starts with a personal anecdote - the author recalling his young son crawling into bed with him and his wife after having a nightmare. When the author asked his son what the nightmare was about, his little boy was at a loss for words:

"At the time, I thought he didn't want to describe it: putting a nightmare into words - saying it aloud and sharing it - would only expand the terror. But I've come to wonder if he simply didn't possess the vocabulary. And if that failure of language was at least part of the problem."

The author uses his son's inability to articulate what was so frightening about his dream as a metaphor for his own inability to explain what it was like living in New York on 9/11:

"How could this world be so unlike the world that I believed I was living in? I can't describe it. Do I not want to describe it, or do I simply not possess the vocabulary?"

(Here - I snuck in a quick review of metaphor v. simile.)

The piece concludes with a reflection on the power of language - not only to make sense of the senseless, but as its own form of heroism:

"Is there anyone who hasn't played out the nightmare of having been trapped in one of the towers? Is there anyone who hasn't wondered if he would have had the superhuman composure to call and comfort a loved one? Dozens of phone calls home were placed from the towers between the moment that the first plane hit and the time that the north tower collapsed. When words should have been most impossible to find, there were words of grace, and dignity, and consolation. Words of fear, and words of love. There's nothing to learn from this, except everything."

After we discussed "Speechless" and the importance of having the "vocabulary" to adequately tell our own stories, I asked the class if anyone had seen photos of the planes crashing into the towers. This time, every hand went up. The fact is, you couldn't turn on a television leading up to the 10th anniversary without feeling like you were trapped in a time warp - the newsreels looping a never-ending reminder of terror.

I then asked my students if any of them knew what the City was like immediately following the attacks... none of them did.

First-Hand Account (Interview)

I then shared an interview of a 16-year-old girl that I heard on the radio on the way to school that morning. She was asked what she remembered most as a 6-year-old living blocks away from ground zero. Ash. She remembered ash covering everything - and how she begged her parents to buy her a purple plastic umbrella that she carried with her outside every single day for three years. She also said that she taught herself to read, just so she could read the weather report every day - so she would be prepared if something like this ever happened again.

I told my students that when I first heard the interview, I didn't make the connection - but then it dawned on me. This little girl associated an environmental change (ash) with panic and sadness. She didn't see the towers crashing, and had no way of linking cause and effect; all she knew was ash was falling from the sky - like rain - and if she had some advanced warning when the ash was coming again, she could feel in control of her situation.

Poetry

Then I lead a brief discussion about how poetry could also be a way to gain a sense of control through self-expression. Next, I held up the tenth anniversary edition of Poetry After 9/11, An Anthology of New York Poets, and I read a short excerpt from the Forward, written by editors Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians:

"There were, in the immediate aftermath, poems everywhere. Walking around the city you would see them - stuck on light posts and phone stalls, plastered on shelters at bus stops and the walls of the subway stations. In neighborhood newspapers the letters-to-the-editor pages were full of them. Downtown, people scrawled poems in the ash that covered everything. And on brick walls of police stations and firehouses, behind mountains and flowers and between photos of the dead, poetry dominated... Prose wasn't enough. There was something more to be said that only poetry could say. Everybody, apparently, knew this."

We then discussed as a class what the editors meant by: prose wasn't enough. (Here, I managed to sneak in a mini-lesson about genre, and the relationship between form, purpose and audience as well as the importance of cultural context in analyzing literature).

Finally, I shared one of my favorite books - which isn't a book at all in the traditional sense... rather it's a book of postcards entitled Haiku on 42nd St, A Celebration of Urban Poetry & Art . Each postcard is a photograph of a haiku poem that found its way onto one of the empty porn marques of Times Square.

After shocking the socks off of my students by describing how Times Square used to be a very different place (filled with shady hawkers, prostitutes and drug addicts - not $200 show tickets, strolling tourists and sidewalk seating), I defined the word "gentrification" and briefly mentioned some of the mixed social connotations of the word.

Holding up my postcard book, I explained that the photographs captured a moment of transition in Time Square's history - just before one of the most dangerous areas in NYC became one of the most sought after tourist destinations in the world. Perhaps these unsolicited haikus were one last rebellious dare - challenging the magical land of Oz (or Wicked) that was soon to follow.

For homework, students were asked to brainstorm about a moment of change in their own lives that they might use for their college essays. I reassured them that their "moment" didn't have to be as dramatic as 9-11, it just needed to provide a little snapshot of their character for the admissions officers to see.

I will end this blog the same way I ended my first day of 12th grade World Literature classes - with two 5-7-5 snapshots of New York City ...

9/11: Remember * Honor * Reunite.

Additional 9/11 Links:

Gathering Place - remembering those with disabilities on 9/11: This blog reflection is especially powerful for me, because my mom is disabled and this was one of the first things she said after the planes hit ... "what about the gathering place?" I didn't get it - she did. When you are disabled you are supposed to wait at a certain location for help in case of an emergency - all those people with disabilities (save one blind person whose dog led him out) died at the designated "gathering place" waiting for help that never came.

Baseball symbolized resiliency after 9/11: The nation turned to baseball after 9/11 for a sense of normalcy and healing; this article captures some of the incredible moments - including Fenway Park's famous 7th inning stretch when the entire stadium erupted in "New York, New York" during their first home game against the Yankees after 9/11.

National September 11 Memorial (WTC): A guide to a national tribute of remembrance and honor to the 2,983 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993.

Prayers, Vigils, Remembrances Mark 9/11 Anniversary: A listing of events in Washington, PA and NY to remember the victims of the 9/11.

The Sept. 11 Attacks, Remembered - PICTURES: A series of pictures of international and national remembrances.

For My Teacher Friends... Concepts Taught In This Lesson

Vocabulary: gentrification; connotation
Literary Terms: simile; metaphor; genre
Writing: relationship between purpose, form and audience; cultural context; voice
Poetry: haiku, postmodernism
Big Idea: there is nothing more important than stories - and nothing more powerful than having the ability to skillfully tell our own stories to others

Organizing Classroom 1204

My new classroom's "before" pictures...

Just add "interior designer" to my job description...


It's official. The first day of school was Friday.

For the past two weeks I've been setting up my new classroom, which is located in a part of the building aptly nicknamed "The Tower" - mainly because there are only two rooms on the entire floor (part of the old priests' residence), which are up two flights of stairs - completely inaccessible from any other part of the building.

My new and old digs are in sharp juxtaposition. My old room was next to the cafeteria and doors leading out to our fleet of buses - which meant that every single one of our 1570 students had to walk by my classroom on a daily basis. By contrast, in "The Tower" - there are never more than 60 people on the floor at any one time.

At first, I had mixed feelings about the move, but there is a quiet calm about the room that I've come to embrace. Moments before my first students arrived, I added the final touches of "clean linen" scented oil diffusers and air fresheners, which seemed appropriately metaphoric (hey, I'm an English teacher)... time for a fresh start with a brand new set of 116 seniors.

Cue Rocky Theme Song.

Below are some additional classroom makeover pictures; just hit the "play" button on each collage...

This collage made with Smilebox

Digital collage generated with Smilebox

Six Years After Hurricane Katrina

Monday was was the 6-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005.

In the summer of 2006, I went to New Orleans with a dozen other Marianist volunteers to help with the rebuilding efforts. The devastation was unfathomable. I recently came across some papers from that trip, including a catalogue of items found in the first house I ever helped to rebuild... the list speaks more to the tragedy than anything I could write here.

List of Items Found in Home - Lower Ninth Ward (June 23, 2006)

unopened prison letters - marked "censored by staff"; "Vote for Kerry" campaign button; insulin needles; soaked polaroids of small children; rosary beads; mardi gras beads and coins; baby shoes; bible; rotting food in the refrigerator; bail bond receipt; IOU note for $195; small batman action figure; heart shaped wood block with two little boys on it; David and Goliath picture book; a plastic bag on the door with a picture of a family sitting on the lawn; china - some broken; baby shampoo; coats and dresses stuck together with mold; The Joy of Signing: The Illustrated Guide for Mastering Sign Language; candle sconces; bills - some marked paid, some not; a purse with a social security card in it; cards from grand kids; insurance papers; 1 tie.

We salvaged what we could, and the rest was thrown out with the gutted mold encrusted drywall and cockroach infested floor boards - until nothing was left but the house's frame... an entire family history of love and heartbreak, washed away by the storm.

As I was working, I couldn't help but worry about the fate of the family member who was in prison. I knew that most of the New Orleans prisoners had to be moved last minute when Katrina hit, and were haphazardly scattered across jails in several states - without clear records of placement. For example, one college kid - who had been in an overnight holding cell for public intoxication - was "lost" in a TX jail for nearly 4 months before he could be processed and released. Also, many of the court files in NO were not electronic, and were damaged in the flood - a litigator's nightmare. These violations of due process were almost wholly ignored by the media - I only knew about them through a fellow social justice worker, Bill Quigley, who is a Loyola University law professor in New Orleans. As I brushed off the prison letters and moved them to the "keep" pile, I felt this profound sadness - for both the physical and spiritual loss this family had suffered.

I was so incredibly moved by the experience that I vowed to return - with students from Archbishop Riordan HS (where I was the Campus Minister and Director of Service Learning, as well as an English teacher).

In 2007, a brave colleague (ARHS Director of Operations) and I took 16 students and 3 parents to New Orleans over spring break. Below is a news report (I'm the one in the white jacket, leading the prayer) and a few pictures from the trip:




The tradition of going to NO during spring break has continued at Riordan every year since - maybe it's time to bring this same tradition to Paramus Catholic HS.

Links:

Hurricane Irene vs. Hurricane Katrina: How They Stack Up
S.F. students join Katrina relief | Staff report | Local | San Francisco Examiner
Marianist Reflection: My Everyday Struggle with Justice (April 2007)
Casey: My Hero is a Bus Thief
Just Faith Ministries: Prayerful Reflections and Faithful Responses to the Gulf Coast Disaster
Catholic Charities - Volunteer in New Orleans