Random stuff

Tree 2
Originally uploaded by countmockula.

Got my tree up.

Craftin' my booty off.

Less than two weeks to winter break!

Work: Vive la revolucion! LONG story short, there are two dueling philosophies in the English department, one which says we should focus on getting the kids to be able to write an essay that will pass the exit exam, and spending most of the last two years of high school on this task. We should, according to this theory, almost exclusively use photocopied articles from newspapers, most of which are three to four years old. The justification behind this is that "most of these kids aren't going to be English majors anyway." The other camp believes in an approach that involves direct instruction in writing, grammar, and analysis of various kinds of literature, poetry, and expository prose.

To my mind, one of these sounds infinitely smarter than the other, and if my bias isn't obvious, then I've misjudged myself. Anyway, Plan A there is sort of the "in" thing, especially since our sort-of-department head is behind it all. There is, however, a secret underground of teachers walking around, checking for KGB, then whispering "Are you teaching novels?"

A few weeks ago, we decided that instead of just one "study team" (which is another rant entirely, but it's completely non-voluntary voluntary time), we would have several that focused on different areas of instruction. A good friend suggested one called "best practices," where we would discuss teaching practices. I know this friend is a member of the underground, so I decide this is the study team I will attend. After pussyfooting around for a little while at the last meeting, but getting the distinct feeling that most of the people there are, in fact, in the underground (I think we ought to have a password), I said "Well, I'd like to overthrow the system." The meeting's leader got up and closed the doors. We talked openly about teaching literature and the benefits thereof, even getting to the point where we asked "why are we even defending teaching literature? It should be so f-ing obvious that we shouldn't have to!"

Cut to last Wednesday. It is department meeting time, so we're ALL together. These are often tense times, because said department head is, um... well, she's obvious in her bias, too. Like, if someone from my small learning community says something, she makes some witty, dismissive comment with a smile. Everyone laughs. She has painted it to the rest of the staff as though we have the world's cushiest jobs because we have the honors students. Never mind that I have ONE class of honors students and four of regular or pre-honors students. But fine. Well, we're talking about something only sort of related (testing), and it's coming at us in a sort of "top-down" manner. Like, the teachers aren't trusted to make decisions, people just hand us stuff and say "do it." My friend, C, wigs out. I don't even know why -- I think it must have just been building up. But he's like "I just think these neetings are a waste of time. What are we even doing? Do we have a goal for today? Are we going to talk about teaching practices?" I sit, a deer in headlights, and don't say a word. I feel like an asshole, because I want to back up C, but it's also a completely inappropriate time. It's like firing the first shot at a pancake breakfast. Anyway, I don't say anything then, but SINCE then, one of our other secret society members has had a meeting with the principal about our teaching "strategies" and philosophy, and made it clear that we disagree with the dominant paradigm. We may actually stop going to the department meetings, although that's not very immediate, since the next one isn't until January. In the meantime, I'm sort of flaunting my passive resistance, wandering through the halls with stacks of books from the bookroom. "This? Oh, it's just class sets of 'Hamlet' and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." Ha! F*** you and your paradigm!