I'm working my finishing my grades and comments. It's amazing what you pay attention when you are procrastinating. There's the show my wife is currently watching:
I'm actually starting the get into this show. The only problem is that she is watching season 1 episode reuns co-currently with the DVD of season 6 at the same time! I mean, one second Lorelei is kind of talking to Chris, then they are engaged, Rory is in and out of college, then Luke is engaged to Lorelei and then he has a random kid and the whole thing with Rory being in and out of college. What's up with the community service thing? Seriously I look up one second and Rory is having a coming out party and next thing I know she's the college newsppaer editor. . . so confused.
And why can't Lorelei or Rory find a guy who really understands them? Lorelei totally better end up with Luke. Chris was SO much better when he wasn't on the show as much. Oh, and Jesse is SO much better for Rory than any of those Yale guys.
I totally just spoiled a lot of this show didn't I?
My bad.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Firework by Katy Perry
I really like enjoyed Katy when she first came on the scene. “I Kissed A Girl” was fun and when I heard “Hot N Cold” (which I wrote about in this earlier post ) and found out she was a phenomenal song-writer behind great songs like Kelly Clarkson’s “I Do Not Hook Up (which I wrote about in this post) I became a Katy Perry fan.
So I was excited when Teenage Dream came but unfortunately her lead single off of the album “Califonia Gurls” (which I wrote about here, man I spent a lot of writing about this girl. . . ) left something to be desired for. Yes, it was fun but it lacked the nuance of some of her earlier songs and unlike “I Do Not Hook Up,” it didn’t really say anything. And honestly, those whip cream dispensers attached to her um. . . y’know. . . yeah, just kind of confusing.
Then I heard “Firework” and it was a revelation.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Katy Perry is the greatest artist ever, but she’s doing stuff with this song that is significant. “Firework” is a feel good about yourself song like “True Colors by Cyndi Lauper or “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera.
Yeah, I’ve never felt like a plastic bag, but the house of cards is great use of imagery to describe a sense of insecurity. Perry beautiful paints a picture of feeling like an outsider, inadequate and not having anything that is really special until she reminds us that there is a spark inside all of us. The second verse continues being hopeful with some great lines about how difficulty things in lead to better things. After a hurricane comes a rainbow and after a closed door comes an open road.
Maybe it's because its graduation season or maybe it's because I'm tired of hearing boastful non-nonsensical rap music, meaningless love songs and dance songs that just don't make any sense, but "Firework" really makes me feel good about myself.
(We're just going to enjoy the song and not think about the fireworks coming out of Katy's chest.)
So I was excited when Teenage Dream came but unfortunately her lead single off of the album “Califonia Gurls” (which I wrote about here, man I spent a lot of writing about this girl. . . ) left something to be desired for. Yes, it was fun but it lacked the nuance of some of her earlier songs and unlike “I Do Not Hook Up,” it didn’t really say anything. And honestly, those whip cream dispensers attached to her um. . . y’know. . . yeah, just kind of confusing.
Then I heard “Firework” and it was a revelation.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Katy Perry is the greatest artist ever, but she’s doing stuff with this song that is significant. “Firework” is a feel good about yourself song like “True Colors by Cyndi Lauper or “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera.
Yeah, I’ve never felt like a plastic bag, but the house of cards is great use of imagery to describe a sense of insecurity. Perry beautiful paints a picture of feeling like an outsider, inadequate and not having anything that is really special until she reminds us that there is a spark inside all of us. The second verse continues being hopeful with some great lines about how difficulty things in lead to better things. After a hurricane comes a rainbow and after a closed door comes an open road.
Maybe it's because its graduation season or maybe it's because I'm tired of hearing boastful non-nonsensical rap music, meaningless love songs and dance songs that just don't make any sense, but "Firework" really makes me feel good about myself.
(We're just going to enjoy the song and not think about the fireworks coming out of Katy's chest.)
Friday, June 10, 2011
Week 34: The Last Week
These posts I’ve been writing every Friday about my first year at this new school I’m working at I usually write sometime on Thursday. Now it’s Friday night and I’ve sat down to write about my final week of the school year and I’m not sure what to say.
There’s so much to talk about. There’s the sing-along in a playground I did with fifth grade, watching Star Wars: Episode IV with my seventh grade (involving students of mine who had never seen the film before), inspiring conversations with a kindergarten teacher who used to design toys, leading a group of almost 400 students and staff in singing “This Land Is Your Land” and what it means to finish this school year. And I can’t forget performing “Love Story” during recess with a group of my students to fulfill a promise I made on the first day of school.
I’ll probably write about these moments later in the summer, as they are significant and meaningful. But right now, what’s in the front of my mind is something smaller a moment with a student who until a couple weeks ago I barely knew.
I expected my fifth grade students excitedly coming up to me with their yearbooks asking me to sign. I sat down in the fifth grade hallway and must have signed thirty in a row before escaping up to the middle school floor. That made sense as I taught all of the fifth grade.
My middle school situations was different because I only taught about 1/2 of the seventh grade as the band teacher (the other students were in choir) and I taught about 1/3 of the 8th grade. I knew of the choir students but I didn’t really get an opportunity to teach them or get to know them which is why I was surprised that Margaret, an 8th grade choir student ran up to me and insisted that I sign her year book.
A couple weeks earlier I was up in the 8th grade hallway talking to another teacher and Margaret was hanging out. I made some jokes about her, she made some jokes back and that five minute exchange was pretty much the extent of our interaction for that year.
So why would she come up to me with her yearbook? Maybe she was simply collecting all the teachers’ signatures or thought it was one more joke she could make but as I started to write in her book I looked up and noticed that she was waiting for me to sign in an almost empty classroom as groups of 8th graders socialized in the hallway.
So I spent another minute, went past the standard message I had been writing in the yearbooks and tried to write something and a little bit more meaningful. Now, this may have meant nothing to Margaret, but it may have meant something more. I don't know But our conversations and this gesture of asking me to sign her yearbook stuck with for some reason.
Every actions, every conversation is an opportunity to connect, to show someone that you care. That is what makes teaching meaningful and significant to students, when teachers take these moments and do something with them. I don't know if I made any sort of impact on Margaret but I don't think it matters that in a way.
Like the song the 8th grade chose to sing at their graduation, "Fix You" by Coldplay, the expression of care and love isn't that you fix people around you but that you try.
Maybe that's what this whole school year has been about.
There’s so much to talk about. There’s the sing-along in a playground I did with fifth grade, watching Star Wars: Episode IV with my seventh grade (involving students of mine who had never seen the film before), inspiring conversations with a kindergarten teacher who used to design toys, leading a group of almost 400 students and staff in singing “This Land Is Your Land” and what it means to finish this school year. And I can’t forget performing “Love Story” during recess with a group of my students to fulfill a promise I made on the first day of school.
I’ll probably write about these moments later in the summer, as they are significant and meaningful. But right now, what’s in the front of my mind is something smaller a moment with a student who until a couple weeks ago I barely knew.
I expected my fifth grade students excitedly coming up to me with their yearbooks asking me to sign. I sat down in the fifth grade hallway and must have signed thirty in a row before escaping up to the middle school floor. That made sense as I taught all of the fifth grade.
My middle school situations was different because I only taught about 1/2 of the seventh grade as the band teacher (the other students were in choir) and I taught about 1/3 of the 8th grade. I knew of the choir students but I didn’t really get an opportunity to teach them or get to know them which is why I was surprised that Margaret, an 8th grade choir student ran up to me and insisted that I sign her year book.
A couple weeks earlier I was up in the 8th grade hallway talking to another teacher and Margaret was hanging out. I made some jokes about her, she made some jokes back and that five minute exchange was pretty much the extent of our interaction for that year.
So why would she come up to me with her yearbook? Maybe she was simply collecting all the teachers’ signatures or thought it was one more joke she could make but as I started to write in her book I looked up and noticed that she was waiting for me to sign in an almost empty classroom as groups of 8th graders socialized in the hallway.
So I spent another minute, went past the standard message I had been writing in the yearbooks and tried to write something and a little bit more meaningful. Now, this may have meant nothing to Margaret, but it may have meant something more. I don't know But our conversations and this gesture of asking me to sign her yearbook stuck with for some reason.
Every actions, every conversation is an opportunity to connect, to show someone that you care. That is what makes teaching meaningful and significant to students, when teachers take these moments and do something with them. I don't know if I made any sort of impact on Margaret but I don't think it matters that in a way.
Like the song the 8th grade chose to sing at their graduation, "Fix You" by Coldplay, the expression of care and love isn't that you fix people around you but that you try.
Maybe that's what this whole school year has been about.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Old Bald Man!
This is what the faculty in my school do in our free time . . . (my entrance is around 4:06)
Yes, I am wearing a bald cap on the far right at the end on stage.
God, I love my school.
Yes, I am wearing a bald cap on the far right at the end on stage.
God, I love my school.
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Edge Of Glory by Lady Gaga
“It’s a meditation on where you are going to stand, with who and where you are going to stand.”
Bruce Springsteen said this to describe his masterpiece album Darkness On The Edge Of Town. The same words apply to Lady Gaga’s newest single “The Edge Of Glory.”
Does it seem crazy to compare Lady Gaga and Bruce?
Well take these things into consideration: Lady Gaga has called “The Edge Of Glory,” her “Born To Run” and wrote it as a throwback to Springsteen and his music. She was so inspired by Bruce that she featured Springsteen’s saxophone player Clarence Clemons in the middle of the song. If you strip away the dance beat the echoes of Springsteen come across more clearly.
To me Lady Gaga isn’t the crazy outfits or the provocative music videos. Lots of artists have done similar things to Gaga like Madonna and David Bowie and while these images make an impression in pop culture what is truly meaningful, what truly lasts is their most heartfelt music.
Lady Gaga’s best work has been a combination embracing her influences and mixing them with deep personal feelings like “Speechless” an Elton John-inspired song about her father, which she sang with the Rocket Man himself in a loving tribute to her father and Elton.
“The Edge Of Glory” is similar, taking the memory of her grandfather and mixing in some Springsteen creating the same hopefulness and longing that Springsteen so often expresses.
The title itself expresses a feeling of being at cusp of something great and needing someone else to help you get there. Lines like “Right on the limits where we know we both belong,” and “I’m on the edge of something final we call life” are so much deeper than they seem. For Lady Gaga to push her music beyond the provocative to the emotions shows great growth as an artist.
Gaga described the “Edge Of Glory” as someone’s last moment of earth. The bravery, the optimism, the pure celebratory euphoria expressed in this song makes a powerful statement on the way that we should not only face death, but the challenges we face every single day.
The creation of music is a conversation. One artists writes a song and another responds. Just like in a spoken conversation the comments that keep the discussion evolving are the statements that build off of what has been said before and add something personal and meaningful.
Lady Gaga embraces music in this way and responding to things other artists have said previously doesn't make her unoriginal but it makes her a real artist and get her closer to the edge of her musical glory than ever before.
Bruce Springsteen said this to describe his masterpiece album Darkness On The Edge Of Town. The same words apply to Lady Gaga’s newest single “The Edge Of Glory.”
Does it seem crazy to compare Lady Gaga and Bruce?
Well take these things into consideration: Lady Gaga has called “The Edge Of Glory,” her “Born To Run” and wrote it as a throwback to Springsteen and his music. She was so inspired by Bruce that she featured Springsteen’s saxophone player Clarence Clemons in the middle of the song. If you strip away the dance beat the echoes of Springsteen come across more clearly.
To me Lady Gaga isn’t the crazy outfits or the provocative music videos. Lots of artists have done similar things to Gaga like Madonna and David Bowie and while these images make an impression in pop culture what is truly meaningful, what truly lasts is their most heartfelt music.
Lady Gaga’s best work has been a combination embracing her influences and mixing them with deep personal feelings like “Speechless” an Elton John-inspired song about her father, which she sang with the Rocket Man himself in a loving tribute to her father and Elton.
“The Edge Of Glory” is similar, taking the memory of her grandfather and mixing in some Springsteen creating the same hopefulness and longing that Springsteen so often expresses.
The title itself expresses a feeling of being at cusp of something great and needing someone else to help you get there. Lines like “Right on the limits where we know we both belong,” and “I’m on the edge of something final we call life” are so much deeper than they seem. For Lady Gaga to push her music beyond the provocative to the emotions shows great growth as an artist.
Gaga described the “Edge Of Glory” as someone’s last moment of earth. The bravery, the optimism, the pure celebratory euphoria expressed in this song makes a powerful statement on the way that we should not only face death, but the challenges we face every single day.
The creation of music is a conversation. One artists writes a song and another responds. Just like in a spoken conversation the comments that keep the discussion evolving are the statements that build off of what has been said before and add something personal and meaningful.
Lady Gaga embraces music in this way and responding to things other artists have said previously doesn't make her unoriginal but it makes her a real artist and get her closer to the edge of her musical glory than ever before.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Week 33: The Perfect Moment
Every year I’ve been a student in school I get to this point in the Spring where everything seems perfect. I know my way around the school, I know how to deal with my teachers and my social group feels like it couldn’t get any better. It always seems as soon as I get to this feeling the school year ends and then I have to restart at the beginning of the year building back up to the point of contentment.
Now as a teacher I have a similar feeling towards the end of the year, but what’s different is that its' my students who create this feeling inside of me.
Many teachers enjoy the beginning of the year. There is the excitement of getting to know new kids, reestablishing ways of working and a excitement and energy that is in the year full of possibilities. The hard part of the beginning of the year is not knowing the kids and that’s why the Spring is so special for me. And now that I really feel like I know my students the year is ending.
As a music teacher, I am fortunate that I get to see my kids develop over multiple years. Currently I teach 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades (the three top grades, I team teach). While there is comfort in working with the many of the same kids next year, they aren’t really going to be the same kids.
Much of what characterizes the way students behave are the classes they are in, the dynamics of their schedule and most importantly the developmental stages they are working through. This requires that even with a group of kids that I have worked with previously, I need to approach them like a brand new group of kids establishing what I mean to them in a different stage of their lives.
Here’s the thing, I’m not really sure how to do this, but I know it has to be done. Many positive things I have established with my students will carry over, but some things will not. It’s not about assuming the worst out of your kids. It’s about being realistic and conscientious about the students’ needs. In the same way that you want to give a student a fresh start who previously had a bad year, a students who is excelling needs to have a clean slate, another chance to redefine him or herself.
Endings bring meaning to things in our lives and the cycle of the school year marks the passage of the time like the seasons. Knowing that things are finite stop us in our daily lives to cherish the moments that we have left. So maybe it’s not so much that I hit moments when everything is perfect in the school, maybe it’s knowing that the ending is coming makes me realize how great things have become.
Either way, things feel pretty awesome as I enter my final week at school. Yes, I am sad that the year is ending but I’m also feel happy about that feeling knowing that I only feel this way because of how great this year has been.
Now as a teacher I have a similar feeling towards the end of the year, but what’s different is that its' my students who create this feeling inside of me.
Many teachers enjoy the beginning of the year. There is the excitement of getting to know new kids, reestablishing ways of working and a excitement and energy that is in the year full of possibilities. The hard part of the beginning of the year is not knowing the kids and that’s why the Spring is so special for me. And now that I really feel like I know my students the year is ending.
As a music teacher, I am fortunate that I get to see my kids develop over multiple years. Currently I teach 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades (the three top grades, I team teach). While there is comfort in working with the many of the same kids next year, they aren’t really going to be the same kids.
Much of what characterizes the way students behave are the classes they are in, the dynamics of their schedule and most importantly the developmental stages they are working through. This requires that even with a group of kids that I have worked with previously, I need to approach them like a brand new group of kids establishing what I mean to them in a different stage of their lives.
Here’s the thing, I’m not really sure how to do this, but I know it has to be done. Many positive things I have established with my students will carry over, but some things will not. It’s not about assuming the worst out of your kids. It’s about being realistic and conscientious about the students’ needs. In the same way that you want to give a student a fresh start who previously had a bad year, a students who is excelling needs to have a clean slate, another chance to redefine him or herself.
Endings bring meaning to things in our lives and the cycle of the school year marks the passage of the time like the seasons. Knowing that things are finite stop us in our daily lives to cherish the moments that we have left. So maybe it’s not so much that I hit moments when everything is perfect in the school, maybe it’s knowing that the ending is coming makes me realize how great things have become.
Either way, things feel pretty awesome as I enter my final week at school. Yes, I am sad that the year is ending but I’m also feel happy about that feeling knowing that I only feel this way because of how great this year has been.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Pajama Jeans
seriously?!?
Here's the thing. Jeans are the most comfortable socially acceptable type of pant out there and a lot of people get away with wearing pajama pants in public anyways so who out there is really stuck with this conundrum: I want to wear jeans but they aren't as soft as my pajama! What am I going to do?!?
"fits every figure perfectly"?
"mock fly"?!?
"sexy second skin"!?!?
Now I do understand that it is hard for woman to find a pair of jeans that really fits well. Guys, our jeans have a sepearate waist and length measurement. Woman's pants often go through a a single digit number system, which means that a woman who is 5 foot tall could wear the same size as a woman six inches taller than her . . . doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Somehow I don't think Pajama Jeans are really going to solve this issue for women.
. . . but there is that bonus crew-neck t-shirt. . .
Here's the thing. Jeans are the most comfortable socially acceptable type of pant out there and a lot of people get away with wearing pajama pants in public anyways so who out there is really stuck with this conundrum: I want to wear jeans but they aren't as soft as my pajama! What am I going to do?!?
"fits every figure perfectly"?
"mock fly"?!?
"sexy second skin"!?!?
Now I do understand that it is hard for woman to find a pair of jeans that really fits well. Guys, our jeans have a sepearate waist and length measurement. Woman's pants often go through a a single digit number system, which means that a woman who is 5 foot tall could wear the same size as a woman six inches taller than her . . . doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Somehow I don't think Pajama Jeans are really going to solve this issue for women.
. . . but there is that bonus crew-neck t-shirt. . .
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