Leap of Faith

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my favorite books in a long while. Halfway through reading, I hovered on every word and phrase to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Ms. Heiligman starts the book from the point in Charles Darwin’s life when he debates whether he should marry or not. He makes a list comparing the reasons for and against. He meets Emma who will become his companion for life, and knows right then that he wants to spend his whole life with her.
Right from the beginning, there is a problem. Mr. Darwin is working on his theory of evolution of species, which leads him to question the existence and role of God; and Emma has always been a devoted Christian especially from losing her closest sister in her youth. The issue of whether one believes in the after-life and where we all go looms large over the love between these two and the family and circle of friends who enter their lives.
The writing charmingly lets us into the private lives of these two, often quoting personal letters between Emma and Charles.
This is a beautifully written book.

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Heron’s Head Park/Eco-Center Visits

We completed our two visits to the Eco-center and Heron’s Head Park in the Bayview district. AOIT students took the local MUNI lines to the award-winning environmental education center and wetlands preserve for a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience.
On the first visit, we gathered under the guidance of Anthony Khalil, the resident scientist, Raynelle, who oversees the management of the park, and Jasmine Dow, from Literacy for Environmental Justice.
The day started with straight talk about where we come from, and we learned some of the history of the ecology of the place we stood on. It was enlightening to learn that San Francisco Bay Area was once a thriving wetlands rich with diverse plant and animal life, cut across with waterways and access to plenty of water. Over time, with the Spanish conquest, the Gold Rush, and eventually the development of an urban population boom, the are has transformed into the metropolis it is today.
But beneath this bustling city lies remnants of what it once was just 200 years ago.
Raynelle, Anthony and the the volunteers who come to the park are working to reclaim the wetlands and through that effort, bring back the biodiversity of the land. We took part in that effort by planting and naming the native life that we observed. The day ended with an overview of the Eco-center that we would eventually spend more time in the following week.
The second visit was directly at the Eco-Center. With a solid understanding of the history leading up to the establishment of the Eco-Center, we got to explore the deeper history of energy, water and waste as it affects humans and the ecology around us. Tracy Zhu, who heads the Eco-Center, with Jasmine, led a packed agenda for the day. We got down and dirty making burrito batteries, assembling our own manually-operated power generator, and retold the narrative of how our Bay got to the state it is today. Heavy on science, we stretched ourselves beyond our area of comfort and learned much more than students would in a classroom. When the day was done, we had a deeper understanding of how our consumption needs lead to potentially harmful results to the sustainability of other living things including future generations of human life.

After Failure Comes Enlightenment

Today was one of the roughest days for teaching in a while. It started off bad even before I got to school. No breakfast and rushing out of the house, driving a loaner, and eventually I was late for the appointment with a senior whom I arranged to let into my classroom so he can start to make up some credits to graduate.
Also, it was the busiest day of the week – three 1.5 hour block classes all back-to-back. Rushing for the occasional bathroom break of course in the boys’ bathroom. Managing to scarf a butter-soaked croissant, delicious as it was. My 11th grade AOIT students have become unmotivated, lost and unfocused. Many of them are failing and don’t even know or care. After putting the gamut down, they reacted. More apathy.
The ELD class was going to busy. Ms. Do, a student from USF, was coming to observe again. The 826 volunteers were coming in to have one-on-one sessions with my students to work on their essays. And the juniors were going to take an EAP test in another room. It was a critical day because we were going to start a sustainability exercise in which they develop a skit in small groups and act out the story to open up discussion on the sustainability of the given activity. What made matters worse was that yesterday I assigned a reading that was too difficult for most of the students. I had them answer questions to review what we read yesterday, and that took over half of class-time. I think I could count the number of times my smile lasted longer than 2 seconds.
Last was the 10th grade AOIT. I struggled to demonstrate the Flash tutorial that they should have done on Monday when I was away on the field trip at the EcoCenter. That session was not so bad, but it was the realization that they would/could not do work if I was not there. As smart and sometimes hard-working as they can be, they tend to develop the same lack of focus and procrastination that my 11th graders are wallowing in.
So when does the light come? Well, it’s not here yet. But I know it’s out there.
I am starting to realize how important it is to be real with these young people. Pretending that they are learning or putting in their best effort is not going to do them any good. Allowing them to accept their own self-defeating behaviors will only make them work much harder later.
I came up with some ideas to improve the educational experience that I can offer my classes:
1. regular conferences with each student, starting with the ones that are underperforming or struggling.
2. slowing down and focusing on the whole experience rather than reaching for the end results.
3. AOIT needs a set of principles to revolve around. I thought of the ideas that we learned at the Reynolds Institute and came up with Seek the truth, Maintain the integrity of yourself and others, Work toward bettering the world.
4. Raise the bar for the AOIT program – students create a digital interactive resume in their senior year.
5. Search for a partner or big donor for our academy/broadcast studio.

Lastly, I started to think about why I’m doing what I do. And it comes back to what are you passionate about? What started this path? And how do I sustain that passion? I hope that will continue to inform everything I do as a teacher from this day forth.

Review of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alexie does it again. I was reluctant to expect this book geared toward a young adult audience to be on the same emotional level as The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-fight in Heaven, I was near tears by the end of this one. This is more complete and coherent as a novel, but the characters shine through as does the voice of the narrator.
Alexie deftly handles a wide range of genres: short fiction, poetry, memoir, mystery, and now young adult.
I look forward to any new title he has out!

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Macworld Expo 2011

I had a great time and learned a lot at Flash without Tears a Pre-conference session taught by Sandee Cohen. She is a contributor for In Design Magazine which I am going to subscribe to soon. But first, I will need to add the application to my wishlist of software that I would like to have, right behind Dreamweaver. The Adobe people must think we have unlimited funds to update our creative suite every year or two. As teachers, the discounted pricing is still steep. If the school is not paying for software that we use in the classes, what makes them think we as individuals would fork out the money?
Nevertheless, I learned some cool tips for creating interactivity for pdf and swf files I could put in documents and websites. I would never have imagined how In Design could allow designers to create animations so cool.
Well, I did get a sneak peek at MacworldExpo, and it is much like last year. Today, the exhibit hall in the West Moscone was abuzz with crews setting up exhibits and shows. There was definite activity, but the regular waves of people downtown seemed to overwhelm the Mac crowd. With Apple not invested in the event, Macworld Expo seems much quieter, much more focused on core users, a definitely more sober event.
But I was reminded today how last year’s show was still fun despite the lack of two exhibit halls, one-more-thing keynotes, and lines anywhere you went. I really enjoyed meeting the many developers and likeminded educators, artists, or just enthusiasts who wanted to see the next great thing. Most of the years past, it wasn’t an Apple product that wow’ed me – with the exception of the year an iPhone became a reality. Most of the Macworld Expo was about what individuals did to innovate and challenge the products that Apple came out with. It made those tools and devices personalized, more human. I may not get a chance to see the show until this Saturday – something new this year – but I hope there’s a party somewhere in there.

Week One Reflection

I survived the hardest week of the year. Week two is ahead.
Still cleaning up 2010, I went back to work this Monday with everyone else full of enthusiasm for the new semester. The mood has been cheerful and energetic, with students finding new schedules and even some new classmates. In my ELD class, we have welcomed 5 new students already.
One big difference is that I am teaching four classes a day not three and helping my student teacher with the other class. It doesn’t really make the day longer, but the planning is much more intense. Now that I am teaching both Language Development and Reading, I am spending more time balancing speaking, writing and listening and reading. And with the added students, I have to spend time assessing their skills and level of comfort with English.
The AOIT classes are still a work in progress. Our curriculum is still being developed as take ideas here and there. We will need to identify what service-learning opportunities they can choose to work on.

Pixar Rocks!

The Railway Porters

I visited the Oakland Museum last Thursday on the eve of Christmas Eve. It was a delightful experience just visiting the museum at the edge of Downtown Oakland. The weather was cool but clear and Oakland just has a much more blue-collar easier pace about it. And the day before Christmas Eve mayhem was the perfect day to escape the hustle and bustle of the City.
The main reason for my visit was of course to see the PIXAR show because it was going to wrap up January 9th. I tried to get a group of student who were interested in going with me over the holidays to carpool together, but the week was as messy as the weather, and seems like there was little response from anyone in the world of Burton.
As it turned out, the museum is a gorgeous combination of people’s history and art and innovations in technology. Many of the exhibits in the History wing featured audio recordings, looped video or slideshows, and hands-on pieces. The curators intended for visitors to interact with the history and people. The effect was the people and times were brought to life as you moved from one time period to another. I was already captured by the opening piece as you entered the History galleries. It was video installment on a huge screen about the people of Oakland and their stories. You could sit down and watch the pieces at any point in the video and get a preview of the history you would find inside the wing.
The Art wing was provocative and beautiful, never losing sight of the people behind the artwork. The gallery was divided up in three sections: Places, People and Innovation. Each gallery focused on defining the theme through a variety of works ranging from landscapes to abstract mapping pieces. There was a huge touch-screen table with a screen displaying a map of California that you could tap and drag to learn more about specific places. Paintings ranged from the WPA era to landscapes to abstract and modern. I found the exhibit on f64 club to be most lingering. This was a small gallery of black and white photos displaying people, places and objects captured with the smallest possible aperture. Images looked extremely sharp and detailed, especially with the silver quality of the prints.

Finally, the PIXAR exhibit. I had to wait an hour to get inside since entrance depended on whether I pre-ordered my ticket or when I bought them at the entrance. The experience was well worth the wait, as I not only got to check out the other galleries, but I got to see so much of the production and development that goes into an animation project. From PIXAR’s early beginnings, with some reference to Eadweard Muybridge who used photography to create what will become stop-motion movies of today. There was a screen showing what started out as wire-frames that evolve into more familiar PIXAR characters that we know. There were sketches, storyboards, color mood treatments, character movement studies, models, so much more that I easily lost sense of time. It would have been the perfect experience to bring kids of any age and find so much to talk about the creative imagination or just recall some favorite moments from these magical films.
This was definitely a highlight of the year.