English Teacher + Infant = Literary Photo Shoot

I love being an English teacher. I get to read great books with great kids all day for the entire year. I also love being a father. I get to raise a human being, teach him how to throw a baseball, and get to be the one who introduces him to the Star Wars films. This is a wonderful life.

This summer would be my first as a father. Rather then get to my to-do list items, I decided to distract myself with a father-son project. With the help of my eight month old son Gabriel, we have recreated some cover art from some great pieces of literature. So, in case you were wondering, this is what happens when an infant is left in the care of an English teacher for the summer. 

Thug Notes: Complex Literary Analysis Gone Gangsta!

Have you ever been hanging out with your homies and felt like discussing the subtle nuances found in The Stranger or maybe you were in the mood to converse about Animal Farm and it’s allegorical meaning. No? Just me? Oh.

Well a new channel on YouTube gives viewers a chance to see literary masterpieces through a more realistic scope. Thug Notes is hosted by Sparky. This Gangsta with a Graduate’s lays down some intense retellings of classics, while also providing thorough analysis of themes, character, and symbolism.

Becoming an Educator in the 21st Century

That old saying: "Nobody is perfect." Ain't that the truth. In fact, no one is anywhere near perfect because sometimes life throws some crazy shit in your way and despite your best efforts or talents or hard work, the opportunities are simply not there. But that doesn't mean that you can't try. Sure you might fail, but you absolutely need to try your hardest for what you really want in life because, well, it is what you want out of life that is important.

I realized that I wanted to be a teacher about the time that I entered high school. I had some pretty kick ass mentors that gave me a quality education. Someone gave this poor little Mexican boy a chance to succeed and I wanted to take that opportunity and show the world that I could pay it forward to several generations of students by encouraging them, motivating them, and showing them that they had potential to be somebody in life. I wasn’t going to be just a teacher, oh no. I was going to be the teacher.

Then I entered college, and the economy was awesome. Then I graduated and the economy was stable. Then I entered my credential program and the financial world went to shit. The little green arrow that normally pointed up was now a red arrow descending on the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans. I had no idea what any of this meant at the time because I was so focused on my goals. Nothing could stop me, not even one of the worst recessions we have ever had.

I was lucky enough to receive a paid internship at a school for emotionally disturbed girls. I was going to teach for the first time. It wasn’t my dream job, but at least it would help give me experience and help pay for my increasing college debt. I taught there for three years. Those three years validated my choice in careers. I smiled from ear to ear and life was grand. I even saved some money and bought a house at the age of 24. Then I was laid off. My last day of work was two days before my wedding day. I went a year without teaching, and my new wife and I had a set of problems that we never anticipated. She pushed me to move forward and keep trying and I did.

Finally I got a job working at a middle school in LAUSD, the second largest school district in the nation. I worked with some wonderful people and met some amazing educators who were buried in work by a district that was too large to be managed effectively. In February I received a pink slip. In March I was told that I would be brought back the next year. Later in March I was given another pink slip. Obviously, this was not a very stable place to be for someone looking to start his career.

During the summer I found work in my alma mater district. This was pretty much my dream job. The pay was great, the benefits fantastic, and more importantly, they hadn’t let go of any teachers in the past 20 years. What a wonderful track record. My first year went by quickly and I made an impressive mark on the school and my administrators. My second year, I was given a pink slip. The notice was given to me days after I found out that my wife was expecting our first child. I was devastated.

There were some hearing and a legal battle, but the district made due and released several teachers from several schools. At this point, the economy had made somewhat of a bounce back and jobs were out there for experienced teachers (can’t say the same for first year teachers). I had been teaching for 6 years, and in a classroom for 7. I had finished my credential program and my BTSA (2 year induction program), plus I was confident in myself as an educator and my abilities to succeed in teaching students.

So what happened to this poor little Mexican boy? Well, that summer I went into every interview and handled business. I received offers from multiple schools and pretty much had my choice in where I wanted to go. Was I worried after I was laid off with a baby on the way? Yes, but I knew that I had worked hard to get where I was at and my track record was that of a proven educator who was a victim of an unstable economy. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about leaving the profession. The same profession that I had already invested years, money, and heart into. But I stuck with it. My wife helped me realize that this was what I really wanted, and if you don’t keep trying for what you really want, then your not really living life. 4 schools, 5 pink slips, and 7 years teaching later I am a better person. Sometimes life throws some crazy shit in your way. You just have to learn to go with the flow.

Travels with Gabby

After recounting to you what I learned during my epic journey across America, I figured I would recount to you my smaller, still epic, journey across California. My wife and I just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a trip to San Francisco. As a courtesy to me, she allowed me to put the National Steinbeck Center on the itinerary, since we were driving through the area.

As I have mentioned, Travels with Charley is a must read for me almost every time I take a road trip. What made this road trip extra special was being able to visit a museum dedicated to one of the most influential American authors, and seeing the house where he was born and raised.

The National Steinbeck Center is located in Salinas, California, which is roughly two hours away from San Francisco and the bay area. Nestled close to the Monterey Bay, Salinas is a small community with a very significant national treasure. The Steinbeck Center houses a very interactive museum where guest can read and see items related to Steinbeck’s life. Personal journals, notes, manuscripts are all on display and set in interesting formats. For example, there is great room that appears to be Steinbeck’s childhood bedroom with a dresser with drawers that open. When opened guests can see books that belonged to Steinbeck, notes he jotted down and even some short writing samples. All of it is encased in thick glass, of course.

Other interactive exhibits include sections dedicated to all of Steinbeck’s major works. My son particularly enjoyed The Red Pony exhibit. 

As a cool little tribute to the novel, the Of Mice and Men display had a setting that appeared to be the bunkhouse where the workers slept and where much of the dialogue takes place in the novel. Hanging on some hooks along the wall were some coats and hats, which belonged to the main characters. Curley’s glove was even there. When you lifted the hats, as the signs directed you to, you found a short quote from the character. My favorite part was the little mouse inside Lennie’s very large coat.

A few blocks from the museum there is a very large well-kept Victorian style home. This is where Steinbeck was born and raised. It is beautiful to see, although my wife and I got the impression that the locals didn’t appreciate the history they were surrounded by. Several people, shady in appearance and in action, walked by seeming not to notice the people taking photos in front of the house or reading the small plaque in front. Maybe they are just used to the tourists.

Steinbeck's birthplace and home

Hemingway has always been my favorite American author, but the older I get, the more I appreciate what Steinbeck did in chronicling the America of his time. Visiting the Steinbeck Center gave me a unique perspective as to what this man’s work truly mean to this country. And I bought a cool magnet.

The National Steinbeck Center can be found at www.steinbeck.org or on most social networks: https://www.facebook.com/nationalsteinbeckcenter, https://twitter.com/steinbeckcenter, http://instagram.com/steinbeckcenter

Travels with Harley

The first question I typically get this time of year when people talk to me about work is “Are you teaching summer school?” To this question I always have the same response, and it is this:

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but teaching is a pretty demanding career. It is particularly strenuous for those of us who do it right and actually care, which is roughly half of us, but that is a topic for another day. Although most teachers are not paid during the summer, it is a time to let go of the previous year, hibernate, relax, enjoy family time, and even prepare for the next school year. I normally do not teach summers because I am aware of the plague of “teacher burn out” which happens when a select few take on too much of a workload to support the school. For me, the time off is needed to not go crazy.

I try to make the most of my summers by traveling. I always get the urge to reread Travels with Charley by Steinbeck because he does such a beautiful job describing his cross-country travels. Two years ago I was lucky enough to take a similar trek across the country when my brother, his wife, and his daughter Harley moved from Arizona to South Carolina. I sought this opportunity to take my own road trip across the U.S. and dubbed the journey my “Travels with Harley.” We loaded up our version of “Rocinante” and like Steinbeck’s faithful poodle, my 2-year-old niece was my sidekick through the roads of America.

This was going to be a great opportunity to accomplish numerous goals, including: checking off several items on a baseball bucket-list that my brother and I are obsessed with, actually seeing and visiting 15 states, and crossing through the roads that Steinbeck traversed on his journey home. Another goal was to visit any literary historical landmarks, but we were a little too removed from any place of real literary significance. The coolest thing close enough, which I regret not visiting, was Carl Sandburg’s home in North Carolina. I wish I would have known about literarytourist.com back then. It is a wonderful resource and full of valuable information. For what its worth, I got to see where Elvis was born.

The journey was epic. I saw more in a three weeks than I ever thought I would of the United States. The whole time keeping in mind why Steinbeck took his journey, “I had not heard the speech of America, smelled the grass and trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, its color and quality of light. I knew the changes only from books and newspapers.” I realized that although I have traveled before, I didn’t really know America. I only knew Tourist America, and even then, only a very few cities in very very few states.

So what did I see and learn? Well, America is big and it is very diverse. Not just culturally and ethnically diverse, I mean the personalities, the lifestyles, the customs and habits. It is incredible. I also learned that racism and prejudice are still very real, although I also encountered some of the friendliest people I have ever met. I learned that New Mexico looks like Cars Land at Disney’s California Adventure.

Seriously. This is what New Mexico looks like.

 Finally, I learned that the open road is something that cannot be tamed. That just felt like something that needed to be written. Steinbeck learned a similar lesson, “I do know this - the big and mysterious America is bigger than I thought. And more mysterious.”

I could have written about the specifics of my travels, but I will save that for my next post about my latest travels.

Here is Steinbeck's map, and my map.

As summer is just getting started and many are venturing off or planning crazy road trips or even small getaways, pick up Steinbeck’s work to give you some perspective. It is a fast read and an entertaining work of non-fiction. One last Steinbeck quote: “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”

Canonical Literature Vs. Contemporary Interests: One Teacher’s View on Literature in Schools

            I am, and have always been, a bit of a classicist. I enjoy things delivered in their pure form, or at least the pure form that was bestowed upon me. The problem with my traditionalist ways is that I am also fascinated with technology and the advancements that world has made in the past few decades. This causes a world of chaos for me that no one can possibly understand. I fought off getting an iPod for several year because I enjoyed having a physical CD and cover art. The same with cell phones, gaming systems, blu rays, and other advancements in the technological world. I don’t know why, but I fight and fight until I conform. And then I fall in love. Out go all of the CD’s because they are useless. The cover art? Who needs it? I convert into this monster that must cleanse himself of outdated possessions. Ever see the “Obsolete Man” episode of Twilight Zone? Well for a brief time I become the dictator in charge of purging society of all things obsolete.

Chipotle: Authentic Anglo-American Mexican Experience

A couple of months ago I was excited to read this article about how Chipotle was going to incorporate short stories and essays from prominent writers on their cups. I thought this was the coolest idea ever. Although I rarely eat at Chipotle, putting literature on cups seems like a great experience and provides the average Joe with an opportunity to read something interesting and new. The cups feature contributions from Jonathan Safran Foer, Malcolm Gladwell, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, and others. Some writers would contribute short stories and some would contribute essays for Chipotle’s cups and bags. This all stemmed from a bored Foer eating a burrito without a thing to read in proximity. He reached out to Chipotle’s CEO and the movement to put words on cups began.

Here are a few of the cups in all their controversial glory.

Is Writing Across the Curriculum Important?

            I used to begin the school year by telling all of my students that my job as an English teacher was the most important job in the world and that their class would be the most significant they would ever have. I used this bit of hyperbole to capture their curiosity, but I would explain to them that it was my job to teach them what they would have to use in all of their other classes, and jobs, for the rest of their lives. This was my way of expressing to them the importance of reading and writing in our society. I do not do this anymore because I truly value the movement of interdisciplinary writing and writing across the curriculum, and I would hate to belittle that concept to my students by demeaning my colleagues and their approach to teaching literacy skills. On the contrary, I want my students to make the connection that writing has across the spectrum of education.

Reading and writing are ways to analyze and synthesize life and help us find meaning in things. Writing is key to learning. It helps us process, decode, and understand our complex thoughts or the complex thoughts of others. A main focus of the “Writing is…” video was the fact that writing is an outlet; not only for creativity, but also for expression of thought and knowledge. All classes in content areas require these skills to learn, and writing is used in each of them. Here is a video about the significance of writing in our society.

What Blogging Used to Look Like

Maybe it’s just me, but I have kept most of my essays and writing since high school. I could have easily thrown them away, and probably should have, but there was a little voice inside my 15 year old head telling me that I might find these significant later in life. The mere fact that this voice was heard through all of the other thoughts of girls and spontaneous erections is a miracle, but perhaps it was destiny.

I knew that I had to be an English teacher when I was a freshman in high school. I used to attribute it to the fact that my English teachers were cool and they “got” me, but in retrospect I have always loved reading and writing. It wasn’t really teaching that interested me, it was sharing cool shit that happens in novels with new audiences every year. Of course, I developed a love for pedagogy as the years went by, but at first I was all about the literature.

I wrote a lot in high school. It was the dawn of the Internet and information was reaching people at record breaking dial-up speeds. This was really of no interest to me at the time. I was all about writing in my journal and writing songs for my band that was sure to become a huge success. A few gentle compliments from a couple English teachers and I thought of myself as the motherfuckin literary master of Rosemead High School. So, of course I kept my essays to document my ascension as a writer.

English is Crazy

Every language has its quirks. For example, it always sounds like you are upset if you are speaking German. In French, everything sounds fancy. Some people speak Spanish so quickly that it sounds like a motorboat. But English takes first prize.

            Our language is derived of many different languages. English is comprised of Latin, Germanic, and even French to create an Anglo-Saxon collection of languages. We borrow from many languages to get the mess that comes out of our mouths every day.

            This summarizes it pretty well. Strange how you can chop a tree down and then chop it up.

            Of course many things happened along the evolution of our language, including the Great Vowel Shift, but that is a story for another day. Here is the history part of our where English comes from:

Colon-oscopy...Not as Gross as it Sounds

Ok, so now we are getting into a little bit of the hardcore grammar nazi type stuff. Punctuation can be a tricky thing at times, but colons and semicolons seem to intimidate some non-grammarians. The most use these punctuation pals get now is as the eyes in your emojis. But they so much more than that. Well, they are a little more than that. Like all forms of punctuation they serve a purpose, and here it is:

Colons

Colons are used after independent clauses to introduce a list, an appositive, an amplification/emphasis, or an illustrative quote. Colons break up sentences to let the reader know that what follows (after the colon) is important and closely related to the sentence that precedes it.

If we are talking about lists, colons work in this regard, “A master chef need three tools: a sharp knife, a hot pan, and the right ingredients.”

Colons can also be used to join two independent clauses. Strunk and White offer this example: “But even so, there was a directness and dispatch about animal burial: there was no stopover in the undertaker’s foul parlor, no wreath or spray.”

Finally, colons can be used to introduce a quote that adds to the meaning of your words, as I did when I introduced the quote by Strunk and White (see what I did there? Two birds with on stone).

$150 for Your Thoughts?

            I recently purchased a brand new car. I have had several cars in my life so far, but all of them were used or passed down to me in some way. Last year I purchased a brand new SUV for my wife since we were pregnant with our first child. I wanted something a bit more reliable than what we had. This year it was my turn. I shopped around and researched as much as I could. Realistically though it boiled down to what kind of payments I would be making. In the end, I purchased a 2014 Ford Fiesta Titanium Edition. This has all of the bells and whistles (something I am not used to) and it was very affordable.

                                      

            In January of this year I received a letter in the mail asking if I wanted to participate in a survey from Ford regarding the Fiesta. Normally I scowl at such letters for wasting precious seconds of my life, but this survey was different. In big bold letters the survey said, “takes a few minutes and you will receive $150 for your time.” My interest was piqued. In short, the letter stated that Fiesta owners were being asked to participate in both an online survey, and a panel interview. I figured I would take a few minutes and see what would happen. After completing the survey I received a phone call. Then I received an invitation. Then I answered some questions in person from some very nice automotive engineers. Then I received a check.