I'm back

It's two thousand nine!!! Yay life!

I've just returned from my two-week road trip across the United States. It's been very edumacational. Not at all a partying trip, and quite somber in tone, I realized as I retold anecdotes and impressions to several people yesterday. But still, overall very good.

I have one more week of vacation before I return to my job I love. Our new president / savior takes office in less than three weeks. My boy is stepping it up and being very good to me and is even taking me to Palm Springs on Monday! Hurray new year!

road trip!

You know what's really exciting? Gas has dropped to a dollar sixty-seven, which is cheaper than it was back in college when I took that California road trip with Rachel Canada. I've calculated that it will be less than a hundred bucks each this winter when Naomi and I drive to New Orleans and back*.


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*Stopping in Grand Canyon, Albequerque, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Miss, Baton Rouge, and Las Cruces. And somewhere in Texas because, unfortunately, you can't avoid it.

omigod, they love to read!

We feel like we are actually teaching something at this here new school! At first it was just the brainy, intellectual types that would walk around with novels during nutrition and talk about plots during lunch*. Then, around the third round of literature circles, we noticed more and more students toting their books around with them outside of Humanities class. Once a day, you'd hear a kid discussing the story with a classmate. More than a few would be reading in the cafe before school began instead of goofing off.

On Monday, instead of assigning new lit groups, we decided to let each student pick one of the books they hadn't been assigned but wanted to read. I was surprised by how enthusiastic they were about their choices. Most kids were really eager to get their hands on a certain book their friends had read or they'd seen presented in class once or twice. Students I never thought of as "readers" were like, "Omigod, I NEED to read Fever, I've been DYING to read it." Or, "Please, please, please, can I read Westing Game?" I told them we weren't going to assign Desperoux on account of the movie coming out and potential cheaters, but there were two girls literally BEGGING to read it and swearing up and down that they weren't going to see the movie. (I gave it to them.)

There are these four boys who come to school early every day and sit on the couch right by the cafe door and basically torture each other until one of them gets too loud or too physical and is sent to sit in the office. They seem to not know what to do with free time. Yesterday, I walked into the cafe and saw this:



*I have to admit that as silly as Twilight looks, you've never seen eleven year olds carry around seven hundred page tomes as eagerly.

It's too bad I've become a totally boring, politics-obsessed person, because I used to be quite humorous. I'll get on that.

I emailed Obama!

I teach sixth grade at a newly opened school devoted to social justice and community engagement. For the first two months of school, we talked about the elections a lot. We taught about the electoral system, women's suffrage, the Democratic and Republican party platforms, and the issues that face voters today. I have never before seen children so enthusiastic about politics! Students came to school every morning reporting the latest news item. Many watched the presidential and vice-presidential debates, and a few even took notes! Campaign buttons appeared on shirts and backpacks. We held a mock election using official sample ballots and real voting ink machine. (Obama won, overwhelmingly.)

In the week since the election, our students have declared they want to learn about taxes and gay marriage rights, two issues that were on the front pages here in California. We've also assured them that we will broadcast the inauguration in school in January. I am proud to have been involved in such a meaningful election. It has been a joy to see my students become so excited about civics!

jackie goldberg

This woman is my hero.




18th Annual California Studies Conference
"Changing Climates: Class, Culture and Politics in an Era of Global Warming"
April 12, 2008
Berkeley City College

Luncheon address: Jackie Goldberg, "The Changing Climate of Our Schools: Put Students on the Endangered List"

Holy shit, this is like a dream come true.

Barack Obama is our next president.