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.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY AND OBAMA IS MY PRESENT

Dude, this is SO EXCITING.

I don't have work today because our school is a polling place, so I got to sleep in, yay! I went to Trader Joes this morning to pick up snacks for the poll workers and was slightly ashamed that I was not among those wearing their "I voted" stickers.

Drove over to the church to vote and was astonished at how many people were in line. The line stretched up the whole block. I've voted in the same neighborhood a few times now, and always in the early evening after work, and there has never been more than ten or twenty people waiting. This was truly incredible. Either no one works in LA (true), or everyone is taking off work to vote (also true). No matter, the line moved quickly and I was out of there in thirty minutes. My voting stub contains both of my favorite numbers, so that is a like the seven zillionth clue that this election is going to turn out awesome.

Then I drove over to my work to check out the action there. We had gotten word that there were planned protests for and against proposition 8, but all I saw was a twentysomething girl handing out fliers. The parking lot was filled with people in line, and it was equally crazy inside. I passed over some snacks to the workers and got blessed.

Now it's back home to back Obama cupcakes and finish cleaning for my party tonight.