changing it up

As you may recall, we adopted a second cat awhile back. She was really beautiful, but so mean. She chased the Major around mercilessly and bit everyone and he lost a lot of weight because she wouldn't let him eat. They were not the best of friends.



So, we packed her up and sent her back.



It took about 3 seconds for the buddy to get all neurotic and weird again, with no Great Enemy to take up all his time.


So today, we found him a new nemesis. He is very small.



He does not have a name yet, but we are thinking of Zim. I am ZIM!

the best feeling in the world

An age ago, when I was still in school, I would walk across campus sometimes, and something about the way the breeze would rustle in the trees, or a bit of conversation I would overhear, would fill me with this almost inexpressable joy, a feeling that surprised me at first in how it really is a swelling in the chest, and I would think to myself, "I am really, really happy here." That feeling was gone for a long time when I left. And now, just as suddenly, it's back. It's seven p.m., and I'm sitting in my warm, colorful classroom, reading my ESL students' essays on Romeo and Juliet. This is going to sound like bragging, but I have to say, they are blowing me away. They have really, really learned something this year, and they are honest-to-god ready to move on to mainstream English. And as for me - I, for the very first time, know what it feels like to be successful at teaching. It is the swelling/bursting feeling again, the feeling like I am in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

Reading Area #1:

Newly-created Reading Area #2:

I swear I have space in my classroom for doing actual work.

teen books = fun

Because I'm sure you are all really interested in what I've been reading during SSR, and in the state of YA fiction in general, I here provide an update. You're welcome!

Exit Here - I have to recommend this one just because of how hysterically bad it is. Think American Psycho-style brand consiousness meets Valley of the Dolls, only with rich scenesters from Michigan. AWESOME. The death toll is amazing, a mix of murders, suicides, car crashes, etc, plus two in jail and one HIV-pos diagnoisis, all while really, really high.
Elsewhere- I read this one last night and really liked it. It's Lovely Bones for the YA set, which works out a lot better since that book was crazily overrated fluff anyhow. This one has super-charming characters and less pretension. Pay no attention to the Amazon.com editorial review which says it's written in the second person - it's third.
Dairy Queen - Charming, charming, charming. This author has a really strong voice and reads like a teenager, which rarely happens in YA writing. I am pushing this one on my kids like crazy.
Born to Rock - Gordon Korman is one of those rare BOY writers who doesn't write sports or violence, just straight-up fiction. This one is about a young republican who learns that his biological father is a Jello Biafra type, and ends up a roadie on his reunion tour. It's fun but slight.
Skin - An anorexia book where the anorexic actually dies. Unheard-of! The eating disorder plotline is really good, narrated by the little brother who feels betrayed and lost in the world, but about 20% of the novel is given over to the shrill screaming of the parents, which I could have done without.
Sold - A verse novel about a Nepali girl sold into prostituion in India. I'm pushing this one hard, too - my kids have very little idea what happens in the world outside the Americas, good and bad.
Scrambled Eggs at Midnight - Good but not great despite the Jesus/Fat Camp v. RenFaire backdrop. The current printing has a couple of typos in it which always yanks me right out of the narrative. I like this trend of male and female authors alternating boy/girl chapters, though Nick and Norah does it better.
How I Live Now - Dystopic near-future romance - think pastoral 1984 plus, I don't know, The Royal Tenenbaums. I dug it.
Endgame - This one's a school shooting novel that takes you up to the event with the shooter himself. It's pretty brutal. The problem is the audience, as the protagonist is this sensitive dorky picked-on kid, and the ones who want shooter books aren't down with that, and vice-versa. I dunno. Hopefully it will find its niche.
Grafitti Girl - Completely unremarkable except that it takes place in a thinly-disguised version of my hometown. The author must be a hometown girl, and her resentment of the very real class divide comes through in occasionally hilarious ways, like when the protagonist attends a graf party at a three-story home in the rich part of town. Three stories! No joke.
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - This books is all, FUCK FUCK FUCK! ORAL SEX! PUNK ROCK! so of course I loved it. Our rocker girls are really into it - every single copy of mine has gone mysteriously missing. Insant classic!
Rash - Pete Hautman is always great, but this one is a social satire, and I'm worried about my *very literal* students not getting it at all.
King Dork - This one is currently making the rounds with my friends. The last book I handed around this way was High Fidelity - what is it about music/misanthrope novels? Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. Although, I think there's a reason I'm pushing it on my contemporaries rather than my kids - it's one of those "looking back at being a teen"-style books, more than it is a book for teens.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - You've probably seen this one at Starbucks. I read it thinking I'd have my 10th graders do a unit on contemporary world memoir, and it turned out to be just about a perfect fit. The first half is harrowing enough as the boys try to flee the war; when they become a part of it, it's a whole other thing altogether.
They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky - Holy God, what a book this is. I'm including it in the same unit, and I'm really hoping the kids give it a chance at it's not a small book, but it packs a punch.
Slave - Also a part of this memoir unit. I had to put this one aside - I can't quite get myself to believe it. Not that people are still sold into slavery, but just this particular family, this particular situation - it's like A Child Called It: African Edition. I don't know what this says about me, but I'm pretty sure it's not good. There's just something off about the author's voice, though, and it pushes me away.

A partial list of things I'm in the middle of: The Book Thief, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, and Mayflower. All of these have been put aside because they're too good and/or too involved to be read with one eye trained on those boys in the back who keep trying to play checkers during SSR. I mean...checkers? Really?

fire-extinguished!

The Universe, it seems, was unsatisfied with last week's minor respiratory disaster, my walking out of my classroom and into a cloud of mere pepper spray. This morning, the ante was succesfully upped when I was summonsed to sub during my conference for DR, my most ideological opposite in the English department and luckily, my SLC-mate and four-doors-down neighbor. I am sick once again today, with my throat swollen almost shut this morning and having spent all last night shaking with cold and fever, but much as I wanted to spend the period asleep on my couch, I signed the damn paper and headed over there fourth period, and was rewarded with a faceful of freshly-sprayed fire-extinguishing chemical dust.

Working here has made everything normal. I thought, "Hmm. Should probably document," reached into my bag, and pulled out my digi-cam. Then, covered face and opened windows, took kids waiting on balcony to my room where I supplied them with markers and a small stack of books on tagging, called the front office, and texted everyone I know to let them in on the story. DR is pretty universally loathed; I knew it would be the pick-me-up everyone needed on a dull, plodding Friday like today.

At this rate, I fully expect to be mustard-gassed by the end of the school year.