The Ying and Yang of Teaching: 3

Good people, the universe has placed me in a new school. I am now working in a K-8 school, and will be there the rest of the year, and the following school year. I am back among the K-8 crowd. It looks like my high school teaching days are on pause; for now. As a special ed teacher you are sent where you are needed.

So, after a few weeks of working with the the younger-yungins, this is what my new journey is providing me:

- I'm the new toy in the school, therefore, the students are fascinated with me. I get curious looks and smiles. Moreover, the friends of students assigned to me, want to come to accompany my students to the resource room and/or have lunch with me.

- Occasionally I accommodate my students' requests to bring a friend to resource room, because building a relationship with my students, will be key in getting them to do their work. Just today when my group was a bit rowdy, my student said to the group "Hey! Listen to Mr. S. He's nice!"

- I decided to call my resource room The Dragon's Lair. I had one of my eight-graders draw a dragon, to serve as mascot for the room. She turned it out! I'll explain the dragon concept in a future post.

- In high school I gave many pats on the back for a job well done. Today I find myself giving many pats on the head for a job well done, due to the fact that I am surrounded by students that are rib-cage high. For the girls I bow and say "Well done little mama." Both acts of praise renders a smile. How adorable!

- Many of my students live in a housing project that is known as The Jungle. I kid you not. This community is living with many social ills. Therefore, our students come into school with all kinds of needs, strengths, insights, and emotions, that are shaped by their experiences of living within poverty. Their reality is very much like the one I grew up in. I am them and they are me.

So, I continue to teach my students and learn from them. Good people, I'm living within my purpose.

I'm Just A Jazz Baby

I done messed up on you good people. When I recently posted about the film Thoroughly Modern Millie I should have done my homework and provided you a clip from the movie via youtube. Here I am making amends.

Rent the film and enjoy the kiki. BTW, I so want to host a party and wear Ms. Channing's outfit and act out as she did so brilliantly. Moreover, Isaac Mizrahi mentioned her bejeweled wrists as a fashion option during one of his shows. Take note locas!

A Boy, A Horse and A Monkey

I wonder if I can still get tickets to Leslie Jordan's show. Here is one of the gems of a story he shared:

Thank you Musto for the post.

Pixieish Leslie Jordan (who was Beverly Leslie on Will & Grace) has a one-man off-Broadway show in which he talks about the horror of doing a sake commercial with Boy George in the Mojave desert.

Jordan says he was outfitted with all kinds of suffocating prosthetics, lenses, and wigs in order to play a monkey who accompanies the pop singer (riding on a white horse) through the desert.

Jordan grew tired of waiting for George to emerge out of his air conditoned trailer, from which all kinds of interesting snorting sounds were coming.

The singer finally came out and ended up getting into a snit fight with the director because he didn't want to get on the horse.

The director advised the '80s star to be a good fairy.

"I AM a good fairy," countered George. "Poof. You're a pile of shit!"

Jordan, meanwhile, was going nuts from the sand blowing at him and landing under his lenses and prosthetics.

He told George he could only do one more take, so the singer instructed him of the Japanese phrase to shout at the crew to inform them of that.

Jordan obediently did so, and it turned out he had shouted "How big is your dick?"

Not sure how big Boy George's is, but the balls are definitely large.

Source: Michael Musto's Daily Blog

OMG Austin Has Become A Dandy Andy

Yah remember Austin Scarlett from season one of Project Runway? Good people, I would often see this queen strutting about The Village when I worked at NYU a few years back.

She was rail thin and bouncy. I enjoyed watching Miss Scarlett, enjoy being watched, while she savored her new life in NYC.

Lo and behold, here is Miss. Scarlett doing her thing today. I wonder if she is still designing, or has she settled into a kept life provided by a sugar daddy she met at The Townhouse.

As God as my witness may she never go hungry again.

BTW the kiki of this post is the link to The Townhouse.



Source: Blogging Project Runway

They Better Bring It! - Update

I am so ready for the season finale of Project Runway tonight! I'm torn between Emilio and Seth Aaron. I think they are both very talented and mad cute. I even enjoy Emilio's lisp.

BTW, as we all know Jay and Anthony were chopped, however, they did show at Fashion Week!

Click here for Jay.

Click here for Anthony.

I think they both turned it out and could have easily been contenders at Fashion Week.

UPDATE: I'm cool with the outcome. I totally agree with the reasoning. I also have to say what Jay said in the reunion show about one of the models was totally tacky. Eww!

Helvetica

I just saw a very interesting episode of Independent Lens on PBS about the font Helvetica. Look for it.

Who knew a font had such a history. Moreover, how this font has had such an impact, possibly, on how we think about things.

BTW, head over to Aaron's blog for a kiki about the use of fonts. I suggest you click on the image on his blog to get the full picture.

To Get You Going On Monday

This is Off-Time written by the legendary Fats Waller and Harry Link. This version is from the amazing production of Ain't Misbehavin' that starred the late great Nell Carter.

There is a full video of the entire show that you must look for. It was a great show. I actually listen to this soundtrack to put me in a good mood, and it never fails.

The Ying and Yang of Teaching: 2

Recently, Renee (the blogger formerly known as Miss Kitty), posted about the pending graduations of two of her nephews. I offered my congratulations. However, I also shared that far too often young men of color don't make it to graduation.

There many reasons why so many young people disengage from their K-12 education. Here is my first attempt at shedding some light on what I think ails the public education system.:

- First and foremost it starts with the attitude the family has about education. If doing your best in school does not hold value within a student's parents, chances are that child will not engage and/or give up when content becomes challenging. I can't stress enough how important it is for a parent to check to see if homework was completed, and offer assistance the best way they know how. Sadly, this rarely happens with many of my students at home. The message sent by this lack of involvement from the parents is not a good one.

- As a special education teacher, I customize my lessons around the interests of my students. If you engage a child in reading content that matters to them it makes a big difference. If you structure a math lesson around real-world applications, you have a fighting chance. While I know there will be some courses and content that won't resonate with students, we should make attempts to offer something that will motivate students, because it matters to them.

So, consistent parental involvement and engaging content that is reflective of a student's interests is a step in the right direction. Mind you I know many educators that have been fighting the good fight to support these ideas for quite sometime. Along with them I stay committed to using this approach to improving my students formal education experience.

A Queen Waves And Touches Pearls

I so enjoy Leslie Jordan (aka Beverly Leslie from Will & Grace). This queen is a scene stealer and has a very interesting story to tell.

Michael Musto interviewed Lesile, and I enjoyed every line of text.

She is quick witted, had her shares of trials and tribulations, while keeping the lovely sex worker boys in business through her philanthropy. Click here for the kiki of it all.