The Chrysler Sebring that ruined my week

Since writing has become such a good outlet for me, I think this has become more of a life blog than just restricted to teaching. After all, the one thing I didn't want to have happen is let teaching consume my life. That being said, I was originally going to spend this time writing about my Labor Day weekend trip to Washington for a music concert, but instead I stayed in Oakland after getting t-boned at the intersection literally a block from my apartment. And if one more person tells me that "statistically it's the most common place to get in an accident," I swear I'm going to scream. This guy side-swiped me hard enough to trigger the side airbags and spin me 180 degrees up onto the curb; I'm pretty lucky he only hit the back driver's side door and not a few feet up from that. I still probably would have been fine - the damage on my car was nothing compared to the obliterated bumper of the other guy. The icing on the cake though - other than the fact that it was not my fault at all - was that the other guy had no insurance, and it also doesn't help that I have to wait until the end of September for my first paycheck of the school year. So anyway, I got hit about five minutes before we were planning on heading out en route to the Gorge Amphitheater, so I gave my friends the ticket to sell, thinking that I would be able to take care of all the repair plans over the weekend, but everything was closed for the holiday. I guess the $500 silver lining is that I was able to get a ton of things done that I originally didn't have time for, including playing in a pre-season game for a premier soccer team that I'm trying out for. I figure it's a "shit happens" scenario, and I didn't get hurt, so that's good.

As far as school goes, I used my extra time this weekend to grade and record the results from the diagnostic tests that I gave my classes. Overall, my algebra classes scored a 38% average on 7th grade math California math standards, my geometry students got a 41% on things they should know before my class, and my precalculus took the cake with depressing results. They scored less than 30% on algebra and geometry standards that they need before getting into precalculus curriculum. It has been quite a punch in the gut to realize that my goal this year is to reteach them Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry, in addition to somehow bridging the gap to Calculus. Holy hell. At least so far the students are all great and understand why we have so much ground to cover. I keep wondering how much better I could have done last year if I had only started off with this kind of relationship with the students. There's pretty much nothing bad to say about my new 178 students (note: still more than an average of 35 kids per class) other than their discouraging entry test scores, and every day I get students from last year walking by to say hi. This has reminded me many times that these kids rarely hold grudges - after all, a handful of those that stop by are the ones who still failed my class last year. I often think to myself when some of them stop by: "What are they doing here? We were never friends!" It's almost like making it through my first year at Richmond High and then coming back for another year is like the equivalent of a rite of passage where all of a sudden you earn all this extra respect. And yet with all this new teacher blood this year, sometimes all I think I've earned is extra cynicism.

But speaking of rites of passage, I was invited and went to a student's quincenera recently, which is a female Hispanic/Latino equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah, although I'm not one to say since I've never been to one. Anyway, these girls have like a wedding party of friends - guys and girls - and they have choreographed dance lessons for weeks before the event. There's dancing, matching dresses, tuxedos, lots of Spanish music, and a borderline ridiculous Beauty-and-the-Beast-style gown for the spotlit 15 year-old. It was pretty cool actually, and I still wonder what Latino guys traditionally do for their 15th birthday to match the girls. To me it seemed like way too much money to be spending on a teenager.

Oh yeah, we also had a 3.1 magnitude earthquake on Thursday morning during second period - it doesn't sound like much, but if you go to the USGS map, it was literally right underneath RHS. I didn't feel it since I was standing, but apparently all the desks shook because the students kind of went crazy and the rest of the period was pretty much shot. It must have done something to our new air conditioning systems because coincidentally our rooms turned blazing hot after that period, and learning - let alone teaching - is a seriously hard thing to do in a 90 degree room with no windows and no air circulation. Later that day the teacher across the hall said she heard one of my students yell in class for everyone to stop breathing because they were making it hotter. It was that bad.

I was originally going to take Friday off to go to this concert, but as it turned out, after getting in the car accident I needed it off anyway. However, getting a substitute already meant that I missed the crazy news that my "house" cultural geography teacher (the social studies teacher that all my students have) is quitting to go work in administration at our feeder middle school, which is all well and good for him, but I feel really bad for the students having to go through sub after sub until the spot has a long-term fix. It turns out that this teacher had been at Richmond for nine years, and actually graduated himself from RHS. The new gig is a dream job for him, and frankly, being Latino, he is an ideal candidate for the district's image, so I'm happy for him, but this was the guy who arranged the whole Oakland Half Marathon staff thing last year, so I'm sad to see him go.

So yes, mine was an eventful second week, and I doubt I'll get into the swing of things until my students stop getting switched around between classes. Rumor is that our new counselor declared that last Friday was the last day to switch your schedule around, and though the cynic in me says that there's no way in hell that's going to happen, I guess we'll see. Each week brings a new adventure. In the meantime I hope this rental car thing works without a hitch!