Dear God,

The day before Thanksgiving was great.

I took my first field trip as a teacher. And it was a great one.

In my two junior classes we are reading The Color Purple. As luck would have it, about a half hour down the road in this little town the Indians call Manhattan, The Color Purple is playing at the Broadway theater. (One block away from Letterman.)

I was a wreck. Taking the subway from school, letting the kids have lunch on their own in Manhattan. "We get to roam around the city on our own???" one astute young man asked. I almost had a heart attack. Because in essence, that was exactly what it was.

At one point, I asked, "who's nervous?" Of course none copped to it. I said, "Well I'm not going to lie, I am."

But it was good for them. They need practice being responsible. They needed to be back to the theater at 1:30 pm for a 2:00 show and they were all on time.

So they snuck in roasted peanuts and a large Jamba Juice. (You'd be surprised what the inside coat pocket can hold.) They were all well behaved, quiet, appropriate and I was SO PROUD of them, I'd take them on another trip in a heartbeat.

The play was OK. I actually liked the movie better... they play was slick. Good music... but didn't really capture the emotions that the film did. (Or the book obviously.) But not a bad play if you're in NYC and looking for something to see.

56%

There is an article in last week's Daily News, Stanley Crouch's "What Barak Obama Isn't: Black Like Me."

Pretty interesting stuff, especially to me. In my school I am witness to some of the worst, ugliest racism ever. When I think of racism, I think about some southern cracker being nasty to some poor person of color. Nope... not at my school.

This racism comes in the form of, say, one young man of color ridiculing another young man of color. It is absolutely surreal.

The majority of my school is "black." According to the NYCDOE website, the breakdown of my school is as follows: 56% Black, 39% Hispanic, 1.83% Asian, 1.19% White. So what would traditionally be "other" is more than the white population of my school.

But the term "black" is where those similarities end. The majority of our students are Jamaican. We have some African and then we have regular, "American" black. "Yankees" they are called. I feel sorry for that one new teacher, you know the one... young, well meaning, young, politically correct, young... who called the students of my school "African American."

"Miss, I'm not no African... or American."

Seriously, just say black... you'll be more right than you know.

But when I heard one kid ripping into another one because he was African, it really made me think how nutty these kids are. Here they are, part of that 56% of the school bickering with each other and I don't know if they realize what they are viewed as by others... by the "real world." They are all lumped into that 56% regardless of what continent or island they hail from.

I realize my posts are sporadic at best... but I'm in the middle of writing my thesis for my masters AND I'm coaching JV football, so my time is seriously in short supply. About my JV team... I am so proud of my boys. We are kicking major ass this year and they are such a great bunch of kids. I'll post some pictures when I find some good ones.

Also, in a piece of good news, our next contract was agreed upon QUITE early. Last time we were out of contract for a number of months. This time, they decided on a contract early and its really not so bad. Decent raises and no givebacks. Good work UFT!

http://www.uft.org/news/contract_2006/