Basically, I posed naked with my brother for an artist who is a friend of his. He is indeed a very talented dude, and I am flattered to be, hopefully, a figure in one of his upcoming creations. His website is nice, and has a bit of work. The pieces are quite large, as one can imagine as he provides the dimensions of each particular piece. He was also very nice as well.
We did about 8 poses, most of which played on some sort of interaction between the two of us, be that in a competitive or collaborative way. I was amazed at how physically taxing it turned out to be, especially since our poses, at first glance, didn't require an exhorbitant amount of strength or flexibility. I found my legs trembling like a chihuahua after a few minutes of statuehood.
Here's the fella's website. Maybe I'll be on there someday soon.
http://www.heydfontenot.com/
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Basic Thoughts about Reagan HS Meeting
There was another Reagan High School meeting last night. We chatted about action plans, witnessed the Reagan band and ROTC perform, and had a breakout session with our groups. There was one thing in particular I found of interest. Here it is.
A pamphlet was printed for the meeting. The pamphlet broke down the general action plan strategies that we hope to take over the coming months in order to ameliorate the large issues at Reagan. These include supporting ELLs, African Americans, the school community, etc...
In what is akin to a KWL chart activity, we discussed a page in the pamphlet that listed Reagan's "Strengths, Challenges, and Resources." I was struck by this page more than any other thing at the meeting. Well, the end was quite cool, but we'll get to that. I'll recreate the SCR sheet, then subsequently add my thoughts.
STRENGTHS
-Proud History -After School Programs
-Loyal alumni -New Principal Garza
-Dedicated teachers -SLCs
-JROTC -Great Band Program
-Cultural Diversity -Wonderful Students
-Art Program -Community Support
CHALLENGES
-Attendance -More teachers for ELLs
-Inexperienced teachers-Transfer policy
-Weak Organization -Lack of support for families
-Uniform Discipline -Poor presentation in media
-Transient Population
RESOURCES
-Political Support -Alumni Association
-Solid Church Support -Large pool of volunteers
-Business Partners
This is a truncated list, although it does contain the majority of things present on the original sheet. I noticed a few things; trends, you might say. First, I thought about the locale of conception for the first two sets, STRENGTHS and CHALLENGES. For many of the strengths, you might notice that the point of origin of programs and efforts to create said strengths are, for the most part, within the school. That is to say that Reagan is being quite successful within its four walls at creating and appreciating "cultural diversity, wonderful students, [an] art program," and the other extracurriculars. These things cannot have their origin outside of the school, such as from district mandates or support.
On the other hand, when looking at CHALLENGES, one can see that the problems facing Reagan High School are largely those that begin and are assumed to be dealt with at the administrative level, including at the district level. Think, for example, of who has a bigger hand in "services for families, transfer policy, more teachers [and therefore, funding], and poor presentation in media?" Clearly, although one could legitimately argue that schools must be partially responsible for said elements, there exists a substantial burden on the administrative organization of AISD to ensure that goals in these areas are met.
You notice, I might add, that under the heading of RESOURCES does not exist anything on a district level. This is a clear enough indication that there is a disconnect. I fear that this may be a situation wherein two entities are not adequately communicating their strengths, challenges, resources, and even goals and strategies.
Additionally, I pondered the effects of the STRENGTHS Reagan students, teachers, and employees identified. Unfortunately, the state has decided that these positives are not worthy of assessment under their high-stakes, "blame-shame" system of accountability. I wonder, would we be happy with a school devoid of extracurriculars, arts, alumni loyalty, after school programs, and a positive, diverse community? The answer is clearly and resoundingly, "Yes. As long as the scores are up to par."
Speaking of accountability, and I hate speaking of accountability, I think the government fails to see that it is a two-way street. They may embed this language into their weightless rhetoric, though action clearly follows not. I ask that we make the government accountable just as they have requested/required of us. Just as they approach each classroom with mistrust as to the ability of the students and the teachers, I suggest we approach them as if they have absolutely no idea what they're doing at the capital. Not only that, but I suggest that we demand an explanation of what these test scores and school closings mean, on a practical level. Beyond the statistics.
I see that there are few options for them, assuming they had the integrity to speak candidly. Truth Number 1-Poor students and non-white students, many times inaccurately dubbed "urban students" regardless of geography, are just down-right dumb. Not only are they dumb, or at least more so than upper class, whites students, but they are also lazy because of their culture, angry because of their "barrio," and violent because of a cultural deficiency. According to Truth Number 1, there are remedies. We can keep "these" kiddos in school longer, on weekends, and focus on teaching "skills," in the most basic and disconnected sense. Doing so, and even worse, praising the results, is doing nothing but validating the testing paradigm as fair, equal, and unflawed. That's our option 1; see KIPP academies for a real-life example of this.
Truth Number 2-The high-stakes accountability system, a system historically based in racism and classism, is still wrought with said racism and classism. The teachers in predominantly poor and non-white schools are torn between keeping their jobs while running the race in which they start a mile behind, and teaching what they know the kiddos need - an realization of the institutional inequities that exist in our society as well as the ways, means, and support to fight them. Of course, many great teachers, dealing with an internal struggle between what they know is right in the long run - social justice - and what will earn their students jobs, albeit menial in nature, end up fluctuating between the two approaches, and a clear goal is lost on the students and parents. The result - schools whose identities have been stripped, as the internal struggle becomes projected on the students, parents, school, community, as a whole. The state calls these failed schools.
To use a metaphor. Picture a straight line. On one end is a student of any age. On the other is some administrators, media, tutors, testing materials, good luck pencils, menial jobs, and most importantly, parents. All these folks and things are enticing students to get from one side to the other. Easy enough. However, off to the left exists a teacher. Is the teacher alone? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, the benefits offered by the teacher are not as shiny or quantifiable as those offered at destination 1. She or he only offers self-esteem, cultural pride, self-actualization, critical analytical skills, and a future of learning and fighting for what one truly believes in.
Take a guess at where the student might focus her or his effort. If you guessed both, you're right. Students, depending on day, time of year, attitude, hell, even the weather, fluctuate between concentrating their effort towards quantifiable benefits coupled with parent praise versus the future of their intellectual, social, and cultural lives. The result - students don't achieve either goal. They end up somewhere in between, without the basic skills to earn employment or attend college, and also without the level of self-actualization that helps them see the beauty in the struggle for happiness, equality, and empathy.
A pamphlet was printed for the meeting. The pamphlet broke down the general action plan strategies that we hope to take over the coming months in order to ameliorate the large issues at Reagan. These include supporting ELLs, African Americans, the school community, etc...
In what is akin to a KWL chart activity, we discussed a page in the pamphlet that listed Reagan's "Strengths, Challenges, and Resources." I was struck by this page more than any other thing at the meeting. Well, the end was quite cool, but we'll get to that. I'll recreate the SCR sheet, then subsequently add my thoughts.
STRENGTHS
-Proud History -After School Programs
-Loyal alumni -New Principal Garza
-Dedicated teachers -SLCs
-JROTC -Great Band Program
-Cultural Diversity -Wonderful Students
-Art Program -Community Support
CHALLENGES
-Attendance -More teachers for ELLs
-Inexperienced teachers-Transfer policy
-Weak Organization -Lack of support for families
-Uniform Discipline -Poor presentation in media
-Transient Population
RESOURCES
-Political Support -Alumni Association
-Solid Church Support -Large pool of volunteers
-Business Partners
This is a truncated list, although it does contain the majority of things present on the original sheet. I noticed a few things; trends, you might say. First, I thought about the locale of conception for the first two sets, STRENGTHS and CHALLENGES. For many of the strengths, you might notice that the point of origin of programs and efforts to create said strengths are, for the most part, within the school. That is to say that Reagan is being quite successful within its four walls at creating and appreciating "cultural diversity, wonderful students, [an] art program," and the other extracurriculars. These things cannot have their origin outside of the school, such as from district mandates or support.
On the other hand, when looking at CHALLENGES, one can see that the problems facing Reagan High School are largely those that begin and are assumed to be dealt with at the administrative level, including at the district level. Think, for example, of who has a bigger hand in "services for families, transfer policy, more teachers [and therefore, funding], and poor presentation in media?" Clearly, although one could legitimately argue that schools must be partially responsible for said elements, there exists a substantial burden on the administrative organization of AISD to ensure that goals in these areas are met.
You notice, I might add, that under the heading of RESOURCES does not exist anything on a district level. This is a clear enough indication that there is a disconnect. I fear that this may be a situation wherein two entities are not adequately communicating their strengths, challenges, resources, and even goals and strategies.
Additionally, I pondered the effects of the STRENGTHS Reagan students, teachers, and employees identified. Unfortunately, the state has decided that these positives are not worthy of assessment under their high-stakes, "blame-shame" system of accountability. I wonder, would we be happy with a school devoid of extracurriculars, arts, alumni loyalty, after school programs, and a positive, diverse community? The answer is clearly and resoundingly, "Yes. As long as the scores are up to par."
Speaking of accountability, and I hate speaking of accountability, I think the government fails to see that it is a two-way street. They may embed this language into their weightless rhetoric, though action clearly follows not. I ask that we make the government accountable just as they have requested/required of us. Just as they approach each classroom with mistrust as to the ability of the students and the teachers, I suggest we approach them as if they have absolutely no idea what they're doing at the capital. Not only that, but I suggest that we demand an explanation of what these test scores and school closings mean, on a practical level. Beyond the statistics.
I see that there are few options for them, assuming they had the integrity to speak candidly. Truth Number 1-Poor students and non-white students, many times inaccurately dubbed "urban students" regardless of geography, are just down-right dumb. Not only are they dumb, or at least more so than upper class, whites students, but they are also lazy because of their culture, angry because of their "barrio," and violent because of a cultural deficiency. According to Truth Number 1, there are remedies. We can keep "these" kiddos in school longer, on weekends, and focus on teaching "skills," in the most basic and disconnected sense. Doing so, and even worse, praising the results, is doing nothing but validating the testing paradigm as fair, equal, and unflawed. That's our option 1; see KIPP academies for a real-life example of this.
Truth Number 2-The high-stakes accountability system, a system historically based in racism and classism, is still wrought with said racism and classism. The teachers in predominantly poor and non-white schools are torn between keeping their jobs while running the race in which they start a mile behind, and teaching what they know the kiddos need - an realization of the institutional inequities that exist in our society as well as the ways, means, and support to fight them. Of course, many great teachers, dealing with an internal struggle between what they know is right in the long run - social justice - and what will earn their students jobs, albeit menial in nature, end up fluctuating between the two approaches, and a clear goal is lost on the students and parents. The result - schools whose identities have been stripped, as the internal struggle becomes projected on the students, parents, school, community, as a whole. The state calls these failed schools.
To use a metaphor. Picture a straight line. On one end is a student of any age. On the other is some administrators, media, tutors, testing materials, good luck pencils, menial jobs, and most importantly, parents. All these folks and things are enticing students to get from one side to the other. Easy enough. However, off to the left exists a teacher. Is the teacher alone? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, the benefits offered by the teacher are not as shiny or quantifiable as those offered at destination 1. She or he only offers self-esteem, cultural pride, self-actualization, critical analytical skills, and a future of learning and fighting for what one truly believes in.
Take a guess at where the student might focus her or his effort. If you guessed both, you're right. Students, depending on day, time of year, attitude, hell, even the weather, fluctuate between concentrating their effort towards quantifiable benefits coupled with parent praise versus the future of their intellectual, social, and cultural lives. The result - students don't achieve either goal. They end up somewhere in between, without the basic skills to earn employment or attend college, and also without the level of self-actualization that helps them see the beauty in the struggle for happiness, equality, and empathy.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Observation en route to work
Deer walking along road that's been leveled for highway. Looking confused, lost, sad.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Obsession with Collecting, Aggregating
I've realized that I have a raging and unconscious obsession with gathering, aggregating, and collecting things. It is more complicated than this, however. Unlike some collectors, my affinity is not in an effort to complete or create a final collection, such as with sports cards or state quarters.
Some things I have collected or become obsessed with over time:
-Clothing, specifically t-shirts. Many of these didn't even fit me, although I bought them anyway, hoping 'to avoid them getting away.' You see, I really only bought said clothing at thrift stores, resale shops, garage sales, etc...I hope that makes sense.
-Books, a fairly productive obsession. I feel very similarly with regards to used books as with used clothing, in that, when I see a book that might somewhat approximate an interest, I have a hard time 'letting it get away.'
-Beer tabs. Inspired by Konky's mom about three years ago. Originally, the purpose was to donate said tabs to a cancer society. I just put them in a pitcher til we gave them to Kyle.
-Dryer lint. A strange one, I know. But this brings another interesting aspect of my obsession into light. This is a prime example of a 'collection' that will never be complete, nor does it provide any aesthetic or emotional pleasure - unless dutifully arranged, I guess. There is a sense that each load of laundry, which provides a hunk of lint, is itself trapped in the time in which it was created. That is to say, each load not only has historical implications which are attached to my life, but also that said load is likely the only one that is made up of those exact clothes. The things that I wore over the course of this week or that says something about the events of that week (or, more accurately, the preceding weeks). The lint tells the story of my life, one stain and scent at a time.
-Digital Media. I hate deleting photographs.
What's the takeaway? I feel as though my need to collect things has a more profound, although generally subconscious and unintentional, driving force. The act of collecting things, be they resale t-shirts or old concert tickets, ensures that one amasses a wealth of artifacts. These artifacts are not only linked with the time in which they were important, but they also tell the story of a three-dimensioned life; a life complete with activities, emotions, thoughts, weather, food, sleep, etc...
Even artifacts such as dryer lint fill in the holes of our past with the details generally forgotten over months and years. Consider the possibilities that exist. Given the ease of digital media, such as videos, audio clips, text documents, online photo storage, online communications, internet communities, blogs, etc...these things act very much like the lint from the dryer, providing an insight into the 'trivialities' of our lives, lest they be forgotten over time. Consider the beauty of having said artifact aggregation for one of your heroes. Kurt Vonnegut, maybe. Or Malcolm X. What about grandparents? We have the ability to hold on to so much, and in doing so, we can effectively slow down our days. For it is upon sight of that one picture, or upon reading those two sentences, that we relive days, months, years; and not in a detached, severed, inchoate way. But rather in a holistic, complete manner, stuffed with details provided by buckets and buckets full of dryer lint.
Some things I have collected or become obsessed with over time:
-Clothing, specifically t-shirts. Many of these didn't even fit me, although I bought them anyway, hoping 'to avoid them getting away.' You see, I really only bought said clothing at thrift stores, resale shops, garage sales, etc...I hope that makes sense.
-Books, a fairly productive obsession. I feel very similarly with regards to used books as with used clothing, in that, when I see a book that might somewhat approximate an interest, I have a hard time 'letting it get away.'
-Beer tabs. Inspired by Konky's mom about three years ago. Originally, the purpose was to donate said tabs to a cancer society. I just put them in a pitcher til we gave them to Kyle.
-Dryer lint. A strange one, I know. But this brings another interesting aspect of my obsession into light. This is a prime example of a 'collection' that will never be complete, nor does it provide any aesthetic or emotional pleasure - unless dutifully arranged, I guess. There is a sense that each load of laundry, which provides a hunk of lint, is itself trapped in the time in which it was created. That is to say, each load not only has historical implications which are attached to my life, but also that said load is likely the only one that is made up of those exact clothes. The things that I wore over the course of this week or that says something about the events of that week (or, more accurately, the preceding weeks). The lint tells the story of my life, one stain and scent at a time.
-Digital Media. I hate deleting photographs.
What's the takeaway? I feel as though my need to collect things has a more profound, although generally subconscious and unintentional, driving force. The act of collecting things, be they resale t-shirts or old concert tickets, ensures that one amasses a wealth of artifacts. These artifacts are not only linked with the time in which they were important, but they also tell the story of a three-dimensioned life; a life complete with activities, emotions, thoughts, weather, food, sleep, etc...
Even artifacts such as dryer lint fill in the holes of our past with the details generally forgotten over months and years. Consider the possibilities that exist. Given the ease of digital media, such as videos, audio clips, text documents, online photo storage, online communications, internet communities, blogs, etc...these things act very much like the lint from the dryer, providing an insight into the 'trivialities' of our lives, lest they be forgotten over time. Consider the beauty of having said artifact aggregation for one of your heroes. Kurt Vonnegut, maybe. Or Malcolm X. What about grandparents? We have the ability to hold on to so much, and in doing so, we can effectively slow down our days. For it is upon sight of that one picture, or upon reading those two sentences, that we relive days, months, years; and not in a detached, severed, inchoate way. But rather in a holistic, complete manner, stuffed with details provided by buckets and buckets full of dryer lint.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Notes from 10/10/08
-25 Safe Non-Toxic Homemade Cleaning Supplies
--http://www.treehuggingfamily.com/25-safe-non-toxic-homemade-cleaning-supplies/
-Zero Sum Games vs. Non-Zero Sum Games, Robert Wright
-GreenDimes.com, get rid of junk mail
-YourMorals.org, aggregation of morality quizzes
-Battleground God Quiz, a quaint little quiz designed to expoxe holes in one's logic about a (G/g)od, www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.htm
--http://www.treehuggingfamily.com/25-safe-non-toxic-homemade-cleaning-supplies/
-Zero Sum Games vs. Non-Zero Sum Games, Robert Wright
-GreenDimes.com, get rid of junk mail
-YourMorals.org, aggregation of morality quizzes
-Battleground God Quiz, a quaint little quiz designed to expoxe holes in one's logic about a (G/g)od, www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.htm
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Notes 10/9/08
-Intelligence Squared Debates-Oxford-style debates on many topics (Affirmative Action, Universal Healthcare, Islamic Radicalism, etc...) to be found on YouTube
-Whahabism
-UNIVERSIDAD INTERCULTURAL INDÍGENA DE MICHOACÁN
-Meetups
-veganhealth.org
-Whahabism
-UNIVERSIDAD INTERCULTURAL INDÍGENA DE MICHOACÁN
-Meetups
-veganhealth.org
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