Mr. H's poster

For parent-teacher night, which was last night, each family and teacher puts together a poster with pictures and info to tell something about themselves. For my poster, I offered my 10th grade students pizza if they came up with something creative, like me on the cover of a magazine or something. I think they did a great job, here are the individual masterpieces that ended up composing my poster:

last night's sunset

Math Rap

I have fun doing what I do. Today in Algebra 2 class, as my students started doing their homework in class, they asked me what sort of music I liked. Tomás, who you will see in the video, likes rap. I explained to him I didn't like rap that much because I couldn't ever really understand the lyrics. I do like math rap though (thanks to our 2nd grade teacher for loaning me the math rap CD). Today I just affirmed to my students that I'm a big dork. Enjoy the video...



Link to the video

Jasmine tea

I bought some jasmine tea in Chinatown yesterday. It's good stuff. I was curious to see what it really is and how it's made. I learned that it's really regular tea or green tea leaves, and they put the tea leaves next to jasmine flowers. In the evening time, the cultivated jasmine flowers open up to release oils and scents, which mixes with and sets onto the tea leaves to produce "jasmine" tea. This process can be done a couple of times, and the quality of jasmine tea depends on the tea leaves, the jasmine flowers, and how many times the process is done. The tea more aptly named might be "tea leaves scented with jasmine"...but that would never happen. Regardless, it's still a very enjoyable cup of tea. You learn something new everyday.

Bill Gates knows a thing or two...

Bill Gates gave a speech to high school students, you may have already seen it or heard about it, in which he outlined some things that I think are quite true. He talks about the non-reality of the feel good teachings that exist in life. I feel like Bill Gates gets some credibility in my book, and I agree with most of what he says:

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school and you won't be a vice-president with a car phone, not until you earn both. Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Bearded sayings

As of late, I've let my beard grow fuzzy. Makes sense. I'm Fuzz. In addition, all of the other high school teachers are sporting a beard. Craig, James, Paul and I. In essence, it is a symbol of teamwork and camraderie. Something that unites us, yes...our beards.

Not withstanding, I've received various comments about my beard, not many of them positive. I like it though, it keeps me warmer, and it's less work not having to do all that shaving. I will share some comments with you from different people -- their names will remain anonymous to protect their identities. Some of the sayings:

"What's with the Amish thing you've got going there?" -fellow teacher

"You look like a monkey" - student

"I don't like it. I think it was a stupid thing to do." -student

"No, you don't look like a Jewish rabbi, you look Amish." -fellow teacher

How much longer the beard will last, that is to be determined.

BABEL tabs

In an effort to stymie the student's usage of Spanish, we now give out BABEL tabs. Many of the students come to our school to get a solid English-language education. Last year, they frequently would speak Spanish in class or to each other, and so they did not really improve their English that much. If you're going to improve in any language, you have to be immersed in it, and go through those uncomfortable times. The students would get full tabs for speaking in the "incorrect" language sometimes, but that punishment was a little harsh. So for this year, we came up with BABEL tabs. Thank Jenn for the great name.

If they get 3 BABEL tabs, they have to miss their fun social lunch time and write an English composition in a classroom amidst silence while lunching. We've only had 3 days of school, and there are already a lot of students who have accumulated three BABEL tabs. It's a hard habit for them to change, but I think they're catching on. They're getting there. And with it their English will improve.

running blind

At my last eye appointment, my eye doctor said that he was beginning to see blood vessels growing towards my pupil. It means I wear my contacts too much and I need to let my eyes "breathe" more. So I asked myself when is it not extremely necessary to see? (I'm legally blind without my contacts, in case you didn't know or have forgotten).

Running is one instance. So now, I sometimes run without my contacts in. I can tell what large objects are, like cars, people, and dogs, they're just really fuzzy. It's kind of fun actually, it adds an added challenge to running, and I feel like I am much more aware and with it when I am running now. Now that I sort of need to pay attention. And best of all, my eyes get to breathe and get more oxygen.

I've only had a few hickups so far. I've run into some branches and nearly collided with a few people and one dog, but there was never any contact, they just suddenly appeared (distance judgement is also a bit impaired)...and once again, near misses, so everything is fine. So that's my new thing, running blind. It's fun.

ode to first day

Tomorrow, we start the first day of school.
Wow, how cool!
Any kid who decides to snooze
has o' so much to lose!
I'll teach about all sorts of things and of course math,
I sure hope the kids over the break took a bath.
I've enjoyed this time being on break,
but some parts of it were boring like a rake.
You know, like a rake just sitting there in the garage,
not getting to rake up any leaves.
So I'm quite enthused,
but not bruised,
which is a good thing to be able to say,
for the first day!

Sólo Cristo

Last night, I went to the Hillsong United concert here in Buenos Aires. It was awesome. In case you don´t know, Hillsong United is a "youth" praise and worship band that is a ministry of Hillsong Church in Australia. The band has traveled to different countries around the world. They have some really great music, but I'm more excited about the focus of their ministry. They desire to encourage a new generation of believers to live for Jesus. Yep, Jesus. The Jesus who sometimes when you mention His name it is considered radical and can make people uncomfortable. That's sort of funny because it was the same way in Jesus' time with the religious leaders as it is today in 2007. But really, Jesus is wonderful. Everything.

The soccer stadium had lots of people, most of them young, fending off cold and rain to sing and praise God. In both Spanish and English. The band sung in both languages, and the crowd followed in both. The language barrier didn't matter that much at all. There was so much joy in that place last night. I didn't want it to end.

Last night I realized that I very possibly was experiencing a small glimpse of what Heaven is going to be like, at least I hope. There we were, a bunch of believers united to sing praises to God Most High. We were doing what we were created for...worshipping the Lord, and I got to see that here on earth, for real, en vivo, on a large scale. Can you imagine how cool Heaven will be? That many more brothers and sisters, singing unending, beautiful praises to the Lord of the Universe, and there won't be any language barrier. We'll either speak a bunch of different languages and understand them all, or we'll all know one celestial language.

Seeing that last night encourages me greatly, it's like getting to see who wins before the championship game is over. And so now, it's time to go out into the streets, offices, and classrooms to recruit other brothers and sisters to come and join the Heaven praise party. I want as many voices singing with me as possible. All for Jesus. Sólo Cristo.

Ahora son trece

Last night, I went to go see Ocean's Thirteen. In Spanish, the title is "Ahora son trece" which would literally translate to Now there are thirteen, which is kinda funny. The movie was good, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was different from 12 and 11 in that it was quite funny, a departure from the "cool plot twist of things happening at the end" type movie...you basically know what's going to happen the whole time. The way it's done is what makes it good.