So while I was in Washington I read an article in the Washington Post about the Volvo Ocean Race. The boats were coming to visit to Baltimore, and were going to have some supporting events, including a regatta inside the Harbor. The boats race around the world stopping in a few choice ports (like NYC, Rio, and, uh, Baltimore). Next week (on Monday and/or Tuesday) the boats will be coming in to New York City for a break. To get ready the city had to dredge the North Cove because the boats draw too much water. The North Cove is usually host to the Manhattan Yacht Club and the Manhattan Sailing School (where I took my kids sailing, way back in 2003 - check out the video link on the left hand side of Persuasion's page). Last autumn the North Cove was host to Ellen MacArthur's boat as she waited for favorable weather for an attempt at the Atlantic crossing record. Compare the background of the boat basin with B&Q in it with the emptiness as they prep for the Volvo boats. (Thanks to Zephyr for reminding me about Volvo coming to Baltimore and NYC.)
I rode my bike down there to check out the dredging. When I got there the only thing there, literally, were two Coast Guard boats tied to a floating dock. I spoke to one of the Coasties about the race, the boat basin, and the preparations and learned that I missed the Dredger and tugs by about 15 minutes. I have a tugboat fetish so I look for them whenever I am near the water. I had spied them already from the bike path on my way down to the Cove. So I snapped a few pictures of the empty boat basin, the Coasties, and the Statue of Liberty. Then I raced back north and caught up with the dredging machines and the tugs. There was also a barge with them (probably full of poison/dredged material). They docked right by the Intrepid Air & Space Museum, at Pier 88-ish. (What's cool about the Intrepid space is the Intrepid itself of course, but also that there is a submarine from the Cold War there (smells just like the real thing!). But wait, there's more – one of the Concordes is there too. A plane on a boat! If you haven't been to the Intrepid, you should go. I went there with my dad for a class trip. When I was in college.) And while I was checking out the docking of the tugs and Dredger (while another stood off with the barge of muddy poison) the Coasties from North Cove came by. As the tugs docked, two kayakers (the two tiny dots behind the tug) came by. I mention this here for the benefit of Fraulein Frogma
There are articles in the paper every once and a while about how clean NY Harbor is and how the Hudson is making a rebound. I have no doubt it's true, but here, along the sea wall, is a parasite you can catch if you fall in.
I often think that I should have joined the Coast Guard instead of the Navy. I'd probably still be in, maybe. The Coast Guard is dope.
28 April 2006
26 April 2006
Harbor School (cont)
My model lesson is scheduled for 10 May @ 2.40. Here is my assignment:
Rationale: Model lessons give the hiring committee an objective assessment of the candidate’s teaching skill. Obviously, 15 minutes is an artificially short period of time for a lesson; choose something small. The committee is looking for rapport with students, lesson planning and assessment, general style and classroom management skills.
Time: 15 minutes. Candidates will be cut off if they go over time.
Content: Should be appropriate to subject area and New York State high school standards. Bonus if connected to New York Harbor School theme.
Teaching aids and technology: Let us know if you have any special needs, however, materials used should be realistically available to teachers, and not over-the-top.
Audience: About 15 NYHS students plus hiring committee.
Finally, we understand that this is a daunting task. If you make a mistake, don't worry, just keep going! No one expects perfection. We thank you for your time and interest in our school.
Candidates who score high on the model lesson rubric will be asked to interview. The final step in the hiring process is a reference check. We hope to begin making offers in a few weeks and to have our hiring process wrapped up by the beginning of June.
JNO
Assistant Principal
New York Harbor School
Rationale: Model lessons give the hiring committee an objective assessment of the candidate’s teaching skill. Obviously, 15 minutes is an artificially short period of time for a lesson; choose something small. The committee is looking for rapport with students, lesson planning and assessment, general style and classroom management skills.
Time: 15 minutes. Candidates will be cut off if they go over time.
Content: Should be appropriate to subject area and New York State high school standards. Bonus if connected to New York Harbor School theme.
Teaching aids and technology: Let us know if you have any special needs, however, materials used should be realistically available to teachers, and not over-the-top.
Audience: About 15 NYHS students plus hiring committee.
Finally, we understand that this is a daunting task. If you make a mistake, don't worry, just keep going! No one expects perfection. We thank you for your time and interest in our school.
Candidates who score high on the model lesson rubric will be asked to interview. The final step in the hiring process is a reference check. We hope to begin making offers in a few weeks and to have our hiring process wrapped up by the beginning of June.
JNO
Assistant Principal
New York Harbor School
25 April 2006
you are not going to believe the day I had!
Item 1, the bad: Right before Spring Break (which I will get to eventually) I took the hard top off the Jeep and stashed it in Lukeman's side yard. Very sweet of him. So to make a long story short I parked the Jeep in front of a High School on Irving Place. After school today I was going to drive over to my school and load some boxes of books to take home (the amount of stuff in my classroom that is actually mine is amazing). On the drive over to the school I noticed the back window of the soft top is flapping a little loudly, but that's not too unusual, really, and then I notice that my elbow is hitting the Mexican blanket I keep in there. I had left the Jeep with the blanket covering an assortment of boxes holding tools, boat parts, boat paints, boat waxes, varnish, thinner, brushes, and about a million other things (and I bet you can see where this is going). Some savvy thief unzipped the passenger side window and lifted out my tool box, a circular saw, and a cool old oil lantern I got as a gift for the boat. They left the extension cord, my two-man tent, and some other trinkets, but got all the good stuff. Yes, idiotic of me to leave that stuff in there with the soft top on - which is basically a very-permeable membrane.
Item 1, the good: I get to go tool shopping!
Item 2, the bad: on the way over the Queensboro Bridge some box trucking mofo dickfor sideswiped me and F'ed up the right fender of the Jeep. And kept going!
Item 2, the good: I keep a grease pencil in the visor to jot things down on the windshield in a snap and I got the license plate. I'm waiting for the cops to show up right now.
Item 1, the good: I get to go tool shopping!
Item 2, the bad: on the way over the Queensboro Bridge some box trucking mofo dickfor sideswiped me and F'ed up the right fender of the Jeep. And kept going!
Item 2, the good: I keep a grease pencil in the visor to jot things down on the windshield in a snap and I got the license plate. I'm waiting for the cops to show up right now.
11 April 2006
Under the White Sky
Under the White Sky
Now I see the black city again,
It has always remained the same,
In it walk its sedentary, indoor dwellers,
As always, - the poor ones - so poor;
The scent of rustle-red Autumn leaves
Is not perceived by them.
But how lovely is Autumn in this
windy Winterland.
yours, Egon Schiele
Letter from ES to Arthur Roessler 17 October 1910
It's not a winter wonderland out there right now, and the Melville quote below suits the season better, but I copied this down a few months ago and never posted it. I like the imagery Schiele uses, and how the natural and the urban (not necessarily opposites) go about their business independently of each other.
Now I see the black city again,
It has always remained the same,
In it walk its sedentary, indoor dwellers,
As always, - the poor ones - so poor;
The scent of rustle-red Autumn leaves
Is not perceived by them.
But how lovely is Autumn in this
windy Winterland.
yours, Egon Schiele
Letter from ES to Arthur Roessler 17 October 1910
It's not a winter wonderland out there right now, and the Melville quote below suits the season better, but I copied this down a few months ago and never posted it. I like the imagery Schiele uses, and how the natural and the urban (not necessarily opposites) go about their business independently of each other.
05 April 2006
April & May
"When the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; even the barest, ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts, to welcome such glad-hearted visitants." - Herman Melville
04 April 2006
New York Harbor School
So I went on an interview last Friday at the Harbor school. The school itself is located in Bushwick, which is in central Brooklyn. I have to admit that I don’t know jackshite about Brooklyn and can count the number of times I have been there on two hands and one foot. For real.
Anyway. The school reminds me a lot of the one I am at, with a few critical differences. I’m not going to give a play by play, or any kind of checklist comparison, but I will let you know how it went.
Next year they are adding the last of the “new kids.” Right now they have 9th, 10th, and 11th graders and as these classes move up they’ll add another and be a full school. I was there on a day when the 10th graders were on a field trip, so it seemed pretty empty.
The school is designed around the idea that each NYC kids has a right to have access to the waterfront, that because they live on an island, they should have some appreciation of the water, the Harbor, and the natural resources involved, etc. And a second idea is that all kids can go to college. I’m down with both of them.
They have a campus down at the South Street Seaport where kids do boatbuilding (they have been building a whaleboat) and they've already built three sea kayaks, all of wood. They actually go overnight sailing on the Lettie G Howard, which is very cool.
You can browse in all of the websites I left for you if you want a better taste, but it’s pretty exciting that this school exists, and even more exciting that I could possibly work there.
Next up is demo lessons and a second interview in May.
Anyway. The school reminds me a lot of the one I am at, with a few critical differences. I’m not going to give a play by play, or any kind of checklist comparison, but I will let you know how it went.
Next year they are adding the last of the “new kids.” Right now they have 9th, 10th, and 11th graders and as these classes move up they’ll add another and be a full school. I was there on a day when the 10th graders were on a field trip, so it seemed pretty empty.
The school is designed around the idea that each NYC kids has a right to have access to the waterfront, that because they live on an island, they should have some appreciation of the water, the Harbor, and the natural resources involved, etc. And a second idea is that all kids can go to college. I’m down with both of them.
They have a campus down at the South Street Seaport where kids do boatbuilding (they have been building a whaleboat) and they've already built three sea kayaks, all of wood. They actually go overnight sailing on the Lettie G Howard, which is very cool.
You can browse in all of the websites I left for you if you want a better taste, but it’s pretty exciting that this school exists, and even more exciting that I could possibly work there.
Next up is demo lessons and a second interview in May.
31 March 2006
C-SPAN - a win!
So C-SPAN called last evening to ask me if I wanted to come down for the summer to be one of the Teaching Fellows.
I couldn't be more excited. As a politics junkie, and a C-SPAN junkie, there isn't much more exciting to me than working in the heart of darkness itself. But what is better, is that I get to be in a position where I can watch C-SPAN all day, see the speeches and press conferences, and Prime Minster's Question Hour, and the forums and intellectual gatherings as they are broadcast, as they are happening. Basically watch politics all day and listen to C-SPAN radio in the evening. It sounds ideal.
There were five finalists and three were chosen. I have no idea about who the other two Fellows are.
As for the job itself, as far as what I will actually be doing, well, I'm not entirely sure. Last time I signed up for a job with such a vague description I found myself going 4 kts to nowhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a submarine. I doubt that the C-SPAN gig is going to be as dull as that! I will be creating lesson plans out of the content that C-SPAN has in its archives, that it is collecting and broadcasting, and is planning. So there is a whole section on the C-SPAN website for teachers (look on the top right hand corner of the front page) called C-SPAN Classroom. Once you get in there you can look at video clips of all sorts of American History stuff, scholars, politicians etc discussing events and people. But the enterprising teacher can find a lot more within a few clicks of the homepage. The Fellows created a bunch of the content in there, along with C-SPAN's education department.
Better yet, C-SPAN puts me up for the summer, gives me some stuff before I leave (CDs, DVDs, books, hopefully a long-sleeved T-shirt) and provides transportation to and fro. And, if you can believe it, a stipend for $3500. A lucrative July, for old Jar.
Of course, I hope to reconnect with my old pal, Ralph Nader.
You guys should come visit!
I couldn't be more excited. As a politics junkie, and a C-SPAN junkie, there isn't much more exciting to me than working in the heart of darkness itself. But what is better, is that I get to be in a position where I can watch C-SPAN all day, see the speeches and press conferences, and Prime Minster's Question Hour, and the forums and intellectual gatherings as they are broadcast, as they are happening. Basically watch politics all day and listen to C-SPAN radio in the evening. It sounds ideal.
There were five finalists and three were chosen. I have no idea about who the other two Fellows are.
As for the job itself, as far as what I will actually be doing, well, I'm not entirely sure. Last time I signed up for a job with such a vague description I found myself going 4 kts to nowhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a submarine. I doubt that the C-SPAN gig is going to be as dull as that! I will be creating lesson plans out of the content that C-SPAN has in its archives, that it is collecting and broadcasting, and is planning. So there is a whole section on the C-SPAN website for teachers (look on the top right hand corner of the front page) called C-SPAN Classroom. Once you get in there you can look at video clips of all sorts of American History stuff, scholars, politicians etc discussing events and people. But the enterprising teacher can find a lot more within a few clicks of the homepage. The Fellows created a bunch of the content in there, along with C-SPAN's education department.
Better yet, C-SPAN puts me up for the summer, gives me some stuff before I leave (CDs, DVDs, books, hopefully a long-sleeved T-shirt) and provides transportation to and fro. And, if you can believe it, a stipend for $3500. A lucrative July, for old Jar.
Of course, I hope to reconnect with my old pal, Ralph Nader.
You guys should come visit!
24 March 2006
C-SPAN, round 2 success
Hello C-SPAN Teacher Fellow Finalist:
Thank you for forwarding your videos of teaching with C-SPAN. We are in the process of reviewing the videos, together with your essays and applications. This year we have five (5) finalists. That's great for us! But it's also going to be very difficult as it's obvious already that we would benefit from having every one of you here.
However, we only have three (3) C-SPAN Fellow opportunities to fill. The next step in the process is for a 20-30 minute interview by telephone. You will soon be hearing from us about setting up a time convenient for you.
You will be notified no later than next Friday, March 31st, as to the selection of our 2006 Teacher Fellows. We appreciate more than we can tell you your interest in C-SPAN and the Fellowship program.
With best regards,
C-SPAN
Thank you for forwarding your videos of teaching with C-SPAN. We are in the process of reviewing the videos, together with your essays and applications. This year we have five (5) finalists. That's great for us! But it's also going to be very difficult as it's obvious already that we would benefit from having every one of you here.
However, we only have three (3) C-SPAN Fellow opportunities to fill. The next step in the process is for a 20-30 minute interview by telephone. You will soon be hearing from us about setting up a time convenient for you.
You will be notified no later than next Friday, March 31st, as to the selection of our 2006 Teacher Fellows. We appreciate more than we can tell you your interest in C-SPAN and the Fellowship program.
With best regards,
C-SPAN
23 March 2006
C-SPAN video
Here's me teaching with with C-SPAN.
The 7th grade is doing a short unit on the expansion of slavery, starting with the Missouri Compromise. To help us better understand slavery, we are reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - an American Slave, Written by Himself.
In the video of me teaching you will see me explain the crisis that is created when Missouri wants to join the Union, threatening to upset the perfect balance of 11 Free states and 11 Slave states. The kids come up with some possible solutions (including the real one - to add one of each to maintain balance) and we talk about the 36-30 line. Then we discuss what should/would happen if a slave is brought above the 36-30 line, into free states/territories.
This actually happened quite often obviously, but in the 1850s one slave, Dred Scott, sued for his freedom, saying that once he was brought north he was free. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. In the C-SPAN video, we see Harold Holzer (who was in the NYT this week, I think, discussing how black men get a raw deal in America even while the programs that exist to help other minority groups are actually working) discussing the importance of the Dred Scott case and the results of the Supreme Court decision.
The 7th grade is doing a short unit on the expansion of slavery, starting with the Missouri Compromise. To help us better understand slavery, we are reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - an American Slave, Written by Himself.
In the video of me teaching you will see me explain the crisis that is created when Missouri wants to join the Union, threatening to upset the perfect balance of 11 Free states and 11 Slave states. The kids come up with some possible solutions (including the real one - to add one of each to maintain balance) and we talk about the 36-30 line. Then we discuss what should/would happen if a slave is brought above the 36-30 line, into free states/territories.
This actually happened quite often obviously, but in the 1850s one slave, Dred Scott, sued for his freedom, saying that once he was brought north he was free. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. In the C-SPAN video, we see Harold Holzer (who was in the NYT this week, I think, discussing how black men get a raw deal in America even while the programs that exist to help other minority groups are actually working) discussing the importance of the Dred Scott case and the results of the Supreme Court decision.
19 March 2006
4. When Androids Dream by Paul Nowell
Androids have taken over the earth, and have largely beaten down any human opposition. In between the lowly humans and the androids are the Cybers, a combination that has humans enhanced with android gear.
In the beginning, human resistance was fierce, and George's parents were among the leaders of the Humans. They were captured and killed, and eventually the resistance movement was marginalized and beaten. Now the humans live on the edges of the Android and Cyber society, seen as weaker because they rely on their natural selves to survive rather than enhancements.
The as-yet-unfinished story, set in a future California, begins with George and Xian discussing Xian's plans concerning a new drug that makes androids dream. Because they are all linked telepathically, sharing a hive mind, of sorts, making/controlling one android dream affects them all. And if Xian can give the androids (who seem to be big drug abusers) a drug that she can control their dreams with she might be able to cause of disruption in the android power structure. The drug allows the resistance (or an anti-andie group), to get behind the hive mind's barriers.
George just lost his job at the city's biggest newspaper, and is down on his luck. He meets with Xian to discuss her plans, and then has a vision that spurs him to rejoin the human resistance. After the resistance group figures out who he is, and believe that he really is who he says he is, they share that the resistance movement has changed since his parents were involved. Instead of aiming to destroy the androids, the humans have made deals with them in order to survive.
Also involved is Solis, the sun's representative on earth. The sun is a sentient being, monitoring all that happens on the nearby planets, and is in communication with other stars. Pretty cool.
And Solis's friend, Arloff, a dog is involved with George as well. Seems dogs have been enhanced to have thinking, wondering, feeling powers on the scale of humans. And they, or at least Arloff, seem to look down on humans. Arloff follows George around at the request of Solis, who hears about George from the sun.
On the other side of the story is a new android Richard Powers, who has a new brain that is split into two sections, mimicking a human model. Powers is supposed to be able to create art, but so far has been considered a failure, with too much of his work being derivative of what he had in his memory.
Richard hangs with a powerful android crowd – a Hollywood power crowd, complete with drugs, drinking, and sex, but populated entirely by android machines.
So far Paul has written 35 pages and I am very into the story. Richard riffs about art, George riffs about how the resistance has sold out (but because George worked for The Man (The Andie?) as a reporter, he doesn't have much cred), and Alex Crowley, one of the powerful Hollywood androids allows us to see the world of android excess and power. More to come as I read more of what is written.
In the beginning, human resistance was fierce, and George's parents were among the leaders of the Humans. They were captured and killed, and eventually the resistance movement was marginalized and beaten. Now the humans live on the edges of the Android and Cyber society, seen as weaker because they rely on their natural selves to survive rather than enhancements.
The as-yet-unfinished story, set in a future California, begins with George and Xian discussing Xian's plans concerning a new drug that makes androids dream. Because they are all linked telepathically, sharing a hive mind, of sorts, making/controlling one android dream affects them all. And if Xian can give the androids (who seem to be big drug abusers) a drug that she can control their dreams with she might be able to cause of disruption in the android power structure. The drug allows the resistance (or an anti-andie group), to get behind the hive mind's barriers.
George just lost his job at the city's biggest newspaper, and is down on his luck. He meets with Xian to discuss her plans, and then has a vision that spurs him to rejoin the human resistance. After the resistance group figures out who he is, and believe that he really is who he says he is, they share that the resistance movement has changed since his parents were involved. Instead of aiming to destroy the androids, the humans have made deals with them in order to survive.
Also involved is Solis, the sun's representative on earth. The sun is a sentient being, monitoring all that happens on the nearby planets, and is in communication with other stars. Pretty cool.
And Solis's friend, Arloff, a dog is involved with George as well. Seems dogs have been enhanced to have thinking, wondering, feeling powers on the scale of humans. And they, or at least Arloff, seem to look down on humans. Arloff follows George around at the request of Solis, who hears about George from the sun.
On the other side of the story is a new android Richard Powers, who has a new brain that is split into two sections, mimicking a human model. Powers is supposed to be able to create art, but so far has been considered a failure, with too much of his work being derivative of what he had in his memory.
Richard hangs with a powerful android crowd – a Hollywood power crowd, complete with drugs, drinking, and sex, but populated entirely by android machines.
So far Paul has written 35 pages and I am very into the story. Richard riffs about art, George riffs about how the resistance has sold out (but because George worked for The Man (The Andie?) as a reporter, he doesn't have much cred), and Alex Crowley, one of the powerful Hollywood androids allows us to see the world of android excess and power. More to come as I read more of what is written.
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