These are the lyrics.
I
These are the lyrics to a song
that hasn’t been written in it’s
entirety—
Every attempt has been thwarted by
bad pens, little time, no interest
and blatantly incorrect words.
The one who wants to pen
these words hasn’t got writer’s
block, rather a misplaced urgency.
Lost are all cares in newspapers,
or who was elected, or even the
weather. He doesn’t care to go out today.
II
My hands don’t understand sharps,
flats, bass, etc. My eyes don’t
calm care for orchestrations.
”’Long ago I gave up on looseleaf
paper, and those scribbled out words
for a stationary digital cursor.”
And here when the page ends here,
the cursor laughs at me; it, taunting
knows this is uncomfortably unfinished
and thus unsung.
2.02.09/7.17.10 (revised)
[Chester Kent]
www.getintherye.com
Allocation.
Because I can see and think straight
despite my mind
being infatuated and twisted
(with your intent or love.)
These things I write
to one day speak.
On trial,
and defending
myself
about the things
I, myself, find important
about others,
and would have
about you-
I, myself, find myself
allocating
sins and crimes that
I committed (with intent)
in the name of Love
or Friendship.
They are not (intentionally)
without chronological
or alphabetical order.
These things I can not
list in order because I
did not do them to list
and any list I
make would not be complete.
There are things I
love, and regret loving.
Things I have needed, wanted
and stolen.
There are breaths and moments
borrowed on time
i can never pay back.
I can only speak
(with love) of the things
I know intimately.
That includes and excludes
things that I fear
or love with intent.
Things I justify and do
not need you to qualify.
There are things-
numerous in quantity,
that I refuse to let you
count so that you (with love
or intent) can
take away, or resign
to me.
7-12-10
Why Don’t You Love Me? 6-30-10
“Why don’t you love me? Why don’t you need me? I got style and I got class…but you don’t even care that I’m smart”
-Beyonce
Dear Apple Computers and Steve Jobs,
Why don’t you love me. I have never been blessed with the credit rating to reasonably be able to afford an IPOD. Thus the emergence of this IPOD 4.0…is a cruel taunt.
To make matters worse- as with all of the previous generations of IPODs and IPOD touches- Mine has given into an epic and horrific failure. I, myself, call it the SNL skit from hell….the one where the two guys go to a bar and bob their heads in one direction at the end of the bar while making passes at the various women who walk by. Normal people would call it a “dead headphone jack” but well normal people scare the fuck out of me sometimes. Who really wants to deal with the towns from Pleasantville or Children of the Corn.
And thus I am here at the Apple Store at 11:32 PM, waiting for an appointment, when secretly inside I wish I was out doing the tomfoolery-ish actions that people in my generation normally get into when SCHOOL’s OUT FOR SUMMER.
(Insert annoying head bob…..)
Next- Just so that you are aware…. I plan on doing more personal, journalling blogging until school starts up. If this does not suit you, well my friend, enjoy your summer!
[Chester Kent.]
www.GetintheRye.com
Kids these days got it easy….
Kids these days got it easy. No, this is not a case of the walking-to-school-both-ways-are-uphill-thing, but rather a back-in-the-day thing. Back in the day, when I was a kid, June was my version of T.S. Elliot’s opening to the wasteland. June was in fact the cruelest month of the year. Beyond the heat, and the impending loss of friends that I had come to know and had been excited to see on a daily basis there were the Regents exams. Doom Doom Doom.
Final exams. Proving that there was a reason my parents didn’t have me at some farm doing a real life Farmville. Impending finals, where in those rooms only you and your number 2 pencil were allowed. Sweat beads. Time. Oh gawd did I answer all the questions?
But at the end of the day, there was summer! So it fills me with sadness to hear that to save money, well, the State Education Board will be cutting exams to save money.
Here’s a link [RIP SOME FINAL EXAMS]. More and more, it seems like one day, all children will be taught equally in a large field by a monkey certified in bananas. People who want to teach will be actually be forced into teaching large auditorium-sized Special Education classes.
[Chester Kent]
6-19-10
www.GetintheRye.com
June 19th, 2010 in
Uncategorized |
1 Comment
We Shoot Ourselves in the Foot [Teaching & Thoughts]
Ex. of How to Shoot Oneself in the Foot
Every single year we teachers in the upper grade levels do one thing that is the unofficial equivalent of throwing in the white towel. Take a guess….Realizing that you did not leave enough time to finish that last novel, and realizing that you’re going to have to force feed all the appropriate themes, plots, and vocabulary for one final test that will let Eduardo R, or Tysha J. know whether they should even both showing up for the final exam? Not what I’m looking for, but it happens to all of us. Take another shot….What do all upper level teachers do that is the unofficial equivalent to a playing of the extended version of the Fat Lady’s swan song? Hint…Science/Math teachers, it’s not switching into full on test prep mode? That usually signifies that any minute in the hallways, some down on their grade student is going to ask you to reteach the quadratic equation.
No, the unofficial end to the year is that day when we reward the good kids for being good kids all year. They get to go to Six Flags, Canada’s Wonderland, or some other various accident waiting to happen trip as a sign of our gratitude that they did not shoot at, stab, or curse you out during the school year, all the while maintaining a decent grade point average, and normal human composure. This trip also has the debatable intentional or unintentional effect of saying to the kids not going “Better Luck, next year! (Fuckwad)” as the bus to a great escape leaves them in stranded to a muggy day of educational instruction.
Handsome Reward.
So you see- This is how we stab ourselves in the foot. We tell our “good kids” have fun but “not too much fun.” No matter what, hijinx (Hijinx, I exclaim) will ensue. For example, there’s always going to be a few kids who manifest their inner bad ass for a few hours out in public. Or the girl who loses her wallet, and her ID. There might even be a hint of a stolen cellphone, or lunch. While the trip is fun for the kids, it’s definitely more of a Great Adventure for the adults.
Conversely, imagine coming into work wearing your professional dress and passing by your colleagues in shorts and t-shirts, all with grins just as wide on their faces as the day to come is long on yours. When taking attendance you realize that all of the children you mildly enjoy, the ones that you look out into the classroom, and make eye contact with to remind yourself that there is at least one kid listening, and possibly even sympathetic to your plight. The kids who come to school come in expecting it to be a blow off day, and it’s true. In theory, you could forge on with important review work, but really, all that does is make you want to hit your head against your desk because all of your Aces in the holes are gone. The day in so many ways is bullshit, pure and unfiltered.
Ye Olde New York City Publick Schoole
To this I say (and mostly because I am no longer of school age….) let’s schedule these trips after exams. Or maybe on a weekend day so that a day of instruction and/or review isn’t lost. In such a way, we can all then share the unfortunate blaring discomfort of a poorly planned school without ventilation.
“Funemployment” 6-02-2010
Thanks to Miss Eyre [NYCeducator] for that word and the writing prompt for this entry. She says, I quote
I have to admit that I’m still a little confused about what’s going to happen when and if the layoffs actually transpire. Will the ATRs land back in classrooms? Will my summer vacation stretch out into one long span of funemployment, since I have no idea what I would do if I wasn’t teaching? I’d come up with something, I suppose, but, perhaps without even realizing it, I came to believe that I’d be teaching forever.
This sentiment really does touch my heart. Since I lose my first job teaching, I admit life has been a period of “funemployment.” I haven’t necessarily been able to figure out what else I could do as a replacement for teaching. While teaching teaches the person instructing something, I don’t really know how to re-classify or fix it onto a resume. Is there a way to say that on a daily basis you (and your coworkers) worked to insure that the next generation of human beings can speak to each other. How do you translate into or summarize in a short sentence or two that not only did you have to prepare and maintain order over 27 or more students at a time, but that you had to make sure that that time spent under your car was purposeful, and that if any of your “employees” have parents that have no issue with getting in your face, well, it’s more than appropriate that they do.
“Funemployment” is the equivalent of being relegated to Dante’s Purgatory. It’s like not even being recognized as a part of this work force. So many programs (the Teaching Fellows comes to mind instantly) recruit career changers into utilizing their skills into teaching. However, how vice-versa, where’s the detox for people who smile inside when a former student surprises them walking down the street? Where’s the rehab for the former English Teachers who can’t walk by a pile of discarded books without thinking “Maybe I can teach this to standards.” What becomes of a person who has realized and defined themselves by chalkboards when there aren’t any chalkboards left anymore?
Who knows?
The way the economy feels about teachers....
[Chester Kent]
www.GetintheRye.com
(With special thanks to NYCeducator
The Teachers’ Lounge Murder Mystery #2
So Mrs. Englishx2 was going to take a Greyhound to Boston but since she had never actually taken Greyhound before thus she asked a few questions of the other teachers in the lounge. Being that it was a 3 day weekend, she wasn’t exactly how to go about buying her ticket, how early to get there, and other like logistics. She had been planning to take a 3 PM bus to Boston, but being that she needed to arrive at least a half hour before her departure, she would be cutting into the school day and the last few periods she would be teaching…..
Cut to the end of the school, Mrs. Englishx2 was paged over the speaker several times. When moving time cards, and punching out, several other teachers reminded the office staff (Payroll, Attendance, et al.) that Mrs. Englishx2 had left early to catch her bus. However, this was the first time the office and administration had heard of her leaving early. Thus began an investigation into who covered her classes, trying to ascertain when she left, and finding the missing cellphone she had confiscated from a student earlier in the day.
I’m not really sure of the entire resolution, as the missing person report/apb went out on her at the close of the school day, but this is a primary example of adults doing stupid things. Not only has she put a half days pay at risk, but most likely she will be a trending topic tomorrow the entire day. I have a feeling she kind of won’t be into school tomorrow, a victim of the end of year ghost.
Again, it goes to show you, high school teacher should be far more aware of the examples they set forward to the kiddies when they. the teachers themselves, skip school.
[Chester Kent]
www.GetintheRye.com
The Teachers’ Lounge Murder Mystery Show 5-27-10
While watching an episode of Law and Order:SVU, this victim of an attack that occurred on a crowded said that the way that she protects herself on the NYC subway is “Read a line , scan the car, read a line, scan the car……”, which obviously is like being in an active classroom.
But it appears that this philosophy has now began to carry over into the teachers’ lounge. Which to anyone who has ever sat at a school where there is one of “those” teachers’ lounges; meaning, it’s more like a jury room instead of a place to relax and/or commiserate. In “those” teachers’ lounges, the teach with the most seniority is often a senior citizen who dare not to attempt to use a Smart Board, or the stairs.
The teachers’ lounge at school for the past few months has been pleasant. Sure, at times it gets a little preachy, judge-y and angry…but in general, everyone gets along with everyone. We laugh, we joke, we get each others lunch if we’re leaving the building. Hell, I’m counting myself as part of the staff. But out of nowhere (seemingly) it seems like there’s a mole. Someone who frequents the room is a classic mode. They grin, they nod, they chirp in, without ever agreeing or incriminating themselves.
And suddenly the Lead Principal, Ms. Principal, who has generally been here and there, yet nowhere…well, she rolled in like an ominous fog off a cold winter lake. Normally, relaxed, she was all business. For example, she seemed as if she wanted me not in the room , considering I’m not an DOE Permanent/Lead Teacher.
I later learned that several people were reamed out for some hapless, precarious statements made. But the whip has been cracked, and well, two teachers jokingly laughed about me being the DOE/Principal spy. It was a pretty amusing death that they had laid out for me. I sat there blushing, and just took it in the spirit of stress-relief and laughter. When a teacher laughs at and with you like that in the Teachers’ Lounge, they mean no harm. This is far different from when a student mention killing you, because as we all know, some kids and not just the “OA” will get away with anything that we let them get away with.
It’s weird though, I was sitting in on anther common planning meeting, and the Principal sort of gave me yet another look suggesting I go elsewhere. It’s quite weird to think that she reprimanded adults for being adults in front of each other, yet she literally gave me “the stink eye” with one eye, and “the death eye” with the other. I’ve never even had a single conversation with her. Hell, I didn’t even know she was principal until the 3rd or so month of steady work at this school. She has successfully managed to keep the old school teachers’ lounge alive in her person.
Ms. Scarlett ________ Professor Kent in the Teachers' Lounge with a _____________.
[Chester Kent]
Originally Posted @ www.GetintheRye.com
A+….as in Super Ass
I had originally plotted out to make this posting about the young charge whom I had dubbed “The Obvious Asshole” because he doesn’t even try to hide his animosity about being educated. Of this child, his mother has said “Well, he has a problem with authority figures.” Which means that her action plan for dealing with her son doesn’t actually involve anyone else, or trying to reprogram him to being, amendable with taking orders, especially considering he is only something like 16 or 17.
I realize that “The Obvious Asshole” is such a horrible term to use for a child, but it’s so universal and it fits. At some point in their career, every educator has met that one kid that is possessed of impermeable propensity/inclination to being a nuisance. In Pre-K, this kid probably peed on the carpet, or had issues with taking naps. In K-3, this child made scenes just because well it could. This child is loved, and loves attention, and at this point, it even understands the difference between positive and negative attention. Yet, somewhere in their brain a pitched-forked devil is keeping common sense captive. This kid becomes the one that teachers worry about taking out in even the most minute public arena, like walking down the hallway. This type of student is a real life Bart Simpson, albeit the commercial breaks, 30 minute resolution or ability to just turn off the TV.
The funny thing about the “OA” that I dealt with in that particular senior English Class I was covering isn’t even that anything that super infuriating happened in that class; I derive my ultimate chuckle from the conversation with the regular teacher when we next met. It seems that despite the outreach- calls home, referrals to guidance, meetings with other teachers, “OA” has successfully managed to maintain what can only appear to be his desired English Avg grade of 19. Apparently, his also was guest starring in that class as I was, since he had not been in attendance when the regular teacher was there for oh say, four months? And has not been back in there, since I left apparently. He works hard for his grade.
Just scratch college out and add 11th grade. I really had to hold back writing this one because I just discovered the “OA’s” equivalent in the faculty and I’m not sure what to call ‘em yet.
Thanks for the comments, and take care of yourselves. Please do check out the original post at
www.GetintheRye.com
[Chester Kent]
National Teacher Appreciation Week
After the morose way, I had been feeling about not working/subbing a full day at the school which I’ve adopted as my home school, well that same afternoon, I received a welcome surprise….I had been requested to cover English classes for 2 days at my school. Which markedly improved my mood.
The next morning, I got up, grabbed my dry erase markers and hurried over. It was refreshing hearing my kids ask who I was covering for etc. The absent teacher had left me a two day care package (as he had done before) and I began setting up my dryboards, and preparing to teach from Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The weather was great, the sun high in the sky. Not a damn thing wrong.
During the lunch periods, the PTA had even put out some money to buy a large platter of assorted sub sandwiches (along with sides of fruit and salad.) It was during my lunch period when I received an invite to come and lunch with the other teachers. This was quite welcoming in regards to the fact that 1. Butterflies flew out of my wallet where money should have been and 2. I actually felt like I was a part of the team.
Had a few disappointing, but overall interactions with the obvious asshole/brat/attention hungry whore-child in the room. The first being the senior girl who decided that “I don’t feel like doing this, and you not goin’ be able to get me to do that mister.” To which I responded…”You don’t have very many aspirations for the future do you?“ She was pretty much shocked by my response, and exclaimed “I’m goin’ be a doctor, Mistah.“
Pacing myself gently, begin to continue my lesson, I nodded my head and said “Ah…yes, I can see your B.S., right now. I hope that works out for you, but for those of us who actually came to school today, we’re continuing on page 17…” Throughout the rest of the lesson she attempted to grasp control of the situation again, especially with my favorite question/statement combo “I gotta go to the bathroom. Can I have a pass, Mistah.” (“No” I responded without explanation, driving the reading forward.) Since my silent defense was not enough for her, she then yelled “Why you gotta be like that? I’m goin’ anyway.” I told her she should probably stop by a dean’s office for her pass back into the room. Later, I can now say nyah nyah nyah nyah. I win.
More on the other obvious asshole in another post however, it’s a nice day out and I have some Law and Order: SVU on DVR to catch up with. Be well, and all those other pleasantries.
[Chester Kent.
www.GetintheRye.com]
May 8th, 2010 in
Uncategorized |
1 Comment
