:::feliz navidad



went to my mom's in san bernardino to see isadora and leave her christmas present before tomorrow. traffic was a bitch, as usual, but at least the view of the mountains was majestic!


anyway, tomorrow i'm off to chicagoland to be with my honeybunch and the kids. because of that, i'll be taking time off from blogging. (i'm even leaving my ibook here at home this time.) so . . .


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE!

:::calling all bloggers

i need your help. seeing as how one of our focus standards is persuasive writing, we asked our sixth graders to write a persuasive essay to their parents about what they would like for Christmas. what follows is the work of one of my students:

Dear Mom,

All I want for Christmas this year is to go and visit my birth father. I have not seen him since I was 1 year old.

I really desire that gift! What I know about him so far is that he lives in Phoenix, Arizona. His name is Francisco Vxxxxxxxx.

The most important reason why I want to visit him is because I hate not having a dad. I mean, my stepfather is o.k But I want the feeling of beeing [sic] able to have a dad. Most people take their dads for granted. If I had my dad I would love and cherish him.

Thank you for trying to grant this wish.

Yours truly,

Imelda Vxxxxxxxx

i wish there was some way we could help this girl. i'd like to call her mom and ask her if she has any information as to where the dad might be but imelda's mom is just not dependable. she's never showed up for conferences. with the two older brothers, it was the same. my first encounter with her was through the oldest brother i had as a student. he lacked structure. because of this and the "mother"'s inability to parent, i was forced to pay home visits. it became obvious that this woman has no parenting skills. due to this, the mom would be useless in this matter.


in the spirit of christmas, can somebody help grant this wish?

:::blustery day



isadora should be getting released from the hospital right around now. when i called earlier, she told me her boyfriend, juan (freaky coincidence huh?), would be picking her up. i'm here waiting for them to show up (watching the weather grow grayer as this impending storm approaches). juan is supposed to help her with moving some of her things out of here. she'll be staying with my mom and paul during her recovery.


on the weather note, the rains have helped out with making the grass look greener outside.

:::acknowledgement

when i told you about isadora's surgery, i happened to come across another young lady's online journal addressing the same topic. i posted a comment on her weblog regarding the coincidence about their same conditions. she responded by email- which i completely appreciated. her viewpoint helped me out greatly in understanding my own daughter's predicament.


this random reader deserves our prayers and moral support also.

:::bah humbug?

this last day before our winter break had to be one for the records. regretfully, we did not have the traditional classroom christmas party.


maybe it's that i miss having lucy and the kids here at home, thus the absence of holiday decorations in and out of my home, that i'm just not in the spirit (although i have been listening to my christmas music on the 'puter.). or perhaps it's our school's zealous focus on raising our test scores that has not allowed me to feel in the mood. i think it's a combination of both.


either way, we just treated it as just another day.


despite all this, a few of my students did present me with gifts. now i feel bad that they were deprived of this holiday celebration.

:::surgery successful

well, things turned out okay for my daughter. there was no cyst after all. what she did have done was a myomectomy to remove some uterine fibroids, one of which was the size of an orange (her doctor showed me a polaroid).


isadora's doing fine now. when i left, the hospital had her on morphine to numb the pain. hopefully she'll be able to rest this evening.


there was quite a turnout of relatives. rachel showed up with her mom, isadora's cousin showed up with her mom, and paul showed up with my mom. the only one missing was isadora's mom!

:::surgery

in just a few hours my firstborn will be undergoing surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. as her dad, i feel nervous. as just a human being, i empathize with her.


if her mom was going to be there, she would've flown out here by now. (after all, isadora is her firstborn also.) when isadora told me she doubted her mom would come, i almost felt like saying i'd buy her mom's ticket just to be here. but that should not be my responsibility.


okay, i took tomorrow off as a p/n (personal necessity) although the school's élite is supposed to walk through our rooms, checking for compliance with their edicts, but screw it all. familia comes first. we can appease mensitas later.

:::el niño day 2




we had a break from the storm today. it was enough to give us a rainbow to hold in awe. according to the prognosticators, we're supposed to resume our rainy days by thursday night. i'm glad el niño storms are back. the rains bring a cleaner scent to our surroundings (not to mention a respite from our drought).

:::el niño

we kept being told el niño weather was returning, yet it didn't seem real until today. it had to hit right at our lunchtime! it came in torrents, flooding the playground behind our classroom. just look at the view from our rear window!




my biggest dread was driving home. sure enough, the 605 was down to a crawl. i can just imagine how crowded the other l.a. basin freeways must've been.

:::mixed bag

a lot of weblogs portend some sort of theme. mine humbly strays from that. you see, life is so sporadic . life does not follow predestined paths.


what's on this imac's desktop?




seeing as how they're in chicagoland, i changed the desktop pic to my favorite photo of mayra and tony. she looks so demure in this picture while tony is just so admirative of his older sister.


rachel began her winter break yesterday. my district still requires us to work this week. if not for that and my need to obtain a new car, i'd be in chicago with lucy and the kids during this vacation.

:::frida kahlo

went to see frida today. the movie told quite a story about her tempestous life as an artist and as diego rivera's companion.


check out these links about this great artist:

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Frida Kahlo: Fotografías

Kahlo's Parasol: La Casa Azul

:::christmas parade




today rachel marched with her school band in the uptown whittier christmas parade. i felt so proud of her.




all the kids in the band are doing great, thanks to their band director.

:::raiders quarterback

hey, already there's talk of rich gannon possibly being named most valuable player. of course, the raiders still need to get to the championship game down south next month. there are opinions favoring oakland's chances of going all the way. the silver and black just need to take care of business down in miami this sunday. (at least the game'll be away from the pendejadas that sometime occur here in socal.)


to get the south floridian point of view, read this miami herald article about sunday's confontation.

:::virgen de guadalupe

tomorrow is the day of our madre santa.

two of my students will be sad on account of their moms missing out on mañanitas.

Estas son las mañanitas

que cantaba el rey David.

Hoy por ser día de tu santo

te las cantamos a tí.

Despierta, mi bien, despierta;

mira que ya amaneció.

Ya los pajarillos cantan;

la luna ya se metió

:::raiders game

just got back a while ago from the raiders game in san diego. it was quite a trouncing, what with the raiders winning 27-7! so now they've got sole posession of 1st place in the afc west. yeah!


hopefully the next raider game at san diego will be in january.

:::conferences

today we began student-led conferences. although i had attended them as rachel's parent, this was my first time on the other end, as teacher.


actually i had first been familiar with slc's a few years ago through my own investigations. my introduction was through a book simply titled, Student-Led Parent Conferences. that piqued my curiousity into attempting it myself. prevailing attitudes never permitted me to explore this.


regardless, we're finally taking this courageous step forward. tonight's sessions were the among the best experiences i've had parent interviews i've had in my entire twenty-some teaching career. i can't wait to see how my kids and their parents felt about it.


i hope you'll share my same enthusiasm and follow some of these links:


Letting Students Lead Parent Conferences

Student-Led Conferences: A Growing Trend

Successful School Conferences

:::world AIDS day 2002



today we must all take at least a moment to educate ourselves about the AIDS epidemic and think about what we can do for our fellow human beings afflicted with this disease. time is of the essence, so learn more by clicking on this link or just email this website to all the people in your address book.


let's all help put a stop to this human threat.