Momo the Hobo

i give unannounced reading quizzes at least one day a week.  the first time i gave a quiz in a seventh grade class, a lot of the kids asked permission to draw on the back when they were done, before i came around to collect them.  i was surprised, but why not?  over the first couple weeks, i have morphed the initial request into a weekly-ish speed drawing contest (i purposely give them about 3 extra minutes).  i write comments on some and pick the top three.  it's not a perfect system yet, but they really care about it.  my favorites are usually selected because of originality, humor (usually because of randomness), or skill.  this was the winner in 7D today:   

"Family Kidnapped by Ninjas.  Need $4 for Karate Lessons."

it is beyond impossible to trace thought processes backwards in these drawings.  you have no idea what influenced them to draw what they did (although i get a lot of copycats), and i love it.  interestingly enough, my eighth grade class has never asked to draw, and i doubt more than a few would be interested if i proposed it.  i'm entranced by the differences from one grade to another, even though it's more than partially enabled by the setting — lecture/desk format in seventh compared to seminar/roundtable format in eighth.

oh-and-one

you cannot fully understand something until you experience it firsthand.  you can come close, sometimes.  sometimes, you can convince yourself you understand something fully, just by studying it from a distance, but it's just not true.  it is true that some things are easier to understand secondhand than others, though.

i remember having a conversation with Sarah (Howard, then) and Kate Olson in The Treehouse about marriage.  more specifically, "cold feet." i think it was after watching "Up In The Air".. Sarah agreed with me — it doesn't really matter how much you thought about it leading up to getting married, you could never simulate the same feelings that you'll have when the idea of being married finally becomes real to you.  Kate disagreed then, though that was a few years ago.. she argued that avoiding pre-wedding jitters was a matter of willpower; you can prepare yourself by having the right mindset.  i tend to think it's that approach which results in the worst outcomes, because those people haven't allowed the possibility of being surprised.

my latest experience with this happened Saturday morning.  it was my first game as head coach of the Scottsdale Prep junior high football team.  i know a lot of about football and a little about coaching, but i went in knowing it would be a learning experience.  thankfully, i had most of the high school staff and several helpful parents on the sidelines with me, or it would have been a disaster..  i can't remember a situation where i've had more information thrown at me in such an urgent, time-sensitive setting.  just as an example, my team has 35 players.  our league is 8-man tackle, so at any given juncture i have 8 players in the game and 27 players wanting to be in the game.  where do you even begin?  at the junior high level, a coach has to:

get the right personnel on the field on offense, defense, AND special teams
call plays..either by signaling or sending in calls with a substitute
know down-and-distance at all times
recognize what the opponent is doing/how they're hurting you
substitute often and intelligently
be aware of the clock*
manage time-outs*
know the score*
get all the players in the game
keep the referees honest
stay off the field
keep the off-the-field players off the field
make sure all the players are hydrating
deal with injuries

*more difficult than you might think, with high-scoring games and no scoreboard!

these things are not happening in a neat, organized manner; they are all happening simultaneously, and you never have a second to gather your thoughts, from start to finish.

we lost.  it was against Chandler Prep, our biggest rival and the only team to beat Scottsdale last season (twice).  they scored the winning touchdown with under 2 minutes left in the game, after we had held the lead nearly the entire second half.

the earlier list was things i knew about, but didn't understand in that context.
some completely unanticipated factors?
1) the heat.  it was scorching at 9am, and my best player (on both sides of the ball) ((that means on offense and defense)) left the game with heat exhaustion at halftime, and couldn't return.
2) the players didn't know everyone's names.  i would be yelling at Jonny to go in for Greg, and he had no idea who that was.  i have names down but not numbers..
3) the refs were antagonistic.  they started the game looking for trouble..  they gave the teams 55 seconds between quarters, not even enough time for everyone to get a drink.  they flagged me for stepping onto the field to yell a play.  on our last drive, they kept the clock running on more than one occasion when the player had gotten out of bounds with forward momentum, and they refused to tell me how many timeouts i had on the final drive.

it was a tough game to lose, and the worst way to lose, but i learned more about coaching football that morning than i have from watching/studying football for years.  i'll be more prepared next week, and more prepared the week after that..and when playoff time comes? Chandler Prep is done.

no seconds

everything there is is a first time for.

stop thinking and read.  there are no repeat experiences.  simply the fact you have "experienced" something once (or a hundred times) changes your next encounter.  the only way we could ever justify grouping anything together is by the broadest, blandest concept of "the same."

i've had a real job for almost three weeks.  every day has been different.  every day will be different.  you think i'm naive? i think you're over.

i did something rash today.  i opened up to 8B, my third period Medieval History class.  I only have one eighth grade class, and they are solid gold.  their biggest problem is that they are too quiet.  we have class in a seminar format — the 23 of us sit in a big square of tables.. there is so much potential it's been driving me crazy.

the last week and a half i've been genuinely frustrated over that class.  by this time, i have a decent idea how to teach my seventh graders: write a lot on the board, review often, and discipline as necessary.  but eighth grade?  i've been all over the place.  they do the homework, know the answers, and never cause trouble.. but, there's no connection.

at some point in the last week, i decided the solution was to make myself more vulnerable.  i wanted to tell them i have no teaching experience.  it's hard to explain, but i felt like i would almost gain credibility by doing it.  i figured i knew the kids well enough by now to predict how they would react, and i decided they would be more comfortable in class.  we had a test yesterday, so today seemed like good timing.

we spent about half the class talking about my immediate history, and the other half discussing what it meant to be "awkward."  my column from last fall was supplementary reading (This is not awkward, but you are).

i won't lose them. trust me.

the first single

i don't know how i feel about web logs.  i enjoy observing the way people think, and i definitely like hearing ideas/theories/randomness that has been generated from people i know, but i've never been too impressed with the majority of blogs or bloglike activity.. and honestly, i'm not sure that i offer enough to break out of that majority.  perhaps the most daunting aspect of starting a blog is the prospect of finding out exactly how many people want to hear what you think.  it's much safer just to think you could have a great blog if you had the time, or even to work for a print newspaper.  then you can just assume your personal readership somewhat mirrors the circulation numbers.. and yeah, that's intended to be an unfair shot at all of you real-life journalist-types ;-)

i like to read things that i know i could not have written.  when i read an analogy by G.K. Chesterton, or a description by Cormac McCarthy, or a theory by Mark Helprin, or even an random sports-ranking list/obscure pop culture reference by Bill Simmons, and i actually have the thought "i am incapable of producing this" (paraphrased), that's when i really know i'm enjoying it/getting something out of it.  so, as someone who is used to writing multiple articles a week for the general public (ha), i evaluated my own writing.  what do i offer?

i constantly have to remind myself that there are innumerable ways to write that can be valuable to other people.  my way, i decided, is very simple.  it has to do more with how i see the world than how i put words together.  i analyze how things work, and, with a lot of effort, i can explain my perspective in writing (i'm often incapable in speech).  it's not always original, or even entirely correct, but it's the best i've got.  so, in order to keep this blog fresh, i need to include those sorts of opinions from time to time.

the difficulty with opinion is consistently being able to relate information that is valuable to someone else.  the way i see it, you can find value in a lot of things — almost anything, if you look hard enough.  so what's important, as the writer, is to keep a specific purpose in mind.  why am i writing this?  who am i writing to?

i have my answers.

the overarching theme of my blog is the title, wonderful anarchy.  i see meaning and purpose in every little detail of life, and i want to share what i see.  the main theme of my theme will be my experiences as a first-year teacher.  there may be days when i simply relate a story from class, or a particular instance where i learned the right way the hard way, or even my deepest darkest insecurities about my ability to be a good teacher.  i also want to border my personal experience with a broader picture of my friends' experience doing the same-ish thing, but differently — this angle has potential to be the most unique aspect of my blog.

since i graduated in May, my life has been an unending chain of inexplicable events.  i look forward to relating more of the details soon, but what's important now is that i have no doubt i'm where i'm supposed to be.