He's So Dreamy

After I taught a lesson this week my mentor teacher was going over some suggestions with me on how to improve my lesson. I told her I thought kids were a little bored and she disagreed with me. She said Tyeisha (names have not been changed in order to reveal cultural diversity) was looking a little distracted and so she asked her, "Tyeisha, what's going on here? Are you bored?" She said, "No. I am a little distracted though. I just can't stop staring at him. He's so cute."
I'm trying not to let my ego enlarge, and I don't think it will considering it came from a 14-year-old girl who probably also likes Justin Beiber (actually I'm betting she likes Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony; no Beiber fever at The Duke).
The Duke really is a fine place to work. It's uplifting and encouraging.

Life at the Duke

I have now been at my school for three weeks and still have not recorded a full week. Today was a snow day (Washingtonians are much less adept to snow than Bostonians or Utahns) so my streak continues. One of my reasons for wanting to be a high school teacher is that everyday is exciting and funny things happen and every day is different. Here is a sampling of elucidations to help you see why I enjoy my job so much:

• I have been affectionately titled 'The White Mr. Bennett' since there is another Mr. Bennett at the school who is, well, not white.
• I have students with names like Quadaja, Tyeisha, Aquil, Dominique, and twins Summer & Winter.
• I get to teach my kids that angles can't be parallel and that a polygon with thirteen sides is called a 13-gon, not a bagon, deseagon, tridecagon, or ? as they like to write on their tests.
• The only place to park in DC is on the sidewalk, so that's what everyone does at the school.
• A quote from one of my female students, a full decade younger than me: 'Mr. Bennett. I heard you have a girlfriend! I like your shirt today. And your hair. You have great hair Mr. Bennett. It's so long and smooth." Me: "Umm, thanks Marche. That's nice of you to say." 

My school is really fantastic. I love it a lot. You should come visit.

My New School

Me in front of my school. Er, rather, Mt. Vernon.
I have officially moved to Washington, District of Columbia and started my student teaching in mathematics. I will be teaching geometry to 10th graders.
Yes, I have to walk through a metal detector to get in the school in the morning.
By my observation, the school is 85% African-American.
Quote of the day: A student came up to my cooperating teacher and whispered something to her so that I wouldn't hear. When she left my cooperating teacher said to me, "She thinks you look like Jim from The Office. But you don't, she just thinks all white people look alike."
It's funny because A) It's just funny. B) I have been told by multiple sources that I look like Jim from The Office, so I don't necessarily think this girl thought all white people look alike...
Luckily my Thailand excursion gave me some experience being the only white person in the class.

Christmas Holiday Movies

My Christmas break has been broken. I did some productive things (played basketball 2x a week, went to a museum, did my Christmas shopping etc.) and I also watched a lot of movies. The following is a list of the movies I watched, what I thought of them, and a rating out of 5 Hollas ('Hi' refers to half a Holla). Because I watched so many in the 3 weeks I won't write much about them:

• Going the Distance: Apparently the distance is only one millimeter. Not that good of a movie. Holla Holla.
• Epic Movie: Epic Failure. Hi
• Drillbit Taylor: More like Drillbit Awesome. I love Owen Wilson. Holla Holla Holla
• World Trade Center: It was really boring and depressing. I didn't even make it all the way through the movie. Holla.
• Chasing Papi: Chasing greatness, and catching it! A total surprise hit! Holla Holla Holla Holla
• The Pink Panther (2006): I don't care if he was green, black, red, or pink- this panther was hilarious! Holla Holla Holla Holla
• Inception: More like Deception. This was my second time watching it and I learned a lot. I can now safely identify Leo Dicaprio from Ellen Page! She's the one with long hair! Holla Holla Holla Hi
• The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: Apparently fantastic doesn't mean what I thought it meant. Hi
• Killers: Killer movie. Have you even heard of it? One of Ashton Kutcher's finest. Seriously, it was really funny. Holla Holla Holla Hi
• Knight and Day: Surprising better than I thought. Same plot as Killers, virtually, and pretty enjoyable. I loved the Boston scenes, too. Holla Holla Holla
• Fool's Gold: The opening scene where the boat sinks as they're scuba diving was LOL worthy. Not too much happened after that. Holla Holla
• The A-Team: Let's just say I hope there isn't a B-Team. Holla
• Steep: A documentary on extreme skiing. I slept through part of it, but if you like skiing you should enjoy it. Holla Holla
• The Social Network: Exceeded my expectations. It was a great movie. See it, and don't abandon all your friends for billions of dollars. It won't make you happy. This was probably the only movie that required me to think. That's a real sign of approval for this one. Holla Holla Holla Holla Hi
• Red: A great cast that worked well together. It had action and comedy, although not much thinking was necessary to enjoy it. It's more geared for the middle-aged generation. Holla Holla Holla
• Joe Somebody: Heartwarming, and sweet. Joe became somebody. Holla Holla Hi
• Good Hair: A documentary on African-American hair, but Chris Rock. If you don't know what a weave or a hair relaxer are, you need to see this. I can never look at an African American woman's hair the same way again. Very eye opening.

Wow, I really did watch a lot of movies this break. I think it's time to do something productive. Does watching a documentary count as doing something productive?