Getting Out of Jail Free & Sunday Night Syndrome

I started volunteering at San Quentin State Prison in May, teaching pre-algebra there to students in lockup. I really like it. Part of my motives aren't great; partly I like the ego boost of being able to say that I volunteer at San Quentin; it makes people attribute to me a certain bravery that isn't in evidence in many other ways. But it's also really cool to go volunteer at teaching math. The profession of teacher feels a whole lot more noble when it isn't linked with a school district and bureaucracy and other things that suck. It is nice when the students are there because they want to be there, not because they are legally required to be. And the teachers are there at least partly out of a desire to serve, rather than for any of the crazy motives that lead us to teaching as a career choice.

Anyway, the summer semester ended August 18, the day before regular school started, and so I haven't been to jail in almmost a month. And tonight, I thought, was my first night back. And as a result my weekend was more jam packed than average--I was working with unusual intensity at 3 and then at 4 in the afternoon, because I had to be at East Gate at 5:15, and I wouldn't get out until 8:40.

And then I got there and found out that ... the semester still hasn't started yet. Or, it has, but as a Study Hall coordinator (my new position this semester), well, THAT doesn't start until next week. So ... free three hours. I probably should have, could have, gone back to school. I also could have gone somewhere to watch the 49ers game--I have quite a few friends (and students) who will ask me tomorrow if I watched the game, and when I say no, they'll say, "Oh, man! You missed it!?" They will recoil in horror.

And I still haven't REALLY decided what I'm doing with this three-hour block, although it's now half over. I went to Office Depot and bought some colored office paper that I'll need tomorrow. And I was on my way to the grocery store, but I guess I pulled over at this book store, and I'm not sure if the instinct was more procrastination or self-preservation to AVOID procrastination. I mean, by being here, I'm not at my apartment, where my level of procrastination oftentimes doubles down, or should I say, increases exponentially. So here I found a place to work where there's no TV showing the 49ers game and it's not my apartment. So ... score, right?

Well, there is wi-fi. And there is a magazine rack--I spent 5-10 minutes leafing through Esquire's list of 80 dudes, one who's 80 years old, one who's 79, et cetera. That's kind of mathematical, right?

Throughout today, faced with the usual sense of stuck-ness or overwhelm-itude that I experience when it's time to plan the week, I have said a brief prayer. That helped. "God direct  my thinking." That sort of thing. Now the last thing I want to do here is preach. But I just ... on my own I cannot plan even half of a lesson, even a minute of a lesson. But with help, I can do it. Now, at this moment, I am seeking your help. Help me think of the kids, and not of myself. Help me think of how to teach them better.

I want to be able to review negative numbers in some way that doesn't suck. You know, maybe I will go back to that. It was a football game. I gave the kids dice and gave each roll of the dice a different outcome. I didn't stick with it because my classroom management at the school where I implemented it was not good, and I was more concerned with that than I was with learning. So maybe I can bring that back.

But what I ought to explore right now, I think, is this idea of an Equality Unit that I started on Friday. I talked to them about how oftentimes, I err in life by putting myself above others, by imagining myself superior to others. And for homework, they were to write between a half-page and a full page on what equality means to them. And then tomorrow, I'm going to put colored paper on their desks, and give them the opportunity to make three signs. One about equality, one about greater-than, and one about less-than.

So on one I'll have them make a big equals sign. I wanted to have pink paper for this, because a lot of them will know of that symbol and its association with the debate on gay marriage. Instructions: Make an equals sign in the middle of your paper. Write 1-3 sentences about things that are equal. Make one of them about yourself. Write: "I am equal to ..."

On your other paper, make an inequality sign. Write 1-3 sentences about things that are not equal. Write, "I am greater than ..." or "I am less than ..."

I went to Cosco on my way to San Quentin today, looking for that colored paper, and also because I needed pants for San Quentin--we're not allowed to wear shorts there, and that's what I was wearing. At Cosco I bought 648 sheets of construction paper. This seemed like a potentially stupid idea, but one positive thought I had was that I could be purchasing the raw material for a project. If these first two sheets have "equals" and "not equals" on them, four that follow could have "+", "-", "x", and of course, a diagonal slash. No, I would want an actual division symbol. And with each page, there could be writing and examples about how negative numbers are combined using these symbols.

I just created a handout. I'll attach it here if I can. I am not at bookstore anymore; I am home now. Junot Diaz was at the book store; I just missed his book talk. He did a book-talk, and then he gave a separate speech to some high school students from a school nearby. About how they could get into college. I missed it completely, but this lady who sat next to me saw it and e-mailed me a picture she took. (And she told me all about it--"He swore all the time; I wanted to scold him for swearing so much.") Here.