Aniversary

Em & I had our 12th (!!) aniversary this weekend. Since we are both a little tired out these days, we weren't very ambitious, but we went to a very good Cuban restaurant called Madres in Pasadena. We each had one Mojito & had to walk around town for an hour to sober up - total lightweights! Anyway, I forgot to take any pictures, but here's one of my beautiful wife from a little while ago.

Franklin Graduation

I went to the Franklin High graduation today. It's so great to see these kids, for most of whom school is one long torture chamber, actually make it to the end. You've never seen happier teenagers (and parents)! Here are some pictures of a good day:



<--This is Randy Quintero who was a student in my CAHSEE prep class. The students need to pass the CAHSEE (state) test to graduate, and Randy hadn't passed it yet in English. After he took my class, he just squeaked by. Later he was my T.A. and we talked about guitar stuff a lot.




I love this next picture, even if it is a little blurry. This is Wilson "Kickback" Lee. Although he was one of the laziest students ever, he sure was excited to graduate & tossed a handful of sparkly stuff in the air. I'm glad I caught it on film (or whatever you call it now):

Definitely a good day!

Phil Holmes in L.A. Times

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see Phil Holmes on the cover of the L.A. Times! Phil attends church with my family, and has been an English teacher for 40 years - mostly at Harvard Westlake, but more recently at a charter school in South Central Los Angeles. He was a great help to me when I was starting my teaching career and was terrified. Phil worked with me on my first few lessons, and helped me to realize one of the most valuable teaching insights that I have had: that good writing can be taught in a systematic and logical manner.

This may not sound earth-shattering, but for a new teacher who had come up with a total of one hour's material in two weeks of preparation, it was a real gift from above. Most of my lesson planning since then has been expanding on those first suggestions from Phil, and my students nearly always mention this at the end of the semester as the most valuable thing they learned.

After nearly forty years at Harvard Westlake - one of the premier college prep schools in the country - Phil wanted to see if his ideas were as valid in the inner city. To find out the result, click on this link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-holmes21-2008jun21,0,3349168.story

Congratulations to Phil. It's nice to see a really great person getting his due in public!!

I didn't want Jack to feel left out, so here he is with his beautiful mama at the Huntington Gardens - we had a really nice trip with Mom a while ago.

Blog 2. Woo hoo!

So the main idea is to let anyone who cares know what's going on with the Los Angeles Dores. To be honest, there's something kind of terrifying about sending something out there that can be seen by everyone and could conceivably be in existence until the end of time.

But the thing is, I have really enjoyed seeing other people's blogs, and I really wish that everyone I know had one so that I could keep up with you all. So I'm girding my loins and sending it out. I hope you all enjoy it. Please comment if you can & be kind!

Finn graduated from pre-school this week! Here is the graduate and the proud parents. We really enjoyed Glendale Montessori, but it's time to move on, so Finn will be attending our local kindergarten in the Fall.

Hello everybody! This is my first attempt at blogging & here I am squeezing my children.