Tag: California

Friday Photo: Opportunity Knocks?

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Shortly after I posted this photo on Facebook I received a phone message from my mother. She’s not a Facebook user, but became concerned after my younger brother alerted her that something might be wrong, since I posted a big red sign on my wall.

At first I had no clue what she was talking about. I figured it was just a glitch in her understanding about Facebook. Suddenly it dawned on me what they were worried about, and I reassured her that everything was OK.

Only, it’s not really OK.

These are difficult times for many Americans. For teachers and students, it’s getting nearly impossible.

My school district is attempting to balance their deficit budget by laying off employees. They’re threatening to furlough teachers again, which means at least a 5% pay cut next year. Districts have met their March 15 layoff notification date ‘over notifying’ teachers, administrators and counselors in preparation for the state budget ‘worst case scenario’.

These people are me and my friends, my colleagues, and your child’s teachers, vice principals and counselors. They are the people who run the after school programs children turn to for enrichment and support. They are the teachers who used to make it easier for kids to have smaller class sizes and take elective classes that provide an alternative to core academic classes. They are the elementary school teachers who create a stable foundation for the rest of your child’s education.

So yes, these are difficult times for me to go to work each day, wondering what my job will look like next year, what my school will look like, and what my son and his friends can expect to find as they end years of anticipation for junior high life. These are difficult times for my daughter and her friends as they see the end of their high school years and now look forward to skyrocketing college tuition and challenging admission processes.

These are difficult times to see highly qualified professionals being released from their service. These are difficult times to answer the probing questions from my students. These are difficult times when I find myself questioning my 21-year career in education, and wondering how much longer it will last.

So I’m sorry, Mom. It’s difficult to explain this sometimes. It’s really difficult to see the opportunity here, but I’m trying.

I hope it makes you feel better to know that when I walk into my class each day, I smile. That part is not difficult at all.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Friday Photo: Back to the Future

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Some days I wish for that machine from ‘Back To The Future’ – the one where I could climb in and time travel backwards. In the movie, Marty McFly found himself thirty years back in 1955, smack in the middle of his parent’s romance.

Mainly, I’d travel back to beautiful places I’ve been in my life. I’d love the convenience of pushing a button and finding myself in a new location. If I felt like great adventures, I’d go to Nicaragua. For youthful abandon, I’d wake up in a hostel in Amsterdam. Missing my childhood pen pal? I’d go back to Yorkshire, England. Nostalgia for family who have passed on would send me back to Sherman Oaks, California. A yearning for academic stimulation would find me in Berkeley.

Today I want to jump in with Marty and travel back to the place where generations of my family have landed before me. I want to walk on the soft white sand towards the lone Cyprus. I want to climb over to Bird Rock and peek into the Whaler’s Cabin at Point Lobos. I want to climb Hawk Tower and stare into the Pacific, imagining Jeffer’s view from the early 1900s. I want to watch my babies bury themselves in the sand of the Bird Sanctuary Beach and giggle as they wiggle their toes free.

Then tomorrow I’ll be back in 2012, immersed in life as I know it today. I’ll be driving from mountain to mountain, cheering my children as they catapult down the ski run. I’ll be packing lunches and loading skis, grading papers and doing laundry, unloading groceries and washing dishes.

But just for today, could you open the door and let me have a moment just for me?

Jennifer Wolfe

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She Was a Good Thing: My Love Affair With A VW

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

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Her name was Martha. Not sure exactly why or how she earned that name, but it kind of stuck. I got her when I was 17 – my senior year. My mom actually found her for sale, and I guess she thought her daughter needed a crazy convertible before she went off to college-I don’t remember the exact details, but I do recall driving to a house on

F Street

where an older man (he was probably about 50-ha!) was trying to sell her. He had been towing her behind his RV when he traveled, but her time had come. She was young and ready for adventure, and she needed someone who could keep up with her.

As I drove off in her the first time, black vinyl top folded back, I thought I had really made it. Here I was, a young northern Californiagirl with my own convertible! Forget the fact that her removable windows were made of plastic vinyl, the propane heater wouldn’t work, the radio only played AM, and the metal on the floorboard was the only thing keeping road debris from bouncing into the car-she was mine. All 1972 top of the line VW Thing. Bumblebee yellow, black vinyl, chrome bumpers made of steel – she and I were a force to be reckoned with.

There was another girl – Randy was her name. She moved into town that year. Not only was she super cool, but she had a yellow Thing too! We soon became bestfriends-it seemed like fate had brought us together. Double trouble, long haired, fun loving, boy crazy TAB swigging B-52 Violent Femmes bopping around in matching convertibles. Only in California, right?

Times change, and Martha and I headed off to college at the end of the summer, leaving our partner in crime to fend for herself in the hometown. Suited up with Alva sticker and surfboard ready,and with the coast now under an hour’s drive away, Martha became the beach mobile. The removable plug in her floorboard was handy for washing out sand and debris after our escapades. I soon learned that cruising over the hill to Santa Cruz and back required vigilance with the gas tank-more than once I found myself stranded by the side of the road with nothing to do but wait for help to find me. Big band and talk radio became my best companions on those foggy morning drives.

Then one day, Randy arrived on campus. Our funny vintage clothes and crazy colored matching cars were like nothing these college kids had ever seen before. In a parking lot full of expensive foreign cars, this new girl stuck out. The first night the boy’s dorm slipped out and removed our driver’s side doors – yes, they detached at the hinges – and choked with laughter as we struggled in the morning to get our keys to fit in the locks. I hate bullies.

The next summer Martha, Randy, her Thing and I decided we would live in San Diego. To us, young, energetic and ambitious, it seemed like a good idea at the time. We loaded up our clothes, hung an ironing board out the window and headed south on I-5 towards our promised land. Two girls, two convertibles – what could be more ideal? The stares we received were legendary – probably in part due to the premade signs we had that we would flash to each other like signal beacons. A few passers by flashed us back a few things, too.

Traveling to Rosarita Beach, Mexicowas one of Martha’s favorite adventures. Roomy enough to stretch out, she became our kitchen, dressing area and hotel room. I think we really pushed her to her limits there-she was glad we all made it out alive.

There were a few downsides with Martha. She was freezing cold in the winter-driving over the Grapevine in December wrapped in a sleeping bag was not my ideal start to Christmas vacation. She was noisy-the wind whistled through the removable windows making it nearly impossible to sing over the racket. And she was brittle. Like any lady, she aged gracefully but began to show wear and tear in her plastic top and windows.

Martha survived a few fender benders-the steel helped a bit. My little brother’s head was hard enough to crack her windshield, but her strong bumpers never bent. The last straw came one windy, rainy afternoon when, while driving down the freeway with my future husband, Martha’s back windshield imploded sending shards of rock hard plastic flying into the back of our heads. Boyfriend, who never succumbed to Martha’s charms, began a ‘get rid of that damn car’ campaign.

Stupidly I agreed, and Martha went to live with my uncle and his 16-year-old son. She was definitely showing her age – years of hard living will do that to a girl. With a new engine transplant, though, Martha was able to embark on many happy adventures with him for years. She tried to live up to her reputation – beach trips, screaming up and down the SF hills hoping the mediocre brakes would hold, hauling band equipment, and roaring down I-5 to San Diego with her new man. Kind of like a mid-life crisis, I guess you could say. Life was good for Martha for a few more years.

Sadly, Martha moved on to yet another fellow. I’ve heard he’s a real nice guy and treats her well. They live somewhere in the Bay Area. Rumor has it she’s had a total makeover-sure to breathe new life into the old gal. It happens to the best of us.

I wonder what he calls her.

Jennifer Wolfe

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Friday Photo: In The Moment

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Taking a road trip can be a stressful experience. There is the planning, the packing, the money, the time, the scheduling – all that can make leaving the house a real hassle. Adding into the mix any sort of scheduled activity just further complicates the matter. Then, tossing in children, pets and a spouse and most moms would rather stay home.

This week all my best-laid plans completely turned upside down and I found myself needing to make an unexpected 260-mile road trip on Friday afternoon. Logistically and rationally, it didn’t make any sense, but nevertheless I booked a hotel, packed my bags, took off from work a few hours early and loaded my daughter and her ski gear into the car and headed for the southeastern Sierras.

Being the type of planning oriented person I am, spontaneity can often really stress me out. Having children

is teaching me that sometimes life is unplanned, uncontrolled, and I’d better just learn to go with it. I’m

trying to take life as it comes, but sometimes it’s really hard. Like many things in life, the more I practice

the easier it becomes. Still, stress otfen wins out until I’ve slammed the door shut and there’s no

turning back.

After several hours of cruising down highway 395 we crested a pass and before us lay the most awesome expanse of Mono Lake. Descending the hill and climbing closer and closer to the shore the sun began to set, encircling us with a cotton candy pink glow. As the highway lined the lake I began to see a white edging against the jade green water, and ice cream cone shaped ivory turrets starkly jutting up out of the lake. Snow? The rest of the landscape was dry and brown, so I began to look deeper. I stopped to get a closer look, and realized that what appeared to be snow was simply rock taking on a different hue at that precise moment as the sun went down.

Hopping back in the car, I realized how lucky I was to be in that exact place that exact moment with

daughter by my side. I realized that if I hadn’t let go, if I had resisted and refused to change plans, this

day would have been very different. What I saw with my eyes was awe-inspiring, and what I saw with

my heart was awe inducing. That simple moment with my daughter reminded me of the power of being

present, and the weakness of being in control.

So when you think of the days and plans you have in front of you, imagine what would happen if

you stopped, let something slide, and slipped into the present. What would take on a different hue for you?

Jennifer Wolfe

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California Teachin’

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Sometimes I wonder how California is going to pull our education system out of the deep dark abyss we have been hiding in for the last several years. When I first started teaching in 1990, I thought I was working in the most exciting, progressive career I could imagine, in the most forward thinking state I could live in.

As time has passed, I have changed my way of thinking. Year by year I have seen my class sizes get larger, the students need more attention to skills, and the number of preps increase. NCLB’s focus on standards dramatically changed the focus of many districts towards test taking achievement and away from critical thinking.

Last weekend’s headline in the Sacramento Bee, “Gay History To Hit Classrooms In January”, however, made me feel proud of being an educator and citizen of California.

I was born during the Civil Rights movement and just a little girl when women were fighting for their liberation. In a multi-racial and multi-lingual state like California, emphasis often is put on creating a multicultural, diverse curriculum to meet the needs of all students and ensure equal representation. We teach our students to use appropriate, politically correct terminology and to have tolerance for all people, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. However, very few districts have put any sort of emphasis on the latter. To me, the taboo of speaking about sexual orientation is as antiquated as the pre-Civil Rights era when segregation was commonplace.

Just as when blacks were being lynched and attacked for the genetic make-up of their skin pigment, teens and adults today are experiencing discrimination, torture, beatings and death for their inborn sexual orientation. Just as we learned not to judge people for the color of their skin, we will now be able to show the content of all people’s character, regardless of what gender they choose to love.

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For years when I taught 7th grade World History my students critically examined races and religions worldwide over the history of time. My American Literature students have read, thought and wrote about people from the wide variety of cultures that make up the United States of America. As a trained educator, I know how to teach without bias. Adding gay history to our curriculum will be no different from teaching about Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Native Americans, the Red Coats, slavery, Hitler Vietnam, the Gulf War, or any other topic in our country’s past.

What would it be like if we never talked about these people and events?

I don’t for a minute think that the passage of this law will suddenly create a ‘gay pride’ unit in many school districts. Nor do I believe that teaching about gay history will change any heterosexual teen’s sexual orientation. State education leaders and school districts will carefully and deliberately work to construct frameworks and lesson plans to objectively include, not purposefully disclude, this element of our society.

What I do believe is that this law will allow age-appropriate lessons that will humanize gays, hopefully creating a more harmonious society for our children to grow up in. I do believe in inclusion over exclusion. I do believe that by bestowing value on all people we help to lift them up, which in turn can only bring us all to a higher place.

What do you think? Do you agree with the new legislation? Or do you want to keep things ‘old school’?

Me? I’m proud to be a Californian today.

Jennifer Wolfe

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