Maybe a hobby will cure me of this virus. Hobbies usually have some shred of nobility. Gardening, sports, writing — though I would still be facing a perpendicular surface, it would be to write on it rather than it write on me. Until the hobby becomes another source of disease though.

Health is hard to maintain.

Bret Harte Middle School is just off MacArthur Blvd east of Lake Merritt, but not very far east. You can ride the 57 bus to get here. The school is nicely diverse, with not any one race the clear majority. There’s even lots of kids with Middle Eastern descent here. Of course, the kids that come in to Bret Harte are bent on idolizing gangs and violence, as to be expected of any middle school in Oakland, but the school administration and security does a good job of discouraging that kind of behavior. One positive experience in my three days here is a couple of police officers lecturing a student about writing gang related things in her textbook. “Set them straight hard and early” is a good motto for this.

Nice thing about Bret Harte is its architecture. It’s kind of fun exploring the campus. Being situated on a hillside, the playground has the lowest elevation, forming a sort of basin with the P.E. building on one side and the classroom buildings on the other. There are hangout places in nice areas: one is like a patio overlooking the playground. Another is like a courtyard surrounded by classrooms. I think the kids enjoy being in such a school.

Admittedly, the assignment I had here for the past three days are with a class where most of the student went on a field trip, so I’m not getting the full experience, but overall, I would say that this middle school has left the best impression on me so far. I wouldn’t mind coming here again, and that’s hard to say for any middle school.

Talk to most Americans and perhaps very few have been out of the country. For those who have, there are various “distances” you can go away from the country. You can go to Europe, and there will be some culture shock, but probably not much, and you’ll be able to get used to it in no time. Go to a third-world country or somewhere in the Eastern hemisphere and you’ll be face with not only a much lower economic standard, but perhaps even political instability and definitely a huge culture shock. As a Thai-American, it’s not too bad if I had to go to Thailand or China, but for me, Mongolia was an entirely different animal.

I digress; this is a movie review. Mongol depicts the life of Temujin, who later in his life will be the great Genghis Khan (called Chinggis Khaan in Mongolian). But for now, he’s just Temujin. The movie starts in his childhood, where he chooses his future wife (childhood for Mongols is apparently short. Even now in Mongolia, boys acknowledge themselves as men at an early age). After his father dies, Temujin basically goes through a cycle of events as follows: is betrayed and imprisoned; by the work of the sky god, he is somehow able to get free; goes back to his wife; rallies men to fight for him. The cycle happen thrice, in childhood, then manhood, and then lastly right before the formation of his alliance.

The movie focuses a great deal to illustrate his hidden strength coming from his wife. In this respect, though a war movie in a time of traditional culture, it surprisingly female-empowering. Perhaps more important than his clan and people was his wife. His wife does her part too and it is clear that without her, his greatness would not be achieved.

To enjoy Mongol, it is best to come in with the right expectations. The DVD cover shows Chinggis in full armor with a massive war scene behind him, but the movie shows next to nothing about how this man conquered the Chinese Tangut empire that began the growth of the largest empire EVER. Instead, to use a metaphor, the movie shows the seed to the Great Khaan’s strength in character and resolve. The final war scene is kinda epic, and shows his tactical prowess that would eventually make him the greatest.

The greatest enjoyment for me from the movie is, however, just how realistically it depicts Mongolian culture. Mongolia’s culture today is little changed, in essence, from a thousand years ago despite being ruled by a number of countries since the time of the great Khans. If one is planning to go to Mongolia or perhaps some other countries like Kazakhstan, this is a movie to watch. You’ll see the traditional nomadic life, family relations, gender roles, shamanic religious influences and other values. You’ll also understand their pride in their landscape, their blue sky, and their warrior spirit and the history of their greatest leader.

The movie is a classic, probably what launched Mel Gibson’s movie career. The setting is quite unique: Australia in a future where gas is in short supply and police order is weak. The villains, in my opinion, are what make this film truly noteworthy. I’ve never seen or read A Clockwork Orange, but I imagine that these bad guys are very similar. Or better yet with a more recent example, imagine a gang of Heath Ledger Jokers on bikes. Each one has a screw loose, yet is able to cause mayhem with style, disturbing style.

The director of the movie is a minimalist. We don’t come in the movie knowing the time and the place, or very much about the situations or characters, but instead of introducing all these in the usual way, we are left to put pieces together by the minor details. An example is that we are never told what the world in the movie really suffers from. But we are given hints when the biker gang stealing gas from a moving gas truck, or the scarcity of cars and modern technology. In short, the movie engages the audience and makes us pay attention to enjoy the movie and I like that.

Mad Max isn’t for everyone. It’s clear that apart from the stunts and car explosions, the movie doesn’t invest its money into much else. For modern movie watchers, the lack of explanation, dialog, and even background music can make things slow. Think of it like a Western. Even for anime fans like myself, don’t expect crazy Kung Fu pressure point action like the series it inspired.

It doesn’t mean that this movie is unoriginal or canned. But I’ll start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Based on a true story, the movie follows two characters: Denzel Washington who plays up and coming gangster Frank Lucas looking to dominate the New York/Jersey heroin market. The other is Russell Crowe, who is apparently the only honest cop in New Jersey and later leads a special task force to get drugs off the streets.

The movie takes place in the midst of the Vietnam War of the late 60′s and early 70′s. The movie is a struggle among the good cops (Russell Crowe and crew) who are trying to wipe drugs off the streets by taking down the big cats, the corrupt cops who profit by selling back confiscated drugs, and taking cuts and bribes from dealers, and there is Denzel, who goes above the system by dealing the drugs going around the bad cops. He does this by taking advantage of the war and getting his drugs cheap and direct from Southeast Asia, selling better stuff at cheaper price than on the streets.

Though drugging up the streets and making crack moms and crack babies, killing folks and such, we nevertheless can’t point the villain finger on Denzel. One, it could just because he is Denzel. But besides that, and besides the fact that we always root for the bad guy in gangster movies, the real bad guys are those corrupt cops, Denzel is the hero who successfully escapes from their system. We also like his character because of his methodical nature. He’s impeccable, spotless. He does dirty business, but in the public he’s all clean and legit, just like the Italians. Actually, it mentions in the movies that the roots of his methods are from the Mob.

One thing that American Gangster does perfectly is pacing. Though it’s based on a real story, it doesn’t ever go into mundane details or tangents that usually ruins a movie. I think of Blow and even Goodfellas to a certain degree. I don’t know the real story, but I don’t need to. It’ s a movie, not  a documentary. The movie is long though, two and a half hours. To be honest, I did fast forward some parts because I was in a rush, but it’s a good movie to just sit back and enjoy one lazy afternoon. Some comic relief comes whenever they make reference to their times, such as when Russell Crowe looks dumbfounded when he first sees a microwave oven.

Overall, it was enjoyable the first time, and given time, I would definitely watch the movie again. The movie has a good story, crispiness, and style.

I’ve been to this school before last year. It’s part of the old Havenscourt School and has now been broken up to two middle schools: Roots International School and Coliseum Prep. This is the fact of many schools in Oakland. I’m not completely sure, but it might be part of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) where underperforming schools are taken over by the state, broken up to smaller schools, and have administration and staff shifting around. Usually they throw away their old names and get new names for every school. Usually, these names indicate what kind of achievement or the thing the school wants to inspire.

Anyways, I go to school and most of the office have an older, slower paced staff, much different from ASCEND from the day before. Hallways are big and they are well staffed with security. I was assured by the principal and was given all the numbers I needed for student misbehavior.

Facilities

Hallways and classrooms are older, probably made in the 70s or 80s. They are relatively well maintained, but nevertheless not as bright and attractive among the schools out there. The classroom I was in was clean and well maintained. Roots has most of the classes in one building and the other small school is in other buildings. Of note is the cafeteria. It left a good impression on me as it was cheap, $3, and they gave me a good amount. There’s a fully stocked salad bar as well.

Class/Students

Teaching 8th graders today. They were not as bad as it could be. Considering the geography of this school, right on International, the kids were prone to talk about fighting, and the troubling boys (and girls) associate their status with being on the streets. The staff are well aware and do a good job to keep a safe environment despite the circumstance. When a lighter was lit today and I smelled the smoke, the security carefully did a search to find the culprit. I was impressed. The teacher I was subbing for was also well organized, left me a detailed lesson plan as well as referrals that I made good use of.

Summary

Overall, this was average to above average experience. I think the staff try hard to maintain a safe and positive environment. I’m going tomorrow and I’ll add more if my experience drastically changes.

First Impressions

ASCEND School is within walking distance of the Fruitvale BART station. By the way, I live in Berkeley and rely solely on public transportation to get to all the schools. At first glance, it’s obviously a newly build school. Inside has a very nice and relaxing environment. The first thing I noticed walking into the school to check in was that every single adult greeted me with a smile and “Good morning”. The school goes from K-8 and has probably 2 classes per grade in the elementary school level and I’m not sure how the middle school works.

Facilities

The school feels small and there is not much activities in the halls. I’m not sure if the middle school students have passing periods. Even when going to the yard and back, it was quiet as hallway noise is closely monitored. In short, it feels as if we’re the only class.

Classroom/Students

The school has mostly Hispanic students, with a few African Americans and others. Knowing Spanish would be a great help here. The 4th grade class I was teaching had another 4th grade class connected with a door and students have recess and lunch together and they mix up for what is called Expedition Groups in the afternoon. Elementary school always requires a lot of energy, but this school does a great job of maintaining a safe environment though the town around it is not the nicest.

Students are willing to participate and positive. Their math level is slightly behind and many of them are ELD (English Language Development)

Summary

Overall, I would say this is one of the better Elementary Schools out there. It’s my least preferred type of school, but this school ranks above most, and I would say that the administration and teachers maintain a safe environment that fosters learning.