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This is a continuation of my journal from my 2001-2002 school year.  Please read the previous posts to give this entry context.

Research Reports 

First, I commend myself for making up a rubric for the scoring of these reports and handing them out to students long before the due date.  I think the rubrics make it very clear to the students how they’ll be evaluated, but they also make it easier for me to have consistent evaluation. 

For most part, students have chosen professions that I feel fit their personalities.  Sheridan and Diana are both thinking about teaching.  (We should be so lucky!) Popo and Pedro dream of being professional soccer players.  Mindy is uncertain; she investigated being an accountant and decided it is not the career for her.

Chad would like to be an auto mechanic, Becky a dancer, Gustavo a Financial Manager, Deborah a counselor, and Raymond a business administrator.

Lupe, with her usual panache, declares she wants to be “a photographer, not any kind of photogapher, but a Playboy photographer.  Ever since I was in sixth grade, when my hormones started kicking in, I have wanted to be a Playboy model.  As I grew older, I noticed that I didn’t have the body for a model.  I said to myself, ‘if I can’t have pictures taken of me, why don’t you just take pictures?’” 

Melissa sees herself as a receptionist, Soledad as a nurse, Adriana as a business executive and Rosa as a social worker.

Amanda changed her mind from a vet to a lawyer.  Amanda will certainly need to improve her English skills to make it as a lawyer, although she has the personality for it.

Elizabeth would like to be a choreographer. Evelia considered a career as an FBI agent, but concluded, “I don’t think it would satisfy my desire for adventure.  I don’t think it would because it seems like I would not like it.  Seeing crime scenes and investigating murders.  Watching dead people.  I don’t know, but I know those things I really do not like.  But, don’t get me wrong.  An F.B.I. agent’s work is exciting and a person is always busy.” 

Thursday, May 23^rd, The Poetry Reading

The poetry reading was the highlight of my week. The audience filled the chairs in The Pacific Cultural Center in Santa Cruz.  Granted the audience was mostly readers and their families and a few teachers, but still . . . .

It’s interesting to feel proud and happy and disappointed at the same time.  I was happy because four of my students—Diana, and three girls from third and fourth periods—showed up with their parent/s to read.  I’d met Diana's mother before, but it was nice finally to meet the other parents. 

Mark Yonemura, who was my student last year and won third place this year, was also there to read. I was very proud of how well the students read and that so many of my students were chosen.  The book looks great and I could tell that the students and their parents were proud.  I was disappointed that none of my current boys showed! 

Mark was invited to read on KUSP.  He gave me a nice mention, and Kim Nelson, who runs the contest and who was also a guest on the radio program, said how supportive I’ve always been of the contest.

When Diana, her mother, and I were leaving, a pair of older women were behind us.  “Shining Stars,” one of them said to Diana, “that was a really nice poem.”

On Friday, one of the students reported that a woman in the audience told her that her poem had made her cry.