Oh yeah....Leyla and I are officially married!

if you don't already know, leyla and i went to the san francisco city hall and signed a few papers with the help of Beatriz (leyla's friend) and my parents as witnesses, and got married. i wish i could show pictures but i havve no clue how to put pictures in my blog. we had planned this for a long time, but i guess, we haven't exactly told everyone?!?!?

my parents knew a few days before it happened only because we needed for them to come and witness it. her parents were told for sure, but claimed they did not know. they were slightly surprised. i think they were too preoccupied with the wedding reception preparations that they totally forgot when the civil marriage was supposed to occur.

but the process itself was quite easy. the people , the beaurocrats, were quite helpful. leyla felt sorry for them because they were clearly gay, and we knew that they are helping people marry each other every day, and yet they can't marry. she thinks its a painful job....i think they might not care about getting married with someone. if you care to marry that badly, why would you want to work there!

we weren't nervous nor teary-eyed! we got that out of our system days before. leyla had trouble sleeping, i got alcohol withdrawl, and we both got strep throat! my friends got me so drunk during my bachelor party, i suffered from alcohol withdrawl! by the way, my practitioner had intimated to me that any poisoning from other drugs isn't life threatning. but alcohol poisoning is a fatal affair! after two days rest, a sore throat i have been nursing for a couple of days was actually strep. we both end up getting strep throat! plus, the stress we are having with the weding preparations...this isn't exactly the kind of welcoming summer vacation we were hoping for.

basically, the civil wedding was a wonderful quiet retreat from the stressful, anxiety-ridden lives were are both living at the moment!

Esperanza Rising

these past couple of weeks, we have been reading Esperanza Rising in our 1st and 2nd period class. boy...it sure beats High Point B crap. the book itself was bought as a supplement for high point. so any of you that are bored and tired of the high point textbook, you can still do the strategies and lessons from the textbook but using Esperanza Rising as oppose to the short, uninteresting, over simplified passages they call stories. they even have the Before You Move On after several pages of reading.

i have to admit i am only reading this to one of my core group. i don't think my other group wil be able to comprehend much of the book. they are functioning at a lower level and i don't know if i have the time to complete it. i definitely think teachers should try to challenge their students by allowing them to read a novel. i think acclamating them to reading novels now will hopefully initiate long term interest in reading in the future.

what's really neat is that they like the book..and they like reading it together. now if i can just get them to join a book club. but that is the problem a lot of teachers i know have tried to start. it seems really easy at the get-go...but they are having difficulty getting their kids to finish what they have started.

prescription: have the students read three novels with the teacher. preferably use reciprocal teaching strategies to increase comprehension. slowly ween them off to reading one novel in groups. continue to use reciprocal reading strategies (maybe create a worksheet). then have them read a novel independently. you can always check understanding by reading those reciprocal strategies worksheets.

hmmm....i think i'll try it next year.