I enrolled in graduate school at Duquesne University in spring 1998 to begin work on my Master’s degree in English Education. I was excited to get into the classroom and work with students. My internship was at Baldwin High School where I was a student myself. It was surreal giving my sister a hall pass and teaching a friend of our family, who we would see socially on the weekends. While the internship was awesome, student teaching was the real deal.

I won’t forget the day I walked into the graduate offices and was given my student teaching placement. In script handwriting it said “Barbara Schomer, Mt Lebanon High School”. While I didn’t know the woman, I knew the school. Mt Lebanon is one of the top public high schools on the east coast, and I was excited to get into such a prestigious school. My grades were near perfect, my professors lauded me each week, and now I was going to Lebo.

In late Spring I went to meet Barb Schomer. She was a short, older woman who demanded respect and was a solidly important part of the English faculty. I remember the box of novels she handed me to read over the summer and her showing me “my desk” in the corner near hers. We talked for quite a bit and I was under the impression that she was one of the more rigorous cooperating teachers in our program, but I was use to working with these sorts of educators. Student teaching began day one with students and I stayed until late December. Barb started our relationship as the pedagogist and me as the clerical mind. I helped keep things organized, took attendance, kept us both sane. She said she loved that about me. She told me that at home Barb’s husband, Bru, took on that role and it was nice to have me around. Her former student teacher was a performer with a background in theatre. Barb would hand her the lesson plan and the woman would do it. That was just enough. Then I came along with a background in literature and a strong pedagogical presence. By the semester’s end, our relationship shifted. I continued my clerical organization but segued them smoothly into my relationship teaching the students and building a family in the classroom. I finished that semester winning Duquesne’s Student Teacher of the Year Award and that had everything to do with Barb.

I learned so much from this woman. I learned to always have things planned out “in case you get hit by a truck” as she would say. Have plans more than a week out. Always praise students before critiquing them, always help them genuinely get better in whatever you’re teaching, balance the line between teacher and friend.

I left Duquesne, Mt Lebanon and Pittsburgh in the summer of 1999 and for the first few years I reconnected with Barb and Bru over holidays. I remember when we took Claire to dinner and they were able to enjoy this new little girl throwing her cheerios across the table at them. They laughed and her and enjoyed her as their own grandchild. By now Barb retired and Bru still taught science nearby. Barb, always an outdoors women, spent more and more time volunteering around the world and living in their West Virginian cabin. She even made it out to AZ to visit friends where I was able to spend an evening with her.

In 2010, Barb was diagnosed with Cancer. Her and Bru quickly moved to Centreville, VA so Barb could be treated at Georgetown University Hospital’s cancer center. We continued our relationship via email She was able to visit her cabin and take short walks in nature. By spring she was able to make a trip to Las Vegas to visit family and I was happy to hear her traveling and getting by. By fall she’d been to Florida and was doing well. When she could not get out as much I printed and framed a photo she liked of mine that I shot in the Coconino National Forest this past March. In early fall Barb traveled to PA for a family reunion, and I wish I were there so I too could talk to her once more.

I was not there. I was teaching in Arizona where my own students tell me what I mean to them. They share their dreams, hopes, fears, and loves with me. They listen to my words of wisdom passed down from Barb. I had the honor of passing on Barb’s wisdom to both Joe Abbruscato and Lindsey Costley, my own two student teachers, and I live my teaching life in the shadowing grace of a giant of a woman who will always be missed by me and never forgotten, as today Barbara succumbed to her Cancer with Bru and her daughter’s at her side. She is peacefully walking the trails of nature, caving to the depths of infinity and watching over all of us. Thank you, Barb, I love you.

School begins again this next week. For me, it’s my 7th year in the same teaching gig and 12th year teaching. For Claire, it means first grade. Toward the end of last year, she kept yelling that she wanted to be taught by Frankenstein. I was really confused. We had no idea what she meant, but she pronounced it a little differently each time. Finally curiosity killed my cat and I googled this teacher. Turns out her name was similar to that but totally different (didn’t even have the same first letter). Serendipitously, a month later Claire is assigned to Mrs K. We’re stoked because Claire is.

Tonight was Meet the Teacher, and while I don’t even want to get started on who dropped the ball with communication about the meeting, we were pretty excited. Claire was curious to see who was in her class, and a few of her same friends are with her but several aren’t. Mrs K has a ton of experience, and I know that came into account when she was placed into that class.

Tonight she tried to steal the attention, she spoke loudly, she was very excited, she didn’t want to leave, and Mrs K took it all in stride. I watched closely how they interacted and think it’ll be a good year.

Recently Claire and her classmates were asked what their favorite books are. Claire said her favorite book is “Dante’s Journey”, which is a cute little children’s book we purchased for her in Florence, Italy last summer. It’s a cute little children’s book where Dante’s a little boy and goes through this land with Virgil, his doll. One level includes people who lie and what happens, and so there are these positive messages. She was excited to take this book to class, and at the end of the day, I asked her how it went. She said she wasn’t allowed to share her book “because it’s too scary.” She told me that her teacher said that, then i wondered if her teacher bothered to actually read the book. Perhaps she just saw the darker images or the child walking through a land that was depicted to be hell. Her teacher had the book put away where the kids could not see it.

So now we censor in kindergarten? It’s a child’s book, for God’s sake. It explains why you should not be greedy, why you should not lie, etc… It shows consequences. It’s not the original Dante’s Inferno (which they do teach in schools), so why censor? The kids read Where the Wild Things Art (at this age and younger) with their monsters gnashing their terrible teeth, etc…

So far I have kept my mouth shut, chose my battles and took the book home. But it still bothers me. How much censorship shall my daughter and I go through in her education over the next 13 years?

Back when I was in high school one of the cool things to do junior and senior year (read: after I got a car) was to hit local shows. I knew several guys in bands back then, and Friday night’s usually found us at the Lithuanian Country Club. What it really was was a small track of land off a windy road near a highway owned by some Lithuanian club (think Elk’s Club but scarier) of old guys. They never used it at night and would rent the basement and barn out for shows. So come the weekend we’d find ourselves in the smoky basement or out in the chilly barn (where there was more room for more talented acts.. & bigger audiences).

After two years of this and bands coming and going, I went off to Penn State and began following bands like Velveeta and Jealous Sun (my first website I ever developed was for this band, now way defunct. Look for Jeff VanFossen, the lead singer, online). More smoky bars (no more basements for me!) and good, raw music. Then I grew up. I moved to Arizona and Dan and I hit the local scene. At first, it was supposedly all about Scottsdale (sorry! Don’t sue us. We weren’t locals then.) We saw Rock Lobster, and they were cool. Then we saw Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and I was really confused because wasn’t that a Refreshments song they were playing, and then I finally got to the point where it didn’t matter; Roger rocks, and that’s it.

But then it was less and less about the shows and more about the music. We got old. Fridays and Saturdays were about sleeping after 4am mornings all week, and we had kids. Kids who didn’t understand that 4am on Saturday or Sunday was still 4am!

Now, it’s 2010. I am going to be 36 this year, and a few months ago I had the opportunity to see Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers of the first time in a few years. I almost blew it off, but something dragged me out there. I took my camera and shot the whole show, and I loved it. Something about being up there, the music, the people, everything.

When one of my students asked me to come out to his show, I actually didn’t give a lame ass answer of NO. I considered it. This was a cool guy who I knew has so much potential, so I checked when, I checked my calendar, I checked who could go with me, and I paid for the tickets. I asked if I could bring my camera, and I eagerly agreed to shoot the show. The band is young and needs promo pics and a demo, so I was willing to help out (didn’t even consider asking for money, as I know they don’t have any… hell, maybe they’ll make it big and pay me in 10 years).

Friend backed out but I was still on for the show. It was a strip mall store front. Looked like the place, called The Clubhouse, in Tempe bought a few stores and broke down the walls between them and then painted the front glass black. Not too much to look at, but for $10 and five bands, I was there to support. In line, I felt like a sore thumb. I could tell who was a parent pretending to not know the dark dressed emo/skater/thrasher/whathaveyou kid nearby. The kids behind me were pulling half smoked cigarettes out of an ashtray and burning the butt ends to get rid of germs before smoking them. (Was I ever that lame in highschool?)

I got in as the band took the stage. Sick But Beautiful is the name Alex picked for the band, and he told me he played guitar and back up singer. It was more like screamer, but it wasn’t that Screamo crap I hear about. This was more like way edgier Linkin Park with Shinoda and Bennington upfront. I was surprised. Not because I didn’t have faith in Alex, but because I was actually enjoying the music. This was one of their first gigs and they went on first of the night, so they only had about four songs. I shot straight through their set through some terrible lighting (had to punch down the iso to 3200 just to get some shots), and I even leaned against the stage so the moshers who kept running into my back wouldn’t jar my shots.

After the show, I hung around and pretended to care about the next band. They were in the same vein but I didn’t have anything invested in them, so I snuck out. Then I remembered who I was. I called the wife from the car to see if the kid was asleep, and while I did that, club security knocked on my window to make sure I wasn’t some kid doing drugs between sets in the parking lot. Ah, how fun it was to drive back to adulthood.

We’re sitting around at dinner, eating our pasta, and Claire blurts out, “My friend, Hannah’s name is a palindrome!” Then Mama asked her if she knew what a palindrome even is, and she said matter-of-factly, “Yes, since Hannah has two Hs, two As, and two Ns in her name.” Yes, Claire, of course. Of course.

So as we all know, Oprah is on Twitter. Jen Anniston dumped John Mayer because he tweets too much. Ashton and Demi live their relationship there now. I am not getting into the cultural theory behind this shift in this Web 2.0 tool, but i am more interested in the negative perspective of Twitter now that it’s hit “mainstream”. It was once for geeks like us, and now it’s everywhere. There’s a proliferation of Twitter in Hollywood/celebland and also in the younger gen. I don’t know who all is on here but I teach high school full time and knew my audience here (i.e. Twitter) was NOT my underage public school students but now it has become that. And no, I do not publicize me on Twitter at school. So I wanted to see other people’s perspectives on this. Today I posted something about Twitter and a former student replied that Twitter is a problem solution made for a problem that never even existed … (yeah, I don’t know either) but I am getting these ignorant people who only know about @mrskutcher or @oprah because it’s all over the news and then comes to judge me as if I didn’t love the band before their hit record, if you get my drift. Any thoughts?

Final grades are due this week. Everything is coming together very quickly, and I’ve been sitting here at Paradise Bakery since they unlocked the door this morning. I’ve always recommended this place, but I am about to rethink that. Read below and please repost. (*Yes, I know other people do, too.)

Dear Paradise Bakery,
I am an online instructor who sits for hours in Paradise Bakeries around Chandler and Tempe, AZ working, grading, web developing. While I am here, I patronize you. I buy lunches, breakfasts, drinks and cookies from you all of the time. I appreciate your very fast wireless internet connections, and I recommend you to the multitudes of other instructors nationally and all of my students (about 320 students a year). This is advertising you can never buy.

I will respectfully await your reply email to these concerns,
Thank you,
Devon Adams

For some reason I seem to think I’m home alone when Devon is not here, even when accompanied by Claire. Something about adult company I presume. Or maybe that I’m the lone responder to Claire’s one million questions, attitude driven comments, and physical tantrums.

Anyway, although I suffered through finals and regular coursework through last weekend, there were additional assignments and postings due this week. I also had to complete the student surveys and other matters. So, after picking Claire up at school, shopping, having dinner, and going through the bedtime ritual (which ended around 10:00 pm), I started my last assignment. This concluded a short time ago and I turned to watch a rustling Claire on the bed behind me. (Yes, the guest bed; no, she is not always the perfect angel sound asleep in her own room).

As I glanced at my beautiful child, gracefully dancing across the sheets, calmly dreaming of puppies and cupcakes, I took the opportunity to appreciate our similarities and felt proud of the good contained within her wee frame.

Then she farted.

Damn daddy’s girl.

It’s been an odd several days. Donna’s been holed up in her office writing two lengthy papers for each of her classes. Saturday morning I read one of them, and it wasn’t bad but much of it was from other things shes’s done (although anyone who’s every done grad work knows we always recycle work!). I did not read the other paper, since it was finished late Sunday. Tonight I listened/viewed the powerpoint that went with paper #2. The presentation had to include audio, and she did it all by herself with a mic from work.

Even though there are days when we’re so frustrated with all of this, I am so proud of her tonight. She did a helluva job on this work! Now I am glad I get my wife back for two weeks. Perhaps we can clean off the DVR a little.

Ok ok I’ve posted about this before, and here I am again. There’s been a new wave of garbage here. Several of my students showed up recently to my 6:30AM zero hour class and they were tired. Very tired. Two of the girls then bounced into my room with these white and pink ball caps. They were giddy and hurried up to me to show me their new hats.

“Mr Adams, do you like our new hats we got last night?”
“No.”

The girls looked shocked, and asked why. Immediately, I went into a whole class diatribe since obviously half the class had been out the night before catching the midnight showing of High School Musical 3. They were all so excited about this film, and I just couldn’t believe this. I asked them what they think about girls like Vanessa Hudgens (who stars in these movies as an innocent high school girl) who has naked pictures of herself posted on the Internet. Their response was pretty much “So what?”.

So what? I can’t believe our teens today are so desensitized to the objectification of women that this is ok with them. Would these kids want their own naked photos posted? Would they even consider posing? Probably not. When I put it this way, there’s pose. But seriously. These are Disney movies! The Mouse House is suppose to put out these innocent, family products (and I know they don’t!), and then we have people like Hudgens (and Jamie Lynn Spears).

These students just shrugged and several have seen it 2, 3, and 4 times since! I just don’t get it. If you do, come on, please comment below. Explain this to me.

This is the world in which my three year old daughter will grow up, and it’s freaking me out.