Big Dan - Lentes Feat. Chingo Bling

CALI to TEJAS...H-TOWN to OAKTOWN...what it is?!

The bideo is FINALLY OUT! el Maestro in it with the BRWN BFLO familia! Of course I had to rep
that SAN DIEGO 619 with my BRWN SD PADRES jacket (straight outta Southeast thank you Mario's!)...

Anyways, it was hella fun doing this video like four months ago with Big Dan, BRWN BFLO and Natalia's State Hero, CHINGO BLING. A million thanks to the BRWN BFLO fam for having us join in on the bideo shoot! Enjoy this BADASS SONG!

Here's some screen shots:



~el M.

"Take me Higher, higher, baby can you feel it?"

what you know about that BTNH?!!!!


So tomorrow's gonna be 4/20...2010...and some time at the end of the day my class done REEKED of weed more so than normal...and it's not like i necessarily IGNORE the fact that some (many) of my youth in my charge find ways to get high between passing periods...but damn, it ain't 4/20 yet!

It's a "chronic" problem (*cough* *cough*) that we teachers do acknowledge, but it's tough for me to kick kids out of my class who are so...quiet...and obedient...and work so hard on their assignment and do so fucking well in it...even if they do smell a lil weedy...I don't trip too much about it but I do talk to my kids about understanding that...there's a time, and there's a place...and school ain't necessarily the place or the time for that business...anyways...

When my kids asked me what I was gonna do for 4/20 I said I was sure as hell NOT SMOKIN...I took the time to tell my kids that I had quit smoking altogether a good while ago (since 2007 if not some time in early '08 would be my last? as for the weedies...damn)...i used to be hella straightxedge, wouldn't smoke, wouldn't drink...then life took a shit on me and I smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish...I did clean up real well a few years back and encouraged them to quit while they're still young cuz it's HELL on the lungs! Funny that they were like, "YEAH, I'MMA QUIT TOMORROW FOR REAL THOUGH, I'M BOUT TO HIT BOUT 50 BLUNTS TONIGHT HAHAHA!" Yeah dat.

Anyways, it's Monday, I got lots on my plate...

The teacher grind continues...I got a few missions to take care of...

Winding down the last 8.5 weeks of school I feel like it's going to be a long stretch, but then I also feel like I don't got no time to finish all what I have to finish!

I ain't going to spend this blog space to recap every damn thing I did the past eight or nine months with my youth, but from here on out (for the week) here's the plan:

THIS WEEK (4/19-23): Finish LORD OF THE FLIES...we're down to the last two chapters, and we're fixin to watch the movie (B/W first, then with time. the color next week...which brings me to next week...)

...other things on the docket...
-Cal State University ERWC unit (of my creation)...the focus: Teen Violence...and we've been losing too many of them lately here in Oaktown...just this past weekend, the Federation lost one of its own (Media Academy's) and the outpouring of grief was evident in many students...they put up gigantic posters in memory of him all in front of the main office by the courtyard...so poignant yet so damn heartbreaking...
-CALIFORNIA STANDARDS TESTS (CSTs)
-Elie Wiesel's Night....
-The End of the Year

Let's make this shit happen.

Happy times,

~el M.

it's been a loooong time coming but i know...

...a change gonna come, oh yes it will.

~ Sam Cooke.

(April 2010, San Diego, CA)

This BLOG is officially BACK.

Updates about my life:



Still teaching...been back at Mandela High School of the Fremont Federation in East Oakland after getting laid off from San Lorenzo High last year...still grinding...
Still holding it down strong in East Oakland (but Southeast San Diego's got my heart)...
Still holding it down with Natalia, who's holding it down in grad school getting her MFA on at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco...

Still doing me.

Come back soon for more ish from el Maestro...stay up cool kids.

~el M.

A random moment in time...(12.19/2006)

Down Wilshire Blvd., Downtown Los Angeles, Califas



"And so he returned to the City of Angels..."

taken with:
FUJIFILM FinePix A210
Shutter Speed: 1/208 sec

"Putting the Art in Language Arts"

Symbolic Self Portrait, by Mr. N, 05.10.08.

Today, I had the opportunity to attend the Bay Area Writing Project Saturday Seminar, which focused on the Arts, and how important and influential Art can be in all classrooms. I attended a particular writing workshop hosted by Regina Marie Woodard, titled "Putting the Art in Language Arts: Building Vehicles for Thinking Critically," and was wowed by the engaging nature of the presentation. Ms. Woodard herself is a credentialed English and Art teacher, and has helped facilitate an activity that showcases the best of both worlds. Writing critically, symbolically, and interpretively can give way to artistic expression, and in so doing, the student has the tools to express themselves in a multi-modal nature. For today, we played through the activity in an abbreviated sense, bypassing some of the written work involved, but we were led throughout the workshop, to brainstorm relevant things about our selves concerning self, family history, goals, wishes, dreams, inspirations, what makes us tick, etcetera, which would be communicated through an image based on our answers. This activity helped us identify symbols and metaphors, two very important elements to know about reading and writing, and through the multi-modal implementation of those two elements, we would better be prepared to create multiple pieces that would highlight symbols and metaphors in relation to us through writing and visual images...the product of my study today produced the "Symbolic Self Portrait" of myself, as showcased above. The image itself was assisted through a picture of ourselves, which we traced using Saral transfer paper. Through this tracing, students who have been otherwise reluctant to draw out themselves (citing age-old student quotes like "I can't draw, I won't draw!"), can create their self portrait through tracing, which took the sketch work out of the activity and streamlined the drawing portion for ease of use. At the conclusion of the activity, we looked at a poem from the great G. Reyes, titled "Paint Me As I Am," and were encouraged to use this, and other pieces on identity as models to help students in writing.

Why I Teach

"Yo Soy Maestro, Full of Hope"
by John Villanueva Nepomuceno, English Teacher



My emphasis in teaching is on learning centered on a classroom community atmosphere acculturated in success and agency. My teaching goal is to foster a community in the classroom where success is measured by the student’s ability to learn, be it to learn to adapt or adjust, if only to overcome. The ultimate outcome is to ensure that learning and knowledge is valued, and that every student in my classroom belongs to this culture of learning and success. I am not only a teacher. I am a facilitator, an organizer, and a mediator. I choose to facilitate discussions in a classroom that is organized and orderly. I mediate dialogue between myself and my students because I believe that as teacher, my responsibility goes beyond the primordial transaction of teacher knowledge for student consumption, but towards the realm of enabling students to be empowered in the knowledge I attempt to transact, so they may also make new knowledge out of that for which they have been learning about. The responsibilities inherent then are simple. Whereas I am held accountable to teach to the standards that I have been required to impress, my students are held accountable for knowing what has been taught, so they may share that knowledge between themselves and beyond their classroom community as agents of positive change. My emphasis is on success and agency, attained through the classroom community where the transaction of learning and knowledge is not just between the teacher and the peers, but also, the students to their parents, families, home community, and themselves. Much of this knowledge can be, and has been, taken from many an English classroom curriculum. I only seek to further the trend.


I believe that effective teaching is comprised of two necessary elements dependent on each other: establishing order and harmony in a classroom community with an emphasis on success, and communicating knowledge and learning in a way that makes its application to the students both useful and relevant, especially in bettering their own self-agency. Knowing what to teach and how to teach it may not be sufficient enough to be effective, especially in an active and diverse classroom. Thus, it is important for me to take care of the classroom dynamic early on. In establishing a classroom presence and atmosphere premised on respect and safety, I feel that this is where knowledge can be safely valued, and where learning can effectively take place. To make the knowledge understandable for the students is made that much easier when the classroom itself is convinced of its role as an agent of success for all. The communication of knowledge to students then, becomes an exercise in agency, where learning becomes a process of increasing and bettering the students’ own agency, and where students can begin to learn from themselves as agents for each other.


I take great care in being mindful and knowledgeable about the material I teach and the standards that must be kept, but I also emphasize the importance of motivation, and how that can be meted out in a classroom where motivation can be scant. I motivate students to succeed because I am motivated. I am stern, but I am fair, and I am personable, because I am genuine. Genuine, in the sense that I genuinely care about the welfare of my students, and should my students not be successful, then their welfare is at stake, and whatever aspect of that falls under my control, will not be ignored.

Care, guaranteed.

Preparing to Videotape (my classroom)

I am currently in the middle of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) teaching event, a sort of "crucible" or last rite given to student teachers as they wind down their student teaching candidacy and prepare for the reception of their coveted teaching credential, as approved by our director and cooperating supervisors of the Multicultural Urban Secondary English of the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley, and blessed by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

The event is a two-weeker, and I am approaching my fifth and final day of my first week. The unit I am teaching is the decline of the American Dream, as exemplified by F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby, and I am required to film two 10-minute segments of my teaching, focusing on my instruction and my interaction with students. The filmed video segments are to be viewed by myself and the members of our program who will be evaluating my PACT portfolio, a volume of sorts chronicling loads of lessons, materials, and daily reflections on the two-week event. So, the question remains:

Think about the teaching strengths and weaknesses that you would like to highlight or receive feedback on for your PACT videotaped lesson. How could you capture those aspects of your teaching on video in a meaningful way that would demonstrate your teaching philosophy for your portfolio?


In order for me to effectively highlight and receive useful feedback from a PACT videotaped lesson of my creation, I feel that planning a day's lesson centered on the videotape's goals would make for good classroom TV. So, rather than focusing on the strengths and weaknesses, I'm going to tailor my lesson(s) (I anticipate between one to three days of filming) as planned:

>Initial 10-15 minute period dedicated towards instruction and clarification of the previous week's readings, or the last three to four chapters. Present questions of note for students to ponder and think about, and attempt to encourage criticism of the historical context of the story and relate it to today's concepts of the American Dream. The camera can be fixed towards me and the class as a whole during this session.

>Dedicate another 10-15 minute period towards taking up a Q&A session with students on a one-on-one basis. Group students in fours and allow students to work through questions and encourage students to ask for assistance or help as they work. Another student can be in charge of filming, following my movements and my interactions with student groups.

Following this plan can alleviate the anxieties of filming, and I feel comfortable in explaining my own teaching philosophy and learning goals for my students as the reflections of my videotaping conclude. I feel that I am very connected to what I teach and that I can readily bring up my strengths and weaknesses through the critique of the videotaped sessions.

Recipe for success? I hope so...filming starts next Monday, April 14, 2008 and may or may not conclude on Wednesday, April 16, 2008.