There have been many days of preparation and anticipation for my first day of school here in Oakland. I spent most of last week at Edna Brewer Middle School — getting my room ready, meeting students and parents at registration, learning about Restorative Practice, trying to crack the impenetrable shell of the OUSD data systems to find the names of my students, and meeting other teachers. I spent all of July in Los Angeles learning what it means to write lesson plans and teach kids how to read more fluently and with greater comprehension, and to write with style and clarity. I have been interacting with two very different institutions — Teach For America and the Oakland Unified School District. One is a big, slow moving, well intentioned, and deeply bureaucratic battleship of an institution and the other is Teach For America.

I’ve met wonderful people who care about children, who want to bring real creativity to bear on the problem of educational inequity and social injustice. These people work for OUSD, for the Los Angeles Unified School District, for Teach For America, and for Loyola Marymount University. At the risk of overlooking dozens of people who helped me reach this day, I will name a few who have been extremely helpful in giving me the confidence to do this work. Richard Pelayo, my advisor at TFA Summer Institute; Rachel Torrey, our Curriculum Specialist and cheerleader; Jake Jabbour, my teaching partner at View Park Prep Middle School in LA; Sam Pasarow, the principal at Edna Brewer who gave me a job; Billy Lieberknecht, my TFA program director (and predecessor at Edna Brewer); Meg Stewart, a rockstar teacher and mentor; and, of course, Anna, my mother, my Aunt Chris, the three rockstar teachers in my family who have offered advice, love, and support.

The time is short, the need is great, and I have to get on my bike now and get to work. Wish me well.

Meet Zina, our new daughter! She and Justin joined themselves with a kiss on August 7 in Joaquin Miller park. The weather was fantastic, the gathered community was supportive, and the love flowed freely. I still think about that day each morning when I wake up and catch myself giggling with happiness whenever Zina calls me “dad.”

The day started with a flurry of activity as family and friends shuttled dishes, food, decorations and selves up to the park to prepare for the celebration. Zina’s family had prepared several large trays of roasted lamb, and biryani. Anna, Sonja, Janice, Sarah, Pam, Carrie, Zina, Justin, and I had spent the previous day arranging flowers, preparing salads, making hummus and pesto. All the goodies were shipped to the park and then a little before noon Justin, Nate, and I dressed at my folks. J & N drove up to the park in one car and I picked up Zina and her sisters and we drove up to meet them.

There were goats grazing on the hillside near the cascades where the ceremony was to take place. The crowd had gathered at the bottom of the hill. Zina’s cousin Zina and our niece Kjerstin flung rose petals on the stairs flanking the gurgling cascade as Justin and Zina walked to meet each other to the strains of Al Greene’s Let’s Live Together.

The ceremony was short and sweet, punctuated by words of wisdom from Buckminster Fuller, Albert Einstein, James Joyce, the Song of Solomon, Chuck Palahniuk, and Shel Silverstein. The reception continued until dusk. It was a great day.

Thanks to cousin Larry Hogle and my buddy Casey Daley for the photos on this page.

This has been a pretty intense week. We’re up very early every day, we eat a little breakfast, sip some coffee and then board busses to our school sites. I’ve been teamed with Fiona, Katie, and Jake — three incredibly bright and passionate young people who are helping me adapt to the rigor of being a teacher. It’s been really exciting. Our advisor (CMA in TFA acronym jargon), Richard, and our Curriculum Specialist (CS), Rachel, are driving us hard towards our goal: to leave Institute with a comfortable grasp of what it takes to be an excellent classroom leader. If I can learn and internalize half of the strategies they’re teaching we’ll be well prepared.

I took the day off yesterday to give the lessons of last week a chance to stew, and hopped on the Big Blue Bus with Katie (one of my collab team members) and headed over to Santa Monica for some relaxation. Wow — Santa Monica has changed. The once humble downtown and pier have turned into a commercial mecca. I spent a little time on the bluffs overlooking the beach and then decided to walk back to the Loyola Marymount Campus. I realized I would be close to the space where Anna and I and a whole crowd of friends from ACT started a theatre company in the early 1980s, so I plugged the location into the Google Maps app on my phone and decided to set my route so I could walk past the Powerhouse Theatre. That’s the original site of the Pacific Theatre Ensemble (PTE), which has now been renamed Pacific Resident Theatre.

It was fun to see the old theatre — the lot surrounding the building has shrunk since we were in residence there, but the façade was immediately recognizable. We put on a west coast premiere of James McClure’s Thanksgiving and a production of Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Happy End in this space in 1985. The theatre company has become a respected co-operative and fixture in the LA theatre landscape. While I take no credit for what it’s become, I am proud that it still thriving 25 years after we first germinated the seed.

My walk back to campus also took me past a great little coffee place, Groundwork Coffee on Rose in Venice. They serve an array of blends each day and the place is refreshingly earthy and unpretentious. I sat outside and sipped a cup of their Venice blend before continuing my trek. I hit the Whole Foods at Rose and Lincoln to pick up a few avocados and some nuts to snack on in my dorm room, then headed down Lincoln towards the campus. I got to the section of the road just south of Marina Del Rey, where Lincoln crosses Ballona Creek, and realized there were no sidewalks for the next mile of roadway. COME ON LOS ANGELES – GET WITH THE PROGRAM! So I waited for the Big Blue Bus to spend 75 cents and cut my walk short.

It’s been a great week. Take a peek at the pictures of my new compadres and keep us in your thoughts. We have four more weeks to go.

I’ve just moved into my dorm room at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles for the 5 week Teach For America Institute. I’ll be teaching a 6th Grade Reading/Composition class at View Park Prep Middle School. Once the TFA people at Institute Registration handed me the form with the name of my school and the subject, it hit me: I’m actually going to be teaching other people’s children. That feels like a really big responsibility.

Life in the dorm (I’m in McCarthy Hall) is going to be interesting — I’m not a 23-year-old like my suite mates, but I expect to survive. I have a twin bed and a nice view out the window to the northwest. I don’t know how frequently I’ll be writing here on BackToOakland but I’ll try to post something at least once a week.

In the meantime, check out my dorm room and the view from my window!`

One of the benefits of being back in Oakland is that it means being near to the locations of those priceless moments of our early years as parents. I was out for a father’s day bike ride in advance of our delicious celebration later this afternoon, and I happened to pass one of those locations. I had ridden up through Rockridge, along 24 and around the College Prep school. I started home by slipping under the freeway and came to the corner of Chabot and Golden Gate, site of Chabot Field. It was on this field in the early 1990s that our younger son, Nate played on the team I coached, the Kansas City Monarchs of the North Oakland Little league, in the Junior Minor Championship game.

The Monarchs had not won a game during the regular season, but the NOLL system put everyone in the playoffs and we did manage to win a first game in the playoff round and by a series of lucky circumstances, ended up playing for the championship. If I recall, the game was tied at 0-0 when Nate came up in the bottom of the 6th. He worked the pitcher for a walk. A second batter moved Nate to third. Myles, a good friend and the father of another kid on the team, was coaching third. As he recalls the story, he had told Nate to be very conservative with attempts to score — we still had a couple of outs to work with.

Nate had other ideas. The next pitch got away from the catcher and despite Myles’ desperate plea that Nate hold at third, he streaked for home. The catcher, perhaps bewildered by this act of pure bravado, hesitated for a moment before grabbing for the ball and lunging towards Nate. There was a could of dust as Nathan executed a beautiful slide to the inside of home plate. The catcher dove. The umpire was perfectly positioned and both boys looked up eagerly for the call. “Safe,” he shouted without hesitation!

Pandemonium. The game and our season ended on that play. It was a moment I have relived often since then. Both of my sons have given me great joy and reasons to be proud, and many of those moments are tied to our life here in Oakland.

I was in Moline recently and while tooling around town I ran across a building that was being renovated. In a previous century this building had been a small neighborhood grocer. (In its new life it will be a barber shop.) What struck me as I passed was the beautiful advertisement for Peter Pan Bread. It had been covered up for at least a couple of decades, and the paint was both weathered and protected. Several windows had been cut through the old image, but from a proper viewing distance, one could imagine what it must have looked like when it was first affixed to the side of the grocery store.

A couple of weeks ago I rode over to Uptown to check out the First Friday art show/block party. It was crowded and fun. I look forward to the next First Friday celebration I’ll be able to attend in August. (On the first friday of July I’ll be in Los Angeles for my Teach For America training institute.)

On Saturday morning after that First Friday I drove back down to the block where there seemed to be the most activity on the previous evening because I wanted to grab a picture of a sign that captured my imagination. This sign is for a business that no longer exists in the neighborhood: New Ricky’s. (There is a Ricky’s Sports Bar down near the Coliseum, but I couldn’t find any connection to an Uptown Oakland location in the era from which this sign seems to hail.) I’m guessing this might have been hung in the 1950s. The grand-daddy curator of interesting Oakland signs, Gene at Our Oakland, didn’t have a photo of this one posted on his blog, but I hope this catches his interest, and that he might help dig up the story.

My first encounter with the images that now decorate some of the utility boxes along Grand Avenue between our apartment and Whole Foods while enjoying an cup of coffee one afternoon at Farley’s East. At Farley’s there were a couple of guys hanging some posterized images on the wall. These images were the product of a collaboration between an artist (Dave, who was one of the guys hanging art at Farley’s) and students at Westlake Middle School. The project that brought the artist and the students together is CityCanvas

From the City Canvas website:

City Canvas is a grassroots project intended to foster neighborhood identity across the East Bay through community-driven public art. A collaboration of professional and seasoned teaching artists, community builders, city planners, and arts administrators, the City Canvas team was brought together by our common desire to contribute to the vibrancy of our cities. City Canvas will create opportunities for shared visioning and creation of public art in neighborhoods across Oakland and Berkeley through partnerships with city agencies, neighborhood schools, businesses, residents, and local artists.

I hope we see more projects like this popping up around here. It makes walking in the neighborhood so enjoyable.

I just heard from OUSD — I’ve been made a “contingent” offer to work Special Education as a resource teacher at Edna Brewer Middle School. This is the assignment I was hoping for. (The contingency is related to my fulfilling the requirements necessary to teach.) This is fantastic news!

Edna Brewer is about two miles from our place. It’s a perfect location for biking to work. (Also fantastic news.) The school (formerly known as McChesney Jr. High) is named for beloved Oakland educator, Edna Brewer. The school mascot is a panther. I’ve met the principal, his vice principals, the school’s administrative assistant, and one teacher — I’m very excited to join their team. At least one of my TFA buddies (Elizabeth) has also received a contingent offer to teach at Edna Brewer, so I won’t be starting out alone.

My excitement is paired with a little twinge of anticipation about how this new adventure will unfold. Will the kids respond to me in positive ways? Am I up to the challenge? The first day of school is August 30. There’s a lot of learning and preparation to be packed into the next two-and-a-half months. Wish me luck!

I needed a ride this afternoon and the beautiful weather was just begging for a trip to a watery location. I haven’t visited Lake Temescal since moving back to Oakland so I decided to trek up the hill for a quick visit. I punched in the location to Google Maps to see what route they’d suggest. Theirs was clearly the longer but flatter mode of attack. Since I’m feeling a little frisky I decided on a frontal attack, right up the most direct but steepest route. Ignoring Google’s suggestion I rode up Broadway, to Piedmont Ave, up the hill to 51st, then back to Broadway and finally a right turn onto Broadway Terrace. B’way Terrace is a pretty steep hill. This particular trip is about 5 miles with a vertical climb of about 500 feet. Of course that means five miles home and all of it downhill.

Temescal has a nice picnicking area at the south end of the lake and a small beach at the north end. There’s a dirt walking trail along the west bank and a paved pathway on the eastern shore. As kids we visited this park often with my parents for picnics and barbecues. During the big firestorm that swept through the hills in 1991 helicopters filled their water buckets by dipping them in the lake as they battled the inferno.

This is a perfect destination for a midweek getaway. The parking lots can fill up quickly on warm, sunny weekends.

Anna and I visited Justin and Zina in San Francisco yesterday afternoon. We grabbed a bite at the tiny Delfina Pizzeria. So good. Their Napoletano pizza is a thin crust topped with a rich tomato sauce, capers, olives, and anchovies. Mmmmm. We also tried the broccoli raab pizza — to which we asked them to add a little fennel sausage. Also tasty. After lunch we crossed the street and enjoyed a scoop of fantastic ice cream from Bi-Rite creamery. Heavenly. I split my scoop between ginger ice cream and a brown sugar and ginger swirl.

Do not miss the chance to spend an afternoon in San Francisco’s Mission District when the opportunity arises. You will be a happy person.

Bud Selig refused to officially reverse the call on what should have been the final play of yesterday’s Tigers vs. Indians game. I won’t rehash the details which are widely covered elsewhere. Suffice it to say that the commissioner of baseball is wrong.

What’s the right thing to do? Ignore Bud Selig. I’m noting here that on June 2, 2010 Armando Galarraga of the Tigers pitched a perfect game in Detroit against the Cleveland Indians. On the final out of the game, the 27th batter for the Cleveland Indians was thrown out at first base. Initially, Umpire Jim Joyce (poetic name if you think about it) called the runner safe. After the game, and after watching a replay, Joyce reversed himself. He apologized to Galarraga. That’s good enough for me. Perfect game. That is all.

That makes three perfect games this year:

• Dallas Braden for the mighty Oakland Athletics on May 9, 2010.
• Roy Halladay for the Phillies on May 29, 2010.
• Armando Galarraga for the Tigers on June 2, 2010.

After several ill fated attempts I finally drank a cup of coffee at Remedy on Telegraph in Oakland. Previous visits found the place either incomplete (there was a cart on the street but I was looking for a place to relax for a while) or closed (they shut down for a few days after they initially opened for some continuing construction). It was worth the ride.

I enjoyed an Americano and a cheddar green onion scone while soaking up the atmosphere. To describe this as a hipster hive would be an understatement. there were a dozen MacBooks — one on nearly every table in the place. Most people were sitting alone working (or whatever) but there were a few tables with groups engaged in conversation. I heard a couple of people chatting about Twitter — she was explaining it to him, and helping him get his account set up.

The decor is functional chic — poured in place cement counters, simple wood work. There’s an old Pacific Bell phone booth. There were couches, armchairs, benches, high tables with stools, regular tables with chairs coffee tables, etc. — the perfect combination of places to hang-out/relax and places to work. This is a grand spot for people watching.

It’s a 20 minute ride from the house — I rode over via West Street (good bike lanes) and home via Webster (light traffic, but no marked bike lanes). A perfect spot for just the kind of morning I had in mind — reading, people watching, prepping for Teach For America Institute. I wasn’t blown away by the coffee, but it wasn’t my primary interest today. I’ll go back again and devote my attention to the beans.

All in all, Remedy is a great spot. Visit them sometime.

I passed this interesting plaque on my walk up to Walden Pond Books yesterday morning. (I was going to redeem a credit — I had traded in a stack of old novels and wanted to get some books about teaching.) The plaque is kind of a head scratcher. “The Most Beautiful Urban Highway in the USA?” It seems almost a contradiction in terms. I have nothing in particular against the MacArthur freeway, but if this is an example of the “most beautiful” in the USA, well, hmmm.

Parade Magazine gave the award. It was published in 1966 and I haven’t been able to turn up the article or an image of the magazine cover yet, but I’ll keep looking.

UPDATE: Following up on VSmoothe’s suggestion I trekked down to the Oakland Library’s Newspaper and Magazine department. Two very helpful librarians (Kerstin and George) helped me zero in on the correct roll of microfilm. Kerstin searched a database the library subscribes to and found two articles in the Oakland Tribune referring to the Parade Magazine award. That gave us the date we needed and in a matter of minutes I had a printout of the cover and article from the March 5, 1967 issue of Parade. See the images below. (Click for a closer look).

The main award given by Parade actually went to a 23 mile section of Interstate 87 through the Adirondack Mountains between Lake George and Pottersville in Warren County, New York. I-87 was chosen by the panel of expert judges because it “embodies the principles of good design, beauty and utility.” Four other rural roads were honored with special mentions. The article went on to describe the MacArthur freeway:

“In addition, this year, for the first time, the judges gave a special award to an urban highway — the MacArthur Freeway in Oakland, Calif. The panel was effusive in its praise of the way this road routed through the built-up city neighborhoods and suburbs, followed the contours of the land with minimum disruption of property. They were also impressed by the colorful plantings that screened the freeway from the sections it passed through and cited it as an example for other city highways to follow.” — Parade, March 6, 1967