(WSB photo of a table set for last year’s free Fauntleroy feast)
From e-mail to Facebook, we’ve had several inquiries about whether there’s any place to help serve others this Thanksgiving (a week from Thursday!). We don’t have the definitive answer to that question so far, but we did confirm with Tuxedos and Tennis Shoes that the traditional free holiday dinner is on again this year and they do need a bit of help:
The free community Thanksgiving meal is on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM at The Hall at Fauntleroy. All are invited to this traditional turkey meal with all the trimmings prepared with love by our executive chef, Mike Chase. For anyone who has attended before it is a wonderful mix of folks from the neighborhood and the surrounding area.
This is the 11th year that Tuxedos and Tennis Shoes Catering owners David and Meg Haggerty and David Meckstroth have opened up their hearts and the Hall at Fauntleroy for this fantastic meal and event. It really seems to usher the season in with warm beginnings.
We have enough volunteers this year; however we do accept pies, whipped cream and cookies for desserts. People can bring them to the Hall at Fauntleroy the day before Thanksgiving or that morning after 10 AM. For information or directions please call our office at 206-932-1059 or go to our website www.tuxedosandtennisshoes.com
Before (and after) Thanksgiving, of course, our two local food banks - West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Bank (which is tracking turkey prices!) - welcome your donations, too. Any other Thanksgiving-related service opportunities? Comment here and/or e-mail us so we can help get the word out too.
Does that mean you should not send out queries this time of year? Of course not. You should base your submissions schedule on your own state of readiness, not on whether you think an agent might be too busy to look at your project. The truth is, we're always busy, and you want to slot yourself into the queue as soon as you feel your work is polished and ready to go out into the world. Response time might be a little slower, but if you wait to query until January, then you'll still have a wait, and you'll be behind everyone who ignored the calendar. The most important thing is the quality of your writing; let that determine your submissions schedule, not the month of the year.
- Mood:
working
Find new and interesting authors and you might just win yourself a Kindle. Win/win. How great is that?
( SPOILERS! )
(WSB photo from last year’s Money-Free Shopping Spree)
SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE’S “MONEY-FREE SHOPPING SPREE”: Once again this year, SWS invites you to come swap sustainable gift items - services as well as goods (see last year’s list here) - this year, the event’s at what is truly a brand-new venue, High Point Neighborhood Center (just dedicated on Saturday! WSB coverage here), starting with potluck dinner at 6:30 pm.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Sold Home Decor Furniture Consignment (WSB sponsor) is offering “a host of planet-, family- and budget-friendly ways to enjoy the holidays at home,” 7 pm. RSVP to be sure there’s still space - maria@soldhomedecor.com
LINCOLN PARK COOPERATIVE PRESCHOOL OPEN HOUSE: This co-op preschool based at Seaview Methodist Church (4620 SW Graham) has room in some of its classes and invites you to stop by 3-5 pm today to find out more about the school.
More of what’s happening today - and beyond! - on the WSB Events calendar page.
Title: The Benefits of Rigid Thinking, Part 7/7
Characters: Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and the Enterprise clan
Rating: PG for references to adult situations
Warnings: None
Summary: Kirk is directed to return some stolen artifacts to New Vulcan— but of course nothing goes smoothly where Vulcans are concerned.
A/N: This story is a sequel to The Benefits of Fresh Air.
Part 1: Treasures
Part 2: First Hurdle
Part 3: Out-worlder
Part 4: Rigid Thinking
Part 5: Surak's Way
Part 6: Kirk's Concession
( The Benefits of Rigid Thinking, part 7, What Remains )
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Nineteen days ago, police cars and fire/medical units filled southbound Delridge Way, for a short time, outside Southwest Youth and Family Services.
SWYFS is this area’s lead agency for the city’s new Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, so there was uncomfortable irony in the fact those emergency units were there because one of its classrooms had become the scene of an act of youth violence: One boy stabbed another, both 17, after an argument.
The victim was rushed off to Harborview Medical Center; the alleged attacker was led off by police. The incident drew citywide media attention - but since it was quickly determined that victim and attacker knew each other, and that the victim would survive, the attention ebbed after a day.
Since then, though, what happened has been a daily reality for the students in the blended-grade high-school classes at Southwest Education Center - getting updates on their wounded classmate.
Until Thursday, when he returned to school, and told his story as part of an unusual group interview offered to WSB, unsolicited, by SWYFS.
The Southwest Education Center is described on the SWYFS website as “(f)or students who have dropped out of school, been expelled, or have just fallen behind.” We had last visited its classrooms for a photo op six months ago, when a local union made a big donation to SWYFS.
When I arrived at SWYFS HQ on Thursday for the appointment we made by e-mail a week earlier, I didn’t know the student - we’re not using names in this story to protect privacy, so we’ll call him S (not his actual initial) for survivor - would be there,. Leaders at SWYFS had originally e-mailed WSB wondering if we would be interested in a followup on the incident, saying SWEC students were worried it had left the community with the wrong impression of them and their program.
Thursday morning at 10, about an hour after the SWEC school day began, SWYFS executive director Steve Daschle brought me downstairs, where I was invited to sit down in front of a classroom full of about two dozen teenagers and ask whatever I wanted.
Quickly, it became clear they had a lot to say about what happened the morning of October 27.
“Counselors and teachers talked with us for about an hour (afterward), said if we had any problems we could talk one on one,” one student began.
Then the surprise - S himself was in the room.
“It was shocking to me that something like that happened, from a friend you know, it was shocking, that’s all I can say.” But he wanted to say more: “I’m doing great, I feel safe here, I have lots of friends here.”
He was in the hospital for a week, he said, adding that he was in worse shape than news reports suggested: “On the news, my parents said, they said, minor stab wounds to the back of the leg - not true, it was more severe than that. It made everything seem like it was little, when it was pretty serious.”
“He had a punctured lung,” interjected a classmate from across the room.
“Yeah, they had to put me on a breathing machine,” said S, who, we’ll tell you, looked none the worse for wear, at least, as he was sitting behind a desk about 10 feet from my spot in front of the classroom.
I explained that federal privacy laws keep media organizations from being able to get details on people in the hospital most of the time - even if they’re not juveniles - so the incomplete information may have been all they could get; we had nothing that day beyond “not life-threatening.”
His classmates got some updates, though. Some, directly from the source. “He called us every day from the hospital,” a classmate said.
“We were waiting for him to come back,” said another. “And we knew he was coming back. Today, he’s here.”
Nobody had dropped out or been pulled out of the program because of the incident, the students said. Their attitude seemed to be, that wouldn’t have made any sense. “Here, there’s no drama,” says one, when I prod for what’s distinctive about the program. “Everyone gets along, most of us. Usually - besides the thing that happened - everybody’s close with each other. You’re not coming for drama, you’re coming to learn stuff.”
“We argue,” interrupts another, “but we argue in a good way, in a discussion to see what’s right or what’s wrong.”
“Debating,” a classmate tries to correct.
“No, I like to say arguing, that’s really intense,” laughs the first one. And everyone laughs with him.
Conflict is what led to the stabbing. But S said that lessons learned at SWYFS about resolving conflict kept it from escalating:
“It happened so fast - I didn’t overreact - I learned here about anger management - if I hadn’t been here and this had happened five months ago, I would have probably picked up the knife and stabbed him back. The A.R.T. [Aggression Replacement Training] here taught me so much. I had the opportunity - and said ‘that’s not the right thing to do’.”
“He was on the phone calling people,” one of his classmates calls from the corner — making calls, till help arrived.
But lest you think this is a school full of kids getting A.R.T. (etc.) because they’ve all been in trouble or made trouble - think again. I asked the group what they’d say if someone assumed they are delinquents, dropouts.
“That’s the opposite of what we’re doing - we’re persistent, we’re motivated, or else we wouldn’t be coming here,” one student counters.
S has something to say on this too: “We’re here because we need more help, good support systems. Maybe the school we went to wasn’t the best for us … We’re not here because we’re bad kids and we need help. We’re here because we want help.”
Another: “We want a second chance. Everybody’s here mostly for the same reason - this school’s here because (regular) high school didn’t work out.”
The SWEC is “in some way better,” it’s also offered. “I have teachers who help me understand what I’m doing, can help me with the future.” Smaller class size, someone else points out.
A student who hadn’t spoken before: “I know why I’m here. I want my diploma. I want what’s better for (my family) and me. I won’t consider someone else any better just because they’re in a (regular) high school and I go to an alternative school. I probably get more help and understand a lot more (here).”
We asked what grade she’s in - senior, graduating this year. SWEC isn’t a full program - students attend classes there for a while, then transition back out. As S explained it, “You can do a year here, and once you get a certain amount of credits, you have to move on to a regular high school.”
Another of his classmates: “I think there should be more places like this for kids who fall between the cracks and struggle through life … I think places like this are better and help people understand what they believe in. We can learn life skills here, there are people to give us advice, get on the right path, check up on us.”
And: “A teacher might ask, what’s going on, what did you do this weekend - most of us ain’t used to that because teachers (elsewhere) don’t care.”
Attending class in a relatively small group - enrollment in the dozens rather than the 1,000+ of most high schools - has led them to care, and know, more about each other, too, they say.
“Not that many problems - there can’t be any rumors when you’re in the next room over!” Laughter throughout the room.
But then, there was October 27, to which the talk on Thursday morning turned again and again.
A flash of resentment from one student. “Just because of someone’s mistakes, of that incident, that day, we shouldn’t be judged on that serious incident that happened. Doesn’t mean the rest of us are gonna do something like that. One person did something stupid and the rest of us are suffering for it.”
So, the student who was stabbed recovered and returned. What else do you know about what is happening in the incident’s aftermath? I asked.
Not much, they said, maybe some hearsay, maybe, they heard, the student - who’s been expelled - would be “getting out soon.” (We don’t have current information on the case status but will be checking with prosecutors.) They also wondered if police had talked to enough of them the day it happened.
Do you think you SHOULD have more information about the case, then? was my followup.
“Well, not if he’s a juvenile,” was the quick reply. S disagreed, saying he needs to know if he’s going to encounter the other boy somewhere, sometime, away from school.
“So (if you do), run,” a classmate says. “I can’t run,” he counters, “my lung was punctured.” But he repeats that overall, he feels safe - the school and his family have both taken steps to make sure he’s protected.
When the conversation ebbed, I asked if there is anything else they want people to know - about the school, about the incident, pretty much anything.
A boy in the corner who had spoken frequently during the preceding half-hour said yes, there’s something he wants me to report in this story: “Can you make sure you specify that both the youths involved were Caucasian? I have nothing against white people or anything, but I think a lot of people’s perception of this situation would change if they knew it was two Caucasian youths. And neither was really a wanna-be gangster - he,” indicating S, “is a regular guy, Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
S - who acknowledges he plays and writes music - says, “That’s like, awareness (violence) could happen at any time, you gotta be careful who you’re talking to and what you say.”
The previous explanation then resumes: “They’re not no gangbangers - no colors, don’t talk (bad) about anybody, they don’t do graffiti — that I know of — don’t listen to rap music.”
“Hey, I listen to some rap music!” S interrupts.
“He’s got a Metallica T-shirt, you think he’s a gang member?” the outspoken classmate points out. “He got stabbed, he survived, he’s gonna make a song about this.”
S wants to bring it back to the other point: “People need to know it’s a great school. Otherwise I wouldn’t be coming back here if I don’t feel safe.”
Not only didn’t anyone drop out, the class says, “everybody was here the next day.”
Except, of course, S. But he’s back now.
While the students did the talking for most of my visit - with the staffers, including director Daschle, standing by but never interrupting - a teacher, Matt, did want to say something before we wrapped up. He spoke in support of the young man who thought it was important to mention the ethnicity of the boys involved. “This was not just another story of out-of-control gang violence on Delridge - it was a lot more complicated.”
As, it seems, if you get the chance to look beyond the surface - a rare chance like this - it often is.
On Tuesday at Chief Sealth High School, some Southwest Education Center students are expected to speak at a youth-violence-prevention meeting, where SWYFS staffers say they’ll be working to build community relationships - no doubt hoping it’ll be a long time before they encounter the officers and the medics again.
Heads up from the National Weather Service: A wind advisory is in effect till 6 pm Monday, upgrading to a high wind watch Monday night through Tuesday afternoon, possibly with gusts as high as 60 mph. Famous forecaster Cliff Mass says a “major event” is possible - but adds that some forecasting models disagree. Not sure you’re ready? There’s good advice at Take Winter By Storm. 9:36 PM UPDATE: The wind advisory’s been revised a bit - it’s in effect till noon tomorrow, then a break before the high wind watch takes effect in the evening.
This Wednesday, the Seattle School Board is scheduled to vote on the newest versions of the attendance-boundary maps for its Student Assignment Plan. West Seattle resident 
and parent Susan McLain has started an online petition to ask the board to push back that vote so that WS parents can have more time for feedback on the revised maps (find them here). The first maps were followed by 9 community meetings (2 in West Seattle), which led to revisions, but the second version — with major changes for West Seattle — was followed by 2 community meetings and one public hearing (none in WS). No changes will be made now unless they’re amendments proposed by a board member and approved by a board majority before the final vote. The online petition is here; whatever your thoughts on the new maps, if you’re interested in speaking at Wednesday’s board meeting, signups start at 8 tomorrow morning, via boardagenda@seattleschools.org or (206) 252-0040.
I also saw a minor oddity today in our travels. We took a wrong turn into the liquor store in Nashua and while looping around the parking lot we noticed a guy in the back corner of the lot getting out a lawn chair. By the time we drove by again, maybe 15 minutes later, he's happily seated in his lawn chair next to his SUV facing what little sun there is reading a magazine. Dude's out for sunny read in the liquor store parking lot in south Nashua? And by the time we'd gotten through the parking lot traffic and saw him one last time, his chair was already back in the car and he was getting in himself. Weird.
okaywhat i can't wrap my head around is the notion that anything is wrong with it. both in the article and comments people keep saying *they* give their lesson plans away and it would be horribly wrong to *gasp* make extra money *selling* them. and also something about how university teachers give all their material away to colleagues all the time, and so it's not sophisticated or something to charge for a quality lesson plan.
but male coaches have sold playbooks to each other since forever, and that was not worthy of a nytimes article. but when lady teachers sell their lessons (i think all the examples in the article are ladies except the coach-- my husband mentioned the history of coaches selling materials), that's worth a whole article with comments enabled.
The panel found little if any credible evidence supporting the teaching philosophy and practices that math educators have promoted in their ed-school courses and embedded in textbooks for almost two decades.Anecdotes over data - and these people want to teach math?
...
The mathematics educators’ response to the panel’s report came as no surprise. The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, a journal put out by an NCTM state affiliate, was the first to declare the party line in its July 2008 issue, which featured highly critical essays by five mathematics educators. Issue editor Greer declared in his overview that the panel’s report offered nothing useful, since it had “restricted” itself to scientific research and ignored the “rich reflections” of educators, who, in his judgment, had produced the “deepest work in the field.”
Per the city website - Admiral Safeway’s next date with the Southwest Design Review Board, which could be its last if the project design wins the board’s final approval, is tentatively set for December 17th, 8 pm, Youngstown Arts Center. (One of the additions since its October SWDRB review, another store entrance on California SW, was previewed at the Design Commission a week and a half ago.) ADDED 8:46 PM: Almost forgot to mention, there’s a 6:30 pm review same night/same place - 2988 SW Avalon, the 16-unit Transitional Resources building last reviewed in April.
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The foggy, soggy weather isn’t keeping friends, neighbors and well-wishers away from the Highland Park Improvement Club 90th anniversary party, in full swing now till 5 pm, including tantalizing treats:
Live music too, with the Zadrozny Jazz Trio. Read the HPIC history here; go join the fun at 12th and Holden - all ages welcome.
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grey_bard. Also yet more help with the concept development. She's really only about one step away from being co-author here.__marcelo also deserves credit for indirectly inspiring this. Reading his many, many DCU fics and his strikingly creative playing with AUs no doubt laid the mental groundwork for this series.( Read more... )
And now back to the war...
Title: The Benefits of Rigid Thinking, Part 6/7
Characters: Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and the Enterprise clan
Rating: PG for references to adult situations
Warnings: None
Summary: Kirk is directed to return some stolen artifacts to New Vulcan— but of course nothing goes smoothly where Vulcans are concerned.
A/N: This story is a sequel to The Benefits of Fresh Air.
Part 1: Treasures
Part 2: First Hurdle
Part 3: Out-worlder
Part 4: Rigid Thinking
Part 5: Surak's Way
( The Benefits of Rigid Thinking, part 6, Kirk's Concession )
From now till 4 pm, you’ll find adoptable pets at three places along a half-mile of California SW in Morgan Junction. The photo above shows Ted, who we found at The Wash Dog (6400 California); other pets looking for their forever home are at Pet Elements (6701 California) and Stella Ruffington (7003 California). ADDED 3:30 PM: A pic shared by the folks at Stella R’s - this is Butch Cassidy the cat:
Still time to go find a new friend!
Page Summary
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westseattleblog : Thanksgiving tradition: Free Fauntleroy meal - and how to help [+0] - nephele : Holiday Scheduling: To Submit or Not? [+2]
- dragon_quill : Win A Kindle! [+0]
- travels_in_time : The Waters of Mars [+5]
- westseattleblog : Today/tonight: Sustainable West Seattle “shopping spree,” & more [+0]
- mariole : The Benefits of Rigid Thinking, Part 7 [+7]
- westseattleblog : Classroom interview: SWYFS students’ side of the stabbing story [+0]
- xkcd_rss : Sagan-Man [+64]
- westseattleblog : West Seattle Weather Watch: Forecasters say wind’s on the way [+0]
- westseattleblog : School boundary vote planned this week; petition asks delay [+0]
- wandererrob : Sunday observations [+1]
- extrajoker : Relatively Recent Reading: Mar-Sep 2009 [+0]
- jsl32 : teachers selling lesson plans for cash money [+7]
- tdj : Evidence-based education [+3]
- westseattleblog : Date set for Admiral Safeway’s return to Design Review [+0]
- jedmiller : Add One Word iii [+0]
- westseattleblog : Happening now: The big 9-0 for Highland Park Improvement Club [+0]
- mosellegreen : Musical Chairs, Part III: Adolescence [+6]
- mariole : The Benefits of Rigid Thinking, Part 6 [+14]
- westseattleblog : Happening now: Morgan Junction Pet Adoption Stroll [+0]