March 25, 2020: Today the superintendent announced that six Bay Area school districts will extend the closure through May 1st and SFUSD being one of them. Like I mentioned in one of the previous logs— I am surprised and not surprised that they have extended the closure. I’m glad they did keeping in mind public safety, but now whatContinue reading “Shelter-in-Place Log #3”
Tag Archives: reflection
Shelter-in-Place Log #2
Currently, SFUSD has put out what they define as the “Continuity of Learning” to address what [at least our district is doing, not so sure across the state] students could be doing and what teachers should be doing. Before the city-wide lockdown & shelter-in-place, I already anticipated that closure was upon us, especially with theContinue reading “Shelter-in-Place Log #2”
Shelter-in-Place Log #1
It’s been an interesting past few months for humanity and especially the past few weeks for California. Throughout January & February, more racially charged instances towards Asian Americans and Asians all over the world were springing up. At first, it was very distant, through Twitter or videos on Instagram. Then it turned into violence towardsContinue reading “Shelter-in-Place Log #1”
My Two Loves
Prologue: Aya and I decided to get a dog back in 2018. She seriously started looking for rehoming a puppy that Fall, and I didn’t really think anything of it. It was my first year working full-time so finding a dog wasn’t at the forefront of the laundry list of teacher tasks I was drowningContinue reading “My Two Loves”
Literary Analysis Annotation Organizer
Prologue: This is a scaffold that I have been developing over time, adapted from an assignment that one of my Teacher Ed professors assigned us to do when completing his readings every week. During my undergrad in one of my Teacher Ed classes, one of our weekly assignments for the class readings was to useContinue reading “Literary Analysis Annotation Organizer”
Parents just want to be included
A few days before the news of Gigi & Kobe’s death I saw this video of John Boyega on Twitter— surprising his parents with a house of their own. The weeks following of the Bryant accident has made me reflect on the recent deaths of my family and friends. And something he said resonated with me:Continue reading “Parents just want to be included”
Beauty Marks & Body Dysmorphia
Prologue: I can’t say I’m diagnosed with this because there are people out there who probably really struggle with their accepting appearance or given body. It affects their daily lives and sometimes even hour to minute interactions with their appearance. For those that don’t know, body dysmorphia is an obsessive focus on a perceived flawContinue reading “Beauty Marks & Body Dysmorphia”
Common Essay Mistakes 2019 v. 2020
These are common essay mistakes after the first semester of the respective school year. In 2019, I taught 9th & 10th grade and noticed that they more or less had the same types of mistakes. If they were not a high achieving student, their essay was missing a lot of components. It was really clearContinue reading “Common Essay Mistakes 2019 v. 2020”
10 Guiding Precepts
Prologue: I’m here revisiting an old draft. Like many of the things I write, they got lost or never shared. Whether that’s because of my own insecurity or it remains locked away in my notes, a journal, or the drafts. It’s been over two years since I started this space. I think it’s become lessContinue reading “10 Guiding Precepts”
P U R P O S E
“I think we got these degrees for our writing [and voices] to be read [and heard]” I never thought of myself as a writer. Or being articulate with my words. When I graduated high school I wrote and mailed thank you cards to my relatives. I wrote to each family a personal message of gratitudeContinue reading “P U R P O S E”
Balasbas Says 