michael moore kicks ass! everyone needs to watch fahrenheit 9/11. make it a point to go to the theatres to watch at least this one movie this summer. spiderman can wait.

i haven't sat in front of my computer for so long in so long (?). given that i had so much time today, i decided to do something i haven't done in a while: catch up with friends, e-style. what i think i need to create are links to my friends' blogsites/xangas. ok, even better, i think i should call them more often. given that i find myself in the kind of life i have been waiting for, which is to teach and surround my life around teaching and the struggle for social justice, i think i have sort of shed myself of the people who have come along with me. i need to hang out with them more, re-connect with folks, catch up with them before they leave me forever! davy is leaving for NY, tei is already there. he's been there. lotsa friends are back up north. actually a good number are coming here to LA. =) that makes me happy. but not like i'm doing a great job maintaining relationships with them, although it is a two-way deal. i guess i can't be the only guilty one. it makes me sad, but at the same time i need to understand and accept that big changes like these will happen. it's just hard to let go of friends and old familiar things. i guess i just kinda set myself on one course and went full blast. i'm completely happy with where i am now, and the people that i have in my life. my students are wonderful, and one of them just called me today to just talk to me. she ended it with "i love u", and i said i love u back. the only other person i say that to is my mom. i do love my students, i tell them at least once a week. i dropped by one of their houses yesterday to give some mangos cuz some dood was selling them on the corner. i took some of the to lunch and a movie, utilizing my third row seat. =) tomorrow i'm taking more to watch another movie. kids are expensive. i also utilized my seats to take students to the collective workshop on saturday. i'm so glad my car is so useful to my students. =)

i keep picking up the yearbook that i made for my students and looking through them. i miss my kids. they were my first class. i was their teacher. now they're going to have some other teacher. i'm so proud of my students. =) when i took them to the movies and they were showing commercials, the "army of one" commercial came up. then i asked my students, what are they not showing on these commercials? and they said "the people getting killed and dying." awww, my lil 6-year-olds. =) in our yearbooks, i included "important poems" that they wrote. here are my favorite lines:

"If i could change the world I would... be like Martin Luther King"
"If i could change the world I would... start a strike"
"If I coudl change the world I would... wish that the world would stop killing" (deep, huh?)
"If I coudl change the world I would... make the whole world good"

now i have to go to a meeting where we discuss overthrowing our principal cuz he's such an f****D up asshole. he's in the wrong profession. all these teachers coming together while on their summer break to mobilize, strategize, and organize for a greater movement says something. i only hope to hear that our efforts, combined with the strength of parents and community members, will prove successful when we hear news in august. i hope to return to the school with new administration, for the sake of our students and the community members.

on another note, people need to stop acting shocked when i tell them i'm a teacher and when they ask where, i answer "watts". all those stupid images the media chooses to show about watts is messed up. i'm tired of it. yes it's all black and brown folk, and what? it's just a neighborhood like any other. yes i truly love it there because it's the kind of community i need to be in. i love my students and i miss them. =( i can't imagine what benji is going through, putting his teaching career on hold to pursue his phD in urban ed. i guess i'll know in 5 year's time...

thank u to everyone for coming out to help celebrate on friday nite! it turned out to be a success, and i hope everyone made it home safely. next time i'll do a better job of makin sure all of u are taken care of. i hadn't drank that much in a while, and i've never felt so gross the next morning. =p it took a whole day to recover. i'm glad y'all enjoyed the music, drinks, and company! if anyone wants to plan a party at that joint again, we can make it happen. talk about parties, this weekend was nonstop parties. after friday nite, on saturday afternoon my roommate had a BBQ party, then we had to go to torrance for another friend's graduation party, with MORE bbq. then sunday evening my family and i celebrated my brother's 25th birthday with dinner and cake, and at nite was a good-bye party for a friend. =p i'm pooped.

this week, gotta take care of ish before i leave for hawaii on saturday. i can't believe i'm going this week. i'm not feeling that sense of excitement yet. maybe when i start packing? in the meantime, i should catch up with people, namely my roomies especially since one is moving out during the time i'll be gone in hawaii. oh yes, and i must help benji move out of his apartment of 4 years... =( lotsa changes to get ready for.

i am now... master lee!

ok. maybe not. but i can officially sign things now as Janet Lee, M.Ed. i feel sooooo important. wow. in actuality it just might help others to understand that i am really a quite older person. damn, which reminds me... i turn 24 in less than a month.

yesterday's graduation was interesting... i didn't feel all proud and that i had completed something huge, academically-speaking. when my friends were like, "we did it!" i didn't feel that same happiness. i dunno... i jsut wasn't feeling it. even with my family i wasn't all super proud of myself. it couldn't compare to my undergrad graduation, where i really felt i had grown a great deal, that i had changed in many ways, that i had experienced and learned so much, and that i had proved to my parents what i was about. i earned their respect and made them proud by the end of my career at ucsd. and i was on my way to get my masters. i had proven myself to them. this time around, i dunno. two years at ucla just felt like... not much had happened to me, personally nor mentally. the biggest challenge was my first year of teaching. i was proud and happy about that. i finally lived it. =) but years down the line, when i get hooded for my PhD, i think i'll definitely feel that pride again. time shall tell.

thank you to my friends who were able to make it to my graduation! and for those of you whose emails i don't have, i sent out an evite for a party i'm throwing this friday! yes, janet is throwing a party! a post-graduation/pre-birthday shindig. it's in chinatown, i rented out a restaurant which will be cleared out. there'll be a bar, space to groove, a dj, and good company! think of it as a mini-club. bring yourself and whomever else! starts at 9pm, meter parking is free. it's at a restaurant called Chow Fun on the corner of Ord St. and Spring St. call me for details! =)

i will miss being able to say "school" and creating confusion with that word. gone will be the year that "school" could mean the place i work (99th st. elem), or the place i am studying at (ucla). i walk this saturday to get my master's degree. does it feel like i deserve a master's degree? not really. 2 years of what? good question. well, i finished my inquiry-research paper last week. i feel like i'm celebrating the closure of my first year of teaching more than anything else. speaking of which, i only have 4 more days with my students. =*( i dunno...maybe i should have vouched to keep them for second grade. i can't let them goooo~!!! sure they could be lil poopers, but i love them and we have become a family. i'm going to bawl on the last day of school...

tomorrow we hear from the superintendent about her decisions thus far about our situation at 99th street. i'd have to say the environment at our school has become hostile. adults acting like children. lots of animosity and distrust, unspoken anger. lots of parents and teachers want the current administration out. let's see what becomes of all the marches/demonstrations, board meetings, and letter-writing/petitioning. i keep my fingers crossed for a good outcome... who knew education could be so damn political?

things are being shaken up at 99th street elementary. with the parents spear-heading the movement, and teachers supporting, there have already been 2 protests staged. the first was after school yesterday, and the second was at Locke High School for a district-wide event today. the superintendent saw and heard us. it's good to see a number of people coming together to really try to propel change to happen at the school. i still hope for more parents to come out. with the shady administration that's in place right now, good changes can't happen at our school...

so much has happened in the past few weeks. i presented my master's inquiry-research, it got approved, and it's finished!. if y'all can come out to my graduation, that would be soooper! =) it's on saturday, june 19 at 5:30pm at UCLA Wilson Plaza. also, i'm trying to get a post-graduation party goin, renting out a place in chinatown the friday afterwards, on june 25. sooooo~ if u can find the time, let's party it up. =)

in the meantime, i'll be sad about passing on my first class to second grade. i only have 9 more school days with them. how could a year go by so fast??? and now they're leaving me... =*( i don't wanna let em go... we have come so far together. i love my all-stars... they're so smart and cute (most of the times)! *sigh*

speaking of time flying by... man. apsa grad banquet. u guys are technologically crazily creative. wow. big ups to all the video people. nice speach by chris murphy! and congrats to all the seniors! stop growing up! u'r supposed to be little first and second years. =( what's happening? stop graduating, people. stay young. u'r makin me feel too old...