A New Day!

So today, I played a bit of saxophone to the dismay of my neighbor, and did the music and poetry thing.  Not so much new poetry, but cataloging, listening, and editing.  It amazes me how much I used to edit my written word, and now it’s like I never do it.  It was crazy because I found a loose page of it written out, but I didn’t find it in any of the notebooks that I’ve been using, (almost scary!) However, I got some inspiration, or maybe it was boredom, and picked up Mona J, and hit some blues rifts.  It was pretty freeing, but my mind stayed pretty connected of the goal I had silently set up yesterday, after my errands and writing. 

The goal was to find a used book-store, go to it and find essays written by Emerson.  Since I quit GBMS I cannot find the copy I had of his essays, which is a huge bummer because it was a free copy, and who doesn’t love free??  I am in the process of writing essays in hopes of—no not in hopes of—in the process of writing essays for the book that I will publish soon, (I’m thinking early 2015)  I have some poetry for it, that will fit pretty good I believe, the only problems are re-finding my writing voice, hence, leading me here to my favorite Doodle with my Poodle blog.

Essays are apparently in very low demand.  I did find an ok used book-store, its called 2BuckBooks (www.twobuckbooks.com), for anyone in the Denver area, it’s on Monaco.  It wasn’t the greatest used bookstore, they had a miniscule philosophy section, but I was able to find a couple of good reads, not the book I was looking for, but some good reads nonetheless.  I was able to find a good thesaurus (yes I know who needs a paperback thesaurus in the digital age L) The Te of Piglet, Four Essays on Life and Letter by Matthew Arnold, and the coupe de grace The Speeches of Malcolm X at Harvard.  So it wasn’t a total waste, plus, I spent less than ten bucks!  However, I was focused on getting the Emerson book, so I broke down and went to Barnes and Noble around the corner of my house.  I was able to find it, and a book of the 2012 edition of The Best American Essays.  I wanted this one because I want to get a feel for what publishers are looking for, heck I may be doing more essays for lit mags and what-not, so it’s best to get a feel for what constitutes as publishable.

The question remains—why?  It has always been a goal of mine to become a writer.  Now, with my current situation of being able to work part-time (while being economically stable), and having time to do it, I’m going to do it.  I’ve been writing like a madman the last couple of days, and with my trusty MacBook JI am a strong believer in myself.  I was able to get published this year, which is wonderful, but I want that to continue.  Therefore, I am reading more, hence the trip to the bookstore, and have set time aside to do nothing but write.  Most writers say, even if what you write sucks, keep doing it.  So I’ve got my journals, which I’ve kept up for about a year, so that’s where a lot of bad writing will be going.  I’m also debating about doing a youtube video.  If you’ve never seen my youtubes, you can check them out, I got a whole page and everything…lol (http://www.youtube.com/user/nabraskapoet)

I believe that’s going to be it for now.  The job may have ended, but new doodles will be new writings, new postings, new music (https://soundcloud.com/poet402) and if all goes truly well, somewhere in 2015 a poetic feature, or band.  I’m still a bit scatter brained, but I’m focused on getting this writing career off the floor…you may resuscitate your poet….Now!!

Oh The Last of Days….

So it's official, my last day with GBMS will be next Monday, December 1st, 2014.  So here is the down-low, it's a bit wordy but what-evs.  On Friday November 14th, I was summoned to the principal's office at the end of the day.  It felt a bit weird like they were going to fire me, but I'm a man, I can handle it.  So they had me wait like ten to twenty minutes before they got their files all straight, then called me in.  

The Griffin BS way of life seal (lol)

It was the principal Alex, and his minion Ms. Saab.  He began by asking me if there was anything I needed to tell him, like anything involving law enforcement.  I thought it was a bit strange, but was pretty done, so I was like yea, I got a DUI over the summer.  I told Alex, that I had already talked to Gilbert (my lead teacher/immediate supervisor).  Alex then stuttered (as he usually does)  and said I should of told him, then stated through stutters that I have should of informed Gilbert.  I then interjected that I did, Alex then said that that was ok.  I was feeling like ok, whatever.

So then he asks me about being late, I began thinking ok, now here we go, get the pen ready, let's get ready to leave this bitch.  He goes into his little diatribe about how me being late has put "stress on the system".  This is when I gave him the look of WTF??  So this is how it breaks down, there are four paras assigned to the room I'm in along with a lead teacher, so that makes five total adults.  We have at most 10 children in the morning, which equates to two children per adult.  Now if I'm not there it would equate to about 2.5 kids per adult.  Class sizes at this school goes roughly from about 22-30 kids in a classroom with one teacher in the room. HOW IN THE HELL DOES ME BEING LATE PUT "A STRESS ON THE SYSTEM???"  So I was baffled, but I was good, I didn't respond past crazy facial expressions.  So I was like ok, I've been late, however, I did let Alex know that I had spoke with Gilbert about my tardies, and offered several options.  Alex asked about the options I had proposed.  

I let Alex know that I had told Gilbert that I was one: willing to go part time, two: willing to cut Tuesdays out of my schedule because that was the day I was late the most, and three: I would stay and do detention duty from 4-5 to make up the time.  He rejected all of those options.

In turn what ended up happening was I was written up and had that placed in my "permanent  file" with DPS.  I knew before the meeting what my response would be.  I was done, that Friday when I got home, I wrote my letter of resignation.  It is down below for all your viewing pleasure

November 17, 2014

Clarence Barbee

10756 E. Virginia Ave

Aurora, CO 80012

Administrative Staff

Grant Beacon Middle School

1751 S Washington St, Denver, CO 80210

Dear Administrative Staff,

It is with regret that I am giving you notice of resignation for my position with Grant Beacon Middle School, an entity of Denver Public Schools.  It is my opinion that the administration has created an atmosphere that lacks support toward paraprofessionals, other support staff, and teachers while supporting a condescending environment. 

As a paraprofessional for the last year and a half in the Affective Needs classroom, I have worked tirelessly with the teachers, paraprofessionals, and other support staff in the building, so the students in our program would have the educational care they needed.

My lead teacher Mr. Gilbert has shown superior leadership in creating a team of paraprofessionals, each who brings a different skill-set of support to the AN classroom, and the school.  The students in the AN classroom are continuously moving forward toward excellence because of the efforts and successes of the AN team. 

Due to having additional employment, my record of attendance has suffered.  I brought plans of compromise to my teacher as well as the principal to alleviate the stress of my attendance.  The principal, leaving me with no other choice than to leave this school, has rejected these compromises.

I wish Mr. Gilbert, Ms. Carmen, Mr. David, Ms. Mindy, and the AN students the best year possible.  I am confident they will have a great year.  My last day will be Monday, December 1, 2014.

In earnest,

Clarence B Barbee

 The things I stated in the letter are true and factual.  It was unfortunate that a compromise could not be made as Grant is a good school, but the administrating staff are condescending at best.  Besides micro-managing my time, they have micro-managed placement on the playground, and constantly calling me by my first name when they give the respect to teachers of calling them Mr. or Mrs., so I'm good.  Last week was rough and I ended up missing two days due to my car needing repairs, but I guess it's all good.  There will be no more doodles, as this year we had kiddos going to regular ed classes, and I really just wasn't feeling it.  

So Monday will be my last day, and this will be the last image they get of me….lmao

I tried to get one of my back, but it didn't work out, so this will be what they get.  Deuces to GBMS, it was good while it lasted, but I'm off to other things--good luck AN room!!  

However, I will be keeping and updating the blog, because I still work with youth, I'm still active in affectively changing lives for the better, and I'm still doing the damn thang!!  Thats it for now peeps, see you soon in the funnies!!