4:30 am on a Friday morning and I’m actually the third person up in the house. Daughter and wife just left for the high school to pick up a few other students and catch a flight to Washington. My big concern is what to wear to the Frank and [...]
The head of curriculum is in my art room and I can see she has some concerns. It’s Thursday morning, a week before SIFF 2018 and controlled chaos would be a good description of the scene. There is a painting station outside under the overhang with three students, a second [...]
Four years is all I need Four years to prove that student-centered learning is what it’s all about. I’m using the Rahm Emanuel/Arnie Duncan model from Chicago. From crap to well, better. Progress not perfection. Four years to completely turn SVHS around. And it won’t be pretty, think Balboa High [...]
Part 1, The beginning of the story. When one starts going back, one realizes one must go further then further then further cause that’s what life is-a bunch of interlocked blocks, together making a house or a big pile of messy blocks depending on how your life turns out. [...]
Let’s go with Resting Bro Face (my student Amanda just suggested, Resting Angry Walter Face) instead of that other RBF acronym. I can see my reflection in the screen of my laptop and it’s not pretty. Paradise is a little tainted these days, immigration, gun reform, school district mayhem, and [...]
The ants, I vividly still remember the ants. My buddies had taken their shirts off thinking that would improve the chances of me going into shock. 11:00 at night and the four of them were propping me up on an ant-filled grassy knoll in Salzburg Austria. We had just left [...]
The turret was a little much but why not? The NRA and department of defense had already funded glock 19s for each teacher plus AKs for the school entrance and principals office but I wanted to be really extra safe so I installed the turret. There is an elevator in [...]
What if the government shuts down and nobody notices? What if it’s all smoke and mirrors run by a secret group of five rich white guys who meet once a month and decide things like what the stock market will do, the price of bitcoin, and funding for wars [...]
“Down goes Frasier.” This is a favorite line of my brother in law who admittedly suffers from OCMAD (Obsessive-Compulsive-Muhammad-Ali-Disorder). It is also unfortunately, the one thing I am thinking as I grab at the stall door pulling myself up from the cold tile floor of the boy’s bathroom. [...]
It’s day four of the Uniqlo Dry Stretch Grey Sweatpants and I’m feeling pretty grateful. Yeah four days in the same clothes is kinda gross, but man, are these great pants: thick but not baggy, no branding, fitted cuffs, zippered pockets, I was underwhelmed when Tuck bought them [...]
Walt Williams is in it for the money, that and the prestige that goes with 22 years of teaching in California high schools (he’s not the smartest tool in the shed). He firmly believes in more standardized testing and that fitting all students into the same box is really the answer. He strongly supports fracking and that climate change is a fantasy made up by hippie liberals, also that the military needs more funding and that schools should just stop whining.
Walt brings a lifetime of experience and energy to this new endeavor. He was the principal of the Arts and Ethics Academy in Santa Rosa for two years, and has spent the last 15 years engaging students in finding their paths at Creekside High School. He is the father of two and the husband of one and lives in Sonoma, California.
Walt is a skier; fly fisherman, wine tour bus driver, tennis player, and sometimes writer. He likes to dress up in front of lots of people and display large works of art around the community. His mantra is to work hard, create and love. Complex life, simple message.
