Last month, I wrote the follow message to Dan’s teachers:

Dear Ms. B and Ms. B

I hope you are doing well.

Since we didn’t get a chance for a teacher-parent conference last fall, my wife and I would like to touch base with you on our son Dan. How has he been performing in school? How is he doing socially?

Based on the progress reports sent home along with your feedback, Dan still needs to improve in certain areas. When Dan received his communicator award, we were proud of him. He didn’t explain to us how he earned it, but he said that Ms. B nominated him. The communicator award had us wondering how he is doing socially at school. At home, he has been less communicative. He also had a few outbursts, in which he could not control his emotion.

We would like to get him all the support he needs and we would like to start with his teachers who he interacts with everyday.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Donny Truong

Ms. B, his Spanish teacher, replied:

Hi, Mr. Truong,

Thank you for your message and for checking in. As I noted on Dan’s interim for the third quarter, he needs to improve academically in math. He tends to rush through his work and has not performed well on math assessments. Currently he is in a small group for remediation that meets during our afternoon Roar block twice weekly; we are working on fractions (addition and subtraction, and also multiplication of a fraction by a whole number). Dan is in this group with two other students, so it is a nice size for getting some extra help. Dan seems to enjoy being in the group so far. Dan also really seems to enjoy math, and he does self-advocate if he needs help, which is great. I am hopeful that the extra help in a small group will also help to boost his confidence in himself with regards to math.

In my classroom occasionally Dan has loud outbursts, but not often. He is well liked by his classmates and works well with others in the class, both in partners and in small groups. He does need redirection at times, as he can easily become distracted. I will continue to work with Dan and encourage him to slow down when completing his work. As a general rule, I try to emphasize the positive in my classroom, and Dan responds well to both the positives and to the times when I might need to correct/redirect him. He is a very sweet and conscientious young man who strives to do well. He does need reminders sometimes about talking, rather than working on the task at hand.

I hope that the above gives you a good idea of how Dan is doing/working in my classroom. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out. Sending warm regards to your family, with a special hello to Dao. Take care, and have a nice night.

Kind regards,

Ms. B

One of my favorite pieces is “Beauty School.” I love the way Alice Fulton compares lyrical poetry to Miles Davis: “you don’t have to write your poem every day. You just have to touch your poem every day.” This collection is filled with dark beauty with music poetry for your reading pleasure.

In this life,
I was very minor.

I was a minor lover.
There was maybe a day, a night
or two, when I was on.

I was, would have been,
a minor daughter,
had my parents lived.

I was a minor runner. I was
a minor thinker. In the middle
distance, not too fast.

I was a minor mother: only
two, and sometimes,
I was mean to them.

I was a minor beauty.
I was a minor buddhist.
There was a certain symmetry, but
it, too, was minor.

My poems were not major
enough to even make me
a “minor poet,”

but I did sit here
instead of getting up, getting
the gun, loading it.

Counting,
killing myself.

Olena Kalytiak Davis

In O, Zeina Hashem Beck addresses white critic in both English and Arabic. She writes, “If I told you these words are not in English, would you believe me?” I am not a white critic or a poetry critic for that matter. I am just a novice poetry reader and I don’t understand most of her poems. That’s OK. I read them with curiosity whether in English or Arabic.

Even water
changes its mind mid-
drip from
the bearded
skull of a
streetlamp
strange to
be given
proof sound
comes from
movement
and noise
chaos—I
am the still-
fumed center
of the world
holding its
breath on a
burned thing
cooled

John Freeman

I watched Queen Chandelier a while back and somehow didn’t finish the entire special. I usually didn’t care about the comedian’s outfit, but the wings on Sommore’s jacket were a bit odd for me. I finished the rest yesterday while tuning up our skis and snowboards. The listening experience was better than watching it. She was hilarious. The only thing I could recall from her special was that she’s pro-vaccine.

I was listening to Leanne Morgan’s Netflix Special while tuning up our skis and snowboards. I found her jokes light and relaxing. She shared a great deal about her husband and their sex lives. I enjoyed it even without watching the show.

I recently discovered Yaeji’s With a Hammer through Amazon Music. Yaeji has saccharine vocals. Her phrasings are both exotic and eccentric trading lines between English and Korean. The productions are the elements that pulled me in. I am hooked on the electronic dance, jungle beats. With a Hammer is an impressive debut with consistent tracks throughout the album. I enjoyed it immensely.

Every day at lunch the gray heron
canters down from her branch in the brook

leaving behind turquoise eggs. There were
two birds, but kids killed one with a slingshot, so

now she hooks alone, casting with her giant
beak. Stirring the water with a foot. The legends

tell of what revenge nature will wreak, we’ll
be torn limb from limb, they’ll feast on our necks.

None of this seems true of the heron in the
brook, using her wings to create shade, lure

small fish into the coves made by trash
visitors dump amidst the glades. Cans of Coke,

T-shirts, a dishwasher, an old skirt. It’s become
the breakfast table for her. And us, what are we for?

To watch, mourn, to exclaim gladly?
I’ve nothing to hunt, to trap, nothing

to own, walking these woods with a fading
map, miles from my suburban home.

The heron looks up, and seeing I am neither
prey nor threat, returns to her disguise,

vanishes again in the weeds, standing so still she
is simply a reed, a white bill, two eyes.

John Freeman

Sáng chủ nhật thức sớm định ra cắt cỏ lần đầu tiên cho mùa hè nhưng bãi cỏ vẫn còn ướt nên xuống basement điều chỉnh (tune up) lại đống skis và snowboards và cất lại cho mùa đông năm sau. Đến gần một giờ trưa mới xong. Ăn trưa xong lùa mấy thằng tứ quý ra cắt cỏ và dọn dẹp lại sân nhà.

Đến mùa hè là đến lúc đầu óc tôi cũng bị căng thẳng với bao nhiêu việc phải làm. Đường xe (driveway) bị nứt mẻ khá nhiều. Thuê thợ chuyên nghiệp phải tốn đến 5 đến 7 ngàn đô. Thôi đành phải xem YouTube tự làm. Cái cổng gỗ bị mục cần phải thay. Hai cây cột trước nhà cần phải sơn sửa. Cái deck cần phải rửa lại cho sạch. Dọn dẹp lại sân sau cho gọn gàng. Nhà tắm cần phải trét (caulk) lại. Tóm lại là rất nhiều việc phải làm.

Làm chủ một căn nhà ngoại ô mệt lắm. Bao nhiêu chuyện phải lo lắng thay vì ra công viên trượt với mấy đứa nhỏ, hoặc đi thư viện đọc sách, hay đi qua khu Hoa Thịnh Đốn dạo chơi. Mùa hè mà phải làm những công việc đó thì mất đi những giây phút dành cho con cái, gia đình, và bạn bè.

Tôi không có hứng thú trồng trọt tuy nó cũng rất thú vị. Thậm chí trồng trọt là một cách thư giãn. Nhưng nếu như tôi còn chưa có thể dọn dẹp khu vườn cho gọn ghẽ thì trồng trọt càng thêm căng thẳng. Thôi thì tôi chỉ làm những trách nhiệm của mình. Đến đâu hay đến đó.