Another Big Hat to Wear

Some of you may know that the current revolution in
education in the United States revolves around a concept
called Small Learning Communities. The theory behind this
is to break up a large school into smaller schools (around
300 students apiece). This will provide more attention and
encouragement to each student and foster better test scores
and achievements. Well, that's the theory.

Being in a struggling inner city school, the school I work
for was mandated to re-structure our school accordingly.
Now, there are many different models on how small learning
communities are supposed to work. The kind folks at the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation chose the model for us.
For this model, each small learning community will be run by
a Lead Teacher, who must put in some extra time and who gets
a ridiculously insulting and paltry amount of money to be
this pseudo-administrator.

And, yep, you guessed it. Ye ol' columnist and all-around
nice guy went and got himself elected the Lead Teacher for
the Visual and Performing Arts Small Learning Community at
the school. It's not that I wanted the job, by the way.
It's that I didn't want those who wanted the job to have it.
It was a defense strategy. So, these past few weeks,
besides getting assignments graded and closing down my
classroom for the semester, I've been getting trained on how
to do this. The training will continue through the summer.

In any case, if I'm a little frazzled over this next year,
you'll know why. I'm going to have to get used to wearing
yet another hat and boy is my head feeling the pressure from
this big one (and the all the rest I wear).

***** UPCOMING DVDS FROM MAUE AND MAVEN
Rick Maue was in town last weekend to give a few lectures.
He had just come from Lake Tahoe where he was shooting a
couple of DVDs for L&L. He'll be part of a multi-disc DVD
set featuring effects from Joshua Jay's Magic Talk column in
Magic Magazine. And, in addition, they shot a solo effort,
two-disc DVD set of Rick's material. I doubt that these two
sets will be out any earlier than next year, but I'm giving
you a heads up on them now. Something to look forward to.

After Rick's lecture at the Magic Castle, I went out to
dinner with a group of mentalists, including Rick, Francis
Menotti, Tony Blake (US), Greg Arce, and Max Maven. Max was
heading up to Lake Tahoe to help out with another L&L shoot
and also to put the final touches on his new DVD set. When
I asked Max if this means that the set may be released
around October of this year, he said that it's very likely.
So, for those of you who are waiting for this, the wait is
nearly over.

***** PRODUCT NEWS
Lots of stuff has been coming in. I'm trying to get around
to all of it. Still on my desk to review are Outlaw
Effect's Homicide, Doug McKenzie's Phoneomenon, the Heirloom
Bonus Pack, and Anton Corrodin's Mental Hammer. And coming
this week are Geist and Sleight of Mind, two books by Ian
Harling and Martin Nyrup. Also, two new products from
Kennedy will be crossing my desk this week: Thoughts So Far
and Stranded Mission (a book test). Finally, I'll also be
taking a look at the much-hyped Da Vinci Zone. If
everything goes as planned, I should have comments posted
for all of this stuff by Sunday.


Until next time. -- Jheff

NEW PRODUCTS AND REVIEWS:
DERREN BROWN'S LECTURE VIDEO
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