My Journey - Part 5

A choreography by Saba I performed in in a showcase presented

by PMT House of Dance in Spring 2006 in New York City.

Before I stopped going to Saba's classes and hanging out with him, I had a great time rehearsing and performing his piece Rebound in a showcase presented by PMT House of Dance in the Spring of 2006. The title of the piece reflected the fact that almost the entire cast including myself and Saba were rebounding off failed relationships! But, the final result was one I was truly proud of. My wife who I began dating at the time came to all three performances, and I also went to her performances. She was studying jazz and lounge style singing at the Singer's Forum, so we already had much in common.

Shortly after this performance, I needed to look at my money situation seriously and not delve into fruitless pyramid schemes. I was seriously in need of work - a real job. Despite becoming far too busy too dance, my life improved a lot in other ways. I married my wonderful wife Mizue, and I got a New York City Teaching Fellowship through the City of New York which paid for a master's in teaching English while I worked full-time as a public school teacher. So, began my nearly 5 year foray into the art of teaching ESL to teens who were unable to read because of moderate to severe cognitive and emotional disabilities at Public School 721M in Manhattan. They were wonderful kids and the work was often fascinating, but it was incredibly challenging preparing lessons for students who could not read and write without the assistance of picture symbols and endlessly having to redirect students who were ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). To complicate matters even more, I had to deal with very difficult bosses.

Around 2006-2009, I worked for 2 principals who were at war with the Teacher's Union at our school. The first principal, Sheryl Watkins, took a "my way or the highway" approach to leadership threatening teachers right, left, and center with insubordination or the non-existent category of "border-line" insubordination. The next principal, Carolle Brady, was clearly autistic and strongly believed that bulletin boards and the teachers' arrangement of desks in their classrooms were the only indicators of "good" teaching practices. She soon began to harass teachers without provocation, and threatened their jobs! Thanks to the Union and the support of the teachers, these two administrators were eventually removed permanently from our school.