Dennis Littky, radical educator and co-founder of Big Picture Learning, wowed everyone with his TEDxNYED speech on Saturday. The man with the colorful kufi and grey beard might have struck the unsuspecting (and uninformed) as discordant in contrast to the business casua...

I‘ll start by saying I’ve taught now for the better part of six years, all in public school. As an NYC Teaching Fellow, learning how to teach while teaching isn’t the best part of the job. Teaching, however, is. It’s a liberating experience becau...

Today, I had the grand opportunity of going to the 40th anniversary of the Young Lords Party at the Hispanic Methodist Church on 111th and Lexington St. (NYC). Just coming within a block of the small church gave me goosebumps. The sheer number of people swaying back and...

Today, in the middle of the labor union’s “demonstration” near City Hall, NYC, I had a thought: “Is standing here freezing my ass off looking at a big TV screen of something that’s happening a few blocks away while packed like sardines agai...

In Beijing, China, the International Olympics Committee told the Chinese government to ease up on their treatment of people. The Chinese government, in turn, invites protesters to register at their local police department and, when the Olympics come, to just stand in on...

Outside of my reading material and a couple of Google searches done under “Jose Vilson,” it’s pretty hard to find any real inclinations of my deep political thought. But after reading Assata Shakur’s latest statement about turning 60 (July 2007),...

- My Year in Review, (Information Design Remix): Click for the huge version of this image. I personally like how I condensed my year into a picture. I wish I could have put more into it, but it’ll be OK. This was inspired by dy/dan, who asked his readers to partic...

A certain unease across the school has settled in and has taken a life of its own. It’s similar to that poltergeist we keep hearing about in scary movies: inaudible yet palpable, invisible yet uncanny. With all the people who walk around the school like phantasms ...

I feel like I’m exposing myself a bit with what I’m about to post, but I’m a big believer in astrology. I don’t necessarily believe in all the astrologers out there with the light-up snow globes and gypsy-inspired wardrobe. However, I can’t...

Every morning, I’m usually in the class, setting my board up for my homeroom class, who also happens to be my first period class on Thursdays and Fridays, so it’s almost like having an extended homeroom. The whole school routinely says the US’ Pledge o...