“Bear Necessities,” the GA Voice story published

To read the article, click here.

Fall Semester Starts

The Fall 2011 Semester officially starts for me today. The afternoon will be taken up with the Orientation and Registration for the SED Credential Program. In the evening is the fall faculty meeting for OLLI faculty. I will be teaching a German language class in this program for over-50s.

Interview with The Cubby House Project in Melbourne, Australia

I was interviewed yesterday by Jack Chapman, who is producer and co-presenter for The Cubby House Project, a cub and bear themed radio show broadcasting from Melbourne, Australia’s Gay and Lesbian radio station JOY 94.9. The interview will be streamed on their website, which is located here.

German Language Teaching for OLLI

I will be offering an elementary German conversation class through the OLLI
Program at Humboldt State this fall. I will need a minimum enrollment of six students.

Framline 35 Film Festival Review

My “Love Letter to Frameline 35″ is now online at CultureVulture.net. I have been covering the San Francisco  LGBT film festival since 2000. My film reviews continue to appear, albeit sporadically, at Culture Vulture. net. Check the site for my other film reviews, including these films at the Frameline Fest” Ausente (Absent), Christopher and His Kind, and Three (Drei), directed by German director Tim Tykwer (of Run, Lola, Run fame).

Acceptance to SED Program at HSU

I have been formally accepted to the Secondary Education Credentialing Program at Humboldt State. The letter arrived yesterday. I will be working with Andrea Eitel-Brid in German. No assignment has been made yet for my English “master teacher” assignment. Classes begin August 16.

Humboldt State Calling!

I have passed the preliminary interview and subject matter testing for the Secondary Education Credential Program at Humboldt State University. I have also received student teaching placement at a local public high school and am awaiting my interview with the placement committee. I have also been offered a financial aid award (primarily student loans), which will make this feasible.

Portland Stater, unfortunately, has continued to throw up additional obstacles, additional fees, additional trips to Portland to comply with newly announced requirements. This reached such a state of inconvenience and outright “un-do-ability,” that I was obligated to withdraw my application from that program. Since I had not heard from their financial aid office, and was dubious as to receiving enough aid to cover out-of-state tuition, it seemed provident to move forward with the much more use-friendly option of pursuing Humboldt State.

Portland, Oregon Calling!

Yesterday I received a Conditional Letter of Acceptance to the high school Teacher Credentialing [GTEP] program in the Graduate Department of Education at Portland State University. It is a one-year program that begins in the Summer Quarter 2012.

I seek to be certificated to teach German and English/Language Arts in the Oregon public school system. My personal goal is to move directly into a full-time position in Fall 2013 in the greater Portland area. I will also continue to seek to teach courses at the college level, most likely adjuncting in the English Department of a local community college.

The application process has been overly long, complicated, redundant, and expensive. And it is not over yet. I need to be retested in subject matter (Oregon does not recognized the California CSET tests). I am currently taking two courses at the local College of the Redwoods to meet prerequisite requirements in Constitutional Law and in Developmental Psychology. One must be truly dedicated to becoming a teacher. Given how exhaustive and stringent this training process is, I am ill able to understand the so-called problem of hoards of “unqualified” or “bad” teachers in America. It’s not a career one simply falls into.

After a year of living in the rural isolation of Eureka, CA, I am very much looking forward to returning to a city. And Portland, OR, it is frequently asserted, has the best quality of living. I look forward to settling down, at long last.

Les K. Wright Author Page at Amazon.com Published

Click here to go to Les K. Wright’s Author Page at Amazon.com.

BearLeft! Caucus to Converge at Minneapolis Creating Change

Confirmation just received from the NGLTF for the 2011 Creating Change conference this coming February in Minneapolis.

“On behalf of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, I am pleased to let you know that your session has been selected for inclusion in The 23rd National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.  The proposal process was very competitive this year, with over 450 proposals vying for time slots in our very crowded schedule.  Congratulations on being selected to present at the 2011 Creating Change Conference, meeting in Minneapolis Feb. 2 – 6 2011.”

Session Title: Bear Left!
Tracks: Community Organizing
Format: Caucus, 60 minutes
Contact: Les Wright

Description:
It is time for an anti-racist, pro-feminist, anti-xenophobic, pan-generational, spiritually awakened, class-conscious, eco-friendly, heart-centered and radically all-inclusive bear movement to begin. It is time to come out of the comfortable social niches, or out of the shadows. It is time to engage in the world at large. As neo-liberal capitalism takes over world economies and neo-conservatives take over governments, it is time to stop passively consuming. Join your grassroots efforts to a larger project. Bring your ideas to a forum for exploring ways to engage practically. Take back the radical gay / queer / LGBTIQ agenda. Prepare for the 21st century. Join the Bear Left! caucus at Creating Change 2011 in Minneapolis.