If you fail to learn the differenceBetween a gerund and a participle,Your prospects for college and careerWill not perish in a pit of oblivion.If you do not take an interestIn Shakespeare or Dickinson, Austen or Frost,You will still make your way in life,And provide for yourselves and your families.Your learning and growthWill not bring you [...]
I have heard a lot of people lately referring to Thursday as "Friday Eve." I can relate to that. I love, however, to have two workdays that I truly enjoy without necessarily wishing for the weekend. I have always treasured Fridays at school, and I have felt something was missing when a holiday prevented me [...]
I take symbolic meaning from this first day of spring. The equality between daylight and night time signifies to me a powerful moment of balance. The annual cycle reaches points of equilibrium in March and in September. Even the summer and winter solstices represent a balance, each being the other in opposite. All of this [...]
Years ago, when I worked at the elementary school, a student gave me a blank journal. With it, I took hold of an idea going around at the time and started a gratitude journal. I had done exercises before related to lists of things for which I was thankful. I enjoyed taking inventory of my [...]
I’ve written about this before, but I enjoy crowing about not hating Mondays. I certainly enjoy my weekends, and I make much of them in terms of the things I enjoy doing: crossword puzzles, walks, cooking, reading, and listening to music. But I enjoy Mondays, too, in large part because I enjoy working with the [...]
On this lovely Sunday, my partner and I have just returned from a Sunday brunch celebration for a dear friend, and we are preparing to host a St. Patrick’s Day party for who-knows-how-many people. We will serve the traditional Irish-American (definitely not Irish) corned beef and cabbage, and will likely have as part of the [...]
This is a simple weekly treat for us, and it requires very little work for preparation. We simply cut up some potatoes into one-inch pieces–skin on–and season with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed thyme. We then put it in an air fryer at 375 degrees for about a half an hour, shaking [...]
Adolescent, a colonist in Britannia,Kidnapped and made a slave--Across the water, in a land whose peopleWill one day revere him,Mythologize him,Immortalize him.He toiled in despair,Served in hopeless bondage.Then, faith and will delivered.And in yet another land,Now lettered and anointed,Frocked and mitred,He sought return,But not to family, nor delights.Servitude converted to ordinance,His walking staff to a [...]
During a presidential election year, interest in voting and government always surges--along with concerns and emotions. While not trying to diminish the importance of that grand, more-than-symbolic election at the top of the ballot, I’ve often tried to draw attention to the reality that the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate [...]
The relevance of curricular topics is rarely lost on teachers, but we have some trouble in making it clear to students. We see this tendency most clearly as adolescence begins. Students learn some important things in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade; regrettably, typical American middle-school students merely learn odd fragments of units, they take three [...]
Real Teaching 