On this, the final day of the March 2024 Slice of Life Challenge, I wish all who celebrate a Blessed Easter. Moreover, I extend my congratulations to all who participated in this month's challenge. Circumstances this year have made my own participation a challenge; however, I made a determined exercise of posting each day--no matter [...]
Every year during my youth, just before Easter, my paternal grandmother made what we called pizzagain, or what is more properly called pizza gaina, pizza alla rustica, or simply pizza di pasqua (Easter pie). It is a southern-Italian tradition with versions having emerged from various regions. With myriad particular configurations, it is a dense pie [...]
I listen to National Public Radio each morning, and today, Maanvi Singh's story caught my attention. From it, I will predict a new psychological buzzword that could come to the field of education if some consultant or other picks up on it: flow. While I have profound concerns about the NPR segment's framing of flow [...]
I understand well the lament of teachers that this entity or that does not support classroom learning. Parents range from indifferent to supportive to hostile to meddling; administrators can lead, but they can also find themselves overworked or torn between competing priorities. Then, we have society, whose emphasis on diversion, consumption, and intensity hardly foster [...]
My father passed away nearly five years ago, and I am truly grateful for the memories I have of him. As I walked to school this morning, I noticed some forsythia and recalled early spring occasions over several years during my youth. My father would be driving me and my brother somewhere on a Saturday [...]
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’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 [...]
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 [...]
Finding myself about one-third of the way into this year’s March writing challenge, I would like to write about writing. This time through, circumstances are much different. I had neglected writing–and even reading–for several months leading into this calendar year. While I do much of both at school, I do so in connection with the [...]
On Friday, 17 November 2024, my partner Michelle, her two sons, and I went to see Wolfgang Van Halen’s band Mammoth WVH. They performed at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ to a capacity crowd. Nita Strauss was the opening act. The vast majority of the audience stood in an open area in front of [...]
Real Teaching 