One of my most enjoyable duties as a teacher is sponsoring the school’s literary magazine. It’s a joy to discuss layout, poetry, and artwork with students and search my school for the best. I was pleased that this past year, our publication earned VHSL’s top honor, Trophy Class. And this …
Sometimes, on a crazy morning, I look at my two kids and my two corgis and try to remember what life was like without them. Like, when I could actually consider things like what I wanted for breakfast or what I wanted to read while I consumed said leisurely breakfast. …
It is no secret that I love Halloween. I am just as happy as my three-year-old to be headed from one pumpkin festival to another. As a teacher, I am always looking for read-aloud resources for those days when I have no voice (three-year-olds are good at attracting bugs) and …
I like to hoard “Fantastic Friday” ideas. Some I keep scrawled on notebook paper. Some I keep open as a tab in my browser. Sometimes I’m saving them for a particular anniversary or time of year. Other times, I’m saving them for a time when they are needed the most. …
My son turned one recently, which is a big milestone. I’ve been selling many of the baby things, clearing out space in the house, and reclaiming time for myself as he sleeps longer through the nights (though not straight through just yet…). The hardest years of my life were the …
I went to bed the night before, ready for a great day. Tomorrow would be my anniversary, and my husband and I were going to celebrate with steak, scallops, corn on the cob, and a homemade dessert. The morning didn’t quite live up to the excitement, with both kids having …
I came home after a week away at vacation, and my already un-weeded front garden looked even more unruly than usual. I took a closer look—you know, to triage the situation, pull the most easy and unruly of the plants. That’s when I noticed a type of plant I don’t …
Yes, I’m still an English teacher. I haven’t moved into physics or anything. But I was tutoring a student, who had to write an essay on Latent Heat of Fusion. My coursework in science is several years old and a bit rusty, and when I started Googling the term, I …
In a discussion with some students, I was made aware of the startling number of hours teenagers spend “on their phones.” When I asked what they did with all that time, they admitted that mostly their time was spent using apps like Snapchat and Instagram, browsing others’ posts and pictures …
In teaching literature, my students often ask me the same question I asked when I was a student. Why, in literature, do protagonists always have to battle such unpleasant things? After discussion, we always swing back to the answer: overcoming obstacles is part of the human condition. Whether we succeed …