I was in the 5th grade. Things seemed pretty scary. We had survived 1968. Assassinations, marches, the Chicago Convention. We had yet to experience the horror of Kent State. On Jan. 20, Richard Milhous Nixon was sworn in as the nation’s 37th President. I had the same out of body feeling years ago that I…
Author: Kate Tabor
English teacher in a JK-12 school
I hate dioramas.
I’m just saying. My daughters in the sixth grade are on their third set of dioramas for the year in Social Studies. As a modality – once – I’m okay, but this is crazy! And they come back from school like boomerangs in just a few short days. How does this teacher even begin to…
7 things meme
Like Kelly Christopherson I haven’t officially been tagged on this one, but with two open invitations from plurk friends, I’m guessing that I shouldn’t worry and just jump in. So, seven things that you don’t know about me: I love to sing. If I could just figure out how to wrap it into my day…
Cross Posting – Pie Wisdom
This was originally posted on my family food blog, but I thought that I should have it here as well. If you’ve already read this there, please pardon the redundancy: Paul C over at quoteflections asks: What is your skill which has been developed through practice and experience? You have respect for this skill and…
Should I stay or should I go now…
I’ve been wrestling with a question this last week. The teacher who took my position as seventh grade English teacher is leaving for points east, Boston specifically. She’s been a delightful colleague and we will miss her. At the end of the break my old boss, the head of the middle school, asked me to…
Provisioning in Bermuda
This post is the first in a series about the year I spent (fall 1985-August 1986) as the cook/stewardess/deckhand on the Jubliee, a 75″ sloop. When you shop for food, supplies, and stores on a boat it is called provisioning. Provisioning is a snap, really, when you are traveling shorter passages (three to five days),…
Jubilee Photo Album
That darn 99 things meme and Michael Doyle’s comment has got me thinking about the year (fall 1985 to 1986) I spent on a boat – a 75 foot, sloop rigged, Ted Hood designed motor sailor. Well, I’ve tried to write about this and I find that I can’t write about it all at one…
99 things meme
I’ve seen this in a few places the last few days – at Susan Sedro’s blog most recently (and she references Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog where I was immediately intimidated by his revision of it). THE 99 THINGS MEME Things you’ve already done: bold Things you want to do: italicize Things you haven’t done…
The Wordle Challenge
Paul at quoteflections tagged me on this one, and it has taken me a bit of time to get to it. I created the wordle last week hoping I would get to it – here it is: I use Wordle in my classroom to help make abstractions more concrete. My favorite way to do this…
Cold and Apples
I have been saving the last of the Wolf River Apples, carefully stored in the basement refrigerator for the holidays. I made an apple pie at Thanksgiving using them, and the last ten pounds will be for Hanukkah applesauce. Wolf River apples are unusual for two reasons: they are HUGE, the size of a large…
Get Out of Jail Free Card
I’m a sucker for tired students. So today, when the seniors dragged themselves into class I moved the assignment from Thursday before break to the Thursday after break. And then I let them do homework in class – Mind and Brain projects, reading for my class, working on drafts, studying for the Chem IV test,…
Putting all the pieces together
I work with the United States History and the other American Literature teachers on a project that is wholly valuable, consistently maddening, and frequently time sucking. There are definitely days when it doesn’t feel worth all the work, all the talking and thinking, all the mediating and prodding. And then a student will remind me…
Living on the Lip of Insanity 