The school that I teach at used to have each of the new teachers tell something about themselves to the school early in that first year. I wrote about it here. But I recently, in a computer archeology moment, found the story that I told that day, so I thought I would share it here:…
Category: Memory and Story
Papers and Peas and Plans
So much to do: There is this website project that I can’t get my hands around. Second drafts of stories to read. Disappointing second drafts as many (not all) have few changes from first drafts (even proofreading!). A second set of papers are coming in Friday! Pronoun homework to look at to see who still…
Twenty Five Years? Really?
…Knowing how way leads on to way…. (Frost) A post, led to a comment, led to a post, led to a photo, that led to an abandoned piece of writing. So, I think I will share it here. More sailing memories. And to be clear, shortly after this Thanksgiving I fell in LOVE with Antigua:…
Knocked Down
This post was started as comment on my friend Paul Barosse’s blog – Paul’s Voyages of Discovery & Etc. Doyle has asked for a story, and as I have 11 costumes to create for the unicycle act at Science Fiction: An Experiment in Circus, I’m going to start with this kernel. Alas, not a garden…
Playlist Part 2 – R & B and (just post) college
R &B/Soul/Jazz that I discovered in Chicago Just saying – these artists didn’t get a lot of airplay in South Dakota. If I heard them it was after dark on a clear channel out of Minneapolis or Chicago. Stax stuff especially cool. The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-h Child” (a good song during tough stuff) The…
Reading student stories – playlist
I am looking for suggestions of songs that are motivational, energizing, BUT not too distracting to add to the “I am reading student stories” playlist. No show tunes: I sing along. So here are parts from my playlist: Faves From Middle School and High School Billy Preston – I can still see Charlie Hendrickson leading…
Halloween Memories
Today in class we were writing memoir pieces about Halloween. I started with reading two chapters of Knucklehead, the memoir of Jon Scieszka author of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and then we started writing our own memories of Halloween. Like the crazy lady who lived down the block from us…
Many Voices
October continues treating us with passion and gentleness as befits this time of year. There are few people that I know (outside of my classical musician neighbors) who might totally geek out with me about this piece of music. But I’m going to share it with you and the tiny little glimmer of hope that…
Light
I have been taking yoga classes for the past two years with Bob Whittinghill, an amazing Iyengar teacher in Chicago. I admit to only really feeling like I have been “studying” yoga for the last year or so. The first year I spent just trying to stay upright or supine or whatever the asana required. …
Poets and Peas
We’ve been looking at American poets in class this week and I always like these days. Each student brings in a poet and we look at their life and an amuse-bouche of their work. This week we had Robert Creeley (and his poem Zero), Paul Laurence Dunbar (and his Caged Bird and some of his…
Bracketology
It’s all about the final four – While we were in the midst of March Madness we captured these literature brackets from my students. Characters The Bracket Maker Would Like to Marry – out of a varied field of potential mates, four emerge in the finals – Odysseus (the ultimate hero), Rorschach, Jay Gatsby, and…
Living on the Lip of Insanity 