Yesterday we had to put down our Siberian Husky. At just under eleven years, it seemed too soon. She was an independent girl, always – she came to us as a rescue out of a home inexperienced in the ways of Northern Breed dogs. She was always wary, backing away from a sudden movement, but…
Trying Something New With Something Old
My seventh grade class is studying Romeo and Juliet, and we are reading the play aloud in class. This allows me to preview scenes, stop and start to think about what is happening, attitudes, emotions, word play, allusions…. but there is no homework involved with this. I want them to come away with an appreciation…
It is a truth universally acknowledged….
Today is the 200th anniversary if the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.. I came to Austen later in my reading life. I read Georgette Heyer (which was just autocorrected as Heyerdahl – and that makes perfect sense, but only later) and all kinds of modern Regency romances in high school in the early…
Grades and Grading
I’m getting my gradebook up to date today, attempting to quantify the unquantifiable. I teach seventh grade. Assessing their work is a bit like comparing butterflies. Or buttons. Each child is different. Seventh graders come in all shapes and sizes (look at a seventh grade girl and a seventh grade boy – they can appear…
The Inevitable Cold (and why I’m happy this break is two weeks long)
Of course, a few days after the last day of school in December, I caught a cold. I suspect that this is the cold that was being passed around school, and I am so so secretly delighted that this was NOT the flu that was being passed around. It took almost a week to shake…
TLDR – what began as a facebook post
I wrote this back on October 22, returning from NYC and my father-in-law’s memorial service – heaven only knows why I didn’t post it. Today as I was waiting in line for the loo on the plane as we awaited clearance to leave Detroit (where we had detoured because of the storm) a woman behind…
Three Plays about one big whale
Egad – I know – I owe you a TON of posts from York and Leeds, but right now I want to just say, “Moby Dick.” I bought a poster last night. I don’t usually do that, but the poster is a keeper – it looks screened to me as the paper is the color…
York – part 1
I am in York on what is apparently the museum tour to end all museum tours. I really like the city. It’s old. Really old. Like AD71 old. Roman centurion old. And before Constantine showed up, people were living here, so it’s even older than that. So, for thousands of years people have been living…
An Expotition
Sunday was a treat. Instead of bumbling my way from Harrogate to York on the train, my brother met me, and we had a motoring adventure that ended for me in York but continued a bit for Matt. Matt collected me in Harrogate at 10:00 in his rented red Nissan Juke. I, of course, moved…
Victorian Lady – Harrogate
I spent the weekend at a guesthouse in Harrogate (pronounced Harragut, like Farragut). It was in its heyday a spa city, having found what seem like a gajillion different mineral springs easily accessible in a small number of square miles. The most important was a sulphur spring that still provides water stinky enough to clear…
Theater in Dublin
I was able to see two plays in Dublin. When the bus dropped me off on O’Connell Street, I noticed that the Gate had Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance playing. Not a single ticket available to that, and I thought my scheme of just showing up and seeing plays might fall apart. But no….
Dublin
I just spent four lovely days in Dublin, learning to understand English as spoken by Dubliners and seriously geeking out about books, poetry, plays and just writing and writers in general. I arrived in the early morning on Monday and I grabbed a short nap before heading out. Over the four days I had delicious…
Living on the Lip of Insanity 