Monthly Archives: March, 2010
April Showers (Of Poetry)
In the middle of grading and spring breaks and grading and lesson planning, I completely forgot that April was coming! Okay, not April–I do have calendars and such–but April is also National Poetry Month! Exciting for teachers and writers alike! Last year I was more organized in my celebratory efforts, and this year, it got …
Experiment
This is one of those posts that I hate to read and hate to write, but I’m checking something about posting that has been giving me trouble, and I’m too frantic right now (grades due Wednesday) to work on any of the longer, more thoughtful drafted posts that I have ready. So here I go, …
Centering
Last week, I spent most of the day Wednesday getting a hot-stone massage (stones pictured above), facial, and manicure/pedicure. I debated about whether to post about it–it seemed a little “let them eat cake-ish”–but then I decided that if you can’t be a little self-indulgent on a personal blog, where can you be? The facial …
Help Me Help You
One of my fears as my girls grew older was that soon, they would move into that part of childhood where they have secret fears and hurts, the kind that can’t be fixed with a Band-aid, the kind that might fester in the dark corners of their little minds, the kind I wish with all …
Blogging Catcher in the Rye
For the fall semester, my ninth graders began every class with a freewrite. They would go to my website’s calendar and view the page for that day, which would have a question for them to answer, or would give them a poem or quote to respond to and connect to our reading. I tried to …
Blogging Hamlet
I knew I wanted to try student blogs with my juniors after our Gatsby Facebook project was such a success, and now that I feel more confident with managing and explaining digital projects with my students. I also knew I was committed to digging deep into my Shakespeare Set Free book (which is absolutely invaluable) …
What Makes A Great Teacher, Part Four
I thought this series (which I did in one, two, three parts already) was over, but then another long-form article on how to make great teachers popped up, with more books I want to buy and fancy demonstration videos to boot. At first, I didn’t know that there’s a lot said here that wasn’t said …
Fresh Starts
Now is the time of year when those two small words are constantly running through my head: Spring Break! Mine is only a week away, and since my girls have a different school schedule, spring break is usually a staycation around these parts. I try to tackle a house project each year, but it’s also …
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