learning
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Children’s Literature Reading List Update
In the last two days, I have read/reread: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler Then Again, Maybe I Won’t A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 1: A Bad Beginning The Phantom Tollbooth I have also spent several lovely hours wandering through the stacks of three different children’s libraries. The nostalgia is permeating… Continue reading
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Education and Growing: Reprise
Foreword: It’s been a rough week. Things at work are going fine, but life outside of work – especially life as a new homeowner – has been, shall we say, challenging. Full of minor and major inconveniences. Full of questions about whether buying a house, buying THIS house, was such a good idea. My husband… Continue reading
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Things I Learned From Buying a House #3: Demystification
My husband and I are taking a home repair class, because since we moved into our brand new very old house, we’ve been paying people a lot of money to do things we could probably do ourselves. The class defies some current wisdom about what makes for “good teaching.” And it’s great. And I’m learning… Continue reading
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How To Fix Schools: Shorten Summer Vacation
In response to my open call on what should change about school, commenter emeraldlakesfreepress has an interesting suggestion. I think the school year schedule has to change. Long summers mean that children have months to forget what they have learned. 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off, with a slightly longer break in the winter and… Continue reading
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Willing to Read and Write: Reprise
Last week, this post – first published in September of last year – spiked in my blog stats. It seemed a whole pile of people were reading it, but I couldn’t figure out who or why, although the search term “effort” had a corresponding spike. Maybe now, at midterm, teachers and students are being hard… Continue reading
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How Literature Will Save the World: Reprise
Why should we keep reading? Why should my students learn to love reading? I began asking myself this question in 2010, and I keep asking it, of myself and others. Below, some of my initial thoughts on the matter. * Lately, I’ve been thinking about reading. Last summer I published a post in which I mourned… Continue reading
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Arrows into Blossoms: Reprise
My meditation practice has fallen to the wayside these days. It would be wise for me to return to it. In November 2009, I was tired of a lot of things, and some Buddhist reflections were helpful. In particular, I spent time thinking about the writings of Pema Chodron, a tattoo of the Buddha under… Continue reading
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Things I Learned From Buying a House #2: Money Does Not Grow On Trees
If it did, I’d have a lot more than I used to, because I didn’t use to own any trees, and now I own six. Well, three trees, and two lilac bushes, and a cedar shrub. Nevertheless, money doesn’t grow on any of them. I have gone through periods in my adult life when I… Continue reading
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Holden Caulfield Has Left the Building: Reprise
I’m not teaching The Catcher in the Rye this term, but I’m pre-planning next year’s course on novels about adolescence, and wondering whether to include it in the list. The post below, first published in June 2009, grapples with the possibility that maybe it’s not the best choice for today’s youth, at least not those in… Continue reading
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Things I Learned From Buying a House #1: I Can Do It
You can do things you don’t think you can do. For most of my adult life, I said that I didn’t want to own a house. It was too much responsibility. I was willing to “pay someone else’s mortgage,” as people kept describing it, if it meant that someone else had to call the plumber… Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 