personal
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Prompt #2: The Writing on Learning Exchange: What I Want To Learn Now
Welcome to the second installment of the Writing on Learning Exchange! Thanks so much for all of you who contributed to the last round. If you’d like to go back to Prompt #1, no worries; there are no deadlines! If you’d like to just pick up the ball from here, that’s great too. This is Continue reading
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Why You Should Fall in Love with Abed Nadir or Some Other Imaginary Person
I want my students to believe that it’s good to fall in love with fictional people. But I may be wrong. My English course for Child Studies majors is called “A Question of Character.” We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing what “characterization” means in literature, and what “character” means in life. Along the way, Continue reading
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The Worst of Me
Which of your character traits is your worst enemy, in your life but especially in your job? In one of my courses, we’re writing reference letters for fictional characters. In addition, as a possible blog assignment, I suggested students write reference letters for themselves, imagining they’re applying for their dream job and giving an honest Continue reading
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My Top 10 Books of 2012
It’s time again for the list of books that I enjoyed most this year. As always, only some of these books were published in 2012, but they were all a part of my 2012 experience. 1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Each of my top 5 could easily have been #1. In the end, I Continue reading
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What’s That When It’s At Home?
Dear Readers: I will be back in a few weeks with my yearly “Best Books” and “Top Posts” lists, but otherwise, Classroom as Microcosm will be on hiatus from now until the end of January. I hope you’ll consider, in the interim, subscribing to my personal/homestyle/living blog, What’s That When It’s At Home? This new blog Continue reading
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Now You’ve Made Me Mad: Reprise
I don’t like this time of the semester. A couple of years ago at around this time, I summarized why. * What do you mean, “Why am I failing English?” You’ve failed EVERY SINGLE ASSIGNMENT since the beginning of the course. You handed in your first essay 2 weeks late, and you wouldn’t have handed Continue reading
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Without People: Reprise
As the semester draws to a close, I have more and more days like this one, which happened back in 2010. Few turn out this well, however. * Yesterday, when I left school, I wanted to live in a world without people in it for just a little while. My classes that morning had gone Continue reading
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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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How Can I Get More Sleep?
A couple of years ago, Arianna Huffington gave a TED talk in which she exhorted women to get more sleep. I’ve been thinking about that talk a lot lately, because I’m tired. All the time. I recently bumped my alarm forward from 5 a.m. to 5:15, and that has made a tiny difference. But I still 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
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 