writing
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Nellie Returns
Nellie and the Coven of Barbo is back! After a hiatus of a few weeks to wrap up the school term, I have returned to the regular publication schedule. In today’s chapter, we pick up where we left off: kids have disappeared, other kids are concerned, strange conversations have been overheard, and now two classmates Continue reading
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Time to Catch Up With Nellie
If you’ve been postponing reading Nellie and the Coven of Barbo, my YA adventure novel about preteen angst, new beginnings, and witches, now would be a good time to get caught up on the first 15 short chapters. Nellie will return on MONDAY, MAY 18, after I’ve plowed through all this test preparation, essay grading Continue reading
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Ten Chapters In: Thoughts on Online Serial Novel Writing
What are you going to do with your long weekend? Maybe you’d like to read the first ten short chapters of a serialized novel about a twelve-year-old girl who suspects something funny is going on in her small town of Gale Harbour, Newfoundland. If so, you will find this novel, Nellie and the Coven of Continue reading
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My Other Blog is a Novel: Introducing “Nellie and the Coven of Barbo”
Dear readers: Where have I been? I’ve been writing a little novel. It’s about half done. I’m going to post it, as a serial, on a blog. If you’d like to read it, it starts here. The working title is Nellie and the Coven of Barbo. It’s an adventure story about being a twelve-year-old girl. Continue reading
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What’s the Use of the Academic Paper?: Blogiversary Post #9
I’m still asking myself this question – “Is the academic paper the best way for students to demonstrate their learning?” – three years after publishing the original version of this post. In the interim, I’ve listened to the audiobook of Now You See It (discussed below), and I’m still not sure whether I’m onside with Davidson’s Continue reading
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Essay Structure: The Cake Analogy: Blogiversary Post #5
Here’s a nice little post with a link about using a “layer cake” analogy to explain essay writing to students. I’ve never actually used this analogy, but apparently a bunch of other people have, because the original post got a LOT of shares. So if your students aren’t getting how to put an essay together, Continue reading
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Blog Hop!
Apparently a “blog hop” is a thing. I’ve been invited to participate in this one by my friend Anita Lahey, whose fascinating blog Henrietta & Me is all about the books she’s reading and the people in them. Anita is a poet, essayist and journalist; her poetry collection Out to Dry in Cape Breton was Continue reading
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FYI
Dear Composition 101 students: “YOLO” is not a topic sentence. Continue reading
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Prompt #3: The Writing on Learning Exchange: Who Taught You?
Welcome to the third installment of the Writing on Learning Exchange! Thanks so much for all of you who contributed to the last two rounds. If you’d like to go back to Prompt #1, or to Prompt #2, please do! If you’d like to just start fresh with this round, that’s great too. For guidelines Continue reading
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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
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 