adolescence
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What Young Adults Should Read
There’s been a lot of furor over the recent Wall Street Journal essay that claims that YA fiction has taken a turn to the dark side. It isn’t surprising that my favourite commentary on this piece so far comes from Linda Holmes, editor of the NPR pop-culture blog Monkey See and moderator of my fifth-favourite podcast Continue reading
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Character = Behavior: A Lesson Plan
Two parallel experiences over the last couple of weeks have culminated in a lesson plan that I may need to add to my permanent roster. First, I’ve been meeting with students to look at their first at-home essay. Their essays have to include a discussion of characterization, but it’s clear that many of them are Continue reading
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Rolling in the Girls’ Room
Yesterday, the following conversation occurred on my personal Facebook page. * Siobhan: Am I an old fuddy-duddy because I just emailed Security about the two boys and their girlfriend sitting on the counter in the women’s washroom rolling a massive joint? Am I less of a fuddy-duddy because, after I kicked them out and found Continue reading
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I Like My High School
If you read the world’s best fashion magazine – I Like My Style – then you will have seen their spread on the High School of Fashion Industries, a vocational high school in NYC that, according to its website, “devotes itself entirely to the world of fashion from styling and design through business and marketing.” Continue reading
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Ten Wonderful Things, Part Four: Harry Potter
The fourth of ten things I loved about teaching this past semester. 4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone I’ve been doing a lot of reading about reading lately. Since I began teaching CEGEP, I’ve become aware of a problem that directly influences everything I do (or, at least, it should) but I don’t know Continue reading
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Ten Wonderful Things, Part Three: Early Mornings
At least ten things went right this semester. This is the third one. 3. Early Morning Classes A few semesters ago, I requested the “early schedule” (8 a.m. – 4 p.m., as opposed to 10 a.m – 6 p.m.) for the first time. I had been relegated to the early schedule fairly often in my Continue reading
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A World Without People
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 well – my Child Studies students just finished reading the first Harry Potter book, and we talked about why most of them loved it, and I asked them 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 