career
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Reprise
Dear readers: I’ve received some comments and missives recently from discouraged teachers who have stumbled upon my blog and have found it helpful. This makes me very happy. However, there’s a place I want to send them, and I can’t. So I’m going to try to fix this problem. A few years ago, I published Continue reading
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When In Doubt, Make a Plan
On Monday, I posted a letter I received from a reader, asking advice about whether he should stay in college. I promised you I would post my reply today, and here it is. I sent this response before posting his letter here, and before reading your thoughts on his situation, but some commenters will notice Continue reading
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When to be Nice
Three weeks left in the semester. I am trying not to drown. I can’t write much today, but please read this and tell me what you think: is there such a thing as too nice, especially where female academics are concerned? Image by Chris Bowers, from the Images from #Occupy Facebook album 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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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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Dear Auntie Siobhan: Should I Become a Teacher?
Hi Siobhan, First, let me say that your blog is a great resource. I stumbled on it a few weeks ago and have read almost all of the entries. Your writing is refreshingly articulate, and I have enjoyed reading it. I’m considering a career in CEGEP teaching down the line. At this stage I have Continue reading
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how I saved my teaching career part 7: meditate!
The penultimate post in my series “How I Saved My Teaching Career” appeared on School Gate this morning. In this post, I describe how learning to meditate made me a better teacher. Continue reading
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School vs. the Real World
Today I came across a post called “‘Meaningful’ School-to-Career” on the blog In Pursuit of Excellence. The blogger asks, Schools provide young people with a solid academic foundation to build the rest of their lives on. But schools are also supposed to prepare students for the real world….How can the real adult world they will 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 