real life
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Old Lady Studies Japanese
The other day, someone I don’t know well wrote me a short message in Japanese. He’s not Japanese, and I don’t know how he knew that I can read simple words in hiragana (“ありがとうございます” = “Thank you.”). The delight I felt over this tiny connection turned my day around. Last week, my Japanese teacher asked… Continue reading
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One Minute of Solitude: Reprise
We are six weeks into the semester, and I’m starting to pinpoint small classroom management issues and think about appropriate responses. Nothing major has arisen so far (fingers crossed), but whenever I am confronted with hints of passive-aggressiveness, defiance or rudeness, I start evaluating what I need to do: ignore? Confront? Defuse in some other… 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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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
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The Uses of Boredom: Reprise
An earlier version of this week’s reprint appeared in July of 2009. It tells the story of how and why I became a reader. And it asks: how do we learn to like challenging tasks if we live in a world where boredom is impossible? * I became a reader because I was bored. I… Continue reading
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Too Many Books
The Husband and I are moving soon. The other night, we invited a mover over to give us a quote. He looked around and said, “It’s going to cost you a fortune. You have too many books.” I know what some of you are thinking. Never! Sacrilege! No such thing! These were not my responses.… Continue reading
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Things They Should Teach In School
The Husband and I have just finalized a deal to purchase a house. (To read about one of the more dramatic adventures of our search, go here.) In the process, we’ve had to do all sorts of things that we’ve never had to do before. We didn’t have the faintest clue how to tackle some… Continue reading
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Bad Teacher
Is it possible for a bad person to be a good teacher? The Husband and I have been on an adventure. We have been looking for a condo for the last couple of months – mortgage pre-approvals! Real estate agents! Notaries and house inspectors! We feel like grownups – and two weeks ago, we found… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 7: Write a Blog
This is the final post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. In the summer of 2007, my burnout reached its peak. I’d taken some steps to deal with it (and you can check out the links below to read… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 5: Get More Training
This is the sixth post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. One advantage of being a teacher is that it’s easy to keep learning, and learning, and learning. I got my education degree years ago, specializing in Teaching English… Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.