real life
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 4: Face Your Fears
This is the fifth post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. When I first started teaching, I was scared. Terrified, in fact. I’d taken a job as a Second Language Monitor – a sort of assistant language teacher – Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 3: Find Your Community
This is the fourth post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. Teaching can be lonely. We spend a lot of time with our students, but our relationships with them can feel adversarial and/or distant. Even our good relationships with Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 1: Take Stock. Is It Worth It?
This is the second post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. For the introductory post, go here. On Monday, I introduced my career crisis. After teaching joyfully for many years, I was tired, discouraged and ready to quit. But I paused before throwing in the towel. I took a 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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What Will Happen If I Leave College?
Last week, I received this query from N, a college sophomore. I will publish my reply on Thursday, but for now, I’d like to know what you think. What should he do? Dear Auntie Siobhan: My senior year of high school I found myself going from a good student in AP classes to having no Continue reading
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Life and Death and Anthologies
Anthologies are odd. They’re compiled of a lot of stuff that someone thinks we should read, and so they have little to do with the real experience of reading. Being a “reader” is as much about wandering down the aisle of a bookstore looking for attractive covers, or downloading an excerpt on a Kindle based Continue reading
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The First Days of School: Then and Now
Today is the beginning of the new school year for me and my colleagues, and many of you will be getting back into the saddle in the next couple of weeks. As I prepare, my thoughts have returned to three of my past posts that still seem timely. The first is called “Mean ‘Til Hallowe’een: Continue reading
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Word Jars and Grocery Lists: “Your Child’s Writing Life” by Pam Allyn
The premise of Pam Allyn’s parenting guide Your Child’s Writing Life is as follows: “There are endless practical books to help parents raise their children. But until now there has not been a book about the importance of getting our kids to understand that every book and story began when someone, somewhere decided to write down Continue reading
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What Swimming Taught Me About Teaching
It’s good for a teacher to be a student once in a while. I learn this lesson over and over as I pursue my MEd. I have encountered all sorts of challenges I’d forgotten about, like worrying about grades and managing my time in order to get readings done and papers written. I’ve had to Continue reading
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In Which Siobhan Does Not Lose Her Temper Over Important Literary and Pedagogical Matters
Is non-fiction less “literary” than fiction? Someone has suggested to me that it is, and I’m so mad about it I could spit. Last week, I attended a meeting with English teachers from several colleges. We were there to give feedback to the creators of some online essay-writing activities. We looked at some sample exercises, 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 