Category Archives: Teaching

May 10, 2013

Why you shouldn’t tell your kid to fight back

As a teacher, I often find myself in the position of telling a parent (most often a father) that it is a bad idea to encourage his or her child to fight back if confronted with aggression. I understand the … Continue reading →

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April 23, 2013

A book about sex that I should’ve written.

The Daily Beast reports on a new book, The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy, available in stores soon: A new sex guide to be published in Hebrew aims at teaching orthodox Jews the basics of sex. How basic? The book … Continue reading →

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April 18, 2013

Children swallowing poisoned beads was not my original plan. I swear.

In 2012 I participated in the Books on the Nightstand Booktopia event in Santa Cruz, California. The culmination of the weekend is an event called the Celebration of Author, wherein each author speaks for about ten minutes. My talk, as … Continue reading →

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March 28, 2013

An interview with my not-so-fictional character

In case you didn’t know, Mrs. Gosk, the third grade teacher in MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND, is a real person. I’ve worked with her for the past fifteen years, and when I started my teaching career, she served as … Continue reading →

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January 9, 2013

Best use of duct tape ever

I received a gift in the mail last week from a former student. Here it is. At first I thought that she has simply seen the Patriots logo, been aware of the versatile nature of duct tape and decided it … Continue reading →

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December 29, 2012

Charity sucks. At least in this instance.

There was once a device marketed to housewives  that would charge anyone who wanted to ring the doorbell 10 cents as a mean of reducing the number of traveling salesmen knocking on their doors. In order to ring the doorbell, … Continue reading →

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December 18, 2012

Miss me, damn it.

Thousands of North Koreans faced six months in labor camp for not being upset enough about death of Kim Jong-il. I impose a similar rule for when I am absent from school. I expect my students to pine over me … Continue reading →

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December 2, 2012

Affirmation from a Moth audience is unbelievable. Affirmation from a bunch of kids is damn good, too.

As a second grader, comedian and actor Jamie Foxx was so talented at telling jokes that his teacher used him as a reward. If the class behaved, he would entertain them. I don’t know who Jaime Foxx’s teacher was, but … Continue reading →

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October 23, 2012

Read Shakespeare and avoid children’s theater

On Saturday night I had the honor of joining nine other authors and audiobook narrators for Books on the Nightstand’s Celebration of Authors. Each of us were asked to speak on a topic of our choice (presumably pertaining to books … Continue reading →

Posted in Appearances, Books, Teaching | 2 Comments
October 12, 2012

Spite is right

I’ve often said that spite is the best reason to do anything. Here is further evidence of this fact: British scientist John Gurdon is told by his high school teacher that there was no hope of him ever studying science, … Continue reading →

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