Teaching is full of unexpected surprises
One billion years ago, I taught a third grader named Kaity to multiply. Last night, as Elysha and I were leaving for a Moth StorySLAM in Somerville, I asked Kaity, now…
One billion years ago, I taught a third grader named Kaity to multiply. Last night, as Elysha and I were leaving for a Moth StorySLAM in Somerville, I asked Kaity, now…
Attention politicians, policy wonks, educational advocates, professors of education, and anyone else who wants to have a say in education:"Every human being who wants to have an opinion of American…
My daughter and I pulled this book off her shelf last night, written by a former student named Maddie and given to Clara when she was born seven years ago.…
Never, ever ask a woman if she is pregnant. Old people look weird but have lots and lots of good stuff to say. “I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I…
The most common response to a piece I wrote last month entitled 12 Things Teachers Think But Can’t Always Say to Parents was a suggested addition to the list. It…
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Patrick Modiano, who had this to say about the writing process during his acceptance speech: Writing is a strange and solitary…
Parent-teacher conferences begin for me this week. I will sit down with parents and students and discuss academic progress, effort, behavior, and the students’ prospective futures in middle school and…
A student from my very first class, way back in 1999, sent me this photo. It’s actually a screen grab from a video that they were watching. It’s me, of…
Yesterday was the two year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. On that day back in 2012, I sat down and wrote something. Then I filed it…
As the New Year approaches and the endless possibilities of the coming year loom on the horizon, I always like to take a moment and reset my current occupational status,…