Tricia Ebarvia

My 9th graders and I are in the middle of reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Purple Hibiscus. We are about half-way through the book, and it seemed a good time to hear from the author herself by watching a TED Talk she delivered a few years… Read More

A short post today as I get ready to head back to school tonight to chaperone the “Mr. Pioneer” talent show/fundraiser (add this to my growing list of things I thought I’d never do)… I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my teaching practice, why… Read More

A few days ago, I asked my 9th graders to set a reading goal for themselves. For many of them, this goal could have been something as simple as staying focused while reading or stopping periodically to assess their understanding. “What’s your goal, Mrs. Ebarvia?” a… Read More

Last year, as I was reading Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist, I came across a passage that struck me: If you ask yourself, ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent… Read More

This morning, I asked my AP Lang students to take out their notebooks and respond to the following prompt, “List five things you’ve done that you never thought you’d do.” There were some interesting, if not random, responses. Among them: I never thought I’d get… Read More

It was Back-to-School Night at my sons’ school, September 2012. As my husband and I walked through the too-small hallways towards my sons’ classrooms, I saw an older gentleman in the crowd approaching from the opposite direction.

I would have recognized him anywhere. Tall, shaved head, and smiling eyes—it was Mr. Wemple, my former high school social studies teacher.

Because my boys are in public school, every Tuesday afternoon, I drop Matthew and Toby off at our church for their weekly P.R.E.P. class. When I was growing up, we called it C.C.D., but now it’s just P.R.E.P., or Parish Religious Education Program. I went… Read More