My 7-year-old currently claims that he has a hard time falling asleep. He’s not lying exactly. The other night, I sat next to his bed in the too-small-for-a-grown-up beanbag chair, waiting for him to nod off. He tossed, turned, tossed some more. Finally, I squeezed… Read More
All posts tagged “Slice of Life”
Slice of Life: The next time…
At an ILA panel on Saturday, graphic novelist Gene Yang shared how much superheroes and comics meant to him and for his reading life when he was growing up. The panel, titled “Disrupting a Destructive Cycle,” focused on how we can work to disrupt the… Read More
Slice of Life: Embarrassment
It was the first day of class, and we talked about embarrassment. Not in the “share your most embarrassing moment” get-to-know/team-building exercise way. One of the most embarrassing moments of my teaching was when I went to school with two different shoes on. And as… Read More
Slice of Life 29: Post-it Ideas
Sometimes the best lesson ideas come to me at the most unexpected times, which is usually when I grab a post-it note to write it down and stick it on my desk, next to my computer, somewhere I’ll find it again. Two “post-it” ideas today:
Slice of Life 14: Disruptive Teaching
“If you’re not challenging systems of power and privilege, then you’re perpetuating them.” I’ve heard this line in some version over the last few months, at various workshops and other PD, including more than one NCTE session last fall. I’ve been thinking about it a lot,… Read More
Slice of Life 8: Fifteen suggestions
On this International Women’s Day, I finished reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new book Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. The book is structured as a letter to Adichie’s friend who asked her how she could raise her young daughter to be a feminist.… Read More
Slice of Life 25: Lessons from Mario Kart
Colin, my five-year-old, loves playing Mario Kart. He wasn’t even a year old, barely walking, when he first held those Nintendo Wii controllers in his still chubby baby hands. Who knew that when we let him pretend play with his older brother that five years later—a… Read More
Slice of Life 23: Rethinking Time to Read
On my list of things to do this spring break was to plan out the next unit in both of my classes. In my AP Lang class, the time after spring break means a shift toward the AP exam. With only a few weeks left, I’m… Read More
Slice of Life: To Minivan or Not to Minivan
So it finally happened. We bought a minivan. The fact that we bought a minivan seemed to evoke (provoke?) plenty of discussion among our friends and family. As we waited at the dealership for the paperwork to be finalized, I posted a picture to Facebook… Read More
Slice of Life 31: Purpose with a capital P
I came across this infographic in one of my social media feeds the other day and immediately saved it. I tried to locate the original source by doing a reverse image Google search, but it looks like the image has been copied/pasted around so much on… Read More
