teaching
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The Lure of the Porch
How am I supposed to get anything done today if it is going to be such a glorious sit-on-the-porch rainy day? I can count on one hand the number of days before I report back for the new school year. I have a to-do list of to-do lists and I have been dutifully checking my Continue reading
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Teaching From Home: One Month In
Good news! A month of teaching from home has not killed me. It came close in Week Three, with my resting heart rate mounting from stress and an allergy medication contributing side effects of anxiety and depression. But the doc released me from the allergy med and we got –dramatic pause– Spring Break! I don’t Continue reading
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Teaching From Home: Setting the Pace in Week Two
There are a lot of runners in my family. You could say it runs in the family. Sorry. Not. I am not one of them. I walk. But I still know the difference between a sprint and a marathon. This COVID-19 teaching experience is a marathon like no other. And we don’t even know Continue reading
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Teaching from Home: We Survived Week One
We did it—my students and I got through our first week of school from home! The learning curve has been steep but, with the weekend’s respite from students, I may get beyond the feeling of treading water to actual swimming. THE KICK-OFF Half the stress of this week was due to the shock of Continue reading
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Les Rûches de Notre Dame and the Prize of Paris Honey: Beekeepers Go to Paris
We were dining in Montmartre when the news broke that Notre Dame was on fire. Almost instantly, our phones began dinging with texts from back home. “Notre Dame is on fire!” “Where are you? Are you ok?” Concern for our well-being came with snarky comments, too: “Was John smoking cigars in the restroom at Notre Continue reading
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Emily and The Tree
Little Emily loves the Japanese maple in the Maywood yard. It’s over fifty years old, planted by Emily’s great-great grandmother Retta. And it is the perfect tree for little ones to learn to climb on. The main trunk divides into two very low to the ground, so little legs can easily climb into it. The Continue reading
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Spinning Wheels
Let’s start with a poll: When I came home yesterday, I immediately noticed footprints leading to the front door. We hardly use the front door, so we don’t shovel to it. Maywood Man has enough to do with plowing and there’s no reason for me to shovel a walk that no one ever uses. There Continue reading
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Embracing the lunatic fringe
I was called a lunatic this weekend and it made me really happy. Why? Because I was in an auditorium filled with other lunatics and it was so nice to have company. We were all lunatics. Language learning loonies who sold out a conference to hear a linguist. Stephen Krashen spoke at the MDTESOL conference. For Continue reading
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Clouds
apple in hand looking through windows at the cloud What do you picture? A puffy white cloud seen through a window frame with a crisp Red Delicious waiting to be eaten? Or do you notice the incongruity of trying to access the Cloud using Windows and an Ipad? My day began with clouds. Real clouds. Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 