french
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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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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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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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Convalescence, The Invalid Wife, and Emerging Bees
I’m convalescing these days. Convalescence is a great word, although we hardly use it anymore. It conjures up images of sickly people bundled up in thick blankets and wheeled outside for a bit of sun. Or rich sickly people doing the same thing on deck chairs of a cruise ship circa 1923. To my stressed-out co-workers it means I’m taking the winter off. Continue reading
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Cleaning the Chocolate Fountain
A chocolate fountain really adds “wow” factor to a party. We’ve included a chocolate fountain in our holiday parties for several years now. If you acknowledge up front that the massive amounts of chocolate are mostly going to be tossed out and that you ought to have an empty dishwasher when you put chocolate-coated parts Continue reading
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Gouttières and Dutch boys’ suits
This is transition week. Next Monday teachers report back to work. This is the week I’m torn by what to do. Do I sit and relax? Do I frantically finish summer projects? Do I “set my face toward Jerusalem” and dig into school work? All of the above? None of the above? (None of the Continue reading
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Sage Blossoms
Sage blossom–it sounds like a paint color that my daughter Kristin would pick, except that she picks variations on sage green. Sage blossoms are purple. I didn’t even know that sage got flowers until two years ago. (Just shows how “expert” a gardener I am.) At that point my plants had decided they were mature enough Continue reading
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Fête du muguet
I’ve been around long enough not to be surprised, but I’m still delighted at how things bloom every year like clockwork. It is now May and the lilies of the valley are opening their little bell-shaped flowers right on schedule. In France, May 1st is the Fête du Muguet, when one gives bouquets of lily of the valley Continue reading
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Motivation…complete lack of motivation
Another snow day. And the big deal doesn’t hit until tonight. Oh, I don’t mind. I still live for snow days, even though I have given all my exams except for period seven. If we had gone in today, I could call it a wrap on first semester. Alas, that is still hanging over my Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 