teaching
-
Life-long learning…
Teachers are constantly astounded at how much there is to learn. We are so surprised that, some days, it’s what draws us to the classroom. Other days, it makes us want to hide under our warm comfy covers until summer. What lack of knowledge will we face today? This past week, the teachers at my school were encouraged to work Continue reading
-
My own medicine
Last week I made my ESL students write three paragraphs on a single topic to three different audiences with potentially three different purposes–to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. I gave them four possible topics with the option of picking their own. They moaned and groaned about how mean I was. You would have thought they were Continue reading
-
Not ready to call it a summer
This is it. Back-to-school week for teachers. And I’m not ready. Oh, I’m “ready.” I’ve gone to Office Depot for a boatload of supplies. I’ve paid Toyota a significant amount of money for scheduled maintenance on my car. I have the weeksheets typed up for my first week of lessons. I even practiced using my alarm clock on Continue reading
-
Tending the herb garden, with thoughts toward school
One advantage to ignoring the garden for awhile (like the entire ridiculously hot month of July) is that when you finally attack the chaos, the results are dramatic. Getting started, though is a daunting task. Where to begin? My philosophy on tackling overwhelming tasks is to start with one big thing that is really bugging me Continue reading
-
The Home Stretch
After a visit to the bee yard to watch the take-offs and landings of the honeybees, we noticed that bumblebees were all over the wild raspberries Sunday evening. They have been busy pollinating and there looks to be a nice batch of raspberries this season. Saturday morning I took a stroll down to the blueberries Continue reading
-
Meditations from the herb garden: Graduating the seniors
My goal Saturday morning was to weed around the screen porch in order to find room for the flowers I bought last week, but by the time I slept in and enjoyed a mug or two of coffee, the sun was blazing in that part of the yard. The wise weeder seeks shade, and shade was Continue reading
-
Heigh ho! Oh no! It’s back to work I go!
When the buzzards start circling, it’s a pretty good sign to get up and show some signs of life. I’m not referring to colleagues trying to take over my job. (Like they would want it.) I’m being literal. Pneumonia-stricken Shelley and I were catching sunbeams on the Café Maywood porch one balmy day this past week Continue reading
-
Lucrative lessons
No one goes into teaching for its lucrative potential but it cannot be denied that every day is rich with potential. Potential for what? Disaster, joy, teachers going postal, one never knows. This week’s adventure in learning began with a vocabulary list. I teach a high school English class for international students. On Monday, I went Continue reading
-
Where is the Easter Bunny when you need him?
This is the latest Easter I can recall. And I’m not actually recalling it because it isn’t here yet! And it’s killing me. And it’s killing all of us at school who are dragging our bodies through the day. By the last class of the day, my students are just blobs in a chair. I Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 