Death of a Loved One Day 115

Lists of reasons to not write are long, most of them written by people on deadline. This past week, in order to avoid doing my work (writing) I cleaned out folders on my computer and finally (this is really digging deep) the supply closet in my office. Stuck in here and there among the

The Teacher’s Life

Mrs. Henderson, my sixth grade teacher, had sensible lace up heels, salt-n-pepper hair and permanently embedded chalk in her torn and ragged cuticles. I remember studying them when I would be summoned to her confused desk for a conference. We repeatedly conferred about how messy my desk was, we didn’t do any writing to confer

Educational TV

“Kids just don’t know how to work,” I hear my friends complain. They have no desire to learn nor do many of them have the desire to do much of anything beyond staring at some kind of screen, complain the teachers.
The first teacher professional book I ever read was The Disappearance of Childhood by

Olympic Obsession

I love the Olympics. Particularly the summer games. I hear that music and it is like a trumpet call to make popcorn, sit down and go “WOW.” The training. The years. The hours. The sports I never heard of. A handful of contenders in their forties! One might think it would be

Five Hours

Three days in Albany at a Writing Conference for teachers — a wonderful opportunity to share ideas for ten whole hours with third and fourth grade teachers. A luxury of time. Enjoyed every minute. Even arriving at the airport early was a welcome event — new book by Anna Quindlen, Rise and

What happened to July?

Kelly snapped this picture of Sara Kelly this week and it perfectly captures my image of July 2008 — peeking out. I can’t believe it has been a month since I’ve posted a blog. The month went to biking, triathalons (Michael competes, I stand on the sidelines and say “go michael”), beach walks, Walloon

Death of a Loved One: Day 46

“Keep the machine running.” This is a quote given to me from Michael and to him from a veteran machinist. When Michael asked the older man (back in his machine shop days) what the secret was to his reputation for high production, he advised, “just keep the machine running.”

This has

Granny Camp: A Retrospective

Fill your hatwith waterdump it on your head,watch the sunsetfall in bed.Kick the horseto make it go,hike and sing,explore and showoff your painted shirt,and decorate one of Sophie’s gourds, eat mac and cheese,gather tadpoles,rocksgeez110 degreesis really hot! How ’bout a swim?Do your ears hang low?Can you see Saturn?How far are we from Mexico?
Road