Beloved, in Flames (sort of)
They’re banning books again. This time in Fairfax County, Virginia. The book is Beloved, by Toni Morrison. They’re not burning the book- not yet- but I’m still incensed. The full article from the Washington Post can be found here. The gist of the story is this: Laura Murphy, a concerned mother whose 17 year old...
Salem and the Act of Reinvention
I love Salem, Massachusetts. Just returning last night from a field trip that brought me there with thirty-six eleventh graders, I’ve had some time to think about this gem of a city and its dark past. I’ve lived with the witch hysteria just about every year I’ve taught thanks to Arthur Miller’s Crucible, and Hawthorne’s...
Social Media, Errors, and Oversights That Can Cost You
I love my blog. For years now I have been chronicling thoughts, hopes, aspirations, hurts, and writing tips right here on Sharper Thesis, the blog. But last night I was reminded in an abrupt way that there are rules to social media, and that if you forget them like I did you can miss out...
Pre-Tests for Relationships
So we’ve been giving these pre-tests at work in accordance with the new mandates from SED, which got me thinking. The tests measure what students know coming into the year- a test of your curriculum, basically. In theory, students should do poorly on these exams, since they haven’t been taught any of the material before....
Opening Day and Honeymoons
Today was the opening day of school, the day when we, as teachers, meet our students for the very first time. And it was great. Yesterday we had our meeting day where just the teachers get together and listen to the professional development spiels set out for us by well-meaning administrators- all well-intended and helpful-...
Campfires, Labor Day, and the Art of Storytelling
Labor Day. The end of a glorious summer filled with vacations, sharks (the Cape was teeming with them!), writing, relaxing, angst, and realizations. For all of its apparent calm, there was a lot of work, too, both professionally and emotionally. And now here we are on Labor Day, prepping lessons, writing SLO’s (the latest horror...
Coelho’s Abyss
Ok, so I have a bit of a writer’s crush on Paolo Coelho (once I figured out how to spell his name I was golden), I’ll admit it. The writer of The Alchemist, among other profound and lyrical novels, is a prolific tweeter, and I’m often transfixed by the nuggets he sends out as tweets...
Occam’s Razor and New Starts
Fall is upon us. School starts back up next week, and it starts with a whole slew of firsts for me. Personally, it’s all new this time around,the newest its ever been since I started teaching. Gone is a lot of the stability and support from year’s past; in short, I’ve lost some of my...
Discipline, Coffee, and the Summer’s Hazy Draw
As a teacher, the lure of summer vacation is that it entices you into all kinds of escapist thinking. This morning, while having coffee with a friend who works from home and listening to her description of a working life spent in front of the computer in her living room, I was forced to confront...
The Lure of the Easy Path
By now, many people will have read about the journalistic indiscretions of Fareed Zakaria, the CNN on air host, Time Magazine writer and editor, and celebrated foreign affairs correspondent. It appears that Mr. Zakaria played fast and fancy with works from other writers, often lifting passages from other work and placing them into his own....
Puppy School
Fenway went to puppy school tonight. It’s his first night, and for me it’s the second time through, albeit for me it’s been thirteen years since I set foot in the training ring. He handled it well, actually. Like a champ. A teacher’s pet, perhaps? Both trainers loved him, and they gravitated towards him as...
The Power of Metaphor
James Geary on TED and his presentation, via Prezi: Mixing Mind and Metaphor on Prezi
