Year in Pictures 2015

It took me a little longer than in previous years to get my year in pictures book put together. In the midst of sifting through thousands of pictures, I sometimes wonder if it's worth the effort, but I'm always grateful at the end of the process that I took the time to do it. Last …

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What’s Changed and What Hasn’t?

I'm six weeks into my ninth year of teaching. Part of me misses the sense of it all being fresh and new. One of the things I like about teaching, though, is that there's always a sense of newness and possibility at the beginning of a new year, even if it's not quite as strong as …

New Year, New Goals

I was able to squeeze in 50 books and 50 hikes in 2014, although it definitely came down to the wire. For 2015, my goal is to read 50 books, watch 50 movies that I haven't seen before (my husband's excited about helping me reach that goal), and walk 25 miles per week. Hikes are …

The Kids Are All Right

Independent School magazine has published an article I recently wrote based on Dr. danah boyd's book, It's Complicated. It's an important read for parents, educators, and others who care about kids. "While much of the rhetoric around teens’ use of social media is cloaked in language of fear, boyd argues that fearmongering is unnecessary and, …

NCAIS 2014 Presentation

Today I'm presenting at the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS) Annual Educators Conference. The session is from 3-4pm in Carolina C room.  Here's the session description and slide deck. Primary sources allow students the opportunity to "do" history and can be rich wells of inspiration for writing in Language Arts. Primary source analysis …

Two Recipes I’ve Tweaked

This past Friday was fall break. While I did plenty of grading and planning, I also got in a bit of baking. Here are two of my recent favorites that I made over the weekend. Both of the recipes I tweaked, one intentionally and one unintentionally 🙂 Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes (Adapted from Epicurious) 4 ounces fine-quality dark …

Saying “Yes, And…” to Martin Luther King, Jr.

As part of our social and emotional health curriculum, we were recently doing an activity in which students considered about 25 different core values, such as honesty, perservance, and empathy, and brainstormed examples of people or characters who exemplified these values. Students then considered which of these core values were most important to them personally. …

Being Present and Getting It Done

As a teacher, I consistently feel a tension between being present and getting things done. Articles with titles such as The Multitasker's Guide to Being More Present suggests that I am not alone in feeling this tension. By nature, I'm inclined to make lists and check things off of them. In fact, one of the things …

What is Advisory?

We have a new counselor in the middle school this year. At a meeting of the middle school advisors a few days ago, she asked, "In ten words or less, what is Advisory to you?" Most of us took a few more than ten words, but we did offer a variety of perspectives, while keeping …

I Want to Be Famous

Teachers head back for the 2014-2015 school year tomorrow. Students won't come for another week and a half, but even so, it definitely feels like there's a change in the air. It's been a big summer- getting married, transforming my house into our house, a couple short road trips, a week of camp, and a …