I am sure many of you reading this blog have seen nothing on the news but the tragic destruction of Moore, Oklahoma. However, there is a community hit by an EF-3 tornado the night before these terrible events who are being missed by the media entirely. I live and work in the Little Axe community, … Continue reading »
Filed under Teaching …
Gifted and Talented Youngsters: Enrichment for Future Dreams
Today was a very special day in the life of my little 9 year old Leigha Colby. She is my middle daughter, sometimes feels left out, yet like all of my children has a special talent or gift. Where my oldest son Conner is gifted in deep love for others and my oldest daughter Kaylee … Continue reading »
Teaching: Why It Is Not What It Used To Be
Today’s letter on the A to Z Blogging Challenge is “T”, and if there is something that has been on my mind lately it is teaching. A few weeks ago, a retiring teacher Gerald Conti posted to Facebook about the teaching profession as it stands today. The letter went viral. In it, Conti cited the … Continue reading »
2 A-Z Posts in 1: Plagiarism and “The Fantasy Novelist’s Quiz”
Yesterday I came home to post my new blog post only to find that our DSL service was out of order. Apparently, a couple of local bumpkins had decided to build a fence and while digging post holes cut directly through the line. I was bummed because since we live in such a remote location … Continue reading »
Language Is Not Learned In Whole But In Part
As an English teacher I have noticed that there is one method of teaching children to read that needs to be completely eradicated from every elementary curriculum in the country: the whole language reading method. The Whole Language method that is often taught in elementary is a method of sending large lists of “sight words” … Continue reading »
Hamartia and the Modern Reader
An article written in 2008 by Lionel Shriver entitled “Missing the Mark” still rings true today. Even though the article is largely about the dissappearance of quotation marks in dialogue, Shriver points out that the reason that the creation of new literary works are on the decline in the United States is simply because the … Continue reading »
Common Core Reading Simplified
Since today’s blog must begin with the letter “C”, I must write about the newest craze in education: Common Core State Standards. I have been teaching reading and writing for 15 years and for most of that time I was given a set of standards by the State of Oklahoma called the PASS guidelines. These … Continue reading »
To This Day Project – Shane Koyczan
I usually don’t do this, but this poem by Shane Koyczan struck a nerve with me. Recently I have been dredging up my own demons in writing my latest novel The Painful Best because my protagonist is the result of one event cascading into several other bad events that end up ruining his life. He is an … Continue reading »
Student Writers Living In Poverty
In the many years I have spent in the classroom, I have been through several modes of thought as a teacher and most of these modes were originally brought on by the way I was raised. I grew up in a home with parents who did not graduate from college but who had a high … Continue reading »
Get Your Bluff In: 5 Scams Used By High School Students
I would like to begin this post by saying that I am not trying to bash students at all, but expose some of the lies that student tell teachers to either (A) get out of doing work or (B) blame their mistakes on others. Most of my students are hard working, inquisitive, and caring people … Continue reading »
