Heat Weirdlastname I have different relationships with sweets and caffeine. Caffeine, I don’t drink for wakefulness—I just like tea. When it’s cool or cold out, I like most kinds of hot tea—black, green, white, rooibos, herbal. But when it’s hot out, I like iced tea. Plain old unsweetened black iced tea. If I drink a cup of … Read more
Like everyone (I assume) in the US, we’ve been inundated with political ads. We don’t watch TV, so that helps. But the volume of postcards has been ridiculous. In particular, we received a postcard most days for several weeks, telling us the evils of one specific (not presidential) candidate. If I didn’t know the state-level … Read more
We had a great Halloween here this weekend. The Kid had two friends over, in their costumes and with masks. I had made an 18-piece puzzle for each of them, different color for each, and hid the pieces around the yard. The assembled puzzles revealed a joke and a clue for where they might find … Read more
Hey! I pulled out the Nikon today! A road nearby has animal properties, and along a long section, there are sunflowers. I noticed on a walk a couple of weeks ago that the sunflowers were stunning with the sun setting behind them, and I wanted to see what I could capture. Finally, today, I walked … Read more
Two things that popped up this week. First, I realized that the majority of my students are new to me this year, and I have never seen their faces. I don’t know what their noses look like. I see their eyes and their hair and that’s all. Many of them, if they showed up to … Read more
Posts have been sparse here for a while, and I wanted to check in and give an update on what’s going on over here. In early August, I joined an Akimbo workshop (put on by Seth Godin) called The Creative’s Workshop. I’ve been writing there daily, which I know doesn’t provide you with anything, but … Read more
We went camping at Roper Lake State Park for a few days. It’s a small park in southeastern Arizona. Not much elevation, so it was not much of a relief from the temps at home (maybe a five-degree difference), but we had some shade in our campsite and the overnight weather was perfect for sleeping. … Read more
You might have noticed there was no post last week. I hadn’t taken any pictures. I hadn’t done any learning. I had nothin’. I’m happy to have pulled out the camera this week and have some shots to share with you! My son was going swimming and wanted me to take some pictures. He had … Read more
The novelty of wearing a mask has worn off, and more kids are taking them off. I spent a fair amount of time during class this week showing empathy to their discomfort—I don’t like wearing one, either—and explaining why we’re wearing them. They didn’t seem to know. (That could be no one has explained it … Read more
The district where I work had students in the grades I teach start back to school this week on Monday. It’s been … interesting. I can’t speak to whether this can be generalized to anyone else’s experience—this write up is just what my week has been like. First, like many other things the last six … Read more