A while back, I read a few articles about complaining and how it rewires your brain. Not in a good way. Also a while back, I used to run 30-day challenges on Facebook. Two of those challenges have been “life-changing” as per feedback from people in the group. One was no added sugars (which we … Read more
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of Robin Williams’ death. I remember the date because I wrote something about it on Facebook. (I’m not great any more at remembering dates, and I’m not sure this one would have stuck that specifically regardless.) I’m not much of a movies or TV person, but he was phenomenal. Dead … Read more
One in three children in the US can’t read at grade level. For many people, that means that schools aren’t doing their jobs and we need more accountability and more testing. What if we redefined “at grade level”? I got into this a bit the other day, but we have completely redefined “at grade level” … Read more
In my masters program, I had a class on group counseling. It was one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever taken. A tiny slice that I remember: in talking about group therapy, you can put depressed people together and they don’t amplify each other’s depression. You can put anxious people together, and they don’t … Read more
Twenty years ago, I graduated from The College of New Jersey with the education required to become a music teacher. I’ve become really good at teaching. But at music? Mediocre at best. Historically, I’ve been a fast learner without much grit. It took a lot of life before anything crossed my path that I was … Read more
In conjunction with the premise behind yesterday’s post, I’ve been reducing my screen clutter. This has been an ongoing project, but I’ve ramped it up a bit in the last two or three weeks. I’ve unsubscribed from email lists that I tried out that turned out to be meh. I’ve unsubscribed from most retail. (It’s … Read more
We have too much physical stuff, too much emotional stuff, too much junk to eat, not enough exercise or sleep or meaningful connections with people. Because— Society values and promotes being busy being stressed being underslept fast food large portions cheap everything convenient (to accommodate busy) sitting reactive medicine over preventative pills over natural social … Read more
The last couple of years, most or all of my classes (as a whole—not every individual student) had self-control issues. Inability to stay quiet, to accept directions, to follow through on assignments, regardless of where the task fell on the fun meter. In extreme cases, yelling and swearing. Unrelenting back-talk. Things said to me that … Read more
This popped up in my Facebook memories the other day: “Looking up info about my student loan … It will accrue $77.45 in interest in the next 25 days. This thing has got to go.” (It’s long gone!) Years ago, I saw an exercise where the writer* took a calendar. She calculated how much she … Read more
Growing up, the first day of school was always so exciting. I always had a new outfit. Often a new backpack or lunch box. I had friends at school. I got along well with most of my teachers, so that was never a worry for me. I wasn’t a wiggly kid and had no trouble … Read more