A Dress with a Story

I have taken up a new hobby in retirement all because of my daughter’s upcoming nuptials. She decided she wanted to wear a vintage dress, something from the 1940ies.  She found her dream dress on eBay, and I bid on it.  Without warning, I received a notice from the seller that the dress was...

What a Good Teacher Can Do—Thank you, Jack Crawford

In the early 1980s, I was on my higher education journey at SUNY New Paltz. Writing Composition, I and II were new things required of all first-year students. Like many college youth, I thought I knew everything and was totally confident in my abilities even though that confidence was based in absolutely no academic...

My Child Would Never…or Would S/he?

On November 30, 2021, at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, a little after one-o’clock in the afternoon, Ethan Crumbley, fifteen-years-old, exited in the boys bathroom with a semi-automatic in hand and started shooting. Four students were killed in the attack, seven injured, and hundreds left with deep psychological shock and trauma that will...

I did it! I got the vaccine with surprise results,

As I have written about, I am a Covid “long-hauler”—that is a person who is struggling with symptoms long after I am “cured.” The week leading up to the vaccine was a tough one. I was suffering extreme exhaustion and flu-like symptoms. I was barely getting home to crawl into bed. The conversation I...

Just a Vaccine, please.

The day started out like any other; jokes with kids, attendance, writing, discussions. I had a small class for remedial reading, a good class, all boys. Then the voice came over the loudspeaker, “Lockdown, lockdown, lock down.” We all knew exactly what to do. I turned off the projector. The students scurried to corners...

Online Teaching at Its Best

So, how’s the online teaching going? I will tell you. In my 11th grade English class, we are starting with a unit on the American Dream. I get twenty-five minutes of live camera time every other day with them and I try to maximize that time. Today, I am introducing the unit with the...

Things Writers Find When They Are Looking for Stories

I learned genealogical psychometry from my mother in-law. She could hold things and tell a story, not necessarily a psychic story and I’m not even sure they were the true stories, but she was a collector of family stories and there were quite a few of them. Her house was crammed with antiques and...

The College Guild

I have been volunteering for about year as a facilitator for an organization called The College Guild. Their website explains “The College Guild provides non-traditional correspondence courses to prisoners across America.” The courses are free, non-credit courses and available to any prisoner no matter their circumstances. Every three weeks or so, I receive an...

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