The other day, as I often do, I told a group of my students a story from my own life to help explain something that we were working to understand as a class. In particular, we were reflecting on Booker T. Washington’s assertion that “Character is power”, alongside Vice President…

This year, it was my pleasure and honor to be named a finalist for the 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year. It has truly been an incredible process, one that has forced me to think deeply about what I do as a teacher and why I do it. Even writing…

It’s dress-up day at the middle school where I teach. I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about today. There is sometimes a sense of existential dread when our routine is shifting and it seems like student excitement might lead to a lack of self control. …

I grew up in a Christian home with an English teacher for a father. Then, I majored in English and became a teacher myself. So, as you can imagine, I have read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe quite a few times. I can still hear my father’s deep…

Ah. Grad school. If you have seen a discussion board on d2l (or Canvas, or Blackboard, etc.) in the last few years, you will know how miserable the whole thing can be. …

Teaching teenagers to grapple deeply with texts, find their voice, and hone their craft as a writer… well, it’s not always (or ever) easy! But my father, a career educator, told me a long time ago that it’s time to leave teaching when you don’t love the kids anymore. It’s…

For as long as there have been teachers, there have been gifts for teachers. Historical Fiction often depicts teachers in one room schoolhouses being gifted with a portion of a harvest, a fresh baked cake, a dozen eggs, or a single perfect apple as a sign of the student’s affection…

I’m writing this less because I think that anyone might ever read this, but more because I want to remember, and for me, the process of writing slows me down enough to emblazon a memory pretty deeply in the recesses of my mind. Yesterday, I waxed poetic (and hyperbolic) about…

Tomorrow morning marks the end of my quarantine period after testing positive, along with the rest of my family, for COVID-19. These are strange times. I hate to miss work for any reason, and I have been away from my “school babies” for 8 school days. I was too sick…