M.D. Saints Writes

A couple of weeks ago I was in Publix after church, scoping out the bananas trying to find some that were ripe but not already a day away from liquid mush, when a woman sidled up next me.  I thought I was in her way.  “HI,” she said exuberantly for a stranger.   I started to move and return a less exuberant greeting when I looked at her and saw she was a former student who graduated in 2015, though I had her her freshman year, 2011/2012.  She was thrilled that I remembered her name right off the bat, and so was I for that matter.  I told her that I had actually been talking about…

It’s November!  My favorite month!  And it’s voting day!  Or at least it is as I type this out.  By the time the mailer picks it up it will be Thursday morning. This is definitely not my favorite time of my favorite month, haha, but I have some relevant ELA resources that jive with America so you can teach great literature while incorporating some history, (or some not history as is the case with “Paul Revere’s Ride”) and maintaining a good old USA motif! “O Captain!  My Captain!”  –  Walt Whitman An allegory about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, “O Captain!  My Captain!” is a pretty short poem that packs a pretty rhetorical punch.  This lesson includes some good…

Usually when I write a post here the topic is something that I have been thinking on recently.  So, two weeks ago when this post was supposed to be made, I thought I’ll write about preparedness!  This is great and relevant!  Because we were preparing all the things for the hurricane that, at the time, may or may not have been making aim for our city (it decided to go South).  However, it turns out that in the midst of preparing for Milton, and then preparing to take our son on his first plane trip, I was not at all prepared to create a blog post.   Life.  Go figure. So here I am, three weeks late, but, finally,…

Somehow, the YouTube algorithms that be popped up some decluttering and minimalist videos.  I do not generally take the algorithm bait, but this time I did.  And now I am inspired to slim some things down…clothes closet, linen closet, random piddly kitchen gadgets.  Our house is not large anyway, so we could use a little bit of freed up space!  Somehow, all that started me thinking on classroom clutter.  Cluttered teacher desks.  Cluttered student binders and backpacks and lockers.  Cluttered lessons.   Cluttered lessons.  Yes, indeed. Cluttered lessons are easy to overlook, I mean, can a lesson really be cluttered?  Isn’t all the work good?  Nope.  Not to me; I consider anything with busywork clutter.   Busywork is academic clutter.  It fills a…

My son is four months told today so, naturally, I took the obligatory photo to mark his growth and compare it to the previous three months.  It’s fun and at the moment, he’s enjoying it.  Unlike, the millions of school photos being taken all over the country right around now.  Picture day:  The most awkward day of the school year.   Here.  I have proof.  Just look at the awkwardness of this seventh-grade photo.  So awkward.  So 90s when, thankfully, very few of us overthought our appearance.  I was, clearly, not one of those few overthinkers, hahaha.  That moment is welcome to run away. Picture day, at least in the two districts I have worked for, always goes through the…

Last night, well a couple of days ago by the time this is published, my husband installed our son’s bookcase.   I am so very excited!  Books are so important for children—for so many reasons; they increase vocabulary, comprehension, critical thinking, analytical skills, imagination and creativity.  And as an English teacher it is only natural, or should be anyway, to seek to quickly instill a love of reading in my child.   Unfortunately, not all children have this instilled within them, and of course some children whose parents try to instill it, well, it just doesn’t take.  They are their own individuals with their own individual likes and dislikes after all.  And it goes without saying…

I love routines.  I do well with schedules and checklists and everything organized.  Routines just make things so much simpler to me. But, a new year with new students, new coworkers, and sometimes new administrators, pretty much always brings new chaos—whether it’s in the form of challenging children, a cantankerous coworker or poorly implemented new protocol (that last one happens way too often…) some type of chaos is bound to ensue.  I can’t always do anything about coworkers or administrators, but cantankerous children, now they, thankfully, are manageable and actually easily mitigated with clearly set routines and expectations.   I know not everyone thrives on routine and structure, but I sure do and…

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to its end, yet again.  At least here in my district, anyway.   Despite that I am not returning to the classroom this year, the time flies nonetheless. In fact, perhaps even faster now that our son has arrived and he is almost officially out of 12-week newborn phase. He already has almost 100 books and we are reading to him every day—a variety of levels and in both English and Spanish. Not to wish time away, since it just vanishes anyway, but I sure look forward to when he is old enough for interactive bedtime reading!   I know the majority…

It is late.  This post is a week late.  It’s late in the school year.  And it is just flat out a late hour.  I’m exhausted.  As many teachers are this time of year.   My last post was just before Teacher Appreciation Week, and it got me reflecting on my own teachers over the years who were either great teachers, or just nice, haha, but perhaps not so great at the teaching part. I did somehow learn to type (haha, how wonderfully 90s, it’s too bad this is not still a class, actually, since most students do lack basic computer skills) in Mr. Laird’s class, despite that I can only recall him chatting with students…

My goodness!  National Poetry Month has come to a close and May is upon us!  Here in Florida, we are in the ultimate homestretch.  I know many schools in other parts of the country start later and so go later, but generally we are done at the end of May.  The light at the end of the tunnel has brightened indeed!   Though there are still many testing sessions going on, the ELA high stakes assessments are over with, and we are pretty much in wrap up mode with various units.  I’m in the process of adding more resources to my store…it’s been slow going, but the newest one, a unit on Perseus and Medusa of…