Last week, I wrote about reading Shakespeare with my second-year literature students who, no longer bound by the IB exams, are exploring new terrain. My English-language students too have been exploring. We've had some marvelous philosophical discussions, and students have brought in articles, poems, and videos they would like to discuss. Although not many students... Continue Reading →
Personal Style, or Set in Our Ways: The Importance of Change and Holding On–#AuthorToolboxBlogHop
This week's post is part of the monthly Author Toolbox Blog Hop. Check out other participants' posts here. The #AuthorToolboxBlogHop is a great way to connect with other writers and build our own repertoire of craft knowledge alongside. Check it out! A wonderful professor of mine, Deborah Appleman, once told me that life is a... Continue Reading →
Anatomy of a Metaphor
An update Three days after my last post, it was announced the school would close. We are sending students home. Last week's heartbreak is compounded. On Wednesday, we celebrated an early Graduation for the second-years. Each day since then, our numbers have been whittling. There are some students who cannot go home. Borders open up... Continue Reading →
Change Your Perspective: Dead Poets and Sedoka
There are few films (and I find it a bit ironic that it is the film we go to before the book here) more called upon for inspiring young writers than Dead Poets Society, in which charismatic literature teacher Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) leads a group of teenage boys to discover their personal voices. In... Continue Reading →
Photos from Montana
America has been troubling. The consumer push is thicker than I ever remember, the pressure to buy big and often and right now. Things are far larger than they need to be. It's a difficult relationship, I think, that I've got to my home country. For moments I wish I had been born somewhere else.... Continue Reading →
Winter’s Approach, and Sexuality Week
This morning, Sunday, the frost has spread out over the land, licking up to the edges of the water, playing its spider-crystals from leaf to fence to the slippery road. Winter is on its way, and as the nights creep ever closer to the afternoon, with their wild jump forward at daylight savings time last... Continue Reading →