Thoughts about writing, and the universe.
For the first six years I was teaching here in Norway, one of my primary roles was Learning Support, which is a role we don't quite have in the US--in a US context, learning support is special education work with students who have specific, documented learning differences, coupled with what we would call in the... Continue Reading →
After graduation, campus changes. Half the students depart, and we are left in a quieter place as the rest of spring unfolds, as the days stretch longer and longer (it's still light at 10:30pm now; I haven't stayed up late enough to check, but I think we have now entered that period of light when... Continue Reading →
In this busy autumn term at school, I've been taking time to write when I can. I have a daily goal of devoting 85 minutes to my writing each day (and I include in that time blogging here on Words Like Trees, sending out story submissions, meeting with my writing group, as well as my... Continue Reading →
Writing can be isolating. As a story forms itself and finds its way onto the page, as we craft, dismantle, and reassemble it in final form, the work is solitary. At its best, this solitude is glorious--writing is where we can be perfectly alone and let the mind go where it will, where any thoughts... Continue Reading →
On Friday, I received this package in the mail. Somehow, brilliantly, two beautiful contributor copies of Hunger Mountain, published by the Vermont College of Fine Arts had made their way across the ocean. I slid them from their paper wrapping. They were heavy. They were large. I cradled a copy in my hands, opened it,... Continue Reading →
A quicker post today. I am the teacher on duty this weekend, and yesterday medical situations kept me down on campus a couple of hours past the norm. I'm also running the last day of a project-week of bread baking with students. Monday I begin oral exams for my English language learner students. It will... Continue Reading →
We arrived back in Norway to an incredible winter pageant. A couple inches of snow was encrusted everywhere by the most overwhelming display of ice crystals I have ever seen. Half and inch to an inch long, flat and shiny, sparkling, brilliant blue, the whole world was growing these crystal shards somehow like metallic mushrooms,... Continue Reading →
There's the kind of talk at the end of the day when you're tired, when everyone's had a day of work and stress and all you want to do is sleep. There's the kind of talk with the friend you're catching up with, sequential and summary, the "did I tell you about this?" the "this... Continue Reading →
This week, let's look at blogs. What make one tick and another flop? Why do some get clicks and others languish patiently? And which is this? The IB syllabus for my English language acquisition students asks them to practice writing a variety of text types, from letters to proposals, from persuasive speeches to brochures. This... Continue Reading →
I'm starting to think that anything can be a story. My husband tells me about his job search after college. What a story! I am eating chicken surrounded by forty of the loudest teenagers on the planet. Story! It keeps raining and the pumpkin plant keeps blooming all the same. Story. Quarantined students are roaming... Continue Reading →
Words like trees 