Letters, Words, Thoughts, Ideas, Stories...

First of all, congratulations Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book was excellent and deserved to win the Newbery Award.   I shall celebrate by ...

I had a bit of a teary-eyed moment in the classroom yesterday. Actually, this was my second teary moment this week – but who didn’t get tear...

I’ll set the scene for you: it’s the Tuesday before school vacation. The students have just passed in their last long-term assignment (strat...

Sometimes I need a little writing inspiration. Or at least to feel like I’m not the only one who types instead of sleeps, thinks of my chara...

There exist, in the nebulous world of the Internet, magical portals whose sole purpose is to consume large blocks of your life. They’re like...

So what’s the it new accessory in sixth grade? No, it’s not Ugg boots or the latest V.S. ‘Pink’ apparel. It’s not leggings or skinny jeans....

My feedback group meets the first Wednesday of every month and this past week was the first time I was offering a sampling of FLASH up to t...

Today did not start off well. I was supposed to be able to ‘sleep in’ until 6:30 since today’s an in-service, not a regular school day. Inst...

Matt and I were at Ikea yesterday to try and get ideas about how to organize our new closet. This has now devolved into diagrams on graph pa...

I love books that take familiar stories and flip them into something new. Books like: Coraline (a creepy Alice in Wonderland) by Neil Gaima...

I’m pretty sure my new writing nook-to-be has magical properties. Even without its spectacular view (right now the window holes are tarped o...

I have no roof.  Well, I guess our bedroom ceiling is now technically our roof – but that peaked thing with shingles and gutters?  It’s cur...

When I’m writing a book, I’m a bit manic; sleep, laundry, cell phone messages, cooking all get ignored. If I can’t eat it one-handed, it’s t...

Today is the first day of YALSA Teen Reads Week . The theme this year is Books with Bite . There are a few ways to interpret this, and I’ll ...

Today in my sixth grade class we finished reading aloud the book Zen and the Art of Faking it by Jordan Sonnenblick.  He’s among my favorite...

Wake by Lisa McMann is one of those books I can’t get out of my mind.  I haven’t been sleeping much lately and as I lie awake, I wonder wha...

Both of these things are taking up much of my time and attention right now.   We are currently putting a major addition on our Victorian hom...