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* Bunches of new life

What a season of new life! My dearest teaching widower (DTW) and I are enjoying our new role as grandparents, my vision has been transformed with ‘bionic’ lenses, and blackberry bushes are promising a lush harvest. I’m blogging this as my Ten Things of Thankful post; be sure to check out the other folks’ posts, too. This photo is FULL of a bunch of thankful things, from the sweetest man in the…

I am a huge fan of Stranger Things, a Netflix series about a parallel world that exists just below the one in which we live. This pandemic has delayed the release of season 4, naturellement. In the meantime, my dearest teaching widower and I are sort of binge-watching Kiefer Sutherland’s 24, waiting out our Covid isolation time. I say sort of because we both feel a bit too miserable to binge on…

* COVID in our home

My dearest teaching widower (DTW) and I have COVID. When all this mess started, I wondered why folks were so hysterical about toilet paper and paper towels. Well, we have all learned a lot about supply chains and quarantine and masks. Now my DTW and I are in the Big Boy leagues. ISOLATION. Ooh! I feel like I have a sinus infection: achy, tired, and sluggish. I’d had the first dose of the Pfizer…

* My world of thankfulness

It’s been FOREVER since I blogged and I have a lot to share! Here’s my post for Ten Things of Thankful. My dearest teaching widower (DTW) and I are now grandparents. Our son and his wife are amazing parents already! The Babe is adorable as well as a great hand-and-arm warmer as we trek through the end of winter. Poor DTW may be renamed Dearest Grandchild Widower since I rarely give him a chance…

* The child is safe

The kiddos and I savored every moment of The Mandalorian. Of course, our favorite character was The Child. I don’t want to hear that he dies in some silly Star Wars movie. Surely you don’t believe everything in movies is real? We KNOW the child is safe. See? He was tucked away. Not only that, he objects to the silly name of Grogu. What is Grogu supposed to mean? He knows who he is and we know…

* Highlights of remote learning

Many schools will continue remote learning in the new year, with no end in sight. Regular classroom teachers and students are moving along with varying degrees of success. It’s a struggle for those who had not previously taught or learned online. For students with disabilities, this type of learning can be quite successful, but it takes a lot of planning and support for both teacher and student.…

Did someone spike Santa’s drink? Maybe this is why some Christmas presents were unaccountably delayed. Or perhaps this? Hoping your holidays were filled with peace and joy!

I will miss all the amusing bones scattered around our neighborhood. This year’s collection was quite clever, with frolicking skeletal families galore!

Thanksgiving needs some serious help!

* Blast from the past (1)

Halloween wasn’t THAT long ago, but since we’ve had such an election? Oy! It’s hard to remember anything from October. The kiddos had fun trick-or-treating in relative isolation, selecting goodies from tables, bins, and cute clotheslines. Neighbors applauded from a safe distance.

a plague doctor and Mickey

Gotta love electronics!

Indiana Jones joins in!

Perfect weather and a blue moon!

Chatted…

A daisy by any other name….

My grandfather, a coal miner from Yorkshire, used to sing this song to my sister and me:

Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer, do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you. It won’t be a stylish marriage, ’cause I can’t afford a carriage. But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two!

My young brain was imprinted on daisies and they have long been one of my favorite…

* Still loving Classkick

Apart from its name, I love Classkick! It’s a really cool app for creating awesome and individualized assignments, monitoring student progress, and communicating effectively while students work. Whoever put this together had a marvelous time anticipating what teachers would need to be effective. Here are some screenshots and explanations of Classkick’s usefulness:

The activity below is…

* Losing my mojo?

Warning: This post contains explicitly dismal thoughts.

Last November, I mentioned that I had applied to renew my National Board Certification. To qualify, I needed a current teaching license, so I kept hounding the licencing board for my renewal status (for which I had submitted my course credits in June). When I finally saw that my license was active, I paid my big bucks and started the NB…

* TToT for a million dollars

It’s been eons since I last posted; I hope all of you are well and making it through these tough times! My next-to-oldest great-nephew keeps asking me what I would do for a million bucks. I do remember those days when it seemed like the most spectacular thing ever to get $1,000,000. Or to get ‘all the money in the world.’ Now I know what true riches are, so I will share my Ten Things of Thankful

Many thanks to Ronovan for his Décima Poetry Challenge! Usually, I read his challenge, putter around a bit, and then give up. Today, I decided to tackle this one. The topic is SENSE.

Image by cafepampas from Pixabay

Sense

If I had any sense at all

I’d never write a décima

Instead I’d sigh, try to recall

The purpose of this teaching blog:    

To clear the smoke and rid the…