Tag: education
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Teachers: Those Who Can’t Teach? Not On Your Life!
What profession do you admire most and why? Full disclosure, I am a teacher. I taught full time from 2007 to 2020, middle school English and literature. Then covid hit and I sat out (per doctor’s orders) the 2020-2021 school year since I wasn’t old enough for the vaccine yet. A shift in administration created…
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Book Review: Buzz! Boom! Bang! By Benjamin Gottwald
This delightful children’s picture book has no words, just beautiful and colorful illustrations. It is a master class in the literary device onomatopoeia. If I were still teaching middle school language arts, I would bring this book into my 7th and 8th grade literature classroom and have students sit in small groups to “read” it…
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Book Review: Teacher Jitters by Julie Danneberg, illustrated by Judy Love
As a teacher for nearly 20 years, I can truly identify with the premise behind this soon to be published picture book titled Teacher Jitters (Charlesbridge, 2025) by Julie Danneberg, illustrated by Judy Love. Although this is part of The Jitter Series, it is my first read from this author and illustrator. I recall my…
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Book Review: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
The Husbands (Knopf Doubleday, 2024), debut novel by Holly Gramazio, a writer and video game designer, is an interesting read. I waited for quite some time to get a copy from my local library. I read it quickly, but it’s taken me several days to decide what I want to say about it in this…
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Book Review: Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott
Murder by the Book (the novel, Kensington Cozies, 2018) by Lauren Elliott is the first in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. I checked this book out to read on my Kindle via Libby through my local MCPL mostly because of the title and the cover. Many years ago, I directed a play by…
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Book Review: Janie Writes a Play by Heidi E. Y. Stemple and illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight
For those of you who have been following my book reviews, this will be a bit different for you. Today I read a book to be published on February 11, 2025, a children’s picture book with only 40 pages, short paragraphs on each page, and bright, colorful illustrations on every page. This is a bit…
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Book Review: Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger
Everyone knows the saying, “Like mother, like daughter,” or “Like father, like son.” We all inherit certain traits and characteristics from our parents and pass on some of them to our own children. In my case, though, it is more like, “Like father, like daughter.” My father was a first-class storyteller. Sometimes they started out…
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Check it out!
Check out this month’s Washington Family Magazine for my freelance work in their June “Father’s Day” issue: “Father of Three, Father to Many More”, a profile on University of Maryland Men’s Basketball Coach Mark Turgeon. “Squash the Summer Slump”, an article aimed at helping parents prevent their children from losing ground over the summer break…
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Finish Strong
The April issue of Washington Family Magazine is now available online. Please see my article “Finish Strong“, pages 14-15, with quotes from some of the best teachers I know!
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A New Year, A New Me
A new school year has begun, and week two is in the books, or grade books as it were. However, my school year began a day late, due to a back injury that sidelined me for the first day of school. Calling in sick has never been easy for me; I was even more…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 