Tag: teacher

• A Week Down Memory Lane

  Once the school year begins, and the “train” leaves the station, it seems like I don’t have any time, inclination, or energy for a big project around the house. For ten months I struggle with the enormous piles of essays, tests, and quizzes that befall a middle school language arts teacher.  About all I can…

  michardillo

  July 26, 2015

  Essay

  bookshelves, brooch, closets, costume jewelry, middle school, Monet, Napier, reorganization, Sarah Coventry, silk scarves, spring cleaning, summer break, teacher, teaching

• A Love Letter to Laurie Colwin

  Everyone has a list of people, either alive or deceased, that they would love to have dinner with. I’m sure there is a BuzzFeed list of the top candidates for those lists, chock-full of celebrities and famous people. For me, however, at the top of my list, is Laurie Colwin. Born and raised in Manhattan,…

  michardillo

  July 12, 2015

  books, Essay

  food essays, Home Cooking, Janet Yake, Jeff Gordinier, Juris Jurjevics, Laurie Colwin, lemons, Lemons and Limes, literature, Manhattan, monotypes, More Home Cooking, New York Times, non-fiction, Rosa Jurjevics, teacher, teaching

• Grace on the Field

  As many of you know, I teach middle school language arts in a Catholic school located in an affluent suburb of Washington, DC. Yes, I spend all day with pre-teens and teens, awash in adolescent hormones, Axe body spray, egg-shaped lip gloss containers, and poor grammar brought on by texting and IM’ing.  Six periods a…

  michardillo

  May 10, 2015

  Essay

  100 metre, 400 metres, athelete, English, Eric Liddell, Flying Scotsman, football, language arts, literature, middle school, Olympics, sports, teacher, teaching, track

• In Other News This Week…

  It’s been a busy week for the international news media. A series of Saudi-led strikes pounded rebel targets in Yemen. Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard, and as of now, it appears to have been brought down at the hands of the co-pilot. American Amanda Knox’s second trial for…

  michardillo

  March 29, 2015

  Essay

  bean plants, hair, hydroponics, middle school, science fair, teacher, teaching

• Snow Day: Who Loves One More, Students or Their Teachers?

  Yesterday we returned to school after a two-week break for the Christmas holiday. The day went well, albeit somewhat slowly, as first days back after break tend to do so. But, with mid-term exams looming in the very near future, students worked hard to get back up to speed. And, then, today? Snow day! First…

  michardillo

  January 6, 2015

  Essay

  day off, snow, Snow day, student, teacher, teaching, winter