Once I was experiencing writer's block at a coffee shop. That's is a very public place to experience writer's block, and in hind's sight, it looked silly. I was sitting there, drumming circles on the table with my thumbs, with my face screwed up into the shape of a fist. The coffee shop was busy, but I was on the moon: What am I writing about? What am I trying to say? What concept am I getting to here? What am I doing exactly? I didn't even notice when someone I sort of awkwardly know* came and sat down across from me.
Read Moreblogcontent
This is the archive page for my blog. I am now putting my writing here, and I have a newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.
Donald Sterling
OK. I'm going to tell you what I think about Donald Sterling. Just like everyone else on the Internet.
Read MoreRaw Diet
I am rounding out day six of a weeklong raw diet. You probably stopped reading after you saw that sentence. You probably were like, "Last week, Sophie wrote an entire entry about yoga. I tried to forgive her for that. But now this? She should buy some Kabbalah beads and move to Los Angeles already."
Read MoreBad Yoga
Yoga is one of those culturally appropriative things that I can't really resist. Even though all the yoga classes I have ever taken are made up of students who look like they just walked out of a Kappa Kappa Delta yearbook photo, I like the breathing and the stretching and the slowing down of everything.
Read MoreThere Is Nothing Wrong With You
My roommate Hannah came back from a meditation retreat on Monday with a present for me. It was a book written by this smiley aging lesbian-type (I am judging her based on her author picture) named Cheri Huber titled, "Regardless of What You Were Taught to Believe, There Is Nothing Wrong With You." It really looks like one of those books you buy at a gas station. You know, the ones that are called "A Sister Is A Sneeze From God," or whatever. There's a monarch butterfly on the cover, and all the titling is in a font that can only be described as an unfortunate knock-off of Comic Sans.
Read MoreIntroverts & Cats #5
Even People Who Love Computers
I am not outdoorsy. Don’t get me wrong, I like the outdoors. I see a river and appreciate its rivery-ness. Sometimes I say sentences like, “Wow. Aren’t trees something? They are so big and full of leaves!” And I feel very profound about it. I often exercise the common white person trope of making other people feel bad about not going outside. (“It’s such a beautiful day! What are you doing cooped up in this house when you could be out there in the sun?”)
Read MoreCamping
Dad, Alexis, and Sophie, circa 1995. This was just before we saw a rattle snake, and just after Alexis was like, "Yeah, I think I'll wear this sick drop-waist dress and patent black Mary Janes on this hike."
It's Spring Break, so I am camping. Even though New Orleans heard that it was Spring Break for most teachers here and promptly decided it was time for Second Winter. I don't care. I'll wear wool socks.
See you Monday!
Leave The House
Yesterday started out hard. I won't go into detail here -- mostly because I am pretty sure that 90 percent of my blog is some kind of descriptive variation on "I'm feeling sad" -- but just know that I was in a bad mood.
Read MorePassover
I met Leah in an elevator. I'd seen her picture in the paper Teach for America Look Book (you know, just to make the already-sketchy organization a little more like a dating website), and she had been impossible to forget. Most of the TFA Corps members in the book (self included) looked like photocopied images of each other: toothy, buttoned down, and with an expression that somehow managed to say, "I gave the speech at my college graduation. What have YOU ever done?" Leah had chosen a picture where you could see her tattoos. She was wearing a cupcake-themed apron and holding a tray of baked goods, while she stuck out her tongue like she was on the cover of a Bikini Kill poster. So I was obsessed with her before I even met her.
Read MoreSpring
Spring technically started on March 20, but there have been plenty of cold days since then. There were several nights in the interim between March 20 and now where I had to turn on the electric blanket (like an old person), and whine over the steadfast cruelty of the universe for being so, so cold. Now, finally, I can whine just as loudly that it is so, so hot and muggy. At last. In New Orleans, it is spring.
Read MoreUnlearning "Don't Reinvent the Wheel"
Of the hundreds of professional development sessions I've been to in the past six years, I could count on my fingers the ones that didn't utilize the phrase, "Now, we don't want to reinvent the wheel here." When you hear someone say that, you know they're about to launch into a diatribe about a method someone else has come up with, and they're going to give you the tools to commandeer the method for yourself. This is obviously a godsend for teachers: using resources and ideas dreamed up by other teachers saves valuable planning time, and ensures that you're incorporating a method that has worked for someone else along the way.
Read MoreUnlearning "Never Make The Activity The Objective"
I am terrible at science. I know that lots of people say they are terrible at subjects and are just being modest, but lots of people did not accidentally spill titration mixtures all over their lab partner's faces. You know how in chemistry classrooms there are those eye-flushing faucets that you're supposed to use in case of emergencies, but you've never seen anyone actually use? Yeah. I am the reason those are there.
Read MoreUnlearning "100 Percent Compliance"
When I look through the folder of photos on my computer from the past five years, there's this one that is especially sad. At the time it was taken, the picture made me happy. I even had a big print made of it, and I hung it up in my classroom. It was a picture of "100 percent compliance" -- a Doug Lemov teaching strategy that had been reiterated to me throughout multiple professional development sessions to the point that it had basically become part of my personal dogma. ("I believe in peace, love, equal rights for all, that salted caramel is the best flavor of ice cream, and that children should always demonstrate 100 percent compliance.")
Read MoreLEAPs Backward: High-Stakes Tests Are Seriously Failing Children
Introverts & Cats #4
Friday night.
Read MoreLaurel, Mississippi (Part 2)
Early-on in our travels across Laurel, I got lost. That's normal: I have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever. Just, none. Once I was traveling from New Orleans to Tennessee and I ended up in Texas. On the train going back to Laurel, I got lost on my way from the observation car back to my seat. (Like, actually lost. Like, I had to talk to someone about it, because I could not figure out how to get back to my seat.) Not only am I bad at directions, I also always insist that I know exactly where I am going. I know what you're thinking, but no, I am not a stereotypical man on a sitcom. This is just the way I am.
Read MoreLaurel, Mississippi (Part 1)
I spent the weekend doing something I have always wanted to do: I took a train to a town I knew nothing about, for no reason other than just to do it.
Read MoreFyodor Dostoyevsky Pitches Television Pilots To Cartoon Network
Title: "Adventure Time and Its Inevitable Existential Consequences"
Logline: This show will focus on the existential crises and inner anguishes of Finnikov, a childlike adult man who plots many violent and reckless adventures (primarily murder) just to see if he has the ability to feel anything. Episodes will shift perspectives between Finnikov and his dog, Jakeovich, who may be a figment of Finnikov’s imagination.
Author Postcards
In lieu of a full post today, here are some watercolors of famous authors and some quotes they have said. Can you guess all of them?
I'll be selling these soon, to raise a little money for Neutrons/ Protons. Be on the lookout.
