Diva Teacher, Writer, Mom, Potential Princess & Possible Cat Lady who's also positively in love with Ricky Martin
“You are the author of your own life story,” the skinny strip of green bubble letters outlined in neon pink promised. It used to hang above the chalkboard on the far wall of my classroom. Back then, I believed in that language arts message as hallowed inspiration. Now? Teacher-catalog bullshit. Only recently, I had become […]
Read MoreI remember her words like it happened yesterday. March 2004, San Francisco, California: the Northern California Forum on Holocaust Education. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum had brought me in as a team member to run one of five classroom sessions, accommodating more than 200 attendees, including survivors. We had just finished a few days […]
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With love for Chuna Grynbaum/ Henry Greenbaum/ My Henry, 1928-2018 I will write about my Henry and his story soon, I promise. *A majority of these photos were taken by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on a very special day for me. Henry spoke at First Person, which was also moderated by my dear […]
Read More1. Plants, lighting, smells, and sounds: all important. Plants feel “homey” and provide oxygen, which is necessary for breathing, right? The more natural light the better—lift those blinds. Doesn’t matter what age student you have, no one likes a stinky room. Your olfactory senses are tied to memories, you know, so don’t make your classroom […]
Read MoreWhy does life seem to be happening so quickly these days? Little Layla is now four and a half months old, Natalie and Ryan have officially tied the knot (and are home from their Dominican Republic honeymoon with a nice mystery rash), it’s already October, and school has been in full force for six weeks […]
Read MoreSunday night, 8:45’ish p.m. Jackson and I hop into my white CRV for a quick drive into town. I take the back roads fast in the mid-August evening air, both of our windows down so he can smoke. As I breathe in the woodsy, laced-with-cigarette countryside, nostalgia takes over, and for a brief moment, I […]
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I like to bring the real world into my classroom—at least as much as I can—and when it was time for me to get down to writing a keynote address for the ASJA conference in NYC mid-May, I panicked. What would I tell this group of writers, who undoubtedly had more profound writing credentials than […]
Read MoreTomorrow, June 9, my beautiful daughters Jerrica and Natalie will turn 26 and 24 years old, respectively. When I was their age(s), I was in my first three years of marriage (and teaching) with a toddler and a baby, and my world revolved around changing diapers, finding where formula was the cheapest in the area, […]
Read MoreToday: May 31, 2018. I am 49 years, 4 months, 25 days, and 11 (and a 1/2) hours old. I just completed my twenty-sixth year of teaching high school English. I’ve almost been married to my second husband, Jackson, for four years now. Wow, that was fast. I have three children with my first husband, […]
Read MoreI only got one look at that teeny, tiny, perfect little girl with ten fingers and ten toes and an angelic face before my world stopped. Just twelve hours ago, I met her: my firstborn daughter’s born-too-early daughter, Layla. With a middle name just like mine, Lorraine. Sigh. I can’t concentrate, I can’t read, I […]
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