• Uncategorized

    Laissez les bons Temps Rouler


    My friends and I are busy planning our ten-year Teach For America reunion. Almost ten years ago, we arrived in South Louisiana ready to help work toward the closing of the achievement gap.

    We’ll be heading to Baton Rouge for the reunion (I taught in a small, rural town called Franklin). On Friday night, we’ll be having a Black Bean Burrito night (one of the rituals of our impoverished teacher selves!). Saturday, we’ll do a service project at a school (and we’re inviting our former students to volunteer with us!). That afternoon, we’re having a crawfish boil (which my vegetarian self was never particularly fond of) and then traveling to … Read More

  • Uncategorized

    Ah, Summer

    Even though I’m in my eighth year of teaching, I’ve honestly never had a real summer break. The first summer, I won a grant through the National Endowment of Humanities to study Utopian fiction in the Bay Area. Pretty amazing, but definitely not a lie-around-and-wallow-in-your-pajamas kind of summer.

    The next summer, I worked as a Corps Member Advisor at the Teach For America summer institute in Houston. The next summer, I moved from Louisiana to Houston and taught summer school at KIPP. The next summer I did two weeks of professional development in New York, taught summer school again, got my classroom ready, and then traveled to nine Guatemalan cities … Read More

  • Uncategorized

    Backyard Oasis


    I’m trying to turn our backyard into an oasis. Right now, it’s not very comfortable. We have different fences on three sides, and it creates a very incongruent feel. Because it doesn’t feel very nice back there, we let it get messier than it needs to be. We have pots and bags of dirt strewn about, as well as two random IKEA chairs in haphazard places, which makes the situation worse.

    We’re in the process of getting a consistent fence all the way around the backyard. I also want to get some furniture, so we’re more likely to hang out in our new backyard.

    Occasionally, we host dinner parties out … Read More