So, the photo’s not that great, but the content of it is worth its weight in gold. This is what I found when I walked into my classroom this morning. Not so impressive, you say. But, what it represents is the hard work of some community minded seniors (Lane, Bea, Rachel, Cooper, Olivia, and […]
“OK, we need some dogs–specifically, ‘a wolfish troop of watchdogs.’” “Me! Me! I’ll be a dog!” “Me, too!” “OK, but the text is clear that you’ll have to fawn on Telemakhos when he arrives at the hut.” “What’s ‘fawn’?” That fawning might be a deal-breaker on my assigning roles for our acting out a scene […]
By the time we looked at Thacher my parents had, between my brother and I, toured 21 boarding schools around the country. Yet none of them could match the feeling that we got arriving at Thacher. First off, the setting is unparalleled. The sweet smell of oranges, the mountains that rise dramatically up around the […]
Fortuitous intersection: I discovered through my English IV Honors students that those of them in AP Psychology were studying Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory just as freshmen in English read the middle chapters of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. (In these pages, the young girl must find her way back to emotional and psychological wholeness after a brutal sexual assault.)
With a new year, the usual goals come to mind: balancing work with fun and trying hard in all facets of life. However, I also aim to try new activities. An elective I’m taking this semester is American and British Sea Literature. Though I enjoy literature, I know little about boating or the sea. A […]
There were many excited and energetic horses loping around the gymkhana field our first riding day back at Thacher. It was a foggy day. My group took the steep trail up to ring the bell on the hill. We each rang the bell as our horses walked by. It had been a long day of […]
Last night (Thursday, 14 December), the AP Comparative Government class participated in a simulation of a House of Commons debate in the fabulously refurbished Study Hall. The atmosphere was formal and even a bit unruly as the debate heated up; much like the actual House of Commons. Students researched their assigned party positions on four […]
Last week and this, English IV Honors: Turning Toward Home met for Thursday’s class in my living room. We move here when I feel that the seminar table in Room C is too vast an ocean of oak, when I sense the students are not connecting across it as powerfully as I want for them–and […]
Dr. Delvecchio and I just finished day #2 with our new freshmen historians. We’re also on day #2 of a bit of an experiment this year. Instead of following the well-worn path of the traditional European history survey, we’re revamping the curriculum by creating thematic units that invite students to connect a “moment” in European […]
These two months have flown by. I have gone sailing for the first time, I spent some time working with draft horses, and I am in the process of trying to learn to play the guitar. The last thing I can say is that I’m not trying new things this year. The beginning of this […]