What Your Child’s Teacher Wants For Christmas

Mamacita says: Every year around this time, I like to re-run this little piece about choosing a gift for your children’s teachers. We really do appreciate anything and everything we receive from our kids and their families, but some things … Continue reading

Banned Books Week: September 30 – October 6, 2012

I posted this a month or so ago in anticipation of Banned Books Week, and now that Banned Books Week is officially here, well, here’s that post again.  We can’t speak up against censorship enough.  As long as we put … Continue reading

How Anne Frank Helped Me Score Free Classroom Novels

Mamacita says:  Every year, for over twenty years, I taught a unit based on The Diary of Anne Frank.  This title refers to the stage play; Anne’s actual diary is titled Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.  Please don’t … Continue reading

September 11, 2001

Mamacita says: I’m guessing that many most bloggers will be posting tributes this weekend, and telling the blogosphere ‘where we were’ when the planes hit the World Trade Center. Here is mine. This is actually the second third fourth fifth … Continue reading

Those Who Burn Books Will, in the End, Burn People.*

Mamacita says:  Banned Books Week is coming up this month – Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, 2012.  It always saddens me to be reminded that there are such huge hordes of ignorant masses in the United States, and yet, sigh, … Continue reading

Show and Tell

Mamacita says:  Many years ago, I was teaching Public Speaking in a small farmland high school in southern Indiana. My students’ assignment, one week, was to give an informal “how-to” presentation, a brief demonstration of something they personally knew how … Continue reading