Not seeing quite as many tumbleweeds as I expected around here.

Today I brought Asher to my tennish-year Reed reunion, because, hey, I had to bring him somewhere.

While we were there he had me explain two concepts: some schools let people live at them, but only the students, which led him to declare in favor of a preschool that would let him and his parents and his friends and their parents all take up ( Read more... )

At the sensitivity training where they made us all say what about us was "different" in the "probably hard to work with unless you are comfortable with this difference" sense that we'll be encountering so frequently with the people we serve, almost everybody in the room said something like "I love music" or "I have great kids" or -- I'm not kidding ( Read more... )

Damn, I may be taking this stretch pants thing too far. It's weird enough that ending my job and my relationship with Martin in the same month has got me wanting to wear skirts, voluminous or mini, every single day. Putting leggings on underneath was supposed to be a concession to my customary, pants-wearing self, the one I'm still carrying around ( Read more... )

Today in class we read an article about the ten-year US patent on the Mexican mayacoba bean, and my students, bless their full-sized hearts, went all up in arms about the injustice of biopiracy. They independently invented the concept of a non-profit public-domain seed bank! -- if not in so many words. They're not going to try to patent their ( Read more... )

Here's one good thing I think I've taught my students this year:

When you move out of your mom's place, you don't have to move in with your spouse or spouse-equivalent. You can move in with your housemates. You can sustain this lifestyle choice well into adulthood, as long as you don't mind continuing to be read as young and cheerful. If your ( Read more... )

Today I asked seven teenagers to find things in their environment with each of five senses separately, cook and eat one meal, and find two truths and a lie in either of two Onion articles and back their truth claims up from the BBC news site.

The basics, you know.

I have all these potential summer students all of a sudden, and I'm finding myself respecting them and enjoying our interviews. I'm finding myself motivated to work hard and not waste their time ( Read more... )

Here is a trope-worthy plot point I've not seen before -- is it because I haven't read enough modern feminist pulp?

The murderer is: the homophobic housemate who neglects his chores chronically, uses other people's towels, and wants to make a documentary without getting permission from the subjects!

I knew there was something wrong with that guy!

Shortest days are here and the chickens are still laying ( Read more... )