Adi Alsaid has released many young adult books since his first title, Let’s Get Lost, but I can promise you, this one blazes through as just as good, if not better than the rest. A new beginning can start at any time, declared by the person who needs one. In this story, the main character,...
Many students endure the (not-so-fun) ritual of moving schools mid-year. In Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan, this is the reality of one of the two main characters, Morgan, as she is forced to transfer schools. Morgan is an elite track star at her Catholic private high school, but is kicked out...
The most beautiful part of January isn’t the snow or the magical lighted displays around town, but instead it’s the chance for a new beginning. January is a refresh button and a new starting line. And as an educator, I feel the need to begin again around this time of year with a clear mind and...
For the past two weeks on my morning runs, I’ve been listening to the podcast Christmas Wars: A Very Merry Rivalry on the battle for Christmas movie superiority waged by Hallmark, Lifetime, Hulu, and Netflix, which is a bit on the ironic side because I have absolutely no interest in this genre.
As we approach the end of the year, we want to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who have engaged with and read our blog over the past year. We do this all for you, so you have extra resources and inspiration for your classroom.
Before transitioning away from life as a public school educator, I worked as the academic trainer for English and social studies in a large, urban high school in San Antonio. I partnered with English and social studies teachers on strengthening the literacy skills of their students.
On the day after state testing, one of my sophomores burst into the room and announced: “Mr. G, I used rule of three on my essay.”
It was a proud moment. Rule of Three is the concept that words or phrases are inherently more appealing in groups of three. It’s a quick and dirty writing...
For most of the past year and half, I have spent most of my waking hours querying or obsessing over querying literary agents for my young adult novel The Closest Thing to a Normal Life.
Just last week, my oldest son asked me what I wanted for Christmas. My answer? Nothing.
In recent months I learned, along with others around the world, of the horrific stories of the mass unmarked grave sites of Indigenous, or Aboriginal, residents of Canada’s Indian residential school system. Wrenching stories of Indigenous students digging graves for classmates, children...
