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What if we taught composition like Bob Ross teaches painting?
Back in my hometown, it was a rite of passage at the age of twelve to get a paper route. There was no status associated with it, nor did it come with a certain badge of honor – you see, back in the day kids got newspaper gigs to have deep pockets so that they could buy candy and Nintendo games and G.I. Joes.
Hispanic Heritage Month: Three per cent no es Fabuloso
In my first period class of sophomores at a high school on the Southwest side of San Antonio, I had one White student, one Muslim student, and the rest were Hispanic, Latinx, Mexican.
Mental Health Awareness: Kind of Sort of Fine
A bright part of every teacher’s day is getting to the class that your star student is in. You know the one. We see them reach for the sky every time we ask the class a question, they volunteer their personal time to help us staple packets, and they befriend the quiet kid during partner activities. They are just...
Hispanic Heritage Month: Speaking and Scribbling in Spanish
When my mother was going to school in the panhandle of Texas, she and her friends were punished if they spoke Spanish in school. When my brothers and I were growing up, my parents spoke English to us in the home so we would be successful in school.
Mental Health Awareness: Girl in Pieces
To be mentally healthy requires work, and many youth and their families turn to some kind of therapy, counseling, or inpatient program to aid in that work. Sometimes it’s just a friendly listening ear or an elder who might have been in their shoes once. Whatever the outlet or regimen recommended, people with mental...
Mental Health Awareness: Writing as a Healthy Outlet
Mental health is just as important as our physical health, and many educators understand this. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (51.5 million in 2019).” Depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, the list goes on and on, but one thing...
Hispanic Heritage Month: A Quinceañera Para Todos
Growing up with three brothers and not Catholic, quinceañeras weren’t really a thing we did. But when Yvette Guerrero turned 15 and Betty Espinosa asked me to stand up with her in the quince, I had my first real experience with the hoopla that is the quinceañera.
Hispanic Heritage Month: Something Not to Miss
Driving into El Paso, Texas, at night on I-10W remains a glorious sight to behold.
Truth and Tears at the School Book Fair
Back when I was a whippersnapper wearing dungarees and walking to school and back in the snow uphill both ways, nothing beat the school book fair. When I was the K-12 English Language Arts and Reading coordinator in a small southside district in San Antonio, there was still nothing that beat the school book fair.
Real to Reel: Backwards Writing
It’s not very often that TV shows or movies come before the book version, but it does happen sometimes! The art of writing is alive in visual media with scripts and screenplays, but turning those scenes, characters, and situations into chapters in a book sounds more difficult than turning a book into a movie, right?
