ELA (5)

Illustrative images of teenagers reading books, sitting on a brick wall. Above them are speech bubbles with emojis showing how they feel about the books: a smile for happiness, COOL, a crown, and a heart.

If You Build It, They Will Read

Last week during her first week of school, I had a conversation with a fresh-out-of-college-first-year teacher who was spending her evenings typing up grammar practice slides to keep students busy and, hopefully, ward off behavior issues. 

wooden table background, a red book sits on top of it titled

Dates, Death, and Dybbuks—Oy vey!

Earlier this summer, my oldest son was making random conversation at dinner about the foolishness of dating aphorisms, like how you shouldn’t talk about politics or religion on the first date. He asked if we could even imagine his brother, our middle child, on a date with someone who didn’t share...

two hands holding book titled

Hits, Hoverboards, and Alternate Realities

Back in the days before television screens were flat, before we had televisions in every room of the house, before crazy high screen resolutions let us see every line, wrinkle, and flaw on previously unflawed celebrities, I remember watching a boxing match during the Olympics with friends and...

Cover of Ink Knows No Borders over green background

Immigrant and Refugee Stories: Ink Knows No Borders

Poetry offers a creative outlet for writers to explore their emotions, experiences, and dreams for the future. It offers extraordinary literary freedom. It can look and sound like anything the author wants—it could rhyme (or not), it could be a haiku with short and simple syllables, or it could be...