Notes from Around the Block- Olive the trees have olives
- Wanda Hickey and the Frog Pond
- A recently discovered DNA thread: forwarding news articles
- A Bride in Blue
- The Gates to a President’s Hell: Water and the IRS
- Marriage in Oxymoronica
- The Present Moment
- If your life were a book
- From the mouths of old babes
- The Atlanta Teachers’ Onion, then and now
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Tag Archives: public schools
Only then can the fun begin
by Mrs. Sabraw Good morning students, welcome to Room N-9. You may be wondering what the N stands for. Oh sure, you might think that just because this whole wing is the N-wing that N-9 refers to one room in … Continue reading
Posted in Education
Tagged 1st person, education, mentors, public schools, rules of the secondary classroom, sloppiness
27 Comments
Why most English teachers can’t write
by cheri block Mr. McCarthy handed out textbooks on the first day of school, way back in 1967. They were small composition books and for me would be both the source of wild written ecstasy and tightly controlled word … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Writing and Teaching
Tagged English teachers, public schools, Writing
53 Comments
A New Shoe Year
by cheri block As is my wish each year for the past three, I volunteer to be the official photographer of my grandson’s first day of school. Time marches on when you are a second grader. After photographing the customary … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Life
Tagged First Day of School, Hopes and Dreams, individual, public schools
21 Comments
And look what the California Teachers’ Association has wrought…
by cheri block In the March 31st edition of The Economist magazine, Andreas Kluth wrote a piece that warmed my heart. Warmed it like a blow torch. Although the subject of his article is education here in California,the problems the … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Writing and Teaching
Tagged English majors, public schools, sloppiness
17 Comments
Over the river and through the woods to Beowulf’s house we go…
by cheri block Every Thursday night, I teach writing to two small classes of high school students. My bunch this session includes a smart little 8th grade guy. Poor kid. Do not start your essays with a question. That’s soooo … Continue reading
Hamartia and Sophrosyne
by cheri block sabraw The Greek word sophrosyne was summarized in brief by the Oracle at Delphi in several succinct aphorisms: Nothing in Excess and Know Thyself. In other words, with moderation of all that pulls us away from the … Continue reading
Air freshener, please?
by cheri block sabraw Hello Girls. [Startled young bodies crow-hop to the left] Alicia runs into a stall. The toilet flushes. The latch clicks. She feels safe for a minute. Cigarette smoke fills the space. Nat and Georgia copy their … Continue reading
Alexis de Tocqueville and School Choice
by cheri block sabraw In 2000, several years after I opened my school a fellow from a think thank in Washington D.C. called my office and asked to visit when he was in the Bay Area. He did. Shortly after, … Continue reading
The Scarlet Letter Lecture
Good Afternoon, Jonathan. I understand that you missed my lecture about the Puritans and their relationship to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Is that right? Yes, that is why I am here Mrs. Sabraw. Great. Do you have your notebook … Continue reading
The Nerdy 58 Year Old Woman (4) : Day Two of my grammar class
On Thursday last, the second day of my grammar class, several of the shy students decided they weren’t shy anymore. This phenomenon happened right in the middle of my story about a time when the Nerdy Little 8th Grader was … Continue reading
