December 19, 2019
You must have not heard me the first time, World. Sweetness!! Bring it on. Especially to the children. Here my annual cupcake decorating in my classroom holiday party. I love to see their blinged out creations on my cupcakes. Chocolate only, in the vein of “you get what you get Read more…
December 17, 2019
I have several work peeps I often unload vegan sweet treats on. And more recently I have become the unloadee, receiving regular vegan baking experiments with a high level of enthusiasm. This holiday season, a give and take of vegan sweetness during designated Parent-Teacher Engagement hours. Because sharing sweetness is Read more…
November 25, 2019
A decade of teaching, a decade of turning the classroom pumpkin into cupcakes. These are my all-time favorite cupcakes to make. Maybe because my students are always skeptical about how the pumpkin on my desk can become a delicious cupcake. Maybe because most have learned of my being vegan by Read more…
November 5, 2019
Airport knees. Because I still sit like a 10 year old. The tail end. Good for them! I like my tables etched with love. She’s clockin’ my Banh Me Salad at Black Mountain Wine House. Or the wine. I love my “new” hutch. Having to get it in two trips Read more…
October 31, 2019
Working in a school on Halloween is a lot of fun. And there is an excuse to go hard with dressing up… as if I needed that. In honor of the undead and vegan candy treats, some halloween images in a very festive week: My students loved these Zombie Skittles… Read more…
March 31, 2019
The best part of Spring is the return of color. To celebrate, I honor the colors.
February 8, 2019
No one gets more excited about Valentine’s Day than 7th graders I think. This I decided while offering my classroom to some of my last year’s students for lunch, where they wrote profound love quotes on my dry erase boards, so potent and new to their awareness. I tried not Read more…
December 13, 2018
I finished off the last of the pumpkin puree from the classroom pumpkins with three more batches of the well-loved pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes. And the kiddos were excited to decorate their own at our Holiday Party. Though extremely stressful at times, I love that my profession allows me to Read more…
November 3, 2018
The first batch of cupcakes for this year’s kiddos.ย I start simple with a chocolate cupcake and vanilla buttercream for our Dia de Los Muertos celebration… The classroom spread. I go to Don Paco Panaderia in Sunset Park every year for the pan de muerto.ย And they never bat an Read more…
October 3, 2018
Why do we praise what is logical and reasonable?ย When have these things ignited your heart and imagination?ย Stepping into this elementary school library in Bushwick, Brooklyn, I was struck by the the questions posed by its students all about the walls.ย Within each, Hope–in the form of curiosity, innocence, Read more…
September 21, 2018
While I try to balance the new speed, intensity and anxiety level of my daily life, some artifacts of this year’s outrageous adventure thus far. His favorite subject is math; he loves me; and now I have to go to a Superintendent hearing about how he grabbed my “professional developments.”ย Read more…
September 11, 2018
Heading to Materials For the Arts is a part teacher ritual, part surreal fantasy.ย For me–a salvager, thrifter, and lifter-upper of rocks to see the squirming bug-life beneath (a past time of my non-girly leisure time as a little girl)–my skills as a “shopper” are well-honed and aligned to several Read more…
July 28, 2018
As a recent again-Brooklyn resident and a teacher obligated for 3 weeks of professional development in algebra and then another 3 days for training to be a special education class cohort, my summer has been here–in New York City.ย I don’t know that that has happened since I started as Read more…
June 28, 2018
Passenger seat cityscape A cupcake from Sprinklesย on the floor at Penn Station after a teacher PD. Driver seat cityscape while stuck in traffic on the BQE All done with my first year as a middle school teacher Berry season upon me Morning has broken, like the first morning The last Read more…
May 25, 2018
I like bananas ripened, speckled, smashed and put into cake.ย And every week I have a slew of bananas to transform into tokens of my affection.ย Who will get a loaf of marble banana bread this week?ย Not sure.ย But last week, my middle school class.ย But first, I need Read more…
March 14, 2018
As a math teacher, I am obligated to make a big stink about Pi Day (3/14).ย I made two pies from scratch last night after work while eating a PB&J sammy for dinner. Today, I incorporated them into the day’s activities.ย (For more, see my work blog here.)ย Now, I’m Read more…
March 2, 2018
My hot glue gun, the only gun I will ever carry as an educator. I pass this church on the way to work and it always amuses me. Amen to reflection and contemplative purposes. Ok, so this teacher carries power tools too.ย Though this paddle bit did not manage to Read more…
September 28, 2017
The Farmers Markets end. I eat dinner in my classroom on Back to School night. (Kiku Sushi) Things get organized into colorful bins… …and I spray paint other things. The sunset grows more potent, weeping for the fall of its crown. (Long Beach, New York) And a small, sliver of Read more…