Barbecue. Some very smart people, who otherwise might have put their brains to solving the riddle of cancer or the challenges of peace in the Middle East, have committed their lives to cooking it, eating it, analyzing it, comparing it, arguing about it, and waxing nostalgic about it. Memphis tomato-based fanatics square off regularly against North Carolina […]
New Years Wish: Let Kids Wander
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=grove+avenue+richmond+virginia&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&safe=on&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Grove+Ave,+Richmond,+Virginia&t=p&vpsrc=6&ll=37.578596,-77.513008&spn=0.065301,0.109863&z=13&output=embed&w=640&h=480] When there was time in the summer, and there was always time, I would ride my slick rear tired red Schwinn dirt bike down Malvern, across Cary Street and into Windsor Farms, and when I would get to the remnants of the Civil War trench works, I would gather as much speed as […]
Seeing Dogs: The Highlight of Eleanor’s First Day in Florence (Summer 2009)
A couple of summers ago we spent a few weeks in Italy. The bulk of our time was spent in the Piedmont region, and I wrote an earlier entry about visiting the 13th century fortress above the small village of Vogogna where we stayed. This brief video captures the end of our first day in […]
Travel Post From Atlanta: The Walk Outside Our Door
I have been thinking about travel recently. What will be the next chance we will have to gather passports and itineraries? When will we make the leap to a new round of travel debt? Where will we go? The realization that it is likely to be awhile before we find ourselves wedging one more outlet […]
Bringing Students and Families into the School
Last weekend we had an Admissions Open House at Westminster, and I noted how often current students remarked to prospective families that the presence of a student buddy was helpful in making their own transitions into the school. Most interestingly, several students remarked how important that person had continued to be years after the adjustment […]
Making Academic Writing Meaningful: Preparing an Exam Prompt
Today I am thinking about how to create a meaningful writing challenge for my students within the borders of an essentially artificial exercise–the semester exam. For one of the sections of the exam I plan on including a slightly unusual task for a fairly traditional goal–to ask students to demonstrate their understanding of A Raisin […]