I would like to wish everyone an uneventful new year
May we live in very uninteresting times
May we live in the most precedented times anyone has ever seen
Happy New Year’s Eve, Chums.
You better eat all of the black-eyed peas, cabbage, and avoid doing laundry tomorrow or so help me you’re going to curse all of us. AGAIN. 
Hey @girlwithalessonplan have you seen this?!
So great. Such inspiration in this crazy time. I wonder if we should share this to more teachers!? Can you make that happen? Is there a teacher tag?
You drug me out of my tumblr isolation FOR THIS?!
Donald Trump wants to be an authoritarian and people are just letting it happen.
Those people are the ones who slept through their English teachers’ lessons on “Night” and “1984.”
Does your school have a dedicated teacher lounge?
I’m talking a space where teachers can rest, relax and recharge. Not where the copy machine is. Not where dead technology is stored. A common space where teachers from different corners of the building can come together to eat, socialize, meet, or even plan?
“career readiness” is killing the humanities, pass it on.
I don’t know, kid, maybe it would just be better if you did the reading.
Unpopular opinion:
Indiana did a disservice by raising the dropout rate to 18.
Now, homeschool is a loophole, and people are clutching pearls at how many kids are signing out to homeschool ... realizing there is no oversight for homeschool in Indiana. It’s been this way for YEARS.
I mean, what are we supposed to do with a 17-year-old with five credits, a poor attendance record, and no work ethic? I’m genuinely asking. There is no way for this kid to get a diploma. (This is a hypothetical kid, but variations of them are in every high school.)
I don’t want to be that jaded teacher who gets on in years, complaining about the kids. I’m complaining about the system. If they don’t want to work in the system, a system that I will defend for having 10x the choices and supports it did even 14 years ago, then let. them. leave.
I love how I can leave Tumblr for months at a time, Put a joke on Twitter that gets barely any traction. Put the same joke up here, and still pound out 100 likes.
How did i ever quit you? 
Me as a teacher at 22: Black dress pants with matching blazer, solid color button up, flats, full face make up.
Me as a teacher at 36: leggings with dinosaurs, oversized hoodie, zip up boots, mascara and chapstick.
Whenever I hear students bragging about not doing their reading, all I hear is, “I like not knowing things.”
My fellow losers,
Stay strong.
Keep indoctrinating.
Indoctrinate those kids to love learning.
Indoctrinate them to think more deeply.
To try harder. To question. To read. To write. To test their theories. To have wild theories. To back it up. To break it down.
Indoctrinate into them confidence in themselves and their abilities.
So that if some self important, pampered, gag-me-with-a-silver-spoon participation trophy with legs ever demeans them, they will have the strength to know his words don’t really apply.
My friend Chris sent me this excerpt from his student teaching reflection for the week and it’s a masterpiece
Do you know anyone who has done TFA? I was offered a position to teach English to high schoolers but I don't know... I am not sure I am creative enough to get a room full of teens to enjoy reading and writing.
I am not a fan of TFA and I’ve only personally known one person to stick with teaching after their two years. The others I’ve been acquainted with got burnt out really quick.
Teaching English language arts is hard. Teaching it to high schoolers is harder. I worked 4.5 years to roll out of college at 22 to teach 28 year olds and I did it. And I’ve been doing for 13 years.
Godspeed. Hope the boot camp helps.
Hey, literature folks. Have y'all noticed that people are using kennings again? I mean, sea pancake, danger noodle, sea roomba.
How’s that different from describing the sea as the whale-road or gannet’s bath?
THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME. I love kennings.
achtervulgan315
What’s really cool is that these kennings accomplish nearly the exact opposite of classical kennings. Sea Pancake and Danger Noodle and Sea Roomba function as familiarizers or diminutives—they make the actual thing seem friendlier and more local.
Classic kennings like Whale-Road and Gannet’s Bath function as a way to make the mundane and normal more epic and dramatic and cool…
It’s crazy how the same device, with thousands of years of separation, are used for nearly opposite purposes!
When was the last time you had a tête-à-tête with your best gal pal? It’s Galentine’s Day, so give her a call!
Image from false friend La librairie (1900), which is really about the book industry and trade, not libraries. Quelle surprise! For the library, you want la bibliothèque.