The school year has taken shape after evolving all summer long. We’re going with a hybrid plan that will see the classes split in two with the Blue Team being in the building on Mondays and Thursdays with the other half watching via video. The White Team will be in my classroom on Tuesdays and […]
So, in theory, we should all be gathering at the Hunt Valley Inn for Shore Leave, but you know, things happened. There’s a virtual version that will have some panels this weekend and throughout the next few weeks. However, Crazy 8 Press won’t be slowed down. As promised months ago, we are debuting our latest […]
I had never heard of Paul Antony Jones when my occasional collaborator, Steve Savile, mentioned him to me on March 25. Paul, as I subsequently learned, was a Welsh-born author who emigrated to Nevada with his wife and family. He was considered an indie SF writer, perhaps best known for his Extinction Point series. In […]
2020 is proving to be a year where you cannot predict what will come next let alone prepare for the future. The goalposts keep moving as the world writhes under normal events, a pandemic, and a racial debate that’s long overdue. While Deb and I have been sheltering in place, being as cautious as we […]
This was a transitional week for me. Technically, it’s finals week, but we canceled them. Instead, this week has been a hybrid between personal work and school work. At our faculty meeting on Monday, we were informed we’d know our contract fates next week after the Board of Directors meet. Teachers are ten-month employees on […]
On Friday, the academic year came to an end. Over the next few days we have a faculty meeting and have to finalize our grades. By Friday, after I head in to clean my classroom, I will have officially complete the year and my contract. While this is not my student, I get the impression […]
When I was hired to teach at Owings Mills High School, I was assigned freshmen classes and as my schedule was modified the next two years, I had many of the same students again, and again. That amount of day-to-day contact led to certain bonds being formed so it was incredibly sad when my principal […]
And just like that, we are down to nine days of teaching left. I have stretched the final units a bit for the sophomores and juniors, slowing down the pacing and adding in supplemental works so it’s more in-depth than. The honors freshmen are just now wrapping up The Old Man and the Sea and […]
I think I first met Marty Pasko as the ubiquitous letter hack, nicknamed Pesky Pasko by editor Julie Schwartz. He was a familiar name to me for some time and then suddenly, he was compiling Julie’s letter pages. I still recall his tender editorial reply to the sister of one reader, James T. McCoy, who […]
I began online teaching on March 17 so, I’ve been at this for just over four weeks. It’s been a period of adjustment not only for me but for my students. As I read about how counties in Maryland and neighboring Virginia have struggled, I take some pride in how quickly my school pivoted and […]