ADDITIONAL TALES & THOUGHTS
The Blog
Dispatches from the classroom and the road, signed — when the mood strikes — by the Meandering Maestro.
Another Bookstore On Board
This is how you get your book placed in the front window of a bookstore: I was meeting former colleagues at JM Seafood in Chicago’s Bridgeport community Friday for dinner. I texted one of the former colleagues that I had arrived and she told me she was a couple of buildings down at Tangible Books,…
My Peace Corps Experience
The Peace Corps likes to brag that it’s “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” I would amend this motto. My cousin Holli served in Africa in the 1990s and told me this about the experience when I was considering joining: “You’ll get way more out of it than the people you’re supposed to be serving.”…
Let’s Go Buffalo, Do It For Levy
Being born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, I root exclusively for teams from my city except on rare occasions. I was a New York Knicks fan last year, and not as a bandwagon jumper, as they went all the way. I lived in Washington Heights in Manhattan, a short walk to the basketball Mecca…
Upcoming Book Events For Yours Truly
Attention Chicago Public Schools teachers and administrators, those who work in other school districts, people who want to know what it’s like to teach in challenging environments all over the globe in today’s world and people who like to read about travel and searching for belonging: I’ll be doing two book events in Chicago at…
Flunking the Sniff Test
I proctor a sniff test that is more like a pop quiz in that it is unannounced. Failing it will get you a call home to mom or dad but will not affect your grade. The test is done one on one with a teacher but is not oral. And I dare not give it…
Kudos To (Some) Principals
Flowers for our principals. The good ones anyways. That’s the title of chapter 11 of my book, and I think it’s an appropriate time to spotlight the chapter as this is National Principals Month, which celebrates the dedication and leadership these people bring to their schools. I’ve worked for good principals and bad. Good principals…
Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and … School Shootings
We had our lockdown drill at my school appropriately last Wednesday. You need to be ready if some wacko comes barreling into the school ready to shoot people he does not know, for it happened yet again the next day, this time in Oregon. I wasn’t sure what day, so I used A.I. to find…
Remembering Mike Ditka
I have three regrets as a sportswriter. One, I never met Muhammad Ali. I was seven when he fought Leon Spinks to win the heavyweight title in 1978 for the third and last time. It was a big deal in a lot of people’s homes and mine was no exception. Unlike most big fights, this…
Thank You Bookstores
I can’t imagine I’ll ever forget 9/11/26. It’s the day I was legitimized. As an independent author with no connections in the literary industry, I’ve had to go it alone in getting my book out to the public, as I’ve previously written on the blog. Lots and lots and lots of dead ends and disappointments.…
Attention Scripted Curriculum Creators: John Dewey Would Hate You
You teach long enough and you eventually figure out that educational best practices are cyclical. What’s hot this year might not be next. But in three more, it’ll come back. I’ve taught at a school where the principal strongly urged teachers to make the students do more work on their computers via online modules like…