Category Archives: Uncategorized

The brutal cold of the last week has given me ample time to complete projects around the house. Three snow days called within the first seven meeting days of the semester should have been a gift of deep cleaning, touching up paint, and all the other little domestic duties I slough off during busier days.Continue reading “Revisionist History”

A complete list of the 101 books I read in 2023, of course it does not include the countless articles, essays, tweets, captions, posts, etc. that I also read. And yes: I read A LOT of Jenny Colgan. Some years just call for an extended escape into sweet romances, and 2023 sure did. Books with aContinue reading “2023 Book Roundup”

I have long been an admirer of Desmond Tutu. I first learned of him in high school while studying apartheid, the life of Nelson Mandela, and the film The Power of One based on the novel by Bryce Courtenay. This message, which I have in poster form in my classroom, resonates with me more andContinue reading “Don’t Raise Your Voice”

When I began my high school teaching career, I was thirty years old and had spent four years working as a GTA and adjunct for K-State and Washburn. I knew I loved teaching, but I had no idea what being part of an English department was like. In the fall of 2007, I found out.Continue reading “I Used to Work with Legends”

Though I left high school thinking college would be a breeze, it wasn’t. In the early 1990s the state of Kansas only required two years of math and science, so that’s all I took. My ACT score English got me out of Comp 1, but I wasn’t prepared for the rigors of a college class.Continue reading “The Best Worst Decision”

I turn 47 on Monday and (as happens every year around this time) I find myself a little sad. I don’t know when it started. There were years of birthday parties and dinners out with friends and a mailbox filled with cards. Not just texts and social media posts–actual cards. Perhaps it is a delusionContinue reading “All These Shannons at Once”

At 46 I’m trying something new. It seems like there’s never enough time in the day for all the things I want to do — finally learn Italian, read all the books of poetry in our house, perfect an undeniably delicious risotto. But, I don’t spend any time on those things. I say I wantContinue reading “A New Frontier”

The zen genius that is Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” The active intruder response training I went through this morning felt like a whole lot of preparing for that proverbial punch. An hour and forty-five minutes of lecture and slides from the first trainer happenedContinue reading “Preparing for the Punch”

2023 is the start of so many new things. I’m teaching two sections of Creative Writing 2, the lit journal I sponsor at work will be published for free by a local publisher—so great!, I’m excited to start training with a Pilates bar I ordered from Amazon, I’m committed to writing more. Oh, and didContinue reading “Fight or Flight or F*** It”

According to GoodReads, I read nearly 28,000 pages this year. I hate to imagine what that number is if you add in all th essays and short stories I graded. I’d hoped to read 100 books, but I’m going to fall a bit short. I suppose that could be viewed as a failure, but theContinue reading “2022 Book Roundup”