In 2016, I

• had 4 different jobs
• read over 40 books
• started a bookclub that read 6 books together
• directed 3 plays, produced 2 more, and put on 6 camp sharings
• wrote for 31 consecutive days in the March Slice of Life Challenge

oh yeah, and moved back to France…

• where I’ve travelled to 4 countries and (at least) 11 cities so far!
• where I teach 16 amazing classes of primary school students
• where I’ve met new friends from over 8 countries
• where I’ve amassed a wine bottle graveyard who’s current count is about 38… (we host a lot of parties)

I’ve been struggling a bit this time around to keep up my blog, but I have a handful of posts in the works and hopefully will continue to be inspired to write more as time goes on. For now, please enjoy the Present Perfect Greatest Hits of 2016!! These are the posts I’m most proud of, pleased with, either because of a fun story, or because I pushed myself to try out a different form of writing, or just because I like it! I hope you like them too 🙂 ❂

1) Two Very Different Lessons

In both schools where I have worked, students have learned how to deal with bullying and harassment. In this post, I noticed some very interesting differences to the approaches in each country… I love this post for the amusing parallel that I found, as well as the great memory.

2) Pi ku

I wrote this tribute to the mathematical concept of Pi on Pi day (3/14) using a haiku-like structure with 3-1-4 syllables. I’m pretty happy with how the result turned out– it even rhymes!

3) 

This post was my first foray into all-emoji writing and I can credit it for a bourgeoning obsession… shortly after writing this (and its companion post Creating With Emoji) I became OBSESSED with the power of emoji and pictograms to express complex ideas, especially in language learning situations. I loved connecting with other teachers and sharing ideas on this topic. At least three teachers – including one in France! – used my post as a prompt for their students, which made me extremely proud and excited!

4) Adventures in Spelling

I had to come clean about one of my worst French mix-ups in this post.

5) The Great Marseille Apartment Hunt

One of the few posts I’ve written so far about life in Marseille, I tried to write about something pretty mundane in a more adventurous way, plus shared some advice for future assistants along the way.