All posts filed under: Slice of Life

22 mars – crash course

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They say that the best way to learn something is to teach it, and I have really come to know the true meaning of this expression in the past few months. Though I am an English as a Foreign Language teacher, I am not necessarily an expert on all things English grammar. I am a native speaker, so beyond comma and semicolon usage, I was never explicitly taught many of the rules. In my primary job as an English interventionist in several elementary schools, we don’t spend much time on grammar. The students learn how to use vocabulary in context (I am 10. I have two sisters. Can you swim?) but that’s about as complex as it gets. Recently, however, I’ve begun privately tutoring two new students- an 8th grader and a senior in high school. At first, tutoring really intimidated me. One-on-one lessons are a completely different beast from lessons with a class of 30 second graders who take 10 minutes just to write their name on a paper. Some days the hour ticks by …

20 mars – travel bug

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Today, I have the travel bug. To be fair, I have it quite a lot of days. So often in fact, that I’ve twice picked up and moved to France. But the travel bug requires not only day dreams and travel guides and beautiful photographs. It also needs a touch of forethought, a bit of planning, and a whole lot of researching and comparing. Today was the day that I finally got down to business. I planned and arranged to visit my friend in London in May. I arranged to rent a car to drive through the beautiful provençal countryside when another friend visits in April. I booked a one night stay in Paris with the same friend. My spring break has also started to take shape with some potential travel options coming into focus– think southern Spain and/or Portugal! I also settled on a date and bought a ticket back home to the United States on May 22, and have already arranged for my personal Uber driver (my mom!) to pick me up at the airport! The …

18 mars – questions for france

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Why don’t pencils have erasers attached? Is the obsession with writing only in pen the secret work of the White-out lobby? Why do grown adults use scooters as a legitimate form of transportation? Why do children ride on tiny bikes with no pedals? What is with the general lack of technology skills? Why is there a national obsession with slippers? Why are the titles on book spines printed in the opposite direction? What do kids do if they are thirsty at school since there’s no such thing as water fountains? What is going on with the seatless courtyard school toilets? Is there any rhyme or reason to the annual resetting of the train schedules? What are marshmallows and cough drops doing in the candy aisle? Has no one ever suggested standardizing the sizes of your mattresses? And what is with all the square pillows? What is the point of having a door handle in the center of the door? Why are keys so enormous? Do regular rounded paperclips exist in France?  Why is nail polish so outrageously expensive? Why …

16 mars – lightbulbs

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i have a story that i want to tell you about lightbulbs (the literal kind) but the movie in my mind is stuck today maybe it’s missing a lightbulb like i am hopefully by tomorrow i’ll have a bright new lightbulb (the literal kind and the metaphorical kind) ❂   Slice of Life is a daily writing challenge during the month of March hosted by Two Writing Teachers. Visit their blog for more information about the challenge and for advice and ideas about how to participate.

15 mars – my mom is a nerd

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My mom is a nerd. Like, my friends think I’m a bit eccentric for having a personal library of mostly picture books and following my favorite authors and illustrators on social media (my friends are obviously not elementary school teachers), but seriously, I’ve got nothing on my mom. She frequently says that authors are her superheros. She once won a signed Lois Lowry book for being the speaking event attendee who travelled the furthest to be there. She regularly maxes out the library loan limit checking out books for her classroom. This is the story I usually use to illustrate my mom’s particular fanaticism for all things children’s literature: “When I was in middle school, my mom took us to this museum in Massachusetts called the Museum of Picture Book Art — no, seriously.” *Cue laughter from my friends as they can already see this level of nerdiness goes way beyond what they were expecting* “Anyway, the museum is pretty cool. It was started by Eric Carle, you know, the guy who wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Okay, good, …

14 mars – πku

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Just as I did last year, in honor of Pi day, I have written you some Pi-kus, a modified haiku form where the lines follow a 3-1-4 syllable structure. today i meant to make a pie apple with lots of cinnamon or perhaps a lemon meringue a pumpkin pie would’ve been nice alongside scoops of vanilla but instead, tired, with empty fridge i gave up and ate leftovers ❂   Slice of Life is a daily writing challenge during the month of March hosted by Two Writing Teachers. Visit their blog for more information about the challenge and for advice and ideas about how to participate.