I began to write this article in my head as I bounced around the back seat of a car careening down Commonwealth Avenue during rush hour.
“What’s that woman’s problem?” scoffed the young man behind the wheel as I held on for dear life. “Sheesh, learn to drive, lady!” he hollered out the window as our car lurched around the lane.
I had just finished my own one-hour driving lesson (yes, I’m 29 [...Read More!]
For the first part of the Robert Burns Scottish Dinner, no one would tell me what is actually IN Scottish Haggis.
“You’ve had McDonald’s before, right?” said David. “Well, then you’ve already ingested random animal parts. Don’t worry about it– just eat.”
Finally it came out: Haggis is a whole bunch of lamb parts (heart, liver, lung… maybe even “bollocks”), cooked in a sheep stomach. Wow. Haggis is traditionally served with “neeps and [...Read More!]
Why should we care if teachers follow their travel dreams or not?
Here’s one reason: if we teachers are telling students they can and should follow their dreams… shouldn’t WE do what it takes to follow our own travel dreams as well?
Speaking for myself, I was ready to leave teaching altogether when I left the country in August of 2009 after six years teaching in Boston Public Schools. I felt exhausted, in [...Read More!]
It is difficult to write this because the heat has been broken in my apartment for five hours, and my bones (finger-bones included) are now ice-encrusted.
Maybe you’ve heard: we’ve had a liiiittle bit of winter weather here in Boston lately! What has it been: 6 giant blizzards in 6 weeks? 8 feet of snow total? Who knows. All I do know for sure is that we’ve had 5 Snow Days which [...Read More!]
This quote from a March 3, 2010 Boston Globe article by Geoff Edgers sums up what you’re about to read:
“The once-grand Art Deco theater, which had become a dilapidated porno movie house by the time it closed in 1976, has been restored to its former glory.”
Wait… there was a ramshackle X-Rated movie house in the middle of downtown Boston just a generation ago?!
Yes, that is correct. Remember two articles ago how [...Read More!]
It was late at night last month, and I was power-walking through the tunnel between the Red Line and the Orange Line in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. Suddenly a radiant grin appeared in front of me.
“Ms. Marshall!” my former student, ShiSha, hollered, and we fell into an embrace.
“How have you been?” I asked, breathless from the coincidence.
“I’m still working at Artists for Humanity,” ShiSha replied, referring to an amazing urban youth art [...Read More!]
What magic, the advancements that have occurred within the past few years in our “Developed” country! I’m astounded at the changes that have taken place in the United States within my lifetime.
We in America like to prance around and declare ourselves “Developed,” while we proclaim poorer countries “Developing” or “Less Developed.”
But terms like “The Developed World” make us seem fixed, finished, and all set. In fact, no, we sure aren’t! From [...Read More!]
There’s at least one moment every few days when I think to myself: “Teaching really is the best career in the world.” Sometimes this thought is spurred on when a student finally understands a concept. Other days it’s activated by the zing of a vibrant classroom discussion. Sometimes it comes from the intellectual buzz of making a tough text like Shakespeare accessible. But, in the case of this week… my [...Read More!]
Before we left on winter vacation, I forced all my students here in Boston to write Appreciation Cards. We defined an “Appreciation Card” as a letter (decorated nicely) telling someone why you appreciate and admire them.
The power of such a card is massive! We think people around us know how much we care about them and why, but how often do we actually say it? In fact, our loved ones may [...Read More!]
Exactly one year ago, I was almost arrested in Bangkok, Thailand for bringing an illegally smelly fruit onto a public train.
You can read the whole dramatic story by clicking here, but the short version is that durians (giant, monstrously spiky fruits common in Asia) smell so horrifically bad that there are signs all over public transport in Southeast Asia warning against carrying them. And I did. And a Thai policeman nearly [...Read More!]