I’m going to start reading Shadows of Sherwood on my drive back to Vermont today. The idea will be that if I can finish that book amongst all the packing, and finish Ocean at the End of the Lane, I will have two new book reviews for this blog relatively soon. I love fantasy, but I also love historical fiction. The Dorothy Canfield Fischer Award is Vermont’s YA book award, and it gave me a good starting place for this summer’s list of books to read. My name gave me a good place to start on this […]
Down the Rabbit Hole
This blog post contains some spoilers for After Alice by Gregory Maguire. As the book was only very recently released, this warning has been put her as a courtesy. After Alice by Gregory Maguire, if you have not yet read it, is a reintroduction to a world that doesn’t make sense. It is the dark side of Wonderland. I will admit, it’s tame in comparison to some versions. (I refer here to Splintered by A. G. Howard as well as a few other versions I can just barely think of off the top of my head.) But […]
Choreography: “Under Cover of Darkness”
This is the first post in this category, and depending on what else is going on, hopefully not the last. Changing studios and moving and all of that makes these things very up in the air, but I wanted to discuss the inspiration behind this piece because it makes me sound completely geeky – and also completely in love with what I do. “Under Cover of Darkness” is the first piece I ever choreographed for competition. (I do not count throwing together a long line and a short line of dance for ballroom “choreographing for […]
I Love to Read and Write Month
The month is almost over. The point being, I did a lot of artwork for February’s reading and writing celebration that I will likely never see again. So here are some pictures of our Hats Off to Reading and Where the Wild Things Are Displays.
History Chat: Hamilton, An American Musical
Hamilton: An American Musical… Well, I was hesitant at first, to say the least. Rap is not exactly my favorite genre of music. But it’s a musical about a major player in American history – so I bought the album and listened to it. For the students. A majority of whom listen to rap. And honestly, if it got a few more of them interested in theatre, I can’t really complain. I’m more worried about teaching them history and culture. And now I’m addicted. It’s been stuck in my head non-stop for a week now. […]
EDU-6920: Education Research
Guiding Question: How can data collection and analysis improve my practice? Data collection and analysis are key tools in fully understanding everything that happens and how your students are learning. While I was using these tools in my dance teaching classroom and not in a school classroom, I found it important to try using these tools in this environment because it is so much harder to collect data in a dance classroom where the students often do little to no writing. What I was able to look at was keeping more reflection journals and including […]
Tea is a Serious Business
For someone who is an anglophile, tea is serious business. There are certain ways we like our tea. Some amongst us find it horrific to watch someone put milk in their Earl Grey. Others amongst us have been to Britain and know it’s common practice to put milk in Earl Grey and just accept us. Me? I prefer my Earl Grey in a tea latte otherwise known as a London Fog, sometimes with a bit of honey added. Tea companies are analyzed and examined, tea tried again and again. It’s entirely central. Because whether you’re […]
EDU-5020: Literature for Children
Guiding Question: How do literature and media help children and youths learn, grow, and connect to the world? It’s said over and over and over again that children who read “do better”. What that means in the long term, I’m not sure, but what I can attest to as a reader and as someone who has spent this summer reading more children’s literature is that reading is most certainly a doorway into other realms and into other minds. We are given characters to connect with and stories that we can’t always experience on our own […]
EDU-6933: Moral Philosophy and Professional Ethics
How should we treat each other? That’s the guiding question for the course, and an important one (though seemingly innocuous at first) for an educator. And as a feminist, it’s something that needs to be really fully analyzed. I call myself a feminist for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is for advocation. Being an advocate for others is a large part of the ethic of care, and part of the reason the ethic of care is tied so closely with the feminist movement as I see it. The more case studies that […]