Have you ever gone to a party and dined on meatballs (or miniature wieners) marinated in grape jelly and chili sauce? The flavors shouldn't go together. Grape jelly and chili sauce? On paper, that combination sounds like a whole lot of weird. But in the crockpot? In the crockpot, that combination is magic. My friend (and coworker) Wes and I are kind of like grape jelly and chili sauce. On paper, we are very different: I like fiction; Wes prefers nonfiction. I'm terrible at da

Every year, the school where I teach hosts a holiday-themed door-decorating competition. It is entirely possible that this competition is meant to be student-driven, but I have only ever once had a homeroom that was actually interested in putting forth the effort to bring a design to fruition. Therefore, I have only ever once participated in the holiday-themed door-decorating competition. I mean, who has time for such nonsense right before the holidays? With papers to grade

Many, many years ago, my mother gave me a bag of hats that she had knitted. “Take these to school and distribute them to children who look cold,” she told me. So I did. I took the bag of hats to school, anyway. It resides in one of my classroom’s cupboards. The hats have come in handy over the years. Back in 2016 or so, my favorite twins looked cold and so I gave them each a hat. I took a picture of them and I texted it to my mom and I know she was very happy to learn that he

I guess it was approximately fifteen years ago that I met one of my favorite people on the planet. At the time, Nate was only in seventh grade... but even then, he was an old soul. He viewed the world in a way that most people his age didn't; he imparted wisdom that I doubt he realized he even had. Nate walked into my classroom at a time when my self-esteem was at its absolute lowest. He didn't know that, of course. Or, if he did, it's because it was intuited rather than told