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#2 Karma: Awesome! As a commuter to my college, the morning drive to class is never something I look forward to. I’ve lived in Rhode Island for my entire life, which means I can confidently confirm that Rhode Island drivers are the worst drivers out there. While I experience poor driving and near-collisions on a daily basis, only a few of these experiences are noteworthy, such as this one. One April morning, closer to finals, I was driving to my 8am class with the sun blaring in my eyes almost the entire way. Because of this, I was cautious, because with many schools along the route, I didn’t want to hit any kids waiting for their buses. So I was driving the speed limit, especially since it was the beginning of the month and Providence has about a million traffic cameras. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the car behind me was driving on top of me. I mean, if I had stopped, I would’ve gotten hit, for sure. But I didn’t let this intimidate me. I kept on driving t...

Through working in the schools, I was introduced to a blog called “ 1000 Awesome Things ” by Neil Pasricha where he posts daily about an “awesome” thing that has happened to him. These occurrences vary from scoring the winning goal to opening a new jar of peanut butter. According to Pasricha, all of these experiences are relevant. Therefore, he writes short blog posts about them, always ending with “AWESOME!” Today, I’m writing my own “awesome” thing. #1: Music is a Universal Language Music is a universal language. The sounds, rhythm, energy. It is an experience that all people, despite their variety of beautiful, spoken languages, share. This shared experience brings people together in the best of times, the worst of times, and everything in between. Music brought me closer to a stranger in Quebec City this summer, even if we couldn’t speak the same tongue. My friends and I traveled up to Quebec City last month to celebrate ten years of friendship. On our second night in...

One day, I woke up from my snooze to find that my humans were gone. I picked myself up from the cold floor to check the rest of the house. I couldn’t smell them anywhere, and there weren’t any sounds. The little girl usually likes to sing, and I didn’t hear any of that. After I checked the entire house, even after climbing up the stairs, which was hard for my old hips, I decided that they weren’t home. Where could they be? I heard a small fly come from the outside, so I followed it to where it came from, realizing that I could get out. What if my humans were outside? I squeezed myself out of the house and was met by tall grass and a bunch of bugs. My mom human’s car wasn’t there, the one I like to ride in. Dad human’s car hadn’t been there for a long time, and I stopped smelling him. I lost him. Knowing that my mom human and girl human were not there, I felt alone and unsure as to what I should do. So I sat down in the yard under the tall trees for a little while, thinking. After som...

     Mama decided to homeschool me. Why? I’m not quite sure, exactly. It wasn’t like I was failing my classes. Actually, I had almost all A’s, which was good for me, especially since Home Economics dragged me down. When I was pulled from school, I had a 85.6% in the class which drove me crazy. No matter how much I argued with that old Hag of a teacher, I couldn’t get it higher. But Daisy Thomas had a 96.7% in the class. And she thought she was so smart. In your dreams! Anyways, back to Home Economics. Right. I tend to go off on long tangents. So, my guidance counselor put me into that wretched class this year and COMPLETELY ignored my request to take Physics. “Ladies like yourself aren’t scientists,” she told me. What does that idiot know about what’s good for me? So I got stuck in a class of all girls learning to make sandwiches, sewing clothes, and reading about ways to please your husband when he comes home from a long day of work. I was miserable. And worst of all, I ...

In this blog post, I’ll present one point from each reading that I believe is worth discussing, all of which relate to creating comfortable spaces for students and teachers in the classroom. In Matthew Kay’s “Not Light, But Fire,” he first mentions what it means to facilitate a “safe space” in the classroom. For students and teachers, the definition of this term will have different meanings. Kay provides numerous strategies for teachers to establish a safe space with their students, one being what he deems the “foundation of such spaces”: listening (Kay 16). He next asks the reader to question what active listening is, and how it will help the student. Active listening is crucial in helping students feel that they are learning in a safe space. So how do we, as teachers, ensure that our listening strategies are most beneficial to students? Kay lists certain traits teachers should exhibit when actively listening, such as making eye contact, being patient, and staying focused when a stu...

Hi everyone! Below is the link to my introductory video! Enjoy! :) https://spark.adobe.com/video/WGFhpm1nEh44j