Category: teacher

Grandma’s Basement

Posted in basement, childhood, confidence, dungeon, grandma, grandpa, kindergarten, memoir, playpen, sarcasm, shame, teacher, wringer washerLeave a comment

(re-run) My grandpa and his dad built a house into the side of a hill. The main floor had three small bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and stairs to the kitchen below. The kitchen looked out over the hill down to the creek and had windows and a back door with a screen door.… Continue reading Grandma’s Basement

The Sweet Spot

Posted in animal training, author, best, California, chorus, cleaning, Craigslist, dancing, dating, friends, girlfriends, Halloween, holidays, humor, memoir, outdoors, rain, relationships, teacher1 Comment

(re-run from 2018) It’s that time of year.   The nights are cooling down, the sun is setting earlier, everything is either starting back up or ending.  The outside music venues are closing up, and the Halloween costumes are showing up in the thrift stores. The kids have been back at school for almost a month. … Continue reading The Sweet Spot

Scariest Student Ever

Posted in children, firsts, high school, humor, Iowa, junior high school, memoir, middle school, Midwestern, relationships, teacher, teaching, worst1 Comment

(re-run) During my ten years of teaching public school, I had many a student that caused me grief.  The 8th grader transfer student who called me a bitch in front of the whole class on his first day.  The brilliant 7th grade boy who lit matches in the hallway and dropped them on… Continue reading Scariest Student Ever

The Tennis Shoe and the Broken Window

Posted in classmates, college, high school, Iowa, Iowa State University, locker room, memoir, physical fitness, physical fitness award, softball, teacher, windowLeave a comment

(re-run) It was senior year in high school. I was on my last semester of PE, my least favorite class. I maintained a straight-A average in all other classes. But not in PE. It alternated between a B and a C. I was feeling good. We were in our next-to last unit, the physical fitness… Continue reading The Tennis Shoe and the Broken Window

Show Me the Numbers!

Posted in Baby Boomer, Beatriz at Dinner, family, gangs, generation, Guatemala, Hispanic, immigrants, immigration, majority, pension, Spanish, teacher, U.S. Census, wedding5 Comments

(re-run) At a recent wedding rehearsal dinner, I sat across from a well-off, pension-receiving white guy who started a conversation about immigration. Sorry for him that he did not know he was sitting across from a Spanish teacher/book author who has studied and followed Hispanic cultures for most of my life. And I’m old. To… Continue reading Show Me the Numbers!

My Perfect High School OCD Job

Posted in babysitting, bag boy, bar codes, Costco, grocery store, high school, McDonald's, memoir, OCD, scanners, teacher, uniforms, Wonder BreadLeave a comment

(re-run( After babysitting for every rug rat in my neighborhood and getting short-changed by a few of their parents (the going rate was 50 cents an hour), I moved into real jobs with time cards and pay stubs. The first one was as a window clerk at Mc Donald’s. I was fast. I could take… Continue reading My Perfect High School OCD Job

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Posted in dating, English, high school, Home Ec, humor, Iowa, memoir, middle school, Nebraska, problem, self-fulfilling prophecy, small town, Spanish, student, teacher, teaching, typewriters2 Comments

(re-run) It was a few days before the kids would come – 7th and 8th graders. I left my job as a high school Spanish teacher and would now be teaching English to middle schoolers.  It was a way to get out of a podunk town in Nebraska and into a big city in Iowa… Continue reading Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Dieting, Body Image, and Stay Out of my Business

Posted in anorexia, body image, bulimia, college, diet, Karen Carpenter, memoir, mental health, mental illness, pregnancy, restricting, teacher, teaching, weight lossLeave a comment

(re-run) “Are you going to eat all of that?” I was sitting at a table in the teachers’ lounge, my lunch spread out before me. There was a sandwich, a red apple, carrot sticks and a glass of juice, maybe a chocolate or two. Why was the teacher I barely knew commenting on my lunch?… Continue reading Dieting, Body Image, and Stay Out of my Business

Challenger Explosion and Subbing in San Diego

Posted in baby, California, English as a Foreign Language, ESL, memoir, Mexico, newlywed, Ramona, space shuttle, Spanish, Spanish class, teacher, teaching, TijuanaLeave a comment

(re-run) It was a Tuesday, my third week of substitute teaching in Ramona, California.  The Middle School Spanish teacher before me had left in October after a former student told her therapist that he had sexually molested her while on his high school track team. The teacher was terminated, and the string of substitute teachers… Continue reading Challenger Explosion and Subbing in San Diego