Personal development
April 23, 2024
O say, can you see, by 2024’s bright sunlight? O’er the schoolyard’s chain link fence, we watch another school day unfurl. Saintly teachers never glare, lest they hurt children’s delicate sensitivities. Bubbles don’t burst in the air, because everyone is too busy evaluating opportunities to use AI. Friends, buckle up for a Sara-Elizabeth post on […]
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December 11, 2023
In 2017, I posted a guide for 20 gifts for the teacher you love. This month for the “throwback” section of my somewhat-monthly newsletter for teachers, I wanted to re-share the post, but alas- it’s the internet, and so many of my links had broken! I fixed a lot of them, but a lot changes […]
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August 7, 2023
This is the journey of teachers – another set of graduates moved on, another crop of kindergarteners coming in, another summer gone, another year just around the bend. Perhaps you’ve moved schools, or grades, or classrooms. Perhaps you’re making a really big change like when I was first asked to teach preschoolers when all of […]
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September 7, 2022
Why, hello, my corner of the internet. How’s it going? As Ecclesiastes reminds us, there’s a time for everything. Today, it’s September 7, 2022, and for Sra. Musicuentos, it’s time to come back. You may not know me. Let’s see if I can condense this into a nice bio overview. In the fall of 2008, […]
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December 12, 2019
As is my habit, as I finished books in 2019 I reflected on them in a post for my blog as my primary platform for public reflection. Perhaps now I’ll just reflect by posting in my Goodreads account? In any case, here, one last time on Musicuentos, is a collection of reflections on what I […]
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December 6, 2019
In the spirit of letting go, I want to share with you something I can’t let go of. Almost three years ago, I sort of fell into directing an all-volunteer ESL program for newcomers. A man I’d never met connected with some people in my church and told them he’d been helping refugees for some […]
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September 19, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Two
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So you want to become a better language teacher, and that’s awesome! You’ve laid a good foundation in getting to know some sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages thanks to Steve Smith. Now, it’s time for Step 2. Is the foundation important? Absolutely, it’s critical. But to build on that foundation […]
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August 1, 2019
For a teacher, opening old files is like opening an old photo album. You’re flooded with memories, and also reflections on what went wrong and what went right: Why did I let my mom talk me into that perm? Stirrup pants with winter boots! When are those coming back? If I had real friends, they […]
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June 1, 2019
The assessments are given and graded, the farewells made, the photographs taken, the materials packed away, and it’s time to sign off, from school, yes – but from what else? This will be my third summer (mostly) taking the months of June and July as an opportunity to go quiet on the blog, to prepare […]
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February 28, 2019
My father was a white male. He lived the last 32 years of his life in the Deep South. After he became an evangelical Christian around the age of 30, he attended independent Baptist and Southern Baptist churches for the rest of his life, and he always voted Republican. Now that you have the picture in […]
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January 4, 2019
2019 is my Elsa year. And by that I mean, of course, Let it go. As I shared echoing some very smart people in the last couple of years at “resolution time,” what good is an intention without a plan? This year, for various reasons, I find myself needing to streamline my life, to find […]
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December 24, 2018
All the Fluff: Book Club 2018
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It’s that time again! My mind scattered in a lot of directions this year and I didn’t read as much as I should have, but here’s a run-down of what I did get to read. I’ll end with some items on my to-read list and ask you for some recommendations. Must read I’m ending the […]
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