Sad News

Book cover of Here Be Monsters by Jamie Sheffield

Last week I received word that a former colleague of mine passed away. His name was Jamie and he died after a brief illness. Even though I had not been in contact with him for quite some time, we were friendly when we worked together and I will always think of him warmly and as a friend. He was an author himself, a very good one in my opinion. He started his writing journey long before I got moving on mine. Actually, that may not be entirely accurate. I think we may have begun around the same time, but…

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You Can’t Go Home Again

Author studies ceramic mosaic of sun, sky, clouds and flowers at Albuquerque Academy in New Mexico

This past week I’ve spent a few days back at the school I retired from last June. One day was a straightforward substitute teacher job for the grade I taught for 17 years. The other 3 days I was helping to grade the New York State Assessment Tests that are given by the state to the students every spring. It is 3 days where the students are pulled from regular routine and forced by the state to take time-consuming exams that are, my my opinion, often very poorly thought out. An example of this is penalizing students for not…

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