My dad moved in with me two years after Liesma died. We had to clean out the parsonage, but that’s another story. He has been driving the same 1993 Maroon Mercury Grand Marquis for about twenty years, and at 231,000 miles, it’s doing pretty well for its age. I could say the same about Vitauts. …
All of my life, I had seen my mother, Liesma and my father fighting and arguing. I recall one very poignant and powerful moment when dad had missed getting me to a doctor’s appointment and my mom just opened up a can of Latvian woman whoop ass on him in the car. What started out …
It didn’t take long to convince dad that we had to let her go. So we all went to her room where she was still plugged into the machines. I had brought along a mix tape that my sister had made for her, and we played it. I will never be able to listen to …
We all knew Vitauts had been having problems with his memory, but we had no idea just how serious it was. While mom was alive, she would tell us that we had, “No idea…” what it was like to live with dad. I’m sure he drove her crazy with his stubborn ways and constant forgetfulness. God …
I have started to keep a blog of my encounters of living with my 87 year-old father. He retired last year, and he’s been living with me for ten months now. It seems like it’s been longer and shorter, if that makes any sense. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but life just seemed …
NETA 2015 I (and 2000 of my closest friends) attended the annual Nebraska Education Technology Association conference which moved to the Century Link Arena in downtown Omaha this year. This year was special for me personally because it was the first year that the Nebraska Writing Project partnered with NETA. This meant that we had 3 …
I faced a dilemma this week. By some act of fortune, a teacher friend of mine posted a link about opting out of standardized tests. That may or may not be it. I have a daughter who is now a junior and she has already taken a battery of Nebraska State Assessments including Writing, Math …
Today I had another obvious breakthrough as a teacher. I just finished teaching The Great Gatsby again, and I love it each and every time I do. However, the assessments that we have come up with are usually duds and make me dread the grading part of the whole equation. One thing that I struggle …
I think it has been a long time since I made a blog post, so allow this to be my reflection on the year 2014 as a teacher. Forgive me as this turns into a treatise on education and technology. The biggest change I have made this year is that I am no longer an …
I just want to share some materials that we use for Reading Circles in our Humanities class. We have been tweaking this for awhile. Not perfect, but kind of neat. Let me know what you do! This is the calendar I use with roles on the 2nd page. Here is a guide for what they …