The Genres of My Life

Tweens and teens of the 70's and early 80's wanted only one thing:  to look like  Charlie's Angels (well, and marry one of the ...

Recently, while I was at the gym trying to get thicc, the guys around me were getting swole. To clarify, I am already thick: that is an ea...

I love it when my students realize the power of language buried beneath its nuances without my teaching it.  It is rare, but it happens. Whe...

Teaching writing is far more challenging than teaching literature. With literature, a teacher has fascinating characters, engaging plots, an...

As previously posted, I hate grading papers,but there is an exception: my students' personal statements for college. I enjoy these paper...

I have some major linguistic knowledge to throw down. Major. Linguistic. Knowledge. This new slang term for an old label might revolutio...

A whole lexicon of acronyms is multiplying faster than I can keep up. I thought that teaching high school students, teaching college stude...

Just as some teenagers are too cool to come to school, I am too cool to show up to work. At least that's what I tell myself.  I'm ...

I work with a collection of passionate, intelligent, and innovative teachers whom I regard with the utmost respect. But, I think I'm go...

Well, I thought that I had solved the mystery of why my forty-year-old ass can only attract men south of 30, but then a further study of t...

Traditionally, New Year's Eve is the official reboot-your-life day. But for me, that feeling of renewal comes in September when the sch...

I speak two languages: snob and sarcasm. Snob is my written language; sarcasm is my colloquial language. Whenever I write anything -- fic...

I understand that language will and must evolve to join with scientific discovery, technological progression, and cultural mish-mashing, bu...

The only good thing about starting the new school year is that my supply of funny teenage anecdotes will be replenished. This is my fiftee...