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Easy and Secure Voting Options in Minnesota: A Guide
Recently, I was a poll judge for the state primary elections. One of the things that opened my eyes was the number of people who were concerned about the upcoming presidential election. Some expressed it directly by asking what measures the city and state were taking to ensure safety and security at the November general Continue reading
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Nazis in the GOP
Trigger Warning: This post contains images of neo-Nazis and discusses topics of racial hate, murder, and violence. You can tell a lot about the meaning of language based on the supporters of that language. For example, recently, Jason Aldean made a music video for one of his latest songs that caused quite a bit of Continue reading
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Tornado Watches vs Warnings
As I was scrolling the Facebook reels during one of my insomnia fits, I ran across this video from April of a local meteorologist describing to her viewers the difference between a watch and a warning using this graphic. While I do enjoy tacos, and I think this graphic does a great job of explaining Continue reading
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Normalizing Workplace Violence in Schools
This is a bit of older news, but I need to share this. Apparently, getting shot at is now a part of our job description as teachers. According to the Denver Post, the lawyers representing the Newport News school district are trying to get her lawsuit dismissed by claiming that Zwerner, “is only entitled to Continue reading
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ADHD, Writing, Academics, and Work
Writing is hard for me. One of the excuses I often make for not writing is the dearth of information that already exists out in the world on the topic I wish to write about. But the reality is that writing is difficult with ADHD sometimes. Even when I want to write solely for myself, Continue reading
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When Omitted Information Adds Fuel to Fires
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare wrote that in Romeo and Juliet in order to frame the idea that naming is simply a convention. That the surname of his beloved did not matter because he was simply in love. And maybe Romeo was on to something about love and family and loyalty. Unfortunately, this isn’t always Continue reading
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On Ukraine, And America’s Obsession With The West.
War is hell. No matter where you are from, what country you live in, or who is on the receiving end of artillery or an airstrike. The war currently going on in Ukraine is no different. Countless innocent lives will be lost, on both sides, all in the name of power consolidation and ideology. Whether Continue reading
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P-12 Education is a goat rodeo right now.
I have been rattling my brain for the past few weeks trying to figure out why this year feels so much worse than the last couple of years combined. I have been asking myself, “Why have more teachers and administrators started the processes of finding new jobs?” And, “Why have I felt crushed by pressure Continue reading
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Student Names (An Example of What NOT To Do!)
I have been thinking a lot about the upcoming school year. I know it seems early, considering the kind of year this last one was. It seems even earlier to me considering that I am still teaching summer school. But I recently had new student come into school, and I made a huge mistake, a Continue reading
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Krashen (Out of his element)
There I was minding my own business enjoying the latest issue of Language magazine over my lunch when I took notice of Stephen Krashen’s regurgitating the KS Goodman’s antiquated construct of reading as a “psycholinguistic guessing game.” For those of you who aren’t into reading and literacy research, the idea of reading being a psycholinguistic Continue reading
The Life Argotic 