These are my favorite bulletin boards that I've made in my whole career.

Special education teachers do a lot. Like, a lot, a lot.

Additionally, I have an idea for a podcast to host with @MrsHopp126 called Teacher Ladies where we rewatch #TheOffice and #ParksandRec and highlight all the ways teachers can use these shows in their secondary classrooms. Currently looking for producers.

In addition to my Office/Parks and Rec obsession, I'm currently obsessed with listening to @officeladiespod. But I'm also going to need a Park Ladies podcast hosted by Amy Poehler and @iamrashidajones. Can someone make that happen?

Editing can go on forever. How many passes do you make through your manuscript before you officially decide it’s finished? #WritingCommunity #writing

It's my book birthday! My 6th book, Nothing More to Tell hits shelves today. It's about a teen journalist investigating the cold case murder of her favorite teacher, whose body was found by her ex-best friend turned nemesis. https://t.co/9F7bN7tOXk

https://t.co/Y9FnPKQiBA

bad (book) dates until you meet your Ben Wyatt or Holly Flax (of books)! Then students speed dated some of the books in the classroom library. Keep reading until you find that book that you just can't put down! #BagoPride #TheOffice #ParksandRec #OurClassIsTheOffice

Today in English 10, @mrshopp88 , the students and I talked about books. Ms. Hopp and I compared finding the right book to going on a series of bad dates until you find that special person. Leslie Knope and Michael Scott are perfect examples of how to preserve through the

Dedicated to @officeladiespod who make my drive to work just the best.

Crushing it For Kids: 5 Areas to Impact Education in Awesome Ways by Monica Genta

it on the list. To those of you who have read it...what are your thoughts -- put it on the list or not?

characters realizing how race factors in Kya's trial. Then again, the novel is highly engaging and got me reflecting deeply. I had thought to include it on the menu for the social justice book club I run for my 10th graders. But now I'm not sure I would feel good about putting

when I thought about it, I realized that the difference was the race of the defendants. Had the narrative included some commentary about this, I think the narrative would not have left me feeling like I want to distance myself from it. I can't get on board with the absence of any

Even more disquieting is the way that Kya's white privilege in her trial is never commented on. I kept thinking of Tom Robinson's trial in To Kill a Mockingbird and the trial of Kya here. Even though the scenes reminded me of one another, the outcomes are WILDLY different and

so a social divide between Black people and white people is part of the landscape. And even though the African American characters are on the protagonist's side, Owens portrays them through tired, monotone stereotypes.

The beautifully told and engaging narrative is overshadowed by the author's racism (not to mention the reported colonial attitude towards Africans and her involvement as an accessory to alleged murder during her time in Zambia 😳). The book takes place in the 50s and 60s,

readers find themselves alongside her in court, the trial strikingly similar to To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee). I devoured this book. It had a lot of potential. But by the end, I felt extremely uncomfortable and it took me some time to reflect as to why:

She learns to survive mostly on her own, her solitude disrupted by the attentions of two men -- one imperfect but devoted and loving, the other handsomely rakish and dangerous. When Kya goes to trial for the murder of one of these men,

#BagoSummerBookTalk I'm soooo late to this reading party. However, my tardiness affords quite a bit of insight into this court-room drama romance. The book is about Kya Clark, a young girl abandoned by family in the marshes of North Carolina.