Dianne White

Tonight I am still beaming from the wonderful events of yesterday’s historic inauguration.  It was an amazing morning, made all the more so because I got to share it with my first grade students and about 60 second and third graders. Imagine.  All those kids sitting quietly on the rug, watching our new president get [...]

Sometimes gems of inspiration come when you least expect them. Last night’s Chinese-take-out-so-we-could-watch-the-vice-presidential-debate brought another reminder with implications for both my teaching and writing lives. In today’s standards-based, high-pressured, “no-child-left-behind” environment, it’s easy to let the constraints of time and curriculum overwhelm my teaching day. The fact remains that there’s a bookload of “hard-core” curriculum [...]

It’s true that advise – free or otherwise – is not always advise worth receiving. So it was somewhat of a surprise when I picked up two timely pieces of advise inside a couple of fortune cookies the other night.  Each offered something to the teacher and writer in me. The first:“Practice an attitude of [...]

Last night, bone tired after working for 12 hours (first day back teaching) I wondered for a brief moment why I keep working at writing. It’s sometimes so hard to sit down to the computer after a long day. And yet, it’s true. “Every single time you sit down to write, you get better at [...]