What is your teacher bliss?

I love it when students take ownership of their writing, especially when they use their writing for greater purposes like social action and reform. It makes me more hopeful for the future. 🙂

What is the hardest thing about teaching?

That’s easy- the emotional toll. I care infinitely about my students’ well-being, progress, grades, and happiness, and that stress often comes home with me at the end of the day. I love teaching, though it’s becoming harder and harder to have a healthy work-life balance.  

No names—describe your worst teaching experience.

All of the examples I’m thinking of right now are probably too serious for a light column, so I’ll just use a classic example: trying to teach a remote unit about Lord of the Flies during April of 2020. I’m sure you can envision how successful that was. (No pig’s head was involved, thank goodness!)

What is your dream vacation?

I’d love to go back to Sweden and see my best friend, John. We could picnic at the old Viking burial mounds, and I could re-read the Scandinavian classic, Beowulf.  

What would your students be surprised to find out about you?

I have dyslexia!

What are your favorite summer break activities?

Reading all of the books that I can lay my hands on, petting cats (any cats, they don’t even have to be mine), listening to as much music as possible (I love boygenius, Fleet Foxes, and Beyonce), lazing the day away at the beach, and working at my family’s small blueberry farm in Central Maine. 

What is your advice for students?

Read books! Be kind! Smash the patriarchy!