Tag Archives: school

Book pimpage, a bold student and Cora is out of touch with romance reader tastes

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Cora

First of all, happy book release day to Elke Marion Weiß whose debut crime novel Triangel is published today. Elke was one of my teachers at university. In other news, today I had an eighth-grader ask me whether I had … Continue reading →

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No blog tonight, dear – I’ve got a headache

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Cora

Yes, I’ve really got a headache, thanks to the continuing high air pressure, which does not agree with me at all. And the very noisy and very energetic fifth-graders I had to teach yesterday afternoon didn’t help either. One of … Continue reading →

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The Perils of Omniscient Narration

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Cora

Discovering halfway through a short story that your omniscient narrator has problems taking your heroine completely seriously is certainly a new writing challenge. On the other hand, she is ever so slightly hysterical. Of course, I probably shouldn’t write omniscient … Continue reading →

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Report Day Links

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Cora

Today is report day, i.e. the students get their report cards, which also means a long weekend, because school doesn’t start up again until next Wednesday. And since today was the last day before the reports and the last session … Continue reading →

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School is out linkdump – and a riff on endings

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Cora

Today was the last day of school before the winter holiday and therefore the last day of school for this year. I watched The Sarah Jane Adventures with my fifth graders, who thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Lots of discussion both about … Continue reading →

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Science Fiction, Politics and an Apology to Václav Havel

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Cora

Yesterday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died aged 69, mourned by collective mass crying in his own country and largely unlamented elsewhere. We can only hope that this will improve the situation of the people of North Korea. There’s been … Continue reading →

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Call me Popeye – Kids, character identification and self-insertion into movies

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Cora

Today, I watched a film with my afternoon class, one of those Scary Movie No. Whatever horror film parodies (the students wanted to watch it – shrug – and since it’s a parody it’s acceptable), and I noticed a very … Continue reading →

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More gender discussion, this time grammatical

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Cora

Aliette de Bodard, Keyan Bowes and Juliette Wade all respond to this study about how grammatical gender supposedly influences perception. I must confess that when I first read the National Public Radio article (since the actual study doesn’t seem to … Continue reading →

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More school drama, disliking a writer for the wrong reason and Pegasus Pulp e-books conquer Italy and Spain

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Cora

Another major drama erupted in my afternoon class today, ultimately spawned – as far as I could tell – by one girl telling another that she looked like a slut. This is really the most drama laden group I ever … Continue reading →

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Teen drama, some housekeeping and ruminations on Mad Men

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Cora

My afternoon class today descended into a mess of teen drama complete with kids sulking, running from the classroom, swearing to hate each other forever and so on. No tears at least – thank heavens for small mercies. The initiating … Continue reading →

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