Shannon Costello

Note:  authorities are looking for clues in the stabbing death of a two-year-old electric pencil sharpener.  The victim was discovered when a teacher in the building heard him whirring in pain.  She noticed the paper-clip end protruding from an opening and administered first aid by unplugging the victim.  The pencil sharpener was pronounced dead several [...]

I dislike terms like “misadventure”, where “mis” is tacked on to an old word to make a new one.  But perhaps my use of it suggests I am coming to accept it…after all, like it or not, it is part of our language. My bigger pet peeve these days is writing like this:  How do [...]

Tomorrow is supposed to be a half day for the kids.  We get to work the other half, and I could use the time.  Since there is a half day, any kind of weather-related delay could mean that school is canceled.  I do NOT want that.
But then, if I woke up tomorrow morning, went to [...]

Normally I can teach through anything…a testing of the fire alarm, some kid screaming in the hall…
At least that’s the way I think of myself.  But today I stopped dead for a good three or four seconds.  There was a buck bounding across the field outside and I was staring uncontrollably.
There is a story a [...]

It’s never a good sign when you stagger out of the classroom you are using and are transported to the health office in a wheelchair.

First teaching nightmare of the year last night. I was with my new reading class on the first day of school. The classroom was awful- sort of a stage, science lab combination, and the kids were jammed together in chairs that were practically on top of each other. The kids wouldn’t stay [...]

“What do you want in the folder?”  I asked in Spanish.  
“The bibliography, other work you’ve done this semester, a check…”  replied my professor.  I put my head down on the table.  
“I’m joking, Shannon,” she reminded me.  
 
Of course I knew perfectly well that she was joking, and yet my reaction had an element [...]