Shannon Costello

scene:  on the playground, er slab of asphalt (this is middle school, remember).  A knot of kids are pushing each other around.  I walk over to break up the fun in time to hear a kid saying, "Let’s have peace in the Middle East!"
Shannon: If you guys don’t stop pushing each other I’m going to [...]

I had the boys racing against the girls in taping words on the blackboard to form sentences.  I haven’t split up girls and boys like that for an activity in, well, a long time.  It reminded me of my private school days when we split up our sixth grade class into all girls and all [...]

I like the ordinary silver paper-clips, large and small.
I cannot stand the plastic-y looking colored paper clips.  I don’t even want to touch them, and when somebody gives me papers fastened with them I get rid of them as quickly as I can…which is kind of hard because I am horribly reluctant to throw any [...]

After a rash of package theft complaints, our local post office stopped leaving packages on people’s doorsteps.  The mailman comes at around four, knocks on the door and, if no one answers, leaves a slip saying when one can hope to collect one’s package.
Now, our post office has never had a reputation for moving at [...]

I’ve been riding the red line twice a week lately.
There is a certain beauty in infrastructure and trains.  I like looking at construction projects from high up on a bridge, or wondering about the tracks left in a tremendous pile of gravel- did a tractor really go up there?  I loved discovering that the train [...]

Like the Little House books, this biography is aimed at young people.  And like the books, it is still very interesting.
Laura certainly simplified her family’s moves.  For example, the family lived in the little house in the woods of Wisconsin, moved out to Indian territory, and moved back to Wisconsin after they were nearly forced [...]

There exist studies that conclude that a teacher’s expectations for a student can influence that student’s performance.  If I expect my female math students will be less competent than my male students…this is why a necessary quality for every new teacher is supposed to be that they believe that every child can learn.
Laura motivates Clarence [...]

I read this yesterday when I was by myself and home and sadly suspecting (last day of school has now been delayed by one day…) that I would get the day off today because of winter weather.
School is closed for two reasons.  One, the dangers of traveling the few blocks between home and school.  A [...]