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Confessions of a Sugar Addict

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I have this sign on the wall in my classroom at the front just above my desk. As you might imagine I deal with excuses non-stop in my public high school classroom Come on! I teach writing for crying out loud. In every class there are always students that flatly refuse to write. I'd say, subjectively, about 10 out of 100 of my students has this mysterious problem putting pen to paper. I keep having conversations that look like this: Me: I see you haven't written anything yet. Is something wrong? Student: I don't know what to write. Me: Well, I've asked you to write about ___________, so try to start by just writing out the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of __________. The student shifts in her seat and nods. I continue to walk around the room and come back in about five to seven minutes to check on any progress made. The page is still blank. Me: I see you still haven't written anything. (The student sighs beginning to become more d...
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The Dansko Gospel

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Everyone I've talked to has said, "They're an investment." I haven't met a single person with a pair of Dansko shoes who doesn't love them. I'm sure there's somebody out there, but it isn't anyone I know. Other teachers, nurses, friends, even my school's principal have all said the same thing. All I did was mention that I was thinking about getting a better pair of teacher shoes. That little opening did it. I heard all about how I would buy a pair and never go back. Lately my feet and lower legs have been just a little bit tired and achy. My shoe philosophy since I started teaching has been to buy shoes that are decent but not too pricey. I also have to admit a weakness for shoes that match a particular dress or look lovely, so I've suffered for fashion sometimes. I started to google 'teacher shoes' and ask around. The result? Like I already said, everybody is crazy about Dansko. Not the best looking shoes in the world, but und...
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Why Do Bad Things Happen? (Part 1)

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All you have to do is check out your favorite news source. Bad things happen. Every day . Hurricane Issac brings flooding to people who were just beginning to recover from Hurricane Katrina. When I've seen these people, people living close to my own hometown, being interviewed on the news, my heart goes out to them. They are so tired and sad. Incidences of  innocent people being killed in public places are becoming more and more frequent. Many people are afraid to go to work, school, and especially church. A few years ago one of my students was sitting in my class concealing a machete in his hoodie pocket. I thought we were all just sitting there practicing writing skills. I was wrong. Thankfully no one was hurt, and I can honestly say I feel relatively safe at my school. However public school just hasn't been the same since Columbine. Friends are diagnosed with cancer, children die, and millions of people live in poverty around the globe. As a Christian I hear this...
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