Courtesy of The Fact Site, the number 2 is the first prime number, and it’s either the third or fourth number in the Fibonacci sequence–and that’s significant because math is beautiful and everywhere. Courtesy of Three Dog Night, “2 can be as bad as 1; it’s the loneliest number since the number 1,” followed byContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Two”
Category Archives: Teaching
Who’s Counting? Three
One is the loneliest number–so say Three Dog Night. However, three (the pop rock trio must have known), is a magical number. It’s lucky. Good things come in threes. Three Dog Night. Rush. The Police. Three times the charm. Three bears. The father, son, and the holy ghost. Mind, body, spirit. Three is time-tied: beginning,Continue reading “Who’s Counting? Three”
Who’s Counting? Four
Four Cardinal directions. Four gospels. Four horsemen. Four Beatles. Four Monkees. Four seasons. Four beats in a bar of 4/4. Four more days in the school year. Three days with students and a single work day for teachers, culminating awkwardly on a Tuesday. Four days until I count myself officially a “retiree.” First up onContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Four”
Who’s Counting? Five
The side effects from my second booster lingered all the way through the day yesterday, so that by the time I went to bed, I felt worse than I had all day. After another bout with some chills and uncontrollable shaking, another somewhat feverish night’s sleep, I wake up feeling almost normal on this fifthContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Five”
Who’s Counting? Six
I said I wasn’t counting the days until retirement. In fact, it’s been a point of pride for me. Look, I seem to be saying, I don’t know how many days are left in the school year and isn’t that special? But, as it gets close enough to poke with a stick and impossible toContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Six”
Notes On Retirement
As I approach the last work week of a 33 year career in public education, I find myself looking for a way to write about that experience and falling short of figuring out what to say and how to say it. I started one blog essay which attempted to explore my rationale for retirement, butContinue reading “Notes On Retirement”
#427: A Poem from Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” on April 21, 2022
I hear the American High Schoolsinging, the varied carols I hear: students sing their waydown the hallways andinto classrooms, where, sometimes, they stop singing, quiet, headsdown, depressed or exhausted–other timesthe singing never ceasesand their verses and chorusespercolate and resonate througheach 87 minute period.I hear the teachers sing their teaching voices, singing their lessonsunceasingly, tirelessly, musteringContinue reading “#427: A Poem from Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” on April 21, 2022″
#426: The Veteran American English Teacher Reads an Inspirational Book for New Teachers (a poem on April 20, 2022)
The Veteran American English Teacherfinds this thing, Apples and Chalkdust, InspirationalStories and Encouragement for Teachers, among the effects that another teacherleft behind years ago in his third or fourthyear of teaching, leaving the professionto work in a winery. Inscribed to him, It was a gift from a student or the parents of a student, whoContinue reading “#426: The Veteran American English Teacher Reads an Inspirational Book for New Teachers (a poem on April 20, 2022)”
#411: A Poem of Forgetfulness on April 7, 2022
Three different spoonscame out of the silverware drawerthis morning before I rememberedthat I had forgottenI already had a spoon. Yesterday in front of a groupof students I could not thinkof the word “phonetic”–What’s that word, I asked, the word we use when wetalk about spelling a wordthe way it sounds? I came up with “phonically”andContinue reading “#411: A Poem of Forgetfulness on April 7, 2022”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #28
Here are some details about a typical Saturday over the last month or so: I’ll have a leisurely morning, drink coffee, eat a light breakfast, walk the dogs, make plans for the yard, eat a heavier lunch, drop off cans at the bottle drop, buy records at the curbside of Music Millennium, dog bones atContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #28”
michael jarmer 