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Portugal in February is Just Right

James — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:53:34 +0000

It’s one of the best things about traveling– there continues to be the sense that home and your daily life are further than you would expect. So a little less than twenty four hours after flying out from Boston, with connections in New York to Madrid and finally to Lisbon, it feels like a whole [...]

Move Your Body, It’s Sunny Outside

James — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:09:29 +0000

Scene from a very excited and engaged 7th grade ELA classroom this week. The students clustered in groups with a timed, competitive task of writing introductory paragraphs with a hook and the right balance of background information. For round two of this activity, the topic of the importance of exercise was assigned. And besides the [...]

Snapshots of a Newport Winter Weekend

James — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:55:04 +0000

There’s nothing quite like going to a place off-season–with its streets and shops and ocean drives unnaturally empty. All the more reason to enjoy those spaces. Glad to be with you, Newport RI for a slow-paced, sleep-in weekend!

Guns, Friends and Game

James — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:34:52 +0000

Guns, Germs and Steel it isn’t (sorry, Jared Diamond). But I like our version better: guns (learning to shoot ‘em), friends (kind of self explanatory) and game (the superbowl kind, not the ones that run around in sylvan landscapes). So sure, these winter days have been disappointingly non-wintry this go around. But otherwise, they’ve been [...]

Teaching Ambassador Fellowship Applications Open!

James — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:00:15 +0000

Are you a teacher looking for an unparalleled opportunity to learn about education policy? Are you interested in bringing the voice of the teacher to local, state and federal avenues and to also bring relevant information back to your local school and school district? I was fortunate to participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s [...]

Surprise Friend Visits Are the Best Visits

James — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:13:12 +0000

You know when you get those completely unexpected phone calls in the middle of your typical run-of-the-mill week days? The kind of days that almost shamefully blend into each other in a whirl of what becomes the greater part of a lifetime? (Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic). Still, how great to get such a [...]

Some Snow in the Southern Adirondacks

James — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:12:34 +0000

So we finally got a bit of snowfall today in the Boston area… with about 3-4 inches of accumulation over the course of the day. Really lovely to see the white stuff fall so fully and fat-ly through the morning into mid afternoon. And while it was good to make it out to the Saturday [...]

Bring on the Spring… in January?

James — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:49:10 +0000

How nice to get out for an afternoon walk with only a light vest– in the middle of January. Mid 50s on a mid-January Saturday afternoon? You have to be kidding me. Refreshing to get a full dosage of fresh air though as we walked through many of the quiet paths in the Forest Hills [...]

Thanksgiving, Christmas and into 2012

James — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:50:50 +0000

I’m not sure what it was, but the last few months have gone by in a condensed blur. A really wonderful blur, but a bit too fast for me. Maybe it’s most telling that up until a few days ago, I had yet to download pictures from Thanksgiving that I’ve been meaning to send out [...]

Will Never Look at the Honey Badger The Same Way Again

James — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:08:23 +0000

Pretty hilarious. I think it’s safe to say that this guy isn’t replacing David Attenborough anytime soon, but I’m sure he could build up a pretty dedicated following. “Oh my god, watch it dig. Look at that digging…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg