Tag: friends

The Original John Oliver

I was fortunate before I started teaching to talk to my high school chemistry teacher, John Oliver. He is a great science historian and excelled at making difficult material accessible to high school students. I was fortunate to have coffee with him this summer as I was seeking out how to teach high school chemistry. He was light on details (and he was correct) and heavy on general principles. “Be kind to yourself” was a refrain I heard from him more than once.

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Not the formerly moppy haired, HBO broadcasting, parrot-look-alike-wannabe, British comedian.

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Skip

Do fondest dreams ever come true? Most times they don’t, sometimes they do.

I’ve said it before. It’s one thing to have your brain believe something. It’s another level of belief and appreciation to have your gut believe it.

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(In)Frequently Asked Questions

“I don’t really like math for its own sake. What I love is that it lets you take some things that you know, and just by moving symbols around on a piece of paper, you find out something that you didn’t know that’s very surprising.” -Randall Munroe (“Comics that Ask ‘What If’” – Ted Talk)

“If you love science for science’s sake, teach college. If you really like science, but you really love to work with students, teach high school.” -Dr. Karen LaFever (in a conversation with me as I was picking my path to teach high school chemistry)

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Gonzo Journalism: A Fluff Piece

Another woman came to discuss some sewing business one day, and Gonzo landed on her head. She totally flipped out and threw her glass of water across the room. It was fantastic.

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Gonzo, hanging out with Sonia, and checking her sewing work. He was the unofficial mascot of Kesselring Totes, and is the inspiration behind her blog, Pretty Blue Cere.

I’ve been struggling with working on my “Sabbatical” series. That particular entry is important to me, but admittedly a little dry. Rather than force myself through the piece right now, I’m taking a diversion. I’m writing about fluff. 

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