The AP English Class read One Hundred Years of Solitude and participated in a student conference celebrating Garcia Marquez's work at UW Madison on April 18, 2008.

Teachers' Toolbox

—This summer (2007), I began publishing units and lessons from my digital file cabinet in a new feature called Teachers' Toolbox. The impetus was to share what I have created with others. I know that new teachers, especially, are always struggling to find good lessons. And these are units and lessons that have been successful with my students.

Some of the things published here I no longer use in my classroom for one reason or another, but it seemed to make no sense letting them age in a file and remain useless. Many of the links are to pdf files. All work is copyrighted by me.

I do not provide answer keys, but it is not that I don't have them. I do. I simply believe that to really teach with a tool one has to know that tool well, so any set of questions must be filtered through the teacher's own mind before giving them to students. As a result, each teacher will create his or her own answer key.

April is National Poetry Month

March 2008—Poetry is one of my joys and it seems that I don't enjoy it as much as I wish I could. I listen to Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac on my iPod, but inconsistently. I wish I could find a way to integrate poetry into my every day life. I am glad for National Poetry Month as it gives me an excuse to celebrate poetry.

Please visit the page I made for the occasion.

Also, please do put a Poem in Your Pocket on April 17 and share it with your friends and family.