Callie Feyen

Hadley and I are walking into her orthodontist appointment: the one where she’ll get a metal bridge—I guess that’s what it’s called—attached to the roof of her mouth. It’s going to straighten out her very unstraight jaw. It’s going to make her drool. It’s going to cause her pain, and Hadley’s going to have to learn how to chew and… View Post

I don’t think I could pick my favorite part in Gary Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars, but my  7th graders and I had a pretty fantastic time reading the scene where two rats fall from the ceiling in Mrs. Baker’s classroom while she’s being observed by BIG IMPORTANT PEOPLE. That’s just the beginning of what happens on the Ides of March.  There’s a… View Post

On the way to church Sunday, Hadley asked if either of us knew someone who had a photographic memory.  Jesse and I both admitted that we’re sure we’ve known people with this sort of memory, though we couldn’t name them. “I’m reading a book with a girl who has a photographic memory,” Hadley told us as we rounded the off… View Post

In my 7th grade class, we are reading The Wednesday Wars. Holling Hoodhood, the main character, has to stay with his teacher Mrs. Baker on Wednesday afternoons. (This is because he is Presbyterian, and does not have any religious classes to go to like his Catholic and Jewish friends.) They begin to read Shakespeare together, and he gets bit by the bard’s way… View Post

If there is one thing that’s fabulous about keeping a blog (or journal, or planner, or whatever you like that helps you record your days), it’s being able to go back to previous Septembers and read what was going on, nod your head and say, “OK, you were in a funk then. OK, you don’t handle transitions well. OK, you… View Post