Callie Feyen

Love me some Mad Men quotations. Especially when they’re said by women. And why wouldn’t I cut them out and stick them in my journal with washi tape?  I’m sure Joan and Peggy would do the same thing. This week, one of my students said, “I didn’t even know about washi tape until I met you, Mrs. Feyen.” Clearly, I’m… View Post

Since we’re in the beginning of National Poetry Month, I thought I’d share an activity I led my students in after we read the scene where Mercutio and Tybalt die. This idea comes from Shakespeare Set Free from the Folger Library, edited by Peggy O’Brien.  I highly recommend it if you have to teach Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We… View Post

Mercutio died this week. And Tybalt, too, but it was Mercutio that left a palpable silence in the classroom. “Why is he talking so much?” one student asks as Mercutio dies. He doesn’t understand why Mercutio would take the time to be sarcastic, “No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ’tis… View Post

I hope you don’t mind I made a few changes to the blog. Instead of the evocative title, “Callie’s Blog,” we’re going to be known around here as “Notes.” It’s a nod to this little place I set up camp at in 2007 when I tried to keep track of a few  memories during naptime. The idea now is that… View Post

My friend and editor at Makes You Mom, Laura Brown, wrote a list of Twenty Things She Loves and I thought I’d do the same because a making a list is a great way to find a story. If you are interested in writing but don’t know where or how to start, try a “things I love” list and the… View Post