I still remember the day we sat around the rectangular-shaped table in the conference room after school ended.
Richie wasn’t there, but his parents were.
So were several teachers, his school counselor, and an administrator.

He was considering a retu...

When one of my bunnies, Chaplin, does a binky, it’s impossible not to smile.
(He's the white one with the little mustache!)

A binky is this unpredictable burst of joy: a mid-air twist of the back legs that rabbits do when they feel completely safe and ...

How many times did I get irritated today because I had to wipe water off the back of my phone after setting it down on the sink…

Before I finally just dried off the ledge?

(Hint: TOO many!)

The Pattern We Miss

It made me laugh at myself. Why keep...

Near my kitchen, I keep two easy-to-grab baskets.

One holds a hammer, screwdriver, nails, and screws. I rarely use it, but when I do, it’s for something obvious, like hanging a whiteboard in my office, putting up a picture, or fixing a stubborn shel...

Last year, while facilitating a session with middle school teachers, I referred to a small group as “you guys.”

If you’re from the Philadelphia region, you know this word isn’t gendered in everyday use. It’s a common way to address a group of people...

When my son, Jared, was in second grade, I came home from work to find him sitting on the couch. His head was down, his arms folded across his lap, and he looked upset.

“Jared, what’s going on?” I asked.

He sighed and said, “I had a really bad day ...

There’s a small sea creature called the sea squirt that begins life with a brain.

As a larva, it swims freely through the ocean, exploring and searching for the right spot to anchor. Once it finds that spot (a rock, a dock, or a coral surface ), eve...

My middle son took Organic Chemistry (Orgo) 1 and 2 last year at Villanova. He’s a civil engineering major, but he loves chemistry, and he’s worked in the chemistry lab on campus for the past two years.

He got a C in Orgo 1 and a D+ in Orgo 2.

When...

It was February 2020. A dear friend and I had just settled into our seats on a New York City subway to see a Broadway show. Across from us sat a man, alone in the center of a nearly empty row. He was hunched over, his gaze fixed on the grimy floor be...

I just watched the newest Karate Kid: Legends, and it instantly transported me back to my childhood.

I couldn’t help but remember when the original Karate Kid came out. Daniel LaRusso moved to Reseda, California, from Newark, New Jersey, while I onl...

“How the patterns we create shape the way we grow”

When I was in college, summer breaks often meant working alongside my father, a landscaper. My brothers, sister, and mom placed bets on how long I’d last - manual labor, scorching heat, long pants, ...

When I taught 11th-grade U.S. history, one of the classes was deep in a primary‑source analysis about the Harlem Renaissance.

Halfway through, I could feel the room tilting. Two groups were quietly shutting down, one was off‑task, and tension was ri...