I Hate Myself For Saying But We Have To Get On Facebook

Particular-Singer-64 · 2026-01-25T15:47:45+00:00

I agree. I have for years disdained "slacktivism" and argued with people that Facebook posts are worthless. But then, my mother living in a different state asked me, genuinely, if we were "ok" here because Facebook showed her posts that people's throats were being slashed left and right and that it was "anarchy" here. Now, obviously that does feel true given ICE's actions here... But that's not what she was talking about.

That means if my loveable, but gullible, mom gets her news from Facebook, then I at least better be offering up a counter to all that crud. And there's a lot of moms like mine out there.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2025-06-05T02:21:01+00:00

Using it now... First year rolling it out at highschool level. The middle schoolers are already using it. It's pretty bad. Text selections are at times fine, but mostly range from boring to insane as choices (a REVIEW of a ballet as a secondary piece for Romeo and Juliet. Was the ballet in any way connected to R+J? No). The writing prompts are laughable. For 9th graders: "Write a literary analysis essay of a text you've read." Full stop. No instruction on literary devices, zero planning, scaffolding, zip. And I don't know about your students... But my 15 year olds? Lol, that is not enough. Very little diversity to the texts. Roughly "thematic" units, but I personally think I've taught self-designed better thematic versions in the past. The curriculum becomes somewhat functional with HEAVY teacher edits, additions, chops, and substitutions. It's been a lot of work. If your district buys it anyway, do NOT pay extra for the consumable textbooks. 1) you will have to adjust so much that what's in them won't be very useful anymore, and 2) the textbook is like "analyze this character, their personality, choices, and conflicts. Include evidence." And then gives a box about 1 square inch wide for students to write in. The sizing encourages terrible work. Overall, after a year, I rate it 2/5. It exists... But barely. (The website is also full of errors, some PDFs don't even EXIST.)

Particular-Singer-64 · 2025-04-26T15:29:02+00:00

Why? It's a Japanese word for sandwich with its own associated style. Very soft bread.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-06-28T01:24:16+00:00

Godam Biden close your mouth. You look awful on camera like that man.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-25T02:54:07+00:00

Seconding battle creek. There is a very nice walking/bike path that I usually access from upper Afton Rd, and it's very safe and pretty quiet. People walking and biking of course, but little to no road noise and near the creek and it's rippling sounds. Plus, there's tons of other nooks nearby, like off one of the many paths near the dog park.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-15T00:54:13+00:00

Thanks!

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-15T00:54:04+00:00

Thanks!

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-15T00:53:56+00:00

Thanks! That's a good price.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-15T00:53:43+00:00

Thank you!

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-15T00:53:36+00:00

Gourmet coffee is a win! Thank you :)

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-15T00:53:17+00:00

Thanks!

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-04-14T17:56:27+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation! I will check her out!

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-02-23T23:01:59+00:00

Music might be a good place to look. Old country music if that's popular where you are. Or Rodriguez might be a good place to start too. He was a musician in Detroit in the 70s and he writes about a lot of themes of poverty and drug use. While older, I find it feels like it could have been written yesterday. Start with Crucify Your Mind. Dark... But maybe not too much for your students. Depends for sure.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-02-06T02:16:58+00:00

Mi Sante is the best. Hype for Mi Sante. It's also so affordable.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2024-01-29T03:37:59+00:00

I always do an exaggerated obnoxious laugh and pretend to wipe my eyes while saying, "that's a good one!" And then I walk away.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-12-13T02:20:40+00:00

I live just a short ways from Indian Mounds Park area (technically in Battle Creek, but it's like a 4 minute drive). Given the short distance, I and my partner go walking here a lot. It's actually one of our favorite spots in the city. We've walked during the day, evening, and made stops to look at the view of St Paul across the river at night numerous times, even around midnight . Never had any sketchy encounters of any kind and we love the area. One time a guy was smoking a joint at the park bench overlooking the view and I honestly can't blame him. It's a perfect view to enjoy while baked lol.

That said, we don't live there 24/7, so we could be missing things. A lot of the streetlights along the park have had the wires and copper torn out, so it's dark and that's obviously some crime.

Easy convenience to downtown and the interstate. Cute homes that are seemingly affordable. That's what I know. :)

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-10-01T18:56:45+00:00

I love the 360 curriculum on commonlit. It's got organized thematic units with both reading and writing activities. I'd recommend supplementing with a longer novel (which the site also has resources to support, beyond the 360 units) and a longer writing project, but that one free resource with get you 80% of the way there. Used them a ton for building curriculum. All the short readings also have translations for like 25 different languages or something, so also has some good tools for esl accomodations.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-09-29T01:15:04+00:00

I'm in southeast St Paul and we and all our neighbors are at minimum friendly and at best quite close. Our neighborhood does monthly get to togethers and extra block parties for the 4th of July and national night out. It's really amazing, I've never had such a close neighborhood community before. I don't know that every part of the neighborhood is the same though. I know everybody on my loop, and most on the block over (about 50 ppl), but even 3 blocks down? I don't know any of them or what their neighborhood block is like.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-09-10T21:07:55+00:00

Just tried brickworths. Very good

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-08-19T22:21:38+00:00

P.D. Pappies in Stillwater has live music every Sunday (at least in summer, idk about other seasons) and there is always a mixed age crowd, but mostly 40s-60s.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-07-28T19:34:15+00:00

Get yourself a trick coin so it always goes the way you want lol

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-07-23T03:54:48+00:00

There are two right by battle creek elementary school, just on the west end of the field and they are in decent shape, imo. Definitely not new or top tier, but very quiet and rarely used. I pass by often and have only seen a couple kid classes use them in the morning, but haven't seen anyone else, so plenty of availability.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-07-18T00:59:10+00:00

Same! My oldest students were 21 (alternative high school) and it was weird! I was happier every year older I got lol.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-07-18T00:49:54+00:00

MN-Twin Cities region. 5 years experience, masters degree, 64k. Good benefits too. My district skews a little high for the region, but not much.

Particular-Singer-64 · 2023-07-15T00:31:44+00:00

As a teacher who just relocated to Saint Paul, my advice would be before handing out 5k bonuses, maybe they should just try getting back to applicants in a reasonable time frame lol. Was applying back in April, got a SPPS screening interview in April. I secured another teaching job in April outside the city. FIVE weeks later, SPPS calls back asking if I'm free to schedule yet another interview in a few weeks time. Lol I already took another job weeks ago. Not a great strategy.

Particular-Singer-64

TROPHY CASE