Skip to content

CARITA GARDINER

What to Read When You're Avoiding School Work

Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • “Why”…Wednesdays
  • GrammarLove
  • Contact/Subscribe
Menu

Author: caritagardiner

183. Why Embrace Dead Ends

Posted on June 29, 2022June 28, 2022 by caritagardiner

I selected the image above from a royalty-free clip-art website because the person in the suit has gone a few steps into a direction that will lead to a closed wall, and I’ve been thinking a lot about dead ends lately. In paper or corn mazes, going into a closed hallway provides a moment of…

Read more

182. Why Be Authentic (a guest post)

Posted on June 22, 2022June 22, 2022 by caritagardiner

[Every year, I enjoy meeting English teachers at the College Board’s AP reading. Earlier this month, I got to read essays about an octopus and a baby with English teacher and author, David Berger. I hope you will (1) look at his author website, (2) check out his cool merch website, (3) buy his books,…

Read more

181. Why Switch from Participles to Verbs

Posted on June 15, 2022June 15, 2022 by caritagardiner

Sometimes, dealing with things is exhausting. Just ask Tuukka, who regularly takes breaks while we walk. Maybe he gets bored of travelling the same routes every day. One thing I’ve found exhausting recently is the number of times I’ve heard people at my school talk about how every student should feel “safe, seen, and supported.”…

Read more

180. Why Be Vulnerable

Posted on June 8, 2022June 7, 2022 by caritagardiner

I’m incredibly lucky to work with a lot of amazing people. I was reminded of how great one of them is at a recent meeting with the (now graduated) Senior class. I served on the class’s council, so I went to all of their class meetings, which often consisted of making announcements and dealing with…

Read more

179. Why You Did Have a Chance

Posted on June 1, 2022May 30, 2022 by caritagardiner

The silly quotation above comes from a website that sells pictures and quips. Over the time I’ve been writing a weekly blog, I’ve discovered that every thought I have, someone else has had first and worded it in a funnier way. I love that the line, in its ridiculousness, captures the essence of this week’s…

Read more

178. Why PREcrastinate

Posted on May 25, 2022May 24, 2022 by caritagardiner

The Creative Life website has this picture at the top of a useful article that offers readers seventeen strategies to stop procrastinating. I found the article even though the word I typed into my search bar was precrastinate–Google didn’t acknowledge my word until I put the quotation marks around it. When I did wrap the…

Read more

177. Why Pay Attention

Posted on May 18, 2022May 17, 2022 by caritagardiner

The photo above isn’t a great photo. I took it last month when I was lucky enough to be in NYC visiting with family. The weather was moody, shifting from sunny and warm to raining to cold. At one point, looking in three directions, we could see blue skies, but this was the view ahead…

Read more

176. Why Keep Learning

Posted on May 11, 2022May 10, 2022 by caritagardiner

I took the photo above from a SocialWorker.com article about some social workers’ bad attitudes about mandatory continuing education credits. To be clear, social workers aren’t in the only profession that requires continuing education nor are they the only ones who sometimes get bad attitudes about the “extra” work. I have to admit that I…

Read more

175. Why “Yes…And”

Posted on May 4, 2022December 17, 2022 by caritagardiner

I’m not the first person to realize that the rules for improvisational theater work well as rules for life. I got the image above from the Rep Man website, which will happily sell you this poster. I don’t do improvisational theater, but I’ve been thinking about what a great rule for life “yes, and” is….

Read more

174. Why Now

Posted on April 27, 2022April 26, 2022 by caritagardiner

This morning, I took a Peloton Yoga class taught by Kirra Michel, pictured above. (Screenshot from her Wellness Rebellion website.) Wow–check out that balance, strength, and flexibility. I did not get into this pose, am not able to move as she does, but I can listen to and appreciate her words just as well as…

Read more
  • Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • …
  • 22
  • Next

WHAT I DO

I teach English to high schoolers at a boarding school in Connecticut. I read AP English Literature and Composition exams and serve as a teacher mentor for the University of Pennsylvania Teaching Fellows program. I’ve earned a Bachelor of Arts (Amherst College), an Education Master in Learning and Teaching (Harvard University Graduate School of Education), a Master of Arts in English (Bread Loaf School of English), and most recently a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a certificate in the online teaching of writing (Southern New Hampshire University).

As a writer, I hope to capture the complexity and joy of life in the New England boarding school world. On this site, I share what I know about trying to write fiction while teaching English, coaching, and doing the other tasks associated with helping to raise over six hundred other people’s children.

WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU

Teach                    Tutor

Revise                   Edit

Entertain             Enlighten

Follow Me

  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Contact Me

  • cgardine@hotchkiss.org

Read my recent “Why” Wednesday Blog Posts

  • 213. Why Read Banned Books
  • 212. Why Acknowledge the Ocean
  • 211. Why Surf
  • 210. Why MJ
  • 209. Why Learn to Bake
© 2023 CARITA GARDINER | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme