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CARITA GARDINER

What to Read When You're Avoiding School Work

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“Why”…Wednesdays

266. Why Doing Not Being

Posted on January 31, 2024January 30, 2024 by caritagardiner

If you’re thinking about becoming a doctor, you can click on the photo above to find out more about the long path to earning that title. This post isn’t about learning to become a doctor but about one of the things I’ve learned from watching my amazing older daughter decide NOT to keep following the…

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265. Why Now

Posted on January 24, 2024January 21, 2024 by caritagardiner

I fully understand the impulse to wait to do something until I can do it perfectly. I want to delay until I have figured the strongest argument and crafted it into the best imaginable wording. I’m writing today’s post partly to remind myself to resist such urges for several reasons. First, it’s important to remember…

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264. Why Wear Earrings

Posted on January 17, 2024January 16, 2024 by caritagardiner

The photo above shows a section of my screen during a Google search for “wear pink sparkly earrings.” I don’t have and don’t want pink sparkly earrings, but I thought many of you reading the title of this post might assume that’s where I was going, and I aim to please. I’ve had my ears…

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NetGalley Review of The Rom-Commers

Posted on January 16, 2024January 15, 2024 by caritagardiner

title: The Rom-Commers author: Katherine Center publisher: St. Martin’s Press publication date: June 11, 2024 pages: 336 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: injury (off-page, described), surgery (off-page), bar-fight (off-page) summary: The agent of not-so-successful screenwriter Emma, who’s been taking care of her father for the last ten years, finds her a job helping to fix the…

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263. Why the Three Cs

Posted on January 10, 2024January 7, 2024 by caritagardiner

I’m old enough that when I hear about the three Rs of education, I think about Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. At the start of the school year, however, one of my colleagues (Hi, CHF!) gave a talk about the three Cs of teaching and learning. Being a big fan of both the colleague and the…

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262. Why I Teach

Posted on January 3, 2024January 4, 2024 by caritagardiner

I took the photo above of three boys in my fall Senior English elective. These guys are seventeen and eighteen-years-old and proudly sporting backpacks made for toddlers. I love this about Hotchkiss kiddos. In fact, there’s a lot I love about the students here, and a series of short videos on our school’s social media…

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261. Why Life isn’t a Choose-Your-Own Adventure

Posted on December 27, 2023December 28, 2023 by caritagardiner

I take New Year’s resolutions seriously. Most of mine stick. (For example, I started #hotchkiss365 on Instagram almost nine years ago and have missed days only when I was in the hospital.) That said, thinking about what to post at the end of the year seems like a big responsibility because I’m considering what resolutions…

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260. Why Play in the Spirit

Posted on December 20, 2023December 19, 2023 by caritagardiner

In today’s post, I’m going to discuss an idea I had back in September, but I decided to put it now in case you want to think about new year’s resolutions and what kind of person you want to aim to be. At the beginning of the school year, my responsible, thoughtful, and energetic class…

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259. Why Ask Questions

Posted on December 13, 2023December 12, 2023 by caritagardiner

Back in May of 2019, I wrote a post about asking questions before making assumptions. If you aren’t a long-time CaritaGardiner.com/blog reader, I recommend you go back to read that post before you read this one. At the time, I was thinking about two moments in which I unintentionally did things that violated others’ senses…

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NetGalley Review of Once Upon an Algorithm

Posted on December 11, 2023December 10, 2023 by caritagardiner

title: Once Upon an Algorithm author: Clara O’Connor publisher: One More Chapter publication date: January 19, 2024 pages: 329 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: none summary: While at her friend’s bachelorette trip, Lenora has one weird night with Jack in Paris. Then, it turns out that she has to work with him on developing and launching…

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WHAT I DO

I serve as a class dean and teach English to high schoolers at a boarding school in Connecticut. 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 deaning, 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

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Contact Me

  • cgardine@hotchkiss.org

Read my recent “Why” Wednesday Blog Posts

  • NetGalley Review of Villa Coco
  • 388. Why Not “Could Potentially”
  • NetGalley Review of You Won’t Forget Me
  • NetGalley Review of The Valencia Expat Club
  • 387. Why Give Speeches
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