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Often, I’ll be in the middle of editing a video when I hesitate over a particular moment.
“I just looked really awkward right there,” I might say to myself. Or I cringe a little because I’m coming off as overly earnest or sanctimonious.
However, in order to share my work on the Internet, I’ve had to accept that the earnest, awkward person in those videos is the same one I look at in the mirror. The likeness is accurate.
Read MoreMy phone said, “Potential Spam,” but curiosity got the better of me. How did it know?
I answered, and sure enough, it was a guy trying to sell me on a “free vacation” which is code for “forced four-hour in-person time-share pitch.”
He was in the middle of dismissing my first objection when my husband called.
Read MoreMy middle school students in Atlanta have two short teleconferences every day to check in.
We are getting about half of the students on these calls regularly.
Of these, there are always three to five students who sit silently with their cameras off for the duration of the call, leaving the rest of us to gaze at a black box.
Read MoreWhen I tell people that I run a tiny academic program for middle schoolers (aptly named The Little Middle School), the reaction is almost always the same.
“Middle school? Oh, middle school is awful.”
Or worse, “middle schoolers are awful!”
Why does middle school have such a bad rap? Why do adults have such miserable memories of these early years of puberty?
Read MoreFashion is fascinating.
Among tastemakers and influentials, having a distinctive style is a must. Your job is to signal that you are someone with vision, boldness, and flair. You’re effortlessly unique and hip, with just the right amount of outrageousness, reminding mere mortals that you are a professional on a closed course — do not attempt these moves yourself.
And yet, before long, these edgy fashions make their way into the mainstream. Colorful hair, undercuts, sleeve tattoos, multiple piercings, pattern mixing, asymmetrical shirts, dresses with sneakers, androgynous clothing and styling — any of these things can be seen in a typical middle school classroom (well, maybe not the sleeve tattoos).
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