23 fun & useful dorm decor items to max out your space
If you’re starting to think about heading back to college in a month or so, you might be researching how to maximize the teeny tiny space that is your (likely shared) dorm room. I found some super kicky and useful dorm decor to get your brainstorming into high gear, including a few more fun items.
My child was sexually harassed on the school bus & the reality set in
Yesterday should have been a normal day. It started off that way. But instead it became a first for my eldest daughter. My daughter asked a boy to stop using profanities, and instead, he used them more and more, especially directed at her. And then he threatened her, repeatedly.
When the bus did stop, she ran as fast as she could and into my arms. Her whole body shook with fear and anger. That was the day our daughter became the victim of sexually violent language. She is ten years old. The boy was twelve. She was riding the school bus home from fifth grade.
10 unexpected dorm items you’ll need in college (or in a new apartment!)
If you’re heading off to college (or even just living on your own for the first time), you’ll need more than a cat, a rat, or a toad when you get there. Apologies to non-Potterphiles for that reference. You already know you’ll need those long bed sheets and shower shoes and maybe a mini fridge, but here are 11 unexpected dorm items you may not have thought of that will surely come in handy…
Yep, there actually are cute laptop bags out there to carry all your crap
If you’ve found yourself on your first day at your big new job (or preparing for school in the fall!) with a hideous briefcase a la Andie in The Devil Wears Prada, worry not. There are tons of cute laptop bags from which to choose so that you can look chic and fully prepared at the same time.
Let’s find a new home for your goodies, lappies, and electronics…
16 ways to expand your brain with free online courses
Are you a potential brainiac who can read/watch/absorb via online methods? Then free online courses may just be your window to the world. Or even the way you can get a professional certificate or an actual degree. You can be the brains of the ball with these 16 sites to take free courses and/or explore free ways to learn. Learn what exactly? Think coding, technologies, languages, music theory, social sciences, arts, and tons of others. Some of these courses are even through Ivy League universities! For you, for your kids, for your book club… anyone can learn if they’ve got the drive and an internet connection. Let’s see the sites, shall we?
Microaffections as revolution: one response to mass shootings and lock-down drills
Then my daughter tells me that tomorrow in school, there will be a lockdown drill and asks me if the alarm will be loud. I freeze.
We need softness in the face of terror, we need kindness in response to hate, and we need love as revolution. We need these tiny drop of some magic healing warmth. We need the opposite of the microaggressions that so many of us deal with daily… and I realize that what we need are microaffections.
What teachers want you to know about helping your kid with homework
As a 4th and 5th grade teacher, I rarely use homework for grades. I simply use it to ensure the kids understand what they have learned. I actually prefer it when parents do very little “help” because it generally is the parents coming pretty darn close to doing the work for them.
But of course you want to help your kid learn! So here’s how I would advise you on helping your kid with homework…
How doorknobs can help with homesickness
When I was 15, I moved to Germany as an exchange student on the Congress-Bundestag scholarship. It was there that we all received this advice from a wise teacher: When you feel sad and homesick, take pictures of doorknobs. Here’s why…