Justice. When someone talks about “doing justice” or “getting justice” or “seeking justice,” it’s always about settling a score. After someone is harmed and they call for justice in anger or grief, they are asking for a similar harm or equally hurtful one to be placed against the offender. Our “criminal justice” system is set … More Introduction to Restorative Justice
Last month, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society debuted on Netflix and strangely catalyzed several similar emails coming to me. One person after another started to “follow” and “favorite” a Guernsey fanfiction piece I started in 2012. I haven’t updated in years, but occasionally I request a new password to see the reviews and stats, momentarily feel … More Abandoned Writing Projects
I had absolutely intended to write a post the weekend after the first day of school. Then when that weekend came and went, I thought a post after the first full week would provide a bigger picture of my time as a teacher so I justified saving it until then. Well, here we are, Sunday … More Reflection when there’s no time to reflect
No written text for this post, but check out this video of my new classroom! For information on some of the things you see in this video, here’s a link to a First Year Teacher’s Supply List.
The 2018-2019 school year is my first year as a teacher, what I hope in my youthful idealism will be a long and fulfilling career. I’ve been in my classroom almost every day for the past week and a half, and now that I’ve got my desktop up and running, we’re off to the races. … More A First Year Teacher’s Back to School Shopping List
Growing up, I constantly had stories going. In my bedroom with a pastel, wallpaper border separating violet and white walls, I typed up exactly two McConnaha News newspapers, featuring such stellar stories as “Maggie gets her first bra” and “Crash!” When the ribbon ran out I upgraded to an old computer that was not hooked … More Writing Nonfiction
I’ve been anticipating first days of school since my mom read “We Like Kindergarten” to me. I was always ready to go back to school shopping in late July or early August, before Target was even prepared for me. After a couple weeks of nagging, studying the classroom supply list, and forcing my siblings to … More First Day of School
This past week called into question the separation of personal duty and public service, and which takes precedence in a person’s life. That question for me is a kind of existential crisis because I can see myself becoming a “workaholic” (I can hear some people laughing and saying, no you are a workaholic). As someone who … More Empathizing with Anthony Kennedy
Normally my Wednesday posts are politically and specifically prison reform focused, but this week was so eventful for my life that I needed to push those back so that I could share the news! Henry and I finally adopted a dog. We have both grown up with some of the best family dogs out there. … More My New Pup: Luna the Lowrider
We have been in Louisville just one month, and right on time, about a week ago, my homesickness for Wisconsin began to set in. I knew it would come in about that time because that was about the time into my backpacking trip that I started to feel particularly homesick (check out the Vienna post … More Homesickness
Mary M. McConnaha 