People like to think that each essay is unique. With every new prompt, we must start from zero with a blank page and new ideas. Not so, my friend. In reality, your standard 5-paragraph essay is more like an algebra equation than a short story. You basically just need to memorize PEMDAS, and the rest is just fill-in-the-blank. I created this slideshow as a helpful visual for my students, and it’s better when explained, but I figured I’d post it here, too! Read it and write. P.

When I was a middle school history teacher, I sometimes felt like my class wasn’t as “important” as the others. The insecure corner of my brain told me that math and science were the future, whereas my stories of pyramids and oracles were fun, but useful only in teaching kids “how to learn.” The rapid development of AI has changed everything, and it’s not hyperbolic to say the consequences of failing to recognize that are a matter of life-or-death. Humans Can’t Compete To be

Between books, I’ve made the unfortunate decision to start reading more news. It’s a horrible habit that rarely improves one’s quality of life, but it gets me fired up and wanting to give my two cents on certain issues. School choice is one of them, particularly since it’s shaping up to be a major point of contention in the coming election cycle. For those unfamiliar, school choice describes the proposal to “give parents state money to send their kids to schools outside of t

If you read my behind the scenes post, you’ll know that I was so excited about Krav Maga camp in Israel , I somehow wrote most of Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy before the plane took off! As such – and I mention this in the acknowledgements – Siena’s love of the trip mirrors my own, but her experience is far from a perfect reflection. There Was No Pierre The biggest and most important distinction is that nobody remotely resembled Pierre at the real camp. That scene (if y

HELLO, my dear readers! I am so excited to share that Goodreads is giving away TEN free copies of Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy just in time for spring break! If you’re not on Goodreads, I definitely recommend it. As an author, it’s a great place to store kernels . I love having all my underlined quotes in one place. If you read the book and loved it, can you do me a huge favor and leave it a five-star review on Amazon ? And Goodreads, if you're on it! Thank you! I hate

While Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy is a work of fiction, it does allude to certain historical events. Just like I gave some backstory on where the idea came from , I thought I’d also share a bit more about the history referenced in the book! Readers, ye be warned: spoilers ahead! There is a lot of history in Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy . Between the art, the Israel trip, and Siena’s random references, going into each one just isn’t practical. If you want more detail on

AAAH!!!!! I don’t even know where to start when it comes to sharing this news. Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy is now available for pre-order on Amazon !!! Or, the ebook is at least. The paperback and vocab versions will be available March 1! Exciting as this news is, I’m strangely of two minds when it comes to sharing it. On the one hand, Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy is hands-down the best thing I’ve ever written. Possibly the best thing anyone’s ever written. On the ot

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we have a major problem. Our education system is an incoherent hodgepodge of asinine theories, and the result is squandering millions of lives of potential. “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today…we might well have viewed it as an act of war,” the National Commission on Excellence in Education noted back in 1983. 40 years later, little has changed. U

When I was writing Ahead of Her Time, I used all the things. I Googled which platform was best, spent a bunch of money on Scrivener,...