Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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5 great reasons to teach Persepolis
When I first started teaching English II, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood was one of the books the school had class sets of. I had never heard of it and had little experience reading graphic novels. I was skeptical, but it only took an initial read of Satrapi’s memoir and I was hooked. I’m…
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Make high school vocab instruction more memorable
I began thinking about learning vocabulary like language acquisition. When teaching English in the Czech Republic, we focused on exposure, conversation practice, writing that included new vocabulary, and playing games. I had a feeling that these same strategies would be successful in my classroom.
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CIEE: A Day in the Life of a High School Program Leader
Summer in Prague I arrived in Prague sweaty from 24 hours of herding students through airports, slightly delirious, yet eager to reunite with a country I had left abruptly due to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Spending 3-weeks in Prague working as a CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) program leader was not only…
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3 Strategies for Reciprocal Teaching
Our job is to create rooms filled with students’ voices. Not to be the main voice. Pernille Ripp It’s always a challenge to dial back that teacher talk time and let students have center stage in our classrooms. I distinctly remember one of my mentor teacher’s favorite sayings – “We are not the sage on…
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Saying goodbye to the Czech Republic
It was the second week of March. After months of sunsets before 5pm and dark rainy days, the first signs of spring were finally upon us in Český Těšín, Czech Republic. I had just spent a week in Alicante, Spain for spring break and I was feeling good. 7 months into my Fulbright experience, things…
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Christmas in the Czech Republic
On Thursday December 19th, I stood nervously in the underground tunnel in the Cesky Tesin train station, glancing back and forth between my phone and the staircase where Harrison would be arriving any minute. For months, I’d been anticipating this moment – the hug, the comfort, and the simple time spent together again with the…
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Czech schools: an American Fulbrighter’s perspective
I still vividly remember my first couple of weeks working as an ETA at Albrechtova. Everything around me was new and foreign to me – the school building, my office, the students, the language, and the norms. At first, I struggled to remember the correct Czech greetings to say to which people, how to log…
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A month of visits & the spirit of Thanksgiving
I picked up my phone and checked my trusty transportation app, IDOS, for the 10th time wondering how I’d screwed up and trying to mentally beg the train to move faster. It was a Friday afternoon and I had rushed from work to the gym to my apartment to the train station, confident that I…
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Hiking my way to feeling at home
During the past couple of weeks, I’ve slowly been noticing an internal transition between the mindset of exploring my area as a visitor, to a shifted, “oh wow, I live here” feeling. In addition to now having been here for almost 2 months, my new mindset has been especially spurred by the occurrence of two…
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A visit to the US Embassy & a month without tacos
After a month of practicing Czech basics, I’ve proudly graduated from telling people “nemluvim České” (I don’t speak Czech) to “mluvim jen trochu České” (I speak just a little Czech). Focusing on my own successes (both big and small) helps to encourage me and remind how much I’ve learned already. Last week, I traveled by…
Got any book recommendations?
Travel Through Literature 