Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the tag “parents”

29 Aug 2025
8 Comments

Back to School Blues (not for me, maybe for you)


If you are reading this post you fall into one of the falling categories:

  • Parent of school age children
  • Student
  • Teacher
  • None of the above
Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

If you identify with parent of school age children, then I commiserate with you for the back-to-school shopping marathon. Well, yes, it is exciting getting the kiddos ready for another (or their first) foray into the classroom routine. But it is tiring and expensive.

If you are a student, you are either bummed or excited, or perhaps a bit of both, since it means put a pause on summer fun in order to focus on the mojo needed to get into the school routine.

As a teacher, you are no doubt either already back in the classroom (depending on where you teach) or bum-weary from having to sit through endless admin-led meetings while you would rather be preparing your room.

None of the above? You are probably then retired or an empty-nester or perhaps neither a parent or teacher, although you vaguely remember your September back-to-school days.

This marks my fourth September I will not be returning as a teacher, yet I found myself back on campus anyway. My retirement days are centered around books: I’m either reading them, writing them, or doing something with them that is library related. Today I dropped off a box of donated of books to a couple of schools, one of which was where I formerly taught English.

Yes, it was strange.

No, I didn’t miss it.

Yes, I briefly said “howdy” to some former compadres. And yes, I delivered my usual line of “I highly recommend it!” when asked how I like being retired.

Okay, fine–I do miss some aspects of being a teacher, such as getting to know my students, watching them catch the spark of appreciating literature, lunch time sessions with teacher chums, and staff meetings (just kidding on that one).

So, here is hoping your back-to-school blues aren’t severe, and hoping the school year is fabulous, whether you are in a school desk, behind the teacher’s desk, or planning a cruise since everyone else is back in school.

Photo by Diana u2728 on Pexels.com
Posted in America, education, fall, Family, Reading and tagged , , , , , , , ,
18 Mar 2014
1 Comment

The Fiction of Common Core


  • image: Pinterest.com

Common Core State Standards may or may not rock your world, but it has affected you in someway if you are any of the following:

  • Educator
  • Parent
  • Writer

As an educator it has already affected your world. I’m not going there at this time. I feel your pain, and rejoice in your triumphs as we plod our way through this new-to-us (for the most part) curriculum.

As a parent it will affect your kidz education. In a good way. For the most part. Trust me, the CCSS is not as bad as you’ve heard. The main aspect of Common Core is getting our students to understand their world better through the development of critical thinking skills. A very good thing.

As a writer, I’m not sure how it will affect you. That depends if you write fiction or non-fiction. Non-fiction is getting the big focus in the CCSS makeover. If you think about it, most of what we read is non-fiction, ranging from the back of the Cheerios box to the science textbook to the summons to appear in traffic court. Learning how to break down the text, to synthesize it, paraphrase it, and process the information is indeed an important skill, one needed to be successful in this crazy info-laden world of ours. And yet And yet, we need to feed our minds with the language of fiction as well.  That’s where you come in as a writer of fiction.

You might have heard the doomsayers extolling the death of fiction by the hands of those horrible, terrible, no-good eduniks who dreamt up the CCSS curriculum. Meh. Don’t let them worry you. Keep writing about neverlands, tomorrows, pasts, and todays.  Here’s why: there are specific standard built around students reading fiction, specifically stories, fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures (ELA Standard RL 3.2) Common Core comes down to caring about  how students develop their critical thinking skills, instead of focusing on the content. Teachers can switch up the reading offerings as long as the material meets the standards–at least that’s what we are doing in our district.

  • image: teacherscount.wordpress.com

In fact, to be fair, much of the past English reading/language curriculums dwelt heavily on fiction selections. As in most paradigm shifts, we are now swinging towards the other direction. Non-fiction is now going to be more in the spotlight as  a result. It will all balance out, but give a couple of years at least. After all, skirts have risen and fallen with the times, and so shall reading content in the classroom.

Posted in America, Blogging, education, Reflections, Teachers, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , ,

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