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I’ve experienced a little of Wyoming’s colors before—backpacking in the Wind River Range, day hiking in the Tetons, camping in Yellowstone—but I’d never been to the eastern part of the state. [...]

The third thing that’s hard about life on the road for two years is what I call “The Big Sort.” These are days at the conclusion of one residency and on the cusp of the next. Logistically [...]

It’s difficult to summarize my teaching experiences these last two weeks. I could say that my lessons were successful, that the students learned, that the students exercised their imaginations, [...]

The teaching ends with a bang! in the best possible way. All morning and afternoon I sit back and listen as every single 6th grader in the entire school reads at our open mic. Of course, a few [...]

Today I was pleasantly surprised, as it became clear that more of the 6th grade class was “with me” than I thought. Almost every single one of them completed their homework, which enabled us to [...]

[This week I’m working with 3 different classes of 6th graders, about 70 students total.] It’s another week and another school, and though it seems logical that my lessons could only improve [...]

[Not every teacher gets to say this is their view for the morning commute…but if you teach in Western North Carolina, chances are pretty good you get to encounter something like this more often [...]

Today I switched gears to lead four back-to-back 90-minute sessions of high school English classes in Yancey County. I’d been looking forward to this experience for a number of reasons, most [...]

Incidentally, the cast works in my favor with the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at this McDowell County elementary school. They’re quite impressed with the bright blue pump and the fact that I broke [...]

This fall, I spent 6 weeks in Alaska. During that time I clocked about 100 trail miles (walks, jogs, hikes, backpacking), 100 bike miles, and almost 1,000 miles by car. Less than 24 hours before [...]