This teaching blog is shaped by a clear conviction: the books and stories we choose for our students matter deeply. Every text, story, and film I write about is the result of a personal and thoughtful choice — selected from what I have personally read, studied, loved, and found significant, profound, and enduring.
Here you will find reflections, analyses, and ideas for middle and high school classrooms. Analysis becomes discovery, and stories become encounters. They are not chosen simply because they fit a syllabus; they are rich in beauty, depth, and human insight — and students deserve what is most beautiful, most challenging, and most significant in storytelling. This teaching blog is where that search begins.
Latest Posts
-
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia: Between Faith and Superstition
Read more: The Sacrifice of Iphigenia: Between Faith and SuperstitionExploring the myth of Iphigenia through Homer and Lucretius reveals contrasting views on religion—as sacred duty or dangerous superstition—inviting us to question the true role of faith in human justice and sacrifice.
-
Teaching the Iliad with the Proem: How One Word Holds a World
Read more: Teaching the Iliad with the Proem: How One Word Holds a WorldDiscover a fresh approach to teaching Homer’s Iliad by starting with its powerful opening word: menis (wrath). This article explores how focusing on this key term unlocks the poem’s central themes and engages students in deep literary analysis.
-
A Band, on the First Day of School
Read more: A Band, on the First Day of SchoolSixth grade begins with a room full of strangers, each one quietly asking where they fit. Here’s the movie I reach for in those first days — School of Rock — and how Dewey Finn’s unlikely band becomes a way to talk about being yourself and belonging to something, both at once.
-
What October Sky Teaches About Chasing a Dream
Read more: What October Sky Teaches About Chasing a DreamWhere does a dream come from, and what keeps one alive? October Sky follows a coal-town boy who watches Sputnik cross the sky and decides, against every expectation, to build rockets. Here’s how I use it to open the year — on ambition, failure, and the people who carry a dream with us.
-
The Magician’s Nephew Themes: Power, Responsibility, and the Two Ways of Meeting the World
Read more: The Magician’s Nephew Themes: Power, Responsibility, and the Two Ways of Meeting the WorldIn The Magician’s Nephew, there are two ways to meet the world: to receive it with open hands or to seize it. Explore how that single distinction runs through creation, temptation, and power—with classroom discussions for middle school readers.
-
Seeing with New Eyes: How Intertextual Comparison Enhances Middle School Student Reading
Read more: Seeing with New Eyes: How Intertextual Comparison Enhances Middle School Student ReadingWhat happens when students read C.S. Lewis through the lens of Scripture? This intertextual approach unlocks symbolism, authorial intent, and rich classroom discussion.