By Kevin Gray I wasn’t sure last Friday, when I landed in Atlanta for a layover during my flight to Richmond, Va., if the Thanksgiving rush had begun or if this was just extremely busy Hartfield-Jackson International Airport. But I know the folks around Atlanta will be raking or vacuuming and bagging or burning leaves [...]
By Kevin Gray As we’ve moved from the season of dumping obscene amounts of money into political advertising none of us wanted to see, why couldn’t our candidates, regardless of party, find ways to raise their campaign awareness in other ways? I continue to grouse about how that money could have been used to help [...]
By Kevin Gray By the end of the first week of my long-term sub job at Prairie View High School, a girl in one of my English classes said, “You are the real deal!” after it dawned on her that I had been making assignments, grading their papers and recording grades. “You’re really grading our [...]
By Kevin Gray Where did many of my students gain an abundance of real life and practical job skills? I know it wasn’t from sitting in a regular class day-in-and-day-out, lined up in rows of desks taking notes or doing textbook assignments. Try hands on planning, writing, photographing, creating the graphic designs and art and [...]
Growing up in Virginia gave me more than school days and that of coming of age during trying times in our contemporary history; it gave me a better understanding of our shared history. Many of us, my age, maybe a bit younger and definitely those who are older, remember the civil rights movement and what [...]
By Kevin Gray Did you see Larry and Debbie Ratley on television? This is the question I’ve seen popping up on my Facebook site, around Osawatomie or in comments about Larry’s decision to contact Kansas City’s Fox outlet, channel 4’s Pay It Forward people. As soon as my wife and I had finished watching the [...]
By Kevin Gray I know what critics say about social networks like Facebook: spending time on a keyboard is instant isolation, your information goes public, cyber bullying and crime’s a constant concern, personality brain disorders, and all that lowered face-to-face communication. But just like anything else, the key is moderation. Negatives aside, social networking comes [...]
From what I’ve noticed already, the new school year appears to be off to a great start and, hopefully, still new and exciting for students, teachers, administrators, support staff and parents. I know a few moms are probably sad to part with their little ones, but I suspect there are many parents happy to have [...]
I learned something last week at my Memory to Memoir workshop about how others see me. The workshop began back on the first of June and two of the participants chose to carry on through July and into August. I’ve known for a lifetime that teaching is a two-way street, which is why I love [...]