Marie Corfield: A Letter To My Students

Marie Corfield: A Letter To My Students

A Letter To My Students

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

Dear Students,

Oh how I have missed you! I've missed your noise and your chaos and your smiles which are hidden behind masks, and your laughter and your hard work, and even your frustrations and tears. I have missed your creativity and how you never cease to amaze me with it. I have missed your fearlessness and your fearfulness, your good choices and your not-so-good ones. I have missed you because without you, there is no school. 

Many people who don't know much about what you and I do together call you 'lost'. But, you are not lost. Far from it! All of you who have diligently showed up on Zoom every day have been working so hard learning how to use computers and software in ways we teachers never imagined. You've been taking more responsibility for your learning, working independently, and learning from this global experience! 

Some of you have really struggled with this, and I want you to know that you are not alone. So many other students and, yes, even teachers (myself included), are struggling too. This is not easy work we are doing. It's really hard sitting in front of a computer for hours on end, not being able to talk to friends or eat together in the cafeteria or enjoy assemblies or play at CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: A Letter To My Students

Marie Corfield: The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

Marie Corfield: The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

If you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. If you put a frog in tepid water and slowly raise the heat, it will boil to death. - Unknown

Photo Credit: Nick Fewings

Covid-19 has been raising the heat on all of us for a year. Stress, depression and anxiety have paralyzed millions. Personally, I've battled all three. As someone who lived much of my life in a state of chronic stress, I very quickly became that frog again and didn't realize it until I was almost ready to be served as an appetizer. I was sleeping either too much or too little, watching the same ten pounds turn my bathroom scale into a seesaw, and despite having almost twenty years of teaching experience under my belt, there were days when I just burst into tears because virtual teaching is just. so. hard. Even though I had Covid-19 and its accompanying brain fog, I've also had what Ellen Cushing, writing in The Atlantic, calls the Covid "fog of forgetting" that has crept into our brains simply from living in quasi-isolation for so long:

Everywhere I turn, the fog of forgetting has crept in. A friend of mine recently confessed that the morning routine he’d comfortably maintained for a decade—wake up before 7, shower, dress, get on the subway—now feels unimaginable on a literal level: He cannot put himself back there. Another has CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

Marie Corfield: Implosion! New Jersey's Fitting Trump Sendoff

Marie Corfield: Implosion! New Jersey's Fitting Trump Sendoff

Implosion! New Jersey's Fitting Trump Sendoff

New Jersey's largest newspaper, The Star Ledger, is reporting that Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, is set for implosion on February 17th. After that date, all four of Trump's AC casinos—Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza, Trump World's Fair and Trump Marina—will officially be no more. 

Trump Plaza one month before it closed.  So classy. (Photo | Dan McQuade)

ATLANTIC CITY

Casino implosion set for Feb. 17

Katie Kausch For The Star-Ledger

After one final delay, Trump Plaza has a new implosion date, Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small announced.

The implosion of the long-shuttered casino is now set for Feb. 17 at 9 a.m., Small said at a Thursday morning press conference. It was pushed back from a Jan. 29 implosion date earlier this month.

The delay was caused by a large concrete foundation that was originally unknown to demolition teams, licensing and inspection director Darryl Finch said at the press conference.

Pre-implosion demolition work remains underway, including drilling holes inside the structure to place dynamite, Finch said.

The implosion will impact a several- block area, and will include evacuation zones and areas CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: Implosion! New Jersey's Fitting Trump Sendoff

Marie Corfield: What Really Happened Inside the Capitol

Marie Corfield: What Really Happened Inside the Capitol

What Really Happened Inside the Capitol

Stop what you are doing right now and watch this. THIS is what it was really like inside the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 when traitorous thugs, egged on by the man who's supposed to be the President of the United States, stormed the building and killed a Capitol police officer. They were out for blood, they were out for vengeance, they were trying to overthrow our government. They erected a noose and were looking for Mike Pence to try it out on. They had handcuffs, guns and incendiary devices. They carried Confederate flags and wore clothes emblazoned with Nazi slogans. They attacked members of the press and vandalized their equipment. They spread human feces on the walls inside the building and urinated on it outside. They tried to remove our American flag and replace it with a Trump flag. The broke down doors, smashed windows and completely overwhelmed the Capitol police (some of whom may have aided and abetted them).

They were out for blood. They were after hostages. They were the epitome of an angry, out of control mob. The only things missing were torches and pitchforks. As Chris Hayes says, it's a miracle that the floors of the Capitol weren't covered in blood. It's a miracle CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: What Really Happened Inside the Capitol