Barbara Swander Miller

Category: Education

  • Writing camp deadline!

    Hats pulled snug down over their curly, straight, blonde, dark, red hair, the writers scratched and scribbled in their notebooks, filling them with graphite and ink, painstakingly selected–or not– most legible, some barely- mapping out worlds on, above, and below where their feet tread. Soon, plots emerged from five squares, mountains, and lines of time…

  • Was it ever so simple?

    It’s Graduation Season: I see my former students and colleagues as I make the rounds to a few select open houses- of those daring, outstanding students who braved sending an invitation when they know it’s not my thing. “Are you glad you’re not teaching anymore?” “Oh, yeah. Things are so different. Even in just a…

  • Thank you, Black Keys

    On the days I dwell in the land of CanDo, just doing things I can do and do do most of the time, my feet slog along, heavily weighted by boring, everyday brown muck. When I venture into the land of MaybeICan, my feet sink into another kind of gunk: Orangey-brown, chartreuse sludge made from…

  • A teacher’s Saturday

    on Spring Break Pull off the mask of monotony, the cloak of routine, and allow the joyful voice of your hidden heart to sing with gleeful abandon. Dance! Fling your arms wide to embrace the fresh day with its newly scrubbed face of opportunity. Then wrap the shawl of serenity around your sturdy shoulders that…

  • Am I a history snob?

    Once again, I’m reading a historical novel. They’re my go-to in the Libby filters when I’m searching for a new online freebie read. My setting preference is 1800’s United States. That’s probably because of the novel series I’m writing based on the diary of my Quaker ancestors during Reconstruction. Or the fact that I taught…

  • Call me

    A poem about becoming Mastermind, I once was tagged in my introverted days. Arranging, calculating, quietly driven. Then Field Marshal, planning, executing, holding the torch, urging my battalion into victory. Often Fixer, eager to improve any situation, to declaw a beast, and watch it smile. Sometimes Seven, grabbing every random chance for growth to enjoy…

  • The value of feeling stupid

    I’ve spent a fair amount of my life trying not to look stupid. Abe Lincoln’’s sage advice to keep one’s mouth shut to keep people wondering, rather than opening it to confirm being a fool has not been lost on me. Luckily, as an introvert, I can often let others do the talking– unless an…

  • Bring back “The Benton Bugle!”

    My husband bemoans the lack of local newspaper reporting. There are still a couple of reporters, but our print news now comes mostly from the USA Today Network. As a former newspaper employee, going back to having a paper route when he was twelve, he despises reading the news online, even if it’s mostly the…

  • Glass and houses as curriculum?

    What do whiskey and cigarettes have in common in my life?   No, they’re not my coping mechanisms at the end of a stressful day.  What about Kellogg’s cereal, Hershey’s chocolate, and the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing? Still stumped?   As a child of the 1960’s, I toured these manufacturing facilities with my family during…

  • Friday’s phone call

    Hi, Grammy! How was your day, sweet girl? Medium. Medium? Tell me about it. Well, I didn’t like being hit in the head with thirty-five balls today. What! All the girls were screaming and crying and huddled against the wall. What was going on? The boys were throwing balls … at our heads. Oh! Ohhhhhh,…