Join 10,450 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, It's December! I know you knew, but it is the first newsletter of the new month, so let me take some pleasure in remarking that my favourite month of the year is here. It's not that I dislike the warmer seasons - I'm actually partial to the first spring blossoms and a good old summer's day, particularly in this part of the world where the heat almost never makes me want to rip my skin off. But December, and the Christmas season, are a whole...
about 12 hours ago • 10 min read
Join 10,300 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, Sometimes, you'll go through something a bit horrible, only to realise later that you got something positive out of it. And the English language is fantastically imaginative in the ways it has of describing this sort of situation: a blessing in disguise¹ every cloud has a silver lining making lemonade (out of lemons) Not to mention one of my favourite sayings: the only way out is through. This past week, the new concorsi have started, and I...
7 days ago • 7 min read
Join 10,300 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, In recent news that absolutely nobody asked for: snow season is here! And here's a new term for you (or maybe you knew it already, so in that case it's new for me): "snow flurry", i.e. a light snowfall that results in little or no snow accumulation. Which is what happened here, so probably nothing to write home about, but hey - try and stop me. This week has been very hectic: the Ministry saw it fit to finally publish the PNRR2 quiz questions...
14 days ago • 7 min read
Join 10,300 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, What is up with life being so hectic, I've been wondering? Has it always been like this or is it me being particularly meditative as of late? Mind you, not that this meditative state has produced any great insights, but alas... Can you relate? Between the new concorso, the conclusion of Speak Better Teach Better and the end of year rush (6 weeks to go, folks!), I feel like I can't catch a break. If we're in the same boat, and I suspect that we...
21 days ago • 6 min read
Join 10,000 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, I hope you were busy enough with some lovely Sunday activities that you didn't miss me at all last week! Cooking? Hiking in the beautiful autumn colours? A bit of dreadful trick or treating for good measure?¹ Whatever you got up to, I hope it was enjoyable. On my end, life got in the way last week, which prevented me from putting out the newsletter - but I'm back with a bang this week. A slightly meditative, lovely poem about life in the form...
28 days ago • 11 min read
Join 10,000 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, Leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping, and that pesky evening darkness arrives earlier and earlier with each passing day: it's safe to say, Autumn is upon us 🍂 I live in a place where the sun will soon go down at 3.30PM (yeah, you read that right), which tends to fill me with a sense of gloom that only hot chocolate seems to soothe. In anticipation of this, however, towards the end of October I always go to a really cool arts and lights...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Join 10,000 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, It's soppy, but I have to do it, so bear with me: the newsletter has officially hit 10,000 subscribers (10,025 actually), so I have to say... I know it's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but that's good because I'd be a really subpar influencer. I'm extremely content serving the needs of this relatively small but growing community, and let me thank you again for reading this newsletter every Sunday, or some Sundays, or whenever you...
about 2 months ago • 9 min read
Join 9,900 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, Are you having a blessed day? I'm writing this on a Friday, and I can't deny that the thought "TGIF" has been flashing in my mind on repeat like the sign of an American diner from the 50s. This week was somewhat heavy for me because I had to sit on a few academic panels investigating so-called "academic malpractice", i.e. for the most part, students writing their assignments with AI. We used to do these meetings for plagiarism, but now...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Join 9,800 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, As your trusted Sunday newsletter companion, I feel pretty much contractually obligated to start today's email with a very heartfelt: happy World Teachers' Day! I'm not one for platitudes, but if there is a day to remind ourselves that teachers are valuable, I say: why on earth not? To me, teaching is a myriad things - exhilarating, rewarding, confusing, challenging, and I could go on. But I know that it can get tiring, so sometimes it's useful...
2 months ago • 8 min read
Join 9,800 readers (and counting!) Dear Reader, My devotion to this newsletter is such that it sometimes gets into my everyday life. A good example of this has been this week. I knew I was going to write today's newsletter about the topic of habits; specifically, good habits to start incorporating into our routine that will serve us well down the line. And lo and behold, I started seeing signs of this... everywhere. First, I was asked not once, but twice, to re-explain for what I feel is the...
2 months ago • 7 min read