When I taught kindergarten my favorite thing to do was to show up in the classroom with a stack of giant cardboard boxes and then build something awesome with them.

I started out my career as a teacher in a private school making $8 an hour so things like “supplies” and “furniture” were often hard to come by.

That’s not to say that the school didn’t provide the basics. We had pencils and construction paper, crayons and paints. There were containers full of Lego and other containers full of buttons.

But if you’ve ever flipped through a school catalog and seen everything from realistic-looking plastic eggplants to giant alphabet floor rugs, you know that “buttons” is sort of bottom of the barrel in terms of options.

And yet buttons are what we had.

Also, cardboard boxes. [Read more…]

There’s a song making the rounds called “All About That Bass” sung by a pastel-clad Meghan Trainor. She looks like she belongs in a badly colorized parody of Alice In Wonderland but that’s beside the point.

In the context of the song, you may wonder what “bass” means.

I’ll give you a hint: it’s not the fish.

It’s not, if we’re being honest, even about the sound of bass, as in guitar or drum.

I’ve included it here in the event that you managed to miss it, so please feel free to enjoy. [Read more…]