by J. Jones | Jul 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
In June, I had the opportunity to serve as a guest panelist for a Student to Student Coordinators Conference, alongside two high school educators from private institutions. As a public middle school teacher, I offered a perspective shaped by different classroom...
by J. Jones | Jun 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
Living in St. Louis means enduring brutal weather—freezing winters and blistering summers.Sure, other cities deal with this too, but St. Louis weather hits different. Maybe it’s the whiplash-inducing shifts from day to day, or the humid heat that clings like a second...
by J. Jones | May 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
Ten years ago this month—on Tuesday, May 19th, 2015—I underwent spinal fusion surgery. It was the second major surgery of my life. The first had come nearly a decade earlier, in late 2006, when I had an emergency appendectomy. That experience was frightening, sudden,...
by J. Jones | Apr 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
Fluctuating weight has been an issue for me over the past ten-plus years. If you know me and see me often, you might think this is an April Fool’s joke as I write this on April 1st, 2025. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t look overweight. In fact, I never...
by J. Jones | Mar 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
No more snow! No more snow! As I chant these words to myself in a half-hearted command, I picture the dirty, slushy snow and salty ice melt that had taken over my sidewalk, driveway, and car these past few months. It all started in January when we were supposed to...
by J. Jones | Feb 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
Falling in love is an emotional experience. Loving someone is a choice. Yes, I believe love is a conscious decision. Whether it’s choosing to love the person we fell for or extending love to our opps—our enemy, the one who wronged us yesterday or years ago—it’s never...
