Meg Talks

  "Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education." - Plato There are some people who don’t consider it fall until they get that first pumpkin spice latte of the season. Others don’t feel like it is fall until the morning air is crisp enough to wear that new sweater they’ll inevitably regret by the afternoon. But for me? It doesn’t feel like fall until I hear the sound of a drumline playing "8 On a Hand." (And no, it's not just because I married a drummer.) I’ve been around marching band since I was five years old, but I still get goosebumps when I hear it. I fall into step with the beat without even thinking about it. My fall schedule was filled with band competitions every weekend for over a decade. My first clear memory of marching band was in kindergarten when I sat in the stands at Murray State and watched my oldest sister win the big hometown competition way back in 1995. I watched the color guard in absolute awe and decided right then and

"Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent." - Steve Martin One of the few things I know I am really good at in life is writing. I wouldn’t be putting my thoughts out on the internet for (a few) people to read if I didn’t know I could write well. If you are looking for the right word to use, struggling with how to word a sentence, or need help organizing your thoughts, I'm your girl. But handwriting?  Not so much.  Despite my father's diligent attempts to encourage me to write with my right hand, I turned out to be left-handed.  My handwriting can be quite messy, and I regularly have smudged ink on the side of my hand from dragging it across the page. As you can imagine, learning to write in cursive was a struggle for me.  I can't tell you how many cursive worksheets I had to redo in elementary school, and it was not because I was lazy or defiant. I just had trouble getting the hang of it.  In my decade of teaching, I have never forced a middle scho

“Once you can read anything, you can learn everything.” - Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing When I was about about eight years old, my sister and I discovered American Girl dolls. We spent hours pouring over the American Girl catalog and started saving our allowances up to buy our dolls. (In the end, our MawMaw could never pass up an opportunity to spoil her grandkids and bought them for us for Christmas.) For those who are unfamiliar with the American Girl doll concept, each doll comes from a specific era in American history. The first doll I got was Molly, an American girl from the World War II era. The main reason I picked her was because she kind of looked like me with her mousy brown hair and glasses. Each doll also came with a series of short chapter books about her life during the era. While they are by no means literary masterpieces, I loved them. These books not only fostered my love of reading, but more specifically, instilled a lifelong love for historical fiction. Since

Note: This is an extended version of a Facebook post I made on Thursday, September 8 that inspired the creation of Meg Talks. "If you don't know history, you don't know anything. You're a leaf that doesn't know it's part of a tree." -- Michael Crichton For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with the Royal family. I had a massive crush on Prince William when I was a teenager. I still have my Princess Diana Beanie Baby. I have binged every season of The Crown, frequently pausing to Google people and events. Despite Queen Elizabeth being 96 years old, I don’t think anyone was quite prepared for Thursday. Since I teach history, I immediately turned on news coverage and tried to explain it all to my students as crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace, leaders across the globe issued statements, and anchors stumbled over the former Prince of Wales new title, King Charles III. The Queen in 1959 (Getty Images) And then there were the Facebook co

Despite my lifelong love of writing, I have never given much thought to starting a blog. First of all, in a world of YouTube commentary, TikTok videos and Instagram reels, does anyone actually read blogs anymore? Who cares what I have to say anyway? Secondly, I don’t ever want to be accused of pontificating. In one of my favorite TED Talks , Celeste Headlee said, “If you want to state your opinion without any opportunity for response or argument or pushback or growth, write a blog.”  I never want to be that person.  I have strong opinions, but I love a civil, spirited debate. I like learning why people have the perspectives they do, and I have discovered I prefer having friends who see the world differently than me.  So if you’re here, don’t be afraid to use that comment section!  I have posted a few things here and there on Facebook about issues of the day that have gotten a modest response from my Facebook friends. I once wrote a post and was stunned when it was shared over 30 times.