Blitzing COVID

 

Well, here we are. Right where we had hoped we wouldn’t be.

The new school year is beginning, and COVID has once again reared its ugly, dangerous, and too often deadly head.

To make matters more confusing and contentious, a battle is in progress over masks: Should our children be compelled to wear masks in school, should masks be optional, or should they be prohibited altogether?

For parents of junior high and high school students who are concerned about their daughters’ and sons’ safety in academic situations, I am offering small-group online instruction designed to help us through the current COVID blitz.

I am a writer and a teacher with a good many years of experience in both professions. I am primarily a writing mentor, but I am also an experienced teacher of both history and literature.

My rates are very reasonable, and I have never turned a student away for financial reasons. Nor will I ever.

If you believe your child or children would benefit by working with me – please contact me either at johnoverbeck42@gmail.com, or at 513-476-4963, and we will have a conversation.

I have in the past worked to coordinate my work with school curricula in such a way that full academic credit is given for work I do.

If you believe I can be of assistance to your child or children, I look forward to hearing from you.

In the next few days I will post some comments I have gotten through the years for my work with students.

First Things First - Part One

 

I’m a teacher and a writer, my experience practicing my crafts goes back a good many years, and I still teach and write most every day. 

But before you mentally turn me out to pasture, please allow me to tell you a little story.

I had accepted a teaching position at a school that will always be dear to my heart – The Schilling School for Gifted Children in Cincinnati, Ohio. One day, shortly after I began my tenure at Schilling, I gave out with one of the off-the-wall statements I am – for good or ill – somewhat known for:

“One of my goals,” I pronounced, “is to become Schilling’s first 80-year-old faculty member.”

I was at the time a couple years short of 60.

The words were hardly out of my mouth when one of my students offered a snarky comment with a friendly gotcha twist: “Mr. Overbeck, in your case that’s a kind of short-term goal, isn’t it?”

That was some years ago, and I’m getting closer.

I have kept in touch with that student, and I am planning… Oh I am planning! 

This, of course, is all in fun.

But what is serious is that I am a writing mentor. I still work every day – one-on-one or with small groups – allowing and nurturing students as they develop their writing voices and skills.

I’m always available for a free consult at: johnoverbeck42@gmail.com, and you can catch my column every Thursday after 8:00 a.m.

Thursday morning then…