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… wick to wick, candles are lit …

Something About Her (600 words) Note to reader: if you could provide feedback for revision in the comments below, I would be eternally grateful. I...

Happy Christmas Y’all The magic of Christmas is a concept that can elude the sophisticated. Life sometimes conditions those of us, “on the shady side...

Feel like I’m stiffening up on a daily basis. The thought of doing yoga in the cold mornings just makes me want to sit down with a nice cup of tea...

Brodies swansong arrives in nae time. A setup like this yin takes time, preparation. That’s what separates the professionals fae the cowboays. Furget...

Dark toast, marmalade and strong black tea make the day take shape.

These stories are inspired by a teaching experience of mine in a Further Education College in England. The experiences are fictionalised. Letting the writing flow, names and identifying details were anonymised. With the characters composed of multiple selves, these are the stories of lecturers and students everywhere, of teachers expected to teach in neurotypical ways, and of neurodiverse students expected to learn in conventional ways. These stories recognise that teaching and learning is not only about the humans in the classroom: all bodies (human, nonhuman and more-than-human) act in relationality. For ‘Jake’, like so many others, the noises of other students, of anxiety, of a beeping fire door, the heat, all combine to drive him from the classroom, potentially from the college. Simultaneously, these forces provoke the courage to ask for help. ‘Jake’s’ class is typical of those I have encountered in Further Education Colleges in England: Jake could be a student at any or all of them. These stories question and resist conventional teaching and learning practices, which so often fail students, in the hope of opening up possibilities for genuine second chances for all.

what did he mean by definetely dead? the plot thickens!

Finally, we arrive oan the scene. He parks ootside the boozer, cautiously. Yince the pair ae us hop intae the fresh air oor nostrils are immediately...