I just read an Instagram post that offered the likes of the following words for 2026: faith, bloom, ease, abundance, and magic. I felt these deeply…and simultaneously wondered when did we start giving words to years?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” - Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
The calendar calls our attention to the last month of the year. Thirty-one days of all the things…how do you feel about it?
Are you scrambling to fit your seemingly continuous to-do list into each jam-packed day of life’s chaos?
Most people know the moment when they look at their phone and feel a little overwhelmed. Too many messages, too much news, too many tiny things asking for attention. Digital detox practices help calm that noise. They are not dramatic or mystical. They are practical habits that give the mind more space and make life feel a bit less crowded.
I spend my days juggling human prose and machine-made copy, so I’ve learned to sniff out robotic fingerprints almost on sight. If you’re a writer, student, or content creator who leans on large language models, whether for speed, inspiration, or the occasional all-nighter, you probably worry that your draft will scream “ChatGPT wrote me!” to editors, professors, or search-engine bots. Below, I’ll walk you through the most obvious giveaways I see in 2025 and the practical cures I reach for when a paragraph feels more silicon than soul.
It’s November. New month, the changing of clocks, the time of year for balancing calendars, budgets, and moments of joy, and the start of the holiday silly season.
How are you greeting this moment?
Have you noticed how much more we talk about health now compared to five years ago? Not just doctor visits or vitamins, but how air quality affects asthma. Why clean water isn’t a guarantee. Or how one sick person can shut down a school. Suddenly, public health isn’t just a field—it’s dinner conversation.
When our family first thought about moving overseas, one thing we didn’t worry too much about was what type of school (and school curriculum) was the right fit for our kids. We were operating under the proviso that the only way my hubby would accept a role at an international school was that the kids would also go to the same school!
Years ago, when watching the Food Network, I quickly found my favourites: the quirky chef, the one who helped us navigate meals in a short span of time, and Ina, who was always a welcome visitor. Whether it was the relevance of the show's location to my world, her empathetic joyful demeanor, or the deliciousness coming out of her kitchen, I don’t know, but I’ve always been a fan of Ina.
If you’ve ever thought about becoming an international teacher (or joining your teaching partner abroad), you’ve no doubt thought about the pros and cons. Things like travel perks, access to different cultures, and giving your kids the chance to gain a more global perspective are all big benefits.
Today’s high schools—constrained by low expectations for working-class kids, limitations on teachers’ autonomy, and more segregation than 50 years ago—find it challenging to create an environment that cultivates engagement, learning and a sense of belonging. They can learn something from the successes of the past.
