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Nancy Heiss

@nancyheiss

Language and Literacy Education PhD student at UGA, studying Literacies and Children's Literature. Linguist. Poet. Homeschooling mom to six. #LDSforHarris

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17.11.2023
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Latest posts by Nancy Heiss @nancyheiss

Butterfly Behavior: What is Puddling? - Adirondack Almanack While watching a couple hawks the other day, something smaller flew past me – a tiger swallowtail butterfly. Is it possible it is already that time of year? Later on, while walking along the road, I s...

I’m just going to leave this here: www.adirondackexplorer.org/environment/...

26.02.2026 00:17 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Photo of 6 kids + the text of a poem accessible at the linked PDF

Photo of 6 kids + the text of a poem accessible at the linked PDF

Photos of 6 kids + the text of a poem accessible at the linked PDF

Photos of 6 kids + the text of a poem accessible at the linked PDF

Merry Christmas from the Heiss family! Here's our 20th annual family newsletter by @nancyheiss.bsky.social, with links to all sorts of blog posts and extra features!

Full PDF: files.heissatopia.com/Christmas%20...

23.12.2025 19:41 👍 26 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

With my sad attempts to be a plant person in the background of each. 😂

10.11.2025 13:37 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Poultrygeist
The Little Woman who was not afraid of anything
Coraline (graphic novel)?
Prunella

03.09.2025 19:20 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Story time and book making with the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club at The Wren’s Nest.

30.08.2025 16:18 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Verdigris Variables - Segullah I wore the nickel-plated copper CTR ringuntil my finger took umbrage—virescent shadow blooming beneaththe band. I scanned my hand, perplexed by this inky development.The murky outline remindedme of Da...

I have a new poem out at Segullah this month! segullah.org/verdigris-va...

27.08.2025 23:58 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

My statement on Ai from the mini-comic as syllabus i made for new class I'm teaching that starts tomorrow! It robs you of your decisions & struggles - and the joy of being surprised. We won’t to be robbed of our learning - this is essential. This & the full mini at post:
bsky.app/profile/nsou...

24.08.2025 19:26 👍 735 🔁 279 💬 18 📌 51

<whispers_in_poet> The syllable count in haiku is a myth… </end_poet_whispers>

But your haiku are great! 😊

22.07.2025 00:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Level of parental exhaustion: through the roof

07.07.2025 21:54 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Joke’s on us. Multiple children made it to county. Two more weeks of winter…I mean swim season.

29.06.2025 15:34 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

From the parent still at the swim meet…truuuuuuuuuuuth! 😂

27.06.2025 01:32 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Family outside the Capitol holding signs

Family outside the Capitol holding signs

Toddler holding a sign that says UGH

Toddler holding a sign that says UGH

No Kings in Atlanta

14.06.2025 14:13 👍 173 🔁 16 💬 3 📌 2
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14.06.2025 16:01 👍 16 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Community Surveillance of Respiratory Viruses Among Families in the Utah Better Identification of Germs-Longitudinal Viral Epidemiology (BIG-LoVE) Study

Community Surveillance of Respiratory Viruses Among Families in the Utah Better Identification of Germs-Longitudinal Viral Epidemiology (BIG-LoVE) Study

Chart showing the proportion of the year a household has a viral infection, by household size. The proportion increases as the number of children increases

Chart showing the proportion of the year a household has a viral infection, by household size. The proportion increases as the number of children increases

with 6/8 of the family out with some sort of not-COVID summer sniffles, I once again turn to this wonderful study showing viral prevalence by household size and the fact that families with 6 kids have a viral infection present 87% of the year (or 10.5 months!) academic.oup.com/cid/article/...

30.05.2025 20:50 👍 61 🔁 8 💬 7 📌 3
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Our poster on creative ethnography and poetic exploration in research was awarded first place in Language and Literacy Education at UGA’s MFECOE Research Conference!

29.04.2025 21:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

That is so sweet! I’m glad I’m not the only one whose child adopted a squash! 😂 It was wonderful to find a story that so paralleled our own. As soon as I closed the book my little one opened it and said, “Now read it again!”

(…and we have a couple pumpkin plants sprouting in our garden!) 🌱

09.04.2025 23:32 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Two small children in pyjamas sort through a pile of orange yarn to find the tone that best matches the pumpkin in the foreground.

Two small children in pyjamas sort through a pile of orange yarn to find the tone that best matches the pumpkin in the foreground.

A pumpkin knitted out of orange yarn beside a real pumpkin.

A pumpkin knitted out of orange yarn beside a real pumpkin.

A toddler in penguin pyjamas, with messy blonde hair, grins as she hugs a knit pumpkin toy. Lego is scattered around her in a playroom.

A toddler in penguin pyjamas, with messy blonde hair, grins as she hugs a knit pumpkin toy. Lego is scattered around her in a playroom.

I found @patzmiller.bsky.social's "Sophie's Squash" the other day and had to bring it home to read to my pumpkin-loving toddler who'd kept a pumpkin in her bed from October until January when I finally convinced her to drop it in the garden (in exchange for a knit pumpkin). She loved the story!

09.04.2025 19:48 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0

Not sure how I’ll read the whole thing out loud, but we will power through. 😂 I’m sure there’s a beautiful ending.

04.04.2025 15:16 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Children playing ping pong on a dining room table

Children playing ping pong on a dining room table

Reading @reemfaruqi.bsky.social’s “Call Me Adnan” with the kids. We’re enjoying it—and playing ping pong—but I am already dreading where the foreshadowing is leading my mind…

04.04.2025 14:58 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Party! At the blood moon

14.03.2025 06:19 👍 24 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

😂

08.12.2024 02:44 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Irreantum 21.4 - Irreantum

The latest issue of Irreantum (21.4) came out today.

My poem 🫐 "In which my toddler eats forbidden fruit" 🫐 is the first piece. Enjoy!

And Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

irreantum.associationmormonletters.org/_21-4-start/

28.11.2024 03:02 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
The Holiday Lit Blitz: The Longlist Thank you to everyone who submitted to our specialty contest, the Holiday Lit Blitz! The pieces were judged blindly, without any identifying author information. We loved so many of the short stories, ...

I’m excited to be on the long list for this year’s Holiday Lit Blitz! www.mormonlitlab.org/post/the-hol...

12.11.2024 02:05 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Wait…you had a “TAYLOR!” moment, too?

08.11.2024 20:47 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The Mystery of Doll's Head Trail by Zoë Heiss

The late October sun cast an auburn glow on the grotesque dolls, making the Doll’s Head Trail seem even more ominous than it really was. Elaina walked on the trail, stooping down to see a moldy doll with one eye missing, moss growing on its moth-eaten petticoats. Elaina thought that this doll was scarier than all the others, somehow more intimidating than its peers. She had the feeling she had seen it before. As she watched it, the doll’s lone eye blinked.

Behind her, Elaina heard the crunching of disturbed leaves. She spun around, her black hair whipping her face as she turned. She looked down and saw a doll’s eye rolling toward her. She stared confoundedly at it. It stopped and stared back. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, relieved. It was just a doll’s eye, rolling down the hill. Her breath caught in her throat again, though, when she heard a whisper surround her.

“Need to kill! Need to kill!”

The whisper seemed to be emanating from the eyeball, although it had no mouth. Without thinking, Elaina started to chew the ends of her hair, a nervous habit of hers.

Ring, ring! Ring, ring!

Her mom was trying to call her!

Elaina answered her phone. “Hi mom! What’s up?”

“Elaina, you need to get—the dolls are—please come back now.”

“Mom! I don’t understand! What do I need to get?”

Elaina was in a frenzy. What are the dolls? Why does she need to go back home? She had so many questions coursing through her head as she waited for an answer.

“This number has been disconnected,” a robotic voice answered, not a hint of emotion in its words.

The lock of hair Elaina had been chewing on was now a soggy knot.

She bent down to touch the one-eyed doll. When her fingertip grazed the doll, everything started spinning. She felt her hair being pulled, her limbs went stiff, and it felt as if her fingers were welding together. When at last the spinning stopped, Elaina looked around dizzily. Everything was big…

The Mystery of Doll's Head Trail by Zoë Heiss The late October sun cast an auburn glow on the grotesque dolls, making the Doll’s Head Trail seem even more ominous than it really was. Elaina walked on the trail, stooping down to see a moldy doll with one eye missing, moss growing on its moth-eaten petticoats. Elaina thought that this doll was scarier than all the others, somehow more intimidating than its peers. She had the feeling she had seen it before. As she watched it, the doll’s lone eye blinked. Behind her, Elaina heard the crunching of disturbed leaves. She spun around, her black hair whipping her face as she turned. She looked down and saw a doll’s eye rolling toward her. She stared confoundedly at it. It stopped and stared back. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, relieved. It was just a doll’s eye, rolling down the hill. Her breath caught in her throat again, though, when she heard a whisper surround her. “Need to kill! Need to kill!” The whisper seemed to be emanating from the eyeball, although it had no mouth. Without thinking, Elaina started to chew the ends of her hair, a nervous habit of hers. Ring, ring! Ring, ring! Her mom was trying to call her! Elaina answered her phone. “Hi mom! What’s up?” “Elaina, you need to get—the dolls are—please come back now.” “Mom! I don’t understand! What do I need to get?” Elaina was in a frenzy. What are the dolls? Why does she need to go back home? She had so many questions coursing through her head as she waited for an answer. “This number has been disconnected,” a robotic voice answered, not a hint of emotion in its words. The lock of hair Elaina had been chewing on was now a soggy knot. She bent down to touch the one-eyed doll. When her fingertip grazed the doll, everything started spinning. She felt her hair being pulled, her limbs went stiff, and it felt as if her fingers were welding together. When at last the spinning stopped, Elaina looked around dizzily. Everything was big…

A beheaded and be-mossed doll

A beheaded and be-mossed doll

A dirty, creepy doll

A dirty, creepy doll

A headless doll sitting on a pile of bricks

A headless doll sitting on a pile of bricks

Heyyy my 9-yo daughter won the Georgia Writers Museum's 2024 Spooky Story Contest with "The Mystery of Doll's Head Trail"! www.georgiawritersmuseum.org/the-mystery-...

Inspired by Atlanta's own weird Doll's Head Trail

02.11.2024 13:01 👍 49 🔁 4 💬 7 📌 0

Hate to break it to you but *that* is a painting…

30.10.2024 22:43 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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That was dreamed up by the 7 y.o. himself.

14.10.2024 23:24 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens WINDER, GA—In the hours following a violent rampage in Georgia in which a lone attacker killed at least four individuals and injured nine others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of...
04.09.2024 20:31 👍 3476 🔁 1221 💬 58 📌 85

van Manen, M. (1990). Human science. In Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy (pp. 1–34). The Althouse Press.

Page 12, in case anyone is wondering.

03.09.2024 03:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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You see the way I read my article on phenomenology? Very demure, very studious...until a paragraph citing Heidegger uses the words thoughtful, mindful, and heedful in rapid succession. Then I get a little cutesy...but still demure.

03.09.2024 03:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0