What was supposed to have been a routine Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS®) training session ended up being anything but typical when a terrible ice storm hit the south, leaving me stranded at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport for an entire day.

Truth be told, I am not a big science fiction fan, although I can appreciate those who enjoy the genre. Give me an autobiography or a research article and I’ll curl up, contented, in my airplane seat as I fly to my next Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS®) presentation—except, of course, that wasn’t possible this past year.

I stepped into the classroom for the first time at the Lab School on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles more than a decade ago and did what I do best: I told stories.