changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Had a ReadWriteThink status update today, and one of the problems that came up was the title bars. When the site was originally designed, the designer went with very basic info. Lesson plan titles, for instance, were titled "ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan." That's a problem when you look at Google results, and that's all you see to identify the lesson. There's no way to tell them apart. Turns out that it's also a problem with our WebTrends data. It's a pain to figure out which lesson plans and resources get the most hits.
Now I've poked around, and the pages all say something like this:
ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: [title of the lesson plan from the database]. I changed the lessons, calendar entries, and student materials. The problem is that the title fields include HTML markup, so the titles for the pages look funny when italics is involved.
I found a javascript that seemed to strip out the HTML. Maybe that will solve the problem. Can't know till the NCTE copy of Google spiders tonight.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The
Ideas section for this week's Inbox celebrates the winner of the
2005 NCTE Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language:
The Daily Show :)
How could I NOT take advantage of the opportunity to talk about
The Daily Show officially? The official title of the column is "Honesty and Clarity in Advertising and the Media," and it includes 4 articles and a ReadWriteThink lesson plan link.
Spent time today working on the design for the Book Cover interactive. After pulling dozens of books off the shelves in the office, we finally sketched out the templates for the various parts of the cover (front, flaps, back, spine). We're thinking it will launch in January.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
NCTE Inbox |
ReadWriteThink
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Monday, November 28, 2005
Spent much of today untangling notes and trying to uncover my desk, which seems to be a wreck. I've sort of lost my place on everything. Then of course, there was a chunk of time for Inbox. And mostly I am tired.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Sunday, November 27, 2005
I made it home, but I gave up on the audio posts. Something happened with the last one I tried, from the Ohio/Indiana border. Besides I just drove straight through from there. I got home around 11 and unloaded the car into the kitchen. Once you have it all in the house, you can take your time unpacking it.
I've spent most of today trying to get my holiday shopping done. I think I have all but one family member taken care of. Plus I'll need to get a few purchases that can't be made online.
I found the
recipe for Monster Cookies, which I'm thinking of making for the Cookie Exchange at work (and certainly to carry home to Virginia).
Tomorrow I'll have to go back to work. I haven't untangled any of the various notes and things that I packed. I don't even know what I need to find. I fear that I'll end up in the office with nothing that I need. I didn't get much work on anything done last week. I feel like such a failure. :(
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Saturday, November 26, 2005
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Mineral Wells
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com: 1916 bridge in Newport, 5 mins from home
1916 bridge in Newport, 5 mins from home
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Friday, November 25, 2005
Today's my youngest sister's birthday, so I cooked one of her favorite meals for dinner, barbequed hot dogs. I made mac and cheese for myself since I can't do the tomatoes thing. I also made corn casserole, which was a great hit. Yesterday's broccoli casserole and the various puff pastry pinwheels were also great hits.
I should be packing stuff for the trip home tomorrow, but instead, I've spent the evening playing with Snuffles, my sister's poodle (and the one that visited me in September). He greatly enjoys fetching the squeaky ball it appears.
I also got a small bit of Christmas shopping done online. Unlike my sister Holli and my niece, I'm am NOT going to any stores on the day after Thanksgiving. Well, I went to the grocery store, but that doesn't count. I found a present for my brother online, and I think I have my niece taken care of as well. Now for the rest of them.....
But it's time for bed now. Too much driving to do tomororw.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Oh, and I could kill for a diet coke right now. Must...resist...
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Thursday, November 24, 2005
I may never cook again. Okay, not really, though I do feel like I've done nothing but cook this entire day. Actually, that's a bit close to reality. I made snackin' food for the Macy's parade, and as soon as that was over, I began the process of cooking for dinner. I didn't finish and have people eating till 9 pm. It's not that I was truly actively cooking every minute. There were moments of confusion and bewilderment. The biggest issue was that I thought my mother would be making the pumpkin pies, but I ended up being in charge of that too. No problem... except that since I didn't think I was doing it no one checked the ingredients. We were out of shortening, a key ingredient for pie crust. The bigger issue is that I'm not a pie crust maker in the first place. I buy pie crusts in cute little boxes in the dairy aisle. That won't do for mom however, so the whole process was a little more complex than usual. Beyond that, I gave a wag of the finger to the microwave several times for its misbehavior, and ultimately, I put it on notice (after it tried to remove my fingernail). It is clearly an evil appliance. Wag of the fingers also for the knife and the stove top. The pie crust is also on notice for its failure to cooperate when I attempted to roll it out. It may be dead to me. I must re-evaluate later when I'm hydrated again.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Cleanapalooza is 90% over. The living room is inhabitable again, and there's enough space in the kitchen to cook.
Spent the afternoon in Salem, with my mom, sister, and niece. Mom had an eye doctor's appointment, and we went along to give her company. While she was in the doctor's, we took the car and did a little holiday shopping at a nearby Walmart. Didn't buy anything overly exciting, but did manage to get some little things out of the way. After Mama's appointment was finished, we went by the fire station where my brother works. It's an older building in Roanoke. It was beginning to snow, so we didn't go inside. Just said howdy, I gave him my leftovers from Sonic, and we were on our way back home. We ordered various pizzas for dinner so that we weren't distracted from Cleanapalooza.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Today's major accomplishment has been grocery shopping. That probably doesn't sound very exciting, but given that it was time to get all the goodies for the Thanksgiving meal, it was a pretty involved activity. I
think that I've gotten everything, but we won't be sure till the cooking is over.
While I was out, I found a couple of cute wreaths for my front door, so they're in the car and waiting for the return trip to Illinois. Pictures next week.
We still need to do major cleaning on the living room and the kitchen to get the Thanksgiving feast underway. I've been calling the event Cleanapalooza. So much cleaning needs done that I'm embarrassed to even share the actual details. Cleanapalooza really gets underway tomorrow. Did some beginning work today. The heavier stuff has to get finished tomorrow though. Since it's not quite clean enough for the whole family, we went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. I ordered a chicken-fried steak and ended up with enough food to feed 3 people. I've never seen such a huge portion. Fortunately, there are dogs at home here.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
The
Ideas Section for this week's Inbox focused on Best Books, pointing to award winners that have been recently announced at NCTE's Annual Convention and books that have been recently reviewed in NCTE publications.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
NCTE Inbox |
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Monday, November 21, 2005
This has been interesting so far. I am split between rooms on two different levels of the house because of space constraints. I'm sleeping upstairs in a bedroom/office, and I have all my clothes and whatnot in a bedroom downstairs. I've had no end of trouble getting online. There's something very wrong with the fact that it was easier to send blog posts from the road than it is to post from inside a house with multiple phone lines and a cable modem. Fortunately, I brought my own Airport Express, and I now have it attached to the cable router, but it took most of the day to get that worked out. I ended up doing my conference call on the book cover interactive for ReadWriteThink without an Internet connection. Hopefully, I'll have an easier time of all this tomorrow.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com: At the border
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Sunday, November 20, 2005
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Not indiana
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
At the rate I'm going, I won't actually be on the road till at least 1 pm, which means (sadly) that I won't get there till probably 2 am. :( I really should have left yesterday. Oh well. I've got the housesitter set up. I've loaded a ton of food into the trunk. Some of the stuff is frozen fairly solid, so it should stay well chilled. All that's left to go out there is my hair dryer and such (I really need to go dry my hair). That, and this computer, which means it's time for me to log off. I hope to post from the road, but if that doesn't work, I won't be back till tomorrow.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
I think I have most of my stuff relatively close to ready to go. I've made (I think) six different kinds of cookies, about 2 dozen each;
prosciutto pinwheels and two variants—dried beef and pastrami & corned beef; and
sausage balls and two variants—chicken with mexican seasonings, and beef with worchestshire. The freezer is jam-packed. Tomorrow, I dump it all in the ice chest and hope it stays cold.
I have most of my clothes and such packed. I'm just waiting for a couple of things to dry, and I need to pack the stuff that I'll still use in the morning. It feels as if there are far too many things that can't be done till the morning. I'm probably already behind. Sigh.
One of the hardest parts is figuring out what I need to bring to occupy myself. I have 4 young adult novels. Sharon wants me to bring the book manuscript (which I haven't picked up since sometime in August I believe). The sad part of that was that I didn't even know where the printouts were.
I always end up carrying a pile of junk that I never use; so I forbid myself to bring the box of books for the writing assignment. I've pulled a couple of books and my box of notecards, plus the drafts obviously. Still I have this endless fear that I'll need the one thing that I've left behind. I could have an entire library of books in my car, and the one I need would still be the one I left behind.
I'm just full of happy, optimistic thoughts, aren't I? Too many memories today. Pictures and old texts and other things lost. I need to go to bed I suspect, so that I can stay awake during the drive.
changelog @ tengrrl.com: rabblerousers
Saturday, November 19, 2005
So in my pissed-off mood, I looked about for an alternative that would not include the evil Verizon paragraph on moblog posts. I found
rabble, which claims to manage such things. It is posting without garbage in the text. The downside is that I have to upload the photo and then separately post it to the site—and all that uses much more airtime. And there's a monthly fee of $2.95 (unless I read something wrong). And, another sigh, the images go to the rabble server rather than being posted on my server. Maybe I'm better off with paragraphs of spam to delete :(
I'll need to test it more tomorrow. I'm not sure that I have all the settings correct; but it seems like a possibility at least for this trip. Now, it's time for bed.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
This sugar cookie with party sugar sprinkles is for demonstration purposes only. Yes, I am finishing up the cookie baking for the trip to Virginia; but really the cookie was just one of the few things in the house that I could take a picture of without having to tidy first. The cookie baking area was already quite tidy.
But why did I need a demonstration image? I found out when I got home and checked the image of the cute Vue that I sent from the Saturn dealer that Verizon is now taking on crap when I upload an image to my blog. A full, freaking paragraph of garbage that looks like this:
This message was sent using PIX-FLIX Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures with your wireless phone visit
www.verizonwireless.com/getitnow/getpix.
To learn how you can record videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/getitnow/getflix.
To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime Player. Note: During the download
process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.
What has been up until this point a nice simple upload is not spam upload. Here I was thinking I could take pictures during my road trip, and now I have this spam. GAH! I deleted the spam from the Saturn image, but it's really got me ticked off. If I have to publish that paragraph of crap with every image I upload on the road the blog will just look stupid until I can get online and delete it all. They've essentially fixed it so that I hestitate to send the images at all. As I said, GAH!
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Friday, November 18, 2005
& here we have the car i want
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Thursday, November 17, 2005
I added one more lesson plan before sending off the mid-month content report. It's a fairly general and traditional lesson—
Draft Letters: Improving Student Writing through Critical Thinking. The lesson has students write reflective letters to the teacher, identifying their own thoughts on the piece that the teacher is about to read. The useful piece is that the lesson includes some models for students to read and discuss before they try the strategy themselves. Lots of extensions and alternatives included as well.
In addition, there were calendar updates. We're adding 30 entries to the RWT calendar over the course of the next year. The first five are now live. Others will be added over the next few months. Here the new additions are:
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
why do i do these things?
|
The Movie Of Your Life Is Film Noir
|
So what if you're a little nihilistic at times?
Life with meaning is highly over-rated.
Your best movie matches: Sin City, L. A. Confidential, Blade Runner
|
If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Lunch: Chicken Fried Rice
Fortune: "Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure."
Lucky Numbers: 14, 15, 18, 24, 36, 45
Meaning: You have 14 things to do at work, 15 errands to run, 18 things to do at home, 24 minutes to do it in, 36 minutes before you receive the materials you need to complete the work, and a 45% chance of someone being angry when you don't get it all done. "Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure"? No shit. You're dashing around trying to get it all done and bold enough to post that fact online.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
So the audioblog posting worked. Who knew it was so easy? I started investigating the idea as an option for the upcoming roadtrip to Virginia. I can post pictures from my cell, but as I was working on the
War of the Worlds lesson plan, which required some research on podcasting, I began to think it might be interesting to buy a mic for my iPod and record pieces while on the road. Then when I reached the house, I could upload them.
On the whim of the moment, I decided to see what blogger supported. Behold, they have an agreement with
audioblogger for free audioblog postings. Well, free if you don't count the cost of the phone call; but with the number of minutes I have, it's already covered.
I'm not sure that it's something that will really work for me though. I'm a better writer than a speaker. I don't know that I can say anything really useful outloud, and my travelogues have always been a construction that required a lot of thought and interconnection that I don't think is possible for me when I'm working outloud. Still, maybe it's worth a try.
Now that I've gotten home and had a chance to look at the resulting post, I've realized what the catch to the system is. They store the MP3s on their server. Now I'm techno-savvy, and I downloaded a copy to my machine, which I uploaded to my server. I changed the link to my copy. The copy still exists on their server, however, and I don't think there's anyway to remove it. So who owns my intellectual property?
More importantly, there are some pretty strict terms. I apparently agreed not to "upload, post or otherwise transmit any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of another’s property, hateful, racially or ethnically discriminating, or misogynistic, or objectionable." That's a pretty wide-ranging list, and without any indication of who is deciding how those terms are defined. Much of the info in the list of do-nots is fairly standard—don't do things illegal, don't upload viruses, etc.
My favorite may be that I have agreed not to "impersonate any person or entity, including but not limited to a Listenlab official, guide or host or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity." So much for the blogs of comedians who do impersonations. Now I understand that you shouldn't pretend to work for the company, but this restriction seems a bit too extensive.
But on to the ownership issue, which isn't as bad as I had feared:
Listenlab does not claim ownership of the content you place using the audioblogger service; however, Listenlab may provide a link or other access to your content and/or to your blog site to the extent that it is already made public in order to promote your Audioblogger posting and/or the Audioblogger service or otherwise in connection with its promotional, advertising or sponsorship efforts, and you hereby grant Listenlab a royalty-free license to use such materials and affirm that you have all necessary rights in such materials to grant this license. Listenlab reserves the right to include advertising, sponsorship, and/or promotional materials as part of its Audioblogger service.
So I own it, but they may do with it as they like. I imagine tacked on "This audioblog brought to you by Listenlab" kinds of comments. Oh well, it may be an interesting experiment, and I don't see any information that suggests I broke any rules by copying my file to my server. As long as I can copy the files to my machine, I can edit them in Audacity to remove any advertising nonsense. Free is cheaper than buying an iPod microphone, and it's probably easier then transferring the files around.
Since you may know the contents of that audioblog posting, I should tell you that I did, indeed, find and secure one "
sparkle-butt Santa." I procured many groceries, but they were out of puff pastry. How am I to make prosciutto pinwheels without puff pastry? There better be some restocking overnight.
Once I had everything put away, I returned to the lesson plan, and finally finished it up. It was nearly done when I left work this evening. It just needed an assessment, and I realized as I was driving that I needed to add a note about using podsafe music and sound effects.
Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization is out there provoking the world into Martian-filled panics. That gives us 22 lessons so far. Tomorrow I may try to squeeze one more out before sending in the (late) content report. I need to edit and add 5 new calendar entries as well. Should mostly be a day of odds and ends. I've taken Friday off for the oil change and remaining errands (and cookie baking).
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
The Ideas section for this week's Inbox focuses on
The Gettysburg Address. Okay, I know. It probably seems like a stretch to some of you, but in actuality, it worked out fairly well. The entry includes some information on primary and secondary sources as well as some resources on Gettysburg-era Doublespeak.
And speaking of Doublespeak, I found out today who is receiving the
Doublespeak Award at Annual Convention later this week. It's such a badge of honor for this recipient. Really. It's not a negative thing at all for them. I'm so tickled :)
I spent much of the day noticing that it was pouring rain (not pouring, pounding), working on last-minute details for Convention, and, this evening, working on the
War of the Worlds lesson plan. I need to get it online tomorrow for the content report.
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Monday, November 14, 2005
The additional blade for my cute little
Change-a-Bowl arrived on my front porch today :) When I ordered the extra blade, the operator suggested it could be quite a while because they weren't even in the system yet.
This was a binge buy in the first place. I saw the commercial on Sunday the 30th and ordered it moments later. I don't do many binge purchases like that, but I wanted it. I had it by the end of the week, though I didn't order super-speedy shipping. Sadly, however, I ordered the wrong one; so I only ened up with one blade instead of two.
Oh well, I called the number and ordered the extra part; but the operator was so discouraging that I really didn't expect to see it before Christmas. What a surprise :) Now I can make krinkle cut things and finely grated things. I already chopped up all the onions in the house yesterday. I need to go shopping tomorrow so I can chop even more things.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Sunday, November 13, 2005
I've decided to pretend everything with be okay with Thanksgiving, even though I get daily reports on oddities. Today's news, the washing machine has been broken for months. Sigh.
Trying to pretend, I've created
a tentative menu for what I want to cook. Some of it I can do in advance before I leave. I've already baked 2 batches of the chocolate cookies and 1 batch of the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Those are all in the freezer so they'll stay fresh. I figure they can thaw on the drive. More cookies to bake this week. I'm also going to prepare the finger foods. They're all things that can be prepared (or partly prepared) and frozen then taken out, thawed, and baked off.
I may end up scaling back, but at least I have the plans and the recipes. Actually more recipes than I need. I don't really need a recipe for mashed potatoes or gravy; but they looked lonely without links. At least I have a starting place. Now we just have to all cross our fingers. Sigh. The stove and oven better not be broken.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Saturday, November 12, 2005
I'm not completely sure why I did this, as it only tells me what I already know. I hate myself and never try hard enough. A quiz wasn't really necessary to figure out things like I have no love.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Friday, November 11, 2005
I don't really understand myself today. Maybe I'm just really depressed. I stayed at home today. Lisa and Sharon both had kids out of school, so they were staying home with them. I was well over 40 hours, so I figured I'd skip out too. I didn't really get anything done though. I found that my new gutters were being installed around 11, and I did some work on a lesson plan on audio dramatizations. There were random work issues to deal with as well. I guess all that was normal.
I made a shopping/errand list. Got dressed. And went back to bed. I keep thinking about things that haven't worked out. I never really wrote about my Thanksgiving plans because I was afraid something would go wrong. Naturally, something did. Most of my family was going to come to Illinois. I was going to get to cook for everyone. A lot of people would think that was crazy, but I was really excited. Last Sunday though, I got word that some people didn't want to come for one reason or another. And the one person who couldn't come because he was working was disappointed that people were all decamping. So I said I'd just go home to avoid their unhappiness.
So for the last few days, I've been wandering around thinking of things I don't have to do (don't bother to clean that table; no sense in putting that stuff away; don't bother buying that extra food). When I'm not doing that, I'm noticing stupid things that I already did. . . . why did I bother buying and freezing that extra sausage? why did I waste paper printing out that recipe? what kind of idiot am I for gathering up that stuff? what made me order these puzzles for them to put together?
When I originally planned to take today off, I thought I'd get a jump start. I figured I could cook some things ahead. I stupidly thought I'd bake and freeze some family favorite cookies and appetizers so they'd be ready to go. And I thought I'd start rearranging some things in the kitchen so all the cooking would be easier.
Instead, I've done little. I made a normal, weekly shopping list, but never gathered the will to go any further. I'm such an idiot, and I seem to just sit around and hate myself. Why bother going to the grocery store? I should be eating air anyway. Why buy anything? And damn those baby pandas.
They always make me feel so sad and lonely.
I'm such an unholy mess of a girl. There's really no hope.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Thursday, November 10, 2005
My dear technical support friend at the MCI Foundation had the site back up by 10:30. We still don't know quite what caused the problem. Which means that we don't know whether it will come back or not. The highlight of the day, however, was a class of students who were supposed to use one of the interactives, and when they found that the site was down they sent us less-than-scholarly e-mails (which we had to reply to in a "professional" manner). Here are some unedited samples:
- i am pissed offf
u guys suck
- you suck i need this site and it sucks you assholes
- as far as i am consirned u can shove this site up ur asss
- you dawm morons eat shit try not to get any on your lips
- asses.y couldnt u just keep your sight on it was fine i was just on it yesterday .dickheads.eat shit
- fuck you suck dick bitch (that one from someone named "Bob Dick")
- shit faces cock master (from "u suck")
- i hate you i had a progect due tomorrow n now im going to fail because of you.so now im going to get in trouble by my teacher n my parents. so now i cant get a 4 wheeler if i dont get it done n if you dont have it up by tomorrow u can shove this site up ur asss.fuck you
Good Times.
Good Times. Of course, my question is where the devil was the teacher. Why wasn't anyone noticing that these kids were having so much trouble, let alone that they were sending out all these messages?
I could describe the rest of the day, but what could top these messages?
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
This has been one full day. A conference call. Lunch meeting. Team meeting on some lessons and odds and ends. Work on the PowerPoint for the ReadWriteThink Advisory Board meeting. Finished the rough specs on the Book Cover interactive and sent them off to the developer.
Course all that is nothing compared to the fun I just had. Microsoft released some patches, which I diligently installed and which just as diligently shut down the SQL server. The site is down, and nothing I can come up with is fixing it. This is not really the way that I like to end an evening, and it means tomorrow is going to be stressful till the problem is resolved. Thank goodness the MCI folks can help with this sort of stuff because I'm lost on what's wrong. I may as well get some sleep now. It's going to be an early morning.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
the naive believe
soft buds bloom early for spring
later comes the truth
quietly they hope
pink petals struggling upward
soon all is changed
innocence lost
wilted blooms shrivel then drop
their dreams left dead
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
The
Ideas section for today's Inbox focused on modeling and exploring writing process strategies. It's full of lesson plans for K-12, and a couple of articles for college.
I also finished editing and published Susan Spangler's lesson on pop culture.
You’re the Top! Pop Culture Then and Now asks students to explore present-day pop culture by updating Cole Porter’s song “You’re the Top!” to use modern references.
One great lesson from IATE! Willie Bobbie, are you jealous yet?
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
NCTE Inbox |
ReadWriteThink
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Monday, November 07, 2005
I finished editing and posted the 19th and 20th lessons for this FY this afternoon. The two lessons are written by Susanne Rubenstein, based on info in her NCTE book,
Raymond Carver in the Classroom. The lessons can be done separately, or one can follow the other.
Put That on the List: Collaboratively Writing a Catalog Poem uses the Raymond Carver poem "Fear" and focuses on emotion as the theme for the poems.
Put That on the List: Independently Writing a Catalog Poem uses the Carver poem "The Car" as inspiration for students to write their own poems on a significant object or possession.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
NCTE Inbox |
ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Sunday, November 06, 2005
This picture sort of freaks me out because I'm reading
Coraline and it's a little too much like the other mother. If the eyes were black, I'd have to go hide.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
no is such a small word
yet i didn't use it
when i should have
i didn't tell myself
i didn't say it to you
ever since i cry
for what i did
for what i didn't do
for what i'll never know
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Saturday, November 05, 2005
The presentation went well. A couple of people were interested in writing lessons for the site; and there was lots of positive feedback. After class, we went off to
Noodles & Company for a lovely group lunch. After we ate, I got another nice hug from Jim, and then I was on my way again.
The trip to Stevenson was sad in a way. I had to walk right down that first floor hallway where
my Willie Bobbie used to dwell, and now, he's way far away and hard to get to.
Because sadness drives me to eat, actually everything drives me to eat, but back to the point, I was forced to make a little side trip. Forced, I tell you. I've never actually been to paradise, um, I mean, to a Krispy Kreme store. I got to see the whole donut making process, from
frying to
glazing to
eating. I bought some for me, and then a bunch of pumpkin spice donut holes to take to work on Monday. Then I was on the road, on my way back home, eating donuts along the way.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Somehow, the entries that I wrote on Saturday have disappeared. I must have clicked the wrong button :( This is a re-creation of that sad, missing entry.
So here I am in the Illinois State computer classroom. Jim Kalmbach invited me to talk to his
Using Technology to Teach Writing in Middle School and High School class. I've gotten here a few minutes early, so a student is doing a presentation on wikis. I'm multitasking—looking at the sites being presented and cramming for my own presentation. Stupidly, I dropped my stuff as I walked in the door. That means I'm over here at a computer, and it's all over there by the door. I miss my water bottle.
Oops. Time for my presentation. More later... Must get on with the ReadWriteThink show.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Friday, November 04, 2005
"
A language that no one actually 'speaks'" from the
Pocono Record Online offers a mainstream explanation of 133t5p33k. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that replacing my E's with 3's is going to result in "being cool and keeping ... parents (or anybody else looking over [my] shoulder) guessing."
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
The doctor's appointment was not my finest hour. I've been borderline upset ever since.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Tomorrow is the doctor's appointment :(
And I need to catch up on my writing
And I need to get my stuff together for Saturday
And I need to clean up the latest falling plaster
And I need to do a million other things
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
I blame
Dr. B:
 |
You scored as Nerd Cat. Holy crap, poindexter. Try buying some new specs instead of taping them together. Yeah, Bill Gates made a lot of money, but he's also the devil. You've got a long way to go.
Nerd Cat |
|
75% |
Couch Potato Cat |
|
25% |
Derranged Cat |
|
25% |
Pissed at the World Cat |
|
17% |
Drunk Cat |
|
0% |
Love Machine Cat |
|
0% |
Ninja Cat |
|
0% |
Which Absurd Cat are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
|
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
I decided to try
the 43 folders thing at work, because I'm a mess. I keep having deadlines explode in front of me. I'm still completely skeptical that it will help. I've always thought these systems looked like a lot of trouble and nonsense. I'm running out of options though, and everything is a disaster. Everything is thoroughly out of control. And this is one of the few things left to try. So I set one up at work and one at home. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, and I've already had shortcomings pointed out (how will you know when anything is due w/o going through 30 or 40 folders?) And the answer is that I don't know. I only know that I'm a disaster.
One of the millions of things that I'm behind on is writing up specs for our next Flash interactive, which will allow students to design book covers and dust jackets. I need to spend the rest of the night writing up just how that will happen. I need to send it before morning so I can at least say I accomplished something when I have my weekly update tomorrow.
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
The
Ideas section for this week's Inbox focuses on Native American Heritage, in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. The section links to the
related ReadWriteThink calendar entry, which includes several relevant lesson plans.
The first of the month also means it's time for a content report. Between last night and today, I edited and posted two more lessons.
Designing Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath: A Multigenre Project is a 9-12 lesson plan that asks students to create six artifacts in a variety of genres that demonstrate their understanding of a related research topic and its significance.
The second lesson,
Choosing One Word: Summarizing Shel Silverstein’s “Sick,” explores comprehension by asking K-2 students to pick one word that represents a reading. In this case it's the Silverstein poem, but the activity could be completed with any text.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
NCTE Inbox |
ReadWriteThink
Labels: Inbox
Posted Friday, 24-Aug-2007 17:08:39 PDT
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