changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Friday, November 09, 2007
Fiddling around with paper titles for the
English Journal call. Wondering about "Plagiarism or Censorship? The Battles over Using Wikipedia in the Classroom." Not really sure I like it, but oh well. I've written 11 words.
Published a lesson plan revision, a new 6-8 lesson on using books and their movie adaptations:
Cover to Cover: Comparing Books to Movies.
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Proposals
Thursday, November 08, 2007
I'd like to get something written for the
English Journal due next week on
doing the right thing, but I'm having trouble getting started. The call talks about academic honesty, plagiarism, and cheating. I'm thinking about perhaps doing something with how online sources complicate things, especially when teachers aren't even allowed to take kids to online sites. It can fit the topic. I just haven't managed to get going on it.
Instead I'm off to happy procrastination land, looking at a CFP that has a proposal due January 1. Why work on something due in a week when you can worry about things due in six weeks? On a whim, I checked the
Computers and Composition calls a few weeks ago and began thinking about this one:
A Thousand Pictures: Interfaces and Composition.
Here's the question: Would it fit to talk about how computer interfaces are represented in children's literature? I'm not quite sure where I want to go with the idea, and I'd need to do some reading on interface design to write anything. But I'm thinking of some books that attempt to fake what IM screens and emails look like as well as picture books that show computers with their interfaces on the screen.
I'm just not certain if that's a good topic, or it's ridiculously simplistic and laughable. And there's the bigger challenge that I'd need to do a lot of reading on interface theory-wise. I'm not even sure what to read. It's hard to read on a topic when you have no idea where to start—and even harder still when you're not sure if it's a topic that would fit the call. Maybe I should go back to the
EJ call.
Labels: My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Lesson Revisions
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Finished my work on the markup and tidying of our revision of the 3-5 lesson
Get the Reel Scoop: Comparing Books to Movies today. The whole process took close to 7 hours. I hope the next one goes a bit faster. Only 8 to 13 more revisions to go. Now to begin work on the 6-8 revision of the lesson.
Labels: journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Figuring out the Inbox blog entry
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Figuring out the Inbox blog entry
So today I flailed about trying to figure out what to write for the blog entry. It needed to tie to 21st-century literacies, but I was feeling really lost on what to say. Going through the copyeditor's comments seemed a lot easier than trying to come up with something new to say. As I was sitting there trying to figure out what to do, I thought, "I wish this were as easy as writing teaching stories for the manuscript. That's what I do best. Oh, wait, why can't it be that easy? Just write a story on one of the 21-century literacy issues." Thank goodness the voices in my head talk about these things a lot. Otherwise I'd still be trying to figure out today's entry, which ended up being
I Was a Mac. They Were PCs. :)
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Back to the Copyeditor
Monday, November 05, 2007
Got a handful of things done today: Inbox Ideas done, Inbox Announcements done, Work on Feb 08 calendar done, South Park character made (don't I look cool?), Hallmark ornaments mom needed purchased, trip to the bookstore completed.
But the important thing was finishing the notes on the manuscript and leaving it on the copy editor's desk before I left the office this evening. One more step completed. :) Supposed to have page proofs back after Thanksgiving. This part seems to be flying compared to actually writing the draft.
Still things to do, like get an author photo, do all the related lesson plans, get the companion website set up. Looks like it's going to be a busy time for a while. And that's without thinking about the ReadWriteThink and Inbox work I need to do.
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Sam's
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Took a trip to Sam's this afternoon. I hate going to Sam's. It's such a struggle not to come home with super-sized packages of things that I don't have any place to store and get deathly tired of before they run out (or they spoil).
I managed reasonably well against the challenge. Got bags of candy for the office, which was the goal, peanut butter for the squirrels, and only 3 food items for me. I've decided to try the all protein diet, no carbs again. I simply have to do something before the season of eating descends and things get even worse. So I got prosciutto (which turned out to be very, um, questionable when I tried it tonight), smoked pork chops (mmm), and some sausage.
Unfortunately this evening the Carbonara that I tried to make with the proscuitto (diet starts tomorrow) is really sitting poorly. It's burning. I added some Emeril Parmesan Italian thing from the frig and the garlic and spices set the acid reflux aflame. I've gulped down extra Prilosec and a double dose of Pepcid AC. I ate some chicken soup, bread, and milk. They settled things down for a few minutes, but it catches fire again not long after.
Heaven help me if this is like that sickness after the Gaming Forum at Purdue last month. I can't afford to be down tomorrow. I have to finish editing the book and write all the text for the Ideas, Announcements, and Blog for INBOX. Besides the Honey Nut Cheerios and chicken soup diet I end up on when acid reflux is bad is wholly incompatible with the all protein, no carbs diet. Hoping for an overnight miracle.
Labels: journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Christmas Ornaments.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Took my trip to the Hallmark Holiday Open House this morning, and got 4 additional ornaments:
Plus I had a gift certificate that if I spent enough (which I did) I got a free gift bag of goodies:
Left to right, that's a penguin treat bowl with a little ladle. I'm thinking I'll fill it with M&M's and put it on my desk at work. There's a 2007 porcelain bell (not sure what I'll do with that), a snowman snowflake ornament (very cute), and a reindeer ornament. Yes, I know it's too early for Christmas, but these are all limited edition things. Gotta go when they come out or you can't get them.
Beyond that I ran some very mundane errands—socks, toothpaste, and shampoo & conditioner. Got a really interesting blogging book at Borders too, but I'll leave that review for later when I've read a bit more of it.
Labels: Christmas, journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Copyediting Day
Friday, November 02, 2007
Today has been completely about going through the copyeditor's markup of my manuscript. I managed to read through the manuscript twice, adding and deleting and responding to the different notes that the copyeditor made. It wasn't too bad. She cut and rearranged some things for clarity, but she also made some mistakes (e.g., changing a "further" to "farther" incorrectly).
What's left is checking two details on writing assignments described as examples and going through the bibliography. I used a lot of Web sites, and the copyeditor didn't understand how I got some of the information. I do have a bibliographic query I need to get advice on as well. Will post to techrhet tomorrow to figure out that issue.
It all felt "real" today. I'm not sure that I will believe I have written a book till I have it in my hands. Still, I have an NCTE stock number (10850) and everything. I even have the books team getting a testimonial for the back of the book for me. Only problem now is that I really yearn to be at CCCC for when it comes out. Vain I guess to want to be there, but I wish I could get there. Oh well. Need to get back to figuring out tomorrow's Hallmark trip (November ornament open house).
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Halloween 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
I'm not sure that I should put this online, but I'm trying to be brave. Here's the Marketing/Professional Development Ensemble costume. We won the office competition :)
Duck has been a running gag for years now. Halloween 2004 the Professional Development team actually dressed up as
Duck's presidential campaign team (I was having severe back problems and had to be wheeled in on a cart). I had
secret service and a protester in the crowd. I had spent that fall campaigning for duck on our office window, posting
Duck's cabinet choices and other entertaining political messages (
Duck's stale campaign blog). It's about time for Duck to get on with his '08 campaign.
Labels: duck, Halloween, journal
Posted Friday, 09-Nov-2007 21:51:55 PST
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