In the News: Elmore Leonard: 10 ways to “remain invisible” in your writing

Elmore Leonard: 10 ways to “remain invisible” in your writing | 43 Folders—How depressing. We spend so much time working on voice with students, and here is a list of ways to squelch it. Valuable in ways, I’m sure. Actually, the target article explains, “These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story.”

Leonard’s goal is fine: to focus on showing rather than telling. What I find troubling is the language Leonard uses to describe this move—”remain invisible.” I don’t want writers to think that they disappear. I want them to own that voice of theirs. To be proud of it. To know what makes it strong and their own. Regardless of the tips, the name of the tactic is disappointing.

In the News: NPR : Commission Mulls Standardized Testing in Colleges

NPR : Commission Mulls Standardized Testing in Colleges—this was a nice story, but I was bothered by the arguments that the various people who were interviewed gave. The problem with standardized testing is that standardized testing doesn’t work. It’s not the range of kinds of programs and schools or the fact that there are not national standards. It’s that testing is NOT the most effective way to improve student learning. I wish that instead of the folks they talked to they had found someone in an education school who could speak to the real problems with this idea.

Daily Work: The Fun Part and Gender Issues in Computing

Story on Focus 580 this morning about Gender Issues in Computing, which also was generally about women and math/science. One day I really need to write down my math stories. It’s probably important to write them down, but I never seem to get to it.

Finished writing my draft for Inbox and actually used some articles that I had found to write a second issue to hold for an emergency. Continued work on the 1984 Macintosh commercial lesson plan.

The fun experiment of the evening was getting the latest version of Skype and having an online conversation with video with Subwolf. I need to get my family set up to do these things. It would be so much nicer than just telephoning.

Hmm, or was the fun part baking cookies as a Valentine’s present for the office? The cookies are definitely tastier.

In the News: Personal Safety for Bloggers

Blog Stalkers – Personal Safety for Bloggers: ProBlogger Blog Tips: Mostly obvious to me, but the list may come in handy later. We have a blog lesson plan coming along that may benefit from the link. If not, I’ll have it for later.

Daily Work: Burning Out (DVDs)

Continued work on the character letter to the editor lesson today. But more importantly, I copied an episode of South Park from the TiVo to my laptop. Got angry because I needed new software. Bought and downloaded software. And then the cool part—edited the show to remove the commercials and whatnot and burned it to a DVD that plays in the regular old DVD player. Very, very cool. It took a number of tries before I got the editing done properly, but the burn out to DVD was very simple. Now I have Lisa’s favorite episode ready to give her on Monday :)

Daily Work: Rethinking Problems

Lots of ongoing work on lesson plans and such today. I handed off the March calendar and our phase 2 entries for an editor to run through. Decided how to handle the 1984 Macintosh lesson plan, and continued work on my letter to the editor lesson plan. I have a book report alternative for the letter to the editor too.

A lot of the day seems to have been about rethinking problems that we have with some lessons that have kept us from finishing them or getting feedback to the author. Several lessons had minor issues that we just needed to figure out how to manage. The most complicated is the 1984 Macintosh lesson plan, which requires the 1984 Macintosh commercial as part of the lesson. Without it, there’s no lesson. We can’t find anyone at Apple who will respond to us. Well, I have one person who will respond to me from Apple, but he’s not really helpful in this situation. I’ve finally decided to be at peace with links to the commercial online at other folks’ sites. If Apple gets angry and makes them take their sites down, we’ll have to take the lesson plan down. We’re going to gamble for now. It’s a good enough idea that I hate to lose it.

Daily Work: (or Not Work Acutally) Sick Day

I missed the Staff Appreciation Luncheon today because I was in bed feeling pretty iffy about my life. Some days, I just can’t get out of bed. Most days, even if I do get out of bed, my entire day is spent hating myself and wanting to go back to sleep where I don’t have to think about it. Today, at least, I had a raging headache to blame, so I didn’t have to go out into the world where everyone would see me. Some days, sick days are the best choice.