tengrrl’s thoughts & news on teaching writing, literacy, and literature
February 18, 2006
Conversational Terrorism: How NOT to Talk!—A nice collection of argumentative fallacies, set up as they are used in meetings and whatnot. Should be approachable and applies to more than just oral conversations. I just wish the folks on BlogShares actually left such things out of their disagreements.
February 17, 2006
My first day off of a four-day weekend. We need more Monday holidays. Even though I took vacation today, I ended up doing a bit of work. It’s impossible not to really. Makes more sense to answer some e-mails then to let them wait. Reviewed a lesson plan that needs to be polished up a bit for a forthcoming MarcoGram (the free, themed, monthly newsletter that MarcoPolo sends out). I’ll need to get that work done by the 22nd, which is their deadline for the issue. It’s not too difficult, but an extra thing that I didn’t plan to do. I’m going to work in one of my children and technology books, so at least it should be interesting to do.
To everyone’s surprise, I showered, dressed, and left the house on a day off. I went to Target for some things that I needed now that I’ve switched out the old microwave. I still don’t know how I’m going to get the old microwave out of the kitchen. It’s so heavy :( There was also grocery shopping, and I needed to pick up prescriptions.
In my wandering around in Target, I found the new Carl Hiaasen book Flush in hardcover for 30% off—$13! I snapped it up, but haven’t started reading it yet. I haven’t been able to finish the book that I have been reading for weeks now, Donorboy by Brendan Halpin. Not for the normal reasons that someone doesn’t want to finish a book. It’s that I don’t want it to end, so I’ve been throwing a sort of temper tantrum for weeks by not reading the last few pages. I don’t want the characters to go away. It’s the first young adult book with technology integrated that actually felt authentic. The text actually sounds like a journal written by a depressed, angst-ridden girl—full of run-ons and misstarted sentences and abbreviations that flow through the text rather than stand out like someone trying to be cool. I have really enjoyed it, and I just don’t want the characters to go away. I guess I have to finish it eventually, but I can put it off for a few more days.
February 16, 2006
This morning there was no evidence of the crime scene from yesterday. In truth, the yard looked very plain and empty with the tarps and tents and cars and flashing lights all gone. Looked like any other house.
I don’t ever watch the news on TV, unless you count The Daily Show or The Colbert Report; so I didn’t know anything more. I found out that the situation was the lead story on local news:
First Murder of the Year in Champaign
Champaign police say 66-year-old Emmanuel Boyd was murdered. Police were called to his home on the 1200 block of Clock St. yesterday morning to check on him. Boyd`s neighbors said they hadn`t seen him in several days. A preliminary autopsy showed Boyd died from traumatic injuries. If you have any information on the crime call Champaign police.from http://www.wcia.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=4034
And I was there for all that yesterday.
In much less exciting news, I worked on the ReadWriteThink calendar. We have 9 new Phase 3 entries to work on, and it’s time to begin work on the revisions for May. We reviewed two lessons that have been submitted. Both looked great. Also installed the security patches on the server.
And after all that fun, I went to Home Depot and got a new pink toilet seat because the hinge on mine completely broke this morning. Picked up some little shelves for by the new microwave and a couple of other things. Still errands to run tomorrow; but I have taken the day off just to deal with such things. Now I just have to manage to get up and get dressed. There is a great chance that I will be in my nightclothes till Tuesday morning when I have to go back to work.
February 15, 2006
Today is my younger brother Noel’s birthday. I am celebrating by eating cookies without him, given that he’s 11 hours away.
I was in on a brainstorming meeting this morning for ways to use podcasting on the NCTE Web site. They are getting a tool that lets them do phone-in recordings. Stuff that I’ve already played around with quite a bit to be honest. Not sure when this will unveil or how it will show up on the site, but they are working on it.
I broke the acid reflux rules and had quesadillas for lunch. They turned out to be not spicy at all, and I have so far survived even the tomato that was involved in the garnish. Perhaps one day I will even be able to eat lasagna again.
This afternoon, I finished editing the Decoding the Dystopian Characteristics of Macintosh’s “1984” Commercial lesson plan, and I zipped through the editing feedback on some calendar entries. We have 5 new entries spread through the calendar:
A few more coming by the end of the month. I even got a few broken links taken care of before I had to turn in the content report. We’re at 37 lessons for FY2006. We have to get to 60.
I am sponsoring a Blogshares raffle for the Albert Einstein action figure. It simply had to be done. The excitement of that action figure needs to be spread through the cosmos!
The strangest event of the day was apparently my near miss on what is apparently a murder scene. I was late to work, and after I cleared the best intersection for such things, I saw the train crossing the tracks down the road. I decided to drive down to the next traffic light and turn there to take an indirect path back to the interstate. Two blocks down the road, I looked down the cross street and saw that the train was already finished. It must have been the world’s shortest train. So I turned and went through a neighborhood that is considered shady, but hey, I was on a direct trip and I knew what I was doing. There was this one car that came barreling down one road toward me, but I was stopped at the stop sign, and didn’t worry about anything. (There’s no evidence that it WAS anything). I went to work and didn’t think anything of any of this, but told Sharon and Lisa about my short trip through the bad neighborhood. They laughed at me and told me I shouldn’t have been there. On to other things. A few hours later, we went out to get lunch and drive by the same neighborhood. The police have a half a block yellow-taped. Lights and a crime scene unit, and a lot of scurrying about going on. When we drove back by after picking up the lunch, the police were tarping off the front porch and areas of the house. Something very, very bad happened. When my boss left work around 5, all the cars and such were still there. When I left work at 6:45, they were still there. We still don’t know what happened. I didn’t hear anything on the local news. But the thing is I was RIGHT THERE about two hours before all this started. And that odd, speeding car? It looked like two young girls. They waved to two guys crossing the train tracks when we went across. I think they were just driving too fast. They didn’t do anything crazy to get out on to the main road. But still… I’m rethinking everything now. I hope it was just a drug bust. It’s going to be far too spooky if it’s a murder.
February 14, 2006
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.
February 14, 2006
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.
February 13, 2006
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.
February 13, 2006
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.
February 11, 2006
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 :)
February 9, 2006
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.