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

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.

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.

“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.”

The doctor’s appointment was not my finest hour. I’ve been borderline upset ever since.

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

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

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.

While I was looking for resources for a lesson on the Grapes of Wrath, I found a National Archive lesson plan that’s interesting in this time of War on Terrorism. Teaching With Documents: FDR’s First Inaugural Address Declaring “War” on the Great Depression. Ties directly to the details from Bob Probst’s talk at IATE as well.

Today, BBC News reports Today’s teenagers ‘more literate’. The article explains that “Teenagers are more literate than they were 10 years ago, one of the largest studies of exam papers suggests.” The problem, of course, is that assessment of literacy in the study is based on those exam papers. The variety of literacies that teen (or any) readers and writers rely on every day cannot all be measured by a written standardized test. Students are very literate. We just don’t ever measure all they know.