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.

Miscellany

Cleaning out my Bloglines clippings folder (e.g., procrastinating):

• Mentioned on datacloud:
  It Figures
  This blog defines figures of speech with current events and pop culture examples. Not all will be usable in the classroom, but many could be tapped. The technique might make an interesting writing project for a cross-curricular project or for an exploration of pop culture texts.

• From Kairosnews:
  Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents provides suggestions for publishing blogs in less than supportive environments (like that in Pope John XIII Regional High School) as well as ideas for getting picked up by search engines, blogging anonymously, and keeping e-mail private.

• From The New York Times:
  • What’s Cool Online? Teenagers Render Verdict discusses a marketing focus group exploring the strategies that attract teens. One of the cited resouces is “The Coke Studios Web site was designed to appeal to teenagers as a place to meet online, hold chats and make their own music.”
  • Got Wit? Make It Visual in Ads Online reviews an interactive exhibit at the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library. The exhibit includes “some of the best ads ever made for television, radio, print and the Internet.” I’m guessing copyright will keep the collection from being shared online for those of us who can’t get to NY. The library has some info online. If you click through to the “Online Exhibit,” you’ll find some additional descriptions. The resources link there points to additional Web sites that may be useful for classroom studies of advertising and culture.
  • Forget Blogs, Print Needs Its Own IPod focuses on how “In an attempt to leave the forest of dead trees and reach the high plains of digital media, every paper in the country is struggling mightily to digitize its content with Web sites, blogs, video and podcasts.” I’ll readily admit that I don’t read a print newspaper. When I was in Texas, I got most of my news from CNN’s Headline News, before the show turned into a circus. When I moved to Illinois, I switched to listening to NPR every morning as I get ready for work, and frequently every evening. Now that I’ve been using Bloglines for a while, I’ve returned to scanning the headlines of “print” news”papers” via their RSS feeds. Might be interesting to have an assignment where students look at how they get their news and compare that to how an older family member remembers getting news at the same age and/or now.
  • Getting Your Point Across describes a forbes.com Special Report: Communicating. The NYT article explains that the “package on communication is a tour de force, taking on its subject from oblique angles using counterintuitive approaches.” Could be interesting jumping-off points for student inquiry projects (as well as connections to our own practices in the classroom).