Idea generation methods

This Idea generation methods site mentioned on 43 Folders looks like a great potential resource for a prewriting lesson plan.

Audio Listening Practices: Exploring Personal Experiences with Audio Texts

Just finished writing and proofreading a new 9-12 lesson plan that asks students to explore the ways that audio texts play a role in their lives. Students keep a daily diary that records how and when they listen to audio texts, such as radio, streaming media, songs on MP3 players, and podcasts. Students then analyze the details and compare their results to published reports on American radio listeners. They conclude by reflecting on their findings and writing a final statement on their audio literacy practices and interests.

Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
ReadWriteThink

#506 – Guess the artefact

My actions and thought process are now the subject of a contest. Go ahead. Try to guess what I’ll choose :)

August 15 Content Report

We turn in content reports for ReadWriteThink on the 1st and the 15th of each month, so today I did the last-minute work to get the report turned in. The report lists the lesson plans that were published since the 1st of the month and the never-ending pile of broken links. In addition, I finished editing the September calendar, and we added two sites to the Web Resources Gallery:

Revising Himself : Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/whitman-home.html This Library of Congress exhibition traces this evolution of Leaves of Grass and Walt Whitman’s life, tapping a range of editions and drafts of the famous work. A wealth of interesting biographical material on Whitman, his friends and associates, his work as a teacher, tending the wounded during the Civil War, and for the federal government, also appears in the exhibit. Say it Plain: A Century of Great African American Speeches http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/index.html This rich site includes a audio files and texts of speeches by Booker T. Washington, Dick Gregory, and Stokeley Carmichael. The site includes the only known recordings of Marcus Garvey as well as Barbara Jordan’s defense of the US Constitution during the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon.

Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
ReadWriteThink

7 Days So Far…

So as of about 10:30 this morning, I have gone a week without my favorite beverage—diet brown soda. I think the headaches may be mostly over. I’m not having the constant horror that it was anyway.

I’m really tired of water though. I want something that tastes like something. I did get stuff to make decaf iced tea and some juice. The diet advice for acid reflux says no citris-based juices because they can increase the problem. So I went in for things like apple-cherry, grape, and strawberry-kiwi. Turns out juice wasn’t a good idea. It created a fire in my stomach. So I’ve poured all that down the drain. Then I did more research. Apparently white grape juice aids digestion. Okay, so it’s only been proven in babies and little kids, but I’m willing to give it a try. I used to be able to find white grape-peach and white grape-pear in Texas, but they didn’t have it in the grocery store that I usually go to. Maybe I’ll try another store—assuming I can drink it.

The iced tea seems okay, but I’m not sure. There were some rumblings, but I’m not sure if it was the tea or something else. I’m not really eating right. I’m sure of it. I’m so confused between what I want to eat and what I am supposed to eat. There’s all this info in my head about what’s “good” for me to eat, but it’s info about dieting to lose weight (which I also need to do as I am bigger than a mama panda). What might be okay to lose weight isn’t okay for acid reflux.

One of the benefits of all this is that I now realize that all the burping after I eat lettuce is part of this pattern. It’s another part of this complicated mess that is my life. Imagine being on a diet and not being able to have a salad. Go ahead. Think about that. Like what are the options for grabbing a quick lunch at a restaurant if you have to rule out salads. There’s not a drive-thru in the world that can help you.

I guess I should try to accomplish something today, not that I’m feeling inspired to write or clean or do the laundry. My, but I have a mixed up world.

Two new lessons posted

Edited and published two new ReadWriteThink lessons, both for 3-5 classes.

Graphing Plot and Character in a Novel is a departure from the typical plot diagram. Students diagram plot events on a spectrum from positive to negative (as they define it for the books they’re reading). The lesson uses the Graphic Map Interactive to publish the finished graphs.

Creating Family Timelines: Graphing Family Memories and Significant Events asks students to interview family members and then create a graphic timeline of significant family events. This lesson also uses the Graphic Map Interactive.

Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
ReadWriteThink

Web Increasingly Cluttered By Sites Full of Paid Links

I am dumbfounded by how this could be a new observation. Geesh.

Endless Burping Headaches

Last Monday (the 1st), I ended up leaving work early with this queasy stomach. I was coughing up bile and other not fun things. I didn’t think that it was the food. Other people ate the same stuff, and I was the only one with problems. I thought I was just panicked and nervous. Stress. Damn it all. Why are lesson plans so stressful? Okay, there were other things going on. Projects were due. It’s back to school time, so there’s always a rush to get extra info online. Besides that, every Monday is a deadline, since I have to write the Ideas for the Inbox that goes out on Tuesday.

Tuesday, I ate lunch leftovers from the day before—and I got sick again. It didn’t make any sense. And unfortunately, from that point on, I burped constantly, and had a horrible sick feeling in my stomach. By Friday morning, I thought I was losing my mind. How could I let stress make me sick for days? Beyond that, I had really worn out my welcome with my coworkers with the unstoppable burping and whatnot.

I figured there had to be something else going on, so feeling pretty desperate, I did some research. I couldn’t get a doctor’s appt till the
18th. Quickly, I think I figured out the problem: acid reflux. In fact, a whole series of symptoms for MONTHS suddenly made sense–burping, coughing, the way I have to clear my throat when I eat, everything. Even the fact that I haven’t been able to sleep through the night for months.
I wake up with this dry cough. I knew it wasn’t allergies or anything because it was not phlegmy and there were no sniffles. I thought the blood pressure meds were drying me out. Nope, it’s a symptom of acid reflux–when you’re lying down stuff flows backwards towards your lungs and you have to cough. I’m 99% sure this or some variation of it is my problem (e.g., ulcers, etc.).

So after work on Friday, I bought PepcidAC and changed all my food to the things that you’re supposed to eat when you have this problem. I
was having major burning bitter heartburn most of the weekend. I’ve been on a diet of dry cheerios and rice for the most part since Friday night.

The info said that I am to avoid caffeine and carbonated beverages. Part of the problem with acid reflux is that you’re swallowing too much air with your food, and carbonated drinks are pretty much bubbly liquids. I decided to ignore that part of the rules because I was already so miserable, and as anyone who knows me could tell you, I live on diet soda. Or I did.

Saturday, I was trying to eat cheerios w/o belching and drinking soda, and every time I took a drink, it was followed by pain and burping and etc. So I gave up soda at that point on Saturday. And that’s where my now 5-day-old headache is from.

I felt horrible last night—probably 75% the desire for soda and the horrible headache, and of course the burping and diet of cheerios. Somehow all this led to an insane, desperate desire for a foot rub. I think that
somehow I thought that would help me relax, and if I could just relax maybe my head would quit hurting. I just desperately wanted it to stop hurting. I was willing to do about anything. I swear I would have paid someone on the street for a foot rub.

Looking back with what I realize is only a day’s hindsight, what’s interesting to me is that while I was having these thoughts that I would do ANYTHING to stop the misery, it never once occurred to me to just go get a can of soda. I’m not sure what that means even. There was an obvious solution to fix it, and I never even thought about it.

As of now, I’m burping and headachy, but surviving. If I keep myself dosed on Tylenol, I can mostly survive the headaches at this point. I’m still very queasy and sick. When I eat the wrong thing or the wrong way, I pay the price. I drank some milk too fast at lunch, and almost threw up. Guess I have to stick mostly to cheerios, especially in public, and somehow survive 8 more days till the doctor’s appointment.

I sort of win

I entered the Blog$hares raffle, but wasn’t one of the three people drawn at random. I had been running text ads urging people not to enter so that I would have a better chance at winning. That strategy didn’t work. Darn people entered anyway. But as a result of my campaign, Hunter (one of the winners), who was retiring from the game anyway, gave his prize to me!

Here’s the message I got when I logged on this evening :)

Hunter giving his raffle win to you From: Island Dave To: tengrrl Date: 20:03 05 Aug 2005 Here’s what to do: 1) Artefact: You pick an industry currently lacking an artefact, and either write up an artefact for it or pick it from the suggestion list. If approved (and after editing), it will be created, and you’ll be given it free. There are a few IM reserved industries, so if you pick one of those, you’ll be asked to chose another. 2) One free month of premium can either be accepted or gifted. Just let me know which you want to do. 3) Text ads: Send me all the information for the ads you want (as many different ones as you chose) totalling 1 million impressions and I’ll put em up asap. 4) Chips are already on the way.

Tags: blogshares