pedablogical

Daily Work: ReadWriteThink Lesson Plan and Calendar, NCTE Podcasting, and Police

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:

• May 2: Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 18: Raymond Carver
• May 23: Scott O’Dell
• May 31: Walt Whitman
• September 13: Roald Dahl

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.

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 :)