pedablogical

This has been one full day. A conference call. Lunch meeting. Team meeting on some lessons and odds and ends. Work on the PowerPoint for the ReadWriteThink Advisory Board meeting. Finished the rough specs on the Book Cover interactive and sent them off to the developer.

Course all that is nothing compared to the fun I just had. Microsoft released some patches, which I diligently installed and which just as diligently shut down the SQL server. The site is down, and nothing I can come up with is fixing it. This is not really the way that I like to end an evening, and it means tomorrow is going to be stressful till the problem is resolved. Thank goodness the MCI folks can help with this sort of stuff because I’m lost on what’s wrong. I may as well get some sleep now. It’s going to be an early morning.

the naive believe
soft buds bloom early for spring
later comes the truth

quietly they hope
pink petals struggling upward
soon all is changed

innocence lost
wilted blooms shrivel then drop
their dreams left dead

I finished editing and posted the 19th and 20th lessons for this FY this afternoon. The two lessons are written by Susanne Rubenstein, based on info in her NCTE book, Raymond Carver in the Classroom. The lessons can be done separately, or one can follow the other. Put That on the List: Collaboratively Writing a Catalog Poem uses the Raymond Carver poem “Fear” and focuses on emotion as the theme for the poems. Put That on the List: Independently Writing a Catalog Poem uses the Carver poem “The Car” as inspiration for students to write their own poems on a significant object or possession.

Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plans |
NCTE Inbox |
ReadWriteThink

This picture sort of freaks me out because I’m reading Coraline and it’s a little too much like the other mother. If the eyes were black, I’d have to go hide.

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.