tengrrl’s thoughts & news on teaching writing, literacy, and literature
June 16, 2005
Edited and posted two 3–5 lesson plans: Opening the Door for Reading: Sharing Favorite Texts to Build Community and Once Upon a Time Rethought: Writing Fractured Fairy Tales.
Tags: English language arts | K12 instruction | lesson plan | ReadWriteThink
June 14, 2005
The ideas in this week’s NCTE Inbox focus on “Exploring Computer Literacy.”
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
NCTE Inbox |
technological literacy
June 12, 2005
Apparently my new hobby is to install a piece of software each weekend. Last weekend, Gallery; this weekend, WordPress. Folks in the blogshares online discussion were comparing MT and WordPress, and I was inspired to try WordPress.
It was another easy setup, once the fantastic and fabulous Eric Crump gave me a mysql login. He didn’t even make me explain why I’m fiddling with WordPress when he already has Drupal installed. (It’s cuz I wanted to play, Eric.)
Installation was only a few minutes, but making it do what I want is another issue. I managed to get it to list my bloglines subscriptions as a blogroll, and I added a customized calendar. And I’ve fiddled a great bit over the weekend with the layout. I’m trying to figure out whether I can get it to do what I’m already doing with flat pages AND whether it will go beyond what I’m already doing in ways that would make the trouble of converting everything worth the bother. I’m told that I can easily import the Blogger entries that I already have. The biggest concern is managing the Lists of Ten and other resources that are outside of blogger but that would benefit from the RSS feed.
You can peek at my current status, but realize it is a very rough work in progress. I’m not sure yet, but after two days of playing, I do feel like I accomplished something. Even if I decide not to use it, I’ve learned a good bit about PHP and RSS in the process. Not bad for a weekend procrastination project (e.g., a project that’s real purpose seems to be to provide an excuse not to work on those 125 pages I’m supposed to be writing).
Tags: WordPress
June 10, 2005
Yes, okay, so I am a slacker. I am trying to catch up. See, here’s the
problem. I truly believe in a process-based approach to writing, for
everyone except me. My writing is supposed to be complete and perfect
before anyone reads it. So, in tengrrl world, all the travelogues need to
be perfect and up to date before I share them.
Dr. Cheryl Ball, gizmologist from Utah State Universe, says the following
in response, reformatted as a list of ten:
Based on this interaction, I was compelled to publish my travelogue
from the first day of CIWIC today. It’s okay. They tell me that they can get the blood off the keyboard, and I’ll only need a small transfusion. As if the pain of backdating things isn’t enough. Damn that vole killer.
Tags: tengrrl’s travelblog
June 9, 2005
Today at CIWIC, I participated with Cheryl Ball and Barclay Barrios in a roundtable on the job search. As I am known to do, I panicked that I wouldn’t have anything to say, so I created a List of Ten Job Search Tips. It’s not your usual list, but it’s well illustrated. I need to integrate it with the larger lists page, but for now the PDF is available. Cheryl is planning to share it at C&W 2005 in Stanford, so my baby pictures will be widely published before the month is out.
Tags: job search | tengrrl’s lists of ten
June 7, 2005
Finally finished posting (e.g., gave up on) my Computers and Writing Online 2005 presentation, “From Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine to The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez.” It turns out that I made some major mistakes in preparing for the presentation—like not bringing any of the picture books with me. They are really important to establish some of the points, and I didn’t have them on hand as I was writing.
Another problem is that I just didn’t have time to do what I wanted to with social communication in these books. So many are now including e-mails, IMs, blogs. It’s a topic that I really want to explore in depth, but I ended up just giving up. There wasn’t time to go into the detail that I wanted to, so I decided it would wait for the future. I need to get the reviews on all of the books up to begin with I think. After that, I can go back and rewrite that section of the presentation. For now, this has to be good enough.
Tags: children’s literature |
computers in fiction |
juvenile fiction |
technological literacy |
technology
June 7, 2005
This week’s Ideas section from NCTE’s Inbox focuses on “Composing with Words and Images” and connects to a couple of news articles on electronic texts.
The section includes two ReadWriteThink, Diane George’s CCC article on visual communication, and Mary Hock’s CCC article on visual rhetoric in online environments.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
NCTE Inbox |
technological literacy
June 5, 2005
Read about ways to use podcasting in the classroom in “Pod People: Teachers find cool new uses for Apple’s ubiquitous music player” from Edutopia.
Tags: podcasting
June 4, 2005
A friend mentioned Gallery, a PHP-driven image album. Only took a few minutes to get it downloaded and installed. I’ve probably spent more time fiddling with settings and how I want my albums arranged.
I’m guessing it may come in handy for arranging and sharing images. In fact, I already sent my family the URL for the Daisi photos. Daisi gets around almost as much as Duck.
To be honest, the shared albums are a by-product. For me, the real benefit of this program is that I can find images more quickly. When I need a picture, it should be much easier to find this way—especially when compared to my old way of quitting pine, changing to the right directory, searching for what I think the file is named, testing it in the browser, and then repeating the search about 6 times before I find what I’m looking for. Online albums should be MUCH easier. And since you can hide albums and images, I can post various things that I use internally (e.g., wallpaper jpgs) so that they’re much easier for me to find later.
Overall, it seems like a very nice piece of Open Source software. I’m glad I happened upon it.
Tags: Gallery |
photo album
June 2, 2005
Truth Goggles.
CIWIC now distributes truth goggles to all participants. Cindy has arranged for a display in the lovely glass case in the West entry way to Walker Hall that explains all.
“Step into the hermeneutic circle, my friends,” says Cindy.
They step. Oh my, do they ever step. In their Keen footware, they step forward, resisting the evil font of Mister Frisky and Uncle Stinky.
Members of the secret circle, they create threads. Their sense of embodiment glows in tides of rhythmic light. The intentionality of their commentary—typo crossing emote to say what is not that is.
They chant…. chant….. chant…..
“I respect everyone in this room. There is no lockstep technology, no pass-the-buck pedagogy.”
Memories mixing with desire.
Will got fresh with Jane over strawberry cookies, and Catherine didn’t even mind. Cheryl still likes those terrorists though. The coast guard better leave them alone or she will stop up someone else’s drain. Cheryl is a clogger. Watch those feet move. If you do not, Chopping. Cannot. Stop. The. Chopping. There. Must. Be. Chopping.
The voice of morality enters, interrupting memory. “Remember,” it says, “recycle your aluminum.”
It’s like walking through Jell-O, hearing words, knowing they are words, but having no idea what is being said.
“Don’t worry,” says Cindy. “You will understand. Just listen now. Later. Understand.”
Tags: tengrrl’s travelblog