Treasure Chest of Thoughts

This past week, I took a trip to Y City using a favorite vehicle of mine:  a novel.  Y City, written by Arkansas author Wade Rivers, recounts the tragedy that has befallen this “removed” town in western Arkansas.

A good read, this one held me captive, as I raced to discover the outcome of Harley, a 23-year-old kid, for whom I felt mixed emotions: anger, sorrow, concern, appreciation…appreciation for the fact that despite all things negative, he remained honest.

Interested in reviews of this novel?

1. Mrs. Gillmore’s Book Reviews:  my review
2. The Natural State Hawg:  written by another supporter of those from Arkansas.

After purchasing the novel, I asked my husband if he recognized the road pictured on the cover of the novel (see above)…I think I just might, or one very similar, somewhere in Arkansas.

Now, I sit waiting…on novel number two.

On November 5-6, I attended the Arkansas Curriculum Conference because of an educator who believes in empowering her students, in giving back, in leaving a legacy.  Dr. Julie Grady, my former professor at Arkansas State University, contacted me last spring and invited me to co-present with her at this conference.  Must say…I was very pleased, very honored.

Now I want to empower the teachers I work with in such a manner.

For Lyon College, I teach Secondary English Methods.  What a great opportunity to network, what a grand opportunity for resume enhancement!  My syllabus for this class is going through a metamorphosis…right now!

Then I think about my peers who are excellent teachers but who might not ever take that next step in developing their professional accomplishments.  This would be a “good thing” for them also.

I was very pleased when my niece who is attending ASU also sat in on the session that Dr. Grady and I presented…yes, my niece, the one majoring in English Education!  For Katie, this would also be an excellent opportunity to begin building her presentation skills on such a professional level.

Oh, the power of enpowerment!

To honor National Novel Writing Month, as you know, I entered NaNoWriMo’s contest.  While I have actually written much this week, I have yet to get to know my new friend, my character Cybil more, but she is waiting, a tad impatiently, but she is waiting.

Always looking for an opportunity for my students to write for the “real world,” I was excited to find this contest for a young adult novel, hosted by Gotham Writers’ Workshop.  What makes this an attainable goal for my students are the two guidelines:  a title and 250 words.

I wish you could have been in my class yesterday when I introduced this topic to my class…Kaitlin’s fingers immediately went to work.  Almost as if she needed me to say…”write a young adult novel.”  At one point, I asked…just to clarify…and, yes, through her fingers came the tapping of a novel, a well into which I just happened to “tap.”

Another student expressed her unhappiness with the guidelines.  “Only 250 words?”  I simply encouraged her to continue to write, for I am sure when she wins this contest that the literary agent will want to see more than that mere 250 words.  Right?

The moral of this blog post is this:  you never know when that one creative assignment is the inspiration for great rewards. 

Who knows…the next Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult, Stephanie Meyers, P.C. Cast…that author just might be sitting in my room.

Listen…can you hear the tapping of creativity?

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Interested in another teacher’s experience with this project?  Please check out this article  ”A School-for-Scribes Program Turns Kids into Novelists” in Edutopia spotlighting teacher Carol Pogash and her students.

I signed up for another challenge.  Completed the RIP Challenge…so why not?

Okay, I just have to say this, I do not see any way that I can complete this one, but to just start this one is a success for me.

I had seen the word NaNo WriMo…(honestly, my initial thoughts were Mork and Mindy.  You remember, right?  NaNo, NaNo.)  Dana Huff, English teacher and author of A Question of Honor, blogged about this challenge and her plans to participate and I thought, “Why not?” 

I made this decision yesterday…with a blank slate.  Dana Huff encouraged me further when I read her comments on Twitter:  “I have a vague idea of the plot, but not sure. I do have the setting and a couple of characters.”

From that comment, I explored the NaNoWriMo site, hoping for an escape clause on the word novel…you know a work of fiction, for within me lies the story of the miracle of my daughter. I already know the title:  Spring Through a Window, a metaphor for the faith I always had for my daughter’s journey through three surgeries on her heart and the effects of this journey on so many people.

But no escape clause could be found, just the wording ”The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30,” so I waited until today to begin.  I have no title, no plot, no minor characters, but I do have a main character, and I like her.  She may be an extension of two characters I have created for my English classes, maybe a combo of Hollywood and my duck Olivia Noel.

Please meet Cybil…all 192 words of her…

Once upon a time…oh, to begin this tale in such a manner, but I cannot.  You see, this is the real-life story of Cybil.  I know, who names her child Cybil?  Well, obviously my mother did, for she was once a huge fan of Moonlighting.  See?  I said once.  Networks do not even re-run this weekly favorite of many, or, at least, a favorite of my mother’s.  I have seen this Cybil-lady, though, in some movies.  All-in-all, not too bad of a name.

Let’s see.  I digress.  Back to my tale.

Where does one begin to tell the journey that I began somewhere in elementary school, one where I went from a cute little red-headed baby to the Plain-Jane of Plain-Jane’s.  You know who I am talking about, that girl you look at and feel sorry for her because, even though she is “one of the nicest girls you will ever get to know,” she is just average.

This day-to-day journey continued throughout elementary and into junior high.  At this point, though,  I discovered the power of plainness.  Invisibility.  I could disappear and not be missed.  For I was just plain Cybil…who moonlighted.

Where does Cybil go from here?  Not sure…but maybe, just maybe there will be a Bruce Willis (of sorts) in her future?

According to Better World Books, November is National Family Literacy Month.

And I have an idea.

We require six reads per student per nine weeks.  Due to such busy schedules, timing of this nine weeks around three holidays (if you count pre-Christmas activities), and because I want to encourage this month’s theme, well, I have idea.

In place of one their reads, their parent/guardian may read a novel during the month of November.  Or should I say the parent/guardian may read a novel FOR the student? 

To receive credit for this read, the student and parent/guardian must discuss this selection, and then the student  must blog about this experience.

Surely, this is a win-win situation.  Yes?

Throughout the months of September-October, I participated in Stainless Steel’s RIP Challange and posted here the four novels I had planned to read.  Those listed below are the ones I actually read, though:  

1. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2. Hunted by P.C. and Kristen Cast
3. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

You may check out my reviews of these novels posted at Mrs. G’s Book Reviews…please read!

Upon checking my Twitter account after a few days’ absence, I discovered that I was “spamming” other Twitter follows.  Yuck!  My dislike for Spam was instantly reiterated!

What is Spam?  According to the first source when I conducted a search (Yes!  Wikipedia!):  Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.

As I skimmed this article, though, I developed three conclusions:

1. Instead of spammed, I might have actually spimmed (each media has its own term…email = spam; instant messaging = spim, and so on).
2. These spammers just want to make a living…they are simply advertising.  For the most part.  At my expense.
3. Spam has a tinge of evilness to it! I felt a sense of violation.  No one asked my permission!

The best advice I received, though, came from my Twitter PLN, one of several that I spammed/spimmed:

 2020Nexus  @tgillmoreFYI Spam DM’s coming from your account. You may want to change your password.
8:09 AM Oct 29th from web  

 You may want to change your password.  Oh, this is why our school technology department requires that we change our email passwords every few months!  This is also why I will be more conscientious about changing other passwords.

Sitting here, reflecting, it just dawned on me (actually, quite literally, as I have also watched the sun rise on this beautiful morning) that you have not met the duck characters that my students created in our Ducks Galore project that I referred to in an earlier post!

Please check out this voice thread (by clicking on the picture) on which the students recorded an introduction to their duck for their peers:

This is our first project…and a collaborative one, at that!…using this tool. I soon discovered that students who would gladly talk all class period were suddenly shy, nervous, even insecure when it came to recording their introductions (and most of them recorded in private!).

The students learned/utilized several important skills here, though.

1. Sometimes the audience is not just the teacher…probably the toughest audience one ever has is peers.  Right?
2. They each requested access to our class wiki Cafe Pre-AP where this Voice Thread is housed.
3. They learned how to create avatars and to leave comments on a Voice Thread.
4. Using tone, they presented their introductions in a varied way from just writing it down on paper or even just turning to their neighbor and verbalizing their tone of voice.

All-in-all, this was a good project!  Now to develop another voice thread project where they are the writer, producer, director…lots of tremendous skills in that one!

Like this project?  Here’s the link!

Success is so sweet!  Absolutely awesome!

My attempt to Skype was a success…thanks to student tech person Casey.  Wow, he is so gifted.  Just want to state it here that I knew him when…! Casey is one of those students that I cannot say that I teach much in the area of technology…just maybe I am helping keep the doors to opportunity open for him,though.  Just maybe.

Thanks to Casey, Murphy’s Law finally took a hike out the door!  My journalism students skyped with Sgt. Frank Vaughn “live!” from Iraq.  Today was definitely a memorable one.  Talk about a natural high. Embedded within the many emotions…awe, wonder, excitement…though, was a sense of humility, humbleness…as they chatted with someone really in Iraq, someone serving our country.  Someone giving of his time with his family (throughout the conversation were continual stories about his wife and very young son). 

Today was a success.  Today was a lasting memory.  Hopefully, the beginning.  The beginning of my students striving to be more, to be better.  Maybe just knowing it is okay to be humbled.

What did I learn today about using Skype?

1. Have every student’s Skype account created ahead of time!  Considering that Mr. Frank and I set this visit up early this morning (and I do mean early…@4 AM!)  and that I had not seen this students in two days, we did okay!
2. Know what your computer can do!  I assumed my teacher PC would have a microphone; it probably does but come crunch time, neither Casey nor I could find it, so we had video but no sound.  Plan B…switch computers while the students continued to connect to the chat option  with Mr. Frank.
3. Thanks to Casey, he was able to switch the hook-ups  (from my teacher PC  to my mini computer)  so that we could view the live feed through the LCD.  Crazy!  But Casey was calm as the proverbial cucumber!   This allowed everyone to talk with Mr. Frank on the big screen versus the mini computer’s screen.

Student reporters talking with a real reporter…a real reporter in Iraq.   Quality conversation that resulted in Mr. Frank’s agreeing to visit the class upon his return…with the possible delivery of Sonic food (Mr. Frank’s most-missed food).

The positive promotion of reading (the good with the “bad”…to know what not to write) and the added encouragement to continue practicing their writing skills, these were just two more of the positive outcomes of this online visit.

Where do we go from here?  I want these student reporters to conduct interviews via Skype for assigned stories for the next student paper.  I want to record these interviews with our Flip Camcorders to have interview excerpts to post on our online student newspaper.

Of course, I am also brainstorming ways to use Skype within my English classes on upcoming projects…yes, this definitely has me thinking!

Today, hopefully, my journalism/newspaper students will meet Soldier/Sgt. Frank Vaughn, who is stationed in Iraq, via Skype.

I set up my Skype account, made contact with him via Facebook, chatted with him on Skype while I “played” with this tool, and he graciously agreed to meet with us “tonight,”  for, of course, our days and nights do not quite coincide!

How much more real will this very real-life situation become for my students as they literally meet this soldier face-to-face? 

Part of his assignment while there has been with the journalism section (I need to clarify that terminology with him…good question to ask later today!).  He has posted links to his stories on Facebook…Frank Vaughn.  Since Facebook is blocked at our school, he volunteered to email us links to his stories.  Love those resources!

The underlying beauty to this one-on-one lesson is that, thanks to Web 2.0, the world ever becomes a smaller place.  When I began teaching 19 years ago, what these students are going to experience today, while it may have been conceivable was certainly not doable.

Thanks, Mr. Frank, for serving our country and for helping educate our youth.