Spell With Flickr

Spell with Flickr.

Finished!

Remember that novel I started when school was out?

I'm finished!

Now I mean finished in the sense that I have a complete first draft of a first novel that I will probably spend many more months fiddling with and have no real hopes of publishing. But...
...I'm finished!

It'll be nice to crow about it at my 40th birthday party later this month. I can check "Wrote a novel" off the list. Kinda cool.



(photo by SeraphimC)

What are YOU doing over summer break?

Bet you can't guess what I'm up to.

Teacherninja Is One

Happy birthday to the blog!


One year, just over 300 posts and many interesting experiences. I just looked back at my first post and it wasn't too embarrassing. Notice the hilarious lack of linking, though. It's ok, I learned fast and am still learning every day. It only took a few days to get my first comment from a stranger. That was cool. The commenting didn't start in full until this post about the First Day of School, which I still like.


Here's my first comment from an author. Here's another one. I love authors. They're so cool. I've also met Mo Willems, Christopher Moore, and Jerry Spinelli this year.

Coming full circle, my wife bought me a new Circa notebook for my upcoming graduate coursework. (Because she's so awesome and thoughtful I can't stand it). She got me the letter-sized starter kit. I already have the punch, so went out and got some heavier weight printer paper, punched it and I'm in business. I'll use the Junior for my everyday life and the letter-size for my classes and later, my media center work. Kinda like this Assistant Principal I linked to earlier. I won't go on about my GTD system again here, but it has really worked for me and I'll continue to blog about it and other tips for teachers.

Obviously, I blog about more than just GTD and productivity for teachers. I've expanded my focus to blog about my reading, teaching reading, science and reason, and critical thinking in general. Reading and critical thinking are, to me, the core of what we do and my transition into a Media Specialist is just another logical outgrowth of that.

Thanks must go to all the amazing commenters and fellow bloggers. The blogroll is not just for looks, people! All of those people are awesome and my little half-acre of the web here wouldn't exist without them. Check them out. I'll still be here typing away about things I see as interesting, funny, or just plain cool in this crazy profession I've gotten myself into.

Thanks again and I hope you stick around for the ride!

Make Your Own News

Danny over at The Whiteboard Blog, linked to this fun newspaper-generating tool. Make your own authentic-looking newspaper clipping. Post it, print it, fool the students with it--many uses pop to mind. Let me know of any others you can imagine...

Jerry Spinelli Live

He's great. He told us that the suitcase full of books thing from Maniac Magee was based on a true event. When asked how often he writes he answered slyly: "Whenever my fourteen grandkids let me." The best thing he said, though was that he "doesn't play the reading level game." Many writers write books for a certain age level and his kind of go all over the place. "I don't write books for kids," he said, "I write books with kids in them." It's probably why his books are so popular with so many, adults included. He lets the story tell him how to write the book. His new one is called Smiles to Go and is apparently about a boy who is both a skater rat and a science geek. I, of course, had to have it. I'll post about it again after I read the thing. One woman asked about the "sense of unease" that seems to permeate his books and if that was purposeful. "That's life," he said with a smile.

Kathy from Library Stew was there. But she's one of those good kids who sit up front and get their book signed right away then bolt. I shouted at her as she ran by me (further back in the line, of course) but not hearing me, I didn't get to speak to her personally. She might have a better picture when she posts. Mine didn't turn out well.

I'm not surprised she didn't hear me. The new Little Shop of Stories has terrible acoustics and on top of that Rick Riordan of the Percy Jackson series was doing a raucous signing event on the level below us. It was hard to even hear Mr. Spinelli. Those folks need to stick to one event at a time!

Meet Jerry Spinelli

My favorite children's book store (the one where I saw Mo), Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA has just moved onto Decatur square. Check out their new spot with a teacher, media specialist, and librarian-only event this Wednesday, May 7th at 5:30pm. Jerry Spineli of Maniac Magee, Wringer, and Stargirl fame will be there to discuss his new book Smiles to Go and writing.

Can't wait to check out the new digs! And I like this idea of a grown-ups only author meeting. Usually I have to go to an expensive conference to get the same thing. See you there...

5 Ways To Become A Teacherninja

1. Read professional books, articles, newsletters.
It helps you stay current and motivated.

2. Read children's books.
No matter your grade level or the subject you teach, this will improve your teaching.

3. Read other educational blogs.
(You do have a feed reader, right?)

4. Read stuff just for fun.
Whatever you are into. How can we get them reading more if we don't? They need to see us reading and we need to talk about our own reading.

5. Write your own blog or article or newsletter or book or wiki.
Share what you know. (If you have any great teaching tips you want to share, I'd be happy to set you up to guest post on Teacherninjas.)

(links are to the good people at Common Craft. Videos may not work at school due to filtering.)

Oh, Snap!

Mary Lee (ninja!) had a great rant on acrostic poetry today.

"One of my pet peeves: people who write a word or name vertically, write the first word that comes to mind that starts with each letter of the vertical word, AND THEN CALL IT A POEM!! (Even pricklier pet peeve: teachers who TEACH that such a form is a poem!!)"

Yes!

But then she goes on to actually teach a good way to do this with a focus on revision. What a great way to make the idea of revision stick and be truly meaningful to the students.

I'm stealing it!

What's Working?

We're on Spring Break and whether you're on yours, it just ended, or it's coming up this is a good time to reflect on the year so far. What's been working? What triumphs, no matter how small, have you had this year with your students/classes? I took some of my students on their first trip to the brand new local library. I got my fourth graders, who had been complaining that reading is boring, begging me to keep reading an exciting series I got them hooked on (I'll blog about it when we're finished).

I've gotten a bit more organized and had a lot less stuff fall through the cracks this year. For me, that's a big deal. Part of that was trying to keep my desk cleaned off and make more use of my inbox (and trying to keep that cleared out as well).

Now to try to keep the momentum going and end on a good note with my students. This is one of the hardest times of the year for me. We have two weeks of mind-numbing standardized testing: the anti-teaching. I get discouraged but it also tends to make me react by getting looser and more creative the last few weeks of school. This is usually the time I have the kids start working on poetry and going outside more. We do a lot of haiku and free verse and publish and share a collection these last couple weeks.

What about you?

A Writer's Notebook

So here I am on St. Patrick's Day and my writing group is meeting tonight. I don't have anything written, of course, because now that I've decided to take graduate classess to become a school librarian I had to spend all weekend cramming for the GRE this Friday. We also just had all the floors done. And my daughter and I have been sickly. In a word, I've been distracted. So trying to think of something, anything to write about for tonight, this book popped to mind. It's written for 4th grade and up but that doesn't mean you won't get anything out of it as an adult.

One of the main things David Allen mentions in Getting Things Done is capture. Write everything down so you don't forget it and write it in the same place so you don't lose what you wrote. His book has caught on with a lot of creative folks and you can see why. In A Writer's Notebook, Ralph Fletcher is promoting the same idea. Get a notebook and fill it with words, quotes, fragments, names, lists, whatever and you'll always have something to draw from in your writing.

So far so sensible, but he digs a little deeper. He interviews some writers and asks them about their notebooks which is quite revealing. He also quotes from his own notebooks and guides you toward certain fruitful types of notebook writing. Chapters like "Fierce Wonderings," "Writing Small," and "Seed Ideas" lead to some great exercises. The book is peppered with quotes from student notebooks as well.

I think a writer's notebook is just a place to be free and sketch some thoughts. I don't think it should be an end in itself. The point is to write, not fill up notebooks. There are people who have the most gorgeous and creative notebooks I've ever seen with writing and collage and art on every page. If that's your thing, then great. I like to think of a writer's notebook as a bit more utilitarian. More along the lines of a reporter's or even a cop's, but not just for the facts. The best way to have good ideas is to have a lot of ideas and a writer's notebook will lead you there.

Ralph Fletcher has also written How Writer's Work, Live Writing and Poetry Matters along the same lines. He's also written some great books for teachers of writing including the essetial What a Writer Needs and two books on Craft Lessons. Check them out and enjoy the process.

Author John Green Banned?

Award-winning young adult author and Nerdfighter John Green has a book being attacked by censors.

"Two teachers at Depew High School outside of Buffalo, New York would like to teach my novel Looking for Alaska to 11th graders. (ELEVENTH GRADERS!!!!) A letter was sent home to every parent explaining that the book contained controversial content. Parents could either give written permission for their kids to read "Alaska" or not reply, in which case the kids would read a different book.This seems to me an extremely well-reasoned and thorough way of approaching the complexities of 'edgy' (I hate that word) books in English classes. Even so, a few members of the community of Depew have objected to the book's presence in the curriculum on the grounds that Looking for Alaska is 'pornographic' and 'disgusting.' They feel that parents should not be allowed to choose for themselves whether the book is appropriate in a high school English classroom.There are many supporters of the book among teachers, administrators, librarians, and the school board in Depew. To help them, I'm asking people to email letters of support for the book..."

Here is my letter and his response:

As a teacher coming from the school in Georgia where we just got over a very public and vicious attempt to have the Harry Potter novels removed from the shelves by a dogmatic zealot, I know what Depew is going through. They even went the extra mile in giving parents a choice up front. I just want you to know that there are more people who agree with you than don't and you are doing the right thing. Those people put our Media Specialist through the meat grinder and she has come out with a stronger support system from parents and colleagues alike. She won the Teacher of the Year award, the Media Specialist of the Year Award (for the state) and, for her dedication in the fight against the book banners, the Intellectual Freedom Award.

How awesome is it that our profession has an Intellectual Freedom Award? The experience has spurred me on to become a school librarian myself.

Not only are you not alone, but you have the support of many.

Let us know if there's anything else we can do.

Thank You,

Jim Randolph

Dear Jim,

Thanks so much for taking the time to write, and for your spirited defense of the rights of teachers and parents. I've forwarded your comments on to the school board. Thanks again for your letter. I deeply appreciate it.

Best,
John

I'll let you know if there's any more news on this.

Published!

I have some book reviews published here.

I tried writing as much as I could this summer, just to see if I had any more than a blog in me. I wrote a short one act play, a short story, many fragments, the book reviews you see here, and a handful of DVD reviews.

I learned I like writing non-fiction more than fiction.

It's a start.