Lorraine’s Blog

I attended my first ever writer’s marathon in NYC today. It was a new experience for me. For the first time in months, I actually spent time writing in a notebook, ha ha. Over the past year I’ve spent so much time blogging that I’d actually forgotten about what it’s like to go back to pen and paper. Do I miss it? Not entirely. But it was sort of nostalgic. Perhaps I should spend more time filling up the millions of notebooks and journals that I have. Each notebook is centered around a theme. My animal print journal records my thoughts on current events. My purple velvet notebook contains the beginning of a novel I’d like to write. I’ve got others focused on finances, religious studies, and family biographical info. Hey, I’d like my descendants to have an easy time learning about our family history. Why not make it easy for them?

So I finally have a plan. After pondering the difficulties accessing the computer labs at school, I have no choice but to go to plan B. All of my blogging lessons will be done in the classroom. Thanks to the wonderful libriarian at my school, I will be able to send down about 5 students at a time to type posts for their blogs.

The blogging lessons went pretty well. As it turns out, most students are familiar with blogs. They informed me of many blogging sites available; most of which I had never heard of. These kids continue to show me that they know much more than I’d imagined. They created posters with imaginary profiles, blogs, and blogging information that we posted around the classrooms and the bulletin board for all to see. I suspect that other teachers and students will be curious about what we are doing in our classes.

Although the process to get the blogging show on the road took longer than I thought, it is actually easier since kids are coming with prior knowledge.

As it stands, I don’t anticipate too many problems with blogging this year.  It is however taking longer than I anticipated. What will most likely work for me and my class are periodic visits to the library so that they will be able to write and post to their blogs. We will start with writing prompts generated by me and eventually the students. As you can see, my approach has always been guided to open.  My long term goals are for my students to use blogging in order to reflect on their research project. The ninth graders will be focusing on teen violence. I am not yet sure what my tenth graders will focus on. I usually base my projects on the literature presented in class. The issue for the tenth grade is that there are books in which they are required to read. The themes within the required reading aren’t obviously connected.  I can certainly find a way to connect them all, but it will require much thought that could lead to a project which is too technical. How could I connect Romeo & Juliet to The Pearl? How could I connect A Raisin in the Sun with of Mice and Men?

Perhaps I am being too rigid in my requirements. The students could probably do a research project not centered only on books we’ve read in class, but books they are reading on their own. I could possibly not focus the projects on books at all. The possibilities are endless.

I can’t believe I’m back at school already. There are so many things running through my mind right now. What will my year be like? What will my students be like? A coworker of mine gave me some wonderful advice, “This is like cold water. When you first get in, you can’t stand it. But after a while, it’s not so bad.” In other words, things will get better after a few days. That made me feel a whole lot better. I’ve had one too many dreams about what this year would be like (none of them good). Don’t get the wrong idea, I am sharing this in humor rather than fear. Every year, I get at least one questionable student (trying not to say a students who appears to be insane). What will I get this year? LOL. Well, one good thing is last year I had absolutely no fights in any of my classes. Let’s see if I make it this year. Please don’t knock on wood, ha ha.

I got the shock of my life three days ago. My brother told me that he occasionally writes poetry. Not only does he write it, but he appears to be much better at it than I am. What a shock. Throughout our lives, I have always been shall we say more literate than he. So how is it that he writes poetry much better than I can? Weird huh? Actually, he seems to be a lyricist rather than a poet. Either way, his writing is excellent. Perhaps he should consider trying to publish his work. They’d make beautiful song lyrics.

Introduction to blogs– (To The Students)

Although there are many wonderful things within our curriculum, blogging will add a rich and exciting new way for you to write. I feel this way because students, in my experience, are often turned off by traditional research papers. This fact becomes clear while listening to a number of teachers complain about student’s reluctance to complete their Network 8 projects. If I offer you a more exciting tool to use for research, I may very well get better results.

Questions you will be able to answer.

What is a blog?
Where and how can I create blogs?
What are the purposes of blogs?
What are the features of a blog?

Activities:

Brainstorm… What do you know about blogs? In groups of no more than 4, chart your reponses on chart paper After about 15 minutes, you will share your responses with other groups.

Those of you who blog are invited to discuss the content of your blog.
What motivates you to keep a blog?
How are they useful?

Generate a list that shows which blogging websites are the most popular. What makes them so popular?
How do you think blogging helps with communication?

If you don’t keep one yourself, do you regularly read the blogs of others? What attracts you to those blogs? How does the blogger make it interesting? What kinds of blogs do you like to read?

Once we answer the questions above, we will use the answers to create a rubric.

How can we connect the use of blogs to school?

We can use blogs for responding to reading done outside of school.
We can use blogs to keep in contact with classmates regarding classwork.
We can use blogs as an alternative to the traditional research paper.

What challenges could we face when attempting to use blogs? How can we overcome those challenges? The students could generate a list of possible challenges and solutions. Examples:

Many students do not have computers at home?
Many students work after school and may not have the time to maintain a blog?
Whole class blogs may be a problem because many student interests and abilities may not apply to specific topics.
As students, what are the best solutions?

How will we be required to use blogs?

Task: You will produce a blog about the topic a theme related to any of the books we’ve read in class. If you decide to use “The Shooter” or Monster by Walter Dean Myers, your blog will be about teen violence and anything associated with it. If you choose “The First Part Last” by Jaqueline Woodson, your blog will be about teen pregnancy and parenting. Your blog should contain anywhere between 5 and 10 entries. Your research can be based solely on what you find on the internet.

Your blog entries should be based on the following:

Defining the Problem

Choose which aspect of teen violence you are going to explore. Define the problem by telling us exactly what it is. Tell us what community you will be focusing on. This particular report will focus on various communities throughout the United States.

After stating your problem again, list your sources and tell us how they support your opinion that a problem (violence among teens) exists.

Identify the Causes

List the causes, as identified by your sources, which contribute to violence among teens.

Evaluate a Policy

Tell us what current policy attempts to solve the problem of teen violence. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the policy. In other words, is it cost effective, does the public embrace the policy, and is this policy adequately enforced? Should the policy be replaced with another? Should certain aspects be improved?

You will enhance three existing solutions or create new ones to curb the rate of violence among teens.

Choose the best policy among the three by rating the effectiveness and feasibility of each one.

Be sure you include links to all sites referred to. Remember to email links to your blogs to me at MsNowlinTeacher@aol.com.

This introduction is based on a webquest I completed as part of my TIPS PROJECT.

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/t6prod/nowlinwq1.html

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/t6prod/nowlinwq2.html

INTERACTIVE FICTION

I finally had the chance to read interactive fiction. It’s a story called Victory Garden by Stuart Moulthrop. Although it isn’t as “interactive” as I anticipated, It was still an interesting read. It appears to me that all of the characters are symbolic. However, it is unclear to me what the author wants us to think. At first, I wasn’t sure if the author favored the first Gulf War or protested it. I wasn’t certain if he saw Sad’m Hu-SANE as a scapegoat, or villain. I wasn’t even certain of the story’s setting (as far as time is concerned). In the beginning, it appeared to be an attack on Richard Nixon, then it skips to the early 90’s. I don’t yet see a connection between the opening and the progression of the story. That is not to say that there isn’t one. It is to say that I don’t get it. Perhaps if I read through to the end, I’ll see it.

Should a writer limit herself to one mode of print? Could I feel like a real author if my writing was never in book form? That was my line of thinking. A writer writes, so it really should not matter how her writing is published. That’s easier said than accepted. I am quite sure every writer wants to see their writing in book form. At the same time, an ebook is still a book. Interactive fiction is still fiction. The printed book was quite strange when it first came on the scene. It would be a stretch to say that the ebook will make the printed book obsolete. I have a hard time believing that the ebook will make any dent at all. That is not to say that it will never become popular. It is to say that the printed book isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Today I came across an interesting site by a writer/blogger named Suzanne, a science fiction novelist. I found her site while exploring the National Novel Writing Month website. She so accurately and humorously describes the maze like writing process zanzjan.net: writing. I too start off with about 600 to 6 billion ideas for one story. Then I narrow it down to one and begin my writing quest. After finishing the first 1000 words or so, I noticed my theme turning into something completely different. Weird huh? As a result, I allow myself enough flexibility while writing. If a story goes into a totally different direction than intended, so be it. Having a fixed idea can sometimes take the fun and creativity out of writing. However, I do not think this applies to non-fiction. 

On another note, I no longer feel it necessary to write with the purpose of being published. There are so many books and websites which offer tips on how to write the perfect novel. I find many tips and guidelines to be too limiting. In order for me to write, I must be able to do it freely without worrying about how to write it. I am not speaking of things like proper grammar and such, but telling the actual story. For example, there are times when I want to write things that are not realistic (let’s say for example, a man giving birth). Why should I worry that a story such as this isn’t marketable or will simply turn the public at large off? I could just write a story and “publish” it on my blog. Coming to terms with that is freeing.

Writing fiction has turned out to be much more difficult than I could ever have imagined. Upon reading this opening scene, one would never guess the direction this story would take. I am not yet sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it depends on the story. I must determine if my story can survive with a beginning such as this:

Chapter 1- Her unending discontent leads to disaster

     “Hey Ms. Maxwell, I was going to cut your class at first but forget it. The dean and his motley crew of cannibalistic assistants would almost certainly capture me. Who wants to waste time trapped in in-school suspension? On second thought, that might be better than rotting in this hellhole with an ogre like you. Anything would be better than your stupid class.”

     Ms. Maxwell trotted over to Claire’s desk and shot her a look that made her blood boil. “Claire, sit down and get to work!” she demanded. 

     Feeling far from intimidated, Claire returned fire with a gaze that caused Ms. Maxwell to take two steps backward. She yelled, “No! You get back to work, Ms. Maxwell! Your class is boring as hell! Look at this disgusting place.” Claire looked around the room at the sky blue walls with painted clouds. The classroom bulletin board contained outdated student work. “Here it is April, and you still have work up about the holiday season.” Claire found no beauty in the efforts her teacher made to beautify the classroom.  “Ya know what else? You can’t even teach. How on earth did you get this job? The way you look certainly didn’t get you hired. Honey, if looks had anything to do with it, you would have been rejected upon first sight. God, the sight of you makes me wanna puke. Now get out of my face!”

     Claire’s defiance sent shockwaves through Ms. Maxwell’s body. She was verbally paralyzed. “Do you have any idea how ugly you are? You should be more worried about that screwed up hairdo than what I’m doing right now.” She looked at Ms. Maxwell’s curly hair that appeared as though it were filled with dust. “Hello,” Claire taunted her. “The bird’s nest look has never been in. Oh wait! You probably have a spider web holding it together.” A clamor of laughter sprang out from her classmates. “God, I can’t stand you. For the life of me, I can’t understand why the principal won’t get rid of you as soon as humanly possible. You should be more like me, Ms. Maxwell. I’m hot. You can’t get any better than this,” Claire boasted as she arrogantly pranced in front of her classmates switching her hips from side to side.      “One day, I’ll find a man who’ll worship me. He’ll treat me like the queen I am. I can just picture him waiting on me hand and foot. Don’t you wish you had a man, Ms. Maxwell?” The bell rang just as she finished her last emotional rant against the teacher. “Now that is what I call saved by the bell. I’m getting out of this friggin class. Who knows? I may send you some crumbs from my spectacular wedding cake. Bye, Bye Ms. Maxwell.”