Who knew that iPods were for more than music??? Well, apparently a
lot of people knew, but none of them ever told me, at least not until
this past September. The thing is, I’ve never much been into music. I
mean, I love listening to my niece, AJ, and my nephew, CS, play the
cello and I love listening to my nieces and nephew singing, but really,
other than that, music is a non-entity in my life. If music is playing
in the background, I find it distracting. I just can’t think with the
music going, and as a writer, I’m always thinking, plotting, creating
scenes and scenarios in my head, so music is like my kryptonite.
Anyway, I entered a new classroom this year and found waiting for me,
forty iPod Touches. “iPods,” I thought. “What on earth am I going
to do with these? How am I going to use music to teach my students
English? Well, actually, I do use music in the classroom to teach both
English and skill concepts, but still. Forty iPods? How often does my district think that I use music??”
As it turns out, there are these nifty little things called apps that
you can download to your iPod and those apps teach all kinds of amazing
things! WHO KNEW? Well, like I said, apparently an awful lot of
people, but not me!
In any case, I’ve been using the iPods for PWIMs. That’s
teacher-speak for Picture Word Inductive Model. In other words, I
upload photos of vocabulary we’re focused on in the classroom, children
pull up the photo in Comic Touch and label the photos with target
vocabulary words. From there, we write paragraphs describing our
work. It’s really amazing, the work the kids have created. I have
some amazingly talented artists in my classroom as well. In lieu of
using the photos I provide, many students draw their own pictures in
Doodle Buddy, then import those pictures into Comic Touch and label
them.
Two other apps my students love are Stack the States and Stack the
Countries. I don’t know why, but as a country, we don’t seem to put
much emphasis on geography anymore — how many people in this country
really know where Djibouti or Myanmar can be found? My students are no
exception — they really struggle with geography. Many of them don’t
even understand that Kansas is a state and the United States is a
country. They have no idea where Mexico is in relation to Kansas or
where in the world Australia can be found. These two apps have helped them to really develop their understanding of the world and our place within it.
In the end, I’m simply amazed. iPods are so much more than just
carriers of music. They have become purveyors of knowledge and tools
for teaching. WHO KNEW??
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Monday, June 14, 2010
Cut from ABNA
Well, I didn't make it to the final round for the Amazon contest. Although I'm disappointed, I'm really taking this as all positive - the manuscript was good enough to make it to the top 50. Since submitting it, I've been working on the second book and have come up with a lot of ideas for things I want to add / change to the first, so in a way, it's a good thing I didn't win. I'll take this as a sign to keep working the series.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
One of Fifty
Made it to the Semi-Finalist round in the Amazon contest. Now am one of fifty. The last cut will be brutal as they drop us down from 50 to 5. We'll see how that goes.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
One of Two Hundred Fifty
Well, I have advanced a bit further in the ABNA. At this point, the
anxiety has reached epic levels. Each cut I make, while wonderful in
and of itself, ultimately seems to cause an increase in extreme neurotic
behavior.
Since discovering that I am now one of two hundred and fifty, I have been obsessively re-reading the manuscript, frantically checking createspace and amazon to see if any new reviews have been posted, and generally making myself insane. Ultimately, while I am thrilled to have made it this far, I am terrified the next cut will leave me crying into my bowl of cheerios, woefully bereft of breakthrough worthiness.
Is it April 27th yet?
Since discovering that I am now one of two hundred and fifty, I have been obsessively re-reading the manuscript, frantically checking createspace and amazon to see if any new reviews have been posted, and generally making myself insane. Ultimately, while I am thrilled to have made it this far, I am terrified the next cut will leave me crying into my bowl of cheerios, woefully bereft of breakthrough worthiness.
Is it April 27th yet?
Friday, February 26, 2010
One of a Thousand
Well, I am now one in a crowd of a thousand who made it to the second
round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. Actually, technically,
I’m one of two thousand — there’s me and 999 other hopefuls in the
Young Adult section and then another thousand in General
Fiction. This first round was based on nothing more than a 300-word
pitch of our novel, so it’s great news in the sense that I now feel like
I have a functional query letter (which has been absolutely the
hardest thing to write, harder even than the 67,000 word novel!) But now the hard stuff begins — they actually start to read our
novels! The next round is based on the first 5,000 words of the
novel, and the pool of a thousand gets narrowed to 250. And so the
waiting begins… March 23rd can’t come soon enough!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
My Attempts to Enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest
11:17 p.m. So busy working on my lesson plans (STILL), missed 11:01 by 16 minutes. That’s okay, I still have time!
11:26 p.m. ARGH! Lots of difficulty getting the webpage to load correctly! Finally am getting somewhere… now waiting for my DESCRIPTION (not the pitch, but the DESCRIPTION) to load. Description isn’t even anything to be seen by judges, but necessary for if / when the novel’s excerpt is available for review by Amazon public.
11:27 p.m. ARGH! It’s still working to load the description. Is this normal? What if it’s stuck in a loop and never stops pretending to load? It’s only 212 words, people! HELP! whimper…
11:29 p.m. I can’t move on. I’m stuck waiting for Part I to save, so that I can move on to Part II, which is still NOT the uploading of all my materials, but is my contact information. Can’t go to part II until part I gets loaded. ARGH!!! Oh my god, the anxiety I am experiencing canNOT be good for my health!
11:31 p.m. I’m starting to get really paranoid. What if in those 16 minutes I was busy lesson planning, 5,000 other people were uploading their manuscripts? WHAT IF I’VE MISSED MY CHANCE?????? AAAAAHHHHH!
11:33 p.m. Ummm…. really? This many minutes to save 212 words? Something’s wrong. My carefully worded description has hacked the entire Amazon Breakthrough Novel system and I’ve ruined this process for myself AND 4,999 other crazed hopefuls. Oh save me!
11:35 p.m. What on EARTH am I going to do when it’s trying to upload my MANUSCRIPT? I think I might die of the anxiety before I even reach the pitch stage. This is ABSURD. I’ve lost all sense of reality. I’m stuck in some alternate universe where the entirety of my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness hinges on the acceptance of the DESCRIPTION of my novel!
11:36 p.m. Seriously. How do I know if it’s not working? I mean the silly blue arrow keeps on a-swirlin’, but nothin’s happening!
11:39 p.m. Hey, great news! I found the spot where all the other 4,999 crazed hopefuls are hanging out and some of them have been staring at a blue swirlin’ arrow for 30 minutes! So, hey, 13 minutes, not so bad… of course, that means I have at least another 17 to go and this is only part I of IV. ARGH!!!!
11:43 p.m. Bored now… just think of all the lesson planning I could be doing… if only I weren’t riveted to this little blue arrow.
11:48 p.m. Still in blue arrow manic depressive mode… I bet you’re bored now too, aren’t you? Pretty soon I’m going to have to put in the Buffy musical episode, just so that I can sing my way through this farce.
11:57 p.m. I’m officially panicked. Half the crazed people are all “I’m in — goodnight and good luck” and the other half of the crazed people are all “blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow”. Wanna guess which category I’m in??? And all those people who are “in” — ARGH! They’re part of that 5,000!!! What if 4,999 other people say they’re “in” and just when I’m about to say “I’m in!” some other crazed blue arrow person hijacks my in-slide and steals my slot???
12:07 a.m. OMG. One of the crazies suggested hitting refresh, which I did… with great fear I might add, as I was certain it was going to do EXACTLY what it did… all my info, gone, in a flash. I sighed and began again.
12:08 a.m. Accidentally hit backspace key, backspaced away from page. ARGH!!! Loaded page again, entered part I’s info again, hit save and…
12:09 a.m. Blue swirly arrow appears for two seconds, then WHAM! On to part II. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the refresh god.
12:10 a.m. Entered contact info, saved, hallelujah, on to Part III!
12:11 a.m. Uploaded pitch successfully… everything hinges on the pitch.
12:12 a.m. Pasted excerpt successfully… re-read, looks good… everything hinges on the excerpt.
12:13 a.m. Attached manuscript successfully… everything TRULY hinges on the manuscript.
12:14 a.m. Uploading excerpt…. SUCCESS!
12:15 a.m. Uploading manuscript…
12:16 a.m. SUCCESS!
12:17 a.m. Accepted contest rules and regulations. Hit submit entry and… SUCCESS!
12:17 a.m. Received official email from createspace.com welcoming me as one of the 5,000 manic writers.
12:29 a.m. In case you’re wondering what happened between 12:17 and 12:29 a.m., it went something like this:
Gasp! “I’m in.” Shocked staring ensues. Twelve minutes later…
12:29 a.m. cont. Cats wake me from a self-induced state of shock. Time for bed where I will undoubtedly agonize over my submission and wish that I had changed this word or that…. I live in fear of February 25th.
11:26 p.m. ARGH! Lots of difficulty getting the webpage to load correctly! Finally am getting somewhere… now waiting for my DESCRIPTION (not the pitch, but the DESCRIPTION) to load. Description isn’t even anything to be seen by judges, but necessary for if / when the novel’s excerpt is available for review by Amazon public.
11:27 p.m. ARGH! It’s still working to load the description. Is this normal? What if it’s stuck in a loop and never stops pretending to load? It’s only 212 words, people! HELP! whimper…
11:29 p.m. I can’t move on. I’m stuck waiting for Part I to save, so that I can move on to Part II, which is still NOT the uploading of all my materials, but is my contact information. Can’t go to part II until part I gets loaded. ARGH!!! Oh my god, the anxiety I am experiencing canNOT be good for my health!
11:31 p.m. I’m starting to get really paranoid. What if in those 16 minutes I was busy lesson planning, 5,000 other people were uploading their manuscripts? WHAT IF I’VE MISSED MY CHANCE?????? AAAAAHHHHH!
11:33 p.m. Ummm…. really? This many minutes to save 212 words? Something’s wrong. My carefully worded description has hacked the entire Amazon Breakthrough Novel system and I’ve ruined this process for myself AND 4,999 other crazed hopefuls. Oh save me!
11:35 p.m. What on EARTH am I going to do when it’s trying to upload my MANUSCRIPT? I think I might die of the anxiety before I even reach the pitch stage. This is ABSURD. I’ve lost all sense of reality. I’m stuck in some alternate universe where the entirety of my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness hinges on the acceptance of the DESCRIPTION of my novel!
11:36 p.m. Seriously. How do I know if it’s not working? I mean the silly blue arrow keeps on a-swirlin’, but nothin’s happening!
11:39 p.m. Hey, great news! I found the spot where all the other 4,999 crazed hopefuls are hanging out and some of them have been staring at a blue swirlin’ arrow for 30 minutes! So, hey, 13 minutes, not so bad… of course, that means I have at least another 17 to go and this is only part I of IV. ARGH!!!!
11:43 p.m. Bored now… just think of all the lesson planning I could be doing… if only I weren’t riveted to this little blue arrow.
11:48 p.m. Still in blue arrow manic depressive mode… I bet you’re bored now too, aren’t you? Pretty soon I’m going to have to put in the Buffy musical episode, just so that I can sing my way through this farce.
11:57 p.m. I’m officially panicked. Half the crazed people are all “I’m in — goodnight and good luck” and the other half of the crazed people are all “blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow - blue arrow”. Wanna guess which category I’m in??? And all those people who are “in” — ARGH! They’re part of that 5,000!!! What if 4,999 other people say they’re “in” and just when I’m about to say “I’m in!” some other crazed blue arrow person hijacks my in-slide and steals my slot???
12:07 a.m. OMG. One of the crazies suggested hitting refresh, which I did… with great fear I might add, as I was certain it was going to do EXACTLY what it did… all my info, gone, in a flash. I sighed and began again.
12:08 a.m. Accidentally hit backspace key, backspaced away from page. ARGH!!! Loaded page again, entered part I’s info again, hit save and…
12:09 a.m. Blue swirly arrow appears for two seconds, then WHAM! On to part II. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the refresh god.
12:10 a.m. Entered contact info, saved, hallelujah, on to Part III!
12:11 a.m. Uploaded pitch successfully… everything hinges on the pitch.
12:12 a.m. Pasted excerpt successfully… re-read, looks good… everything hinges on the excerpt.
12:13 a.m. Attached manuscript successfully… everything TRULY hinges on the manuscript.
12:14 a.m. Uploading excerpt…. SUCCESS!
12:15 a.m. Uploading manuscript…
12:16 a.m. SUCCESS!
12:17 a.m. Accepted contest rules and regulations. Hit submit entry and… SUCCESS!
12:17 a.m. Received official email from createspace.com welcoming me as one of the 5,000 manic writers.
12:29 a.m. In case you’re wondering what happened between 12:17 and 12:29 a.m., it went something like this:
Gasp! “I’m in.” Shocked staring ensues. Twelve minutes later…
12:29 a.m. cont. Cats wake me from a self-induced state of shock. Time for bed where I will undoubtedly agonize over my submission and wish that I had changed this word or that…. I live in fear of February 25th.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Buffy vs. Teaching
And what on earth could you possibly find at the school to keep you
busy until 8:30 at night, you might wonder. Well… you must first keep in
mind that I, unlike legions of my fellow colleagues, refuse to carry
work back and forth between the school and my home. I discovered early
on that bringing work home would only ensure that most of it would not
be completed by the following school day, which would result in many
frantic, stress-filled hours that might have been avoided had I only
stayed to complete my work the day before. Better instead to get it all
done at school and then enjoy what free time I have left. I am quite
simply much more productive in the school environment where I do not
have access to my laptop writings, my fully stocked fridge, my favorite
detective books through the ages (from Trixie Belden to Stephanie Plum
to Eve Dallas), my Harry Potter collections in French, Spanish,
Portuguese and Latin (in case I want to learn another language) or my
extensive Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons 1-7 DVD collection. You can
see how distracting my house might be under these circumstances. Who
wouldn’t want to watch the musical episode of Buffy for the 765th time
rather than plan a lesson about polar bears for 2nd graders? Obviously,
staying at the school is the best option for all concerned. Certainly,
I’ve missed out on many wonderful opportunities to enrich my mind by
singing along to Walk Through the Fire (”I touch the fire and it freezes
me…”) but these are the sacrifices we make as teachers…
We turn our backs on the fire and we gather our courage and we continue to plan or grade or organize or whatever it is we do to make our days run smoothly in the classroom. And in our hearts, in those tiny moments when we realize this was a job well-done, we whisper our apologies to Joss Whedon and we promise to catch up on our Buffy watching during our summer hiatus when we will be experiencing the full onset of Buffy withdrawal… and of course, we will start and end with the greatest episode of all time… Once More With Feeling.
“Bunnies aren’t just cute like everybody supposes
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses
And what’s with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies, bunnies
It must be bunnies”
(reprinted completely without permission, which is really shocking because teachers never break copyright laws, these quoted words are attributed here to Joss Whedon’s genius, may he bring us another amazing show to worship… soon!)
We turn our backs on the fire and we gather our courage and we continue to plan or grade or organize or whatever it is we do to make our days run smoothly in the classroom. And in our hearts, in those tiny moments when we realize this was a job well-done, we whisper our apologies to Joss Whedon and we promise to catch up on our Buffy watching during our summer hiatus when we will be experiencing the full onset of Buffy withdrawal… and of course, we will start and end with the greatest episode of all time… Once More With Feeling.
“Bunnies aren’t just cute like everybody supposes
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses
And what’s with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies, bunnies
It must be bunnies”
(reprinted completely without permission, which is really shocking because teachers never break copyright laws, these quoted words are attributed here to Joss Whedon’s genius, may he bring us another amazing show to worship… soon!)
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