Books
To Kindle or Nook? That Was The Question.
So you remember how I blogged about how I couldn’t decide which e-device to go with. Well, I decided….
Lessons on E-readers
Valentine’s Day is coming up, and all the stores seem to be insinuating that the best lovers buy their significant others e-readers, so yesterday, I drove around town trying out various e-devices. I needed to feel them in my own hands, see what they could and could not do. I am definitely leaning in one direction, and I must admit, it is not the direction in which I thought I would be going. I figured I’d ask you, my beloved readers, for your opinions….
The Giver: Thirteen Years Later
It’s happening. My son is currently reading the first piece of literature that I ever taught. He is reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver, the story of a young boy named Jonas living in a highly controlled community some time in the future. The novel fits into a larger genre of cautionary tales called “dystopian literature.” If a utopia is a society in which everything is perfect, a dystopia is the opposite: everything has gone wrong. But my son doesn’t get this. Yet….
If My Kid Writes One More Book Report…
I get it. My school district clearly wants our kids to pass the standardized test.
They want a slice of the pie.
But our kids are dying of boredom….
The Secret To Finding The Best Babysitters
The best babysitters are, of course, the ones who love interacting with your children and know how to take care of them in any circumstance. But now that my son is older, I have found that the best sitters – the one’s who not only take care of his physical and emotional needs – are the ones who like to linger around after my child (and usually my husband) have gone to bed so we can discuss life. And books!…
A Bridge From Cyber Chaos to the World of Words
I just finished reading another book called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future by Mark Bauerlein. And frankly, it caught my attention. And as ironic as this is going to sound coming from an online blogger, I am trying to minimize my screen time. So yes, I will continue to blog, but I write in Word, check my spelling and grammar, find a picture and post. I’m trying not to hang out on Facebook as much, so I’ve got things going there automatically. I’m trying to live a little more unplugged because I truly believe (and now have well researched and documented support, thanks to Bauerlein) that all this screen time is leading us down the path to a place of incivility that breeds incompetence in school and the workplace.
All around me, I see people losing their ability to connect to each other. And, as a teacher and a writer, I want to be that bridge, so I have to work on being that bridge.
Franzen’s interview came at the right time for me — as I continue to write on a manuscript that has been like birthing an elephant. And by that I only mean it is taking a really long time. One day, I would like to hold that book in my hands, and I would like to dream that somewhere, someday, someone might write all over it. Underline. Make stars. Question marks. Pen, “This sounds like me” in the margins.
I want to be a real bridge, though. Starting Wednesday, September 8, 2010, I plan to help my students figure out how to pull their own stories from out of themselves and put them on paper; show them that the conventions of Modern Standard English matter, that an outstanding vocabulary can help them get ahead in the world.
I don’t think it is possible to be a cyber-bridge. You have to really be present to help people make their journey, especially when they are scared. And, believe me, when you ask 18-24 year olds to put away their technology — even for just 50 minutes — they are scared.
So I will gently take their hands and pull them away from their addictions and try — for 15 weeks — to get them to let me be their bridge.
I just hope they don’t walk all over me. Or that they, at least, tread lightly….
Interview with Janet Goodfriend • Author
With so much negativity about the economy and dooming words about how print is dying, it is nearly impossible not to absorb such stifling chatter. In spite of the stone cold anonymous face of the publishing industry, if writing is in you, you must do it because you love to write and have something to tell. Only after you have completed your masterpiece, should you agonize over how to go about piercing a market clad with impenetrable locks and barriers. Upon your final rejection — and you’ll know it’s the last one because you will have stopped keeping track of the rejections, and feel as though your manuscript might actually combust inside your computer from all the continuous fingertip friction upon the keyboard or, worse, you will be ever aware of your inner-quaking as a result of the punishing silence from publishers and agents who simply cannot respond personally to the 300 plus queries they receive on a weekly basis.) That said, you can polish your work as well as a professional editor and publish it yourself. …