Roller Coaster Ride
by Marla Taylor
Rick Springfield’s “Jesse’s Girl” blasts.
I glance in the rear-view mirror
as three of them shout out the song.
“You light up my life,” I think to myself.
To Worlds of Fun we go.
Parenting is a wild roller coaster ride—
Scary at first, slowly climbing, breathtaking, careening
Up. Down.
Fun! Adrenaline rush. Thrilling.
My head is spinning.
The possibilities are endless.
I thank God for my life.
We have been sharing today. The groups shared their information whether it was about Smartboards, Podcasting, Creating Comic Strips/Stories/Graphic Novels. The group over imovie (Mac platform) showed an example yesterday, but they were having compatability issues today. Information about Smartboards especially interested me. I have not used a Smartboard. My school building has one that teachers may share, but I haven’t put forth the effort to use it–too much trouble to hook up, move, etc. a device that isn’t accessible to me at all times. The teachers at my school ask for their own projectors and Smartboards every year–who knows what we’ll get come August. I doubt if we get them.
Each person shared her movies with the class. I shared mine about the kids going on a field trip to the zoo when they were in kg. I like the final product. It isn’t applicable to my classroom, but I enjoyed making the movie. I would like to incorporate making a movie in one of my projects (as one option for students), but don’t want to spend time teaching the program to any students who are unfamiliar with it. Believe it or not, I still have students who stumble around in Word, while others know more software than I ever do.
I’m taking away from this class some more ideas and confidence in using technology and writing. I’ll admit that I don’t make much time for creative writing in my classes, but I may use some ideas for journaling or as fill-in’s between units or shortened days.
As for the blogging. . .I don’t know about using it at school. I’m not sure about how the mechanics of it and classroom management of it would work.
Sheryl Walker gave a presentation about a lesson on Found Poems/Golden Line Poems/Gem Poems. I like the idea of using different lines or words from pieces of literature that students have read throughout the year. Yes, that would be a good way to review and it would let them be creative. We had a fun time brainstorming our own Golden Lines—the possibilities are endless: song lyrics, famous quotes, commercials, movie quotables, poetry, prose, original ideas. I want to try this next year as a Friday activity or as an activity between big units.
Michele Kelley shared her triadic writing piece about her Granny. Wow. I would love to take the time to write something like this. A triadic writing is a way to incorporate different genres of writing with a common theme. Her piece From the Sill shared an obituary, anecdotes, and a personal narrative about her granny and the family estate sale. I don’t know how I could incorporate triadic writing, but I could start with just two different types of genres about one common topic or theme. This week I picked up from the back table a book called Blending genre, altering style. The book told about abandoning the formal research paper and having students write multigenre research papers. The book piqued my interest and it is definitely something to consider for next year. It seemed to be similar to the idea about Triadic Writing.
We spent the afternoon working. I find it difficult to multitask and there were many tasks we had to focus on in the afternoon. My head was spinning and I felt a little anxiety.
Tiny Highland , Kansas with a population that struggles to make 1000 is where I call home. Highland is in Doniphan County, which is the most northeast county in
Kansas. (Looking at the map, one will notice that Doniphan County is the one with the bumpy upper corner border). One of Highland’s claims to fame is Highland Community College, which is the oldest institution of higher learning in Kansas. What would Highland be without HCC? It employs many of our residents and brings in some extra income for local businesses. The new HCC Wellness Center is a wonderful addition to our town and helps motivated residents stay in shape. Another attraction for the local young folks is HCC’s student population that arrives each August.
Even though Highland is a wonderful place to live, it doesn’t offer everything most people desire. Highlanders often seek other places for employment, entertainment, recreation, and shopping. Even though I am one of the fortunate few to have a job in Highland teaching English at our local Doniphan West High School, I often leave town and head east to St. Joseph, Missouri for other reasons—one mainly being shopping.
Getting to St. Joe is a no-brainer: just head south out of Highland about ½ a mile to hit US Hwy 36 and head east.
Little stands in the way on my quest for shopping or other errands in St. Joe. There are a few other small towns along the way, but usually no major slow-downs or obstacles keep me from making it a 30 minute trip.
Troy is the first town that I drive past. My close friend Kristie and her family live near Troy and I can see their place from the highway as I cruise along. People in Highland usually think they hate those people from Troy (you know how high school sports go), but there are actually some pretty decent people living there. Without Troy I wouldn’t have had a place for swimming lessons as a kid or a different place to cruise when Main Street Highland wasn’t happenin’. And I can’t forget the 4H dance every August. We always looked forward to that as a chance to meet the boys from the other parts of Doniphan County.
Another rival town to pass through on the way to Joetown is Wathena, home of the Wildcats. The highway actually goes through Wathena, so I always have to slow down to the 30 mph speed limit (watch out for the speedtrap on both sides of town). My youngest son Devin attended preschool in Wathena at the Christ Lutheran Preschool. And there is a great place on the east side of town to buy flowers and hanging baskets each spring.
After Wathena, Elwood is just a blur on the left side of the road as I depart Doniphan County and cross the Pony Express Bridge that spans the Missouri River and connects the shores of Kansas and Missouri.
Once in St. Joe, there are several important choices to make: Where do I go first? If I’m going to class at Missouri Western, then I continue on Highway 36 and hit Riverside. If I’m going shopping, then I just might hit I 29 north and head to The Shoppes at North Village, or I might trek up the Belt Highway and first go to East Hills Shopping Center. It is different each time.
I thank God for my life in Highland. It is a great place to live, raise a family, connect with friends, and feel safe. Even so, I’m thankful that St. Joe is a short, simple drive, and there I can enjoy some time in the “big city.”
What did I learn today?
Today we presented information about using Windows Movie Maker. Even though we used this information in a class last summer, it was a good review for me. In the afternoon, I began working on a short digital movie as a class assignment. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to insert as audio.
We wrote a first draft of directions from our homes to here. I have included names of places for which I can insert a hyperlink in a web document.
For group work, I worked with Stacey, Addie, Gretchen, and Jen on researching Graphic Novels/Comics and software. There are several websites available to make comic strips, and each of us explored different ones. I experimented with comeeko.com and made two different comic strips using pictures that I brought with me. The idea of comics/graphic novels is completely new to me and has given me something to consider for next year at school.
Uses for next year—
I already have students draw/sketch scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and I am considering scanning their sketches to be inserted in a comic strip.
The comic strips can also be used for summaries of any piece of literature we read. It would be a fun way to do a reading check over a set of assigned chapters.
The comic strip could be used as a storyboard for creating an advertisement when we study persuasion and propaganda.
I’m definitely interested in incorporating www.comeeko.com to make comic strips next year.
To Blog or Not to Blog?
At this point I’m still collecting information about blogging. I have to admit that I’ve never visited or participated in a blog. I’m not sure about the usefulness of it for my classroom, what the purpose might or could be, and the mechanics of setting up a blog. I’m not sure how the process would work. Would students respond during class? Outside of class? Many of my students have limited access to computers, and there is little free time during school for them to use computers.
And then I worry about grading, checking, and/or responding to student responses and questions. What amount of time would I have to invest? Would it be more or less time-consuming than grading a stack of papers? Or is it even comparable?
What would the quality of student responses be? Would it be just another assignment that gets put off until the last minute and then the quality of the work would be poor?
Another reservation I have is do I need to give the students another reason to spend more time on the Internet?
I hope to learn about blogging in the next couple of days. Once I get more information, then I will hopefully be able to make a better judgement.
Euphoric Plum Dandy
June. School’s out.
Call me Euphoric Plum Dandy.
Shut off that alarm. Don’t wake the kids.
Forget fussing, feuding, fidgeting, flunking.
I’m euphoric. Things are just plum dandy.
I’ll watch TLC.
I’ll do nothing.
I’ll do something—something just plum dandy.
I have time for me.
We’ll go swimming. Sand park.
Stay up late. Catch fireflies.
Sparklers in the yard.
Walks. Biking.
Euphoric.
Come August, call me vigorous violet.
5:45 alarm. Wake the kids. Rush out the door.
Smile on my face. Glad to be back.
Here’s another year.
February. Serious, solid, sturdy brown: English teacher.
Assessments.
Need a snow day.
May. Worn out.
Spring fever strikes.
Call me pale yellow.
Tired of fussing, feuding, fidgeting. . .flunking?
My fuse is short—about to go out.
June comes.
Euphoric Plum Dandy.
