PAVEing a Blog

Whew – November 1st is here, meaning the FIRST day of National Writing Month, the first day and have I thought of a start?  Not one moment – and what a moment to jump right in – perfect! These younger students are raring to go today!

Here is a good blog pertaining to Nano and the first day too!

http://pbackwriter.blogspot.mx

Without a clear path or thought – I think it is the PERFECT setting for starting a novel!  Here I go – in 30 minutes – I will be typing for 10, then jumping into the shower (maybe) check this water schedule out due to the holiday:

• Thursday (beginning at 00:00 hours), NO WATER at all during the whole day
• Friday and Saturday: service will be working at 40% (so, we will have some water but little pressure)
• Sunday: service will be restored at 100%

I knew there was a reason I went camping last year without a shower for a week, it makes it so easy from there out!

Today we are preparing a breakfast for the participants of NANO, as well as continuing to finish TODAY, the remaining lingering assignments needed for the Mansfield Program due, and then Friday!   No School and a day open for…..(LOTS OF POSSIBILITIES!)  I have a few in mind..update restaurant on here from a cafe in Mexico, NANO, begin to see some museums, eat well, organize my apartment with the random papers, NANO,   wash the truck, NANO, 🙂

One thing I neglected to add to this blog, was the last two appearances I made at the football games, yes I admit, as the bear.  The ASF bear does dance, does yell, does shake his tail, and does run around like a nut with the suit on but once taken off, wow – normalcy (as normal as I can get I suppose).  I loved Stephanie Vondell being the bear for last week’s pep rally, and then people seeing me and asking, “What the heck?!” – she was great too!  Something about being a mascot in a suit, that is, well, you can have a good day, a bad day, any day and yet the bear lives for the crowd.  

HOT – did I mention how incredibly hot the suit was/is?  Yet, the workout I receive is more than 3 alternate days of running in 80 degree heat routines, lol.  It’s a win/win.  The little kids, the big kids, slapping high fives, jumping, yelling, following the game, being crazy being funny, dancing to the music chosen by the football staff, it’s all good and relative, and honestly, hysterically FUN.  🙂  Hmmmm, Nano about a mascot who goes on to change the world?  Could be….:)   

Sigh, time to go back into the world, but you have seen a glimpse of just one crazy activity that has consumed me lately, so hang on for the next few revelations of the funny, absurd, and   wildly time-consuming for your enjoyment – 🙂   Life is good, this is true, but it all depends on the person behind the view.  🙂   

 

Followup to the first day of Nano!  

Dear Writer,

When I was 30 years old, I moved to Minneapolis and got a job in a book warehouse. My official job title was “Picker.” This meant that I went around the third floor of the warehouse holding a computerized print order in one hand and pulling books off the shelf with the other hand. I put all the books into a grocery cart and I took the grocery cart and wheeled it into an ancient, crabby freight elevator and went downstairs to deliver the order to the shipping department. Then I took the stairs back up to the third floor and started over again.

It wasn’t a challenging job. It didn’t pay much. I was on my feet all day long. My back hurt. My hands hurt. But I was happy. I was surrounded by books and by people who loved to read them. Also, for the first time in my life, I was writing.

I got up every morning before work (the alarm was set for 4:30) and wrote two pages before I went into the warehouse. And then, when I arrived at work at 7:00 to punch the time clock, I received my daily so-you-want-to-be-a-writer pep talk from a coworker.

Let’s call him Bob. (Even though his real name is Gary).

Bob wanted to be a writer, too. But he wasn’t writing. Every morning we had the same exchange.

Bob: “How did the writing go?”

Me: “Fine.”

Bob: “How many pages did you write?”

Me: “Two.”

Bob: “Do you think Dickens wrote two pages a day?”

Me: “I don’t know how many pages Dickens wrote a day.”

Bob: “Yeah, well let me tell you something, you’re no Dickens. So what’s Plan B, babe? What’s Plan B for when the writing doesn’t work out?”

For this question, I had no answer.

I turned my back on Bob, pulse pounding, fists clenched, and climbed the stairs to the third floor and started picking books.

When the alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning, I thought about Bob and that is part of the reason I got out of bed.

It is a truly excellent to have someone to believe in you and your ability to write.

But I think it is just as helpful to have people who don’t believe in you, people who mock you, people who doubt you, people who enrage you. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of this type of person in the world.

So as you enter this month of writing, write for yourself. Write for the story. And write, also, for all of the people who doubt you. Write for all of those people who are not brave enough to try to do this grand and wondrous thing themselves. Let them motivate you.

In other words, do it for Bob!

Your friend in writing,

Kate DiCamillo

 

Kate DiCamillo is the author of The Tale of Despereaux (Newbery Medal), Because of Winn-Dixie(Newbery Honor), and a The Tiger Rising (National Book Award finalist). She lives in Minneapolis, MN with her dog Henry.

November 02, 2013

Wow!  Looking at my post below a year ago, I realize what an aazng adventure I pushed myself into with participating into Nano.  And here we are 2013 and recreating the details I have lost, seems daunting but I think 2013 is going to be a turning year for me, one of accomplishment, completion and yes, momentum…:)

I loved the James Patterson motivator to write for 2013 and look forward to reading many more!  I hope you consider this opportunity, to be involved or to support the Nano Program.  Between my blog and Nano, I have much to do to update, so here we go 2013!

Last year’s blog – 

On that note, a message from author, Lois Lowry:

Hello, young writers!

It’s daunting to sit down and begin a novel.

Daunting? Is that the right word? There might be better ones.Overwhelming? Terrifying?

No, I think daunting is good. I’ll leave it.

I went through that small process to show you what I do during the writing of each and every paragraph of a novel. I question the words. Not the ands or the thens. But adjectives? I often question each one. And verbs! Verbs are the most… well, daunting.

(Question? Maybe it should be second-guess?)

It makes it pretty challenging (or exhausting, or time-consuming, or maybe just plain hard) to write a novel.

But fun, too. There is no better feeling than realizing you got the words just right.

I always begin with a character: a character to whom I introduce the reader, so that the reader will enter the novel feeling as if he or she already has a friend… or at least someone to care about.

But very quickly I let the reader know that they have to worry a bit about this new friend, because something is slightly [amiss? askew? out-of-whack?] and the book character is going to have to find a way to set things right.

That starts the plot going.

I’m not going to tell you how I write a plot because everyone does it differently, and your own way is best for you.

But I will say something about the ending of a novel. First, your main character will still be there at the ending. He (or she) will have changed, though. (In some extraordinary cases, the protagonist will be, um, sorry: dead. I’ve done that now and then in a novel—my book Messenger, for one.)

But most often the protagonist will be alive, and—this is important—will have matured in some way. Grown wiser. Braver. Stronger. Kinder. That is because throughout the plot, the protagonist has made choices (sometimes very hard ones) and he or she has learned and grown from each choice.

(So has the writer, incidentally).

I find that very often, at the ending of a novel, the writer (me, or you) will use a verb like realized, orunderstood, or knew, or found. It’s the job of the protagonist to accomplish all of those things.

And it’s the job of the writer to show the reader how it happened, by choosing just the right words.

Have fun,

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry is the author of Number the Stars and The Giver (both Newbery Medal winners), among 30 other books for children and young adults. She lives in Cambridge, MA in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Alfie and a funny little cat named Lulu.

Nano (WHAT IS NANO?  Why awesome question, Educators, and anyone, check below for info! :

NaNoWriMoIntro

starts November 1st!  WOW!  Here is some info from our newest English instructor:

Hello Everyone,

All the Freshman will be doing the National Novel Writing Month Young Writer’s Program (NaNoWriMo YWP) in their English I courses (Dixie, Clark, Carlstrom), November 1st-30th.

We have created a virtual classroom for all of us, and all are aiming for 15,000 words in 30 days = 500 words a day, with a few scaffolded variations in word count goals both above and below the 15k baseline.  Ben and I are both writing, and I believe Lauren and Harry are going for the 50k gold too (50k in 30 days is the regular nanowrimo.orggoal.)  Style and Content are completely open for all.

We would all be grateful for supporting the students through this in any manner that presents itself, and would like to let all of you know that some students may be bringing more devices to school in order to word process.  Ideas and encouragement are always welcome, especially as the month pushes onward.

If you would like to join the forum, follow along, and/or write (you don’t have to write), you can create a profile and find us at the following information:
Site: ywp.nanowrimo.org -> http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/what-is-nanowrimo
Classroom: ASF Writing Metropolis -> Search directory, Mexico, Other, and the Frosh are at ASF Writing Metropolis
My Username: ShayVC (buddy me)

 If freshman are seeking guidance or time for writing through November, this is hopefully the reason.

Thank you all, and please holler at me if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,– 

Shay V. Carlstrom, M.A.
English Education
American School Foundation

I am attaching below the pdf for the Nano packet and a survival kit!  The more people we get involved in the process, the easier Nano is!  🙂  I am excited!

Nano High School workbook

NaNoBook Survival

P.S.  I also have kits for Middle and Elementary School if interested!  Oh heck it is below, lol.

Nano Middle School Workbook

Elementary_School_Workbook_Customizable_V2

A night beneath the starry landscape, and yes, I had to pinch myself, I was in the Zocolo watching Hamlet from the touring group from La Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, my first play in Mexico.  The energy, laughter, and whole set, from the stage to whole set only added to the energy that seeped from this play.

Hamlet Preview 1

Hamlet Preview 2

Hamlet Preview 3

The mimicking of the Globe theatre was PERFECT, from the groundlings to way up top, this play exceed expectations in so many ways – being there with friends further intensified the feel of being relocated into something unusual and exciting.  Often splitting the stage in half, actors brilliantly utilized the full space on stage allotted for a maximum effect.

Add this to the past events of the lst two weeks, winning Twin Week, moustaching the day in the size of Texas, “Bearing” the outfit, spooning out the ice cream, the blog for the last two weeks, has been, WOW – it will be worth the blog, so stay tuned this week, tomorrow will be a blog to catch up on all!  🙂

Digital IS – AWESOME SITE!  🙂

I know waaay behind on restaurants and updating you on the last week (WHEW)  I will PROMISE 🙂 (beauty of a blog!)  However, remember, important things – today is Moustache Day for Spirit Week – don’t forget your hair….(little things matter!)

Managing Technology – Yes, an assignment to create a manual section on Managing Technology for School Media Centers, due SUNDAY (Yes this is Monday!) – consumed me as I poured over the documents, beginnings, and stoppings of my writing, stops starts, confusing moments – dah dah dahhhhh – Overwhelmed.
It does get overwhelming, think of the view behind the circulation desk when you hold yourself accountable – this is not teaching anymore kiddos, this is a new realm of what can be discouraging in the research process, yet a growing and developing process.
What seems to be an endless vastness of information that can suck you dry, can also be refreshed with a new look on life.  When I entered into Digital Is, I knew about it, I heard about it heck, I visited it and almost everyone I know  in NCTE and the technology realm knows Digital Is, yet I still did not have a profile – yet LinkedIn, P2PU and others were within my practice and knowledge.  I realized the most obvious sites and aides can be unused  due to the outlandish number of resources out there and available.   However, being able to move past the idea that just using technology to use it or make one look one savvy, the same ideas apply when I am faced with this overwhelming amount of info, wanting to use it for quality and not quantity.
Yes, I might lose points on my assignment due SUNDAY (I know), but in retrospect, having a clearer mind and scope of what I wanted to do to make this easier for the next person is a feeling I can take beyond the points assigned for this project. If we can instill the same feeling of moving past points, bells and whistles, and simply grades to students, then my role as a Media Specialist/Librarian is right on track with what the 21st Century Standards require of us.  Grades have always been the carrot to lead many to the water of technology, yet, times are a changing, and the universities and institutions of higher study do not care so much of the .5’s and .0’s of a letter grade as much as wondering – ‘Can you survive and sort through the mass amounts of information to be productive and to the point?”  Ah, and there amid the many journals, articles, and podcasts, lies the answer – those few resources that you need to focus on, and use when the time allows and fits – will take you to the end goal of finding the right answers, with the right tool for the moment.
Once students feel from their instructor that devices are just that, not the end all that will solve the problem, but the tool to a variety of options, then learning amid a jungle of options begins to occur.  I think there is hope for me yet.

Thanks Digital is!

“Version of…I don’t know and things I get frustrated at but…glad for afterwards…”

What version of old will I be?

Old – before my time old – inside and out?

Old but “cool” old- air in the hair (yes HAIR),

cool convertible old but fun?

“Critical of”old in attitude and young in vigor…

…yet the same myself —

I want to be old and bring class to the classification

letting the young in – forever.

Waking up – refreshed, oblivious to obstructions –

ready to RUN – walk – do anything

anywhere

to the days of S L I D I N G into bed – A Narnia from

obstacles and tasks of the day –

yet these are the days that allow me to relish zooming days

– zooming past obstacles and tasks, and things, things to cover

even the calmest day provides a rollercoaster of unexpecteds –

allows me no room for boring – plenty of room for frustration and untilled

possibilities – this makes the day even brighter, even more possible.

I wonder at old age – those that have fallen into my daily life along the way –

Walking some days and the reality of their presence almost bursts my emotions into

tears without warning – Why so strong out of where? all of a sudden?

I find there are volumes, yes, versions of me I still have to discover

I still don’t know, can’t explain, but I cling to memories that fill me up like a

64 oz bottle of JOLT- faces- laughs – experiences – moments –

“Give unto others as you’d have done to yourself…”

I’m happy for the saddest moments and sad for the happiest moments to end-

what kind of version of old will I yet be?

“Untitled”

The crinkle of leaves parachuting to the secluded street corner

frisbees sharing secrets along the way

feathers brushing against a canvas of wind

roots shoveling the ground like a machine

clouds pushing the sky back

ink sliding down to make a point

s stare screaming in a fearful moment

fireflies sliding against the darkened night

whiskers pointing to the unreachable object

water struggling with the moment of solitude

smiles slashing, crashing the silence

tears shattering the memory

silence dividing a life

thoughts – worth more than

a thousands words

and a picture.

Wow – now 12:25 and what an OPEN MIC NIGHT!  WOW!  Meeting Peter from Australia, seeing Obi reading sophisticated prose, Mr Hamilton, Ms Gallie, and Mr Brake participating in Mr Hamilton’s PLAY script! – Jack, Louis, and also friends leaving Mexico, friends returning to Mexico, people prompted to come up and read based on the energy and excitement of others, VFW Mic Night was AWESOME – and we hung out to hear the music afterwards with the band that came in – W O  W! – I knew there was a reason I came here…

So, making a marathon-run for the time I haven’t been updating my blog (wait until you see the restaurants list this week!) – I love this video by the way – HYSTERICAL – it reminds me of well, someone smashing Watermelons, like, GALLAGHER!  🙂  (yes, see? Random? – Tonight, We Are Young,) There is something about smashing fruit, in front of people…

Okay serious now…seriously!…(I DO LOVE SLEDGE – O – MATIC!)

… back to Sherman Alexie….DJ Hamilton was kind enough to send me this article, on Sherman Alexie’s newest interview.

And I was hooked…it was not for the reason that I tried to get a book of his poetry for a teacher as ASF, or watched Smoke Signals, but it was that fateful night in Slippery Rock, when upon referring to Sherman Alexie in my newly created thesis, “Opening the Window of Time”, I was lucky enough to meet Sherman Alexie who sat beside me at dinner at Slippery Rock University – this was an amazing night.  Thanks to Dr. Permenter, Alexie came to Slippery Rock, I gave him the rough transcripts of my thesis at that time, and to this date, I remember two main things…

1- Asking Mr. Alexie what would be a common way that could get everyone to share beliefs together and in my naive believe multiculturalism was about everyone agreeing, he answered, “There is no way!” – he was right.  I have learned that one of the greatest things is the differences that separate us, yet that very thing should be the aspect that connects us!

2- I asked Mr. Alexie where in the WORLD he received the inspiration for one of the greatest pieces he wrote, and his explanation was hysterical yet showed me how talented he is!  (You will have to ask him the meaning if you’re curious! )

I look back and hope to send the finalized version of my overall piece to Mr. Alexie, with an amazing memory of how he inspired be back then to

“…keep moving, keep walking in step with your skeletons. They ain’t ever going to leave you, so you don’t have to worry about that. Your past ain’t going to fall too far behind and your future won’t get too far ahead. Sometimes, though, your skeletons will talk to you, tell you to sit down, take a rest, breathe a little. Maybe they’ll make you promises, tell you all the things you want to hear.”

Thanks for the recollection Mr. Hamilton.

I am random.  VERY random.  Take this song, I came across by accident very random, but I love it now. Random.  I love randomness, but yet I have only now figured out, while some of my friends know this better about me, I think of things sometimes an hour, a day or even a month later put of the blue and recall it from a conversation I had about that long ago…same thing happened tonight.  In the middle of my graduate school work and bam!  an email I received from my principal about how she submitted her “This I Believe Essay ” for her class and I knew,  right there,  right then, what I wanted to right.  Not fighting the urge, I immediately ripped off what I wanted to say as mine – so well here it is….

This I believe Oct 2

oh there is so much more to write about!  Did I mention Sherman Alexie?  Hmmm, next post….:)

Okay QUIZ kids, what do the three have in common?  Seriously, you don’t even have a clue?  Come on…..:)

Sheesh –  let me explain…: ) Walking Kinah to Park Rio De Janeiro (I love that this is 2 block from my house) I causally saw a glow-in-the-dark frisbee being thrown across the Michaelangelo’s fountain of David, and I thought, I want one of those…as we made our way back across the plaza, one of the participants approached me and said something like “Swedish Mafia” and I was like…haven’t seen them (I was laughing) but in reality, was he was telling me was, had I heard the BAND named Swedish Mafia?!  lol, and I said no, but he instantly pointed to Kinah and said she is in that video, her replica!  No kidding, I came home, and as Fabian told me, at exactly 1:16 in the video called  Save the World, there is Kinah’s TWIN !  I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so here is the screenshot…:)

See?

Anyways, if you listen to the words, it fits, WHo is going to SAVE the world?  Suburban, urban Kinah had been everywhere and yet, who would imagine that such a gentle, thoughtful, and forgiving animal would be loose in the streets?  The video does a god job of getting this across to the viewers too, too many people out there that need a helping hand and if we all pitch in, the world would be a much better place.  Good band, good message, great tune…Oh the 104?  Yes, that is where Fabian lives as he told me and urged me , “Please have puppies, PLEASE!, I want one of these dogs! – so I still refrain from fixing Kinah with the possibility of another one as generous as her existing in the future…?…maybe…and I found out that behind the Sixties bar/restaurant on Insurgentes, the frisbee, I am so getting one, DEFINITELY!  🙂  Interesting night…:)