Remember, the district has provided you with your own gMail account. Your address is your gradebook user name @pvlearners.net. PVLearners is the best place to save your work that you will need to work on later. It's also a terrific tool to use when your teacher gives you a group assignment. All of you can be working on it together in real time. This video is a good demonstration.
In "Angela's Ashes", Frank McCourt says, "I don't know what it means and I don't care because it's Shakespeare and it's like having jewels in my mouth when I say the words." There are some writers that I love to read because their words seem like jewels. Maya Angelou is an example. Here, she reads one of her poems: "And Still I Rise" Oscar Wilde is another. How can you choose just one of his quotes? How about this one? "My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's." Here are a few more: Oscar Wilde Quotes Who are the authors whose words seem like jewels in the mouth to you?
But then, there are books where I get so wrapped up in the story, I don't pause to decide whether it's good writing or not (although it frequently is). I read different types of stories for different reasons, but in the interest of keeping this post from rambling on and on, I'll just mention a couple.
As a child, I loved the Wizard of Oz books, and read every one in the Safford Public Library. They were my first experience with what I call road trip books. There are road trip movies, and then there are road trip books. The scene is constantly changing and fascinating characters come and go. The most recent road trip book I read and thoroughly enjoyed was "Going Bovine" by Libba Bray. Although I haven't read "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" in many, many years, that's what it made me think of. Plus, I've always been a fan of snarky humor. Tell me about your favorite road trip book.
As an adolescent, I loved Judy Blume books. She may have been from New Jersey, and I was raised in Arizona, but I could relate. She KNEW what it was like. Reading Sarah Dessen books remind of that. She just gets it. What author really speaks to you and why?
And, don't even get me started on fantasy/paranormal/science fiction, or that whole set of genres. We can leave that for the next post.
I've become an addict of authors' tweets because they can be funny and interesting in 140 characters or less. A feat I am unable to accomplish. It's easy to get sucked into spending mega time reading them on the nchslibrary Twitter, so I can favorite them, so you can see them on the Twitter feed on my blog. I found this very cool article, can't figure out how to make it a post on my blog, but I did make the title of the post the link. Is all this interconnectedness a good thing or a little scary? NCHS students - have you read 1984 yet? What do you think?
So I have this little story. Last fall, in the doldrums because our budget had been frozen, and my kiddos made such sad faces when I told them I couldn't get them the book they wanted, I decided I would start creating book trailers. I figured, it's free, and maybe I'll generate some interest in the books we already own. We owned several copies of "If I Die in Juarez" by Stella Pope Duarte, because the year before we had read it in a book club.
It was a fun project. I found pictures and music on Creative Commons and started putting it together in iMovie. Although Stella is a best-selling, nationally known author, she is totally accessible. She answers her own e-mail, so when I wrote her and asked for permission to use the cover of the book, she wrote back and said yes. I was pretty happy with my finished product. Finally got brave and uploaded it to YouTube
Here comes one of the best parts. Once Stella saw it, she really, really liked it. She felt as though I had captured the essence of her story. That was so gratifying to me - that the author approved of what I had done.
It gets better! Stella came and talked to our social studies classes a few weeks ago, and is coming back again soon. Our students were enthralled with her message of perseverance and hard work. Unfortunately, I missed it because I was working in the technology department that week.
But wait! There's more! Stella has a new book just out "Women Who Live in Coffee Shops, and other stories". It's a collection of 13 short stories, centered around the people who live in the area of 7th Street and Van Buren in Phoenix, with children as narrators. I went out to Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe tonight to hear Stella speak. She is indeed funny and interesting. I finally got a chance to buy a copy so I can start reading it. But this is MY copy because it's signed. We'll have to figure out how to get some money for more copies for the library. So, I'm waiting in line with my copy. Stella is signing books and having a little conversation with each person. I walk up and say my name is JJ. She starts to write it, and jumps up and hugs me. She then tells everyone in line about the video, and everyone's smiling and nodding. Here's the picture of your local librarian and a famous author. I'm the one who's grinning from ear to ear.
Stella will present a "gathering of Phoenix Street Society," as she presents from her new book, WOMEN WHO LIVE IN COFFEE SHOPS AND OTHER STORIES. First Prize Winner of the 2008 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California, Irvine, this collection of short
stories will enchant you as characters romp through Phoenix streets uncovering secrets, confronting demons, telling heart-warming tales, and causing hilarious havoc as they reinvent themselves on "Phoenix's meanest streets."
Changing Hands: 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85283 (480) 730-0205. or contact:
pinna.joseph@changinghands.com
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
