Friday, March 31, 2006

homemaker

"One writes to make a home for one’s self, in paper, in time, in others’ minds." – Alfred Kazin

Next deadline: April 7th - article for Northwest Runner

Currently reading: The Last Days of Dogtown, novel by Anita Diamant; and the Spring 2006 issue of Prairie Schooner

This afternoon: teaching English at a local high school

Next week: my intensive week self-directed "Freelance Writing Boot Camp" (no sub days due to Spring Break)

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

father of free verse

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem . . . ."

- Walt Whitman, from the Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Harry Potter vocab list, part II

affably
aghast
airily
albeit
alchemical
amok
aquiver
bade
besotted
brooded/broodingly
chortled/chortling
cleaving
contemptuous
crenellated
cunning
curtly
dawdled
disparate
disquiet
efficacious
envisaged
exerted
feebler
fervently
filigree
furtively
genial/genially
goading
gormless
hastily
haughty
hovel
imperiously
impervious
incantations
incredulously
inexorably
inexplicable
ingenuity
inordinate
intuitive
jocularly
jowls
livid
mirthless
morose
mutinous
oblivious/oblivion
ominous
ostentatiously
pallid
pallor
phial
placidly
pouffe
procure
prodigious
putrid
ramparts
raucous
reminisce
reproving
resolutely
retching
retort
ruefully
ruse
seething
sentry
simpered
sinuously
sodden
sulky
surreptitiously
sycophantically
tersely
travesty
trawled
tripe
uncouth
unplumbed
ursurping
volition
wrest

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

freelance writing and coffee break reading

For the past few months I've been more seriously researching how to establish a presence and earn money as a freelance writer/editor. There is a lot of exaggerated and useless information available in the form of web sites. Here's a brief list of how to get started on this path--from someone who finally figured out where to begin in a low-cost and efficient way. (This assumes that as writer you have proven your successful writing ability through verifiable work experience with businesses &/or non-profit organizations, and you also have some publication credits. Depending on who you want to target as a freelancer, publication may not be necessary.)

1. Join a writer's forum or group. If you live in the Northwest, join www.seattlewritergrrls.org. It's not limited just to women, although that's how it started. Mainly, this is an online email discussion group for learning about issues related to writing jobs, events, and networking opportunities. There are over 1,000 members, so many potential employers are there, along with other great bits of advice. Post any valid writing-related question, and you'll get thoughtful and helpful replies from professionals who've been-there-done-that. It's a great mentoring venue. Be sure to read and understand the discussion/membership guidelines. There is also a Portland Writergrrls chapter, made up of freelance journalists. I've also started a Spokane Writergrrls chapter that's just getting going--with 10 members so far. If you live in the Spokane/CdA area, join at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpokaneWritergrrls/

2. Check out www.mediabistro.com - there's a fee to join and get full access, but you can also get a free subscription to view some areas.

3. Check out the web sites of reputable freelance writers, which are used to promote their services. www.dawnweinberger.com is a very good one (she's the founder of Portland Writergrrls). You can google search for more, but also those who participate in online forums usually include their site address.

4. Do further research through books, classes, workshops, etc. Dawn's website suggests some books. Amazon has a plethora to choose from, but only one really good one is needed. I haven't decided which one I'll purchase yet. I trust Dawn's recommendations.

5. Create a small collection of writing samples to share with editors/publishers either when applying for a job or after you send them your resume and/or query letter. Perhaps even create a blog portfolio to link to online examples of your work or post samples. I always wonder about plagarism is this way, so I scanned published pages of my articles and created picture files that were then uploaded. Some writers pay for web hosting. I'm not even close to this stage yet.

6. Research your local business scene and publications which may provide freelance writing opportunities. Check out the Chamber of Commerce members, weekly and monthly magazines/publications, etc.

* * *
An amusing, even quirky, short story: My God, Is It Raining Hard ... strange and surreal. Worth a short coffee break.

* * *
How many boxes of books do you own? Using small liquor-store boxes, I'd estimate that I have about 10-15. Octavio Butler had 300! She was an African-American science fiction writer who recently passed away. I'm sorry I never heard of her before, but now I want to read Kindred.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Recently published

My article at Associated Content:
Interview with Former Olympian Don Kardong, Lilac Bloomsday Run Founder and Race Director

Vocab Words

from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

apparition
astute
bestial
blithely
bravado
cosseted
derision
dignified
drones
eccentric
enigmatic
enmity
excruciatingly
extricated
exuberantly
furtive
indignantly
irate
jibe
liaison
pestilential
prudent
reluctant
resilient
resolutely
sardonically
secateurs
silhouette
tantamount
vindictive
vivacious


And this is just from chapters 1-14, there's still over 300 pages left to go. This is the list of words that I would pull out to assist secondary students as a reading strategy. Teach to the lowest reader, if in doubt. I'm sure these words would cause pause from the average student, either with pronunciation and/or meaning. Most kids might say they've "heard" of the word, but wouldn't actually be able to use it in his/her own conversation or written work. Moreover, they would probably be nervous to read it aloud with confidence. Some students would rather die than mispronounce a word, where smarty-pants classmates will call out the correct pronunciation right on their heels--or worse, call it out during the reader's pause before attempting it. That is the teacher's role, always to be done with kindness, naturally. It's one thing to have the teacher help you. It's a whole 'nother story when the hottie in the next row does it with the whole class as witness. Depends on the tone of voice used, of course, by the samaritan classmate. In middle school, kids are ruthless and like to show how much they know and others don't.

If Harry Potter were on the secondary curriculum list, Albus Dumbledore's dialogue would be excellent examples for teaching the usage of commas, clauses, and inflection in voice to establish characterization. A challenging sentence diagramming exercise, as well.

lack of work

“Under decentralization, the heat might bet turned down at night or the gym floor might go another year without refurnishing. In the past, if a school made such efforts to save money, the funds would only be sent back to the central office to be spent by someone else. Now it stays where it may mean a part-time reading instructor. When substitute teachers are paid by headquarters, teachers call in sick more often. When money saved on substitutes comes back to the school, absenteeism falls 40%, [William] Ouchi* says.”
- from “Schools take a lesson from big business”, USA Today, 3/9/06
(* Ouchi is a UCLA Management professor)

more from this article . . .

Good or bad?

“Principals at high schools in New York City’s autonomous zone have given up assistant principals, guidance counselors and attendance clerks. But they have been able to add so many teachers with the same budget that the number of students a teacher sees each day has been driven down from 160 to 60, Ouchi says.”

Yikes!! That's an amazing teacher-student ratio; however, I can recall numerous ways that AP's and counselors are important. Who's doing all that work for them, the principal? Or are the teachers doing more administrative and non-instructional duties to compensate for this? And last I knew an attendance clerk was busy making sure there was communication between the school and parents, and keeping track of truancies, etc. That seems important when high school kids are tempted to fool the system.


The Dark Side? . . . Teacher union president gives his 2 cents.


“ ‘Decentralization is a terrible idea that would be a disaster,’ says A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. Too many principals and assistant principals are ‘demigods who take credit for what teachers do and blame teachers for what goes wrong,’ and they would become more ‘mean spirited’ if given the power of the purse, he says.

Decentralization works in industry, Duffy says, because employees can find a similar job elsewhere if they have an abusive boss. ‘You can’t do that in schools,’ he says. ‘You either work there, or you become a welder.’ ”


--Is that really the only two choices for LA teachers? Teacher or welder? Is it really that hostile there? Duffy's comments totally undersell and underestimate the aptitute and work skills of teacher. Educators can apply their talents in numerous ways outside of the traditional teacher position--whether with businesses or non-profit organizations.

A startling example cited in the article -

NYC Catholic schools have a central office staff of 22. The NYC public school system has ten times as many students, which should correlate into 222 central office staff (using the same efficient, less bureaucratic, lean principles). Uh…no. It’s actually 25,500!! Outrageous.

eat, pray, love? sounds good to me

'Eat, Pray, Love' is a dazzling memoir of one woman's 'search for everything' is the title of a Seattle PI article about Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia . . . sounds very interesting. Gilbert's reading in Seattle at Eliot Bay Bookstore on Tuesday evening. I'd go if I lived within an hour's drive. Spokane usually isn't fortunate to get many authors doing their West Coast book tour to make the 1-hour flight east (or 4-5 hr drive) for a reading/book signing.

Monday, March 06, 2006

something i wish was in spokane

...as found at Seattle Weekly.

Shar[e]d Ingredients
Two shows explore the combination of verbal and visual poetry.

husky lovers

No, not large, big-boned people...husky as in the dog breed, those who love huskies.

If you love my Emerson or the general beauty and energy of these happy, strong dogs, you must see the movie Eight Below. (Fun fact: There were 2 dogs for each dog character, so look-alikes to make sure there was a back-up as needed.) See it for the dogs and the scenery, not the human actors. And Disney sure knows how to manipulate music, close-ups, and dog sounds to maximize the emotional impact and trigger audience response. Even my husband felt a tiny bit vaclempt. P.S. The dog known as "Shorty" in the film, looks just like Emerson--except for two same-colored eyes.

And this time of year is Iditarod time. The official web site, sponsored by the Iditarod Trail Committee, even has stuff for teachers to use in the classroom, updates. Some other good Race sites include: Dogsled.com, Cabela's site (Always one of my favorite to check with great daily updates and pictures...they are Jeff King's sponsor, and I met King in 2000 while visiting his husky kennel. Nice guy.), and the Anchorage Daily News.

We take Emerson on his own personalized mini-Iditarod races all the time. On Saturday, he got a 5-mile mountain bike adventure through Manito Park and the surrounding neighborhood--with steep grassy slopes and dirt singletracks. His tongue flapped out of his mouth and his ears bent back just like he was heading towards Nome.

a man named Frank

Fun Quote of the Day:

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin
* found in the online pages of Alaska Amber Brewing Co.

Yesterday, I finished reading Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. I know, I know I'm a gazillion years behind the rage of this book, which won a Pulitzer in 1997. (In my defenese, that was the year I student-taught, graduated from college, and started my first year of full-time teaching--so I have valid excuses for being a little behind in my reading. Although, I did start reading it once. I think I just wasn't in the frame of mind to read it then, nor finish it in time to return to the library.)

I don't claim to have read a plethora of Pulitzer books, but I have read a number of memoirs and can appreciate the strengths of this book which make it stand out from other memoirs.

First, honesty. McCourt does not have to dramatize his personal story, because it has very real gritty and tragic facts. It is what it is. The telling of the history moves swiftly with just the right amount of detail. McCourt, I can imagine, checked facts and details with his brothers and perhaps other relatives, as needed to maintain accuracy. (I haven't researched the writing process behind his memoir, so I may be wrong--but I suppose the answer might be found here.) I don't recall the memoir saying things like, "To the best of my memory..." or other disclaimers. Undoubtedly, when you've endured Ireland the way McCourt has you either have an excellent memory (tragedy being a powerful glue), or you have a bad memory in order to block out the pain and protect the psyche. I believe McCourt has an excellent memory, especially since he recounted many of his childhood anecdotes for his students throughout his career as a high school English teacher.

Second, realistic voice. McCourt uses a narrative voice in his first memoir that isn't one of the enlightened adult looking back, using lyrical prose to dazzle the reader and sensationalize scenes. Rather, the succinctness of the narrative is believable as an adult-voice, and also that of the young McCourt, using present tense--to tell the story as if only a few days or hours removed from the events being described. Juvenile, but not childish. Kids like McCourt grew up fast in order to survive. The language used, word choices and not just the dialetic/slang, is what grounds this authentic, trustworthy voice. My favorite term he uses: "the excitement". I also enjoyed the unflattering and blatantly honest way he describes his experiences growing up Irish-Catholic. The emptiness, his fascination with the stories of the saints, the hypocrisy.

And the third strength (which I sort of mentioned above), is the succinct, concise re-telling. In 363 pages, he recounts his life up to age 19. (The only other memoir I've read which covers as many years is Lillian Helman's.) It's consistently engaging because it's not overloaded, long-winded, or otherwise drawn out with redundant, unneccesary details. And regarding page 364...did McCourt have the idea for his second memoir in mind before his first one went to press, or was the second titled Tis because of page 264? Just a question I have.

So, that's my short review. I think this book would be a hoot to listen to on tape, but I think I've heard just enough Irish brogue to get a sense of it...och.