TSS: 10.24.10

Once again the week is a blur.  I woke up on Monday morning in disbelief that I was starting another work week, and the next thing I knew I was driving home from school on Friday evening - thankful for the weekend.  Despite living at what seems to be the speed of light, I did manage to set aside some time for personal exploration in addition to the typical grading and lesson plans.

Personal:

In an effort to fully live out my motto "Work Smarter - Not Harder" I strive to set aside some time each day to do at least on thing that I truly want to do.  Some days I may only set aside an hour - but other days I am able to devote more significant time to personal pursuits.  This week I managed to spend a few hours going out to dinner and catching up with an old friend.  We always have such fun when we get together; we just wait too long between visits.  I will try to remedy that in the future.

I also took an afternoon and visited the Arboretum to practice taking nature photos during this fall season.  A few of the trees were changing colors, and some of the flower beds had transformed from spring pastels to autumnal colors and I enjoyed meandering through the gardens.  My favorite photo of the day was taken in a section of the park entitled, Monet's Garden.  I felt as though this photo truly captured the essence of this impressionist artist.

Teaching:

Most of the classes this week spent time honing writing skills.  My 9th graders learned how to organize their note cards for a 5-7 page research paper (which I will get to grade over Thanksgiving break) and they are now working on developing their thesis statements.  My 7th graders learned to peer edit and they will be presenting their final Fractured Fairy tales tomorrow (which I will be grading this week).  Eighth graders continue to work on A Midsummer Night's Dream and slowly but surely they are starting to come out of their shells and truly "become" the character while on stage.  It is fun to watch.  

The ninth graders are also reading Fahrenheit 451 and I have enjoyed some lively classroom conversations.  I received a library book this week entitled, It is a Book by Lane Smith, and I thought that it was a perfect read-aloud for these students.  Yesterday I shared the book and it did receive a few chuckles here and there (where do I plug it in?  You don't.  It is a book!  Can you text with it?  No.  Can you wi fi?  No.)  But the theme of this children's book resonates of the society that Ray Bradbury has depicted.  Television, video games, cell phones, and computers are mainstays for youth today -- but an old-fashioned paper book? Not so much.  It does give me cause for concern.

Reading: 

Last week I shared an epiphany: I have not been a fan of chick lit because it is too similar to my own life and when I read I wish to escape life, not relive it.  This has been a true AHA moment for me and somehow I feel liberated.  I am not sure why - but I guess feel as though I am free to read this genre without guilt that I am not reading something much deeper and thought-provoking.  It is ok to read something light for a change.  To that end, I have read three (yes - THREE) books this week.  I finished Round Robin and immediately began reading the first book in the Elm Creek Quilt Novel series, The Quilter's Apprentice.  This book gives the backstory of the main characters and how the Elm Creek Manor was renovated to become a quilter's paradise.  I have also started the third book in the series, The Cross Country Quilters, which is going to introduce me to some new characters to study.  

I also decided that if I was going to read chick lit - then I should include the queen of that genre, Debbie Macomber.  I have only read one of her books in the past, Twenty Wishes (which I reviewed here) and I did enjoy the female fellowship that develops throughout the story.  I did a bit of research and decided that Thursdays at Eight would be a good novel for me to read as "research" for my current Work in Progress. I made a wise choice.  It follows the relationship of four women who meet at the local coffee shop every Thursday morning to encourage and support one another.  They originally met in a journaling class, which explains the structure of the story being told in alternating narrative and diary formats.  It is a quick read, but the characters are developed well and their lives are intriguing enough to keep me interested.

Finally, I also read a scrapbook mystery entitled Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan.  I originally thought I wanted my protagonist to be a part of a dedicated group of women who met on the pretense of cross-stitch, but really got together for fellowship and support.  I have now decided that the flow of the story would work better if they meet to scrapbook instead.  I wanted to do some background reading on crops and workshops to get the flavor of how to write about page layouts, scrapbooking supplies, etc. and I happened to have this book on the shelf.  It is an easy-going cozy mystery that had enough suspense to keep me interested, but I am not sure that there is enough interest to read the remaining two books in the series.  It was fun, however, to read about St. Louis and some of the places in the Midwest with which I am familiar.

Writing:

This "chick lit" epiphany has also freed me to write the stories that I desire to write.  Again, I have always been drawn to read classics and more literary fiction and therefore I did not think that the stories brewing within me were worthy.  Well, no...they are not worthy of an English novel study, but they have worth and I am now looking forward to bringing them to life.  Who knows, perhaps after I have honed my skills in this lighter genre, I might find myself writing something of more substance. But as I heard the other day...."you can't write something good if you don't write"

So in the spirit of living each day to its fullest, I went on an adventure yesterday.  Well, it was an adventure for me.  I attended a regional kick-off meeting for NaNoWriMo.  It was held at the central branch of our local library and I went by myself - not knowing a single person there.  This is a HUGE step out of my comfort zone.  There were about 40 people in attendance and I was thrilled to see that there is no stereotype of a NaNo participant.  There were men and women; teens and retirees; veterans and rookies.  The three leaders were as different as could be - which gave hope that anyone can be a part of this insanity.  The two hour meeting focused on basics of the event, brainstorming ideas for writer's block, and a few group writing exercises.

I am very glad that I attended this meeting yesterday, although I am not sure how many write-ins I will attend during the month of November.  While I embrace the idea of getting together to squelch the feeling of writer's isolation, I am not really a competitor for "most words written in 10 minutes" or "incorporate the idea of fire retardant underwear in your story" (no joke - that was a plotter's plot suggestion).  I may find enough support within my school community.  I currently have 14 students signed up for the event and I am thrilled.  Some are even planning a sleepover on October 31 so that they can start writing promptly at midnight on November 1st.  They are my encouragement.