Closing Moment: Thoughts to keep us all going...nevermind the other guy!

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."


In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:


1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.  You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.
For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off."

Reading Comprehension "Fix Up" Strategies

• Pg 51: “Fix Up” Strategies when students get confused on what they are reading from I Read It, But I Don’t Get It:

• Make a connection between the text and your life, knowledge of the world, or another text
• Predict what’s going to happen next
• Stop and think about what you’ve already read
• Ask yourself a question and try to answer it
• Reflect in writing on what you have read
• Visualize
• Use print conventions
• Retell what you’ve read
• Reread
• Notice patterns in text structure
• Adjust your reading rate- slow down or speed up

I just wanted to share a very cool thing about one of your fellow-Fellows:  for her non-fiction portfolio piece, Alisha wrote an op-ed on the importance of teaching students digital citizenship skills, which she submitted to the Portland Press Herald.  The paper's editor(s) chose to run Alisha's piece!  If you didn't see it, click here for a link to this great success.  Congrats, Alisha!

July 2 Part II

   The afternoon is a haze of writing and reading but what I do remember is that after a productive meeting with my writing group and some more writing, Lorrie gathered us in the horseshoe once again for one of her fun grouping protocols. This time the puzzle's ranged from Bugs Bunny (my group), to Frosty, to Moses, to Eisenhower (if you were wondering, here is what an Eisenhower Jacket looks like):

Eisenhower Jacket

We discussed "Because Writing Matters" in groups and debriefed. It seemed that the consensus was that the book needed an update, as much of what it dealt with has become part of the language of schools and what is needed now are examples of implementation and what that looks like.  Last, we perused each other's Portfolio's and got to see the rich diversity of expression our class produced. My closing moment consisted of an intense piece and a a more lighthearted piece by everyone's favorite English teacher turned poet Taylor Mali.

   I am sure I speak for everyone when I offer a most sincere thank you to our mentors/teachers in the writing institute and express heartfelt gratitude for all the learning and creativity that we were lucky enough to bask in throughout the last  week and a half.  Enjoy your summers and don't forget to write!

Tuesday, July 2

Opening Moment: here is a link to Phuc Tran's inspiring talk on the dark side of the subjunctive mood and how the subjunctive and the indicative can unknowingly dictate our outlook: http://tedxdirigo.com/speakers/phuc-tran/.
Planning for August: the most important thing as we're preparing for the fall institute will be to meet in writing groups over the summer to discuss our work for the fall. Make some plans to get together, folks!
We spent the beginning part of the morning working in our mentor groups, allowing for much needed time to plan and create deadlines for summer work.

Title Help!

Greetings, Fellows!

Both Mary and Julie W. are going to be starting blogs as their writing path projects, and because of the vast number of blogs out there, they really need to come up with snappy titles just in order to register with Wordpress. Please help them out by commenting to this post with your genius title suggestions. Julie is going to be blogging about bee-keeping and Mary's focus is professional -- teaching and learning.  Let's make it a contest!  I will come up with some keen-fun and highly sought-after prize for you if you come up with the winning title.  Ready, set, TITLE!

Some random funniness

This was inspired by Lorrie's dry wit, but it is in no way a comment on her own skills as a cosmetologist.  Laugh away . . .