NaNoWriMo 2010

Seasons Greetings:

Yeah, no Kirby blog. Windows can be rather stupid.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you a little bit about about my writing adventure in November.

For those out of the loop, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It's pretty intense to say the least.

Surprisingly enough, I wrote a fantasy this time around. In "Rift," earth had been given magic by otherworldly, benevolent beings. However, when these creatures got killed off by another race, earth started going bonkers.

Of course, having rushed it so much, it came out pretty bad. My current plan is to return to it sometime in the future and re-write it as a graphic novel. Not being an artist, I'd have to hire someone to do the art for me.

I didn't finish my novel but I got pretty close. I stopped a week early because I couldn't decide on an ending.

I want to learn from my mistakes before continuing "Rift." Maybe I'll sign up for a creative writing class next semester.

Merry Christmas,



Me.

Teachers Good and Bad: Part 2/2

Greetings:

It's National Novel Writing Month so I've been writing a lot lately. I'll probably tell you something about my story--and, more importantly, my plans for it--in a few weeks.

Speaking of writing, as you may recall, I wrote last week about some of the negative things I've seen teachers do. Here's my promised follow-up; today, I'll shed some light on some of the things that I believe good teachers do best.

 

Memorizing student’s names.

I’d like to thank the teachers that take the extra time to learn our names. It’s the icing on the cake that shows that they truly care.

A singing teacher of mine once got creative with this. Our class had somewhere between 80 to 100 students. He had to assign our seats so that we would be arranged by height and part during our musical performances. I noticed that he used this to his advantage and started calling us by name shortly thereafter.

Awarding Students with something tangible.

One thing that I liked about preschool was those boards where a teacher would put a sticker by our names for good conduct. I also remember Vacation Bible School where I would get candy or a soda for bringing a Bible to class or inviting a new visitor.

Man, those were the days.

Anyway, why did that go away over the years? I guess getting an “A” is good enough nowadays. I still miss the grade school award system.

Controlling the mood of a classroom.

Mr. Glenn, one of the best school teachers that I've met to this day, took a day off of our regular studies just to tell us about his life story. He wanted us to know exactly where he was coming from. From what he told us, it was apparent that he truly cared for us and honestly deserved our respect.

On the other hand, I’ve always liked the teachers that could make me laugh. It’s easy to pay attention to an educator who doesn’t take him or herself too seriously.

Any teacher who can control the mood of a classroom to his or her advantage gets the highest grade in my book.

Sincerely,

Me.

Teachers Good and Bad: Part 1/2

Happy Halloween:

Before I get started on the real post, I’d like to briefly warn you of the dangers of FireSheep. Rather, I’ll have someone else do it for me. Click anywhere on this paragraph for more information.

Also, next Sunday is the end of Daylights Savings Time. Time falls back an hour. Congrats on getting the extra hour of sleep, everybody.

Finally, tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo. I… don’t know if I’m going to do it or not. I’ll give you more details this November if I do this. Again, click on this paragraph if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, I had to drop a class a few days ago. It was a late-start online class history class. I was looking forward to it, too, since I feel I don’t know as much about the topic as I should.

There were a number of factors that worked into why I dropped the class, but the biggest thing was how poorly the first assignment was written.

I don’t want to get too much into complaining about it, especially since I only had the class for a half-week before I opted out. It just felt like the teacher didn’t prepare his lesson on time. There were multiple versions of the same lesson and some contradictions between the first assignment and the syllabus. It was very confusing.

That being said, it gave me the idea to write about teachers this time around. Specifically, I want to go on a little bit about things that they do that I find notable—both good and bad.

Seeing that I want to finish this before the night is out, I’m going to divide this post in half. Today will be about the bad; next week will be the good.

Humiliating Students.

There is a time and place for everything. Sometimes, I’ll admit, it’s actually appropriate to point out a specific student is nodding off during class and whatnot.

However, there’s a fine line where it goes from being a reasonable punishment to being needlessly nasty. 

For example, I once saw a student being called out of the lunch line because she wasn’t conforming to the proper dress code. That was reasonable, I guess, but then the supervisor started derailing her in front of everyone. 

By the time I was called out of line right to stand right next to her to be shown as an example of someone who was dressed properly... Well, let’s just say that I felt the point was already made long before.

Mind you, this was a school official, not a teacher. However, I’ve seen similar things done in the classroom, too.

Teachers: You can punish us, but just don’t take revenge on us. It's unprofessional and petty.

Lying to Students.

Oy vey, this is a big one. Why do some teachers feel that lying to their students is the only way to keep them motivated?

During my first week at Job Corps, my class was told by a teacher that we’d get in “serious trouble” if we didn’t complete two essays by the end of the week.

I was busy at that time and was only able to finish one of the two. It was a month later when I realized that I hadn't received any punishment outside of a harsh look from the teacher.

It makes me wonder how many former grade school students are unable to find work nowadays because pulling Susana’s hair went on their “Permanent Record.”

Not Researching.

This is similar to the last one except it’s caused by laziness. As my dad sometimes says, “If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage.” Don't teach us students things that you aren't sure are true.

Say what you will about Wikipedia, but I like the website's policy when it comes to citations. Every word is supposed to be linked to a refutable source and phrases such as, “many scientists think…” are typically banned as ‘weasel words.’

I was very young at the time, but I remember a Sunday School teacher who claimed that it was a sin to get angry. One student mentioned reasonable instances where he would get angry; someone beating him up, someone shooting his dad, or some jerk busting down a bathroom door while he was on the toilet. “Nope,” the teacher said, “Jesus was never angry so we should never be angry.”

The following passage rang through my mind:

"12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,  

13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." 

Matthew 21:12-13

Even as young as I was, I knew never to go to that church again. 

Sincerely,

Me.

Movie Music

Greetings:

I was thinking of making a video for this. I don’t have time. Vlogs will have to come later.

Anyway, music is a movie’s best friend. It helps to control the emotion of a scene without being as annoying and forced as a live studio audience.

Because of this, many great movie franchises, such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, are known just as much for their musical score as they are for their most famous scenes.

I’m in college. One of my classes is “Concert Choir.”

This November, we’re doing an even called “A Night of Music from Film.” We’re going to be celebrating a bunch of movies as well as the music that went along with them.

Unfortunately, I recently found out that my grade partially depends on how many tickets I sell.

Yeah. I don’t like it. It’s like having to pay for my grade.

Even so, it sounds like fun. I’m selling the tickets on eBay, although I won’t be making a personal profit from it.  

CLICK HERE for the eBay.

Sincerely,

Me