Saturday, September 27, 2008

Fall

Fall is an exciting time. Not only is it back to school time where I get all new students and another chance to prove that I can talk to 150 people each day and not be overly self-conscious. It is also the time for the pumpkin carving contest. And it is also time for NaNoWriMo.

Last year my pumpkin was a Death Eater mask. I think my most sucessful pumpkin was the Norse wolf Fenrir. I haven't yet gotten inspired for this year's pumpkin, but I am keeping my eyes open. I think Shane is going to carve with us this year. That will be cool. It's become a sort of Matt-Corey's-chaperones pumpkin carving.

For NaNo, I have an idea, but I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it the way I want. I think once I get going, I might not know what to do with the middle of the story. The middle is always the most difficult for me.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Aztecs

I'm trying to add to my unit on the Aztecs and Mayans. I started a short two week unit last year, and I am not content with everything. I have a PowerPoint on the background of the Aztecs--map, society levels, crops, animals, sacrifice, ballgame, etc. And I have a PowerPoint on the Aztec gods. We also read two sets of myths: creation stories and hero stories. There are three creation stories and two hero stories. Those seemed to go pretty well. I don't have a longer story, though. With Greek I have THE ODYSSEY and OEDIPUS THE KING, but the Aztecs don't seem to have a lengthy tale like that.

I have ordered the movie THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, though I know it's not totally accurate and though I know I don't really want to show a movie. I figured I'd have it on hand if I had a sub or something...

I guess what I want is a project where the students are doing their own discovery learning and work with a partner or small group. Since I have had them do that with the Greeks for the Greek gods and the Greek afterlife, I don't want to have them do that with the Aztec gods or the Aztec afterlife. But nothing else is coming to mind.

I found a pretty interesting website on the Aztecs, though. It's called mexicolore. They have a ton of information, including a story about the Mexican batman.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

My teaching mentor's latest gem

"I'm just thinking in my head."

Honda hybrid







The Way the Wind Blows

So, John Cusick gave my draft to Scott Treimel and didn't even read it himself. Treimel said no, and so that's the end of that. What a huge disappointment. I thought this might be the year I would get a book published. And John was so excited about my story.

Woman said I should send out morre queries right away, but I'm waiting. I'm in mourning for the contract that didn't happen. I'll get back to it soon. It has been over a month now since I got the news. I just haven't been willing to write about it. I also haven't been ready to move on until now. I think I'm nearly over it now.

I am back to working on my serial killer book. I think I have a better narrative than before, but I don't think I have the ending down as much as I want to. M (Woman) gave me some ideas for the climax, which will help with the ending. She is always able to see things that I can't.

Hopefully she'll do NaNo again this year. I finally read her NaNo book from 2006 (2007 was aborted because of my father). Her story was pretty good. She needs work on dialogue, but otherwise, she's a talented story teller. I'm looking forward to writing in November.