Grant: A Four-Letter Word?

Finding Funds for Your School

Photo courtesy of Government Grants for Everything

            Well, the So. IL gang just had a delicious lunch at El Maguey.  While the food and company was an end in itself, I realized that as new teachers we have tons of ideas and no funding to allow them to bear fruit.  I’ve heard plenty of my colleagues talk about ever-elusive grants that give them money when they write papers about teaching and what they need to be better at it.

            I decided to go hunting.  The first thing I found was another blog with a basic rundown of how to get grants for your school (what better way to nab that job security?).  Here, Don Peek gives a basic set of guidelines for the entire grant process, along with some helpful tips.  Next, I found a website that appears to be a database of all of the grants already out there.  It’s a little sloppy looking, but I imagine it’s simply overflowing with good, free moneys.  Finally, I found a no-nonsense page with directions on writing the grant proposal.  It has a list of the criteria as well as a list of common pitfalls in grant writing.

            Right about now, I should be saying how this information has me confident in my own grant writing skills, possibly even going so far as to announce my idea for a grant I will be writing.  Nevertheless, grant writing still sounds kind of scary.  When it comes time for me to put on my big boy pants and actually write one of these monstrosities, I will certainly take Peek’s advice and write it with a partner to shoulder the burden and share the success.

Glogster and Prezi: Not Just Alien Babble Anymore

Dynamic Duo of Graphic Representation

Photo courtesy of onirishroad.blogspot.com

            I’ve recently come across two awesome, FREE services that have multiple potential uses in an English (or any) classroom.  Have you ever wanted to do a collage exercise without hauling in 5000 magazines, scissors (yikes!), construction paper and glue?  Glogster allows students to make interactive posters online.  Here is what appears to be a culminating project during a book report unit.  I can see a peer critique element being so awesome when coupled with this site.

Photo courtesy of lauratech-2010.blogspot.com

            The downside of Glogster, is that anyone can use it.  That doesn’t sound like a downside, but when people can post their innermost feelings coupled with their favorite (explicit) songs, some…we’ll call them “interesting…posters get made.  I’m sure there is a way to limit exposure to the more risqué posters, but I haven’t found it just yet.  I think the best bet would be to make a class account and have the students log-in directly to that.  They also have a section specifically for schools that covers a plethora of different topics (both core subjects and problems associated with school-age children).  Even if you don’t use it, looking through it will fascinate you.

            We’ve all had a PowerPoint unit (or sat through one) where everyone’s presentation looks like the same format with different information.  As a teacher, I feel we are already close to spiraling into a black hole of depression.  To avoid letting PowerPoint be the straw that convince the camel to commit suicide, check out Prezi.  What I love about Prezi, is that instead of making a slideshow, you get to build a presentation that is visually dynamic and can be geared specifically toward the subject at hand (and yes, that means more than having a relevant background). 

Photo courtesy of instrucatbles.com

            Click here to get a taste of what these things can look like.  Personally, I think they look absolutely beautiful.  The downside is that if you use the free online version, you had better have some awesome internet speed.  Fortunately, there’s a discount for schools and you can generally convince your school to pay for an account.  Once again, even if you don’t use it for class, you should definitely check it out.  They have plenty of reusable prezis that I’ve already used with great success.

            Check these out and let me know what you think.  Also, if you come up with specific ideas for how you want to use them, please post so we can steal from you!

The Reading Experience

I stumbled upon this comic strip not too long ago, and it really conceptualized some of my past experiences with certain books, especially the kind that you can't put down. I call it the "I'll just read one more chapter and three hours later I'm still reading" phenomenon. Unshelved does a much better job of describing the experience. As English teachers, I'm sure we all have positive relationships with books, so we get it, especially if we have chosen our own reading material. I just wonder how many students "get it." I mean, how deprived are those who have never had the experience of getting lost in a book?

Of course, I am a realist. Not everyone is going to like to read. But something tells me these self-proclaimed book loathers have not always been so disgusted at the written word. Somewhere between early childhood and adulthood the reading experience loses its appeal.

I subbed for KG and the lower elementary grades last fall, and let me tell you, those kiddos are true readers. And authors. And storytellers. And professional liars. Perhaps the lying and storytelling are intricately connected. Anyway....

While subbing for a teacher I borrowed a book to read during prep period entitled Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher. I subbed for the teacher for three days, so I only had the opportunity to read the first half of the text, which was about the the problem (i.e., readicide). I didn't make it to the solution (I've found that problems are much easier to diagnose than they are to "fix" in the teaching profession).

Gallagher explains that many reading experiences, even in the early elementary grades, are test prep related, which contributes to readicide. He also suggests that many teachers over teach novels, which sucks the fun out of reading and leads to readicide. I hope I am not guilty of this nasty offense. I must finish reading the text to find out.

Any general thoughts? Amazing recent reading experiences? Etc. etc.?

The Shortest Stories

Sizing Up a Story

The New Times of San Luis Obispo has been hosting a Fifty-Five Fiction contest since 1987.  The point of the contest is to write a short story in fifty-five words or less.  If it sounds hard, you’re getting the gist.  Especially at first, the mind is inundated with ideas too large to squeeze into fifty-five words.  Here is an example titled “Five Open Books” by Mark Lodge from Los Osos, CA:

75 feet up a vertical granite wall, one hand jammed into a crack to hold my weight, 10 numb toes pressed flat against a flake, beads of sweat make my grip tenuous and eyes sting. Movement captures my attention; a lizard scales the very wall I climb. And then the little creep starts doing pushups.

            My idea is to use this to introduce a short story unit.  I think it would be fun to think-pair-share the stories by reading some examples from past winners, then taking the time to write three each. After this the students would come together in partners and choose one another’s best of the three, then present them to the class.  It would get them talking about their own fiction writing while also reinforcing the idea that word count doesn’t make a story.  It will also push the students to be exact with their language, avoiding that tricky issue some students have of bogging down sentences with adverbs.