Norah Colvin

Live Love Laugh Learn … Create the possibilities

Tag: Writing

  • Sugar and Snails: On friendship, fact and fiction

    sugar-and-snails cover

    In this post I am very excited to introduce Anne Goodwin sharing tidbits from her debut novel Sugar and Snails, published just last week by Inspired Quill. It is already receiving rave reviews and I am happy to add my voice to those in praise of it.

    Anne and I have been friends for the best part of two years. I can’t quite remember just how we met but I do remember it was on Twitter and that we hit it off almost immediately. I followed up one of our Twitter conversations with a post and we haven’t looked back. We have enjoyed many wonderful discussions on each of our blogs, and the blogs of others. With Anne’s background in psychology and mine in education there is considerable opportunity for a meeting, as well as divergence, of minds.  I learn from her, I think, as much as she learns from me. Or should that be the other way round?

    On her blog Annecdotal Anne shares reviews of novels she has read and her thoughts about and understanding of the writing process. I have read some of Anne’s recommendations, including “The Examined Life” by Stephen Grosz, which stimulated a great discussion on my blog, including a first guest post by Anne.

    Anne is also a fabulous teller of short stories with over sixty published either online or in print. I must confess I have not yet read all of Anne’s stories but have thoroughly enjoyed each I have read. I think she has a gift for a surprise ending, though she does not employ the technique in every story.  Her style is easy to read with a natural flow of language. Her portrayal of characters shows a depth of understanding that may be attributed to her background in psychology, but the variety of settings and topics displays a much broader understanding of the human condition in different environments and from different cultural backgrounds.

    It is my great pleasure to hand this post over to Anne.

    Anne

    Anne Goodwin: On friendship, fact and fiction

    The year I turned fifty, I wanted to do something special, but a party really wasn’t my thing. Instead, I celebrated with a long distance walk: 190 miles across northern England from the west coast to the east. As the route begins only a few miles from where I grew up, I took the opportunity to meet up with a bunch of old school friends the evening before I set off.

    About a dozen of us got together for a meal in the pub we used to frequent after school. I’d kept in sporadic touch with a few of the women over the years, but some I hadn’t seen since I was fifteen. Although there was some lively conversation, I spent a lot of the time sitting staring, overwhelmed by how I could detect within these middle-aged faces the teenagers they’d once been, and the pleasure of being back among them.

    After hiking across three national parks, meeting up with various friends and family along the way, I reached my destination at Robin Hood’s Bay, exhausted and exuberant. Back home, with a couple of days free before returning to work, I began writing the novel that was to become Sugar and Snails.

    Like many writers, I’m an introvert. I relish my time alone. I need to be able to withdraw into the privacy of my own mind to reboot. But friendship is important to me as well. Those two and a bit weeks of reconnecting with old friends served as a reminder of that, and also that, in the right form, sociability can revitalise me too. It felt so important I dedicated my novel to the coast-to-coasters and old school friends.

    Yet it wasn’t until very recently that I realised that my novel was itself a celebration of friendship. Of course I’d given my main character friends but, in my head, I didn’t distinguish them from other people who drive the plot forward: a troubled student; her difficult boss; the social worker who found her a place at boarding school at fifteen. Maybe, because Diana herself doesn’t fully trust her friends, I wasn’t able to appreciate them either.

    Two of her friends are crucial to the story and, although they never meet, they are brought together strongly in Diana’s mind early on. Attending a dinner party to mark the forty-fifth birthday of her best friend, Venus Najibullah, Diana is asked to pop upstairs to tell Venus’s daughter a bedtime story. In response to the seven-year-old’s insistence on a story about “when you were a little girl going on adventures”, Diana finds herself lost in the memories of Geraldine Finch “the girl who ruled my childhood”.

    As with many childhood friendships, Diana recalls an intense connection with Geraldine as the pair absorbed themselves in dressing up for role-play games. But as they approached their teens, Geraldine proved fickle, neglecting her playmate in favour of other friends, unless there was something she wanted. The friendship ends abruptly in what appears to be a betrayal, followed by Diana’s departure for boarding school a few months later. But it would be premature to regard this strand of the novel as about the dark side of female friendship. From the vantage point of adulthood, Diana might come to view this childhood friendship differently, just as the reader might gain a different perspective on learning more about the character of Diana.

    Meeting for the first time aged eighteen, Diana is somewhat intimidated by Venus until she discovers they have something in common:

    On my first Sunday night at university, I was en route from the bathroom to my study-bedroom in the student halls, clutching a damp towel and my quilted wash-bag to my chest like a shield. My gaze levelled at my fluffy primrose slippers peeping out from under the hem of my stripy galabeyah as I shuffled along the corridor. I didn’t notice the other girl until I’d almost bashed into her: tall, with a cascade of ebony hair and skin the colour of butterscotch.

    I made to move on, but the girl blocked my path, looking down her long nose at me from beneath heavy eyebrows: “You do realise that’s a man’s galabeyah you’re wearing?” Her voice was as haughty as the girls’ at Dorothea Beale, with an exotic lilt that brought to mind the rhythms of Cairo.

    No doubt I blushed. At boarding school I’d kept it hidden in my trunk. But university promised another chance and, besides, who was going to be able to tell the difference between a traditional Arab shift and an ordinary nightgown? Who, apart from this arrogant girl who was scrutinising me like I was an exhibit in the Egyptian Museum?

    I glanced down at the loose cotton gown I’d picked out with my dad at the Khan el Khalili three years before. “That’s what I like about it,” I told the girl. “A dress that’s meant for a man.”

    A wide smile softened her features. “Fair enough, although I prefer a dash of frill myself.” It was only then that I recognised her floor-length lilac robe as another galabeyah, trimmed with lace around the neckline, with pearl buttons where mine fastened with bobbles of cord. “I’m Venus Najibullah, by the way. Come back to my room and I’ll make you a coffee and you can tell me how an English girl came by such a thing already.”

    Yet, although they become close friends, and remain so for years, Diana can’t tell Venus the full story of her trip to Cairo, fearing rejection if she does. She’s become so accustomed to presenting a false self to the world, she genuinely wouldn’t know how to share the secret of her past. Over the course of the novel, she has to take a risk to discover whether she can trust Venus with a more authentic version of who she is.

    When Norah first offered me a guest slot on her blog, I thought I’d write something more closely tied in to the theme of learning. Yet when she showed me the draft of her lovely introduction, I knew this was the right way to go. To both give and receive friendship is something best learnt through experience but, to do so, we have to be prepared to take the risk of being rebuffed.

    Norah is a prime example of the wonderful new friends I’ve found through writing, and I’ve been especially touched by the support I’ve received from friends, old and new, online and off-line, as I publish my debut novel. Tonight I’ll be at the second of my book launch parties along with a few blog/Twitter friends I’ll be meeting in person for the first time. Norah can’t be there, but I’ll be conscious of her presence in spirit, as well as that of other dear friends from across the continents. A few of those “old school friends” to whom I have dedicated my novel will be there, however, closing the circle of friendship that is a central theme both of my novel and my journey to write it.

    Anne Goodwin author photo

    Anne Goodwin writes fiction, short and long, and blogs about reading and writing, with a peppering of psychology. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was published last week by Inspired Quill. Catch up on her website: annethology or on Twitter @Annecdotist.

    blog tour week2

     

    Thank you, Anne, for sharing your thoughts. I am delighted  to join in the excitement of your publication celebrations. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Sugar and Snails and am happy to recommend it to others.

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

     

  • Learning fun for the holidays, without a slide in sight!

     

    Alanspeak, A slide for children to play on https://openclipart.org/detail/191139/childrens-slide
    Alanspeak, A slide for children to play on https://openclipart.org/detail/191139/childrens-slide

    A week or two ago my good friend Sarah Brentyn who blogs at Lemon Shark (Navigating the uncharted waters of parenting and life) raised the issue of students having required reading over the summer holidays. Sarah recalled that when she was at school she had lists of books to read, and book reports to complete as proof of having done so. She expressed concern that no holiday reading is currently required of her school-age sons.

    nlyl, reading man with glasses https://openclipart.org/detail/3133/reading-man-with-glasses
    nlyl, reading man with glasses https://openclipart.org/detail/3133/reading-man-with-glasses

    The basis for Sarah’s concern is what is known as “the summer slide”, the loss of skills, especially reading, if not practised over the long summer holidays.  Studies show what teachers observe: that students start a new school year with skills at lower levels than just a few months earlier. Revision and review of the previous year’s work must be factored in before new work can be commenced.

    Sarah wasn’t so much concerned for her sons who are avid readers and will read regardless of whether it is required or not. Knowing Sarah, her sons will also benefit from an environment enriched with a variety of other learning experiences. All children could benefit from the types of support and encouragement Sarah provides for her sons.

    Sarah’s concern was for children who don’t choose reading as a holiday activity. She believes children should continue to learn over the holidays, and does not understand why learning can’t be fun. I agree with Sarah. However I am a bit ambivalent about the requirement that particular books be read, and probably am not in favour of asking that book reports be submitted.

    CoD_fsfe_Books_icon

    There was never any set reading to be done over the holidays when I went to school, or when my children went to school, and I am not aware of any such requirement of children attending school currently in Australia. The fact that it is not a requirement doesn’t make it either right or wrong. It is simply a new concept to me.

    I would be reluctant to set homework for completion over the holiday period, especially the summer holidays for a number of reasons, including:

    • students will be moving to a new class and teacher, some even to a new school, after the holidays and that teacher may not view the set work in the same way
    • students have spent the school year reading, writing and performing other activities required of them, activities that may have little relevance or interest to them
    • students may spend the holiday period in alternate activities and then rush or “fudge” required tasks, seeing them simply as work that must completed, rather than something they want to do
    • I think children need time to follow their own pursuits and interests without having to fill in a worksheet to say what they have done
    • I think children and their families need some time together without the stress of completing set tasks
    • I think it is important for children to have time to wonder, imagine and create, to be comfortable in their own company, devising their own plans and schedules and activities, some of which may be just down time (the ability to relax in an ever-hurried world is very desirable).

    gardening

    But, like Sarah, I wouldn’t always be leaving children to their own devices, allowing them to wander the bush and beach from daylight till dusk as I did during the school holidays (when I wasn’t reading a book, playing games with siblings or friends or doing household chores). I would be mindful of their activities, ready to make suggestions, provide experiences or encourage other interests; but the direction would always be theirs and never forced or “required”.

    However I am equally as keen to avoid the occurrence of that “summer slide”. As my contribution towards its prevention while also promoting the notions that learning is fun and that opportunities for it abound, I link to three of my previous posts:

    20 suggestions for maintaining reading momentum during the school holidays

    Let the children write! 20 suggestions to get children writing during the school holidays

    Counting on the holidays!

    While I reproduce the suggestions from each post here, each set of suggestions is also available as a free downloadable PDF in my TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS store. For your convenience, I have provided a link to each in the headings below:

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/174860/bookworm_penguin.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/174860/bookworm_penguin.png

    Reading

    1.  Read to and with your child every day – continue the practice established throughout the year with special sharing times during the day or at bed-time — or both!
    2. Demonstrate that you value reading by making time for your own reading, or setting aside a special quiet time when everyone in the family reads.
    3. Visit the library and borrow to read, read, read!
    4. Read poetry books, song books, picture books, joke and riddle books, crossword books, information books, chapter books (these can be read to younger children, or with older children – taking turns to read a page or a chapter each) — what are your favourites?
    5. Trade books no longer read for others at a second-hand book store.
    6.  When dining out, have your children read the menu and choose their own meal.
    7. Include your child in holiday cooking and have them read the recipe – ingredients and method. Perhaps they could read the recipe book to select the meal for the day.
    8. Suggest your child read the TV guide to find when favourite programs are showing and establish a timetable for viewing, rather than haphazard watching with random flicking through channels.
    9. Provide your child with bookstore catalogues and encourage them to read book descriptions to guide their next selection.
    10. Bestow upon your child the title of ‘Family weather watcher’ and have them consult weather forecasts in the newspaper or online to select the most suitable days for planned outings and activities. 
    11. Include your child in making decisions about holiday activities. Give them the guide, or read the guide together and jointly choose the activities.
    12. Make the library, museums and art galleries high on the list of must-dos. Many of these offer a wonderful assortment of free holiday entertainment for children, and reading is an essential part of getting the most from each visit! 
    13. Engage your child in some craft activities which require them to follow written instructions. The ability to understand and follow procedures is empowering and requires the ability to read written, as well as visual, instructions.
    14. Encourage your child to ask questions about every day events and phenomena. Help them to research in books at home, in the library or on the internet. 
    15. Provide eBooks as well as books in print. Good ones bring a new dimension to the reading experience.
    16. When going out for the day, or journeying further away on a holiday, support your child in locating destinations on a map and in selecting an appropriate route. Engage your child in giving directions while en route. 
    17. Include your child when reading bus or train timetables.
    18. When doing the family grocery shop, give your child their own list of items to look for. 
    19. Listen to recorded books on long car journeys, or have books for listening to or reading along with in bed.
    20. Make the most of every reading opportunity that occurs throughout the day!

     

    https://openclipart.org http://goo.gl/ZvsCFc
    https://openclipart.org
    http://goo.gl/ZvsCFc

    Writing

    1. Use adhesive notepaper to write messages to your child and encourage your child to write a message back.
    2. Encourage children to write letters or emails, cards or postcards to grandparents, aunties, uncles and friends. These can be to inform them of the holiday or the year’s activities, or to thank them for a visit or gift.
    3. Demonstrate that you value writing by making time for your own writing, e.g. keeping a diary, writing letters and cards to family or friends, writing a shopping list.
    4. Display a message board prominently in the home and list important events, reminders and messages. Encourage your child to add their own messages to the board.
    5. Provide a calendar or diary and ask your child to note family birthdays, holidays and events for future reference.
    6. Encourage your child to keep a diary in which important events and feelings are noted.
    7. Play word games e.g. Scrabble and other crossword games; Boggle or ‘hangman’. (If you don’t like the connotation of ‘hangman’, give each player ten counters to start with. Each time an incorrect guess is made, they give away a counter. If all counters are used then they miss that word.)
    8. Write poems and songs together.
    9. Encourage children to write and perform ‘plays’ for the family.
    10. Take photos of events during the day and use them to make a photo book. This can be done instantly on a computer with photos taken using a phone or tablet and emailed with accompanying text.
    11. Insert photos from a phone, digital camera or tablet into a slideshow program such as PowerPoint, then add text to create a digital story or record. With one click these can be saved as an automatic show or MP 4 video.
    12. Involve children in planning the weekly meals by selecting recipes for a menu they write, and for which they create a shopping list of required ingredients.
    13. Write rebus messages to your children and ask them to write a rebus message back, e.g.                 I think you are great
    14. Invite your child to create lists e.g. activities they would like to do over the holidays, movies they would like to see or friends they would like to invite to a sleep over.
    15. Encourage your children to write the step-by-step instructions for making a craft item they have just designed, or to write down the rules for a game so that everybody is sure how to play.
    16. Suggest that your child write down questions they would like answered, and then write the information discovered during research (by interviewing or asking people, reading books or internet search).
    17. Suggest to children that they make a storybook for a younger sibling or friend.
    18. When going out for the day, or journeying further away on a holiday, children could be asked to write directions for the journey as discovered by consulting paper or online maps.
    19. Help children to set up and maintain a blog to create a record of activities and events to be shared with family and friends. The posts could be regular e.g. daily or weekly, or follow particular activities.
    20. Make the most of every writing opportunity that occurs throughout the day!
    Moini, sleuth penguin https://openclipart.org/detail/221475/sleuth-penguin
    Moini, sleuth penguin https://openclipart.org/detail/221475/sleuth-penguin

    Maths

    Number and place value

    1. Count items e.g. birds in the sky, shells collected from the beach, people for lunch, steps in a staircase, windows on a house, seats in a bus . . .
    2. Count out the cutlery required for each person at dinner
    3. Include your child in shopping activities by helping them to:
    • Recognise the coins and notes
    • Count the value of coins and notes
    • Predict whether they have enough money to purchase an item, and whether there will be change
    • Tender the money in payment for an item

    4. When your child is sharing e.g. the biscuits, balloons or slices of fruit, ask them to:

    • Predict if there will be enough for everyone to have one, or more than one each
    • Share out the items, allocating the same number to each
    • Determine if there are any left over and what to do with them

    5. Use terms like half and quarter correctly, e.g. when cutting apples, oranges, sandwiches, pizza, to indicate pieces of equal size

    6. Play games that involve counting, e.g. counting the number of skips, balls in hoops, pins knocked down or dice games like snakes and ladders that require adding as well as number recognition and counting

    7. Make up number stories e.g. “We had five apples in the bowl. I ate one, and you ate one, how many are left?”

    8. Read books with number concepts e.g. Pat Hutchins The Doorbell Rang, Eric Carle Rooster’s off to see the world  or Kim Michelle Toft One Less Fish

    Patterns and algebra

    1. Use items to make patterns e.g. sort and create a pattern from shells collected at the beach, building blocks or toy cars
    2. Look for patterns in the environment e.g. fences, tiles, walls and window, zebra crossings
    3. Decorate cards and drawings with a patterned frame
    4. Make gift wrapping paper by decorating with potato prints or stamp patterns

    Measurement and geometry

    1. Include your child in cooking activities and allow or support them to:
    • measure the ingredients
    • set the temperature on the oven
    • work out the cooking finish time
    1.  A child’s understanding of volume and capacity can be developed when they:
    • pour glasses of water from the jug and discuss terms such as enough, full, empty, half or part full, more, less
    • pour from one container into another of a different shape to compare which holds more and which holds less
    1.  Scales can be used to compare the mass of different items or quantities e.g. compare an apple and an orange, measure the mass of butter required for a recipe
    2.  Measuring length can be included by:
    • measuring and comparing height
    • cutting a length of string to tie a package
    • measuring who is closest to the jack in a backyard game of lawn bowls
    1.  Use the calendar to
    • Learn the names and sequence of days in the week or months in the year
    • count the passing days or the number of days until an event
    1.  Identify shapes in the home and environment e.g.
    • 2D shapes: tiles on floor and walls, shapes of windows, sections of footpath
    • 3D shapes: cereal boxes (rectangular prism), balls (sphere), bottles or cans (cylinder), dice (cube)
    1.  Play games that involve shapes e.g. jigsaw puzzles, tangrams
    2.  Talk about directions e.g. left, right, forwards, backwards and follow directions on a grid
    3.  Play games that involve directions and movement in space e.g. battleship,Hokey Pokey,Simon Says, snakes and ladders, ludo
    4.  Read and discuss books that include measurement concepts e.g. Pamela Allen:Who Sank the Boat?(volume); Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (days of the week) and The Bad Tempered Ladybird (time); Penny Matthews and Andrew McLean A Year on our Farm (months and seasons); and for looking at places on a map Mem Fox Sail Away The ballad of Skip and Nell or Annette Langen & Constanza Droop Letters from Felix

    Probability and statistics

    1. When discussing the weather or desired activities include the language of probability e.g. possible, certain, likely, unlikely, impossible
    2. Encourage children to collect data about family or friends by asking yes/no questions e.g. do you like swimming, or making a graph of the family’s favourite colour or meal.
    3. Play games with spinners and dice and talk about the likelihood of spinning or throwing a particular number.

     

    I hope these activities demonstrate how easy it is to maintain learning while having fun over the holidays. I’m sure you will have many more favourites of your own.

    Thank you

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

  • Five Photos Five Stories — Day three

    Back to Day one (books) and introduction to the challenge

    Back to Day two (writing)

    Break out!

    With this post I am going to “kill two birds with one stone” (though why I would want to kill any birds is beyond me).

    I am posting a Day three photo and story in response to the challenge set by Geoff Le Pard, and responding to the flash fiction prompt set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about an animal rescue.

     

    My children had pet-deprived childhoods. It could hardly have been any other way. Both their parents also had pet-deprived childhoods. I know all the theory about pets helping to develop responsibility, caring for others and compassion and I’m all for it. But with that responsibility comes restriction, and I’m not all for that. For me, a pet-free childhood led to a pet-free adulthood. I’m not certain that I am any less responsible, caring or compassionate as a result.

    While Rob may have had the occasional goldfish or Siamese fighting fish and Bec may have had guinea pigs, mice and rats at different times they never got over the deprivation of not having a real pet, of not having a puppy. As soon as the opportunity arose, they each adopted their own puppy. This is a photo of Bec’s puppy.

    My flash fiction deals with a situation in which a rescue is required. I realise that once again I have gone dark rather than light. Apologies. I hope you enjoy it.

    Break out

    Your wide-open eyes fix on me through bars, imploring and accusing at the same time.

    Why am I here? Don’t leave me! I don’t – want – to be here! I want – to go – home!

    My heart tightens in a vice-like squeeze. My palms sweat and hands tremble.

    I meet your stare with overwhelming hopelessness and helplessness.

    I didn’t know . . . I thought . . . I never meant . . . I thought it would help. 

    They close the door, turn the key and lead you away.

    “Damn those rules!” I scream silently, futilely planning your rescue.

    ***

    Today I nominate the lovely compassionate Bec who blogs intermittently at There’s No Food and engages in discussions with challenging suggestions and new ideas in comments on my blog while working diligently towards completing a PhD in Environmental Management.

    ! also nominate the wonderful awe-inspiring multi-tasking Charli Mills to take up the challenge if she so wishes. As well as being a very talented writer and generous supporter of my blog, she also posts beautiful photo stories on a second blog Elmira Pond Spotter.

    The rules of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

    1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
    2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
    3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. This is fun, not a command performance!

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

     

     

  • Five Photos Five Stories – Day two

    Back to Day one and introduction

    What am I?

    One may wonder why I have responded to Geoff Le Pard‘s challenge almost immediately when there are other invitations that have lain opened but unanswered for longer than I like to admit. For example, some months ago Anne Goodwin tagged me in a writing process blog hop. She shared the what, how and why of her writing process and invited me to share mine. She applied no pressure or time constraints and neither nudged me to comply nor chastised me for not having done so.  Not quite as long ago Sherri Matthews tagged me in a work space blog hop. She shared beautiful images and descriptions of her delightful Summerhouse writing space and invited me to share mine. Sarah Brentyn then shared some questions for writers that I hinted I might answer, but haven’t yet.

    Why the procrastination?

    1. I’m still figuring out what kind of writer I am and how to describe my process.
    2. My writing space isn’t all that exciting. It’s a just a laptop sitting on a desktop that is cluttered with books and other paraphernalia waiting to be organised or dealt with, and surrounded by shelves filled with more of the same; not a bad analogy to my writing process perhaps.
    3. I’ve been working in other quadrants, dealing with ‘easier’ stuff as it arises.

    As with Geoff’s challenge, responses to these blog hops are not compulsory and there is no set time-frame but I do wish to, and do intend to, answer them. Thank you Anne, Sherri and Sarah for your patience. I will get there. Eventually.

    My writing space 14 May 2015
    My writing space 14 May 2015

    My procrastination is in part due to the way I view myself as a writer.

    I find it difficult to define the “type” of writer I am. That I am a writer is true. But what kind? I wonder if I am a writer without a label, without a box?

    Perhaps if you can help me answer this I’ll be more confident about joining in conversations about writing.

    I am not a novelist, not a poet, not a biographer or an auto-biographer, not a picture book writer . . . I am an educational writer, incorporating something of each genre.

    I remember doing a psychometric test at some past time. The results suggested that a desire to be everything to everybody would be my undoing. Perhaps that is also an issue with my writing?

    Sometimes when asked by other writers what type of writing I do, for want of another label I refer to myself as an educational writer. I immediately feel a shrinking away as if educational writing isn’t ‘real’ writing and I’m perhaps not a “real” writer.

    “Oh educational writing,” they judge, “that’s so prescriptive. It’s not creative.”

    Sure I have done my share of prescriptive writing. The “writing” for which I have been employed for the past three years is definitely prescriptive – more cross the “t”s and dot the “i”s without a modicum of creativity; and as my list of publications shows, I have written workbooks for other publishers, “prostituting” myself one kind-hearted friend suggested. But there are worse ways to earn a living, right?

    I don’t consider my self-initiated educational writing as prescriptive. Most of what I write is designed to encourage thinking, problem solving, creativity, interest in a variety of topics, or develop literacy and numeracy skills, but definitely not in a structured, skills-oriented, prescriptive approach. I write fiction, non-fiction and poetry; and open ended materials that encourage children to question. I love to add a touch of humour where possible and mostly aim for engaging materials that motivate thinking and learning.

    My current writing schedule involves writing content for this blog and for an in-progress online store of early childhood educational resources.

    So, what sort of writer am I?

    There is one I know I am not. I am not a songwriter.

    I nominate Anne Goodwin, Sherri Matthews and Sarah Brentyn to take up this Five Photos Five Stories challenge if and when they so choose. But they need to be aware that I require no more of them than they have expected of me!

    The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

    1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
    2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
    3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. This is fun, not a command performance!

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

  • Five Photos Five Stories – Day one

    For the love of books

    This week I was surprised to be nominated by, writer extraordinaire, Geoff Le Pard in a Five Photos Five Stories challenge. Geoff blogs at TanGental where he shares numerous and beautiful photos of his garden, family, travels and adventures. He writes an eclectic assortment of prose and poetry, memoir and fiction, with content both challenging and humorous. He also posts at the speed of light with at least one post each day. I can understand why the challenge would appeal to Geoff.

    I’m not like that. I tend to stick to my routine of two posts each week and write mainly expository text about education with a response to a flash fiction prompt by Charli Mills thrown in. I rarely write explanations of or stories about photos and mostly use photos to support and add interest to the page. Why would Geoff nominate me?

    Well it seems Geoff must have known something about me that I didn’t, as I have decided to throw caution to the wind and join in the challenge.

    The rules of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

    1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
    2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
    3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. This is fun, not a command performance!

    For my first photo I have chosen, and you won’t be surprised, books:

    books

    These are just a few of my favourites. As you can see I have chosen a range including picture books and chapter books for children and both fiction and non-fiction titles for adults. There are others that should have been there but I could not fit my entire collection into one photo!

    Books have always been an important part of my life and I think a love of reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures. My love of books and reading is one of the reasons, if not THE reason I feel so passionately about education and the teaching of literacy. Sharing a learner’s excitement at becoming literate is both an honour and a joy. I have been privileged to share that excitement with many children during my teaching career, and of course with my own two children who both learned to read well before starting school.

    I have written about the importance of reading many times before, including here, here, and here.

    For this post, and for this photo, I will share ten totally random recollections of books and reading from my younger years.

    I remember:

    • books as gifts for Christmas and birthdays
    • an expedition to the council library, a six-kilometre walk there and back, each Saturday afternoon for an armful of books to read during the week
    • being deaf to the world when totally absorbed in a book for hours on end (particularly so when there were jobs to be done)
    • the eagerness of wanting to get to the end of a book and the sadness and reaching the last page
    • the excitement of finding the next book in a series or by a favourite author
    • marvelling at words and phrases for the imagery or feelings they evoked
    • enjoying an author’s style and trying to emulate it by writing and writing and writing, and wishing to one day be an author too
    • the smell of new books
    • tracing the embossed lettering on the hardcover when the jacket was removed
    • being fiercely protective of my books and having a great dislike of seeing them torn or marked
    • the joy of ownership

    And now I nominate the lovely Michelle James who blogs at Book Chat to take up this challenge if she so wishes. Her love of books is at least as great as my own!

    Thank you

     

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

  • The power of words

    writing

    The ability to learn language always amazes me. Given a supportive environment most young children will learn the language of the home effortlessly; forming their own hypotheses about its use and very quickly understanding the complexities of language structures and nuances of meaning.

    I am also impressed by the fluency and comprehension of many for whom English is not their first language. I briefly touched on some of the difficulties experienced even by users of English as a first language in a previous post about spelling.  Sometimes I wonder that communication is possible at all, especially when considering local idioms and sayings that make little sense out of context, but largely go unnoticed. What must a new speaker of English  think when encountering “Bite the bullet, break the ice, butter someone up, or even bring a plate”.

    How difficult it must be too, when words, like vice for example, have multiple meanings.

    This week at the Carrot Ranch Charli Mills has been talking about vice. Her article is about the not-so-pleasant type of vices. As usual, I like to be the contrarian and consider alternative viewpoints. That might be considered one of my vices. Sometimes I laugh when a thought takes me to a context far away from a speaker’s intended message. Other times I fail to see the intended humour, reading beneath the surface intent to hidden messages.

    To illustrate this I will use two recent examples:

    bicycle

    The cyclist and the flight attendant

    He: a cyclist, just entering the last third of his life (about 60, give or take 5 years)

    As his bike was being loaded onto the plane he explained that he had ridden from Alice Springs to Uluru, the long way. (I’m not sure of the distance of the long way, but the direct way would be more than long enough for me!)

    Alice Springs to Uluru

    She: a flight attendant still in the first third of her life (about 25, give or take 5 years)

    “That’s so awesome! I hope I continue to exercise all my life.”

    I didn’t hear his response; I was laughing too hard: the innocence and blindness of youth. How well I remember thinking anyone over about thirty was at death’s door. What amuses me now is the number of people my age who think we are much younger than those of the previous generation at the same age. I think the blindness and selective sight continues throughout life.

    Of course I interpreted her words to mean: “You’re so old. I can’t believe you could do that. I hope I can still exercise when I am as old as you!”

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    The joy of fatherhood?

    Waiting for the same flight was a father and his daughter, approximately two and a half years of age. The daughter was doing what any child of that age would do: looking around, exploring a short distance away from dad before returning to his side. From what I could see she was doing no harm and was perfectly safe. It was a small airport, she could not wander far.

    Each time she moved away he barked a short command at her. Although his words were not familiar to me, I had no difficulty interpreting them. As with most children, sometimes she heeded them, sometimes she didn’t. Sometimes he repeated the command, or retrieved the child. Sometimes he didn’t.

    Then I saw his t-shirt and read the word emblazoned on the front. I am a reader. Sometimes I wish I were not. The words read, “Guns don’t kill people, Dads of daughters do”.

    I have never “got” the need for messages on apparel, and definitely not a message as negative as this. I assume it was meant to be amusing, but I could see no humour in it. Maybe he didn’t understand the message underlying the words (he was speaking in a language other than English). Maybe I read too much into it. Apparently though, according to this Google search, there is a sizable market for shirts and products extolling these sentiments, some even with the inclusion of the word “pretty”.

    My interpretation of the subliminal message is one of acceptance of a number of vices, and my belief is that until we can obliterate the insidiousness of messages such as these from the common psyche, our society won’t much improve. To me the message commends: disrespect for others, sexism, murder, violence, antagonistic relationships between parent and child/father and daughter, an absence of nurturing, an acceptance that children are difficult and a burden . . .

    Perhaps I should stop there. I think this father and daughter team would be prime candidates for the early learning caravan project I wrote about recently. I would love to help this father see, not only the power in his words, but the treasure his daughter is and the importance of their relationship.

    As I’ve explained, I sometimes see humour in words where it’s not intended, and fail to see it where it is. I’ve attempted to include humour in my flash response to Charli’s challenge to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes a vice, by using three different meanings of the word. I’ll be interested to know if my “humour” matches yours, but won’t be surprised if it doesn’t!

    This one is definitely not about Marnie!

     

    Vice-captain

    She almost danced along the verandah. What would it be: medal, certificate, special recommendation?

    The door was open but she knocked anyway.

    “Come in.” The command was cold. A finger jabbed towards a spot centre-floor.

    Confused, her eyes sought the kindness of the steel blue pair, but found a vice-like stare.

    She obeyed.

    “In one week you have led the team on a rampage:

    Smashing windows

    Uprooting vegetables

    Leaving taps running

    Graffiting  the lunch area . . .

    We thought you were responsible. What do you have to say for yourself?”

    “But sir,” she stammered, “You made me vice-captain!”

     

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • All aboard the early learning caravan!

    school cropped

    This week at the Carrot Ranch Charli Mills described a century old schoolhouse which adjoins her property. She is hoping that someone will buy it and make it a meeting place for the community, recognising the role it had to play in the education of generations past as well as its contribution to the history of the area. Her thoughts about the schoolhouse led her to thinking of community engagement and neighbourly relationships which, in turn, inspired her flash fiction challenge for this week, to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about nurturing a neighborly relationship.

    I would have loved the little schoolhouse at Elmira Pond as the base for the alternative school I hoped to establish at the end of last century. The schoolhouse has a nice community feel to it, unlike many of the large brick, concrete jungle-type schools into which one can almost dissolve in a sea of sameness. Charli’s schoolhouse/community centre would also be a great meeting place for parents with their young children; a friendly early learning centre for both.

    8-12-2013 7-38-33 PM

     

    Based on my beliefs that:

    • parents are a child’s first and most important teachers;
    • the most important years of a child’s development are the years before school;
    • children who enter school with rich vocabularies, an interest in the world around them, and a love of books are primed to succeed;
    • children without those experiences are disadvantaged in their learning right from the start and face an enormous challenge in catching up;
    • waiting until children enter school is too late;
    • the best way to minimise or eliminate the disadvantage is by educating parents through programs that model effective parenting behaviours and support them in their interactions with their children;
    • parenting programs offering those types of support would be most effective if begun before birth of the children and continued at least until the child enters school, maybe beyond;
    • most parents want to do the best for their children, many just don’t know how to go about it.

    There are any number of birthing classes, but not many that aim to support parents in nurturing their child’s development. In my opinion, investing time and money into developing programs such as these would have enormous benefit, not only to individual children and their parents, but to society as a whole.

    I am not talking about programs that place children of increasingly (or should that be decreasingly) younger years into structured and formal “teaching and learning” situations. I am not talking about one-off talks or series of lectures to parents.

    Many of the parents of children who begin school with the types of disadvantage I have mentioned are themselves products of similar disadvantage. In a previous post I discussed the roles of “nature” and “nurture” in a child’s development. In these cases especially, it can be difficult to tease out the differences. Many of these parents would not have positive feelings towards schools or any other public institution and may feel threatened, or reluctant for other reasons, to attend sessions in public halls or government offices.

    What I am talking about is a program that:

    • goes to the parents and children in their neighbourhoods, meeting in a local park or community greenspace, on regular weekly occasions;
    • invites parents to talk with, read to and play with their children using provided books, games and toys;
    • models positive parenting behaviour, explaining to parents the benefits to their children of engaging with them in activities and discussions;
    • provides suggestions for inexpensive and easy activities to do at home;
    • encourages borrowing from a book and toy library.
    Guiding parents in play sessions for parents and children.
    Guiding parents in play sessions for parents and children.

    I envision the program being delivered by an early children trained educator who is sympathetic to the situations and demands of people from diverse backgrounds, who is warm and supportive with good interpersonal skills with both adults and children, who drives a mobile early learning centre fully-equipped with books, toys, games, paper, pens and craft materials, including items for borrowing and distribution for activities to be done at home.

    I see the centre as a brightly painted caravan with doors that open wide to display a colourful and engaging assortment of resources to delight the interests and eyes of young children and their parents.  As the caravan travels into each neighbourhood it would play music to signal its arrival (think of the old icecream vans!) inviting parents and children to come, investigate, and join in.

    caravan

    Thinking about the excitement that such a program may stimulate in a neighbourhood, and the sense of community and belonging it may encourage, led me to write about it for my response to Charli’s prompt.

    I hope you enjoy it.

    www.openclipart.com
    http://www.openclipart.com

    The caravan

    Children waited anxiously at windows and front garden fences.

    Mothers and fathers hurried to complete the last of their chores.

    Others, already at the park, were unable to wait.

    Ears strained, listening for music signalling, “It’s time!

    Suddenly “Girls and boys come out to play!” announced the arrival of the brightly painted caravan.

    “Come on!” urged children, tugging at skirts, trousers and hairy legs.

    “Come on!” chimed parents, downing cloths and brooms. Clasping small hands they whisked them out.

    Everyone watched as the doors of the caravan opened; ready for fun: stories, games and much to explore!

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

  • A sprinkling of semicolons

    wordle semicolons

    This week at the Carrot Ranch Charli Mills is talking about semicolons; but not the little squiggles on a page, the semicolons that are sprinkled liberally through life as new beginnings. Sometimes we see them and grasp the opportunity for renewal, other times we ignore them and miss the chance to revitalize. Sometimes we get pushed down and it takes all our strength to pull back up, grasping onto the semicolon as if it was a dragon’s tail.

    mystica, A remix of dragonart https://openclipart.org/detail/132805/rainbow-dragon
    mystica, A remix of dragonart https://openclipart.org/detail/132805/rainbow-dragon

    Charli was inspired by Project Semicolon that provides this explanation:

    “A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence if your life.  Project Semicolon exists to encourage, love and inspire.”

    Every day can be a new beginning in some way. With our thoughts, words and actions we can change our own lives, or the lives of others. The impact may be deliberate or unintentional. We may be aware of the effects, or we may never know the consequences.

    Without wishing to diminish the importance of helping those “who are struggling with depression, suicide, addiction and self-injury”, which is the focus of Project Semicolon, my focus as always is on education and the importance of maintaining curiosity and an interest in and love of learning.

    jimmiet, A colourful monarch butterfly https://openclipart.org/detail/19002/monarch-butterfly
    jimmiet, A colourful monarch butterfly https://openclipart.org/detail/19002/monarch-butterfly

    What better analogy of a semicolon of life than the transformation from a caterpillar in a pupa to the beauty and flight of a butterfly. An inspiring teacher can mean the difference between full stops and semicolons in learning.

    To illustrate this I refer a post called Deeper Learning: Highlighting Student Work written by Ron Berger and shared on Edutopia.

    In the article Berger discusses his obsession with “collecting student work of remarkable quality and value . . . the work of regular students in typical schools around the country . . . (whose) teachers have helped them develop the skills and mindsets necessary to produce work of exceptional quality, and have built classroom and school cultures in which exceptional work is the norm”.

    Berger discusses ways of engaging students in authentic work, work that can have an impact on their communities and on the way they see themselves as learners. I remember Charli Mills telling me about similar work that her children were engaged in when they attended The School of Environmental Studies in Minnesota; and I shared some of Chris Lehmann’s work at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia here.

    Berger says,

    “Once a student creates work of value for an authentic audience beyond the classroom — work that is sophisticated, accurate, important and beautiful — that student is never the same. When you have done quality work, deeper work, you know you are always capable of doing more.”

    Semicolons in teaching and learning, all.

    As with the three cited above, the situations referred to are often of teenagers in high schools. I am an early childhood teacher and, while I find the work exciting, I sometimes struggle to see the relevance to my situation. However, in this article Berger shares the work of Austin, a year one student from Boise, Idaho doing a project about a tiger swallowtail butterfly.

    Austin was to illustrate his project with a detailed scientific drawing of the butterfly. His initial drawing was what I would consider to be fairly typical of a year one child. However he received feedback that was specific and not mean from follow students; and through a series of six drafts finished with a drawing that was much more sophisticated and demonstrated more careful ‘scientific’ observation.

    Berger also shared work by year two students at another school, demonstrating what can be achieved “when students are allowed, compelled and supported to do great things”.

     

    Last week Charli’s flash fiction challenge “the day the earth turned brown” prompted me to write about a student mixing all the colours together to make one muddy brown. The teacher paused before responding. There are many such pauses, (semicolons) in a teacher’s day. The teacher knows the power of every remark and must consider the impact that a response may have.

    If you had provided each child with a palette of primary colours and black and white expecting them to mix a variety of colours and shades and tones to create an interesting picture; then found that one child had mixed them all together to make one muddy brown, how would you respond?

    There were a number of comments on the flash including one from Geoff Le Pard  who said that there were “So many questions as to why the little girl is making muddy browns and lathering them everywhere.”

    So true. The teacher’s response would be influenced by knowledge of the child’s background, interest in art, and behaviour that day, among other things.

    Charli Mills said that “It could mean many things and nothing!” She recalled, “mixing paints as a child hoping to create a vivid new color and (being) disappointed to end up with mud.” Anne Goodwin agreed, saying that “mixing paints to make a muddy brown, (was) a distinctive childhood memory”.

    In my experience there was usually one child who ended up mixing all the colours together, often for no other reason than to see what happened. Sometimes the process of discovery gave as much pleasure as would a colourful painting of a house a tree and a sun.

    house and sun

    However, there might be more to it than that. Charli Mills sympathesised with the teacher, saying that “So much is put on the teacher to figure it out.” She thought that the child “might be disturbed, highly imaginative or confident enough to experiment”.  Sherri Matthews suggested that perhaps the child was “troubled . . . living in a dark, mixed up world, but . . . trying to find their way”.

    So much to consider. So powerful the response. Will it be a full stop, or a semicolon?

    This is my response to Charli’s challenge to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a renewal story that proclaims, “This isn’t the end; I will go on.

    muddy brown

    She paused. The muddy brown extended beyond the paper virtually cementing it to the desktop. The palette too was brown with little trace of the beautiful primary colours she had prepared. Looking from desk to child she observed two large smears adorning the shirt. A bruise-like smudge on the cheek showed where an intruding hair had been brushed away. “Oh!”

    She breathed; she counted to ten; and back again; “Breathe,” she told herself. “Why?”

    She moved on, observing the assortment of smiling suns, houses and garden paths, but her mind was on the mud; the child . . .

    What would be the appropriate response?

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

     

  • Spelling tests – How well do you score?

    ABC

    Familiar to most will be the weekly spelling test held on a Friday morning after a week’s practice at learning a list of words. Some will have dreaded the test fearing they may forget the “i before e”, “silent” letter or double letter rules, for example, their inadequacies made all too obvious by the large red crosses. Others would have relished the experience, requiring little effort to learn words they already knew, seemingly by osmosis, with the expectation of large red ticks and 10/10.

    Spelling test

    I dare say that most of you reading this blog are of the 10/10 variety. Just to be sure this is so, I have set you a little spelling test to do before you read any further. Please get your pen and paper, finger and notebook, or keyboard ready, then press PLAY to take the test.

    So how did you go?

    I hope you could see from that exercise that knowing how to spell has a lot to do with meaning. In fact the spelling of many of our words in English has more to do with morphology than with sound, and although sound can be helpful there are often many different letters or letter combinations that can be used to represent the same sound, for example:

    eye

    According to the Bullock Report, published in 1975:

    “For 6092 two-syllable words among the 9000 words in the ‘comprehension vocabularies’ of a group of 6-9 year olds, 211 different spellings of the phonemes were needed – and these spellings required 166 rules to govern their use! Even at that, 10% of the words had to be left aside as ‘exceptions’; which means that ‘even if a young child memorised these rules while learning to read he would still encounter hundreds of words not governed by them.’”

    Lists of words, such as spelling lists, provide little support for learners, rarely providing context or meaning which might help them remember the words, or choose the correct meaning and therefore spelling, as shown by the spelling test exercise given above.

    Alphabetical

    In his book “Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story”, Michael Rosen explains that transmitting meaning is the reason for writing, for having an alphabet.

    Rosen describes the alphabet as “a stunningly brilliant invention. We could call it a ‘cunning code’ or a ‘system of signs’ whereby we use some symbols (letters) to indicate some of the sounds of a language. … Though it is wonderful, there are some snags for users …” including:

    • letters and letter combinations do not represent the same sound each time they are used (e.g. ‘c’ in ‘cat’ and ‘city’)
    • letters represents different sounds according to regional accents
    • a particular sound is not always represented by the same letters (see the ‘eye’ example above)

    He says that “Becoming or being a reader of English involves absorbing all these variations and then forgetting that they exist.”

    a phonic's teacher's lament

    He explains that the alphabet is more than a system of sounds and syllables and that “Our forebears devised alphabets so that they could store and retrieve meaning … over time and/or space”.

    While not speaking specifically about learning spelling words, in his book “Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How The Mind Works and What It Means For Your Classroom” (referred to in a previous post here), Daniel T. Willingham consistently refers to the importance of meaning when acquiring knowledge. He says,

    “Teachers should not take the importance of knowledge to mean they should create lists of facts . . . some benefit may might accrue, but it would be small. Knowledge pays off when it is conceptual and when the facts are related to one another, and that is not true of list learning. Also … such drilling would do far more harm by making students miserable and by encouraging the belief that school is a place of boredom and drudgery, not excitement and discovery.”

    When a child scores poorly in a spelling tests and their errors are marked in red they see themselves as bad spellers, lose confidence in their ability and have a defeatist attitude before they even try.

    Why is spelling important?

    Standard spelling is essential to ensure the meaning of the message is transmitted correctly from writer to reader. While readers may very quickly notice spelling errors in text they are reading, these few errors, when embedded in meaningful text, rarely inhibit the transmission of meaning. However if the bulk of the text is in nonstandard spelling, the message would be virtually indecipherable.

    How do we learn to spell?

    The most effective way most of us use to learn to spell is reading. While reading we are exposed to a large number of correctly spelled works in context. If we read often enough, we see words frequently and learn to recognise them. We notice when they are misspelled and so recognise how they are spelled.

    The importance of spelling correctly is relevant to and a tool for our writing. The learning of particular words is best done in the context of writing.

    These are some strategies that can be used with beginning writers:

    • Model writing for them, let them see you write for real purposes, think out loud so they can see what you are doing, for example: “I going to write a . . . I’m going to start … I need to write … ”
    • Encourage them to write for self-expression, to share ideas, to tell a story . . . sustained and uninterrupted writing without the fear of a red pen anywhere.
    • Encourage them to listen to the sounds in the words and write any of the letters they know (Beginners usually start with the initial consonant, then perhaps the initial and final consonant. Vowel sounds are the most difficult to hear and differentiate and are irregular in how they are represented.)
    • Respond to their writing with written comments to their messages, modelling the correct form, for example: If the child writes “I wet to the bich on the weced” you could reply with “Did you have fun when you went to the beach on the weekend?” This enables the child to see the importance of writing for communication, demonstrates the correct spelling without being “corrected” and provides a model which can be used in future writing.
    • Encourage children to proofread their own writing by circling words they weren’t sure how to spell. Don’t always expect them to discover the correct spelling. Being able to recognise when a word is or is not spelled correctly is a first step in developing competence.
    • Notice and comment on any development that can be seen in the child’s spelling ability, for example: “You have written the word ‘kitten’. You have written the ‘k’, you know that it begins with ‘k’; you have written the ‘t’ you can hear in the middle and the ‘n’ at the end. You have listened very well to the sounds in the word.”  
    • If you want to give a child a list of words to learn, use words that have been misspelled in independent writing. Independent writing provides you with information about what the child wants to write about.
    • As they begin using technology for writing, show them how to use the tools available for checking their spelling.

    bee 5

    As a final note, in the Conversation this week was an article by Nathaniel Swain, entitled Spelling bees don’t teach kids literacy, or much else. The article discusses a soon-to-be aired television show that pits nine to thirteen year old children against each other in a spelling competition.

    Swain says,

    “How would you go spelling feuilleton, stichomythia, cymotrichous, or appoggiatura? More importantly, do you know the meaning of these words, and could you use them in a sentence?

    Challenging and insightful, or obscure and essentially pointless? Spelling bees encourage endless memorisation of complex but low-frequency words – and are a distraction from the core of literacy education.”

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

     

     

     

  • Assessing the impact of blogging on writing goals

    cyberscooty, a basketball about to enter a basketball hoop https://openclipart.org/detail/205569/basketball
    cyberscooty, a basketball about to enter a basketball hoop https://openclipart.org/detail/205569/basketball

    I love writing. Always have. I usually confess that I am a better writer than a speaker.

    I like the time that I can take to choose a word or phrase and combine them to mean just what I intend.

    I like the opportunity to check a word’s appropriateness before using it. Often when speaking I leave my sentence hanging embarrassingly in mid-air while I grope around in the murkiness of my mind for the “correct” word.  Why can my fingertips find the right word, without any thought, and the tongue cannot?

    And of course there are all the opportunities that writing provides for self-expression, creativity and sharing ideas with a wider audience.

    I started out writing stories, poems and songs, as most children, do and tried my hand at short stories, children’s stories and poetry as I got older. As I became more involved with my career in education, and in raising my children, I had (or made) less time for those creative pursuits.

    There are many reasons I loved being a teacher and one of those was the opportunity it provided for me to be creative: creative and innovative in the way I worked with children to encourage their learning; and creative in writing resources to assist my teaching and the children’s learning.

    I was fortunate in having a variety of opportunities to write materials for educational publishers at different times during my career, and I am currently writing documents to support curriculum implementation for my state educational authority. But I really wanted to be in control of my own writing.

    At the back of my mind there was always the thought of sharing my teaching and learning resources with a wider audience. (Just a little bit further back, or maybe even close to equal footing, is the thought of publishing children’s stories, short stories, and maybe even a novel . . . one day.) I had had no success with submitting unsolicited manuscripts before and couldn’t think what publisher might be interested in the variety of educational resources I had made, many specifically for use on a computer.

    So a couple of years ago I decided that a website of my own was the ideal platform for sharing my resources.  Getting that website up and running is my primary goal. However, observers could be mistaken in thinking that writing a blog is my primary goal. The path to establishing a website has taken a side-track via blogging.

    venkatrao, A butterfly flying with a dotted path over a hill background https://openclipart.org/detail/69967/1278212857
    venkatrao, A butterfly flying with a dotted path over a hill background https://openclipart.org/detail/69967/1278212857

    Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media were recommended me to right from the beginning as a way of targeting and establishing an audience. At the time I was familiar with none of these and set off learning how to become involved. It has been an exciting journey. I have learned lots and made many wonderful online friends.

    However I am not sure how far it has moved me towards achieving my website goal. In fact, I think very little progress has been made.

    • I have not found and established my “target” audience and am really none the wiser about doing that.
    • The time that I am spending writing, reading and commenting on blogs is time that I am not spending on preparing materials for my website.
    • I need to be more proactive in finding illustrators for my work.
    • When I discovered the Teachers Pay Teachers site and established my Teachers Pay Teachers Store I had thought this may be an alternative avenue for sharing my work. But I haven’t been as successful there as I would like either. This may be telling me something about my website goal. What is it telling me? Should I listen?

    So my dilemma comes down to these questions”

    To blog or not to blog?

    How to blog?

    How much time for blogging?

    The answer to the first one is easy:

    Yes! I very much enjoy writing my post and receiving the almost immediate feedback from the wonderful community of writers I engage with.

    Yes! I love reading and commenting on others’ blogs and joining in the discussions that ensue. We are a S.M.A.G. group: Society of Mutual Appreciation and Gratitude. What’s to not like?

    The second two questions are a little more difficult.

    The focus of my blog is education, but my audience consists of writers. Educators have shown little interest in developing a relationship with me online. I haven’t been able to figure that one out, but I have a few hazy ideas, none of which I think I want to address at this stage. If I change the way I blog I would quite likely fall out with the community I have become part of; and there is no guarantee I would pick up a teacher audience. So I’ll have to keep mulling this one over for a while.

    The third question is the one I have been “researching” for close on five months. As time is limited and I need to devote more time to achieving my primary goal, it is important that time spent on blogging activities is worthwhile.

    I decided to find out who is keen to engage with me and who isn’t.

    I began keeping a record of the number of comments I made on others’ blogs, and of those they made on mine.  It wasn’t always as I expected, and highlighted some interesting trends; the main one of which I have noted above:

    Writers have a wonderful sense of community.

    The record helped me ensure that, if someone visited and commented on my blog, I would visit and comment on theirs, maintaining a balance as much as possible.

    This key explains how to interpret the information on the tables below.

    Table legend

    I have removed names from the tables to respect privacy. (I don’t really expect you to look too hard at the tables. You have better things to do. But they do look pretty!)

    November 9 2014 – Jan 24 2015

    Slide1

     

    Jan 25 2015 – March 26 2015

     

    Slide2

    I have not included all blogs I “follow”, or even all the ones I have ever commented on. Only the ones on which there has been some consistency in connecting.

    I have also not included the comments of those who follow and comment on my posts but do not have a blog of their own on which I could reciprocate.

    I generally post twice a week.

    Others post more often.

    Sometimes the number of comments I make on their posts in relation to their comments on mine is affected by the greater number of times they post. If someone chooses to post more often than twice a week, I will not necessarily read all their posts, regardless of how much I enjoy reading them, as there are other ways I must use my time, including a reading greater variety of writer’s work, and getting more done on my own. I’m sure they have enough other readers to not miss me!

    Sometimes when a blogger posts less frequently than I do, their comments on my posts may tip the scales in my favour. I can’t do much about that either, but I do try to catch up when next they post.

    I have found that it can take a few weeks of commenting on a blog I like to get a return visit and comment on my blog. Frequently I don’t even get a response to a comment I’ve made on theirs. I guess that’s how it goes. Some bloggers blog to develop community. Others blog to broadcast. I just need to decide how best to use my time.

    If you have walked with me to the end of this post, thank you. It is rather longer than I intended. I had intended to respond to Anne Goodwin’s invitation to join in a writing process blog hop , Sherri Matthews’ invitation to join a workspace blog hop, and Sarah Brentyn’s questions for writers, as well as explain my writing goals to Sacha Black, thank Julie stock for her Sisterhood of the World bloggers award and draw on Paula Reed Nancarrow’s wonderful survey about Twitter #hashtag days and blogging. But they will have to wait. We all have others things to do.

    Contributing partly to my procrastination with responding to these wonderful invitations, which I do very much appreciate, is that I have already nominated the majority of bloggers I follow, or if I haven’t someone else has. And the remaining ones don’t wish to be nominated. What is a girl to do? I’d appreciate your suggestions.

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading.

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts and advice, especially about how to increase time. If anyone knows a good time alchemist, I’d love to meet her!