[I]t is the most common thing in the world for a new English teacher to demand that her students throw out everything they’ve worked so hard to learn and then start completely from scratch. New semester, new teacher, new rules. I say we have no right. I tell my students that, too–we have no right!…
The term ‘flash fiction’ can be used to describe several genres or modes of writing. Such writing can include traditional or mainstream short-short stories as well as various other types such as American haibun, ghost stories, monologues, epistles, mysteries, myths, tall tales, fables, anti-fables, parables, romance, fairy tales, horror, suspense, science fiction, prose poetry, and…
The men of the Shihuh tribe carried the jerz, a small axe-head on a long stick. They used the implement for many purposes — it chopped the firewood, provided the grip for climbing and came in handy as a walking stick to step over the stones. To complement the jerz they also carried the special…
[L]et’s face facts, she could do your $70,000-a-year job for the wages of a Taco Bell counter jockey – she won’t lose any sleep over your plight. When I ask what her advice is for a beleaguered American programmer afraid of being pulled under by the global tide that she represents, Jairam takes the high…
Media literacy is the buzzword. Already part of the national curriculum in England for older children, the government also wants primary school pupils to have a greater understanding of the hidden depths of TV, films and other media. More than ever before, children are immersed in a media-saturated world and exposed to television in particular.…
I’m Exhausted… Thank You, Students!Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Thursday is a marathon day for me… class at 11, 2, and a 2 1/2 hour marathon at 6pm. My first class is “Seminar in Thinking in Writing,” during which I asked the students to work in groups to come up with sample thesis statements. Ordinarily pretty dry…
Planning for the Deep Impact mission began in 1999. It culminates on July 4, 2005, when a “fly-by” spacecraft will release a smaller “impactor” spacecraft, which will smash into comet Tempel 1 at 37,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) per hour…. The impact is expected to create a crater 100 meters in diameter and up to 30…
Trolling is like playing chess – there is a point to the game, and that point is to win. Unlike chess, though, there are various ways of winning for the internet troll. These might include: gaining credence for false and invidious ideas driving bona fide list members, and/or particular groups, out of the mailing list…
Canterbury Tales: A Quick Link RoundupLiteracy Weblog) Online Google searches for Chaucer typically point to watered-down “study guides.” There is a real need for good online material on Chaucer, and there are good sites online that attempt to more than serve the lowest common denominator. A student backed out of an oral presentation topic late…
Like all men of the Library, I have traveled in my youth; I have wandered in search of a book, perhaps the catalogue of catalogues; now that my eyes can hardly decipher what I write, I am preparing to die just a few leagues from the hexagon in which I was born. Once I am…
Donald sat in the corner of the room, barely illuminated by the dim moonlight filtering through the window. He was trembling badly; the events of the last few hours still storming through his mind. How the hell could he have known? How could he have known? He brought his shaking hands up to his face,…
A Selection from the Posthumously Published Ernest Hemingway Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, A Very Short Death, c.1959 It was late summer and you were alone in the café. You were sipping vermouth and reading about the war. You liked the way the vermouth tasted good when you drank it with your mouth. The war was going badly. You…
“I always say that while I can’t vote, I can damn sure make a difference,” he said. “It doesn’t feel odd, it shouldn’t feel odd, because all Americans should be doing this. We as a country need to be more involved, especially our youth.” —Stephen Yellin —Teen Blogger Heads Online (Wired) I’m being called away, but…
“The most complicated machine ever built got knocked out of the sky by a pound and a half of foam. I don’t know how any of us could have seen that coming. The message that sends me is, we are walking the razor’s edge.” — Flight director Paul Hill —Columbia’s Final Minutes (Newsday) Similar:State officials: Bushy…
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—‘She’s a Flight Risk’ Resumes Isabella v has started posting again, after a long hiatus (which I noted in December). I only learned about it after getting an e-mail from “isagirl@hushmail.com” responding to a blog entry I wrote last year. Similar:Portrait of a Ten-Year-Old GirlThis thoughtful article demonstrates how…CultureMy brother set my parents up for…
We copulate, we procreate, the species thrives. Love and every other emotion that we connect to it are the froth of nature‘swildness. But if it is froth, it is wonderful froth. But I think that stepping back and admitting that romantic love is not an entity with a life of its own allows us to…
In this assignment you will be required to read/play and answer questions about a book from the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) series of ?gamebooks.? The series was published 1979-1998. Many people assume that electronic literature (interactive fiction, hypertext, what-have-you) is simply a souped up version of CYOA. The purpose of this assignment is to…
Torill Mortensen has a post today referencing the ongoing debate about gender balance in the blogosphere. Are there more men, or more women? Are the men or the women more visible? —Liz Lawley, Academic Women and the Blogosphere (Misbehaving) I found this discussion interesting, especially in light of Andrew Orlowski’s sneering dismissal of bloggers as mostly teenage girls. At our…
“Not only are we going to New Hampshire …, we’re going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we’re going to California and Texas and New York! And we’re going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. to take…