It's almost time!

writing View Comments
Oct 312006

I feel a bit like a kid at Christmas right now. The Christmas tree has been neatly trimmed and is bursting with presents. (Translation: I finished the outline.) The stockings have been hung by the chimney with care. (Translation: I set up the file for the manuscript.) I’ve left out the milk and cookies for Santa. (No translation. I just wanted to finish my Christmas imagery!)

Midnight can’t get here fast enough!

Of course, for my best friend, it’s November 1, 12:21, and I’m sure she’s sound asleep instead of working on her novel. I should have arranged to spend the month in Japan!

Today, patience is not my strong suit.

Come on, midnight! Get here already!

Posted by Rebecca at 12:44 pm Tagged with:

Readability is an important issue

web design View Comments
Oct 312006

I’m not talking about that scale that pops up when you run a word count in Word. I’m talking about the visual look of your textual content.

Think about books you have read. Have there been any that you thought would have been better if only you’d been able to make sense of the characters printed on the page more easily. (Maybe I’m the only one who’s experienced that one…) How about web sites? Have you ever left a website because you couldn’t read the lime green 10-point text on the pure white background?

When your audience cannot read what you have written (which is theoretically why you have written your website to begin with), they aren’t going to become repeat visitors, they won’t subscribe to your feed or email subscription, they won’t tell friends to visit. It’s one of the simplest ways to keep your traffic low if you’re looking to go that route.

Interesting content is only part of the battle. The ability to make sense of the characters on the screen is another important component. Make sure both are present to keep the readership coming in!

Posted by Rebecca at 11:47 am Tagged with:

The road to the Yellow Belt and NaNoWriMo

finding my path, gaming, writing View Comments
Oct 302006

I apologize for the site’s instability over the past week. Apparently, the server that this site is hosted on did some funky things, and my host didn’t catch it until this weekend. I have now restored the three entries you missed if you only read the site itself. (Hint: Please subscribe to the feed. Even though the posts never hit the site formally, they all three went out in the feed reader. If you’re holding out for a way to subscribe by email, let me know and I’ll set it up for you.)

With the site being down, I didn’t get a chance to share my exciting news from the weekend. I got my yellow belt in Shaolin Kempo over the weekend. I’m rather excited by that (and still a bit in shock) The test was challenging, but fun. It reminded me a lot of when we would have auditions masked as Master Classes at ballet.

Today will be the first time I get to put on my yellow belt for class. I’m going to be very nervous.

I also spent the weekend outlining my NaNovel. NaNoWriMo starts on Wednesday. If you haven’t signed up for this crazy ride through the month of November, go sign up now! This will be my fifth NaNo, and only my second not in the ML position. Of course, my schedule is so insane that I won’t even be able to attend most of the write-ins or other events. The only other year I’ve done NaNo in this weird sort of seclusion was my very first year (the other year i wasn’t an ML).

It should be interesting.

I’m thinking about posting a daily word count and maybe a  excerpt here. Feel free to tell me your thoughts on that in the comments, too, while you’re weighing in on the email subscription matter.

I think that’s everything from this weekend, so I’ll leave you with this new definition of “high-stakes gaming“. (My inner gamer girl giggles at this one.)

Posted by Rebecca at 11:45 am

Stay strong start to finish

writing View Comments
Oct 302006

After spending all weekend obsessing over creating the perfect outline for my NaNovel, I finally got around to clearing out Google Reader (I had quite the backlog. It’s just been one of those weeks.)

Interestingly enough, it was all about starts and finishes. It occurs to me that in the end, National Novel Writing Month is really about starts and finishes, too. It seemed a great way to kick off the week that contains the start of NaNoWriMo. (It’s not too late to sign up!)

Later on this week, I’ll try to compose a list of links I think are useful for any would-be novelist (especially since I can’t find the link to my favorite word count meter), but for now, enjoy these thoughts on getting started and wrapping up anything, be it a piece of writing, a presentation, anything!

Start

Finish

While I’m at it, I ought to make sure my overly loved Eric Stuart Band/Edwin McCain playlist is ready to go. (It would be nice if Mr. Stuart would actually get his new CD released, too, but that’s just my impatience talking.)

Posted by Rebecca at 11:39 am

It will take a bit more to actually turn me into a Google zombie

productivity View Comments
Oct 302006

Have you ever had one of those weekends? I’m coming out of one (which is why this post is so delayed).

I spent most of last week sick, and then tested for my yellow belt in Shaolin Kempo yesterday morning. (I passed. I’m now a yellow belt!)

Last night, a bunch of people invaded my tiny house, and I was forced to prove my lack of skills at Guitar Hero. (At least they let me play a Rush song. That was fun!)

Today started a new session of our SAT Prep class at work, and I was there like a good little math teacher. Before work, I uploaded some short stories I’ve been working on editing to the app formerly known as Writely (I just don’t like the name “Google Docs and Spreadsheets.) to work on during my non-teaching hours.

On the upside, I have those stories to work on, regardless of where I may be. On the downside, I lost time reformatting a document because it disappeared in the upload. That didn’t make me terribly happy, and makes me seriously wonder what would happen if I tried to upload something important.

I also found some of the behaviors in Writely/Docs and Spreadsheets odd. I couldn’t use the tab key or the delete key. It made things a bit more tedious than necessary. I might have also liked a word count functionality, but that’s easily worked around.

Posted by Rebecca at 1:16 am

Preparing for NaNoWriMo

writing View Comments
Oct 292006

Why is it I manage never to post to this journal during the off-season? Especially when I spent the off-season finishing all but one of my previous NaNo attempts (DPN is the unfinished one, and is in the queue to be finished in 2007), started editing one of them and getting feedback on its early chapters, written a number of fan fics (mostly of the Yu-Gi-Oh variety), taken on editing projects (mostly from the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom), become a part-time writing teacher (the one all of the kids hope they don’t get, but come running to whenever they want a good, thorough edit of their paper), and started applying for freelance and project writing jobs (The response has been phenomenal. I haven’t landed a gig yet, but I’ve come close, been placed on a list for future considerations, or personally rejected. I find that very promising.) Oh, and I’ve explored flash fics this year. That one was pretty fun!

I’ve even figured out what it is that I really want to do with myself professionally. I want to get involved with educational media, specifically writing and developing education games or interactive simulations. Nearly all of what’s really fired me up over the past year has involved gaming in education. Not surprising…this is also what got me fired up last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. I’m just really, really dense sometimes.

In my free time, I just started studying Shaolin Kempo in August, and yesterday passed my yellow belt test. It’s a very odd feeling. But Sensei rocks! A lifetime writer (with an awesome approach to writing) and a former Wrimo herself, she has offered to help keep me motivated throughout November. When I come in for my private class, she will make me do as many crunches as words I am behind. I hate doing crunches, so this will be fantastic motivation for me to keep focused!

It doesn’t hurt that I have a story that I adore. I’ve spent the past week or so working on the outline. It’s probably the most detailed outline I’ve ever written. It’s not yet finished, and it’s just shy of 9,000 words. Not a single bit of it can be cut and pasted into my NaNovel, either (The outline is in third-person, the NaNovel will be in first person, and none of the sentences really lend themselves to having pronouns changed.). But if I can’t write 50,000 words off an outline that will likely have over 10,000 words when it’s finished, then I will offically resign myself to writing short stories.

I have a calendar on my Google calendar set up just to keep track of my word count. I set up my November calendat on my white board calendar, and there’s a word count set for each day. I’m set up to win, barring health issues or interactions with real people, but I think I have a real shot for success this year.

Posted by Rebecca at 12:42 pm Tagged with:

Professional development from other sources

finding my path View Comments
Oct 272006

I interviewed with the local library system earlier this year to be an assistant (work with circulation, assist patrons with varius library tasks, etc). During my interview, I was asked how I planned to stay on top of current library issues. “I plan to keep reading the library-related blogs I’ve been reading,” was apparently not the right answer. The interviewer felt that blogs written by current librarians and ALA members was not an appropriate way to work on keeping abreast of important issues in libraries.

At my teaching job, however, everyone thinks it’s wonderful that I take the time to read blogs and books on informal education, given that it’s really my specific interest in education.

It begs the question: what is an acceptable method of continuing one’s professional development?

My answer, ironically enough, came from a librarian’s blog. This article suggests working on your professional development through reading scholarly journals, blogs, and mailing lists; and by following webcasts and podcasts.

The idea behind professional development is to continually grow and stay up-to-date on your field. It doesn’t have to be big and fancy; it just has to be relevant and timely and accurate.

Originally posted at 100Bloggers

Posted by Rebecca at 11:44 am

Be a better blogger

writing View Comments
Oct 262006

I’ve been blogging for what is rapidly approaching three years now. (It might actually be four. I need to drag out the timeline to be sure…) In an interview I gave earlier this year, I was asked if I felt I’d changed as a blogger. To be honest, I’m not sure.

It’s hard to say what demonstrates growth as a blogger. I’ve definitely noticed trends in my blogging, and when I haven’t liked where a trend was leading me, I’ve changed my blogging behavior. Even now, my blogging behavior is morphing to accommodate using Performancing.

In a way, I guess that’s why this post on being a better blogger really spoke to me. The analogy is perfect, because blogging really is something of a way of life, just like practicing a sport or a musical instrument.

To become better, you have to practice, to submerse yourself in the surrounding culture and make it a part of who you are. I’m still working on that second part, but I think it’s a part of defeating my hermit behavior.

Posted by Rebecca at 12:41 pm Tagged with:

Training in an instant gratification world

education View Comments
Oct 262006

I spend just over half my time at work teaching. I’m a teacher; it goes with the job. Lately, I’ve spent a good chunk of my time training, monitoring, and retraining new teachers.

It’s been an interesting experience. Despite my lengthy experience in teaching and managing, I’ve never really had to do both actively at the same time. When you find yourself in this position, you notice something: regardless of what age we are, we have a tendency to learn the same way.

I’ll use myself as an example, because I’m something of a nightmare to fellow teachers. I pick things up fairly quickly and well, but I’m such a perfectionist that I don’t declare personal mastery until I stop making the tiniest mistakes. One of these days, I’m convinced Sensei is going to throw something at me over this.

It’s not terribly different with either my teachers or the students I’m training. Regardless of how challenging the material is, my teachers expect to understand everything immediately. This leads to fine details being missed, which leads to my doing a brief field retraining. The teachers would rather just learn the procedures and do their work. With my students, if they can’t pick something up or find a short cut, they give up immediately.

Somehow, the journey should be the point, not the instant solution.

Posted by Rebecca at 11:36 am Tagged with:

When students mimic

teaching View Comments
Oct 252006

I am a teacher. This is public knowledge.

I am a big fan of using questioning strategies in my teaching. This should be public knowledge.

What I should have seen coming was the day when one of my students decided to use questioning themself.

One of my students is always begging for my help, and then complains when I ask the expected question. She got so frustrated that she actually made a plan to start asking herself, “What would Rebecca ask?” when she was stuck on homework or tests. According to the student, this method has actually helped her out a lot because it forces her to sit and think about what she might be missing, or to be more confident in her own abilities. (I love it when thirteen year olds figure out the method to my wayward madness!)

The other night, though, I was helping a student. Another student at the table asked for the answer to a multiplication fact, and my self-questioning student looked at him and reflected the question right back at him. He realized he knew the answer, and she was quite proud of herself for being like me.

I was proud of her, too. She helped a fellow student without giving him the answer. The whole scene spoke to my love of peer teaching, and I’m actually flattered to have inspired that transaction.

Posted by Rebecca at 11:20 am Tagged with:
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