Flash Cards and Coloring

"Sin is not genetic. Sin is a made up concept and I dare you to show me one shred of evidence of sin in my genetic code…You are saying that an entire group of people are sinful and amoral and unnatural. You want to talk the talk, you better have the fucking evidence to back it up or else it is nothing more than unadulterated bigotry." - a friend of mine


When my best friend and I were in 4th grade, our school changed their policy so that every kid who rode a given bus had to go to a specific room after school, instead of just waiting in their classroom for the bus to be called. We weren't in the same class at the time, so this was pretty great.


We spent the hour or so until our bus arrived making "flash cards" - slips of paper with little phrases on them, which we would read over every now and then. Things like "llamas are cool," or "[boy we knew's name] is dumb." Quotes from movies we thought were funny. That sort of thing.


Today the kids at the writing club we volunteer at were being pretty productive on their own, so we grabbed some crayons and started coloring, which eventually lead to a new set of flash cards.

The index card coloring my best friend gave me, and a notebook paper envelope full of flash cards- completely elementary school-style. Also, the first two pages of a skit I'm working on.

Some of the cards were the same, for nostalgia's sake (and because we still know a certain boy, and he's still pretty dumb). Others praised the awesomeness of a few of our friends, ranted about corporate hypocrisy and more current male targets of frustration, and quoted from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Plus, the obviously necessary, "The kids probably think we're weird."


All in crayon, I might add.
I fully intend to keep these forever.

Khan Academy

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead


While I was eating dinner today, I was also reading a few articles in the most recent issue of Wired magazine. One of these introduced me to Khan Academy and how it's set-up is changing the teaching of math in some schools.


It piqued my interest, and I ended up spending two hours doing simple math as something for my eyes and hands to do while catching up on Pop Culture Happy Hour (my usual distractions being Minesweeper and chores).

While I probably won't ever use the site for learning, since most of it's stuff I already know and the rest I either don't care about or will be doing before the end of high school, I have tested it out for the sake of review and have determined that I approve of the program and wish my elementary school had used it while I was there. I will be recommending it to my mother (who is now the lead secretary rather than working in the library), and hopefully she will suggest it to the relevant people.

Khan Academy is a collection of over 2000 videos covering many topics, most of them math/science related, plus problem sets regarding the math. The teacher has flip-flopped standard technique and had her students watching the videos at home, and then doing the problem sets in class the next day, where she could observe their progress through the site's "Coach" feature and help when/where needed. It has been featured in TED talks, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given millions of dollars to Khan, who started out as just a nerd recording math videos in his closet.


The "Practice" area of the site consists of a flow chart of various math topics, some of which must be completed before moving on to others. 10 correct answers in a row unlock new topics, but an infinite amount of time can be spent on any given one. 


This allows a student to move at his or her own pace, meaning that some kids in the 5th grade class were about where most of their non-Khan peers are, and a few were doing calculus. Progress is measured both by the flow chart, "Energy points" (earned in varying amounts for doing pretty much anything- I have over 150,000), and by badges awarded for different things.


Meterorite badges are the easiest to get (I have about 40), then Moon badges (30), then Earth (3), Sun (0), Black Hole (0, and the site won't even tell you how to get them), and Challenge (1).

I am now a proud "Arithmetic Master," and have discovered that I still hate multiplying decimals, long division, mean/median/mode, and fractions just as much as I did when learning them originally.

I Open At The Close, Part 1: The Books

“One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.” - Erich Fromm


“A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.” - Friedrich Nietzsche


Allow me to tell you a story. I'm sorry that it's long, but the details mean a lot to me and I have yet to put them all in one place. This actually works out surprisingly well, though, considering that I have an aunt and a great aunt who started following this blog as a result of my vacation, presumably with the intention of getting to know me better. Assuming I don't scare them off. ;)


When I was five or six, my mom began reading a certain book to me. This was not terribly easy for her, since reading in the evening tends to put her to sleep, but I was the most nagging, perseverant five-or-six year old that it is possible to be and made sure we read at least a little bit every night we could. This book was, undoubtedly, my favorite book of all time. This book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.


My mom continued to read the series to me until halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban when I decided we were going much too slow and decided to read it on my own. I still have the notebook in which I recorded the page numbers of the words I didn't know in order to look them up in the dictionary later. For my 7th birthday, I received a Harry Potter bedspread and pillowcase set, the former component of which I still use to this day.


Goblet of Fire was both my first audio book and the first book I stayed up far past my bedtime reading- it's harder to get caught when you don't need the lights on. Note that my first time through, I always assumed it was called the Triwizard Torture. (I read the paper copy for the first half, and I'd never seen the word "tournament" before.)


In second grade, because my school was not allowed to officially endorse the celebration of Halloween, they had "Favorite Book Character Day." Guess who I went as- Nimbus 2000 and all. That day was also the day on which we presented our book reports- in costume- to our class. Mine, rather than being a summary, was an 8-page drama complete with dialogue, voices, and everything else you could possibly want. My classmates were probably somewhat scared (I believe I shouted "KILL HIM!" rather loudly during the encounter with the Mirror of Erised). On the front of the assignment, my teacher wrote "Wow! Great enthusiasm!"

Somewhere during this time period, my mother hid my copies from me because I refused to read anything else. I found them within a day (yet consented to try out other books, since I obviously couldn't let her know I'd found them).


My dad did not go buy Order of the Phoenix for me at the midnight release party. I had to wait until Amazon delivered it later that afternoon. Monowizard Torture. This was the first book of more than two hundred pages that I read in less than 24 hours, stopping only when my mother insisted I eat or sleep. I was nearly 8 and about to enter 3rd grade.


Half Blood Prince was my first midnight release party. I dressed as Hermione, and won the contest in my category. The prize was a stuffed Crookshanks. My picture was in the paper (albeit with the most horrendously embarrassing expression on my face that I'm surprised anyone allowed it to be printed just for my sake). My mom was not in favor of her 9 year old daughter staying up past midnight just to get a book, so I was unhappily driven home at about 11. My dad, dressed as Lucius Malfoy and running one of the games, stayed behind on my behalf. Again, I read it in a day.

I was 11 the year Deathly Hallows was published. My best friend and I were at UNCG's Summer Music Camp. Between our four daily rehearsals and other scheduled activities, we rushed through a re-read of Half Blood Prince as fast as we could, one of us holding up a bunch of pages in the middle because I read faster than she does. By the time we got to Barnes and Noble after the concert and 1-2 hour drive home, all of the games and activities were over. My dad and I sat in the science fiction section and I read the newly-published 3rd Ranger's Apprentice book. As midnight came and went, we decided the line was far too long. We left the bookstore and drove to Kroger (a grocery store chain around here). The only people there were us buying two copies of what might be the most hotly-anticipated book of all time, an old lady buying fruit (at 1 in the morning?) and the cashier.


(Yes, I bought Deathly Hallows at Kroger. Deal with it.) I read chapter 1 on the way home, went to bed, finished it the next day with a ton of crying and sometimes simply staring at the pages in shock. Day 2: I finish Ranger's Apprentice and start Deathly Hallows again. Day 3: I re-finish Deathly Hallows and give it to my sister.


"Part 2: The Fandom" to be posted tomorrow.

Community Service Mini-Informal Essay Thing

This is another queued post, because I have no life and therefore spend a heck of a lot of time thinking about blog-worthy things yet I don't want to post more than once per day. You'd think I'd have better things to do than contemplate the assumptions, trends, and connotations associated with the word "liberal." Well guess what: Either I don't, or I just multi-task rather well. Or both.


(Paragraph of Self-Deprecation Has Achieved Completion)


Anyways. I was actually working on my Civics & Economics (we're in the Civics portion now) homework and realized the mini-informal-essay I was writing might be of interest to you guys, since it's about my involvement with my old elementary school's writing club, which I talk about on here from time to time. (I can't help but feel that my teacher's judging me, though. I write my Economics book report on For The Win by Cory Doctorow, interview Alan Lastufka for the Economics powerpoint, and now I'm confessing that I write novels in my free time for Civics. Nerd pride, you guys. DFTBA.)


At any rate, here is the essay:

I volunteer as a mentor in the writing club at my old elementary school, and have been doing so for over a year. This club is comprised of 4th and 5th graders, and meets on a bi-weekly basis.

In June 2010, the teacher-sponsor of the club announced she was leaving to take a job at a different school, so in the fall, my best friend (the other mentor) and I were the ones to take the initiative in finding another teacher to keep the club going.

Our job main job is to circulate among the students throughout the hour, answering their questions, proof-reading their stories, and keeping them on-task. Sometimes we lead small groups in which the students read their stories aloud before listening to feedback given by the others. In November, I organized participation in National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writer’s Program, the adult version of which I have now completed two years in a row. This involved helping the kids to set a reasonable word-count goal for themselves and to then meet it by the end of the month. The majority of them completed and even exceeded their goals, and several of the same kids are now in the midst of NaNoWriMo’s sister program, Script Frenzy.

Being a high school mentor for these kids is a unique experience, because I don’t hold the status of at teacher, nor do I view them as being strictly under my authority despite that I do expect them to listen. There is a relationship of mutual respect and understanding, which has done wonders when it comes to them listening to my writing advice. I’m close enough in age that I’m not in the “I’ll never be that old” unreachable category, but I’m also in talks with a literary agent to get my one completed novel published. This allows them to believe that I give them suggestions based on experience rather than curriculum or “this is just the way I want you to do it,” as is sometimes the belief regarding teachers.

I find volunteering with this club to be very fulfilling. It’s exactly the kind of club I wish the school had had when I was there, so I’m glad to be a part of making it possible for the kids like me who are there right now.

In Which I Complain About Young Whipper-Snappers

(Exactly what is a whipper-snapper?)


There are about four kids at Elementary School Writing Club that get there, sit down, eat their snack, and start to work.
There are about twenty kids in the club.


I thought I'd sit down with a few of them with my own paper and pencil, and they would stop talking to each other and focus.
Instead, they started telling each other to focus in hopes of me being pleased with them (I wasn't), and interrogating me as to how I managed to write two pages in the time it'd taken them to write two sentences.


Well...I'd like to tell them it's this thing called self-discipline that allows me to write instead of talking with my friends...but that would be terribly hypocritical of me (as well as mean if I were to phrase it that way). 


Because have I written much of anything recently? No.
Why is that? I've been online...talking with my friends. (and watching 10 episodes of Bones since Sunday morning...but let's not mention that)


I don't regret any of that time, though. I just wish there were more hours in the day in which I could write and do that dreaded Chemistry Homework that reproduces right before I kill off the last of it. If ever a species deserved to be extinct...


Things You Should Learn From This:

1. Procrastinating from enjoyable work in favor of enjoyable non-work is acceptable only if I am the one doing it (because children are lazy, and us teenagers deserve it because we work so hard all day and we're mature and wise and need to enjoy our retirement...oh wait, hold on...)
2. Bones is an excellent show, and you should watch it. More on Bones in a future post.

Fear Part 3: Love Orange

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." - Henry Ford
I disagree. James Webb is famous for having a telescope that is yet to be built named after him.
Granted, James Webb did some stuff to get that honor, but he's only famous to me because of that, so it is likely that the same is true of others.


For an exercise in symbolism, imagery, and figurative language in preparation for our English exam tomorrow, we had to read a short story ("Love Orange") by Olive Senior. I looked for a place for all of you to read it online, but everything I found was either a broken link or directed me back to my textbook. Sorry about that.

Before delving into the actual story, however, I want to talk about "author's purpose." In middle school, they told us that everything is written to either persuade, inform, or entertain. This topic came up briefly in class today while discussing theme. I think they left out the most important (and common) purpose: enjoyment.
Look for more on that sometime in the next month. There's something I'm sitting on at the moment that relates closely.

I think "Love Orange" is a beautiful, haunting piece of writing, and I'm legitimately enjoying analyzing it. (Despite that I'm procrastinating from the assignment by starting to write this post. Ha.)

Over the course of the story, a girl debates whether or not to share her "love orange" with various people (a neighbor's grandmother, another neighbor's son, her own grandmother), because she believes that everyone has only so many segments of love to hand out. Her orange is precious.
She comes close to giving it away several times, but always takes it back at the last second because in her mind's eye, it has transformed into a broken doll.

The storytelling is amazing. Our conditioned minds first see such things as the orange and the doll to be symbols, but they're not. In the mind of a child-- who doesn't have much experience with language and therefore can't completely make the transition from thoughts to pure words-- images are to be taken at face-value. It isn't a literary device. It's a brilliant piece of narration. That's the way kids think (or at least that's the way I used to think, and I've been chasing after that mindset ever since).


"Love Orange" invokes fears that all of us have faced: Do we share that most precious piece of ourselves with others? Where do we draw the line? What if our well-intentioned actions only bring harm? Is it better to love and lost than to never have loved at all?
Even while I was analyzing it, the small, scared child within me woke up, crawled out from under the bed, and looked around. That's what I love about good literature: it reveals what we know to be true of ourselves through tantalizing narrative. 


I found the entire thing to be very powerful. 
Have any of you read it?


Also: the elementary school's librarian (who I've known since I was 4) gave me a couple books today. One of them consists entirely of quotes from writers about writing.
I will never lack something to stick at the top of a post ever again. I have enough right there for over three years of daily blogging. I'm excited.

A Day Full of Writing Club

Ezra, you'd better re-visit the comments of the Socratic Seminar post. Kenny's brought up some interesting stuff. I don't know if you subscribed to the comments on that one or not.


Today was the first meeting of the elementary school's writing club. I walked in with nothing more than a very vague outline from the presiding teacher regarding what she planned to do, and a few vague notes I'd written on what to say if I was required to say something about any given topic.
Fortunately, she came into the library a bit early and went over everything in greater detail. The club looks like it's going to be very group-centric, with lots of peer-revision and discussion like we have at ours. I was actually asked to  describe one of our typical meetings. I showed my copy of Thoughts on Life, and passed it around for the kids to look at. One of them started reading one of the stories (the only one in there I wrote in elementary school, oddly enough), and pointed out a typo. Oops.
It looks like I'm pretty much in charge of the kids interested in the YWP (of which there are about 15 or so), since I'm definitely more comfortable with fiction and have experience with NaNo in particular, and Ms. Cornick is focusing on the kids entering the nonfiction contest.
Apparently I made quite an impression on the kids with my "published" book. The nonfiction ones were asking her about it.
I also read aloud Plot Chickens, which was fun. 
The YWP has something called a "virtual classroom." Once Ms. Cornick figures out how to give me Educator Status as well, I can add students to my classroom, keep an eye on their stats, and send them NaNo Mail. Since we only meet every two weeks, this is very good. Each classroom comes equipped with a set of forums that only members can use.
I'm really excited. I hope the kids have the motivation for me to have a decent time interacting with them and helping them through their novels. Their homework was to start outlining. Our next meeting is November 3rd.


Speaking of writing clubs, tonight's meeting was awesome. We talked about The Hunger Games for a good twenty minutes before actually starting, and the stories and poems were fantastic. As in, more so than usual, I thought. It was interesting when we all started laughing at the most horrible, disturbing parts, though. Writers are strange.
We only stopped because an employee came in and told us there were impatient parents waiting outside (of which mine was not one. Dad likes sitting and reading for 1+ hours.)


I have a list of blog topics sitting next to my bed like the ones I had a lot of in August. Despite having stopped posting my English journals, I feel like I'm still posting an awful lot. Hopefully the quality is at least partially worth it. Of course, since you're all still subscribed, I assume you at least find it worthwhile to skim through my posts, which I don't mind in the slightest if you do.

Plot Chickens

This week's the Book Fair at the elementary school. It's also Spirit Week. Today was pajama day, in order to coincide with PJs and Cookies Bedtime Story Night. I'm here in my pajamas, reading Strega Nona and sneaking Girl Scout cookies.
Along with Strega Nona, my mom also saved out another (future) library book for me to take a look at. It's called Plot Chickens, and is utterly hilarious. It's about a young chicken named Henrietta learning to write (and includes the comments from her not-so-talented relatives). She sends off a query letter, and many months later, receives a reply: "Dear Ms. Henrietta: We do not publish books written by chickens. Even if we did, we wouldn't want this one. We didn't like it. Don't quit your day job. Have a nice life. Hunter Fox, Editor."
"The aunts were devastated, but Henrietta vowed not to brood over her rejection."

Forget bringing a story of my own to writing club next time. I'm reading Plot Chickens. This book is amazing.

I can hear the Samoas calling...(Oh, wait, they're called Carmel Delights...oops.)

I might also read it to the writing club here once it starts...

In Which I Talk About Me And Am Rather Boring

Time for some self-indulgence. And also an announcement.


The English journal posts, both the prompts and my responses, are not what I'd hoped them to be. Therefore, I can no longer promise one every other day. (But you're probably okay with that.) That is the announcement.


Now for the self-indulgence (or is it narcissism? Or is it just self-absorption? or maybe...):


I turned 15 today (yaaay). It actually doesn't feel much different, but I assume that's because I've been considering myself 15 for awhile. I often have to backspace and correct myself. Now those days are over. (btw: THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES! You know who you are. And if you're not one of them, it's okay. I'm not offended. Really.)


I can get my permit now (although I'm planning on putting it off until December, because of, you know, NaNoWriMo). That's simultaneously exciting and terrifying.


Today was actually the best birthday I've had in a good while. In 6th grade, for instance, I threw up within the first half hour of school due to being accidentally poisoned. Keyword: accidentally. Long story. 7th grade was mostly terrible all around. In 8th grade, the party was fun, but I don't remember the birthday itself terribly well, so let's go with average. I assume I had a good day in 9th grade simply because I loved most of first semester.


But this year...


It started out with some hilarious things happening that either few people outside my family would get, or just aren't funny unless you were there, so I won't go into detail.
In English, we had an assembly (*sad face*) instead of class, but it was about college, which is at least relevant and important, so that was okay. And I got to sit with my friends. 
In computer programming, I got a bagel. It occurs to me I could have gotten a free bagel had I mentioned it was my birthday, but oh well. It's better off this way, anyways.
I got to play with toxic chemicals in Chemistry earlier this week, which was fun, and today I finished my test early so I got to read loads of Ranger's Apprentice 9: Halt's Peril, which was freaking fantastic. All of my vocab sentences for the past two days are regarding that book. That's the great thing about the series- it doesn't get worse as it progresses, as most series do. Read them.
And...I baked brownies and took them to writing club. I got to hear great stories, had exactly the reception I'd hoped for on my own, and generally had a good time of it. 
I've also racked up a total of $50 of birthday money so far, which means my iTunes library will be growing very soon.


Good stuff. And a song about the Fermi Paradox by Hank Green that isn't uploaded yet but I saw on Twitter that it will be. 


Actually...this entire week has gone smashingly. (I never use that word. Why did I use that word?)


Interview update: The interview will be occurring sometime closer to November 1st. Not sure exactly when. It will be by email, and I assure you that you will know just as soon as it's posted. But first there's some more work on the first part of that secret project to be done...


Also, elementary school writing club is due to start on October 20th! I'm quite excited, although I'm also nervous.


And I'm reading Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola aloud to an undefined number of elementary schoolers and their parents tomorrow night. Let it suffice for me to say that the number is larger than I expected when I signed up to do it.

Time For Some Humor

In other news, I got another rejection. Now it's pretty much time to hit the envelopes.
In other other news, elementary school writing club is definitely a go for this year. (Yay.) We're hoping to start in time to do the NaNoWriMo YWP, but I don't have any more details other than that.


I've been hideously good at procrastinating for the past 2 months, so those secret projects I was working on...still aren't anywhere near finished. Hopefully I'll work on that this weekend, but I might just end up reading and playing Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion more than is probably healthy. 


Remember when we were talking in writing club (and I posted about it as well, for those of you who weren't there) about how just because something's fictional doesn't mean it doesn't have a basis in reality/doesn't affect you?
Two days ago, after reading about 100 pages of Mists of Avalon, I was asking my mom why the nuns kept telling people to "pray for so and so's soul" when just a few lines earlier they'd been completely confident he was already in Heaven?
She sighed with exasperation and said "It's just a book, Olivia."
I left.
She doesn't like it when I ask questions about religion. She also doesn't like it when I ask (her) abstract questions in general. Apparently they don't "apply to real life." I disagree, but whatever. I have another parent to discuss abstract things with.


And speaking of that other parent...haha...I have a new story in mind starring a caricature of him-- greatly exaggerated and narrowed, but based off of him, nonetheless. It is funny. Or at least it will be once I've written it.

Stuff That Occurs To Me While In The Elementary School

The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the smarter you grow. The smarter you grow, the stronger your voice when speaking your mind or making your choice." - A poster I'm looking at here in the library.

I like this quote a lot. It's basically what I tell people when they ask me how I know stuff. "I read a lot," as the Doctor put it.

I've decided not to make another blog. At least not yet. Sure, I'm trying to get a headstart on my writing career. And that's all well and good. I try not to blog about stupid things (try), and if I do, I try to do them in a civilized way.
But the important thing is this: I'm in high school. I don't need to worry about being professional until I depend on it. Right now, I depend on my parents' professionalism. So at the moment, it's not too big of a deal, except for my own self-image, I guess.

Last night we watched the Percy Jackson movie (very minor spoilers to follow). I would give it 3.5 stars (out of five, of course). It was a solid 3 up until the Percy/Luke battle, which bumped it up due to awesomeness.
And I loved the flying shoes (that wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I have a pair just like them except minus the wings, would it?). Luke pulled the box off the shelf and my first thought was "Hey, that looks like a Converse box." and then it was a Converse box. I guess it does mention high-tops in the book, but I never made the connection.
They changed the plot, obviously, and I thought the storytelling was kind of rushed at the beginning, but I enjoyed it. Medusa's head with sunglasses made me laugh.

While I was going through class lists to find out how much stuff to put in each teacher's bin, I happened to look at the data (because I like stats and stuff). Next to each student's name was either "Hispanic" or "Not Hispanic." No mention of the student's race if "Not Hispanic." Why does this matter???

In one of the classrooms I was working in yesterday, there is a chart explaining the grading system they use here:

• 1 = I don't get it. I need help. (Failing grade)
• 2 = I almost get it. I need help. (Failing grade)
• 3 = I get it.
• 3* = I get it and can use it well.
• 4 = I get it and can use it to figure out other things.

While I find it stupid to have more than one failing grade, this falls in line with an idea I had yesterday, that I'm sure has already been said by loads of other people:
Intelligence is the ability to recognize and apply patterns.
Case point: I arrived at that conclusion by recognizing and applying patterns. A fact which I find funny.

Also, that grading system is a bit vague. With percentages and corresponding letter grades, you're graded via a definitive measurement. With this system, the teacher just gives you a number. So the standards to achieve a 3 vs. 3*, or a 3* vs. a 4 probably vary from class to class, and from teacher to teacher. The only time these numbers are based on percentages that I am aware of is on the EOGs. The rest of the time, a student might be getting a 4 in one subject in their class but they would be getting a 3* in someone else's class. It's subjective and unfair, I think, even though I'm sure the teacher's try their best to be in-sync with each other and to grade on a rough scale.

Elementary, My Dear Watson. Elementary.

Which doesn't have the slightest thing to do with this post, but I thought it was somewhat clever, because once again, I am at the elementary school. The teachers started work yesterday, and I've been helping them out in getting ready for the new year.
I was moving locator cards to different binders this morning (why they keep all of the old locator cards I don't understand- all of the parents have to fill out new ones anyway), and then I called Emily after lunch about writing club. Elementary school writing club, that is.
The teacher who was doing it last year isn't working here anymore, but we have loads of great ideas and want to manage it ourselves. We're thinking of having it on Fridays so we don't have to worry about getting our homework done, and because Emily doesn't have marching band practice on Fridays.
So I talked to one of the other teachers who helped out last year to see if she would be our adult supervision (since we aren't allowed to be alone with a bunch of kids). She thinks she'll be too busy with meetings and stuff, and since her department is math this year instead of writing, it's not even related. (Errant thought: ooh, it's raining. I love rain.)
She said maybe the Writing SIP (school improvement plan) committee would be interested, and (I think) she'll talk to them, so hopefully it will be a go.

Some of our plans for them, assuming we get to do it:

• The YWP. Yes, I know, I'm insane trying to help 30-odd elementary schoolers through their versions of NaNoWriMo while simultaneouly trying to finish my own. But I think it'll be fun, and it won't be mandatory for them to do it. If they don't want to, they can just come to meetings and write other stuff as per usual.
• Making books. Emily's step-mom knows how to actually make certain types of mini-books, so we might be able to get her to come in sometime and do a workshop sort of thing.
• Poetry contests (a few kids did them last year)
• Maybe the bare books that we did last year, but I don't know how to get them and that would involve collecting money from the kids, which is a thing I'd rather stay away from
• Writing partners. In addition to the small groups we had last year (which I think is a good idea), we were thinking of maybe pairing up the kids with each other to write stories together. Kind of how Emily and I are working on the Peace/War poems together, but probably not of that ilk. My grandpa and I wrote a story together over email when I was in kindergarten and drew pictures for it in Paint. It'll probably be more like that. Some of them will be paired up with kids their own age, and some older kid/younger kid groups.

So that's what we've discussed so far. The next list is random brainstorming I'm doing on the spot that Emily and  I have yet to discuss. And I realize this bit sounds like one of those boring curriculum guides. But I'm surrounded by teachers, so their mental waves are probably rubbing off on me or something.

• Emphasis on reading other books and applying them to the students' writing
• Learning about quotation marks (which might not be appropriate for them. I don't know, because although I first learned about them in first grade in a small group with two other AG students, I'm sure most kids take longer.) I really enjoyed that, and it's good to know.
• More usage of the small group model. I feel like we get a lot of good stuff done in our writing club, and even though we're a bit older, I think they can get some benefit from a similar sort of thing as well. So what if at the beginning of the meeting they get into their groups and read to each other and give feedback? Not for very long, of course, since there's other things to do. We only see each other once every fortnight, yet I think we know each other pretty well considering it's only that often. Therefore I'm inclined to think that sharing writing= bonding of some sort, or at least familiarity.

I guess what I'm wanting is for this year to be more writing-centric, specifically improving it (the students' writing). And maybe what I have in mind is a little too intense and serious for the average elementary schooler. But it's what I would want, were I one of them instead of a manager/leader person.
Last year was pretty lax, I guess. Not much work was done. Mostly the kids just talked to each other about random stuff (and who am I to judge-that's what we do, too!) but our meetings aren't about doing the writing- we do that on our own time. These meetings are, however, and I want stories/poems/whatever to come out of them.

I was just called over into the media office where my mom's working, and there has been an email from my couselor (for those of you who read my massive rant before I removed it due to the fact I had calmed down and didn't need people to hear my anger anymore). Child Development has been removed from my schedule and Computer Programming has been inserted. Computer Apps (which is second semester) can be discussed in October. Apparently I am "very fortunate" that this change in schedule could be done. Ms. O'Riordan, in the words of those aliens from Toy Story, "You have saved my life (not really)- I am eternally grateful."
So there's some massive amounts of happiness.
And at the moment, my second semester seems pretty easy. I mean, sure, I have to start learning Latin, but I'll just park my TARDIS below the classroom and it can translate for me. So no sweat there.

Driver's Ed

Well, today would have been better spent if I'd stayed home, and considering that I was at school, that's kind of sad.
Today was my first day of Driver's Ed. And it was horribly boring. The only good bits were the breaks and lunch.
We literally did nothing at all except for register for a program that we're not even going to use for the first two hours. After so much emphasis on "we only have 30 hours, so we need to cram as much in as possible."
The class started at 8. It was at least 8:15 before any of the teachers said a word to us.

I could have written a story, or edited, or written a song, or made a YouTube video, or read more of For The Win, or watched the World Cup, or Wimbledon, or Torchwood: Children of Earth "Day Five"...but no. I sat in a desk for six hours and "learned" a bunch of things that I mostly already vaguely, subconsciously knew.
Now I know the stuff consciously, which is good, but the class was at far too slow of a pace.
I told my dad that, and he said "Welcome to the adult world."

Couldn't he and Mom taught me that same stuff in far less time? Yes.

The fun part was that afterwards, Mom took me over to the elementary school parking lot and had me drive around a bit to practice turning and stopping and starting. I did all right up until she told me to park. I was pretty crooked, but I blamed it on the lines moving while we were inside talking to the office people about next year.

(Actually, I did see some of the US vs. Algeria match. We were eating lunch and this massive cheer came from the front office so we looked in and saw that we'd just scored.)

Emily called yesterday because she was in the car and bored, and we talked about Clockwork a bit so I've changed a few little things. There's also something sort of minorly important at the end that I switched around (unrelated to our conversation), but I won't say until you've all actually gotten to that part.

For those of you who don't know anything about the current Wimbledon match...the current set (the 5th set) has more games in it than the longest previously-held match. There've been almost 120 games, and they just stopped for the night.

A Fantastic Day

Today I told thirty elementary schoolers that a writer spends most of their time sitting in a little room trying to resist the urge to go online, typing every now and then, and talking to his or herself. And in the case of Cory Doctorow, in their underwear.

They laughed at me.

They tend to talk a lot.

Today was the last meeting of the elementary school's writing club. We will probably continue next year.

Today's prompt was "Something mysterious happens during EOGs..." (EOGs are End of Grade Tests, for you home-schoolers who may or may not know). That prompt generated the best stories I've heard from them all year.

It was loads of fun.

Speaking of which, my day so far has been fantastic.

Examples:

I did better on my fitness testing in gym than I thought I would.

I got a better grade on my math test than I thought I would.

I got to look up sci-fi magazines and agents in Creative Writing

Lunch was lunch. Which means it was good.

And then there was band.

And then I got to hang out with my best friend for awhile.

And then I went to writing club.

And then I got home where my other best friends (the real Matthew from "The Adventures of the Magic Bed," and his brother James) had just arrived.

And then I did some writing while talking to them.

And then I ate pizza.

And now I'm writing this.

A Different Sort of Writing Club

Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not abandoning you guys.

Today I became a "High School Mentor" for the brand-new writing club at the elementary school that my sister attends and my mom works at. There were a lot of kids there. There's even a waiting list. Can you believe that? It's amazing.
I mostly sat in the back and worked on my CW homework this time...but they didn't need much help. This meeting was mainly "Hi, welcome to the Reedy Creek Writers (by the way, I get a special nametag that says "Reedy Creek Writers" on it). This is what we will be doing over the next 6 meetings (yeah, there'll only be 6 between now and the summer), fill out these forms, blah, blah, blah..."
For the first 15 minutes while people are still arriving, there's "Free-Writing Time" (which has a prompt...so how is that free?) It's my job to come up with the prompts (with the exception of today). The kids just write based on the prompt...or they can ignore it.

Today's was "Write about something you love."
I wrote about snow, since it snowed this morning, and I really do love it.

Funny story: there was a kid who wrote about Star Wars. Then, later, when the teacher running it told everyone to write their favorite word on a piece of paper and tell why they like it, the same kid  wrote (you guessed it!) "Star Wars is my favorite word because it's my favorite movie."

We (yes, even the teachers and us High School Mentors) all had to fill out a Writing Questionaire. It had all of the things you'd expect. I laugh as I think about the Presiding Teacher reading it....

"What are your hobbies/interests?"

"Reading, writing, philosophy, physics, quantum mechanics, earth-based spirituality, metaphysics..." Yeah. That's me.

I think the kids are kind of um...what's the word...scared? in awe? of me. The Presiding Teacher introduced me something like this: "This is Olivia...she's published in a book and is part of a high school writing club at a bookstore." She made it sound a lot more impressive than it actually is. It's just a poem, in a book that's pretty much only available to the friends and family of the people with poetry or prose in the book. It's also a really bad poem I wrote in about 30 seconds. I'm still shocked I came in the top 40 in my age group in that contest... I mean, really. That was one pathetic poem.

I'm looking forward to future meetings with this writing club. It's cool to see all of the little kids being creative.

Oh, and you guys picked "Saving, Slaying, Sewing" as opposed to the next three chapters of Clockwork, which I had in my folder? That was unexpected.

I'm 2/3 done with The Boys With No Names. It's quite excellent.