Yesterday, we were using our new, district-mandated Chromebooks (which are mini-laptops functioning half like a Mac and half like a PC, with a touchpad but no mouse) to take the district-mandated SAGE test, a 9th grade boy clicked the wrong tab at the end of the test and then couldn't find his test score. He raised his hand, and I came over to help him.
I leaned over the Chromebook and said, "It's easy; just hit the 'back' button here."
I tapped the button with my finger. Nothing happened. Frustrated, I tapped three more times. No results. Both the boy and his neighbor watched me, saying nothing.
It took a good 15 seconds of tapping before I rolled my eyes in disgust.
"It's not a touchscreen. Duh," I said -- and used the touchpad to move the cursor to tap the back arrow.
Then the boys laughed.
I suspect I may not be getting enough sleep at night.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Censorship
In the last two days I've written amusing posts and then feared someone would get angry about them. They remain unposted.
Sorry.
I'm downright blog-boring late. :(
Sorry.
I'm downright blog-boring late. :(
Sunday, September 20, 2015
An Open Letter To Kim Davis
Ms. Davis,
Like you, I am paid by taxpayers' money. I, however, do not earn 80,000 a year of taxpayers' money, as you do for what appears to be a MUCH easier job.
Like you, I also have my prejudices. You are prejudiced against gay people and lesbians. I am not, as I have many friends who fall into these categories; a fair number of them are now married, and I am happy for them.
No, my prejudice is one common among school teachers; we really, really don't like lazy people. I don't really care what color a person's skin is, or what her religion is, or to whom he is attracted. But I loathe it when people are unmotivated and lazy.
But here's the difference between us, Ms. Davis; I still do my job.
While you threw a hissy fit and pulled your little stunt, claiming Jesus was on your side, I was teaching lazy kids amongst the worker kids. While you go off to do more kissing up to politicians, I will still be working, even working late into the evenings of parent-teacher conferences with some lazy parents (mixed in among those who aren't lazy).
You and I, Ms. Davis, are both entitled by law to our own fervent beliefs and prejudices. But both of us must leave aside our prejudices and follow the law when we are paid by taxpayers. I must teach lazy people. I must furthermore teach the children of nutjobs such as yourself when they are sent to public school.
And you, Ms. Davis, must do the paperwork for ALL legal marriages, not just the marriages of which you approve personally.
Some people are lazy, Ms. Davis, and some people are gay. I loathe the former, you the latter. But both of us must deal with the differences or else resign, if we are to have integrity.
I have this integrity, Ms. Davis. Where are you keeping your integrity these days?
Sincerely,
Ms. Shafer
Like you, I am paid by taxpayers' money. I, however, do not earn 80,000 a year of taxpayers' money, as you do for what appears to be a MUCH easier job.
Like you, I also have my prejudices. You are prejudiced against gay people and lesbians. I am not, as I have many friends who fall into these categories; a fair number of them are now married, and I am happy for them.
No, my prejudice is one common among school teachers; we really, really don't like lazy people. I don't really care what color a person's skin is, or what her religion is, or to whom he is attracted. But I loathe it when people are unmotivated and lazy.
But here's the difference between us, Ms. Davis; I still do my job.
While you threw a hissy fit and pulled your little stunt, claiming Jesus was on your side, I was teaching lazy kids amongst the worker kids. While you go off to do more kissing up to politicians, I will still be working, even working late into the evenings of parent-teacher conferences with some lazy parents (mixed in among those who aren't lazy).
You and I, Ms. Davis, are both entitled by law to our own fervent beliefs and prejudices. But both of us must leave aside our prejudices and follow the law when we are paid by taxpayers. I must teach lazy people. I must furthermore teach the children of nutjobs such as yourself when they are sent to public school.
And you, Ms. Davis, must do the paperwork for ALL legal marriages, not just the marriages of which you approve personally.
Some people are lazy, Ms. Davis, and some people are gay. I loathe the former, you the latter. But both of us must deal with the differences or else resign, if we are to have integrity.
I have this integrity, Ms. Davis. Where are you keeping your integrity these days?
Sincerely,
Ms. Shafer
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Jubilation T. Cornpone
Is it just me, or does this:
Ted Cruz
Praise God Kim has been released! https://www.facebook.com/tedcruzpage/posts/10153570897667464 … #ImWithKim
remind anyone else of this:
??????
Would You Like To Host A Cover Reveal And Giveaway For My New YA Novella?
The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay is 132 pages long and is YA paranormal mystery/adventure. I'm thinking of releasing it right around the first week in October, and I'd love to have a few bloggers host a cover reveal and e-book giveaway. (I'll send you a free e-book for your trouble.)
For the giveaway, you'd be able to have two ebook prizes, offer it internationally, and add several of your own requirements (in Rafflecopter or if you have a different preferred method, we can work things out).
If you're interested, please contact me through e-mail, by commenting on the blog, through goodreads messaging, through Twitter (@lisamshafer), or through Pinterest messaging.
Here's the book blurb and the OLD COVER (you don't get to see the new cover until the reveal!):
Nerissa MacKay isn’t just anybody. So she’s fairly positive that a major role in the school play will prove that point -- and maybe attract the hormones of some of the boys who have ignored her for far too long.
But Nerissa’s dressing with a different theme every day for one solid year hasn’t yet convinced the drama teacher of her creativity, and Nerissa gets desperate during the last week of tryouts. Then, when the local mean girls' clique starts bragging about being visited by a ghost, Nerissa has had all she can take of their upstaging her.
Determined to pull the town's attention toward her and to Aunt Jane's Haunted Zoo, Nerissa plans to find this "ghost" --- right after she does her biology homework.
But the research for biology class leads her to her great-great-great grandmother's commonplace book, which contains several uncommon recipes using local plants. In the name of research, Nerissa gives one of the concoctions a try.
Ghosts, witchcraft, cliques, boys, her mother, homework, and saving the Haunted Zoo -- Nerissa's in way over her head. Even when no one can see her...
For the giveaway, you'd be able to have two ebook prizes, offer it internationally, and add several of your own requirements (in Rafflecopter or if you have a different preferred method, we can work things out).
If you're interested, please contact me through e-mail, by commenting on the blog, through goodreads messaging, through Twitter (@lisamshafer), or through Pinterest messaging.
Here's the book blurb and the OLD COVER (you don't get to see the new cover until the reveal!):
Nerissa MacKay isn’t just anybody. So she’s fairly positive that a major role in the school play will prove that point -- and maybe attract the hormones of some of the boys who have ignored her for far too long.
But Nerissa’s dressing with a different theme every day for one solid year hasn’t yet convinced the drama teacher of her creativity, and Nerissa gets desperate during the last week of tryouts. Then, when the local mean girls' clique starts bragging about being visited by a ghost, Nerissa has had all she can take of their upstaging her.
Determined to pull the town's attention toward her and to Aunt Jane's Haunted Zoo, Nerissa plans to find this "ghost" --- right after she does her biology homework.
But the research for biology class leads her to her great-great-great grandmother's commonplace book, which contains several uncommon recipes using local plants. In the name of research, Nerissa gives one of the concoctions a try.
Ghosts, witchcraft, cliques, boys, her mother, homework, and saving the Haunted Zoo -- Nerissa's in way over her head. Even when no one can see her...
Monday, September 7, 2015
This And That.....
The weather is FINALLY not roasting hot! I'm so excited. I hate extreme heat (yeah, I know; I live in a desert. I have to deal with it.). Temperatures over 95 or so -- especially when they don't dip into the 60s at night -- give me headaches and body aches, make my hands and feet swell, and keep me from sleeping.
This is why autumn is my favorite season: warm days, cool nights, no snow to shovel, harvest holidays and foods, family, beautiful scenery. It's just plain good.
School, on the other hand, is a bit tough this year. Oh, I like my classes well enough (three classes of mixed-grade Spanish 1, two classes of 9th grade regular English, and one class of 9GT English), but we have 14 new teachers, a school that will cease to exist (as it is absorbed into the high school and the younger kids sent elsewhere) at the end of the school year, and a principal who wants to push through all kinds of new programs all at once. Plus, the departure of our English department head left me with that position -- as well as my responsibilities as GT head, novels committee, leadership team, and the newly-created 9th grade team leader (although I'm hoping to share that one with the science department head to ease my load a bit). With all the new changes being unpopular with 98% of the faculty, most of the teachers are having to be cajoled into doing the new stuff (which is a LOT more work), and it's exhausting. There is, of course, the added uncertainty that none of us knows where we'll be teaching next year, and it's making the faculty much less at-ease than in the past. It's just not going to be an easy year.
All this means I've had less time to read and to write. I'd been packing in 12 or more books a month for reading, but now I'm only getting in about 5. And I've often been too tired to edit or write.
The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay is just about ready to roll. I'm also working on the first major revision of its sequel, Nerissa MacKay and the Secrets of the Seventeen Scrolls. Plus, I have the barest of outlines ready for book 3 and book 4 in the series.
The Chocolate Smuggler's Notebook is on indefinite hold, although I did have a bizarre dream while I was in Norway last June, and that dream gave me an idea as to how I can fix the plot quicksand in which I'd gotten myself stuck. I wrote out the dream and a new plot outline while on the train from Bergen to Oslo, but I've gotten no further.
My next steps are to finish up the 1st Nerissa book, get some folks to do a cover reveal and giveaways, create some ads to put on Pinterest, finish putting together prizes for contests, get some folks to do reviews, and finish the first overhaul of book 2 so that I can get it out (I hope) within the coming year and thus keep readers interested.
This is why autumn is my favorite season: warm days, cool nights, no snow to shovel, harvest holidays and foods, family, beautiful scenery. It's just plain good.
School, on the other hand, is a bit tough this year. Oh, I like my classes well enough (three classes of mixed-grade Spanish 1, two classes of 9th grade regular English, and one class of 9GT English), but we have 14 new teachers, a school that will cease to exist (as it is absorbed into the high school and the younger kids sent elsewhere) at the end of the school year, and a principal who wants to push through all kinds of new programs all at once. Plus, the departure of our English department head left me with that position -- as well as my responsibilities as GT head, novels committee, leadership team, and the newly-created 9th grade team leader (although I'm hoping to share that one with the science department head to ease my load a bit). With all the new changes being unpopular with 98% of the faculty, most of the teachers are having to be cajoled into doing the new stuff (which is a LOT more work), and it's exhausting. There is, of course, the added uncertainty that none of us knows where we'll be teaching next year, and it's making the faculty much less at-ease than in the past. It's just not going to be an easy year.
All this means I've had less time to read and to write. I'd been packing in 12 or more books a month for reading, but now I'm only getting in about 5. And I've often been too tired to edit or write.
The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay is just about ready to roll. I'm also working on the first major revision of its sequel, Nerissa MacKay and the Secrets of the Seventeen Scrolls. Plus, I have the barest of outlines ready for book 3 and book 4 in the series.
The Chocolate Smuggler's Notebook is on indefinite hold, although I did have a bizarre dream while I was in Norway last June, and that dream gave me an idea as to how I can fix the plot quicksand in which I'd gotten myself stuck. I wrote out the dream and a new plot outline while on the train from Bergen to Oslo, but I've gotten no further.
My next steps are to finish up the 1st Nerissa book, get some folks to do a cover reveal and giveaways, create some ads to put on Pinterest, finish putting together prizes for contests, get some folks to do reviews, and finish the first overhaul of book 2 so that I can get it out (I hope) within the coming year and thus keep readers interested.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Book Review: Silver In The Blood by Jessica Day George
Society girls from New York City circa 1890, Dacia and Lou never desired to know more about their lineage, instead preferring to gossip about the mysterious Romanian family that they barely knew. But upon turning seventeen, the girls must return to their homeland to meet their relatives, find proper husbands, and—most terrifyingly—learn the deep family secrets of The Claw, The Wing, and The Smoke. The Florescus, after all, are shape-shifters, and it is time for Dacia and Lou to fulfill the prophecy that demands their acceptance of this fate... or fight against this cruel inheritance with all their might.
With a gorgeous Romanian setting, stunning Parisian gowns, and dark brooding young men, readers will be swept up by this epic adventure of two girls in a battle for their lives.
So, George is a Utah author, but she's mostly written MG stuff. When The King's English bookstore advertised she was doing a signing for this book, I really wanted to go. But then I read some Amazon reviews, and thinking back to the last three local authors I've supported at TKE wherein it turned out the books were pretty crappy, I decided not to chance it.
This was a bad move because Silver in the Blood is pretty dang good.
Reviewers who influenced me wrongly said things like, "the author choose a way of writing that slowed the book and made it drag " and "This drag and repetition was especially noticeable because the narrative rotated between formats: letters, journal entries, telegraphs, newspaper notices and traditional story structure."
When I finally got the book from our school library and opened it to page one, I felt like shouting at these imbecile reviewers. The idiots had completely missed the point: Jessica Day George, in writing a book about a Romanian family who has the hereditary role of serving the Dracula family, has set up the book like Dracula. Duh.
It doesn't "drag." The dual points of view are not repetitive.
What these uneducated reviewers missed is that Dacia and Lou echo Lucy and Mina in Stoker's original. They are confused and kept in the dark by those who wish them to be in powerless positions. The reader is meant to know more than the girls do; it's called "dramatic irony." (Even Shakespeare used it; don't assume George is the one who doesn't know what's going on here.) Silver in the Blood is set up with multiple points of view and partly in epistle form because it alludes to Dracula. If the reader is too stupid to realize this, it is not the author's fault. It is not the author's fault if the reader is too under-educated to understand dramatic irony, multiple points of view, and literary allusions. (Note: do not even try to argue that the book is YA and that kids aren't exposed to these things, for all three are standard in the junior high curriculum.)
This whole thing reminds me of a quote I once saw in a Readers' Digest (decades ago), "It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf."
That being said, I will also state that the book is not five-stars, in my opinion. There were grammatical errors and modernisms in the dialogue that would simply not have occurred among the British upper crust in the 1890s. And there is one whole scene where Dacia, the stronger of the two protagonists, does not defend herself when she is quite capable of doing so and it is in her personality to do so. The whole purpose of her not defending herself appears to be because it allows the plot to move forward, but it's completely out of character for her. That I did not like much.
However, it is still an excellent book and well worth the read.
I enjoyed much of the detail about Romania that the author includes. It feels a bit strained, however, and it's clear that she's writing from recent research and not from long-term knowledge. (For example, her description of Romanian folk dress is accurate to a point, but she seems unaware of the more elaborate variations on the costume for the girls and she neglects to describe the men's folk dress in any detail. Since I've done Romanian folk dance for decades, met many Romanians at festivals when they were in costume, and own two Romanian dresses from this region, I can pick out these details. Nevertheless, I like the fact that she at least did some research.)
The feminism of so many of the male characters in the book is anachronistic, but I liked it. This book gets a thumbs up from me on showing girls thinking for themselves and solving problems.
Overall, I'd give it 4 stars. It's appropriate for about age 13 and up.
(The book feels like it needs a sequel, but I read on Goodreads that George hopes only to write a "companion novel.")
Update: 5:30 PM.
The author sent me this tweet:
Jessica Day GeorgePoint taken, and I should have recalled they were American (I read the book a week ago.). But I still think the upper crust would have used correct grammar.
Nevertheless, I urge readers to judge for themselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)