After two days of trading emails with Syracuse Post Standard sports writer Bud Poliquin we were able to figure out a day to meet. I’m going to meet him at his house on the 7th of march. I am looking forward to this and have already started preparing.
Doug
Hey all,
Just wanted to share the fact that I just “played” on FanFiction.com for a good twenty minutes. Definitly check out this website. It’s amazing. So many teenagers wrote pieces that sound like they should belong in the book itself. Of course, if you know me well enough, I went straight to the “Twilight” category to see what some fans wrote.
We should seriously consider doing this type of “assignment” with the Ink Peppers. It has every book imaginable on it. I think the Ink Peppers would LOVE this idea.
Kristin
Today in Corcoran, I observed Junior and Senior English classes. When I arrived at the school, I was informed that my host teacher was absent. However, the substitute allowed me to stay in the classroom, work with the students, and help out. The students (some of them) read and acted out a play they are reading in class. Afterward, they were suppossed to work in groups on a persuassive essay, but that did not actually happen.
The next class consisted of all females. The teacher was very nice and welcoming. We discussed pedagogy, writing activities, socioeconomic status of the students, etc, on our lunch break. This classroom was set up in a circle, a computer was stationed in the front of the room, and if the computer cart is available, students can work on their own mac laptops during class. During this eighty minute block, the students were to make three greeting cards. Each card needed it’s own poem, using three different styles. Students were able to choose what they wanted to write their poem about. In eighty minutes, less than half of the class completed this assignment.
Kristin
I just finished reading over some of the articles on http://www.neo-vox.org/ . I did not know what to expect, but the site was fillled with numerous articles from mainly SUNY Cortland students relating to a diverse range of issues. All of the articles that I read were extremely engaging.
One of the articles had to do with a woman looking back on the times she danced with her father. It contained many concrete details that helped me create a picture in my head. It also forced me to remember dancing with my dad when I was little. Looking back, the author notes: “We join hands, my fragile doll-feet rest upon his glossy patent-leather dress shoes. Daddy spins me around as I watch my frilly, white-polka dotted blue dress twirl. I look up at Daddy, expecting to find him scoping out the latest tray of hors d’oeuvres that are being presented to the bar mitzvah guests, but he’s looking down at me, smiling with cavernous dimples, a tear running down his cheek.” As cliche as it sounds, I got all warm and fuzzy inside. This piece touched me and makes me want to dance with my dad. It also reminded me of a specific time when I danced with him. I was not really paying attention to my arms and one was just dangling on the side of us. It was very funny,and my family does not let me forget this moment, especially since it’s on video (just my luck I guess).
I think that Neovox is a great site and am interested in reading more articles on it. I recommend that everyone else look around and share your thoughts. See you tomorrow!
Alexis
Just wanted to be sure everyone noticed that I used a line from the collage to start my last post. I suggested in a comment that using those lines to begin, end or to weave into an interesting post would be neat. Try it! KES
On Sunday, my boyfriend and I traveled to Binghamton to pick up my roommate from the airport. I asked him (nicely, of course) if we could go to the Barnes & Noble near Binghamton, and we did. I had Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides in mind, but could not remember Jeffrey’s last name, so I asked an employee to direct me to my new treasure. After paying the cashier about fourteen dollars that I really did not have, I smiled and walked outside. The bag I was given was absolutely unnecessary, as I removed the book from it as soon as I exited the store. Sitting in the car on the ride back to campus, I intensely investigated the front and back covers and skimmed the reviews on the first couple of pages. Then, I read the first page.
That first page did one heck of a job of snatching my attention from all else in the world. I read: “On the morning th elast Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide–it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese–the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope” (3), and felt desperate to find out what kind of journey I was awaiting. However, reading in the car makes me sick, and I had to stop. I set the book on my lap and eyed it every couple of minutes, wishing, waiting, and wondering. I already knew that I had chosen the perfect book.
FINALLY, I arrived on campus, hopped into bed, and felt as relieved as the last woman in a restroom line during intermission. I was shocked to find out that the first daughter’s first suicide attempt was unsuccessful, and consequently had a burning sense of bewilderment as to how she would actually pass away. I enjoyed myself as I read the following pages of exposition, then, WOAH! Just when the Lisbon-obsessed boys began to mingle in the basement they had been fantisizing about, it happened. I was honestly surprised. Eugenides’ craft really intrigued me, but I had other books to read. I set my gem on the table beside my bed and wished It was in my hands for the rest of the night.
That’s all for now… I hope I am on the right track!
Edit 2/27
The Virgin Suicides is told from the first person plural point of view, which is very interesting. I do not recall ever reading a novel written from this perspective, so realizing that there is not one main narrator is an interesting challenge for me. The narrator(s) are a group of boys who are, for some reason, obsessed with the Lisbon girls. They tell of their encounters with the girls, as well as their fantasies of interaction. Eugenides’ insights into the minds of adolescent males makes this story seem as though it was actually written by them. Granted, Eugenides used to be a boy, so he knows what it was like, but he conveys accurate (as far as I know) attitudes and thoughts. Now, the story does seem like a teenage boy wrote it, but each paragraph is composed of the perfect words, phrases, and sentences. The language used in this book is sophisticated beyond the ability of the average adolescent, but conversations about such things as tampons insists that the narrators are definitely teenagers.
Krystina
So, I have written a paradelle and wanted to see what you guys thought about it…
Also, I want to encourage you all to try and write one, because it’s really fun, like a puzzle PLUS writing! 
Rolling over, you pulled me closer
Rolling over, you pulled me closer
Love, and the blankets enveloping us
Love, and the blankets enveloping us
The closer love, us and rolling blankets
Pulled, enveloping over you, me
Satisfying moments, like those in my dreams
Satisfying moments, like those in my dreams
We walk together with genuine smiles
We walk together with genuine smiles
Like my dreams we walk, with satisfying smiles
In those genuine together moments
The future, I see to never be dim
The future, I see to never be dim
His continuous smiles are all I desire
His continuous smiles are all I desire
To be his desire is never dim,
I see all future, continuous are the smiles
Be continuous, genuine is love.
Smiles satisfying him are all my desire
With closer smiles enveloping over us,
Never dim, like in those blankets
Pulled to his future, I walk,
We see the rolling dreams with
The moments, you and me, together
i’m not sure how i feel about the last stanza, but it was the best i could come up with at the time.. thanks in advance for any feedback you can offer!
Krystina
Today, Alexis and I went to observation at Clary MS and I found out something that I thought students would never really think, at least I hoped. There were a few minutes left in the period and I was talking to a few of the students and asked if they liked their English classrooms, just to see what they would say. As I suspected many of the students said that they hated English because it was boring. I asked one of the student Tyvone why it was boring. He said because he wasn’t reading anything and he was writing a paper. When I asked what kind of paper he was writing, he stated that it was a paper about something that affects people. I was astonished, how can u have them doing something so boring like that in an HONORS classroom. I asked him then if he was to write about an event that happened in his own life “memoir” would that interest him more and his eyes lit up! It was nice to see that.
Then, I asked the student Anferny (I don’t know how to spell it yet) what he thought about his English class and he said that it was boring and he hated English. I had a really that he really liked rap music, so I questioned him about that and he told me he did. I asked him how he would feel about writing a rap song in his English class. Well, he told me that writing a rap song wouldn’t be English because he would use slang and slang isn’t English. I was shocked he thought that writing a rap song wasn’t considered English.
Just from one day talking to students I have learned that they have no idea what an english classroom can consist of and how many activites I would love to do with my students when I get into a classroom.
-Theresa
I don’t know if we ever talked about this website before but I think this website is really interesting. It is about something called a “postsecret”. A postsecret is an ongoing community art project where people send in postcard size index card with a secret written on it. I think this would be a really interesting little activity just to have students start thinking and writing a little bit. It definantly isn’t the typical writing students would do, they might find this interesting.
Here is the website, check it out! http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
-Theresa
