Stone Fox

          I was reading some of Dianne Graveman's old postings and found one about Stone Fox.

          In case you are not familiar with the story, it is a book suitable for elementary students.  I have used it with third graders, but at that age, they need support in order to understand the concepts.  It would be a great book to use with sixth graders, especially with  struggling readers; the text is not very difficult, but the story is engaging.

         Willie lives with his grandfather and his trusty sled dog, Searchlight, on a potato farm.  It is just the three of them.  They are about to lose their farm, as they owe a great deal of back taxes.  The farm is all they have...So despondent, Grandfather "checks out" mentally, becomes bedridden, and becomes uncommunicative.

       Fortunately, Willie discovers there is a sled race, and the prize money will cover their debt.

       Unfortunately, Stone Fox has also entered the race.  He is a Native American who never speaks to white people because of the way his nation has been treated.  Stone Fox has a whole team of champion sled dogs; each time he wins a race, he uses the prize money to buy back his tribes' land, the land that has been "stolen" by white people.

         In the race, the two are neck and neck right up to the second-to-last chapter. Each of them should win; they both have noble causes.  And then the unthinkable happens...

         I won't tell you what happens unless you either 1) torture me with milk chocolate or 2) pay me scads of money.  However, I will tell you that if you don't cry, you need to go to Whoville and spend some time with little Cindy Lou Who, because you're heartless...

         It's a short book (around 100 pages, and that includes illustrations) and the author, John Reynolds Gardiner is an awesome speaker.  I once saw him speak at a conference, and he told the story of getting this bestseller published.  He claims there were 138 errors in his manuscript--spelling mistakes, grammatical gaffes, and so on...In 100 or so pages, that's a lot of mistakes.

          His message:  Don't squash the spirit of a writer by paying too much attention to the deficits, the errors.  There are writers who are reluctant to put down their words because they are not confident about things that are really inconsequential.  Spelling is easily fixed. Grammar can be examined during editing.  But a great story is priceless... 

While You're Holding Your Breath...

photo by frankieleon

          Still waiting for the prize patrol to arrive from the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes?

       In the meantime, check out Becky Povich's contest.  It's easy.  And if you have not ever stopped by Becky's blog, you'll find she's like a golden retriever-greyhound-chihuahua.  She's a great friend, she has endless energy, and she's tiny but mighty.

A Trip to Soulard

         Saturday, our boy scout troop did a 22-mile bike trip to Soulard Market. For those who do not live in the St. Louis area, Soulard is a historic, open-air farmers' market. There is a bike trail that winds along, parallel to the Mississippi River.  We also visited the Arch and Eads Bridge.

        Our son is 22, and having become an Eagle Scout and now doing his internship in Kansas City , he is no longer active.  We still volunteer with the troop because 1) it's enjoyable and 2) there were parents who helped Ian out as a scout, even though their boys had graduated and moved on.  It's a way of paying back the "debt" we feel we owe...

        The boys we rode with, the boys who go camping and hike trails...they are exceptionally nice young men.  With most of them, there are so many "ma'am's" and genuine polite behavior, we wonder if we're in another dimension of time and space.

         But, no. It's not an episode of The Twilight Zone.  It's reality.  In 2010.

photo by Roadsidepictures

         Unfortunately, the misbehavior, the crimes, the apathy and self-centeredness get all the press and all the attention.  People talk about all the things that are wrong with the youth of today.

         But what about the things that are right?

I'm Working On...

        I regret I am not continuing with NaNo.  I do. I quit something, but it was a wise decision for me.

        This evening I worked on a story for a contest that Saturday Writers is sponsoring.  (The deadline was extended.)  It was a story I wrote probably 15 years ago.  I had to rework it in some major ways.  I won't say it's brilliant, but it's also not pure fecal matter, like my NaNo story was.

        I think the word count was just a bit over 1,000 words. So it's very short short story.

       By the way, this story was written way before I had a laptop or a flashdrive, so I just had a paper hard copy.  Therefore, I had to retype it.  I didn't mind, because as I was typing it up, I was also revising.as I went.  (Sometimes I retype things even when I have them saved, so I am forced to look at it again, with new eyes.) 

photo by Hassenpfeffer Incorporated

            The story I worked on tonight is a childhood memoir.  I am going to send it off, and later this week, I 'm going to work on a holiday one.  (Saturday Writers is sponsoring a holiday story contest as well.) Both stories are being "recycled..."

Going Teacher

        If you didn't already know, the "average" IQ is 100.  I think if you are a potential MENSA member, you have to have a score of 140 (but I'm not, uh, smart enough to know for sure, if, uh, that's right).

        One of the crazy things that teachers have to contend with is the expectation that the state (and the country, with the No Child Left Behind mandates) has for students who fall in the crack, intellectually-speaking.

          For example, I have some students right now, in my regular class, who have an IQ of 71 or 72.  It used to be that 70 was considered mentally retarded.  I think it has changed to a number under 70.  (That is so less kids will qualify for special help. And the term is now ID--"intellectually delayed." However, that term hints that eventually they will "catch up," which is never the case.  If their IQ is that low, they will always be behind...)



photo by peter_kucerka

             I know that some number has to be decided upon.  I get that. However, there is not a lot of difference in the capabilities of a student who has a 68 IQ and one that has a 72.  It's not as if they are not prepared for grade level work under the 70 line, and once they cross that line, they magically can do the sophisticated problem-solving and concluding that is necessary in the third grade. 

              The state, in its stupidity, expects that all students will excel at high levels on the state test.  Even the ones who are ID.  They read at a level two or three grade levels below the grade they're in, they interrupt a lesson on measuring with the excited comment, "Mrs. R, I got a new book bag!", they cannot add 2 + 4, but the state does not want to hear any "excuses" about why these kiddoes won't score in the proficient/advanced range. They just keep putting the pressure on.

            In the past, there were lots of jokes about people going "postal" because of the frequency of postal employees getting angry and shooting the place up.

          If things do not change, soon the phrase will be "going teacher" because we have lots of valid reasons to be 

"mad as all get-out, and we're not going to take it anymore!"

Surrendering, Yet Still Succumbing

photo by ryantow

          After writing for less than a week, I am waving in the air the pages I've written so far as part of the NaNoWriMo project; I'm surrendering.

            The reason?  Is it because the pace is too much?  A bit, but not really.  The main obstacle:  my story is crapola.

            On November 1, in preparation to beginning writing, I squinted over a list of 1000 plot ideas.  (The type was extremely tiny.) I found an idea that seemed clever do-able at the time, but has fizzled out quickly.  The character--since I did not really have one in mind before beginning--has become too much like me, and then I threw snippets of other people's personalities on top of the character.  It is now a "hot mess."

            The plot is going nowhere.  It has ended up being endless descriptions and internal conversations and nothing interesting or exciting is happening.  If the character and story does not matter to me, does it have a chance of engaging someone else?  I think not...

             So I am surrendering.  I certainly am not assuming that if I had stuck with it, I could have kept up with the pace.  And don't even think of writing, "But it was probably not as bad as you thought...I'll bet it was pretty good...You're too hard on yourself," and so on.  If it smells like poop and looks like poop and reads like poop, it is indeed poop.

             However I am also succumbing.  Even though it was just a matter of days, I enjoyed the daily writing expectation.  It was fun to sit down and fulfill some sort of requirement. So I am succumbing to the muse that was sitting next to me this week, urging me to write. 

          I figured, if I can write over 1,000 words a day about something that does not matter to me, perhaps I can write at least half that amount on things that do matter to me.  There is a contest that I'd like to enter, a piece for one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies I'd like to write, and an idea for a children's book was brought up from the dead yesterday...

           So, to all NaNo writers who keep slugging away, keep it up.  I bow down to you...