Idea

I was watching giant shuttle buses (or is it busses?) crawling by and I thought of a little snippet, perhaps, of a new poem:

"If the road is a giant forest,
Then buses are the beasts of the road,"

which now developed into:

"If the road is a giant forest,
Then buses are the beasts of the road,
The Prius is a panda bear,
And the Jeep is the frowning toad,
The sleek towncar is the waiting shark
In the waters off the shore,
The Hummer is a grizzly with its bulky heavy fur,
And I? I am a hiker--a pedestrian, on tour."

Summary Outline of Traveling-Wisconsin, New York, and Washington DC

Honestly, I didn't feel up to writing a full-length essay at 9:13 Eastern Standard Time at night, so I decided to make an informal outline--to prepare for a future essay--instead. Prewriting, right?

1. Wisconsin
a. Saw (driving by) Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack. I have never seen a
dog track. I'm not entirely sure these are humane, so I just wanted to
clarify that I'm not endorsing dog racing! I also saw the Keno Drive-in Theater--I've never seen a drive-in theater before, either.
b. I presented using a Promethean Activboard to teachers from the Kenosha Unified School District at Mahone Middle School in Kenosha. I'd like to thank the incredibly hard-working Mary Salani (KUSD) and the endlessly resourceful Dagmar Ladle (Promethean) for their help in making the keynote, and the following breakout session, a success. I presented on "A Kid's Eye View of an Activclassroom" and "Activideas for Activstudents," the latter about differentiating teaching in a gifted classroom.
c. My first brush with wild Wisconsin weather! There was a tornado in Kenosha; it missed us by a few miles (thankfully) but we saw wild winds and torrential rains--well, that was, before we got evacuated from our hotel rooms to the hallway. It was the first time I had seen a black-greenish sky, and it was truly the definition of ominous.

2. New York
a. We flew into LaGuardia and took the bus (hurrah public transportation) and the subway to our hotel.
b. I appeared on Fox News and Friends. I was part of the "Pint-Sized Prodigy Pundit Pit." The other "pundits" were Jonathan Krohn, who shouted and gesticulated wildly during the whole of the event, and the far less paroxysmal Moshe Kai Cavalin, an eleven-year-old college graduate.

3. Washington D.C.
a. We saw quite a few museums. My favorite by far was the Newseum, a museum about news--and a very new museum as well! I believe the museum was around for a while, but that it moved to a new building in DC quite recently. It features huge glass elevators, newspapers delivered daily to the entrance area, and many interesting exhibits about journalism including an excellent "4D" video.
b. We also saw the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History. I most enjoyed an exhibit called "The Secret Life of Ants." To roughly quote one of the information tablets--"There have been million of ant deaths in turf wars in the suburbs of San Diego." It really makes looking at ants different! However, we did visit DC in high tourist season and as a result the museum was crowded and stuffy.
c. NECC! NECC! The very reason for my visit! The National Educational Computing Conference, or NECC as it's commonly called, is an annual conference taking place in locations across the country (it will be in Denver in 2010). I presented for Promethean, the renowned interactive whiteboard company. I spoke about using the Activboard in the classroom to excite kids. My audience included teachers, technology coordinators, and administrators from all corners of the globe. I really enjoyed working with the enthusiastic people at Promethean. GO BIG ORANGE!

Reading Incentive Programs

A free personal pizza…a tub of Whole Foods ice cream…a box of doughnuts…a backpack—if I offered all these items to you for free, you would probably assume that I was kidding. But these are just a few example items that grade-school kids can get by…community service? Charitable donations? Paying money? Nope. Reading.

Many libraries, including my own local Redmond Regional library, offer reading incentive programs, often funded by philanthropic arms of companies such as Pizza Hut. You get a sheet on which “reading coaches”—parents, teachers, or guardians—sign their initials and the date to prove that you have read at least 20 minutes.There’s nothing wrong with the libraries that set up the reading incentive programs; understandably, the libraries want to get more people (especially the new generation) to read. What makes me angry is that kids do need incentives to read. The Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) website listed a few common complaints kids have about reading: “It's boring[…] I don't have the time[…] It's too hard […] It's not important […] It's no fun.” When kids complain about the food on their plates, we tell them that there are starving children in Africa. How are books different? Many people across the world do not have the chance to access reading material. We need to impress upon kids that the ability to read, and the presence of books, is a privilege and a great opportunity for them to learn.

One of the reasons kids may not embrace reading as much any more is that they have many other forms of recreation to distract them, from texting on cell phones to video games and sporting events. However, a big part of life is prioritizing. We need to compare the value of, say, Kung Fu Chaos, an ultra-violent “brawler game” (Xbox.com) to The Grapes of Wrath, an American classic that eloquently depicts the struggles of Depression-era people. Which one do you think sounds better?

Things I've Learned Recently

Alas! I haven't updated the blog for ages. Here's my new post about things I've learned:

In history, I've been learning about the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The Reformation refers to the movement that pushed for reforms in the Roman Catholic church. In the 1500s, the Catholic Church needed reforming in many areas.

Firstly, some Renaissance popes lived like kings. Pope Sixtus IV was guilty of nepotism; he gave many important church positions to family members. Julius II was one such family member. Also known as the "Warrior Pope," Julius built himself lavish new palaces after deciding that the papal apartments were not good enough. He was famous for leading papal armies into battle against defiant city-states. The picture shown depicts Julius II.

Of course, there were some "grassroots" problems in the Catholic church as well, starting with nuns and monks. If you came from a noble family, you might live in lavish apartments, with "worldly goods" around you. In fact, the saint and nun Teresa of Avila, who later founded the Discalced Carmelites, at first lived in a spacious suite with its own kitchen in her convent, thanks to her noble birth. This picture of a sculpture by Bernini depicts Teresa of Avila having a vision.

The problems of the church became more apparent when Pope Leo X started actively marketing "indulgences." Basically, if you paid enough money for an "indulgence," you could skip purgatory (where sinners were "purged" of their sins) and go right to heaven. Obviously, this idea appealed to a lot of people. However, one monk and theology teacher, Martin Luther, thought that the sale of indulgences was wrong--and said so. Martin Luther posted what he called his "Ninety-Five Theses" on a church door. The "Ninety-Five Theses" criticized the Catholic Church.

Of course, it was dangerous to criticize the church. In fact, a monk named Jan Hus who had criticized the sale of indulgences in the 1400s had been burned at the stake. The Catholic Church gave Martin Luther a chance to recant, or take back, his Ninety-Five Theses, summoning him to appear in a city called Worms. Martin Luther met with church officials and refused to recant the Ninety-Five Theses. The meeting was known as "The Diet of Worms." However, as far as I know, no worms were eaten. The picture at the side depicts Martin Luther (in the habit, with the shaved head) at the Diet of Worms.

Martin Luther's ideas spread. Other reformers began spreading their own ideas. John Calvin helped to spread Protestanism, which was created as a protest against the church. Slowly, the Protestants began gaining support.

All of this worried the Church. Between 1545 and 1563, Pope Paul III held a series of meetings, called the Council of Trent, in the small city of Trent. The Council of Trent attempted to answer basic questions about the Church and their policies, and to define what it meant to be Catholic.

As a result of the Council of Trent, some church members were inspired to lead more pious lives. The Archbishop of Milan gave up many of his worldly goods, and, when the plague spread through his city-state, he stayed behind (and later died) in Milan. People like Ignatius of Loyola, who led an order of priests who became the Jesuits, and Teresa of Avila, who encouraged nuns to give up worldly posessions and distractions and live simple lives dedicated to prayer, led the charge.

But the Catholic Church used more macabre methods to intimidate "heretics." They set up courts of Inquisition, which tried people for heresy or blasphemy against the church. If suspected "heretics" did not confess, they could be tortured.

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I hope that you've enjoyed reading my post. Feel free to leave comments!

Family Reunion Vacation in Lake Chelan

Our vacation began on Friday night. My mom, dad, and older sister packed into our car with countless bags. We were going to a place called Lake Chelan. I threw a variety of clothes of different fabrics and colors into a bright orange bag. We brought some food along with us. I made ice packs and dumped salt into them so that they would keep cold.

The drive was very long. For the most part it was at night, and I had to struggle to keep awake and read directions out to my dad while we drove. My sister and I were on "deer watch" trying to make sure that we didn't hit any deer on the highway, but my sister kept on falling asleep.
When we arrived, it was already past midnight. Everyone was sleeping except for my Aunt Yimei, who was giving us some directions to get to the house. We had an entire room to our own intermediate family.

In the morning, everyone joined upstairs in the dining room--my aunts, uncles, cousin, mom, dad, grandpa and grandma, and my sister. We went for a morning swim and got slightly tanned, much to my dismay. Lake Chelan was renowned for hot, sunny weather.
One of the highlights of the trip was going innner tubing on the Lake Chelan marina. We rented a ten-person motorboat (although there were eleven people) and dragged an inner tube behind us at high speeds. I went in the inner tube many times. One time, the boat went so fast that water and foam flew into my face and I had to hold my nose and close my eyes--in order not to scream.

Thankfully, I was still wearing my swimsuit. I had the good luck to stay in the inner tube, but my sister and uncle were flipped over in the inner tube. My aunt got into the inner tube without a lifevest (for some reason she had taken it off), and we had to pull her back in so that she could put on her life vest. It was lucky, too--for she and my uncle were flipped over and had to swim back to the boat. I was in charge of holding up an orange flag that let other boats know when people were in the water.

We played card games like Bohnanza and Democrazy, played Olympic-themed charades (while watching Michael Phelps swim), and went swimming ourselves. We ate cake and ice cream, and I hogged a great deal of goat cheese. Since it was very hot inside the house, my Aunt Huan made some great smoothies to cool us all off. Everyone took photos and we had an official photo shoot at sunset.

All in all, our family reunion in Lake Chelan was an excellent experience.

Dialogue between presidents in the White House of the "underworld"

For class I was studying some early presidents, because I was supposed to write a dialogue between them. I asked my teacher whether I could have some presidents talk with presidents who would have been dead in their time. She said sure. I got the idea to make them ghosts in the underworld.

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The White House was never the quietest place in the underworld, but tonight the noise was absolutely alarming. It made sense--all the dead presidents' ghosts, ghosts of staff, and ghosts of family crammed into a single building were bound to make noise. In the kitchen, where at least some of the cooks knew him, Andrew Jackson tried to get to sleep.

"Poll wants to fly! Poll wants to leave!" Jackson's parrot, Poll, squawked.

"Shut it, you scumfaced, traitorous, most--oh, thought you were...eh, someone, Poll," Jackson mumbled sleepily, groping for his pillow. "Who stole my pillow?"

"Poll wants to leave!" was Poll's only answer.

"Fine, sirrah! Get away with you, and say no more about my wife!" Jackson bellowed, apparently in the middle of a dream. Poll took this as permission to leave, and, squawking, flew off into the night.




"Well, my dear Abigail, to tell you truly, that Jackson character is getting on my nerves," John Adams sighed. Abigail Adams looked at him sympathetically. They had chosen to stay in the Oval Office for the night.

"Has he gotten into another duel?" Abigail asked. She was friends with Edith Roosevelt and Harriet Lane, who told her all about such matters.

"Yes, my darling. He infuriates me--through truly I'd never say this in public--with his wife. You know what they say--she never properly divorced from that fellow of hers she had before, and Jackson has no thought of honor."

"Yes, I know, John. Helen Taft told me--" Abigail began.

"Helen Taft? That jelly-bellied elephant of a man, Taft, is her husband. He--Taft, that is--got stuck in a bathtub when Cerberus was lurking around."

A squawk came from the windowsill.

"Och! What's that?" Adams asked, and pulled the curtains aside. But there was nothing there but one half of a parrot feather.




"Poll hear Adams," Poll squawked. "Poll hear Adams," she repeated, and nudged Jackson awake.

"God, by the battle of New Orelans I swear there never were--was--is--are--darn durn it, a nastier parrot!" Jackson shouted. "Now, whatcha got? You said Adams? What did he say, huh?"

Poll told Jackson exactly what she had heard Adams say, word for word.

"The scoundrel gossiped about Rachel, huh?" Jackson snarled, waving his pistol about. "And Taft too, hmm. Well, I don't want to break another rib in a duel. Let's see if we can drum up any support."




At dawn Taft turned on his underworld-controlled T.V. and put the channel on Onion News Network. He had only watched for two minutes when William Seward came bursting in, shouting "Murder!" and dragging Jackson along by the ear.

"What in the..." Taft muttered, hefting his huge and heavy body off of his rocking chair, which immediately collapsed.

"I didn't mean to draw my pistol, Seward! Why don't you just go off to your icebox where you belong!" Jackson roared. Seward slunk off.

"I apologize," Jackson said curtly. "I thought that Adams would be in the Executive Suite tonight."

"Nope, he switched to the Oval Office tonight," Taft said, chewing on a petrified stick of butter. All things in the underworld were petrified. "I'm Taft, by the way. I don't think we've met."

"Oh! Taft indeed, very good to meet you!" Jackson said, shaking Taft's hand vigorously.

Eight minutes later, Jackson had filled Taft in on all the infuriating things that Adams had said about Taft and Jackson's wife.

"He called me a WHAT!" and "I'd smash that hypocritical liar's face in!" were all phrases Taft used upon hearing Jackson's (much-exaggerated) tale of what Adams had said.

"Indeed, indeed," Jackson said, trying his best to sound like a gentleman.

"Well, then, Jackson, there's no way around it. We must rally our staff and confront the scoundrel Adams," Taft said, once he had cooled down.

"That sounds quite fine," Jackson said, smiling. Hist staff were fairly good at fighting.




In three hours twenty-five minutes, Jackson had rallied his kitchen staff, his wife, and Martin van Buren around him. There they joined with some sympathetic presidents and First Ladies, as well as with Taft's staff, and marched off to confront Adams in the Oval Office.




"I think that the Aeneid is not quite as good as Common Sense myself," Abigail Adams remarked over her husband's shoulder.

"Not quite as good? Now, Abby, one must be careful with the word "good," for--" John Adams said patronizingly, only to be interrupted by a loud pounding on the door.

"OPEN UP, ADAMS!" came a booming of joined voices. There were some whispers from behind the door.

"It's only me, Helen Taft," said Helen Taft, giggling to the assembled crowd behind her. "Please open up, Abigail, for your dear friend." Abigail, upon hearing this familiar voice, opened up without hesitation, then froze with fear. Jackson, Taft, and their assembled cudgel, lamp, and rope-wielding staff, burst into the Oval Office.

"GET ADAMS!" Jackson roared. Without hesitation, they surged toward Adams and grabbed him by the arms.

"Throw him in the Potomac!" one of Jackson's chefs jeered. "He likes to go skinny-dipping there."

"No I don't, you ungentlemanly monster!" Adams protested, trying to fight his captors. "That's my son, John Quincy--" But Adams got no further, for they had already trooped out of the White House and he determined it best to keep his mouth shut.

Sure enough, when they reached the shores of the Potomac, John Quincy Adams was already in the water without his clothes. He stopped, pale, when he saw the approaching crowd, and grew even paler when he saw that they were holding his father. But he had no time to do anything but watch hopelessly as the crowd shoved an indignant John Adams into the water. John Adams shouted at them as he grew wetter and wetter, until everyone tired of honor and revenge and began to race back to the White House.

Creating a name

For those of you writing stories of your own (or maybe about to have a baby) here are three ways to find names:

1.) Create your own. You may already like the sound of a name, like "Anna." Now try replacing the "A" with other letters, like Z for Zanna, Y for Yanna, M for Manna, L for Lanna. Let's go with Lanna. Now let's take out one of the N's and change Lanna to Lana. Lastly, I'm going to replace the last A with an E, to create "Lanne." Another way to create your own name is to take your name or that of somebody you know. Let's say Martha, for instance. Martha backwards is Ahtram. Okay, maybe it's a little weird, but we can also try Thara or Mara, Mathara...

2.) Copy someone else. In the olden times, children would often take the names of one of their parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles. The tradition isn't as widespread today but if you particularly admire someone else's name you can always use it. There's no patent or copyright infrigement law on names.

3.) Use the Internet or other reference source. I personally find a lot of names for my stories from the Internet. There are some names that I don't use in stories, I just keep them in my head. Katenka, for instance, is one of my favorites. (I have a preference for Russian names.) Baby books are also useful. That's how my mom and dad found my sister's name.

Food (and too much of it) Part I

Americans are definitely big consumers of food, but we're also big wasters. Even our household (and we consider ourselves fairly good when it comes to eating our food) has a surplus of whole wheat pancakes. The root of the matter may lie in the fact that the pancakes are tough, and some of them are burnt. Of course, we have also been crazed over our new oats so we have obviously neglected the pancakes.

Tonight we're having pasta imported from Italy. You can tell that it's really Italian because 1) there's not a shred of English, everything is in Italian 2) it's small and 3) it's expensive. I look forward to eating it. Call me treasonous if you like, but in general, European food is much better than American. When we were in Europe, we had a good time eating. 

Andy Rooney has said, "I never eat in the restaurant of the hotel where I'm staying." In contrast, I often eat in hotel restaurants. In Hong Kong, it was nearly the only place we ate. Obviously, this isn't the best way to taste the local culture, but it is the best way to eat food you're familiar with. Then again, why not just eat it at home? That reminds me of another Andy Rooney quote--"I don't eat at a restaurant that says "home cooking." If I want home cooking, I'll eat at home."

Well, no matter how guilty I feel, I don't think I'm going to eat the pancakes tonight.

Pros and Cons of the Videoconference Part 2

When I debuted the presentation "Essay Made Easy: Persuasive Writing," I talked about techniques of persuasive writing, like anecdotes and scenarios, facts and examples, and definitions and quotes. 

I noticed that the students (who were, I noted, teenagers) were talking amongst themselves when they were supposed to accomplish an assignment. Was I a little frustrated? To the contrary, these chattering students inspired me to create a new PowerPoint. I hope that a new presentation I plan to make about rules will stick in the minds of students.

Looking back on the persuasive writing presentation, I have to say that it's made me think a little more about the key parts to making a videoconference a success.

1. A good presenter who is able to manage the video conferencing unit and teach students effectively.

2. A working video conferencing unit that, to put it concisely, does just that--works. Plus good internet connection.

3. A receptive audience who listens carefully and makes an effort to understand the material being presented. 

These three things are key to making any video conference a success. I've seen stellar audiences in some of my presentations, but the video conferencing unit can backfire. Thankfully, we think we're mostly done with our problems now--the video conferencing unit is working consistently throughout my programs so far.  

If you are school teachers, administrators, or librarians interested in my video conferencing programs, you can check them out at www.cilc.org. Search for Adora Svitak.