Big Window

I wish I could say that I read things for other classes, but this is really the only course I'm taking this semester. Student teaching is more of a full time job than a class. I find myself reading stories about animals, plants, and different animals that live in shells rather than important college readings. The rest of my life is going to be reading textbooks and elementary level reading materials. I wish I had more time to read. I started a book three weeks ago and have only read 24 pages of it. How ridiculous is that? I find myself sleeping during my down time. Hopefully I'll be able to do more reading when I start my MA at the College of St. Elizabeth next semester. I went on an interview there yesterday and got accepted. How fantastic is that?!?! I'm so excited!! This is going to open up a new world of teaching for me.

I know its not the most interesting thing to read about and I know we're required atleast two reviews of what we're reading in class, but all I can say is that from reading what I did today in school, plants have four parts: the stem, leaves, roots, and the flower. That I knew and thats my review :-) I'm so stupid. I'm sorry.

Bad/Good News Prompt Story Assignment

Remembering what happened at a frat house the night before was the least of Amber’s problems. She lived at home and her parents would kill her once she got home. After she turned the key in the ignition of her blue 2001 Eclipse, she leaned back in her seat and ran her fingers through her long, flowing blonde hair. Getting home without getting into an accident was her main goal, not throwing up from her hang over was another. The trees seemed to be falling into the street and the squirrels attacking her car. She shook her head every time she would hallucinate another farce.
Amber pulled into her driveway rather erratically and stopped short. Stumbling to her front steps, she fumbled through her purse to find her house key. Feeling that she was beginning to get frustrated about finding the key, she decided to ring the doorbell, regardless of what was going to happen once her parents saw her at the door. As far as they were concerned, she slept at a friend’s house the night before, but by the way she looked at the door there was no way that was true.
Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong
“Who on earth?” her mother yawned, as she unbolted the door, “Who is it?”
“Mom it’s just me. I can’t find my key and I need you to let me in.” At this point she was to weak to stand so she was leaning on the white railing.
“You look like hell. Where were you last night? Mrs. Lynch would never allow this kind of behavior!” her mother began to get furious.
“It’s not a big deal. Don’t worry so much.” Amber brushed her mother off and began to walk into the house. She barely remembered anything from the night before anyway.
“Don’t become a rebellious teen on me now. I know your father and I are getting divorced, but you could atleast at like a mature sixteen year old while dealing with this,” her mother yelled, yet pleaded at her.
Turning back to her mother, “Whatever, I’m going to my room.”
Slam!
Not remembering what happened the night before worried Amber. She’s not as immature as her mother thinks she is. Yeah, her parents are getting divorced, but she’d probably be doing things like this with a friend like Theresa anyway. She dumped her purse out on her purple and pink comforter and fished through her things for her phone. Picking up the small, black device, she called Theresa to get the gossip on what happened.
“Hey, hun,” she said quietly into her cell phone. “What happened to me last night? The last thing I remember was Dom breaking that beer bottle on the floor. Things are pretty hazy after that.”
Laughing into the phone, Theresa said, “ Am, you were out of control. No one could stop you from taking shots. I’ve never seen someone down so much vodka in my life.”
“Oh man.” She ran her fingers through her hair again and then got a quick smell of vomit and covered her mouth. “Well, that would explain the awful hangover. I had hallucinations of squirrels running at the car.”
“That sounds pretty bad,” Theresa giggled. “Maybe you should crawl into the shower and then take a long nap. That’s what I plan on doing.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. Any liquid that isn’t liquor right now sounds fabulous!”
The two girls hung up the phone. Theresa looked at the picture of her and Amber on her dresser and shook her head. She couldn’t believe her friend was capable of anything that she had done the night before, but it was something she was going to pay for in the long run.
After her shower, Amber brushed out all the knots and enjoyed the smell of cucumber melon radiating off her milky skin. No more vomit smell. Laying on her comfortable temper pedic bed made her feel like she was relaxing on a piece of heaven. Putting last night behind her was all she wanted to do, even though she couldn’t recall half of it. Little did she know what was ahead of her.

Fav Literary Website!

I know I'm about a week late posting this, but since I was at teacher's convention last week I figured I'd do both last weeks and this weeks work at the same time. Before I dive into my favorite literary website, teachers convention was awesome! There were so many vendors and so many people. I had no idea where to begin. They were giving away a lot of free materials for teachers. My friend Jess and I definitely did well in getting all of that. By the time we got down there, a lot of the workshops were full, but Cynthia Nixon from Sex and the City was there. That was really awesome!

Okay, about literary websites! My favorite by far is J.K. Rowling's website. It doesn't even look like a literary website when you first enter it. It looks like a messy desk. When you scroll over whatever is on the desk, you find access to her biography, links, FAQs, Harry Potter stuff, any news, etc. Even though her website is pretty much about Harry Potter things, its completely awesome! If you click on the Extra's button (the hair brush) it takes you to a pin-up board where you can find a whole bunch of other information. Without giving a long lengthy summary of the website, why don't you go check it out for yourself.

http://www.jkrowling.com/en/

Have fun with it!!

Literary Excellence!

I've written about her before and I'll do it again! J.K. Rowling! She has a knack for writing and did an amazing job with the Harry Potter series. Melanie also wrote on this great author. Rowling went from a woman who had nothing to a woman who owns a huge mansion in England and is a millionare.

When she wrote Harry Potter, she had no idea how big it was going to be; that the young wizard would create a wizarding empire. As new books came out, the plot thickened, there were more secrets to discover, and we watched the characters we know and love grow and develop. She turned her life around with one series. The series itself held the number one spot on the New York Times Best-Seller list and was turned into movies. She achieved over night fame. As the journey grew, so did her writing. She is truly a great example of literary excellence!

Fiction: What's so great about it?

The great thing about writing fictional stories is the fact that a writer can stretch their imagination. Being able to write about whatever you want and write what may or may not be able to happen is fun and can take readers into the unexpected. When J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, she probably had no idea what she was getting herself into, but she took her imagination farther than no other and wrote a series that will always be remembered. If I could learn to write half as well as her or any of the members of our class I would consider myself lucky.

The great thing about fiction, as Professor Quinlin said in her blog, is conflict. Being able to create a problem and take it anyway you want is pretty tricky. A problem can't be created a resolved in the matter of a page. It has to be presented and then the intensity of that problem has to grow, weaving it in and out of the characters lives. Sometimes its easier to do it when you're writing non-fiction pieces. Yes, you are writing about yourself or things that are real so its easier to understand. Writing about something that may not exist or ever happen is hard. Paying attention to detail in fiction writing is also very big. Description of the characters and the development of those characters are also very crucial.

Fiction was always kind of hard for me. Once I came up with an idea and got it flowing, it was okay. It was always just coming up with that initial thought for a story that kept me from success. Everyone in our class has extreme talent in that area. Some of the stories we work shopped last week were phenomenal. I doubt I would have ever come up with ideas like that. Every writer probably thinks that their own writing isn't as good as others. For me, its my fiction writing. It makes me feel uneasy. I'm sure I'll grow as a writer. My fiction writing will definitely flourish has an educator. I'll have to contsantly be coming up with fresh new ideas for my students and that will help my writing and them at the same time!

The World of Poetry Prompts

I think poetry prompts are rather helpful. Thinking of an idea is always hard for me, so if the idea is given to me, things are so much easier! A lot of of the prompts on the Big Window page have to do with writing a poem based on what you see in a picture. Thats a great way to write poetry I think. You're taking what you see and bringing it to a whole other level by going beyond the picture into an unknown world. Here are a few of the prompts that I find to be quite great from Big Window:

http://theothermother.typepad.com/bigwindow/2008/10/open-34.html
Writing a poem about what you're doing can take you in so many directions. It can be very descriptive as well and it will never be boring. Even if what you're doing is just sitting on the couch, a good writer will find a way of making it captivating.

http://theothermother.typepad.com/bigwindow/2008/05/open-36.html
This prompt is awesome because you have to picture what could be behind in a door of many colors and different prints of cloth. The writer has to tell what is beyond the door and the journey that they'll go on. I did something like this is Intro to Creative Writing. We were supposed to have our class in the Science building but the door to our room was locked and needed a code to be unlocked. Professor Liu asked us to write a prose piece about what could be behind the door. The things that came out of that prompt were crazy!!

http://theothermother.typepad.com/bigwindow/2007/06/furniture_poems.html
Writing about a piece of furniture can seem kind of boring to some people, but bringing that piece of furniture to life is what makes writing exciting. Putting that piece of furniture into a different setting or personifying it can make that boring piece of furniture interesting and beyond what we know as furniture.

Something Interesting I Found About James Joyce!

Now I know there are people that aren't huge fans of James Joyce. I've only read a few things of his, so I don't have a full opinion. What I have read, I really do enjoy. My first major exposure to him was in my American Literature class sophomore year of college, and now again in this course. When I was doing some research on him, I came across an interesting website. There are days during the year on which we celebrate certain things that important. In the literary world there's two weeks dedicated to James Joyce!

James Joyce actually has a summer school over in Europe. It seems to be very popular from what I read. They refer to it at "one of the foremost gatherings in the Joycean calendar". Now I think thats funny because we don't see that in a normal calendar. If I wanted to know anything about Joyce, I guess I'd have to check his calendar :-)

His summer school is opening during the first couple weeks of July. Scholars and lovers of Joyce come from all around the world just to be there during those two weeks in Dublin. They pretty much talk about and analyse his works. I'm sure they've done it many times before, but people that are huge fans of his can obviously do it over and over again. There's events every night during those two weeks, so students can get the full advantage of being in Dublin.

I'm going to leave the website on here, so if anyone is interested and loves James Joyce they can check it out. Maybe even apply if they want!

http://joycesummerschool.ie/