Getting to campus took many turns. There is much construction around campus.
One of the things we did this morning was write a real name poem. Mine follows.
Mary’s Real Name Poem
In the open air my name is Sizzling Pink Frosting.
Pink Frosting skips through the mystical light of morning.
Fads fast as the sun melts the excitment of the day.
Meandering by the lakeshore at sunset my name will be Misty Blue.
First meeting of Summer Invitational Institute 2007. The excitement of reuniting with fellow acquaintances, the looks of confusion on new fellow faces are all part of the first meeting of the yearly PLWP Summer Institute. Of course, Tom P. opened with a selection of writing prompts for a 10 minute write. You could almost tell the mentors from the new fellows. Those were the people that could write and write, while many of the new members were struggling to get words on paper. I remember some of the fears I faced on those first writes: Am I spelling this or that word right? Is that a sentence fragment? Do I need to correct it now? What will people say if I am ask to share? Did I write what was expected? I soon found out that all of the above did not matter on those first writes. I also loved the option of writing about what ever is on your mind. Some times the 40 mile drive to PLWP was uneventful and others I seemed to have to dodge every piece of farm equipment known to man (I am a farm wife and usually pretty patient about that) and some animals along the way. Once I arrived in the city, it seemed like I was wearing a sign that read “pull out in front of me”. So a few times it was good to get that frustration all out on paper and then my mind could function better. I participate in SI in 2002. In 2004 I started working for PLWP at the Technology Liaison. As the TL I try to make sure I attend at least 1/2 of the SI meetings, just to get a good feel for the participants and the activities. This helps when I start putting together the Anthology on CD, plus I just like to hang out with writing folks. Next meeting is April 21. The fun has begun. Mary in Missouri
I am allowing fellow TCs from Prairie Lands Writing Project to have access to publish to this blog. We will see how that works. Many of my fellow TCs are not comfortable publishing to a public blog. Webboard is there blog of choice. You may or may not see others from PLWP posting to this blog. Mary
In my Writing With Technology post I mentioned tech problems when presenting at the class Writing With Technology. When using PowerPoint to link to other examples of Word docs or other PowerPoint links do not work correctly when presenting from a CD or flash drive. Solution: Copy the PowerPoint to the presenting computers C drive along with all the docs linked to it. Relink the PowerPoint on the C drive and everything works great. I live 40 miles from Missouri Western State University where Prairielands Writing Project(PLWP) is housed. I usually create presentations on my home computer and take them to PLWP on a CD or flash drive. Now I know I need to get to the presentation early and do a little prep work. Kevin and Karen, thanks for your comments. Mary
January 23, 2007 Wow what a fun evening. Dr. Frick ask me to present the multiple uses of PowerPoint to a Writing With Technology class she is teaching. There were 12 participants both inservice teachers and preservice teachers. One of the preservice teachers presented the does and don’ts of designing a PowerPoint. I got to do the fun part and show examples of how teachers use PowerPoint to introduce themselves and their curriculum to classes the first day of class, how teachers use it to provide notes and make those notes available to students who are homebound for whatever reason, examples of using PowerPoint in a review game-format to help students review. The most fun was to demo how some of the teachers used PowerPoint to present their written pieces they did in the summer 2006 open institutes. I also had examples of students’ PowerPoint presentations as a results of researching a particular topic. After technical difficulties we went on to write a “Bring Me” poem for poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge. Technical difficuties always happen when you think you have a presentation working perfectly on your home or office computer. Then lab computers just don’t work the same way. Participants selected an object to write about. They took a digital picture of that object and then used PowerPoint to present their piece. I will try to get permission to post some of those on the class web site. I am a techie junky. I love helping students use images to enhance their writing.
I am looking forward to presenting to this group again. They are a great group to work with. They are part of the first group to apply for PLWP’s graduate certificate in teaching of writing. See http://www.missouriwestern.edu/prairielands/ for more information about that certificate. Mary
NWP National Conference was followed closely by Thanksgiving, Meyer tree decorating, and then Christmas. Seeing so many Tech Matters 06 friends as well as others I have met in the last two years of being associated with Prairie Lands Writing Project at St.Joseph MO made NWP a great time. Yet there didn’t seem to be enough time. I had planned to post some pictures taken in Nashville at Rachel’s, but they are on my other computer. I will do that at another time. Mary
