i walked on summer
leaving no bruise
on verdant softness
nightdress brushing
bony ankles
firefly leading on
you were there
i couldn’t find you
your breath easy in the dark
and though i ran
just out of reach
like the owl who spoke
i reached for your hand
fingers sliding loose
as i would give you
a dream
like sunlight pressed on
sleep closed eyes
warm sheet valley
the smell
of your cigarette
lingering
If the sky was to fall
into her hands
she would break it to pieces
the glassine pebbles
falling all over
her snow covered dress
dropping
to chapped knees
praying with frosty breath
and a cloudy heart
head bowed
under weight of crystal clouds
sun warmth
would thaw this bitten heart
banished
from sheeted concrete
there is foggy joy
over the next hill
invisible
through rime encrusted lashes
one tear falls
clarity
only to shatter
ringing through
the grey air
Sunday Scribbling #306 rest
In the puddled hours
that lay at the base
of the clock,
I wonder if I am leaving
and in the leaving
will there be grace?
I pull the tiny threads
ties that bound and
sometimes gagged,
and feel them travel
down the dreams
of future wonder
undone.
smoothing knots
like a brush drawn
through silver hair,
shimmer waves of
memory,
cascading down,
unbraided
over stooped shoulders.
weary I wish to close
sanded eyes,
and sink into dark.
cradled in safety,
doors barred against
nightmare wolves
that howl at
a gibbous moon.
What thoughts spin
through a midnight mind
hung with the stars
draped in velvet regret
a beautiful prison
unchanging eternal
all for a careless word
vanity’s prize
Does she dream
from her heavenly perch
of the daughter
who was bound
for the sin of the mother
and rescued by love
of another
In love with herself
with herself she
remains
now watched by a world
she can never attain
Image Credit: http://spaceshipearth1.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cassiopeia.jpg
Tammy Worcester Beyond Cut and Paste
Design Projects that require students to do more than just paste information (sometimes without even reading it!)
Use a Building Block Model
1.Collect Blocks
(gather information)
2. Organize Blocks
(critical thinking)
3.Build New Structure
(product / presentation)
Collect Blocks
I go to google daily but I learned a new trick in this session!
Go to google and type something into the search box. I chose George Washington
www.google.com
You can refine your search to show items categorized by reading level. Scroll down and look at the left side. Click on More Search Tools.
You will see another list of ways to refine your search but for today we are interested in reading levels.
Click Reading Level
Google divides search results into three reading levels. Below you can see the reading levels in grey text.
~~~~~
Another search site that I have not used
Wolfram Alpha
– www.wolframalpha.com
Instead of listing websites related to your search query, Wolfram Alpha actually displays answers.
to get a better feel for the site you can go here and choose different types of examples:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/?src=input
here is an example:
generate a world map colored according to a given statistic. You will get more than just this image:
Here is an example of using Wolfram Alpha for math:
Cool site but use with care. I wish they had this when I was struggling with algebra!
~~~~~
Another way to gather information for your building blocks is Qwiki
Qwiki
www.qwiki.com
same George Washington search but now I can click for related items, there is multimedia, and you have the option of having it read to you.
So now you have several tools for gathering information (or collecting the blocks)
The next section gives you a couple of options for handling sources :
Organize Blocks
BibMe
–http://www.bibme.org/
Easy Bib
– http://www.easybib.com/
Build New Structure
PowerPoint or Google Presentation
-Acrostic (great idea – younger students required to find several facts about their subject and then they can use a power point slide to display their facts, older students required to use the entire alphabet and could even require that the facts be listed in not only alphabetical order but chronological as well. (For x her example just required that the first word contain an x rather than start with it)
-Post Card (create a template in word or two text boxes on a powerpoint slide. Add a photo, a smaller photo for a stamp, write a short note to someone as a historical or literary character)
-Children’s Story Map
-What Am I?
Web Tools
-Drawzit
www.drawzit.com
-Scribble Maps
www.scribblemaps.com
-iFake Text
www.ifaketext.com
iPad Apps
-ShowMe
-Educreations
-Sock Puppets
It is that time of year again. I am in Austin for TCEA so bewatching for posts on sessions.
Was able to meet an old friend for supper last night and we had a great meal and did a lot of catching up! Shout out to Bettie! It was wonderful to sit and talk!
Over the horizon
waits a storm here,
a drought there,
and time moves.
Grasses bend before it,
sharp peaks round over.
Pearls and diamonds
are birthed
while I wait
in quiet
surrounded by motes,
light poured over my head
like a baptism
of star debris.
http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/ prompt: action
or make a personalized cookbook on your kindle!
I have joined the insanity that is Pinterest – the online pinboard site that lets you create boards by subject and then “pin” things you find on the internet to the boards you have created as well as follow others who have similar interests and “repin” what they find on your board. A visual representation of your finding is created, you add a short description and Pinterest creates a link to the website.
Fun but what if I want to access that recipe I found last week that would be perfect for supper and I really don’t want to take the time to go to Pinterest, find my board, click to the website, and jot down the directions??
There is a cool website that allows you to drag a bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. (If you already use Pinterest, you probably have the “Pin It” bookmarklet on your toolbar)
This bookmarklet works the same way. The website is  http://dotepub.com/ and FIRST you check a box on the right sidebar to tell it whether you want mobi files for kindle or epub files for other ereaders (including your iPad). Now drag the bookmarklet to your toolbar.
Go to the webpage that has the cool recipe and click the bookmarklet (mine says mobi because I use a Kindle). You now download the file. The pictures and ads are stripped away and you have a file that contains the text of the recipe.
I made a folder I can drag my recipes and articles to and then when I have a few collected I go to the Kindle.
You will connect our Kindle to your computer via the usb cable. It will show up just like a flash drive. Double click to open and you will see several folders. The books live in the Documents folder. That is where you will drag your newly created mobi files. I suspect the process is similar on a nook, but I am not sure what the folders are called.
Once the files are on the Kindle, go to the list of books, navigate to a recipe, and press the right side of the controller. From the menu choose add to collection. If this is the first time, click down to add new collection. Type Recipes or Cookbook or whatever you want to name it. The recipe will be added to the collection. Do this for each recipe.
Done
I also use Calibre for keeping up with my books and within Calibre you can edit metadata. The file will have a long number in the name eliminate that. I was happy to see that Calibre automatically added the originating website as the author so I can always go back to refer to it.
I also emailed one of the mobi files to myself and downloaded on my iPad which knew to ask me if I wanted to open the file in the Kindle app.
I then converted a recipe to epub using dotepub.com and emailed it to myself. When I clicked the attachment on my iPad it knew to ask if I wanted to open it in iBooks (which also lets you create collections)
In both iBooks and Kindle, the recipes (or articles) will be listed in alphabetical order within the collection. I have been trying to think of a way to organize them within the collection in case you decide to save a bazillion recipes this way. Off the top of my head, I think you could create a number code – 1 for main dish, 2 for side dish, 3 for dessert – or something similar. If you rename the files before you put them on your ereader using the number as the first character you will organize them one step further.
Remember there will be NO pictures. The pictures are stripped away, so if this is a recipe, project, tutorial that you need pictures for, you may want to try something different.
If you find other cool ways to use dotepub.com leave me a comment and tell me about it.
It’s been kind of sparse around here, I know. I was sick most of the month of December where I learned that antibiotics can make you well and more ill at the same time. I got better. Christmas came. Christmas went. Six hour drive to family for New Years. Six hour drive back.
Dale’s leg hurts. Then swells.
Go for transplant check up. (90 mile drive to DTI) Sonogram on leg. Go to hospital. Swelling due to very large blood clot. Admit Dale. Drive 90 miles home to pack. Drive 90 miles back. Stay for the weekend.
Frequent blood draws to check levels. I’m talking like three in the A.M. blood draws…
They accidentally had him on a diabetic diet. He is NOT diabetic. Food was low sodium (as in no salt) and diabetic so very little sugar. I question the whole hospital diet thing however. It was pretty carb heavy. It was not heavy on flavor. Grumpy husband food.
Then there is the chair bed. Or bed chair. Actually both are incorrect. It is neither a good chair nor a good bed. Just saying. It was not comfortable 4 years ago and while technology marches forward at a very rapid rate, hospital furniture design does not improve with time.
Came home from the hospital. Went to get prescriptions filled. One prescription – ONE WEEK supply – generic mind you, 200 dollars.
Call “insurance pharmacy that shall not be named”. Yes this is the price. No it doesn’t matter what pharmacy – UNLESS you use THEIR pharmacy through mail order. Yes the insurance company and the pharmacy are together. Just like this (insert imagination picture of fingers crossed over each other) Okay. It will be about 59 dollars for one month. (Keep in mind that they are also the ones who dictate the price of retail….not that I am ungrateful for the major price difference of about 700 dollars which is a lot of hamburger) Got the doc to change the prescription over of to the “insurance pharmacy that shall not be named”.
Checking the website, looking at the dates and adding up the time it normally takes to process, then the number of days it normally takes to deliver and I am disturbed because this looks very close and I would like to NOT pay another 200 dollars for another week for this prescription. Call “insurance pharmacy that shall not be named”. The lady was very nice. She put an URGENT code on it. Said if I didn’t hear from them in about 24 hours to check back.
24 hours later. Check the website. Still processing. Call “insurance pharmacy that shall not be named”. They need some more clinical information from the doc. It is now after five. Try calling the doc but of course the office is closed. Call “insurance pharmacy that shall not be named” back. Talk to a new person. Put through to a pharmacist. Explain the situation. Get through everything (what it is taken in conjunction with, why it is being taken, how long, how often testing will be done) and he is going to go ahead and put it through. He asks my title. My title as in my title at the DOCTOR’S OFFICE…. oops. I explain that I did not mean to impersonate anyone – this is just not my first rodeo, I take notes, ask questions, and I have GOOGLE for heavens sake. We are four years out from transplant and this is the first hospitalization. We are ninjas!
I think someone is getting yelled at.
Still going to expedite it with me promising I will call the doc in the morning and ask him to please call them so they have the documentation.
Total time spent on this prescription so far…about five hours.
This might even be amusing if it was on television. I think I need massive amounts of red wine and 24 hours of Big Bang Theory playing on the telly.
Next episode? The hospital bill. That one should be a scream.
dark summers night
she reaches for light
magicked feet hold fast to ground
he creeps up behind her
wishes to bind her
brushing stars from her wings
oldest language he sings
she is bound
one tear tells
no love spells
earthbound a prison
though softened with love
keeps fairies from soaring
to heaven above
there were obvious signs
of planets aligned
as I stared into deep
time after time
for answers and clues
just a small bit of news
but the waters were muddled
my thinking befuddled
my magic was huddled
I was thinking and sinking
in depths with no blinking
just diving and weaving
the omens deceiving
I screamed I am leaving
but wait just one moment
one minute one second
I think that I see what
the spirits are sending
sight curving time bending
oh just stop pretending
we none of us knowing
just where we are going
we mostly are hoping
that slipping and sloping
are not just an ending
are not just pretending
and dreams are for holding
we will come through the dark
our way lighted by sparks
the magic was never for finding
or winding around to our will
it lived in our hearts
and it lives within still
Image credit
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrr0f1nsZA1qj1ttwo1_500.jpg
to breath in rivers
of stinging cold
that tastes of stars
and snowflakes
whispers of secrets
floating down rock-a-bye
sorrow tomorrow
peace tonight
softly curled around
the shivery moon
it is well
tree lights glow
through window panes
with my soul
staring into the dark
feet on solid ground
sweater tightly wrapped
I feel myself grow solid too
it is well
Three Word Wednesday offering: Immobile, proximity, retribution
and Sunday Scribbling: health
Fear is a thing
that sits in
close proximity to heart
and lungs.
squeezing ventricles
with no discernible pattern.
An elephant
sitting immobile
on your chest,
retribution for all
those Scarlett O’Hara
think about it
tomorrow moments.
glory shines
round here tonight
the day is done
peace is nigh
rose and peach
and lavender sky
calls all to quiet
the stillness moves
across the deep
I lay me down
my soul to keep
my soul to keep
the day is done
eyes close in faith
tomorrow comes
and sleeping sun
again will rise
color painting
morning skies
and with the sun
each greets the day
a gift to all
til once again
the evening falls
and sunset calls
the world to rest
another from the AllPoetry archives
no food satisfies like
words bubbling
syllabic chewing
soul on a parchment
plate all about
the presentation
pen just so
chewed up
eaten out
loud
more from the AllPoetry Archives
boneless puddled silk
contentment personified
feline sandy tongue
silent hunter stalking prey
study in life’s paradox
(Tanka – I think) from the AllPoetry archives
on the edge of the ledge of the jumping
off pumping fist over the topping
I’m hopping on one foot and then
on the other no blanket
can smother the hope and the waiting is
killing me filling me piling excitement
indict me you want to but so would you
do what I do if you knew
don’t be late took the bait
I can’t wait
from the AllPoetry archives
there is a song a tune
a melody the beat
that meets me where I am
and walks my feet down
greener paths that eyes can see
the breath the spark
the inner heart
the soul the whole of me
that lives and dreams
and has a voice that joins
the world creation told
the thing that makes me
who I am a different being
than you and I will sing
oh I will sing
and
you can sing with me
sing a verse a chorus
all can join us
harmony will carry me
and you and all to
mountaintop and river edge
and pray a hedge around
and round
and coming down we each
will greet our brother
sister father mother
holding hands and lifting
voices sun will set but
we will still be singing softly
as it fades we sleep in peace
the peace we need so badly
all be fed and warm and safe
we pray you stay
forever in the keeping
of the One conducting
orchestrating planning loving
bringing all to the finale
heavenly angels lend
their voices
wings a’brushing clouds
with softest hues we choose
to listen choose to see
with hearts and minds
and hands and feet
so sweet the song
so sing with me
from the AllPoetry archives
