In Novemember at NCTE I headed into a session where PJ Haarsma, the author of The Softwire series, was presenting on Science Fiction and Gaming in the High School Classroom. I was hoping to have PJ sign his up and coming book The Softwire: Wormhole Pirates on Orbis 3. When I walked in, Jim Blasingame, [...]

Posted in books, NCTE, presentations, publications, technology, travel, video

My daughter got some sort of V-tech handheld Dora the Explorer video game from my parents for Christmas. That evening she wouldn’t put it down, to the point where she played down the sidewalk and stairs to the truck, all the way home to Papa’s house and inside. She was totally sucked in. Claire visited [...]

Posted in reviews

Final grades are due this week. Everything is coming together very quickly, and I’ve been sitting here at Paradise Bakery since they unlocked the door this morning. I’ve always recommended this place, but I am about to rethink that. Read below and please repost. (*Yes, I know other people do, too.) Dear Paradise Bakery, I [...]

Posted in grading

In spring of 2006 while I was at a conference in Baltimore, MD my colleague wanted to go out to dinner with her daughter who’d been living in the area at the time. She invited us to go along, and the conversation was amicable. Eventually it circled around to our reason for being there (Education [...]

Posted in literature

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack. 1958 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2008 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees [...]

Posted in Uncategorized