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photo by jon_nawaikula www.flickr.com

With the almost-bombing scare in Times Square over the weekend, I’ve been watching a lot of news to see if they catch this person who almost caused great havoc in New York City. While listening to a press conference with New York’s mayor, I heard him say that the reason why they were lucky enough to stop this bombing before it became a tragedy is because a vendor in the area noticed something that seemed a little strange to him–smoke coming out of an SUV parked in a strange way on the street. Then the vendor said something to a police officer, and the rest is history–in a good way for once.

So, many times we go through our weeks and see things that we think may be a little bit off or a little bit strange, but we don’t say anything or do anything because we don’t want to be embarrassed or we don’t want to cause anyone trouble. I even have a friend who heard someone trying to get in her back door and didn’t call 911 because the person went away. Thank God the door was locked, and thank God the person wasn’t persistent. Did we learn this not-speaking-up action from teachers and parents when we were young? Did they tell us that we aren’t supposed to cause trouble or doubt people’s genuine goodness?

What’s my point?

My point is that we need to teach kids and teens the exact lesson that this vendor and many tourists and citizens of New York City learned on Saturday night–we need to speak when something seems wrong to us. We should go to the authorities–not try to handle things ourselves. If your child sees someone lurking around the house that’s not supposed to be there–they should call 911. If someone tries to give them a ride home from the bus stop, they should scream and run away. If it’s a good person who was innocently offering a ride, he will understand why the child reacted as he or she did. I used to teach my students this technique when I taught third through fifth graders. I told them to never, ever go anywhere with a stranger; and if a stranger got to close to them, scream, call for help, and run away as fast as they could. If they overhear a friend or classmate say something dangerous, they should tell someone they trust. You want to teach them how they DON’T want to be one of those kids after a suicide or school shooting who knew something and did nothing.

Let’s end the days of worrying so much about being politically correct and hurting people’s feelings. In a world where some people aren’t worried about even their own lives or safety, then we need to arm kids with the tools to notice when something doesn’t seem right and to speak up about it. It could save their lives, their friends’ lives, or even a whole community’s lives–just like our heroic t-shirt vendor in Times Square.

photo by Jeff Sandquist www.flickr.com

I saw this story about Mrs. Q and her blog: Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project on Good Morning, America a couple weeks ago, and I knew I wanted to talk about this on my blog–since we are talking about education and stuff like that here. You know–important stuff!

So, if you haven’t heard of Mrs. Q and her project yet, then here’s a brief synopsis. Mrs. Q is a teacher in the Midwest. She is eating school lunches this school year and blogging about them. She didn’t start this project because she had some big inspiration. She started because she forgot her own lunch a couple times, and she had to eat what the kids ate. Many of these students are on the free and reduced lunch program, and this school lunch may be their only hot and complete meal of the day.

On her blog, Fed Up With Lunch, Mrs. Q has posts such as: “March recap” (posted on April 4) where she tells readers what she had for lunch in March such as 4 pizza lunches and 7 fruit cups as well as what she is learning during this project: “I am getting sick of eating school lunches. Imagine how the kids feel.” or “I am still nervous about losing my full-time work as an educator. I’m trying to think positive about other opportunities that might open up if I were forced out (I no longer believe I would be fired, but I bet it would be “suggested” that I leave). “

The lunch posts are always interesting because they have pictures of the food she ate that day. Check out these two: salisbury steak and tex-mex, and let me know if you think you would want to eat that! Not looking so appetizing!

If you are concerned with your child’s nutrition when they are at school or if you are wondering what types of meals your kids eat or if they eat at all, I would check out Mrs. Q’s blog. Her posts are full of all types of information–she has guest bloggers and experts weighing in with their opinions. She answers questions and responds to comments. What I really like and admire is she is in the trenches, and she is eating this stuff herself. She’s not just writing about it. I used to eat school lunch sometimes when I taught full time, and I agree with just about everything Mrs. Q says. I have eaten lunch at my stepson’s school–his lunch ladies are the nicest, and they are doing the best with what they are given–but it’s just not good food (IMHO). It’s just not.

So, check out Mrs. Q’s blog and/or leave some thoughts here about kids, nutrition, and school lunches.

(I love this book series!)

washing hands photo by edenpictures www.flickr.com

I am happy to announce that the winner of Hate List by Jennifer Brown is Sara L. Congratulations, Sara! Enjoy the book. It’s a great read!

So, on Maniac Monday today, we’re talking germs! This winter everyone has had germs on their mind with the H1N1 scare, and maybe some of us have started being more germ conscious. (I know I have–every time I use an ATM, shake hands at church, or open a public door, I’ve got the hand sanitizer out and I’m squirting some into my stepson’s hands, too.) You’ve probably noticed hand sanitizer stations at your school (or your child’s school); or if you home school, you’ve seen more hand sanitizer stations when you take your child on field trips to museums or other kid-friendly places. So, I’m writing about this germy subject today and sharing a good germs book with you because Similasan and JuiceBoxJungle sponsored me to write this post. They asked me to talk about the things I’ve missed because of kid-illnesses and to mention a photo contest that anyone can enter to share our healthy and happy kids with one another!

First the cool book and a Magic School Bus germ book, too:

So, what is something I’ve missed due to a kid-illness? Well, the first thing that popped into my mind when I read this post idea was our pumpkin patch trip with grandparents this past October. Logan was sick–with a high fever and runny nose. I was worried it was H1N1–but his fever went down and he got better in a couple days, so who knows? The day we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch was beautiful, sunny, and in the 60s–and we didn’t get to go. We all sat in the house and watched movies. Instead, we went to the pumpkin patch right before Halloween on a cold rainy day with no grandparents because they weren’t in town. We still got our pumpkins, right? This is about the same time that I started carrying hand sanitizer around with me and bought a can of Lysol to spray door handles and phones at our house. I became a germ fighter!

Logan knows about germs. Just now, he saw me looking at the Amazon page with the Germs! Germs! Germs! book and asked me if I was sick. Then he said, “You have to wash your hands.” So, we are teaching our kids now more than ever how to be healthy at home and school–and that’s a good thing since those nasty little buggers are EVERYWHERE!

To promote healthy and happy kids, Shutterfly and Similasan are sponsoring this photo contest. If you click on the link above for Similasan, that will take you to the page with official rules. Basically, you upload photos of your kids playing with big smile,s and then one winner will receive a $500 gift card. Photos have to be uploaded by March 28, 2010. Similasan is a company that makes products for ear aches, pink eye, and more. You’ve probably seen their products at drug stores.

Okay, so carry your hand sanitizer, teach your students and children how important it is to be aware of and fight germs, and enter your kids’ photos into this contest for a chance to win $500! Not a bad Maniac Monday. . .

photo by d3 Dan www.flickr.com

Recently, my stepson who is in third grade completed a unit on rounding and estimating that I thought might get the better of his dad, his mom, me, and Logan, but we made it through! One of the first things I said to my husband when we were working on Logan’s homework and studying for a test was that he had no idea what rounding and estimating actually mean. He knew something about some rules where if one of the numbers was four or lower, he was supposed to go down. . .but down to what? He knew that rounding to the nearest ten meant that he would have a number with a zero in the ones place. But if the number was 42, he was choosing between 40 and 20–the 20 coming from the 2 in the ones place. He was totally confused.

So, having a background as an elementary teacher, I thought, Margo to the rescue–I’ll fix this. Ahh, not so fast. We made a number line, counting by tens, across the top of his page, and I said, “Okay, which two numbers does 42 come in between on this number line?” Yes, he got 40, but then he still pointed to 20, and I knew he had no idea of the basic concept of rounding and estimating. He was just focused on those rules, and he didn’t have the rules right, so this math worksheet was a total disaster. By the end of the week, he was rounding to the nearest hundred with hours of practice with my husband and me, and then more practice with his mom the next week. We used the number line and the rules he learned. And of course, this experience got me thinking as many of them do.

Logan obviously needed a combination of both–a basic understanding of what it actually means to round a number to the nearest ten and the rules on how to do this. He didn’t understand that taking 42 and rounding it down to 40 means that 42 is actually closer to 40 than 50; and if you have to add two numbers in your head at the grocery store, let’s say, it’s easier to add multiples of 10. However, when I tried to scrap every rule he had learned and just go to the math concept of which multiple of 10 is 42 closest to, he was totally lost. (What do you do with 65 then?) He had no rules or procedures to turn to when he was stuck.

This reminds me a little of the phonics/whole language argument when I was in college, preparing to become a teacher. Some people thought phonics was the way to go; others thought whole language. I thought kids needed both to learn to read. That’s what I think about math, too. Kids have to understand basic math concepts like that a plus sign means to put two groups of objects together and find how many there are all together. But they can also memorize these addition facts, so they can do harder addition problems without struggling over math facts. Children need to understand that 1/4 means you have part of an object that has been divided into four parts, and that 1/4 is less than a whole. Then when students are asked, “Which is greater? 1/10 or 1/4 of the pie?” They can easily choose because they understand what 1/4 means and what 1/10 means. They can also learn the rule that the larger the denominator the smaller the pieces; but if they have the concept in their heads, they can also rely on that to find the correct answer.

In my opinion, we have to teach children the concept behind the rules and procedures first, and then teach the math rules. How about you? What do you think?

Or maybe Mathopolis can help!

Hi all,
Thank you so much for all the comments for Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. The winner is

Pamela S.

Stay tuned for later in the day when I update this post with an interview from a third grade teacher about how she uses technology in an eMINTS classroom. One of my favorite Maniac Monday topics is technology in the classroom!

And the winner is Linda. Check out her blog, “Travels With Children” at http://minnemom.com/ . If you didn’t win a copy of Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko, think about purchasing a copy and giving it to your favorite kid during whichever winter holiday you celebrate!

Now on to Maniac Monday. . .

photo by D’Arcy Norman www.flickr.com

On this Maniac Monday, I want to celebrate the dedication of teachers to their students. There are some absolutely amazing teachers out there that I know do not get enough credit. I’m a big Twitter fan (follow me at www.twitter.com/Margo_L_Dill), and let’s just say these teachers should be the ones that have a million followers! One teacher in particular that I noticed from Twitter is Leigh Brockway. Here are her answers to some questions I asked about technology in her classroom. Just take a look at her answers. She is absolutely amazing!

Margo: Welcome, Leigh! Let’s start with the basics, so people can put you in a setting. Where (school name, city, state) do you teach? What grade/subject?

Leigh: I teach sixth grade in La Puente, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Margo: Sixth grade in California. WOW! I know you must be tired by the end of the day. I used to teach fifth grade in a suburb of St. Louis. Why is it important to use technology in your classroom or with your students?

Leigh: We are preparing our students to do jobs that, for many, haven’t even been created yet. In addition, kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds are at a disadvantage regarding technology in that they don’t have the access that other, more affluent kids have. We have to try to bridge the gap; yet funding for technology in poorer areas seems to be less than it is in more affluent areas. It’s a tough situation. I am continually trying to find donations or buying computers with my own money to give my kids a decent shot and understanding and using different types of technology.

Margo: You make some great points, and all kids need to learn about using a computer today! I admire you so much for going the extra mile to provide that for your students. So, what technology do you have available to you, i.e., computers, smartboards, Internet access, etc.?

Leigh: My school has provided one desktop computer with an Internet connection. In addition, I have purchased three laptops and won a grant to have four more computers. So, the kids have access to eight computers. They are allowed to use my “teacher computer,” but that doesn’t happen in many classrooms.

Margo: Your students are so lucky to have a teacher like you, and so is your district. Congratulations on winning the grant. I know grants are terribly hard to write and very time consuming. How do you use technology in your classroom?

Leigh: I have a few students who bring their own laptops, so we have about one computer for every four students. Each student uses the Internet for research, and we have several class Wikis that we have made. We have a class web blog, and students are able to showcase their work there. We are in the process of getting a class website, but that has yet to be approved by the district. We do have a class web page at Scholastic, but I want each student in my class to have their own web page on a class site. In addition, I borrow LCD projectors from the high school teachers, who have them on occasion. I use them to do powerpoints, show the kids how to create their own powerpoints, how to word process, use Excel spreadsheets, etc. We are in the process of fund raising for our own LCD projector.

We also have a class Twitter page, and some of the students have their own Twitter pages. They had to get parental consent to do so. They are able to Twitter at certain times during class. They absolutely love using Twitter! We do not really use any other social media. Facebook and Myspace are, of course, banned websites on our server.

Margo: I love that your students are using Twitter! As I mentioned earlier, I am a Twitter fanatic, and I can see why students would love using it, too. You are teaching them such important skills, and I know that students love technology. It makes learning more fun for them. You are the perfect example to teachers who feel like they can not provide their students with computers or with technology due to funding. You are showing that it is possible. I hope that people can get some useful tips from you! In closing, please share with us your Twitter and blog addresses.

Leigh: Sure. Our class blog: http://sunkisttigersroom10.blogspot.com/ On Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sunkist_Room10. We actually update the Twitter page more often than the blog.

Margo: Leigh, thank you so much for being with us today! We look forward to all the wonderful things you and your students will be doing with technology. I want to give you a cyber hug for all your hard work and dedication to education.

photo credit: Briana Orr

I am happy to host Masha Hamilton on today’s Maniac Monday! She is the author of 31 Hours, an adult novel. Here is the product description from Amazon:

“A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother’s blood can know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn’t know what she has done wrong, but Jonas won’t answer his cell phone. We soon learn that Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan, preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31 hours. Jonas’s absence from the lives of those who love him causes a cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its characters. We also learn to feel deeply the connections and disconnections that occur between young people and their parents not only in this country but in the Middle East as well. Carried by Hamilton’s highly-lauded prose, this story about the helplessness of those who cannot contact a beloved young man who is on a devastatingly confused path is compelling on the most human level.”

Since my blog is all about using books with children and teens, I wanted to post Masha’s essay titled, “Parenting the Nearly-Grown,” on Maniac Monday because I think many high school teachers and parents who have young adults feel the way Masha and Jonas’s mother do in 31 Hours. You may be able to relate to several themes in her book. Here’s Masha’s essay:

Parenting the Nearly-Grown
by Masha Hamilton
“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” Roman philosopher and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

Not long after the second of my three children was born, I sat at the kitchen table late one evening talking to my dad about parental responsibility. It’s a big topic and we were covering lots of philosophical ground, but what I remember most is my pronouncement that my primary job could be boiled down quite simply and starkly: I had to keep safe these beings released into my charge. I needed to keep them alive.

These were the musings of a new parent, of course. The circumstances, too, should be considered; the first child had been born in Jerusalem during the intefadeh, and the second was born as I was reporting from Moscow during the collapse of Communism. In both situations, I repeatedly came face-to-face with life’s fragility.

But even in calmer times, even after the birth of my third child, I never lost the feeling that my main duty was to pass them on into adulthood as unscathed as possible, as healthy in every way as they could be.

It sounds pretty simple, on the face of it. We perform many jobs as parents: nurturers, playmates, cheerleaders, short-order cooks, nurses, disciplinarians, detectives, spiritual leaders. Keeping them safe should not be the hardest, not with the help of baby monitors, plastic devices to cover electrical outlets, pads for sharp corners, child-proof medicine bottles, the list goes on.
And in fact, we passed through well, with just the usual rounds of stitches, one violent dog attack, a rabies scare and a few months when my youngest fell so often and got so many bumps on his forehead that my husband and I joked someone was surely going to call child services on us.

Now, though, my youngest is 14, and as they’ve grown, I recognize my job has been transformed. It is to give them trust and space so they can develop confidence in their ability to make their own lives. And yet the two oldest, at ages 19 and 20, are in a period of time that seems almost like a parentheses in their lives. They are certainly not children, but nor are they quite adults. Meanwhile, I say and think all the usual things parents have been saying and thinking since—well, perhaps ever since Cicero, whose words I keep taped to my office wall: it’s rougher out there than it was in my time. More chaotic. More violent. More dangerous.

And everyone is writing a book.

It was, in fact, into my latest novel, 31 Hours, that I channeled my fears. Among other things, the novel offered a chance to explore what it means to be the parent of someone on the cusp of adulthood but not yet there. The mother in 31 Hours, Carol, is strong and independent, free of empty nest syndrome, but her maternal intuition is strong and she’s concerned about her 21-year-old son’s growing emotional distance, the way he seems tense and depressed. Her fears are amorphous and hard to convey; nevertheless, as she lies awake in the dark, she decides to trust the hunch that something is wrong, and to spend the next day trying to track her son Jonas down and “mother him until he shrugs her off.”

There are many themes in the novel, but one question it asks—one pertinent to all parents and one I’m still trying to answer for myself—is this: after years of being vigilant and protecting our kids, what should we do—and what are we allowed to do—to keep them safe once they are nearly, but not quite, grown?

Masha is hosting a contest about parental intuition on her blog. Check it out here.

If you are interested in starting a career or part-time career in writing for children, I am offering an on-line course through WOW! Women On Writing. Find out all the details here.

by whiskymac www.flickr.com

A squirrel is certainly a maniac–especially when a boxer puppy is chasing it up a tree. Happens in my yard all the time!

On this Maniac Monday, I thought I would act a bit like a maniac myself and do some shameless plugging of an on-line writing course I am teaching for WOW! Women On Writing. I am going to put the very detailed description below (I am not sure if I need this much description; but as a maniac myself, I always want to know exactly what I am playing for when signing up for on-line writing courses.) So, here goes:

If you are a mom or a teacher or a homeschool parent, then you may have thought about writing for children in your spare time (or in the time that you are supposed to actually be sleeping). I mean, Madonna does it; so does your neighbor and your fifth grade teacher who retired eons ago, so why not you? This on-line writing course below is one of the first steps you can take in learning what it takes to get published if you want to write for children. It focuses on children’s magazines, which can give you much needed practice and publishing credits when it comes time to send your book manuscript to agents and editors.

WRITING FOR CHILDREN: Everything You Need to Know About Short Stories, Articles, and Fillers by Margo L. Dill

START DATE: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

DURATION: 7 weeks

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This class will teach the basics of writing for children’s magazines, crafting short stories, nonfiction articles, poetry, and fillers. The student will come away with a short story and cover letter, nonfiction query letter, and a filler or poem. She will also have a list of potential markets, fitting her manuscripts. The instructor will also share an organizational tool for submissions and information on finding other children’s writers and networking.

WEEKS AT A GLANCE:

Week 1: Overview of writing for children’s magazines: We will discuss different types of manuscripts that magazines accept, how to read magazine guidelines, setting goals and expectations for the seven weeks, answering questions, and breaking myths about children’s writing.

Assignment: Find three markets (and their guidelines) that you would be interested in submitting to and sharing them with the other members of the class through the Google group.

Week 2: Crafting short stories: This week will focus on writing a short story for the children’s magazine market. You should have a market from week one’s assignment that will help you write a short story while having a market in mind. We will discuss creativity vs. marketing your story.

Assignment: Write a short story for a children’s magazine.

Week 3: Cover letters and submissions: Now you have a short story draft. You will learn this week how to write a cover letter for your short story; how to format your short story manuscript; and what to include in your submission package.

Assignments: 1. Upload your short story to the Google group. 2. Critique (using the critique form the instructor provides) your partner’s short story. 3. Create a cover letter for your short story. 4. Revise your short story to turn in next week.

Week 4: Nonfiction articles: This class will discuss writing nonfiction articles for children’s magazines, which are easier to sell to magazines. We will discuss possible topics, how to narrow and focus topics, ways to begin magazine articles, outlining, and researching topics.

Assignments: 1. Upload your cover letter and short story to the Google group. 2. Come up with a topic or two for a nonfiction article that targets one of the markets from week one. Include your angle, beginning of article, and any sources you will use. Create a brief outline.

Week 5: Query letters and submissions: Once you have your topic for a nonfiction article and a rough outline, you are ready to query a magazine to see if editors would be interested in the article. We will look at sample query letters and talk about the different parts of a query letter. We will also talk about what to include in your submission packages for a nonfiction query proposal.

Assignment: Write a query letter to a children’s magazine.

Week 6: Fillers and Poetry: Children’s magazines use a lot of recipes, activities, crafts, quizzes, puzzles, jokes, and poems. These are often called fillers, and they pay and provide clips! We will discuss these, some tricks to the trade, and how to submit them to magazines.

Assignments: 1. Upload query letter to Google group. 2. Critique partner’s query letter. 3. Write a filler or a poem for your target magazine.

Week 7: Tracking Submissions, Organization, Support and Networking for Children’s Writers: When you write for magazines, it is important to keep track of submissions, wait times, and rights. We will discuss different organizational systems. We will talk about what to do if you do not hear back from an editor after an acceptable amount of wait time. We will also discuss how to find support and networking opportunities for children’s writers from SCBWI to local groups to social networking.

Assignment: Fill out the evaluation

Materials needed: Most materials will be provided by the instructor. You will need: a computer with Internet service, e-mail address, and ability to sign-up for free Google Account and Word Hustler account (optional).

**Writer’s Market or Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market is helpful, but it is not necessary for the class. You can find similar information with a free Word Hustler account or with Internet search engines. Some libraries may have older editions that you can use for a reference.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Margo Dill has written for children since she completed a course from the Institute of Children’s Literature nine years ago. Her children’s writing has won awards, including honorable mention in the annual Writer’s Digest contest. She has had articles, short stories, poetry, activities, and recipes accepted and published in various publications such as Fun for Kidz, Pockets, Cuivre River Anthology III, Characters, Highlights for Children, and Calliope: A Writer’s Workshop. She has taught children’s writing at the University YMCA in Champaign, IL. She has spoken to writing groups on subjects such as writing articles, networking, and short stories, and she is the children’s writing coordinator for Saturday Writers in St. Peters, MO.

COST: $200, which includes access to a Google group, ability to upload work to Google group for discussion with instructor and other class members, a free first-page critique from the instructor and a free query or cover letter critique from instructor, private email discussions with instructor as needed.

If you want to sign up for this on-line writing course, it’s easy through PayPal (scroll to the bottom of my class description for the button), or you can contact me with questions or registration information at margodll [at] aol [dot] com.

WOW! offers a ton of on-line courses if a path to publishing children’s books is not what you are after. They offer on-line writing classes for very cheap rates on screenwriting (see you at the Oscars!), poetry, and short stories. Check out the classes WOW! offers here.