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Well, this is my first post since updating my website to focus solely on art education. I am very excited to begin promoting Scribble Kids and the brand new lessons I’ve created. Welcome everyone, to my art education blog! I hope to cover many art history lessons and provide inspiration for other educators. I’m not the best at web design, but Elegant Themes made it easy to create this website using their Divi builder.For the first time I can create what I want, visually! This is pretty monumental.  Check out their wordpress services here: elegant themes

The post Welcome to my art blog! appeared first on Scribble Kids.

My Poetry Friday offering is a three (poems) -in-one (book) affair:

One Book: The Tree that Time Built: a celebration of nature, science and imagination – a beautiful new collection of poems selected by Mary Ann Hoberman (U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate) and Linda Winston.

Three Poems:

**One Old Elm: I began a mini-unit this week on poet, Kristine O’Connell George.  Her poem, “Old Elm Speaks,” was not only *in* the book, The Tree that Time Built, but was one of the poems included on the audio track. Before her reading, Kris shared a bit about how, even as a 5 year-old, staring out the window of her kindergarten classroom, she was in love with trees.  Writing the poems for her book, Old Elm Speaks, gave her an excuse to visit tree nurseries and arboretums, where she spent hours under the leafy branches of her favorite trees. It was a great way for my students to hear a poet read and talk about her work.

**Old Bones: Another of the poems included in this collection (and on the audio!) is “Dinosaur Bone,” by Alice Schertle.  There’s something wonderful about hearing Alice read all those long “o” words – bones, old as stone, alone, alone…

**A Question: Yesterday, at the end of the day, I took my class outside.  We weren’t there long, but for a short short while, we sat under the trees, closed our eyes, and listened. The cool wind blew across our faces. The sun warmed our backs.  We listened.  We waited.  We were “wide-awake.” Attentive. In our own small way, we were trying to follow the advice Eve Merriam offers in her poem (another from Hoberman’s delightful anthology,) “Reply to the Question: “How Can you Become a Poet?”

Every so often I come back to reviewing my priorities and asking myself how I can put my waking hours to best use. Is there a way to wisely parse out time and energy to those areas I consider my first priorities? How can I balance teaching which, by it’s very nature, gets the lion’s share of time, with my before-and-after-day-job as a writer?

A recent post by Corey on Simple Mom, “How to Find More Time During the Day” got me thinking again. He asks the question:

photo credit: Michel Filion

” What if we replaced time focus with energy? Instead of looking at the day as a block of time, look at it as a finite amount of energy.

Then ask yourself, where do you spend your energy?

The answer to this question will tell you where your priorities lie.”

When I look at it this way, it’s clear that the bulk of both my time and energy goes into teaching.  And truth be told, most of *that* time and energy involves paperwork, district obligations, even things as mundane, but necessary, as cleaning up the mess I’ve left behind after a full day of teaching.

Very little time goes into actual lesson planning. A sad but true statement, which might be explained by the fact that I’ve been able to internalize so much of the “how-to’s” of teaching, that I’m now able to get by using the on-the-job-expertise I’ve acquired over the years.

I know I’m not alone in this.  Most of my colleagues are like me.  We all spend more time on the incidentals surrounding running a classroom than the actual hard-core lesson planning time that a new or pre-service teacher spends.

And yet… there’s always more that I *could* do (maybe *should* be doing??) that I choose not to do simply because of the amount of time required.

And while it’s true that I have an obligation to devote a huge and important chunk of each day to my students, it’s also true that a HUGE part of me wants to shift that energy to my writing.

Is there a way to do this?  Perhaps that’s the question so many of us who work full-time and try to write on the side will always struggle with.<

First thing that came to my mind when I saw “welcome” was Cabaret’s opening number, “Willkommen!” In the process of doing this piece, I had fun checking out several versions of the song, along with the film versions with Joel Grey as the emcee.

Sherman was so glad to see his Cousin that he decided to treat him to a grand feast…. after the cat had gone to sleep of course.

Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear!

I know I'm out of school and all, but some things have happened this summer to cause me to seriously investigate my family tree. Fortunately, there are simply floors of paintings here in Castle Nyx . . . dozens of dark, mysterious paintings of the Nyx ancestors with eyes that I swear move! Most of them are of people long dead -- great-great-great something-or-others, but there are a few that looked to me as if the paint were fresher. It was these I studied.

First, in the hall to the first floor dining room was an old portrait of a cat-eyed woman dressed for safari. According to the brass plate screwed into the frame, this was my wicked Auntie Fae, who disappeared somewhere in the Australian Outback in '89. With a little help (1-800-CUZFNDR) I discovered my Aunt had had a son some years ago whom she had abandoned on the steps of the Public Library of New South Wales in Sydney. Trooper Cordell.

Second, in the west wing, just below the servants quarters, hung a portrait all in greys -- a face I could barely distinguish beneath the strange cape and hood he wore. Coincidentally (dun-dun-dun) as I pondered, the door rang and there stood a hooded figure claiming to be a Nyx cousin thrice removed - an enigmatic shadow-boy with arms full of books who called himself the Velvet Pickle.

Third, in the observatory is a portrait of someone Grandmama calls "That cousin who lurks on the moors." Of course my ears perked up at the word cousin -- but it turned out he was dead 54 years past, or was he? I stowed away on the next ship to Cardiff to find my dark eyed cousin (or is it his descendant?) Gabriel Gethin, who was wandering the moors with a dog-eared paperback copy of Wuthering Heights clutched in his long fingers and looking not a day past 16.

By now I'm sure you're wondering, where are Twyla's dearest evil cousins, Avery and Aislinn? Sadly, oh so sadly for me, they have spread their wings and started their own blog of reviews called nineseveneight. Read them, I command it, for though they have broken my dark heart, they write the most fawesome of reviews.

Welcome my 3 long lost cousins, and fare thee well Avery and Aislinn. I pray you'll stop by for a visit, my dearest ones -- for you will always be my Evil Cousins!

Yours truly,
Twyla Lee

Pirate Day!

September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I searched for Pirate Day in JacketFlap's blog reader, and I saw that the wonderful & talented Elizabeth O. Dulemba has graciously posted a pirate-themed coloring book page for all to download and color in her fabulous style. My kids will now have an after-school activity to do. Thanks Elizabeth!

And speaking of Pirate Day, I was browsing JacketFlap's Newly Published books section, and I noticed that Eloise's Pirate Adventure was published yesterday (Sept. 18th) by Aladdin Paperbacks. Great timing!

Congratulations to our members!

I'd like to send a big congratulations today to two JacketFlap members. Wendy Mass, author of such fabulous books as Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life and A Mango-Shaped Space emailed to say that her new book Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall is now available, written for seventh graders and up.


Also congratulations to Carrie Jones who sold two books to Bloomsbury. The first book is called NEED. Read her Super Great News post for the details. Great job!


Book Stores in the news

Jessica Stockton of The Written Nerd blog did a great job of summing up some recent news articles regarding independent book stores versus the big chains. It is quite interesting to take note that while big chains like Barnes and Nobles are closing shops the independent ma & pa shops might be making a come-back. Read her post here.


New Member Welcome

I always get a kick out of checking JacketFlap's New Members page to see the faces of the people that just joined the site. From time to time, I'm going to introduce some of our new members here in my blog. I'd like everyone to join me today in welcoming Marjorie van Heerden. Since the publication of her first children’s picture book in 1983 Marjorie has written and/or illustrated more than 80 children’s books and has been published in 33 languages in Africa, England, Europe, Canada and the USA. She was born in South Africa, lived in Stellenbosch near Cape Town for 20 years, in Linden, Johannesburg for a decade, travelled for eighteen months on honeymoon in a camper van around Europe, lived for a year on the banks of Lake Michigan in the USA and for four years in a forest on a mountain north of Athens in Greece. Now her studio overlooks False Bay, once again near Cape Town, South Africa. Please leave a comment on Marjorie's profile page to welcome her to JacketFlap!

Tracy

As Wendi has offered her welcome, I will too: Welcome to the new and improved Gratz blog, featuring not just the creative endeavors of one or the other of us, but the combined pursuits of our careers, hobbies, and lives.

This new Gratz Industries blog was born in part by my desire to move away from What's the Rumpus? which had essentially become a "flog," or a blog with little other purpose than to promote a product--in this case, my books. Gratz Industries will continue to flog my work, of course, and anyone who had been checking in with What's the Rumpus? for updates on my writing will continue to find that here.

What I also hope you'll find, over time, are entires about about such things as: building a new home in the North Carolina mountains; odd and interesting things found in my research; commentary on the writing life; reviews of books we're reading; attempts at making the perfect pizza; thoughts on television and movies; and giant robots. I do so hope there will be entries about giant robots.

So please add us to the feeds you read, and we'll do our best not just to flog ourselves, but to entertain and spur discussion as well.

Gratz Industries is now open for business!

And for those of you wishing to look in at the Gratz Industries prototypes, our former blogs are still available online here:

What's the Rumpus (Alan) | Hip to Be Square (Wendi)

Welcome to Gratz Industries - combining Alan's writing blog with Wendi's quilting blog, and adding lots more stuff about the other creative things we do every day that don't fit under either of these categories. Expect lots more about our greatest creation - Jo.

Alan is creating a new website for me so I've been busy taking pictures. The weather has been gorgeous - in the low seventies every afternoon - and Jo has been helping me photograph my quilts, in between bouts of ball playing.















Inside we've been busy getting ready for the holidays. We got colored lights this year at Jo's request. Jo has also been helping knead pizza dough.