Sometimes, in life, when you stick your neck out to try and really DO something, you are gonna get blasted for it. Really, kicked in the teeth.

And it hurts.

But just remember, in life, if you don’t stick your neck out and try to really DO something, it’s going to hurt much worse.

People often ask me, “Do you have a “reason” for writing each of your books?”

Now that I think about it, I guess I do write all of my books for a reason. For each of them, I am, dare I say, “inspired”. After all, it takes quite some time to write a novel and the truth is, it’s long hard work that is very much like running a literary marathon. And just because as an author you have done it before, well… this doesn’t mean that you are not going to sweat, ache, groan and feel like throwing in the towel over the course of any new project just because you have been down the road before. You simply know the terrain better – but you still have to run 26.2 miles.

All authors do.

Writing a book, in this way, is like tackling the task of “eating an elephant”. And, as the old saying goes, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

This is why for me, the first bite always has to be fierce inspiration. Why? Because the burning inspiration to write a story is going to die out. It’s gonna fade away. I’ve discovered that at some point, it’s like being on a sugar high; it’s sustenance that is going to get reduced to virtually nothing over the course of writing an entire novel other nutrition is going to be required to complete the book before the journey is through. Tenacity, fortitude, the determination to work a project to it’s rightful end – the hunger to climb Mount Everest if you will – these are the elements that get me through to the completion of books.

But the start of a new book or project? It always has to begin with an idealistic sense of, “Damn, this is gonna be freakin’ GREAT!”

Having said that, each of my writing projects thus has its origin located in a very specific, tangible place for me. There is a seed which has preceded every birth. (And I have now given birth more than 10 times.)

Over the course of the next week, I think I am gonna explore the reasons that inspired me to pen a few of my young adult novels.

Houston is gonna measure teachers by their test scores — and fire the ones that don’t add up.

Interesting stuff.

I guess we always knew it would come to this, didn’t we? Nobody is questioning the tests; everyone is questioning the teachers that don’t deliver the test scores.

The article is well worth a read. Seems as though they have a sophisticated prognostication thing-ey which can generate a “value-added test score”.

As the article says…

The value-added score, based on a complex statistical formula, is a measure of how much a teacher’s students exceeded expectations on standardized tests (mostly the TAKS: Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). The formula projects how well students should score based on their own past performance.

If the formula is so good at projecting how well the students should score, then how come the formula can’t discern that there is no formula for knowing where actual live human beings will be 3-4 years down the line?

Can you guess what will happen 3 years from now? Sure you can. Let’s just go back to 2007 and look at some of the most widely held best “guesses” for 2010 from way back then.

The best minds on Wall Street. They took a shot in 2007 on a thing called derivatives. And they have Harvard MBA’s.

Oops. Not so good.

Okay, that’s not fair. I mean who could have predicted credit swap defaults and the recession? Let’s guess about something else. We’ll make it easy. A virtual lock in 2007 to do all sorts of unprecedented, amazing things in 2010. A man who was gonna approach if not break all kinds of records by one Golden Bear.

And the winner is… Tiger Woods.

Whoops! Wrong again.

Sure, we should fire teachers based on not measuring up to their “value-added” scores. Cause three years from now is so easy to predict — especially when it comes to student success — that there is simply no sense even doubting the veracity of this approach to professional evaluation.

Uhm, Houston, we have a problem…

So a really special opportunity has come up for me to offer 50 free tickets to a private literacy bash that is going to be off the chains at NCTE 2009 on Saturday night.

What we are gonna do is celebrate literacy, words, and books the way it oughtta be celebrated.

I wanted to open it up to everyone who wanted to come — all my ning friends — but since the food is free and the drinks will be flowing, my book publishers decided that the cap for my ability to invite my web homies would be set at 50 and they are gonna go the lottery route instead of first come first serve (cause that’s always BS anyway.)

So here’s how to put your name in for some free tix:

Email the ever gracious Beth at beaton@recordedbooks.com and let her know that you are gonna be in Philly and would love to come rock the house with us til the wee hours. (The flier says it ends at 10:00 pm but let’s be honest, when you get this many high energy teachers, writers, book lovers, spoken word artists and the such together, 10:00 is more like a start time. LOL!)

Beth has requested that you please include your name, job title, school, state, and email address — and please make sure to put ‘BookJam Bash’ in the subject line. thx.

Here’s what’s up… wish I could invite everyone. (Maybe next year in Orlando).

I wrote thousands of words this week and read thousands and thousands more on this series about “best” teachers and where they ought to teach.

Gonna come back on Monday after digesting all of the ideas — and all of the Halloween candy — and try to see what’s to be taken from the series.

Certainly had me thinkin’ tons… and it feels like my brain, like my stomach, is pretty full right now.

Trick or treat and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Before School Starts Up Again…

I want to make sure I take back with me a sense of optimism about the upcoming year. I know it’s gonna be more challenging in many ways due to these absolutely BONKER budget cuts. However, just because we have less money to spend on our kids than ever (at least as long as I’ve been a teacher) does not mean that we automatically have to provide less of an education to our kids than ever.

And I believe they way to ensure that this does not happens begins with my own mindset.

My classes will be big, my resources will be diminished, and my colleagues most certainly can’t be expected to enter the year with the same hopeful disposition I am working to create for myself right now.

And why am I doing so? Because the kids deserve it!

But let’s be honest, if we could control our fellow peers on staff, we’d be more than the mere miracle workers we already are charged with being… we’d be absolutely LEGENDARY WIZARDS! (Alas, my magic wand just does not seem to run that deep with powers.)

And so, while I begin to shop at Target, the 99 cent store, Staples, Office Depot and so on, clipping coupons, hunting for deals, knowing that buying stuff like pens, dry erase markers, reams of paper, band-aids, tissues, hand sanitizer, and so on, I must remember that the most important thing I need to pack in order to prepare for next year is my attitude.

Cause if I don’t put a good one in my teaching bag right from Day 1, it’s gonna be a long, hard year. That table was set months and months ago.

Sometimes, the most important school supplies are the ones that can’t be purchased.

As Jim Burke has mentioned – quite brilliantly – writers today (and of the future) will require compositional skills in formats that consist of 3,000 words, 300 words, 30 words, 3 words and no words. (I am paraphrasing here; he’s much more eloquent.) The point is, that literacy is increasingly more diverse than ever and the challenges we face preparing our kids to successfully tackle the demands behind placed upon them are both dynamic and shape shifting.

However, when you look at the word counts above, I get the vibe that many forward thinking people (outside of persnickety teachers… like yours truly) are ready to throw the 3,000 word composition under the bus. They call it antiquated. Outmoded. Academic. 21rst century skill conversations revolve around “digital this” and “socially networked that” but rarely, if ever, pay homage to the value of the good ol’ fashioned long, thoughtful, richly textured essay.

Well, check this story out. If that ain’t proof that the ol’ bugger still ain’t got some life in it, nothing is.

Sorry, but I can’t recall yet seeing a story on how a tweet resulted in such an outpouring of generosity and goodness. I could be wrong, but having only 140 characters may be fun if you want to smarmily talk about the texture of your morning waffle. Yet, if you want to reach the movers and shakers of this world, as the 11 year old girl above proves, you are gonna need some chops with the written word.

Otherwise, all your gonna have is lightweight junk food for your intellectual meal. And man cannot live by smarmy waffle alone.

The other day I posted about Debbie, the student with a ton of brains she is not applying that is clearly leading her down the road of dropping out… and goodness knows what else will follow. When 15 year olds in low income communities abandon their education, my faith that good results will blossom from their actions is dubious.

HOWEVER, there are successes as well. Like my main man Eugene (as pictured here with me on this fine Thursday morning as we are working on writing expository essays).

Wow, do I adore this kid. Full of charm, brains and heart. And 2 months ago, he was clearly on the road to joining hand-in-hand with Debbie on the road to Nowhere (or at least nowhere I felt was going to work out to his ultimate benefit). Yet, much in the way that I tried to win Debbie over with nuancing, screaming, cajoling, applying a soft touch and taking a hard line, so I did the same with Eugene.

And it seems to have worked. I got his schedule changed, spent a little bit of extra time every day checking in with him — we shared some laughs, some mentoring time, yapped it up about hoops, and so on.

Today Eugene showed me his outline for his expository essay and it’s rock solid. And he hasn’t missed a day of school in seven weeks. His self-esteem is high (he wears his heart on his sleeve), his enthusiasm is infectious and he’s already thinking about where he wants to go to college. (NOTE: My classroom is a walking advertisement for the University of Southern California. I went to USC, remain a loyal alum, and pimp the awesomeness of college every chance I get.)

Feels good to be able to share this. And isn’t that the thing about education? One day the kids will break your heart and another day they will make your inner spirit soar — and all of it happens without rhyme or reason ata rapid fire click. No two days are ever the same.

What a day! Here’s hoping for many, many more!!!

NOTE: I took this photo with Eugene and told him that I believed this was the official day he put himself on the right track… and that when he graduates in a few years and gets accepted to a university, he’s gonna come back into my room and I am gonna show him this photo. And we’re both gonna cry.

Today I went to work inspired and energized, with a proverbial bounce in my step. And why? Well, it’s simple.

Our new president, Barack Obama. It was his first day of work in the White House and the fact is, in my opinion, it feels like it’s the first real day of honest, noble, best-interests of America work that has been done in that building in a heck of a long time. I am not sure any of us realized how numb we had become to the idea of a total buffoon leading our country for so long. With Calamity George gone, it feels as if we can now get back to doing what Americans do quite well once in a while… make history in a positive way that shines a light on the highest ideals of what mankind can ultimately be.

It’s also clear that this ning inspires me. I mean it’s pretty unreal the amount of smarts, passion and genuine insight which has already assembled here in the Jamdom. I guess invitations started rolling out in earnest about 2-3 days ago and already we are have a host of truly wise people — people with opinions I greatly respect and admire, if not always agree with — assembled at this online expresso bar chatting up everything from books like The Burn Journals to videos starring 1rst graders imploring Obama to really step up for education.

I guess I am gonna have to get off of the bashing George Bush bus. However, there is still a part of me that thinks/fears he’s gonna come back. Like Obama’s inauguration will be revoked, Karl Rove will pull a Karl Rove and Dubya is gonna end up with the power to manage the financial crisis, Iran, Iraq, green energy and NCLB for the next 4 years while Sarah Palin preps her run for 2012.

Grrrrgghh!

I know it’s irrational, yet still I worry about it much in the way that a person wakes up from a nightmare, realizes they were just dreaming and then is still concerned to go back to sleep since they have no desire whatsoever to go back to bed with the beast they just slept with in their head again. And this is not a red state/blue state thing. It’s not republican bashing or any of that. It’s simply my opinion that George Herbert Walker Bush just finished his marathon tour of being the worst president in the history of the United States and our entire nation is worse off for having him.

Seeing Barack reclining in the Oval Office today well, it made me feel as if we have authentic stewardship once again. And now I want to do my best to help — by applying best efforts towards the area of remaking and reshaping America’s schools. It is do-able. And necessary. And when I think of the folks who are already stepping up to join this cause, it makes me feel good.

Now is our time. This is our part.

Go ahead. Chime in on the ning-thing. Love to hear from ya!