Kids (and teachers) say the darndest things

So after teaching elementary school kids for three weeks, you'd think I'd have some interesting snippets to share right? You'd be correct. Already have a couple memorable quotes under my belt.

Fourth Grade:

I asked the students to give an example of a simple sentence.

Student: *mumbles something*
Me: What did you say? "I'm so high??" (thoroughly confused)
Student: "I like pie."
Me: Oh....good sentence.

Thankfully they did not seem to grasp the bad meaning of my blunder, so I was able to breeze past that.

Third Grade:

The students were supposed to fill in a comparative or superlative adjective in a sentence:

George was the __________ firefighter at the station.

Student: George was the blackest firefighter at the station.
Other students: Oooh that's so rude!
Me: (acting totally calm) You mean because he was fighting fires....right?

It's been rather entertaining so far.

Blogfest - Query Critique

I'd like to thank everyone for their very helpful feedback on my query, I will definitely be using it to strengthen my query. I deleted the post though, because I prefer not to have my query hanging out on my blog, just a personal preference. I did save the comments elsewhere. Thanks again!

Blogfest - Story Chain

For my part I was supposed to make the reader feel happy and use the words ride, suggest, and spray.

Here is the part before mine on Lindy's Blog

By the time Dio stepped through the back door of her house and stared at the edge of the forest that was about mile away, the sun was beginning to set. She fought down the fear that was beginning to rise when she realized that she’d have to make her way through Nefnia forest almost completely in the dark; there was only so much her flashlight could do for her. Walking blindly through a dense forest was typically no joyous occasion, but doing so because you were seeking out devious fairies was borderline madness. I have no choice, Dio thought, gathering her courage and stepping off the porch. I have to do this for my family. Her father had risked the perils of Nefnia forest for her once; she was determined to return the favor. She wished she had her bicycle so she could ride to the forest’s edge, but her mother had taken it away last summer when she’d fallen off and broken her arm.

Dio reached the forest edge with most of her courage still in place. By now the sun had set completely, and the only reminder of daytime was a streak of orange in the sky. Just as Dio was about to enter the forest, someone’s hand clamped onto her shoulder and pulled her back, making her scream and drop her flashlight. Dio spun around and almost could not believe it when she saw Roddern standing there.

“Miss me?” Roddern asked, flashing her a smile.

“Roddern?” Dio’s eyes were so wide it was a little painful. She blinked and picked up the flashlight, shining it on Roddern. “It is you!” she exclaimed. She thought she’d never see him again. She flung her arms around him and hugged him.

“So now the smell doesn’t bother you?” Roddern said with a laugh.

“I don’t care!” Dio said. “How are you here? How are you okay?”

“I can catch you up later,” Roddern said. “Just know that it was only because a higher power knew that you would need me. Especially now.”

“I need to find the fairies, Roddern,” Dio said. “They are the only chance I have at saving my parents. I know they’re alive”

“I know,” Roddern said. “But you have to be smart about this, Dio. You can’t just walk into an enchanted forest with no protection. Remember what happened to you last time?”

“I got poisoned and my father almost died trying to save me,” Dio said.

“Exactly, but this,” Roddern reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle, “can help protect you. It’s an anti glamour spray that we Grandoolexes created to help protect us against fairy wiles.”

“Amazing,” Dio said, staring at the bottle.

“We don’t have much time,” Roddern said. “Once the moon fully rises the fairies’ power will be much stronger and the anti glamour magic could fail, especially against the stronger ones, so I suggest we get going.” Dio nodded.

“Okay, spray me and let’s go,” Dio said. Roddern sprayed her, then himself with the anit-glamour magic, which Dio was surprised to realize smelled quite pleasant. He then took her hand, which despite the circumstances, made her heart flutter, and walked with her into the forest.

I’m not scared anymore, Dio realized. With Roddern with me, I know I can do this.

To continue the story, head to Christina's Blog

Never too Late

Quite a few years ago I read the Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee; we're talking at least seven to eight years ago here. I enjoyed them, and they are sitting nicely on my bookshelf, but recently while I was book browsing online I discovered that I never finished the series. Here I thought there were three books when in fact there are four. How that slipped past me I'll never know, but I promptly ordered the fourth book. Why even bother after so long? Because I just have to finish it, I hate leaving things undone, I'll even stick with a series (book or tv) to the end even if I'm losing interest in it because I feel as though I just have to follow through. Now I remember the story well enough, not every single detail, but I do recall the main idea of what happened in the books. Will that be enough for me to get through the fourth book without being confused? I guess I'll find out, because I don't see myself re-reading the first three books. This should be interesting.

Anyone ever stop reading a series and start again after a long period of time has passed? Was it the same?



*Hello to my new followers, it's nice to meet you =)

Blogfest

So, I'm happy to be participating in Deana Barnhart's wonderful blogfest. This week we're posting writing related questions on our blogs and hopping around to other's blog and answering their questions. I can't promise my questions are the most provocative or thought provoking, but here we go:

1) Do you read in the same genre that you write?
2) How do you deal with writer's block?

Thanks to anyone who visits and participates!

Teaching Day 1

So day one of teaching is over, overall I had a pretty successful day. I would sum up my three different classes by saying that grade 5 was mostly quiet, grade 3 was the "rowdiest" and I put that in quotes because they weren't off the walls bad, just chattier than my other classes. Grade 4 had the most students but they were well behaved. I didn't have a problem getting students to participate and I think I carried off the lesson well, and hopefully explained things in a way they understand. Gotta say it was a bit of a throwback teaching them things like what is a sentence vs. a fragment and how to pluralize words; made me remember when I was learning those things. There were some painfully shy kids and some who raised their hands every minute to answer questions, but that's to be expected. I had an internal lol moment when I was trying to break the ice by asking one of my 5th graders what he likes to do and he said "sitting," I mean how blase is that lol.....or you know, maybe he just likes sitting. I found that I'm also an assertive teacher because if you give kids even an inkling that you're a pushover they will walk all over you. Now I'm going to review tomorrow's work and also try to think of fun exercises so that they don't fall asleep on me. So far I like teaching, let's hope it stays that way.

Teaching the Kiddies

So, I'm gearing up to start a teaching gig tomorrow. I will be doing part time work teaching elementary school kids writing. I'll have three groups: 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Never taught kiddies before, so I'm excited to see how it goes, I've already got my lesson outlines for the next two weeks so I'm as set as I can be for now. I never had any aspirations to be a teacher, but I love to talk, especially if it's about something I know anything about, so I think I'll do just fine, pretty sure being a writer can only help me be a good teacher for these kids. All I'm hoping for is that they're as close to angelic as elementary school kids who have to take classes in the summertime can get. If they aren't....I guess anyone can be bribed with candy?