(This is the last post of the Slice of Life project)

Has it really been a full month of daily slicing? I guess so. I had not intended to write every day in March for Slice of Life but I got so caught up in the moments, and the network of connections, that I just kept right on going as the days of March rolled along. I appreciate all the work that Stacey and Ruth put into Slice of Life and I am amazed at the quality of writing that I found when I went back to travel around the blogs (not nearly enough … I apologize).

I was thinking about Slice of Life and its effects as I stood staring at the white bucket hanging from our tree with a tube running into the bark. Our neighbor taps our trees for sap and then boils it in his yard into syrup. The kids love this — the fire and thick smoke draws kids from near and far — and like Slice of Life, it only lasts for a short intense period of time. The sap runs when the conditions are right and then it stops. But the sweet taste of memories remains with us for some time, as we get some of the syrup in little jars. Our neighbor has already packed up his fire and syrup pans but the bucket is still on our tree for now, ready to collect whatever may still drip out. But, we’re on our own now if we want to create syrup.

Slicers, I hope all of your words keep flowing like the sap from our tree, and that your experiences are just as sweet. You are welcome to tap my tree any time you want — read the words, watch the movies, listen to the songs, engage in conversation. In the end, we all get something out of the connections we make in these virtual writing networks. Projects like Slice of Life remind us of that.

Thank you for sharing your month with me.

Peace (in slices),
Kevin

I’ve been tinkering with some new songs lately, and as with most of my writing, a lot of it will not go farther than my living room. Not long ago, my band broke up (amicably) and I have been playing guitar with one of the members, working through some material and planning for an open mic night here and there. It’s been fun and creative and who knows where it will lead. Yesterday, I was plunking some chords and this song came out. It is pretty rough and it may not go anywhere, but I’ll share it with you as it was a slice of yesterday when the house was quiet. The lyrics are inspired by that quietness and about being called “mean” by one of my kids recently for laying down the law of the house (thus, the reference to me being a “mean ‘ol man” in the break of the song).

The vocals are, well, shoddy. But I wanted to get it recorded so that I would not forget it, in case it ever amounts to anything more. This one is called “Way out of Tune” because we always joke how I can’t keep one of the strings on my guitar in tune and my voice, well, is often out of tune. It’s good to poke fun at yourself from time to time.

Listen to Way Out of Tune, the demo

Peace (in music),
Kevin

In preparation for a Digital Storytelling Conference next weekend, Mary F., Tina and I sat around my computer in a comfortable, dark barroom of the Hotel Northampton as I showed them a bit about Photostory3. The two of them — wonderful people, wonderful teachers and curious technologists — will be leading a session in a few days on the tool and although both have tinkered with the software, we wanted to do something together.

So, we grabbed some old images from my laptop (left over from a trip to Chico, California, for the National Writing Project’s Tech Matters retreat, when my friend Lynne C. was showing me her Photobooth program on her Mac) and on the fly, created this little doozy. It was great fun and that sense of engagement is exactly what I see in my students when they work with the program, and what we hope teachers will experience themselves on Saturday.

Here, then, is our masterpiece:

Peace (in mirror images),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project)

Yesterday, after a rush home from school and a quick hello to the family, I was back out the door to the first day of a retreat of the New England Writing Project, where our conversations will be centering around ways to keep teachers in our National Writing Project sites connected. I met up with two other Slicers (Hey ya, Bonnie and Tdawg) who were also there, as our focus will be on using technology (ie, social networking) to keep teachers in the loop of the work of their sites.

It was great to see them, along with two others (Mary F. — from Day in a Sentence — and Steve) and our discussions were focused on a presentation we are collaboratively giving today to the various site leaders on the rationale of using technology for what we call “continuity” in the writing project, and then, more importantly: the logistics of the launch of a networking project that will get underway in the fall. (Oh yeah, and Mary and Tdawg and I are also talking about next weekend’s Digital Storytelling event run by our site).

In the midst of those discussions, we looked and discussed the merits of Twitter and Facebook, checked out a Ning site that I set up for technology liaisons within the National Writing Project, dove into Photostory for a few minutes and just had a rich conversation. Plus, I had a Guinness, so it was all good, and today will be even better, I bet.

Virtual friends are nice but when you couple that kind of sharing and writing with meeting/seeing/reconnecting with someone in person, it makes the friendships even better, right? So, when is the Slice of Life vacation package going to be announced?

Peace (in the moment),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project)

What kind of whim is this? One I rarely pass up.

I saw someone (Bud the Teacher?) post something about sending your name to Mars on a microchip in a future Mars Rover via NASA. This is my kind of adventure: I get to send part of me without having to endure the grueling travel. So, I did it, and now my name will be forever etched upon a chip heading to Mars, although whether anyone or anything(!) will ever read it is another story for another time (and another place, too, I bet).

But, at least I am certified, with a number and everything. And I am clearly Part of History. (You can come, too, if you want. I’ll bring the beverages if you bring the food. We’ll have a grand ‘ol time — plenty of stories to tell. Just think the Slice of Lives we could put together.)

Mars Science Lab: Send Your Name to Mars

Peace (in space travel),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project)

Last night, I sat in on a meeting of coaches for the local Little League teams as they “drafted” young players. I offered to help a neighbor coach his team this year. My son was on his team last year and we think highly of this man, and plus, I wanted to see what went on behind the doors. Basically, all players are evalulated and rated following an evaluation day earlier this month, and then it goes around the table as coaches choose players for their teams. It’s difficult. We wanted a balanced team, both in terms of abilities and also personalities. I was happy with the outcome, even though there are a few names on the team that we do not know.

And next week, practice will begin. Baseball season is here.

Peace (on the mound),
Kevin

Eventually, this will find a home at our school website, with written explanations to go along with the video.

.
Peace (in golden snitches),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project)

This week, we at the Western Massachusetts Writing Project finally received enough registrations for our Digging into Digital Storytelling workshop planned for Saturday, April 4. Earlier this week, we only had five people signed up and it was looking as if the event might not even happen. But then five came trickling in yesterday and last night, at a meeting of the WMWP Executive Board, I heard of others that are also on the way. Phew. We have a limit of 30 participants but would not do it with less than 10.

This is an event put on by the WMWP Technology Team (including some of the readers here – hey guys!) and we intend to have two components — one session for those interested in online tools (such as Voicethread) and one for those interested in desktop tools (such as Photostory3) with plenty of time built into both sessions for discussions and implications for the classroom. This is being designed for beginners, so I hope that the hands-on exploration and discussions will fuel some excitement for folks to try it out with their students.

For now, though, I am just happy to know we are a “go” and now the team needs to get down to some planning for the sessions.

Peace (with teachers),
Kevin

My oldest son had grand ambitions this week to make a movie that combines live action with stop-motion animation. The concept involves a monster that has eaten our cat and then our youngest son and requires the help of a group of characters he has invented — the Pea Detectives. Somehow, he talked me into having a main role in it (OK, so I was happy to do it) and he is using one of my Flip video cameras to shoot the live footage and then using stopmotion software to shoot the Peas in action. Later, he will use Moviemaker to edit it all together.

He really wanted to know how you layer in animation on top of live action and I said, “With millions of dollars worth of equipment that we don’t have.” But if you know a way to do it on the cheap, let me know, please. So, his work-around (love work-arounds) was to take some photos of me and then print them, cut them out and use them in the stopmotion sequence. He’s also been composing some soundtrack music with SuperDuperMusicLooper and even wrote a song with lyrics (to the melody of We Three Kings of Orient Are) about the group of bumbling Pea detectives.

It’s fascinating to watch his mind working on it all and how excited he is about the project. I told him about a local Youth Film Festival that he should consider entering a film in this year. He seemed intrigued by that.

Here, then, is a glimpse of a stopmotion sequence in which I meet the Peas, with his Looper music. In the movie, this is where his original song will go, but it was more entertaining to have it as a sort of nusic video for now.

Peace (with the popcorn),
Kevin

It was a massive geek fest, to be true. It was jam-packed with people — hundreds had registered in one day, shutting down the registry system. (another indicator of the power of comics as literature). But I was on a mission as well as driven by curiosity. As a staff writer for The Graphic Classroom, I review graphic novels and comics with an eye to the classroom. So, I took along my fairly new Flip HD video camera and decided to interview a few of the webcomic creators about what inspired them to begin writing comics, what support did they have in school and what advice they might give to young writers. I intend to show this to my students as well as share it out at The Graphic Classroom.

Plus, it was the first time I used this Flip camera (I have others, not High Definition video, though) and my impression is, again: wow. It is simple to use (although the view window is too small), simple to edit with the Flip software that comes with it, and makes a high quality video. I uploaded it into my Vimeo account, which allows some HD video uploads (although I took quite some time).

What do you think?

New England Webcomic Convention: advice and inspiration from Mr. Hodgson on Vimeo.

Peace (in comics),
Kevin