Thanks to all of my #nerdlution friends and those beyond, and in the all of the various corners of world, for being part of my community. Whatever your religion or beliefs, I hope you find peace in your days.
Peace (in the poem),
Kevin
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Slice of Life: Notes from the Past
(This is for Slice of Life with Two Writing Teachers)
The other day, I shared out this digital story about our family’s tradition of writing notes to our future selves and stuffing them into glass ornaments. Yesterday, two ornaments broke, and a bunch of our messages spilled out. We huddled around, passing the little scrolls around, reading what we wrote to ourselves years ago.
Here are few things that were on the notes:
- Our dog’s first Christmas, in which he was everywhere, full energy, wagging tail knocking things over
- A scribbled one sentence from my son who was five at the time, saying hello
- A gift wish note from another son, asking (please) for a plastic skunk for Christmas (don’t ask)
- Two notes from my wife and I from the same year, in which my mom and my grandmother passed away
- My own note of love to our future selves
We’ll work on this year’s notes soon enough, once the festivities settle down bit. It’s a powerful tradition, though, writing as the heart of remembering and connecting the past to the present to the future.
Peace (to you),
Kevin
Middleweb Book Review: Celebrating Writers
I reviewed this book by Ruth Ayers and Christi Overman over at Middleweb. The authors show the many ways in which we can acknowledge, encourage and celebrate our students as emerging writers. There’s a lot to like in this book, which is packed with good ideas and resources.
Peace (in the book),
Kevin
ASCII Art for the Holidays
I wanted to share put this site of ASCII art by j. stark. This may be an old site (hosted by Geocities! I see some art dates back to 2000) but it has some neat artwork that is still timeless.
Happy holidays, where ever you are and whatever your beliefs. Thanks for stopping by.
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(J U S T B E C A R E F U L W H E R E
Y O U P U T T H E C A R R O T !)
(art by j.stark)
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Peace (on earth, let it be),
Kevin
Playing Around with Bandcamp – two free holiday songs
Some of you know I write and record music, mostly as demos for my band (Duke Rushmore). But I’d like to try to get more of music out there and I am playing around with Bandcamp as a way to do that. To get started, I posted two holiday-themed songs from the past and am allowing them to be downloaded from Bandcamp for free. I don’t see my songwriting as a money-making venture. If you enjoy the songs, I’ll be happy.
You can also access the songs at Bandcamp directly. Or just listen here with the embed files. Whatever works for you works for me.
Thanks for reading and listening.
Peace (I mean it),
Kevin
One of those foggy winter days …
We woke up to temperatures in the 50s and a thick foggy stew covering everything yesterday. It seemed a perfect time to do a little Learning Walk around the yard. It was a bit mushy, walking about, but the snow melting, the fog sitting there, and the warmth of the air gave the day a ghostly look, as if the Ghosts of Christmas Past were there in our midst.
I also began tinkering around with a photo lens app called Fragment. I can’t say I know what I am doing but the results are still interesting.
and
The thing about Learning Walks is that they provide you a chance to see the common everyday work from another view, or another lens. I’m still learning …
Peace (in the yard),
Kevin
Digital vs Analog: A Cartoonist Drawing Battle
A Digital Holiday Story: Breaking Glass
I did a version of this story years ago as a podcast and updated the text a bit, and then used the iMovie app to pull it together as a digital story. This is one of our family traditions – writing notes to our future selves and stuffing them into glass ornaments. What’s yours?
Peace (in the glass),
Kevin
Hacking Your Notebook with Paper Circuitry, archived
I caught only the tail end of this presentation the other week, so I am happy to see it archived. It centers on the concept of “illuminated notebooks” that use circuits with writing. Check it out:
And here is the link with the chat room notes.
Peace (in the lighting up of ideas),
Kevin
VideoAmy: Five Minute Film Fest EDU Parodies
I am a huge fan of the sharing that VideoAmy does at Edutopia with her Five Minute Film Festivals. Here, she gathers up some of the best EDU parody films of the year on YouTube.
Peace (in the funny bones),
Kevin