I Will Share With You, But You Must Promise Not to Laugh...

Dena Harris... substitute teacher???

Okay. Pick yourself up off the floor and dry the tears of laughter and I'll explain what I'm talking about.

As you know from my last entry, I was a wee bit nervous about teaching a classroom full of kids ages 8-11. It was for a Summer Writing Camp program and I was a guest speaker. The session was yesterday from 10-11 am.

When I got home, Blair asked me how it went. I was stumped for an answer. "Pretty good, I think," was the best I could do. They didn't fall asleep or pelt me with erasers and that's good for that age group, right?  Overall, I think I did an okay to slightly-higher-than-okay job. I talked about myself as an author, showed them my book, told them the most popular story in the book was about how my cat got too fat to clean herself and is called "The Great Cat Butt-Wiping Adventure," and they loved that.  I asked for any questions about being a writer and they wanted to know if I made a lot of money.   (I tried to keep a straight face).

Then I spent time helping them write the first page of their books. I talked about what should go in the first 100 words and read examples from real books and we picked out what it was about the first pages of those books that made us want to keep reading. Then I had them write their own first 100 words, get into small groups to share, and then we read some aloud.

Here's what I learned--I don't think I had enough interactive activity planned. Too much talking, not enough games to make the learning more fun.  But what I also learned--and this shocked me--was that I really like teaching kids.

They were fun. They were funny. They had big eyes and big smiles and were eager for me to read what they had written and give them praise.  I could quickly pick out who liked to be the center of attention, who was shy but serious, who was outgoing and determined, etc.  And I liked it. These kids were so great, so eager to learn, and very well-behaved. Noisy, but well-behaved.

I was telling Blair all this and he said--again, to my complete surprise--"Why don't you look at substitute teaching? You can set your own schedule and say no, but maybe you'd enjoy it." Normally I'd laugh it off, but the idea stuck. 

I have no idea what it takes to be a substitute teacher. Is a teaching license required? I e-mailed the NC Board of Education to ask for details. And I don't know that I'll go through with it.  But it's something new and fun to think about. Life is all about discovering who you are.

What a riot if it turns out I"m a teacher.

Me & 20 Kids - Please Start The Prayer Chain

I've been asked to speak this Saturday as a guest lecturer at a Summer Writing Camp for kids. The camp runs four Saturdays from 8am - noon and is sponsored by A&T University. My understanding is each week a different author or writing professional is brought in so the kids can talk to a "real" author.

So this Saturday from 10-11 am will find me in a room with twenty kids, ranging in age from 8-11. Can you even imagine??  

I'm experiencing one of those "I'm excited to do it / I dread doing it," moments. I want the kids to have a lot of fun and still learn something and have been driving my critique group crazy, I'm sure, with my constant e-mails asking if they think I should play music or just talk?  Should I give away candy or not? What books are good examples of openings? And on and on and on.  They've been very kind and haven't kicked me out of the group yet.

All this worrying and I'm only with the kids for a short time. I've been asked to talk about myself and my book for about 10 minutes (what it's like to write a book, how it got published, what my writing habits are, etc.).  Then I'm to lead the group through a creative writing exercise. Ideally, this exercise will help come up with the first page of their story.

I'm kind of amazed at how ancy I am. It's just that I'm not used to speaking to this age group. Adults, yes. Teens, okay. Wriggling, screeching, bouncing, hyper, most likely ADD-diagnosed 8-11 year olds?  Aaaaaauuuuugh!!!!!!

At the same time, I'm really looking forward to it. It's something new and if I like it, it may open up new doors to teaching workshops for kids.  That could be fun (with the proper doses of medication).

I've got work to do today, but a good chunk of tomorrow will be devoted to "prepping" myself for Saturday's talk. Oh, and if anyone is in the Madison area on Saturday, I'll be doing a book signing at The Fat Cat art gallery on Murphy Street in downtown Madison  from Noon - 4. There will also be a jewelry artist on site who, I understand, has some fabulous work.

Hope to see you there!
 

What is Productive?

I'm at a loss. I would categorize my last two days as productive in that I haven't wasted a lot of time, I've focused on projects and got some work done.

And yet, I feel like I'm standing still. 

Let me give you an example. I received an e-mail from a friend about a non-profit in GSO that needs a writer. I sent the contact an e-mail, outlining my qualifications. I received an e-mail back today, stating she was considering a number of candidates and asked me to send in my resume, a sample of my writing, and a "before" and "after" of a piece I'd edited. I spent the next hour to hour and a half updating my resume, digging out before and after pieces, and putting together a cover letter and package for this woman.  

So, yes, something was accomplished. I got a package ready to send out. But in the greater scheme of things, I feel like nothing got done. I'm no further on projects that have deadlines, I have no way of knowing if taking this two hours will even pay off and I'll get the job, and I've still got a mile long list of things to do.

Another example. A funny cat story popped to mind today so I sat down for 45 minutes and wrote it out. I haven't  written a cat story in a while and it was fun and maybe someday I'll use it for publication or in a new book. Writing is never a waste of time and by writing it I accomplished something, but again, nothing that is on my list.  I don't want to say "Oh, I can't write anything not on the list" and quelch the creative spirit but ---yaaaaa!!!! I have so much to do!

I'm doing a really good job of sticking to the writing schedule I set out for myself and things still aren't snapping together as quickly as I would like.  I'm a pretty good time estimator too, so I'm not sure what the problem is. I suspect it's that I'm allowing myself to be pulled in too many directions with no focus on where I want my writing to take me.  But that's a blog for another day. 

Jake's First Boo-Boo

It happens to all kids. My sister called last night to tell me Jake, my 2 1/2 year old nephew, had sustained his first major injury, requiring several staples to the back of his head.

How it happened is a little fuzzy. My sister was just getting out of the shower when she heard a loud "Smack!" She said it sounded like if you took your hand and hit the wall as hard as you could with an open palm. Not a "crack" but a "smack."

She heard Grant saying "Jake?" and Jake crying, so she wrapped a towel around herself and went out to the hallway at the top of the stairs, where Jake was laying. Somehow he'd gotten his feet twisted around Grant and had fallen backwards into the corner of the wall.

They picked him up and that's when they saw the blood just gushing out of the back of his head. Nicole ran for a towel and then called their next door neighbor, who's a nurse. Per Nicole, she said, "I babbled something about Jake and blood and she said she'd be right there."

So Nicole's throwing on underwear and a robe and trying to stay with Jake and Grant. Grant is holding Jake and shaking, he's so nervous. Nicole thought Jake was the one shaking, having seizure and Grant said, "No, that's me."

Jake wasn't even crying when the neigbor arrived a minute later. She looked at it and said, "Yeah. That needs stiches," so they put him in the car and off they went.

Nicole was so proud of Jake. He barely cried and was very brave as the staples were put in. Immediately after it was over he sat up and said, "I see boo-boo?" amazing the nurse and doctor. So the nurse got a mirror and tried to show it to him.

Here's the best part. So they're gathering their things, preparing to leave and a police officer enters the room. He's very friendly and chit-chats, then says, "So what happened here?"

Nicole and Grant go through the whole falling down thing and the officer is looking more and more confused. Finally he says, "So this isn't a dog bite?"

Nicole and Grant exchange a glance and say, "Nooo..."

"Oh." The officer stands up. "I'm here to see some people about a dog bit. I've got the wrong room. I'm glad everything is okay here, thought. You folks have a nice day." And he walks across the hall into another exam room.

Nicole said it never occurred to her the officer wasn't there to see them. She just assumed any injury involving a child was probably investigated.  

I think the whole experience was worse for Grant and Nicole than it was for Jake. That's probably typical too.  But everyone is relieve he's fine, and Jake is very proud of his new stiches. As for Nicole, as she said, "Now I know how to take blood out of a carpet."

So don't mess with her.