nanowrimo update – like 26,000 words – i got inspired by brining my pop singer back into the story to read for small children – about a legend of someone who jumps a horse to warn others about the upcoming war – only to be hit by a pumpkin – so lots of allusions going on there if you know some of those stories…

for thanksgiving, i spent much of the week reading up on sales – kidding – i read about the only U.S. distance runner to ever be suspended for drug use – he admitted – for the first time – that he’d used epo about seven years ago – and basically opened up about it – it was an interesting read – just b/c you wonder – or i do – how many other people doped when things like that were harder to detect (still very hard to detect blood doping)

i read a 20-page insert on japan from the economist – basically, the country is getting old very quickly – and that’s had an effect  – everything from its now conservative nature to its problems with pensions – the north korea provocative bombing of south korea i found most disturbing as well – and tried to read up on it

started “the grimm brothers” collection of folktales – barnes and noble went back to offering free classics on the nook – which i find awesome – the grimm brothers book is 600 pages long – much longer than i thought a book of fairy tales would be – they intended the book for adults – guess they missed the audience with stories about red riding hood and cinderella and such:)

hope your first week of advent is great

maf

up to 18,000 words on nanowrimo – considering i wasn’t going to write anything new this month, well, i guess i broke that rule…

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK!!! no journals this week – but i did want to mention what i read – before i forget…

“great expectations” by dan brown – story of a first-year teacher in innercity new york – at about the worst school and with the worst kids – made ya’ll look a lot better:) seriously, the book was very moving – basically, brown, a very talented person, was reduced to barely nothing over the year with a group of fourth graders (and lack of support from the administration) – it was sad, but it was also encouraging – and put some things in perspective

i read “teach like a champion” – it was okay – didn’t get much out of it (sort of the opposite from the brown book b/c it considered good teaching to basically be treating kids like robots – sad…

other than those, there were just odd and ends reading – border troubles in central america involving google maps (hint, don’t argue national boundaries with google maps), how mental illness can be prevented through prior help, and a major league soccer final preview (go rapids)

again, best wishes with thanksgiving – enjoy your family

maf

okay,
so i likely would’ve spent my time last week writing away BUT… i got a call from the library and got three books i’d requested – so it turned into a reading week instead of a writing one…

“american saint” – was actually in the paper yesterday – samford u gave it an award for its awesomeness – it was a good book about asbury – the founder of methodists in the united states – learned quite a bit about the role of methodism in early america – which i had previously known nothing of – asbury was likable as a late 18th century person as well

“a class apart” – should be familiar to you that read a chapter from it on friday – great, great book about a gifted high school in new york – i guess what i particularly liked was that the school isn’t a stickler for rules, and the kids excel (sometimes i forget that rules aren’t super important and not ends to themselves – i know, shocker…)

“an honorable run” – by matt mccue – one of the better books i’ve read this year – matt wrote about his high school and college cross country coaches – and the book was so good that i read it in a day – lots about running – moreover, a good book about what’s important in life and who’s important

nanowrimo does continue to roll along – i didn’t take a book to the bama game yesterday evening (if you were paying attention, you’d know that i finished the book – honorable run – before i got to the stadium) so i sat and brainstormed ways to take my story this week – and watched bama’s offense come to life – occasionally…

maf

so i’m pretty busy with my “battle of the books” story for national novel writing month – currently writing about a pop singer named dani (actually, her real name is danielle, but she was forced to use dani to be more “poppy” – or whatever you call a pop singer) – anyway, dani, like all good pop stars, has her songs written for her – and she needs new ones for her next album – which, they decide will be dedicated to the troops leading the battle overseas – patriotic and all…

as for reading…
“run fast” – about 150 pages – a reread – pretty good – lots i already know – but motivation to run fast, i guess – reinforced the importance of speed work to me – although, i’d overdone it for about a year – and the book has helped me realize that

“cc pyle and his amazing race” – wonderful book that a story in the 8th grade lit book is based on – in 1928, a promoter created a race across america – started with 300 runners and basically broke them down over the next three months as they ran 33, 50, 60 mile days – incredible 3,000 mile race – and they were promised money – and got very, very little in return

re-reading the book of matthew also – read sports illustrated (and it’s predictable stories about the nfl – shocking things like… nfl teams pass more today than they used to) – the economist – and my bank statement (okay, not the statement – that would be weak reading – but my bank company was bought out so i got a huge packet informing me of all the changes – which make no sense…)

okay, back to novel writing – also known as watching the new york marathon…

maf

so things will be busy with working on my novel – but i did do some reading last week – for those of you that are blogging…

“the gold standard” by coach k – duke u’s basketball coach – story of how he worked with the 2008 us olympic team to win the gold medal in china – good book – lots of lessons that are written to business people but that can also transfer to the classroom – like the fact that you have to create purposeful interactions in the room to get a class together and on the same page – things don’t just automatically fall into place

in other reading, i started the book of matthew, i read about the rise of turkey in the economist (the country is at somewhat of a crossroads in relation to europe), and i read in sports illustrated about what a wonderful pitcher cliff lee is – and then lee went and got beat by the giants – oh well…

sincerely,
maf

okay, so most of what i read aren’t things ya’ll are reading or will ever probably ever read – if you haven’t figured that out (not sure sometimes the level of brightness i’m dealing with) – anyway, this week was still no exception – as with…

“blood, sweat, and chalk” – by tim layden – sports illustrated author – book on football playbooks – specifically, different formations – like the veer, spread, tampa 2, 46, a-11 – not sure how many middle school kids, even football guys, would find the book interesting, but as a person who watches a decent amount of football – or maybe just watches and likes to appear to be smarter than the drunk fans around him at games – the book was interesting because it described the history and purpose behind different formations – so when alabama runs out of the wildcat now, i can turn to dad and say something like “boy, the zone blocking was great on that play”

(by the way, dad is a water drinker – like myself – don’t want any confusion:)

as for you  guys though, i did read two books i’d recommend…

“the defense of thaddeus a. ledbetter” – i do hope this is a BOB next year – so you don’t all have to rush and read it now – but it’s a truly wonderful little read – very funny – and the ending didn’t compromise anything that went on during the book – which i thought was great

“the reinvention of edison thomas” – story of an autistic scientific genius 12-year-old who basically gets better at science by learning how to develop friendships – or he’s rather befriended – through the book – very good story – eddy was a pretty real character for me – the way he puzzled to figure out social interactions, i could definitely identify with (as i think most kids could who spend any amount of time in environments where they’re not considered the top of the social class, so to say) – good comparison book for “rules”

i finished the old testament – yeah!!! ecclesiastes struck me a bit differently this time – i mean, everyone says that it’s depressing, and i suppose on a level it is – but it does appear the author is trying to fight through that to figure out the meaning in life

i also read a fascinating study in “the economist” that if you make text smaller, the kids will get smarter – sounds great – waiting to try that one out

happy reading – i’m getting ready to run in a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) in tennessee this weekend

maf

we were – this has been a quick, quick weekend – it helps to be quick when you’re out until 2:30 am with a football game (it’s not my fault espn 2 wanted it as the preview for the hawaii-nevada game – the group i sat around, being alabama football experts – cough, cough – have assured me though that the mississippi state game will be at 11:30 – which means most of them will lose their expertness – which seemed to come from lots and lots of alcohol – oh joy…)

i did get 200 pages read in “the annotated us constitution and declaration of independence” yesterday – pretty interesting read about why we got both documents – and how both documents should be read – for example, both documents were rather new to the world – so the system of government that was outlined was meant to be a work in progress – ironically, it’s been viewed as rather a document you don’t change

the other book i read (i did finish “war of the worlds” early last week – thought about ordering a class set but then found out that it’s 12th grade reading – at least the author is – so there went that idea – you’re not going to miss much though – it wasn’t great), was “the runner’s body” – i also got a book late in the week, “road to the top” which was about running – just 10 years earlier with its publication – both books were similar in that they used science to drive the advice about running – like the importance of vo max (having lungs that can take in a lot of oxygen)

i’m now to the psalms – like psalm 65 – i found a few that talked about running – which was cool b/c i was running on the treadmill when i read it – i also read the sports illustrated story on the agent that came clean this week by ratting on the players he paid when they were in the ncaa – the story wasn’t that shocking

guess those are the highlights – two weeks until i’m racing in tennessee

maf

bonjour!
so you have monday off – enjoy it (if you’re reading this monday sixth grade, you don’t have to blog today – although, if you do, then you don’t have to blog another day) – i have a meeting – fun – and then time at the school – which i’m planning to devote to solving world hunger – or i’m just so awesome… 🙂

as for reading…
“the truth about santa claus” – great book by mome – i think that was his name – basically used cutting-edge science to explain some of santa – who apparently is a new yorker who’s been equipped by aliens for some time to use wormholes and building-atom guns to deliver happiness to the world – again, great read

“caffeeine for the creative mind” – an exercise book about ways to build creativity – i enjoyd the book – there were 250 exercises – maybe six of them caught my eye – the other 40 just basically looped every 40 pages (so like the same idea came up six different times – and i’d be like “didn’t i see that idea about 40 pages ago???” – i guess i stumbled on the difference between adult and teen fiction – in adult books, the author assumes your life is too busy to read the whole book very quickly – or at all – and so the main idea or ideas are just repeated a bunch to fill up pages)

as for rest, i’m up to ezra now in my quest to finish the old testament, i read about how calorie-restricted specimens in a lab not only lived longer but gave birth to specimens that lived longer (i guess you too can increase your life span from 8 to 12 days if you’re a microorganism and reading this blog), i read how david price of the rays is a nice guy (and how bama is the best team in the country – sports illustrated seemed to miss on that one this week), and i read a piece about using smartpens in the classroom as i ran my final long run before my 1/2 marathon race in the hills of tennessee – just three weeks away (joy)

must return to “war of the worlds” by hg wells – for some reason, this is the week to read about aliens…

maf

wonderful header, i know – had to warn the sixth grade – otherwise, i approve 90 comments this week before i remember to tell them not to write…

read “called to coach” by bobby bowden last week – good book – bowden was a very successful college coach – who grew up in b’ham – led florida state to national titles – i guess what was most interesting about the book was that it wasn’t a typical coach book where the coach makes himself a god (“i came in and the program was terrible and i turned it around”) – he admitted doubts he had and he admitted the help he had – it was a good read

got “the book of basketball” by bill simmons thursday – couldn’t read much in it what with a middle school game to announce and then bama’s game saturday – so only like 300 pages so far – but it’s a humorous look at the nba – it’s 700 pages long – about 500 more pages than die-hard nba guys probably want – so it’s curious in that aspect – but the guy knows the nba – and i don’t so i’ve learned a bit

up to 1 chronicles now in the bible read-through – 1 and 2 kings are rather depressing – although it did surprise me upon rereading how lenient God was towards the kings with all the things they did (like, oh, worshipping just about every god they could fashion)

read about bama’s cross country team today – my favorite sport – and obviously read some about the uf-ua game – guess those are the highlights – best wishes with finals

maf

ah happy days when it’s not 105 when you out to run…

(thanks for nothing trey on wednesday – would it kill you pace a guy every once in a while??? particularly when he hits iron chairs at bernie’s when left to his own vices – the bruise on my right arm cries out to your lack of help – see if i name my ukrainian orphan after you…)

so i’ve been reading – again – can’t help it – i guess – it helped distract me for the first 57 minutes of alabama’s game yesterday…

“roar” – finished the BOB for the year – when jacobsen stole my book, i went for that one – it was okay – entertaining – kept me guessing where it was going – the book wandered at times – it seemed to be an eco-disaster warning book at times – at others, about political problems (power with the rich) – other times, speaking about disabilities – i guess that’s one way to write your first book – pick about 5,000 things to happen and just put them in there – anyway, not the best book, but okay

“the media relations department of hizbollah wishes you a happy birthday” – funny, funny book about the middle east – never thought i’d write those words:) anyway, a long-time reporter for the ny times in that area wrote a book about the area – really, really good – insights into the mindset of the people – their similarities and differences (like between saudi arabia – very restrictive – and egypt – more open) – the middle east is obviously important so i enjoyed reading about an area that is heavily covered – but not with much depth at all…

as for other readings, i’m almost through second samuel now on my quest to finished the old testament by december – so king david’s just back to his throne after his son absolom failed in his attempt to take over – the life of david pretty well covers both samuels – and then chronicles (up next) is the after-effects – finally ending with israel split – and the remanent in exile

i also read a great story this morning about cuba – a reporter went there to try and live off the $15 a month salary that workers there receive – he basically lost 11 pounds, nearly starving to death – and couldn’t do it without a lot of help (and stealing) – which apparently much of cuba does as their government turns a blind eye – deaf ear – something

i guess those are the highlights – hope your reading is good this week

maf