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Research papers pushed my creative writing to a slow pace, but I’m back. Thank you for hanging in there. The following picture is courtesy of J. R. Gonzales, writer of Houston’s Bayou City History. Thank you so much for your beautiful work:

In the calendar:

October 10th, 2006 - Continues strong in the educational world with the case of Megan Meier. No legal action can be brought against the adults who helped this tragedy happen but it does raise issues of ethics and morality. To see more of the story, and some graphic commentaries, please visit YouTube. I would like to hear more of this in the blogosphere.

December - International AIDS Awareness Month. CNN statistics show that there are 40 million people in the world REPORTED living with AIDS. In the USA, the African American population represent half of the cases, with DC leading the nation reporting 128 cases per 100,000 people. In a country where research has lead to the first virus blocker, many don’t test for fear. Let’s take care of our own, relate the information and encourage testing.

January 10th - Day of NO BLOGGING, but do pick up a book and read. Brought to you by NaBloPoMo and Gunfighter. Why? Because the average American will spend 2.5 hours in front of the tube and about 7 minutes reading a book. My book for fun and craft is The Wrong Word Dictionary by Dave Dowling, with a free quiz to see if you really need the book.

February 7th - Lunar New Year 2008: Year of the Rat and a time of warmth, reflection, gratitude and celebration. I’m looking forward to it!

July 14th - Blogging While Brown conference in Atlanta, Georgia is happening, following in the footsteps of BlogHer.com It’s neat to see the power of the internet at work.

Great sites I visit often: miltonramirez.com showed a beautiful video of Compaq founder at the Stanford commencement. Mr. Steve Jobs was kicked out of the company he built, going for broke and sick, but the man still made millions. Tenacity is so admirable!

What teachers talk about when students aren’t around: Learning a new language is very difficult. Most people will learn how to read, write and then speak a language since speaking requires instant memory recall. When out of the blue, a teacher turns on Nickelodian showing students to “own your farts.” There was a serious discussion whether or not to use it as a tool for discussion and participation. (LOL, it’s a tough business!)

However, the best (via Andy Carvin’s learning.now) video/website so far comes from a sixth grade class who got tired of Animal Planet’s: Corwin’s Quest, Jeff Corwin, mangling the Spanish language. TeachJeffSpanish.com is a great classroom without walls.

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