Thursday, October 19, 2006

So Many Topics, So Little Time!

Two weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to go back to the classroom and teach 8th graders! I am now a full time teacher once again. Unfortunately, it makes frequent blogging troublesome, but I will do my best to stay fresh and current. There's so many things I want to comment on, but just not enough hours in the day to do so. What I thought I'd try is a digest version on this blog, covering multiple topics of interest to me both professionally and personally.

Let's go.

The October issue of the magazine I edit, Take Out: Family Faith on the Go is out and its online companion is up and running. I am very proud of this little magazine. If you are a writer interested in submitting article ideas to Take Out, request writer's guidelines here.

Last week I taught writing workshops at the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference in New Mexico. I also represented Our Sunday Visitor Publishers and Take Out at this conference and met incredible writers with stories to tell. Shortly I will make available the recordings of my workshops as podcasts on this website under "Interested in Writing?"


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I've had the great pleasure to work with Scholastic.com to create an online teacher's guide for the middle grade novel Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. It is a part of their Flashlight Readers program. If you are a teacher of students in grades 4 through 8, check out Flashlight Readers. Inkheart's teacher's guide will be live shortly.



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(Oct. 18) - The Independent School District of Burleson, Texas, just south of Ft. Worth is the first in the country to adopt a policy of training students to immediately fight back and use their advantage in numbers to take tactical control if a gunman enters their classroom.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this one. . . See the rest of this article. Then let me know your thoughts.
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Right now I feel like I'm running as fast as I can and it's just not fast enough to win this race. But I realized something today. I sure like running (well, not really. I hate running. . . I love walking!). But the point is, I love the chase and I'm grateful for the race.

Do you ever feel like that you have to keep moving, even if that means you're just treading water? And if you stop. . . you'll drown? Did you happen to notice the life preserver just floating on the water next to you just waiting for you to hold on?

Just curious.