reinvite

Can you please reinvite me at this email address: jevans1982@aol.com? It won't let me make comments on other people's posts through my other email because it's not the email associated with my google account.

Thanks!

Hi Ladies!

It wouldn't let me make comments because it said I was a "guest," so I am trying it out again now.

I want to say, thank you Ladies, for an informative and fun couple of days. I will be working with Marty to try some of the techniques introduced as we make better writers of our students. Looking forward to working with you again in February.

Between now and then, maybe I could come up with a new beer recipe to celebrate your return, something along the lines of "Writer's Dopplebock". If you like a sweet malty beer with a pretty good kick, let me know and I will see what I can come up with. Just like a good writing, good beers take some revision to get exactly what you are looking for. Always up for a challenge!

Larry

Profiled in Iowa

It wasn’t until it was all over and I was back on the road headed for home sweet home. You always hear about it, but you don’t think it will ever happen to you. As a law-abiding citizen who is a retired Navy veteran and has never even had a ticket in 39 years of accident free driving, it was shocking. I had been profiled!

On the final day of three, traveling back from Los Angeles, California on a 6000-mile excursion, I was looking forward to being home and sleeping in my own bed. Cruise control was set for two miles per hour over the posted speed limit and I was focused on the unrolling pavement. The undulating view of the central Iowa countryside with its ubiquitous fields of corn as far as one could see. Simply put – boring. Up ahead a brown vehicle sits in the median of the expressway. As I cruise on by with the flow of traffic I make eye contact with the lone occupant of the vehicle; an Iowa State Trooper. My eyes flick to the rear view mirror just to reassure myself that my boredom won’t be broken. Nothing moving so eyes back on the unfolding road.

Some ten minutes later a white jeep that had been slowly overtaking me, passes and then abruptly pulls in front of me with minimal clearance. Shaken from my bored state, I wonder what that is all about. Thinking there might be faster overtaking traffic, I glance to my left only to make eye contact with that Iowa trooper that I had passed miles ago. He is matching my speed and, due to the distance between the jeep, and myself I kick off the cruise control that is still firmly pegged on 72 mph. As I start to slow, so does the trooper. Next thing I know, there are bright blue strobes filling the rear view mirror letting me know that I was wanted – to pull over.

Being the law abiding citizen that I am (never mind my box on four wheels with four striped rats under the hood couldn’t out run the serious power of the trooper’s vehicle even if I wanted) I quickly pull to the side of the road and turn off the engine. I proceed to efficiently get my paper work in order to show the man now sitting behind me putting on his Smokey the Bear hat. However, not thinking about the safety aspects of high-speed traffic to my left, I am startled when he shows up on the passenger’s side wrapping loudly on the window. Now I have to turn the key to the accessories position to roll down the passenger window, which brings on the radio at sizable volume, the blower is making racket and I am now slightly flustered while still trying to figure out why I have been stopped.

As the window is finally lowered, he courteously asks me where I am headed. When I respond, home to Michigan he inquires from where. When I say Los Angeles he sticks his head into the car takes a good breath and wants to know what I was doing out there. A couple of further questions about my travels and then he asks, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” My prompt reply was “No, sir.” At which time he let me know that my Iron Man Wisconsin license plate cover was obscuring the state of Michigan on the license plate. However, reflecting back on that moment in time, you could just see the disappointment in his eyes and the relaxing of his body as he realized that bald guy with biker mustache and large dark sunglasses was not the drug currier he was going to bust, but was really some guy headed home.

We had a nice chat about triathlons and life in general while he wrote me a warning for an equipment violation in the cramped but cool interior of his vehicle. When the paper work was finished, I proceeded back to my car and before I could even start my vehicle, he roared off down the interstate never to be seen by me again. It was only a few miles down the road after seeing several other vehicles with “obscured” license plats that the realization dawned on me that it was simply an excuse to have closer look. I have had that cover on two separate vehicles for over eight years and have been passed by countless police vehicles without incident. No, I am convinced that my appearances greatly contributed to my short stop on the freeway in the wilds of Iowa.

by Larry Etter

Mary Says "Say Yes to Crack"

The cat was naughty. He smacked the dog's nose, scratched the new couch, peed on my new shoes and regurgitated a hairball right onto the roast.

The Ballad of the Delton SWI 2011

Underpaid and overworked,

But still I do my best.

It’s summertime, and here I am.

This teacher needs some rest!

The first day’s great we need a break

from fun and sleeping in.

The second day is harder though

because we miss our sin.

Rick Snyder is our governor

He is a big Nazi

If he would just get out of there

We would have some money

His sister belongs to my gym

People are quite mean

But she is really a democrat

Working behind the scenes

Hitler reincarnated

He calls himself a nerd

He cuts our education fund

The man sure is a turd

He says he has the answers for

All the public schools

His own kids go to private ones

The hypocrite’s a fool

The governor’s a liar and

He steals from MESSA’s pool

Has no mercy from teachers ‘cuz

His kids go to private school!

Rick Snyder is our governor

He treats our teachers “well”

20% insurance costs

Tell him to go to hell

Hiding out on Mackinaw

Where he can’t hear our shouts

Nerdy wimpy governor

We’re gonna kick you out!

The state demands we do the MEAP

But changes in midstream

How can they do this to our kids?

Please wake me from this dream

Summers here. We need a break.

To clear our minds from stress

Just pass the wine and call the shrink

Please free us from this mess

Underpaid and overworked,

But still I do my best.

It’s summertime, and here I am.

This teacher needs some rest!

Five Ways to Make Editing a Positive Experience (The slide you don't have in your book.)

1.Spend more time highlighting what is right and beautiful than hunting for errors.

2.Make grammar about meaning.  There is a purpose for the marks we use and writers are responsible for knowing why they do what they do.  Then, sometimes we can break the rules.

3.Constantly write and collect and refer back to literature and students’ own writing

4.Teach concepts and patterns with visuals and examples.

5.Do express lane edits.

Seven Little Known Things About Me (Mary)

Seven Little Known Things About Me (Mary)

1. My favorite way of cranking out a story is on a yellow legal pad with a #2 Ticonderoga pencil.
2. I never put syrup on my pancakes, only butter.
3. The only way I can clean my house is by putting on salsa music while I work.
4. My favorite children's book is Little Women because when I was 10, I read it in installments. Growing up poor in the South Bronx, I wasn't allowed to check out books from the library for fear I would lose the book or worse, be fined for returning it late. I hid the book in another section far from the children's stacks and every Saturday I fished it out and picked up where I left off. It was the first book that lifted me to another world, the book that made me fall in love with reading.
5. Even though I've seen it about 200 times, the last 7 minutes of Defending Your Life starring Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep always always makes me cry.
6. There is not one shred of doubt in my mind that Captain Kathryn Janeway could easily kick the asses of Kirk, Picard, and Sisko. The fact that I've thought long and hard about this should be embarrassing, but I love it that I don't care.
7. My favorite home remedy for getting over a nasty cold is chicken soup with 4 cloves of garlic, Cuban toast, real Coke over ice and repeated viewings of Aliens.