Often, when you try to encourage a child to read, all they can think about is reading in class, where they might be expected to read out loud but are embarrassed because they don’t read as fluidly as another child. They might associate reading a book with comprehension quizzes that they might not do so well at because they have a hard time reading quickly and deeply enough to actually understand what they’re reading. You could be trying to encourage the child to read a book on their favorite sports figure, and you’ll get more of a reaction from the wall. The child’s experiences with reading in the school setting are a far stronger motivator than reading about how Michael Jordan became a fantastic athlete.

When you sit a child down in front of a game, regardless of how text-heavy it is, the child is motivated to read. If you hand them a TCG game, they want to read the cards to see what each one does. If you hand them a game like Kingdom Hearts (I realize I’m dating myself slightly just a hair here), then some will choose to read the story while others will choose to focus solely on the directions for accomplishing a task in the game.

Either way, the child is reading.

The article focuses on encouraging students to decode symbols, which really is what’s taking place in reading, but I think just seeing characters read a picked-up letter, a book, or a newspaper also reinforce and encourage literacy ideals because the child sees that and can understand that reading allows the character to gain the knowledge they need to move on. Now it’s not just trying to decode the symbols on the page, it’s associating meaning with them, and most children can follow that.

In the attempt to reach tweens and teens, games are likely going to incorporate more and more literacy concepts, both to help the student navigate the game and to keep them engaged in learning how to read and think critically.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. I can actually do a number of arts in a competent manner, but drawing has eluded me most of my life. I had brief flashes of drawing ability my freshman year of high school and my freshman year of college (odd coincidence). I can get the image of what I want to draw firmly fixed in my mind, but there’s a severe disconnect between my head and my hand. Now that I’ve developed a strong interest in blended storytelling and am trying to figure out how to apply that to Dead Bunny, it’s really annoying me.

Last summer, I started drawing stick figures for a fellow teaches. Initially, they just decorated notes I was leaving her, but they quickly became something else and they started gathering a fan base among the other teachers. My horrible little drawings were coming alive and telling their own stories.

The stories focus on this one little stick figure family- Mom, Dad, and Little One, a precious preschooler who loves to read. The family celebrates holidays and spend time together doing fairly typical family activities. Side stories away from the family have been reactions to various things going on. They’re starting to become my teaching assistants. I’ve even turned myself into a stick figure (although I don’t think I have that one).

I don’t have as much time to spend on them anymore, but they still dot my design notebook. If you want to check them out, they have their own section in my deviantArt gallery. But look quickly. My artist roommate is eying one of the larger stories for one of her future projects.

We’ll start with the links…all two of them!

• College students making the grade online, in class- It’s great that educational technology is improving students’ grades in courses. My concern is, are they demonstrating any actual learning? I work with kids day in, day out. A crazy number of the kids are supposed to have some sort of short-term memory issue because they never seem to know anything (makes you want to raise a kid up here, just in case it’s the water). What’s really happening is that they’re cramming for tests, and then doing nothing to actually shift that knowledge into their memory at all. So we end up teaching the exact same topic (I often use the exact same material, just to make my point) to the exact same kid, and they have absolutely no clue they’ve seen it before. Grades are one thing, retention is something completely different.
• Cartoon Network has no plans for One Piece return- I’m sharing this one because I’m a jerk. 4Kids lost three properties in 2006- one it deserved to lose (don’t hate me), one that simply finished (4Kids does still control it), and one that was literally pirated away by another company that 4Kids has a distribution partnership with. Granted, One Piece often had fans yelling and screaming at 4Kids, but still. If you ever want to know how 4Kids lost this poor embattled property, google “Funimation One Piece”. It’s completely irrelevant now. After only six months of fans yelling and screaming about the new voice actors, Cartoon Network has decided to stay out of it. (You’d think after what happened with Pokemon, these companies would learn that moving away from 4Kids voice actors is never a popular idea.)

And now, after spending nearly every free moment in January and February reading, I kind of gave myself March off. The list, as a result, is short.

• Mamotte Lollipop, Volume 1- My students are overly fascinated with my love of anime and manga, so they’re always asking me if I’ve ever heard of titles. One of them, easily an otaku, came in a couple of weeks ago and dropped two manga on my desk. I hadn’t ever heard of this one, and could easily see why. It was scary looking (at least from where I was sitting). It was brightly colored and looked very girly. I don’t trend to to do girly, but the student insisted I read it, so I did. The story wasn’t much better than the cover, sadly enough.
• The Gentlemen’s Alliance +, Volume 1″- This one had been previewed in Shojo Beat not too long ago, and I wasn’t impressed with it then, either. It was far more readable than Mamotte! Lollipop, though. Because I didn’t outright reject it, the student intends to make me read the rest of the story. (Since she has the attention span of a ferret, I’m hoping she’ll forget.)
• Vampire Knight, Volume 4- One of my favorite manga at the moment. This volume was particularly…interesting. There’s a school ball, and you get a definite Yuki-Kaname moment. But the last half of the the volume…whoa! (It really got to me when I read these chapters in Shojo Beat, too.) The bonus story made very little sense, though.
• The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1- I’m not sure why, but I keep trying to read Neil Gaiman’s books. It’s like I’m terrified that my geek creds are in danger if I can’t find one I can actually get through. For the time being, though, I think I’ve decided that I’m just not in the right place in my life to appreciate his work, and I’m letting it go for now. If that makes me less of a geek…well…then it makes me less of a geek. There’s not much I can do about that.

All right, did you find the theme?

Canada’s isn’t quite as interesting. They just built an exhibition out of sacred artifacts the Lubicon Cree may or may not have realized the Glenbow had, sparking quite the conversation between Canada and their indigenous culture, the First Nations.

Australia, on the other hand, should be very grateful the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wasn’t quite so interested in human rights in the 50s. When Sydney made their bid for the 1996 Summer Games, the Aborignes were legally classified as “flora and fauna”. As a result, the IOC awarded those Games to Atlanta (which had a minor cultural brouhaha of its own) becasue they felt this was a violation of the Aborigines’ human rights. The Australian government legally recognized the Aborigines as humans, started trying to teach them about their own history, and then Sydney submitted a bid for the 2000 Summer Games, which they won. Australia petitioned for, and won, the right to fly the Aboriginal Flag at Olympic venues (only recognized nations’ flags are allowed to fly at the Games). Winners’ bouqets were composed from Aboriginal flowers. Every venue was covered in Aboriginal art.

Nearly ten years later, Australia has finally apologized to the Aborigines for what they did.

(Metafilter recently had a post sharing some of the Aborigines’ dance culture. It’s pretty cool.)

Of course, Sydney wasn’t the only city turned down for human rights violations. The year Sydney was awarded the Games, Beijing was informed that China’s human rights violations would keep it from becoming a Host City. Clearly, Beijing cleaned up its act enough to convince the IOC to award them this year’s Summer Games. But you have to wonder if the IOC would willingly strip that honor after everything that has happened in regards to Tibet recently. (At least one country has threatened to boycott the Opening Ceremonies over it.)

It’s very interesting to watch Host City bids.

Depending on your point of view, I probably sound like an awful person, but nearly all of those people who worry when I’m not snarky will tell you that I very rarely have any malice behind my barbs (and when I do, even the person on the receiving end agrees it was warranted). It’s just how I communicate, even with my students (who often give that sarcasm right back to me).

Over the last year, though, more and more people have started suggesting that those who employ sarcasm suffer from a number of things: low self-esteem, elitism, cynicism, aggressive personalities. In short, it’s being seen more and more as a defense mechanism.

Well, I perpetually sell my myself short while at the same time understanding I have a great wealth of talents and knowledge at my fingertips. I am a bit jaded, but most people find me more assertive or passive than aggressive. And I’m sarcastic. I’m good at it, and I take a bit of pride in that (right up until I realize that my fiction writing is woefully dry next to how I normally talk)!

For me, sarcasm is subconscious. It comes out without any real thought on my part for the most part. I do sometimes use it to get someone to think about what they’ve just said if it clearly wasn’t what they meant to say. I’ve used it with “tough guy” students in an attempt to build rapport. (It works more often than you’d think. Teenagers like being able to have snarky banter.) It’s just my mode of conversation.

Spring is supposed to be a time for rebirth, new beginnings, cleaning up. Well, let’s see if I can be reborn as someone who actually pays attention to her blog. (You guys can always poke me if I start slipping. Contact info’s under the contact tab.)

As you can see, the website has a new look. I’m not quite done with it yet (and I am aware of the problem with MyTwitter), but I think it’s coming along nicely. I’m hearing rumors that IE isn’t displaying the site correctly, so if you’re on IE and the site looks funny, let me know (or send me a screencap). I’m experimenting with a little visual branding, so the pattern in the header and footer is now the same as the backgrounds on my MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. I have yet to run into another “kirylin” online, but if it happens, I have a look to distinguish myself from them! I’m actually a bit excited about this. (See- a new beginning!)

I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping Reader under control, so there’s not much to share this week. (Yes, this would be the clean-up.)

• The 21 Steps- We Tell Stories is doing something interesting with Google Maps. Their authors are using it to help add a sense of place to their stories. As you follow the character around the map, the story slowly unfolds. It’s an interesting concept, one I’ll be keeping an eye on, but this particular story didn’t really work for me.
• The Net Generation, 1974-1983- Just when I’d gotten used to the fact that I’m at the older end of the Video Game Generation, I now learn that I’m actually a Netter. While I do remember life before the internet, I’ll be the first to admit that I spend a lot of my life online. I created a FriendFeed just top help people who are trying to keep up with me online. I do wonder, though, if I’m allowed to be part of both generations, although one really doesn’t preclude the other.
• Book Lovers have an emotional bond with paper- As an avid lifelong reader, I know the simple comforts of curling up with a real book and thumbing through the pages. As a Netter, a researcher, and someone who nearly always has a bag full of books, I admit I’d love to have some kind of e-reader to lighten my load. I’m the type who’s just as likely to check out an e-book as a real book from her local library. I love my paper, but there are times when the technology is a more rational decision.
• FInd a solution with problem-solving questions- I love solving problems- mine, other people’s, jigsaw. Back in January I was reading books on developing and encouraging a culture of innovation, and I was amazed at how many of them had a series of questions to help foster creativity and innovation. A part of being creative and innovative is being able to solve problems, so I think Curt’s got a great set of questions to get you started off on the right foot.

This week’s quote is a great one…something I think we all lose sight of:

“People are meant to be loved and things are meant to be used. But unfortunately, people are being used and things are being loved”- Unknown Found via Life Beyond Code

I thought I’d try to get this week off on the right foot by actually sharing some links with you. (This is funny because I consider Sunday the beginning of my blogging week, but the end of my work week.)

You guys hear me talk about RSS and nifty things I do technologically. Well, this post will give you several ways to make RSS bend to your evil whims. (Of special note is the fact you can force RSS feeds to be emailed to you if the website doesn’t offer it. I know some of you don’t go for feed readers.)

I have a link to the latest version of Pidgin, the IM program I use, but I am going to need a smarter geek to figure out what the latest version is that Feisty can handle and then to get it set up correctly. Then, maybe, MSN will start working properly again. (Plus I can apparently add MySpace Messenger. We’ll have to see how this goes.)

Then I have a reminder that next month is Math Awareness Month (I need to start planning something or other for Dead Bunny), and the back page of Cerise Magazine. Hopefully this time I’ll remember to actually do the caption contest, and this month’s picture is awesome!

Oh, and I’ve been saving this one for you guys! It’s a tutorial on how Creative Commons works. I tend to release most of my artistic work under one of the Creative Commons licenses because I find myself inspired by people around me, and I want people who find inspiration in my work to be able to riff on it (within my parameters, of course).

I’ve also been saving this comic for you. I died laughing the first time I saw it. As my roommates can tell you, I’ve become something of a Rock Band enthusiast, so any well-done Rock Band joke goes over pretty well with me. I imagine this version would kick my butt, though. I’d want to play the cello, and it wouldn’t turn out pretty.

This last one really struck a chord with me. Several, actually. These are some etiquette signs from Japan. (Don’t worry, they come translated.) One of them reminds me of the afternoon I was walking through a nearby open-air mall. This man lowered his cigarette as he approached me, which I appreciated…right up until I noticed where he’s put his cigarette. His daughter, probably not much more than three, was walking with him, and when he dropped his arm, the cigarette landed just centimeters from her face. He didn’t seem concerned, and she didn’t seem to notice. I, on the other hand, was mortified. Even though I’m allergic to smoke, I’d rather suffer swollen sinuses and a closed throat than have a cigarette shoved in a child’s face. I was really upset.

All right…deep breath…calmer now. I did save y’all a link that sounds like how I live my life.

• I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.- Pablo Picasso (Source)

I did manage to stay on top of my reading, though. I’ve realized that if I was doing a 50-book challenge this year, I’d be in great shape. I’ve read twenty-eight books already this year! (I’m trying to cut back. Don’t worry.)

My February selections really seems to have this theme of either wrapping up series or revealing my lack of geek creds. It’s been kind of weird.

• Godchild, Volume 8- The last volume of a favorite manga series. This was actually a very satisfying ending to the Godchild saga, complete with a twist no one could have seen coming! I’m going to miss Cain and Mary Weather.
• Yu-Gi-Oh: Millennium World, Volume 7- The final volume of the original Yu-Gi-Oh storyline. Despite the fact I knew how the story ended because the anime dub ended a couple of years ago, it was still pretty powerful. I’m going to miss this stupid series!
• White Knight (Dresden Files #9)- The longer the Dresden Files books run, the better they seem to get. This one was one of the better ones. Sadly, I now have to wait until my library gets a hold of Small Favor, which isn’t due out until April.
• The Well of Ascension- The second book in the very talented Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy. What do you mean you’ve never heard of Brandon Sanderson or Mistborn? Get thee to a bookstore or library and fix this! Now! Meanwhile, I’ll wait impatiently for the third book to come out.
• American Gods- It turns out that for all my geek cred, there are some massive chunks missing. For example, I managed to finish this book, only because I skimmed it rather than read it. I have no idea what the book was about. At all. (That’s not entirely true, but you get the point.) But I wasn’t willing to give up Neil Gaiman just yet.
• Anansi Boys- My hope may have been misplaced, though, because i couldn’t even get into this one. I put it down two chapters in. I later learned from a good friend that Anansi Boys is not a good place for a Gaiman neophyte to find herself. I’m still not giving up. The Absolute Sandman is on my bookshelf.
• Fall of Knight- The last book in Peter David’s wonderful modern-day Arthurian trilogy. It felt a bit heavy as it beat me over the head with its symbolism, but still…good book. Great trilogy.

My reading is likely going to be a bit manga-heavy for the next couple of months, so if you have recommendations to save me from myself, leave a comment.

And wish me luck on trying to get this blog back up to speed. I spent most of today making some changes around here, and will probably put in more time this weekend on the site. If nothing else, you should have an easier time seeing what I’ve done and what I’m working on. Oh, and for those of you who have complained about trying to keep up with me, I have just discovered FriendFeed. Nearly everything is syndicated there, so you only have to follow that account if you’re trying to follow everything.

She first asked everyone to write about a time when they felt big. For me, that would probably be a couple of years ago when I was really in the groove of working on my jewelry. People were reading the blog and loving it. I was interviewed about the blog, and occasionally about the jewelry. I was invited to write a sidebar for a book on blog marketing. It was kind of fun.

Unfortunately, everyone loved the blog and not my “edgy” jewelry. My schedule at work become so crazy that I was forced to pare down my activities. The jewelry shop and the blog both were among the casualties. (I’m giving the jewelry another shot, so if you’d like to at the very least help me move what inventory I have, you can visit my shop. I have a ton of pieces, but I’m adding them very slowly, more because of restraints on my free time than anything else.)

Lorelle then asked us to write about a time when we felt small. Heh. With me, pick a day. Any day. If I’m not feeling small then I’m either feeling invisible or wishing I was invisible. Especially lately. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that when trouble strikes in my life…it comes down in buckets. For example, take this past weekend. We’ve discovered that the keys to my old car have vanished (I’m trying to find the time to clean up the car and sell it, but it hasn’t happened yet. Even worse, someone who was recently kicked out of the house tried not too long ago to sell that car without saying a word to me. Thankfully, I have the title.) Then a friend of mine suddenly decided he no longer has any clue who I am. This came right on the heels of an acquaintance telling me how wonderful I am, and how proud she is of me…only to then do something to remind me that she’s done something very hurtful to me. My roommate’s cat has decided my bed is his new litter box. eHow lost the draft of an article I wrote last week. And regardless of what I do, I can’t convince my computer to download Saturday’s GX episode without doing something wonky to either the file or the computer.

So right now, I’m a little bit full of the “Life sucks” cheer.

Oh, yeah. It’s also February. The source of nearly every single major low point in my life (which I’m not willing to discuss here).

Regardless of whether it’s a high point or a low point, I really think it’s all about what you do in between that really matters.

Because I was gone last week, you get a mingling of last week’s links and this week’s links. You even get a cool quote!

Let’s get started!

• ColourLovers’ Interview with the Pantone Color of the Year- I loved this. I read it thrice! The writing style here is serious, yet playful, and it makes me think about my own writing and my chronic inability to put down the academic and inject the sarcasm.
• Make Your Own Tiara- Doesn’t look too hard. I’ve been thinking about acquiring a tiara for a while after someone loaned me one because she felt I was going through a rough patch (When am I not?) I could totally make this.
• Dr. Who Producers Won’t Listen to the Fans- I was still watching Smallville when the storylines started reflecting the fan fiction. It was amusing, but ultimately drove me away from the series. Now, I’m reading the fan-inspired Yu-Gi-Oh GX manga, and I almost put down the first volume halfway through. The fandom can come up with good ideas occasionally, but a show/manga should never feel they have to sacrifice their own work to appease the fandom.
• Was Gene Roddenberry an Anti-Robot Bigot?- What? No attacks on JMS? We’re just going to go after someone who created one of the coolest shows in sci-fi? (And why isn’t Romy a part of this conversation?)

And now for what has to be the best quote ever!

• The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.- Jane Wagner (Source)