The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I have read my first book of this summer vacation and it wasn't one of the books I had stacked up on a shelf waiting to be read, instead it was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I had not heard of this book before but my daughter had borrowed it from the library because it was listed on her school's summer reading list. She is going to be a fifth grader next year. Hannah started reading the book, but said it was too scary and she did not want to read it at all anyore. So I grabbed it to see what the fuss was about.



The book starts out with a hand in the darkness carrying a knife.

"If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately."

The knife we learn is wet with blood.

"The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the other child in her brightly colored bedroom...That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler to take care of. One more and the task would be done."

By the second page of the book we have the murder of a family, including a child, and the attempted murder of a baby. I agree with my daughter that this is a scary and shocking start to book and something that many kids will not want to read. The book is recommended for 5-8 graders.



I kept reading. The boy escapes to a graveyard where he is brought up by its inhabitants: ghosts, witches, werewolves, the undead (a vampire maybe?), and other sorts that train and teach him in the ways of the living and the dead. The boy is named "Nobody", Bod for short, and is kept safe and sound from the scary world of the living in the confines of the graveyard. We eventually learn that the murderer of his family is still looking for him in order to complete the task and Bod must use the resources around him to stand up to and destroy the evil man. There is an underground hidden chamber with a giant snake-like creature and enough characters and plot twists to make you think of another boy who faced similar difficulties with the help of some other similar and  unusual characters named Harry Potter.

In the end it is an enjoyable read. When Bod talks to his guardian about his "dead" friends he is told,

"They are. They are for the most part done with the world. You are not. You're alive, Bod. That means that you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential."

The books ends on a much happier note than how it begins, with Bod entering the land of the living rather than how it began with his entering into the land of the dead. If you enjoy well written books, then this might be a book worth reading, however it is not for everyone and my daughter will be just content to just leave The Graveyard Book alone. I enjoyed the book and I think plenty of my students would  too, but it is not a book I would use as a read-aloud in the classroom.

NEIL GAIMAN talks about The Graveyard Book





You can find videos of Neil Gaiman reading the entire book as well as answering questions about the book at his website.

Winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal and Hugo Award
At each stop of his 9-city national tour in 2008, master storyteller Neil Gaiman read one chapter from The Graveyard Book and answered audience questions. Watch his tour readings at his website and hear the captivating book in its entirety. Then, watch exclusive tour A videos each week throughout the month of September leading up to the anniversary of The Graveyard Book.

The Goal of Education

"The goal of education is not to produce higher scores, but to educate children to become responsible people with well developed minds and good character."

Quote from Dianne Ravitch article entitled “In Need of a Renaissance: Real Reform Will Renew, Not Abandon, Our Neighborhood Schools” in the American Educator, Summer 2010 issue which is excerpted from the book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education
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"Hate That Cat" Poetry

This wasn't that simple, but I wanted to give the presentation software Prezi a second try (first try is here). I like the panning effects that Prezi offers, but I still find the interface clunky and figuring out the how to use the "zebra" tool to be very time-consuming. I did eventually complete my second Prezi. After reading Sharon Creech's excellent book "Love that Dog" to my class earlier in the year and "Hate that Cat" more recently I wanted my students to write poems about pets, real or imagined, based on the wonderful poetry examples used in "Hate that Cat". I decided to write some poetry myself in the style of Jack from the book. Here is my Prezi presentation on my childhood dog. It somewhat tells the story of my much beloved family dog and how she won the title of "Best of Show" in a kid's dog show back when I was in fourth grade. I also won the prize of picking out any bike in a local department store. As you can see, I chose a most excellent banana seat Sting-ray bicycle.

Prezi: A Creative Presentation Tool

I have bookmarked a link to the Prezi website for awhile now, but I have never tried to use the site as I had no presentation system in my classroom. This week with the installation of an Eno board and a ceiling mounted projector a whole new world of creativity and teaching has opened up for me. While I wait for the install of the lesson making software, I decided to give Prezi a try. Teachers can sign up for a free Prezi account here.

According to the Prezi website, Prezi is a living presentation tool.

Prezi is zooming sketches on a digital napkin.

It's visualization and storytelling without slides. Your ideas live on stage and on the web. Have you ever wondered about presenting your thoughts as free as they come? Ever got tired of creating a slideshow?

It's been said, that the best innovations come from people who are unhappy with the tools they use. We realized that our ideas won't fit into slides anymore. Putting together creative thinking and technology expertise, we have created Prezi, a living presentation tool.

I decided to try my hand at Prezi and in about an hour, I came up with this presentation. It is far from perfect and needs a lot fo cleaning up, but it shows the capabilities of the program and I am already thinking of new ways that I can use this in my classroom.

I look forward to seeing how this looks and works on my Eno board when I return to school. Here is an embedded version of my lesson. It is based on a mini writing lesson from Grammar Lessons and Strategies That Strengthen Students¹ Writing.

Using Appositives: Mini-Lesson 8 on Prezi

The Best math Lesson EVer?

Sometimes mutliplication and division can seem a bit confusing. Can you figure out what these old-timers are doing wrong when solving the problem 25/5? Does it equal 5 or 14?



Can you think of other ways to do something similar?

Beautiful Minds: The Amazing Power of the Brain

Here is a fascintating video of an autistic man named Steven Wiltshire. In this video Steven takes a 45 minute helicopter trip over Rome, Italy and then spends three days drawing a precise and near perfect aerial view of the city.

Stephen Wiltshire from London is a star among savants. Stephen is autistic. He did not speak his first words "pencil" and "paper" until he was 5. Yet, when he was 11 he drew a perfect aerial view of London after only one helicopter ride. For this film we're testing the "Living camera" in Rome.

A savant is someone who is exceptionally gifted in a specialized field. An autistic savant is a person, like Steven,  can be gifted in music, art, or math. Some savants suffer from a brain injury and then their brain shows remarkable talents like Alonzo Clemons. He can create perfect 3D representations of any animal (except humans) even if only shown a photograph.



The mind is very powerful and has incredible capabilities.

Simply Dressing Up for School

I don't do it often, but today I got dressed up for school (much to the amusement of many people). So I have to put up a picture.

Here is an animoto video of our class dress up Holiday luncheon.



While we were dressed up we also presented our Maya projects.