Blog Day

What better day than today–Blog Day–to return to blogging after my summer hiatus. I really did as I hoped by pulling my nose out of the computer this summer. I dug my hands into some dirt, spent time in personal reflection with some good old fashion pen to paper journaling and reconnected with friends by writing real letters. I love the power of blogging–collaborative learning and reflective writing, but I needed this break.

Blog Day asks that we visit 5 new blogs and post comments especially seeking out those bloggers with different view points, attitudes and cultures. So, the adventure begins . . .

I’ll begin by visiting Editorial Anonymous which isn’t completely a different view point for me, but if I start searching randomly for a blog I’ll be on the computer all day. This summer I’ve been trying to secure an agent for my middle grade nove, so anything to do with the business side of writing is of interest to me right now. What caught my eye here is the conversation going on about what a publisher’s marketing of a book really looks like.

From here I followed a link from this blog to Book by It’s Cover. This blog highlights all the books the blogger notices and collects. The design of the blog is beautiful. I especially enjoyed looking at the Moleskin pages under the heading of Handmade books. I’ve run into these out there in the blogging world before; artists post their moleskin pages of art up on Flikr. I love the opportunity to peek inside notebooks whether they be filled with words, doodles or art!

Off to a new realm by following a link on Book by It’s Cover, I ventured into Cartoon Brew. I mean, who wouldn’t follow that link?! Here I was introduced to Dutch animator and illustrator Fons Schiedon and his fascinating animated short called Teen Facts–Hormones which implements a great split screen technology. Check it out! Just yesterday, my son came home from his first day of high school at the school I used to teach at and showed me how he had the same book as Andy Cahill, one of my former students. My kids have seen his animated shorts, which as a high school student were amazing and I’ve always predicted that he’ll be winning awards someday. He used to write about his process and come up with ideas in his open journal for my english class. No website yet. Hmmm.

Off to Animation Podcast where it was fascinating to read in Notes about the animation creation process and think about its connections to the writing process. The podcasts here are really fascinating as well and extremely well done. Anyone interested in learning through modeling about podcasts should think about visiting this blog. Great podcast voice, as well.

And finally because I have friends and colleagues exploring more ways to use stopmotion and claymation with kids in their classrooms, I take you to AnimateClay which highlights lots of films and was the only place I could get to easily from this blog. And there’s no place to post a comment. Since I’m 2 hours into this project (see, I’m a slow navigator and get pulled into the blogger muck and can’t get out!) I’ll bring you to the folks over at TechStories. Check out their ABC Project in Digital Storytelling. I hadn’t seen “O is for Oliphaunt” yet by Peter Kittle and I enjoyed following his own learning, reading and creation process through this story.  Enjoy!

And I’m done!  Off to my real job.