Conventional Versus Unconventional

When I was teaching, I frequently got into trouble by not telling the class what they were about to learn as I’d begin a lesson. My reply to this was if they didn’t know what they had learned when the lesson was over, without my telling them, they hadn’t learned it.

The easiest way to get me to snooze is to begin anything with an explanation of what is to follow. Uh, can we skip that part?

I preferred to begin my lessons with statements of excitement, such as, “Look what I found! I want to show you this!” and then show them what they were learning that day. Not tell them, show them.

Gee, that can transfer into writing, can’t it?

Another part of writing that bothers me is the “process” all writers must follow to get published. To be frank, I don’t think I’m going to live that long.

I’ve got six books written. Yes, over the last twenty years I have completed six books. I got into a MFA class and took it as an elective when I was getting my Masters Degree in Language and Literacy (with it came a 12% raise and two years off working . . . loved! absolutely loved! my Masters Degree Program at UNCW).

Where am I? The grasshoppers are alive and well in my brain today . . . time. I won’t live long enough to get all six books published, if I go the “normal route”.

So I am self-publishing. Quit groaning! That’s what my two oldest, in college themselves at the time, offspring, did when I announced my plan to quit my teaching job (had tenure) and move to the beach and go to graduate school. My youngest, who was 15 at the time, thought it was a great idea! And it was.

But in that MFA  class that I mentioned 3 paragraphs up, the teacher kept me after class, I assumed to tell me I was out of my league and to choose another “elective”. Nope. She said to find an agent. I tried. I have really tried, but have been turned down by the three I’ve contacted and frankly, I’d rather write than agent search.

So I wrote. And now I have all this stuff I want to see publlished.

Just as I got into trouble time after time after time for not following the teaching routine, I may get into trouble not following the publishing routine. I’ll let you know.

Last night I got as far as assigning an ISBN number and going through the copyright info and choosing the color for my interior pages. Since bright white hurts my eyes, the pages will be cream colored.

The book being published is a book of over 20 poems about pets I’ve had. A few of them have already been published in magazines, but I sold First North American Serial Rights, so the rights have reverted back to me.

I’ve never done this before, and I’ll let you know how it turns out. Friends and family have said they will purchase my book! That should make me rich, right? Ha, ha. I appreciate any and all sales and will let you know on this blog where you can purchase your copy, or see it listed for sale. You might want to try the same thing. I’ll be the guinea pig.

(Let me share this. Not because you don’t know, but because the way it is worded is excellent and I liked the way it read: “Guinea pig. Guinea pigs have biological similarities to humans, which make them useful in many fields of research. They have been used as experimentalanimals for centuries; hence the term ‘guinea pig‘ for a human experimental subject.Dec 19, 2016″

http://www.animalresearch.info/en/designing-research/research-animals/guinea-pig/

Lesson Plans Versus Writing Time

I was a teacher before I retired. I was also a writer, but as the mother . . . a single parent mother . . . of three children, I had to do the occupation with the guaranteed income, and writing wasn’t it. So I taught. I don’t know how much time I spent outside the classroom working on my teaching profession. In one county where I worked, I spent every Sunday afternoon – around four hours total – writing up lesson plans. I did these with Bloom’s Taxonomy beside me as I wrote. That county had decided it was the verbs that teachers used in their lesson plans that determined the success of the students. Students were not help accountable, but teachers certainly were. Here is that pyramid and our lesson plans were judged and graded according to how many of the “better” verbs we used in them.

How my lesson plans were written meant more to the superintendent and the administration than how I actually taught. I was so glad to leave that county.

Many of the teaching jobs I had were very enjoyable. I went back to school and earned a Masters Degree in Language and Literacy from UNCW, and I also was certified in Reading Recovery. Both of those programs were very helpful in my career. I enjoyed teaching reading and I especially enjoyed teaching the struggling reader. Often, just one piece of the puzzle that goes into being a proficient reader had been missed in the struggling reader’s education, and when I could figure out what it was that the child didn’t know, I could teach it to him, get him up to grade level and quit pulling him for special reading lessons and pull someone else who also needed help and begin the puzzle solving with that child.

I’ve now retired from teaching and chastise myself for not spending the time on writing that I spent on my teaching profession. All I can say is, it’s been an adjustment. I didn’t just retire. I became disabled and was not able to continue the day to day, every day, job of being an educator. There are many extra, outside of the classroom hours that also go into a teacher’s work time.

Perhaps because I cannot physically work 40 plus hours a week, I should not criticize myself so harshly for not working 40 hours plus a week writing. I enjoy writing as much as I enjoyed teaching. I just need to find a way to motivate myself to write and submit more.

Currently I am working on a book of pet poetry. The poetry has been written over the years. It’s the process of self-publication that is difficult. My middle son, Conrad, suggested I include pictures of some of the pets I’ve written about, and that was a good idea, but required more work.

I hope I have the poems in the proper format and would very much like to design the cover and get the book published this month.

I have at least five other books written. I wrote them during my teaching years, but every time I have sent them to a publisher, I get the response to find an agent. Well, that too takes time. I’m now a senior citizen and I know the normal route to publication takes years sometimes. I’m going to self-publish and see how that works out.

(Now it is December 29, 2018. Here is a copy of the Pet Poetry book. Each poem tells a little story . . . usually a true story . . . about a pet or wildlife that live in or near my yard. This book is available at amazon.com   You can read the first poem page of it by typing                                Bow Wow! Meow! by Corbett in Amazon’s search bar and clicking on the   that is above the book on their site. Use the directional arrows once the cover pops up and it will lead you through copyright page to the poem. “Old Atlas”.)