Currently Reading: Dark Heavens Trilogy

image by Alejandro esCamilla via unsplash

So school started again (yikes!) and was generally a bit of a shock to the system.

But one good thing: access to the school library again. AND... a whole lot of brand sparkly never before read books.

Including (drumroll!) the last two books in Kylie Chan's Dark Heavens Trilogy. I read White Tiger last year. It was sufficiently intruiging for me to be excited when I saw the new ones had arrived. And then I absorbed both Red Phoenix and Blue Dragon in one weekend.

I don't usually speculate much about authors' private lives. But as I read these novels - in which the heroine is an Australian living in Hong Kong - I got the feeling that the author may have been an Australian, well, living in Hong Kong. And having checked out Kylie Chan's biographical notes, I find that I was right. Which is always cool. Besides which, it just tells you how chatty and "real" the background to these novels really is. Kylie also shares some other biographical details with her heroine, but I will leave those for you to find out. No spoilers!

Other than that, the covers (I feel) say it all: Immortals, Martial Arts, Gods and Demons. Yep, sounds good.

So the heroine, Emma Donahoe, wins a prize for having a cool surname and also being one of the few heroines of regular girl appearance, i.e. not looking like a super-model. She starts working as a live in nanny for Simone, the daughter of a wealthy and mysterious Chinese "businessman". Simone also has a well dressed black American bodyguard called Leo and a lot of wealthy and mysterious "aunts" and "uncles" who appear and disappear at irregular intervals, bringing mysterious danger in their wake. Hah, like this "cover" is going to last long!

She finds out (obviously) that she is entirely surrounded by immortals, Martial Arts, gods and demons. Told you the covers were relevant. And she also finds out that even though she looks like a regular young woman, her insides are far more... complicated. And awesomely kick-a#$.

But of course the demons are out to get her, Simone, John, Leo and everyone else in their fledgling family. And of course there is a lot of romance lying in wait around the mysterious corners of Hong Kong's illustrious streets.

The prose reads super simply, to the extent that it was almost jarring for the first fifty or so pages. But the wealth of detail pulled through, and left me utterly absorbed in the story world. A massive cast of characters can be difficult to keep track of, but since I read most of the trilogy in one weekend it wasn't too problematic. And the characters are so very colourful that I think you'd remember them even over a longer period.

This is an idealized romantic adventure. Don't expect gritty realism. But do expect a lot of fun and not too much emotional trauma, even in the dark scenes. Which is a win from my point of view. It is also refreshing to experience a fantasy world steeped in non-Western tradition. Just for a change.

The only thing I found disappointing was the ending, which is not an ending. Come on, Mrs Chan! Just give us closure and move on! But I find that there are a further two trilogies using the same character set-up. 

This happens to be a pet hate of mine: I would rather discover a new world, new characters and new problems. But since Dark Heavens was so much fun, I might be persuaded to give the new trilogies the benefit of the doubt. Just this once.

yours martially 

jjr

Currently Reading - Evil Under the Sun

image by Alejandro esCamilla via unsplash

I am a massive Agatha Christie fan. I own most if not all of her 80 something detective novels, mostly brought second hand for R10 or R20, somewhat the worse for wear. Well, actually it might be a bit unfair to single Agatha out - I basically love all of the classic murder mystery writers, with all their attendant bits and pieces. Murder mystery birthday party? Tick. Avid murder mystery series watcher? Tick. And look at that time I wrote a murder mystery novel inspired by (among others) Dame Aggie...

So although this one is another re-read, it also represents probably about 6-8 comforting bath and bed re-reads over the holiday period. Fair enough?

Evil Under the Sun, by Agatha Christie, was published in 1941. The battered Pan edition I read came out in 1963 and is graced with the following subtitle: "Hercule Poirot on holiday - with a strangler as a fellow guest". Also draped tastefully across the front cover are a pair of scissors, a broken pipe, a button, some green cardboard (or is it seaweed?) and some sea sand and pebbles. This of course follows the comforting and slightly coy habit in detective novels from a certain era of portraying a selection of "clues" on the cover, rather than a luridly tasteless corpse. Very charming, very mannered. Very misleading as well, if you fall into the trap of assuming that those depicted are the most important and least fishy of the myriad clues provided!

(I am laughing in the picture because of the antics of the photographer, not the contents of the novel!)

Anyway, this isn't one of Agatha Christie's most well known works, but it is a classic of its kind. Fluffy as a summer pudding, with absolutely no mention of the war which must have been dominating everyone's thoughts and efforts at the time of publication, you can see why it met with a largely positive reception when it came out. Although I don't think it's one of her absolute best, there is never a moment of doubt: you are in the hands of a master.

It takes place in a fancy seaside hotel, which is located - conveniently - on an kind of large promontory, which gets completely cut off from the mainland at high tide. Even a master needs some way of limiting the pool of suspects. That being said, she does cheat a little by introducing suspects in sailing boats and a whole *gasp* drug element (you'll see). Tsk, Agatha, tsk tsk. However, the main thrust of the novel remains classical, so don't worry.

The story revolves around Arlene Stuart/Marshall, that lovely but man-mad actress, at the Jolly Roger Hotel on holiday with her husband Kenneth Marshall and stepdaughter Linda. They meet Rosamund Darnley, Kenneth's childhood friend. They also, apparently by accident, find Patrick and Christine Redfern as fellow guests.

Unfortunately for someone, Hercules Poirot is also a guest at the Jolly Roger. He watches the progress of Patrick's infatuation over Arlena with grave apprehension, and agrees with nervous Reverend Lane: "don't you feel it in the air? All around you? The presence of Evil."

The novel is sprinkled with the usual cast of characters. Mrs Brewster, the mannish spinster. Major Barry, the boring teller of endless campaign stories. Mr and Mrs Gardeners, the pleasant Americans. Mr Blatt, the annoyingly jolly sailor. There are enough twists and turns to satisfy the most ardent red-herring hunter. Details of timing, mirror placement, bath water running out, the scents in a hidden cave... all the little touches which make a mystery so satisfactory and absorbing.

And no-one - least of all the discerning reader - is surprised when Arlena is found... murdered!

The novel is beautifully structured, with the first clues appearing - only in retrospect of course - from the very first chapter. A few dodgy moves, perhaps, in introducing new information very near the end, but generally the rule of "hide nothing" is observed. Hercules Poirot is on form, and the long denouement is comforting. As always, justice is fulfilled.

This one is definitely re-readable, even if you remember the plot. It will, unsurprisingly, go onto my Agatha Christie rotation for holidays and times when things get tough.

yours sleuthingly

jjr

Currently Reading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

image by Alejandro esCamilla via unsplash

I read a lot of books. Seriously, a lot. The school librarian allows me to take out as many as I can carry each week (teacher perks!). Kids give me funny looks when they see the weekend pile on my desk.

Now before you think I'm bragging, very few of the books I read are brainy books. Their authors probably didn't win any Nobel prizes. I've studied literature. Literature is okay. What I love is a rattling good story. One that I am eager to pick up and unwilling to put down.

But one of the things I realised, looking back on 2014, is that I can't actually remember all the books I've read. Some made a big impact, but I can't quite remember the name. Others had catchy titles but were boring on the inside. And I'd quite like to be able to look back and see some of them. Maybe even reread one or two.

So, here on Daydreaming, I am going to try keep an (incomplete) record of some of what I read, love and hate.

The first one is a bit of a cheat, because I actually read it for work (as you can see by all the sticky notes below: can anyone say #bookselfie?). However...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is one of those books which you read really quickly and then get stuck thinking about for the next few months. I read it first a few years ago, loved it, and recently revisited it when we decided to do it as a setwork with our grade 9s this year. It made a big splash when it first came out, and won lots of awards and things.

In the novel Mark Haddon has lovingly portrayed Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15 year old boy with a difference. Well, lots of differences really, some of which (like not eating anything brown or yellow, or really really not liking anyone to touch him) make it quite difficult for him to manage in ordinary society. But he likes animals - probably since their emotions are much easier to understand - which leads him onto his great Odyssey: solving the murder of Wellington the dog.

As numerous people have said, all over the internet, this is not a book about disability, but about difference. This is not just good publicity. It's true. Christopher's adventures might seem trivial when I just tell you about them (in one episode he succeeds, with enormous difficulty, in buying a train ticket), but from his point of view they are nothing short of heroic. I identify with that. Some mornings, it seems heroic to get out of bed. And if you have an aversion to people touching you, why shouldn't conquering the tube station be utterly valiant?

However, The Curious Incident isn't just a serious book. Although it is deeply sad at times (investigating Wellington's death leads Christopher to make all sorts of tragic discoveries), it is also profoundly funny. And not in the "one liner" way that makes you laugh and then forget about it. It is funny in a way which makes you laugh at yourself, at the weird things that we do so often that we forget they're weird. Christopher is one of the best "innocent" narrators I've ever read. He reports incidents with a deadpan, often uncomprehending exactitude, revealing absurdity after absurdity in modern life, some of which we are forced to recognize in spite of the fact that he doesn't understand them at all.

Also, I think Ed Boone is one of the most outstandingly realistic good fathers portrayed in fiction ever.

By the way, Christopher is happens to be extremely intelligent, in the mathsy-sciencey sense. How can a Maths teacher not love a novel with a mathematical proof in the appendix?

Okay, so I enjoyed this book. Perhaps too sad to get onto my "read every year" shelf, but one of those novels which you come out of... slightly different than you were before.

yours literately.
jjr

Destination 2014: Excellent English

I so enjoyed writing the first post in my "Destination 2014" series, not because I think I will get all that stuff right, but because it means that all those ideas and aspirations have stopped swirling around my head. I stopped desperately trying to remember all those things I want to get right next year, because it's all written down...

Ahem! So, speaking of the necessity of writing... Another aspect of my goals for next year: Excellent English!

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(Belle is me, encouraging my students to greater heights in the great library of the English language. Look, there the little learners are, disguised as furniture...)

I have one fewer English classes in 2014, and I will be focusing (yay!) on the juniors: grade 8 and 9. A bit of background: I love teaching English, but found the switch from all Maths in 2012 to 3/5 English classes in 2013 extremely stressful. Even the ways in which the departments function is totally different, and I was tearing my hair out in 14 different positions trying to keep up with everything I needed to know/learn/teach/do. So going a tiny bit back into my comfort zone - while keeping the incredibly joy of teaching English as well - is really the best of both worlds for me. I'm so lucky to be at a school where management at least tries to take my preferences into account (most of the time!).

So. Two English classes. Juniors. My focus - which links up with the focus of my department, don't worry - is writing! I want learners to be able to write fluently, confidently and above all with enjoyment. How do I get that right?

Well, they need to get inspiration from good writing, observing what works so that they can reproduce it...

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They need to write all the time, in all kinds of weird and wonderful situations...

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They need to work on writing, critiquing and editing each others' work...

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And at the end of the day they need to take flight and write LOADS:

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(The old man is me, admiring the huge oeuvre of writing that the learner's will have produced by the end of the year. This time Belle is a student, showing off her wonderful work!)

Let me stop mixing my Disney movie metaphors (though at least I stuck to one movie this time) and get down to brass tacks. These are some of the things I want to implement in my English class (in no particular order other than that which they occur to me!):

1. Class Blog where each child makes one post per term - themes would be book reviews, comments on literature studied in class, creative pieces etc... A strict schedule would have to be set up at the beginning of the year to ensure high quality, varied content. I have taken the first step towards setting this up, but the idea needs some fine tuning particularly with regards to privacy for the learners. But I think it is important to expose the kids to writing in the modern world, and blogs are an important part of that. Plus, how better to drive home the need for editing than knowing that the world will be able to see your work?
2. Journals for private/free writing at some point in every single lesson. They have brought A5 books for this purpose. Now all I need to do is choose topics that integrate the journal writing with our other class work. I am starting an index card box full of "topics". We need to just produce VOLUME of creative output, at least to start with.
3. Integration of writing work with EVERY other topic we cover. Grammar rule? Let's use it in a piece of writing. Poem? Let's mimic the poet's style. Novel? Let's write a letter from the point of view of one of the characters. Writing needs to be a part of absolutely every lesson, topic, idea. An INTEGRAL part. This impacts a lot on how I need to plan my lessons...
4. Grammatical Correctness - of every sentence and paragraph. Not always - of course there is room for "free writing" (see point 2) but sometimes we have to sit and nitpick at the grammar of their writing until every child can write a perfect sentence. A careful, precise, simple sentence. A controlled, specific paragraph with no "fluff". Much harder said than done. This takes a lot of editing, proofreading, time, effort. Especially on my part. It's an investment. On a related note: vocab lists and spelling tests. Yes. Peer editing. Yes. This also impacts a lot on how I plan my lessons. Duh. Should I do another post on lesson planning? 
5. Functional Writing. This is important. The writing they learn needs to WORK. They need to be able to see its usefulness in their other subjects and ultimately in their lives. Do we need to write love letters before Valentine's Day? We are already spending the whole of the first term in grade 9 concentrating on formal writing to help them with their major Science Fair project in the second term. Where else can I demonstrate the practical applications of their writing skills?

I have a lot more to say about my ideas for English next year. But this is already a marathon post, and is probably full of those errors I want my learners to weed out of their work. More later, if I get a chance what with all this lesson prep that needs to happen.

How would you teach writing?

yours writingly,

jjr

Marking Highlight

This is a bit delayed, but here is my marking highlight for the previous exams...(this photo is proof that I do occasionally mark, for all those doubters)

I took a photo of the actual text, but decided to type it instead - the handwriting is distinctive, and I don't want to embarrass anyone. But this is really an excellent, creative, thoughtful and intelligent wrong answer. Love it!

Q: What does fleet of foot mean? (Context was an article about endangered cheetahs)

A: This phrase means there were lots of cheetahs walking together all in a herd, and when you look you see a large amount (sic) of feet.

!brilliant!

Signing off - all day chess tournament today!

jjr

PS if you're wondering why 'amount' is incorrect, 'feet' are countable and should therefore be refered to as 'number'. 'Amount' is for uncountable quantities (sugar, grass, milk...). Grammar lesson over!

Adventures in Teaching Connotation

Sorry for the bad photo, but it was taken off my whiteboard with my phone in the 5 minutes between lessons...

I put the basic sentence up, and divided the class in half. One half had to insert words with negative connotations, and the other half had to insert words with positive connotations. We started by changing nouns and verbs. Then we added adjectives and adverbs. They each wrote in their books (I allowed them to help each other in pairs and groups of three) and I wandered around giving the whiteboard markers to people who had interesting contributions to add to the board.

It took about ten minutes, and was a fabulous fun way to cement the ideas of denotation and connotation. In hindsight, it was also a fun way to sneak a bit of new vocabulary in to certain learner's repertoire! I will definitely do this again.

Story in 500 words?

It was a stuffy, impossible day, and the boys had been spoiling for a fight all morning. Juno half-closed her eyes against the clamour of shifting light and hoped that they would find someone else to take it out on. They were in the observation room for the flight simulator module, and deprived of the ability to rock on their chairs or throw staple weighted paper bullets at each other she knew that sooner or later their eyes would fall on her corner of the class.

She tilted her head inconspicuously to observe the progress of Roman's glowingly foul temper. He had been her chief tormentor for the past few days, ever since she'd joined the cadet group. It wasn't unexpected; as the first female to join their competitively driven group she had known exactly what she was taking on. But now things were coming to a head, and the stifling weather was doing nothing to help her.

“I suppose you're going to 'show us how to do it', then,” Roman jeered loudly. He was on the other side of the room, but the group parted so that there was a narrow channel down which his words could reach their target.

Juno sighed inwardly, and twisted in her stool so that she was facing him. “Am I?” she asked mildly. “I thought you were top of the leaderboard for flight sim.”

“You're the hotshot,” he hissed. “Teacher's slut. Flown in from Metro specially to show us what's what.” His last two sentences had brought him across the observation room, and now he loomed uncomfortably above her, smelling unmistakably of adrenalin and irritation.

She shrugged, and turned away. “If you say so.”

“What, letting it go, hotshot? Not going to stand up for yourself?”

The rest of class had formed a semicircle around them, waiting in breathless anticipation. No-one knew what would happen. The ordinary script of punch-throwing and machismo seemed... unlikely.

But they were disappointed. Commander Conrad came into the room on a breath of peppermint and choleric.

“Scrapping, are we? Get your sorry backsides into the simulators. Group One's up, and if your scores aren't better than last week then so help me you'll be scrubbing decks for a month!”

Juno settled her shoulders and sat back to watch the scores mounting. She paid particular attention to the red marker which indicated Roman's leading position. A small smile twitched the corners of her mouth. He was good. He was very good. All the cadets had to complete the same course in the same amount of time, receiving scores for each type of target they hit on the way through. Of course, some targets were almost impossible to miss. But others were hidden, or cunningly disguised as lethal obstacles. Roman's score ticked steadily upwards in all the categories, quickly outstripping the others in his group.

When the first group came back into the observation room, he was obviously pleased with himself, and shouldered roughly past her as she waited to file into the simulator room. With Commander Conrad glaring at them he didn't dare do more than flash his challenge at her. Beat that, hotshot! It was very nearly a perfect score.

Juno's marker was grey. It seemed an age to the waiting cadets before she was strapped in and the sim run started. Every eye in the observation room was fixed on the little grey triangle.

She finished the run with perfect zeros in every category.

Perfect zeros.

***

Bravo, grade nines! That's my best effort at keeping a short story under 500 words - and it's 579 words. Yikes... so much for setting achievable assignments?

Homework Menus

I've been trialling a new way of running homework for my three English classes. I can't remember where I first saw the idea (online somewhere, duh!), so if you are or know of the original source then please send me the link and I will be excited to revisit the genius and credit him or her here...

As with many ideas found online, I liked it, and immediately started to think of ways to integrate it into my particular context. Since I have also been following Ken's thoughts on homework, the idea of a homework menu gave me a concrete "hook" for thinking about how to give kids (and their parents) more control over their own homework situation.

What I particularly liked about the Homework Menu idea:

• Allows the student to choose (to some extent) which items he or she would like to do, and which stink.
• Teaches time management (as the tasks need to be spread logically according to the individual's needs)
• Allows for differing extra-mural and personal schedules
• I only have to check/mark homework once a week!

What I didn't like about it:

• In Maths I can't imagine not giving immediate review work on each day's concept and expecting it to be done before I cover the next concept
• Requires a lot of forward planning
• I can't necessarily control every itty-bitty bit of homework - what if I really need this done, now?

Based on all of these concerns, I decided not to bring the Homework Menu into my two Maths classes. Too much change at once and I know that I won't maintain it. Plus I still haven't solved the problem of how to adapt it properly to a Maths environment. Maybe it just isn't appropriate there and I need a different model? Watch this space - I'm still working on it!

But I took the plunge with my three English classes, and so far (nearly three weeks in) I am cautiously optimistic.

These are the bare bones of how I'm running the system:

• I give out the Homework Menu (A5/6 sheet of paper) on a Monday (or Tuesday if I don't see them). It immediately gets stuck into their homework diaries, and I spend five or so minutes talking through the different options and taking questions.
• The kids have to complete the main course plus three others (starters, appetisers, soup, desert etc...)
• There is always at least one that they can leave out.
• The following week Monday, I have an exercise prepared for them to work on quietly and individually in class while I call them up one at a time. I spend two or three minutes with each child admiring what they've done, discussing what they had trouble with and talking about strategies to make sure that they are more successful in completing the work next week if they didn't do it.
• Currently, they all simply sign next to the task when it is complete, and bring some form of evidence to their "personal homework trainer" session with me. If a child is repeatedly struggling to get the work done, then I will call parents, explain the system to them, and get them to assist the child with his or her time-management and accountability. Then for that child, a parent signature will be required as well.
• Once I've checked everyone's work, we mark any exercises that needed direct marking. I take essays home to read through (not mark), and sometimes read exceptional ones out loud to the class a few days later. And sticker them of course. A gold star makes everything better. 
• I keep a record of completion. If a child has a perfect record over a number of weeks, regardless of quality, I reward them with a sticker in their books. Again, a gold star makes everything better.

What I like so far:

• Homework admin focused on a single day rather than a little bit every day.
• Personal attention to each child at least once a week
• Choice for child, but control for me (I choose what the compulsory main course is!)
• I get a sense of the types of task a child enjoys/consistently leaves out.
• Lots of recognition for the child, but also lots of support. 

What I'm finding difficult:

• Choosing valuable but more or less equally weighted tasks relevant to the current work we're covering.
• Pacing lessons so that all the tasks are possible by the end of the week.
• Seeing the long weekly admin session as an investment, not a waste.
• Letting go of SUPER CONTROLLING INNER TEACHER!
• Not giving "extra" homework during the week when I "just want them to finish this one little thing..."

So as always there are lots of positives, lots of things to work on. Overall, I like it. So far so good. We shall have to see how it progresses further...