Monday, June 15, 2009

Quote of the Day by Adora

"It is good for me to experience hardship, for I shall be less inclined toward it as an adult." - Adora Svitak

P.S. I'm not really experiencing "hardship"--this quote was inspired by my hurried efforts to make a presentation for a surprise video conference (which was canceled anyway). But in general I live a fairly luxurious life.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Kitchen At Night (as opposed to the light)

The Kitchen At Night (as opposed to the light)
Adora Svitak

I have a habit of staying up late, and I have a worse habit of eating late. At night the kitchen is forlorn and dark and desolate, like a beach after all the swimmers and sunbathers leave, but littered with small treasures here and there—and the stars in the sky are sometimes visible from the windows.

In the morning, the kitchen is busy with the hum of a worn-out dishwasher cleaning worn-out dishes, and a soymilk-maker, a novelty of sorts, chugging away with a “vroom-vroom” usually reserved for blenders.
My mother moves to and fro in an overstated hurry, stacking dishes with clattering thumps in the cupboard, gathering spoons and forks and knives and dumping them, without sentimentality, into the silverware drawer. Light shines through the windows on a sunny day; the rain patters up against them on a bad one.

In contrast, the kitchen at night is empty, unoccupied, like a museum after closing hours or a city street after curfew, though our house has not the dignified grandeur of a museum, nor the steady rhythm of the street.
In its solitariness, the room is peaceful and serene, no noises but my own footsteps treading light across the floor. It is restful and quiet—for there is no mid-morning hustle and bustle at 10:00 at night.

At night, the kitchen does not endure too many a visitor. It has guardsmen to keep you out—Fear and Hostility, and the frightening illusions of creeping shadows in the blackness. The black lamp in the adjoining room is transformed into some malevolent magic creature.

And yet—call me illogical—I love the kitchen, late at night.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Story Written with Second Graders via Video Conferencing

Tiger is dad
bat is mom
two rabbits are aunt and uncle
clown is child

Clown-Jack
Aunt Annie
Uncle Dave
Mom-Tracy
Dad-Charles Sam

On summer vacation, the entire family is going on a trip to Hawaii to visit Aunt Annie and Uncle Dave.

It was very hot, dry, and noisy inside of the airplane. Jack fidgeted nervously. He hated standing in lines. His parents didn’t like it either. His dad, Charles Sam, was wagging his tail. While wagging one’s tail is good for a dog, Charles Sam was a tiger. He was not in a very good mood. Jack’s mother, Tracy, was zooming around at high speed. This was normal for a bat.
“Flight attendants, close the airplane doors,” they heard the pilot’s voice through the airplane loudspeakers.
Finally the line inched ahead, and Jack was able to catch a glimpse of their seats. All the seats were shaped like large O’s, and they were colored blue with green polka dots and red stripes. Inside each circle of seats was a round wooden table.
“Finally,” Charles Sam grumbled as they were able to sit down. “We’ve been waiting in line for--I think about an hour.”
“Fifty-nine minutes, actually,” Jack said. He was very good with time.
Tracy stopped flying and swooped down, perching upside down from the table.
“It’s so weird when you do that in public,” Jack complained. Jack was a teenager, and becoming more embarrassed about his parents.
“Quiet!” Tracy responded.
They settled in for their 5-hour flight to Hawaii. As they took off, Jack stared out the window at Los Angeles. It looked very strange from the sky.
Jack spent most of his time on the plane playing his Nintendo DS, until it ran out of batteries and shut down halfway through the flight. Then he started playing tennis with the flight attendants, until a passenger complained about “the horrible racket.”
“You have to use a racquet!” Jack said.
“Not that kind of racket, Jack,” the flight attendant said, and apologized to the passenger, “We’re very sorry, sir.”
So then Jack tried to get to sleep, but this was very difficult because his father was snoring very loudly. Jack was surprised the plane was able to withstand his father’s roaring snores.
Finally, they landed in Hawaii. Jack was glad that he had dressed in a T-shirt and shorts; it was very hot. Well, actually, it was kind of like Los Angeles.
“It’s stifling,” his father said. “All this fur I haven’t shed yet. And it feels so wet!”
“Stop complaining,” Tracy said, zooming around at high speed. “Dave and Annie will be here in a few minutes. They have an air-conditioned limo.”
“Sweet!” Jack said, and jumped up and down. He was looking forward to his trip in Hawaii.

Story Written with Second Graders via Video Conferencing

Tiger is dad
bat is mom
two rabbits are aunt and uncle
clown is child

Clown-Jack
Aunt Annie
Uncle Dave
Mom-Tracy
Dad-Charles Sam

On summer vacation, the entire family is going on a trip to Hawaii to visit Aunt Annie and Uncle Dave.

It was very hot, dry, and noisy inside of the airplane. Jack fidgeted nervously. He hated standing in lines. His parents didn’t like it either. His dad, Charles Sam, was wagging his tail. While wagging one’s tail is good for a dog, Charles Sam was a tiger. He was not in a very good mood. Jack’s mother, Tracy, was zooming around at high speed. This was normal for a bat.
“Flight attendants, close the airplane doors,” they heard the pilot’s voice through the airplane loudspeakers.
Finally the line inched ahead, and Jack was able to catch a glimpse of their seats. All the seats were shaped like large O’s, and they were colored blue with green polka dots and red stripes. Inside each circle of seats was a round wooden table.
“Finally,” Charles Sam grumbled as they were able to sit down. “We’ve been waiting in line for--I think about an hour.”
“Fifty-nine minutes, actually,” Jack said. He was very good with time.
Tracy stopped flying and swooped down, perching upside down from the table.
“It’s so weird when you do that in public,” Jack complained. Jack was a teenager, and becoming more embarrassed about his parents.
“Quiet!” Tracy responded.
They settled in for their 5-hour flight to Hawaii. As they took off, Jack stared out the window at Los Angeles. It looked very strange from the sky.
Jack spent most of his time on the plane playing his Nintendo DS, until it ran out of batteries and shut down halfway through the flight. Then he started playing tennis with the flight attendants, until a passenger complained about “the horrible racket.”
“You have to use a racquet!” Jack said.
“Not that kind of racket, Jack,” the flight attendant said, and apologized to the passenger, “We’re very sorry, sir.”
So then Jack tried to get to sleep, but this was very difficult because his father was snoring very loudly. Jack was surprised the plane was able to withstand his father’s roaring snores.
Finally, they landed in Hawaii. Jack was glad that he had dressed in a T-shirt and shorts; it was very hot. Well, actually, it was kind of like Los Angeles.
“It’s stifling,” his father said. “All this fur I haven’t shed yet. And it feels so wet!”
“Stop complaining,” Tracy said, zooming around at high speed. “Dave and Annie will be here in a few minutes. They have an air-conditioned limo.”
“Sweet!” Jack said, and jumped up and down. He was looking forward to his trip in Hawaii.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Story Written With Video Conferencing Students

Crazy is a red-nosed clown. He wears a blue striped hat and matching shoes. Crazy was in the rainforest of the country of Tigerworld after being banished from his hometown, Bindingtown, for, as the mayor put it, “being…well, just being CRAZY!” Crazy did not see anything wrong with being himself, but apparently everyone else did, so he left, riding on his best friend, a white bat named Batty.
As they flew in the cold morning air, Crazy saw a fleck of orange through the thick canopy of trees.
“I think that’s some kind of soil,” he said, “but my eyes aren’t very good. Oh well. It’s some type of clearing, I’ll bet. Drop me off.”
The bat nodded, and with a great “Wa-ma-hiya!” Crazy jumped off and landed right on top of a snoozing tiger’s head.
“Grrrrrrrrr!” the tiger roared.
“Ooopsie,” Crazy said, and started sneaking away.
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr--no you don’t!” the tiger exclaimed, and pounced--but Batty was still in the area, and Crazy had grabbed onto his wings just in time. The tiger missed by a bee’s knee.
“Yowwwww!” the tiger, Lightning, shouted in frustration.
But Batty’s wings were delicate, and Crazy knew he could not hold on for too long. So he dropped--right on top of the tiger’s back. The tiger turned around and around in circles, growling and biting at Crazy, who by this time had slipped down to the tiger’s tail.
Meanwhile, Chocolate the rabbit was hungrily looking about for carrots. There were not too many in the rainforest, he reflected sadly. Just then, he saw a flash of orange.
“Hmm. I didn’t know carrots in the rainforest moved,” he thought, but without any hesitation jumped forward. He saw a little blue man hanging onto the huge carrot.
“It’s mine!” Chocolate bellowed for good measure, then chomped down on the wriggling orange carrot.
It was not a carrot, unfortunately.
“Yowggrrrrrrryowyagrrrriboohooowaaaaaaaaaiiieeee!” a tiger shouted, and leapt up into the air--Chocolate swore ten feet. The tail came off, but it was a very nasty tasting tail. Rabbits do not eat meat.
“Bleeech!” the rabbit said, and spat out the tail. Immediately, the tiger turned around and grabbed the tail.
Crazy was still holding onto it at this point. He was in a state of shock.
Ribbon the rabbit was extraordinarily angry. His entire store of carrots--carefully saved over one and half years--was gone in an instant--stolen by that scoundrel, that wretched orange animal, Lightning the tiger. Cats aren’t supposed to eat carrots, Ribbon thought bitterly.
“I’ll get him,” Ribbon said aloud.
With this in mind, he crept out of his burrow and, seeing some amount of commotion regarding the tiger, thought it would be a perfect opportunity.
“This one’s payback, tiger!” he yelled as he tackled the tiger’s two front paws, tenaciously holding on and thus preventing the tiger from moving. Unfortunately, Ribbon had forgotten that tigers have teeth.
Unfortunately, Lightning had forgotten that a bat was in the area.
So as he bent down to chomp Ribbon’s head off, Batty swooped down from out of nowhere, grabbed the tiger by the ear, and pulled with all his might so that the tiger was hovering a few inches above the ground--and so was everyone else.
“That’ll teach you a lesson,” Batty said.
Apparently Batty had forgotten that you weren’t supposed to talk with your mouth full, because everyone dropped out of the sky and landed right on top of a passing rhinoceros.

THE END
Moral of the story: Don’t talk with your mouth full.
Also, don’t land on tigers.
Don’t steal carrots.
Don’t steal carrots from grumpy white rabbits in particular.
Don’t mistake tigers’ tails for carrots.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Story Written with Video Conferencing Students

It was a hot, humid day in the middle of the rainforest. Peter Cottontail, Whitey, Fluffy, and Greenhat--a rabbit, a bat, another rabbit, and a clown--were stuck in the rainforest.
The rabbits had been hung up on a tree branch by their ears; Greenhat had been hung up by his hat (which was blue), and the bat by his feet.
“What a dreadful mess this is,” Fluffy said grumpily.
“This is very nasty. I haven’t had my breakfast,” Peter Cottontail said worriedly. “I can’t go too long without breakfast. It’s a very important meal.”
“Oh, be quiet, you!” Whitey the bat snapped. “You’re always going on about breakfast. You were the one who ate all of our food last night.”
“I was hungry,” Peter shouted.
“Quiet, you animals!” Onka, a chihuahua, yipped at them. “I can’t stand your chattering. You’ll be cooked soon, I’m sure.”
“Cooked?”
“Cooked?” the two rabbits said at the same time. It was a rabbit’s worst fear.
“I’ll be back in two minutes to check on you,” Onka said. “By that time, the water should be nice and hot!” he cackled. The animals stared at each other in fear from their perches on the tree branch.
“We have to escape!” Peter Cottontail said.
“Well, that’s easy,” the bat said in a dignified voice. “The villain Onka overlooked the fact that bats hang from their feet anyway.” And with that, the bat released himself and started flying, soaring over the tree branch.
“Hmmm…that gets me thinking--” the clown said. “Maybe we can flip ourselves over until we are untangled, then land on the ground and RUN!”
“Worth a try,” they replied.
They spun themselves dizzy, and it seemed like an eternity before they landed. They had landed successfully--but right in the middle of a bush of thorns. Just then they heard Onka’s shouting and yipping as he raced toward them.
“Run!” shouted Peter Cottontail.
He tore away from the thorny bush--and that is the story of how he lost his cottony tail.