A place for those who find and create meaning through words
Proper formatting and the use of citations can be missed easily among all of the mechanical improvements we try to make before releasing our charge to high schools. Teaching students how to create well-formatted final copies, to support claims with quotes and internal citations, and to provide works cited lists can be particularly difficult if not taught... Continue Reading →
This is the transcript of the audio narration for the previous video. My father, a member of the .918 Printing Club, demonstrated graciously how a platten press from the Industrial Revolution was used to create a page of text. ________________________ We’ve all wanted to take hammers to our desktop printers from time-to-time, smash them to... Continue Reading →
What is this activity about? These easy-to-prepare races are great tools for reinforcing kinesthetically the Five Themes of Geography. The five themes are “Location,” “Place,” “Human Environment Interaction,” “Region,” and “Movement.” The Association of American Geographers adopted the Five Themes in 1984, and the themes have been used for decades to help students identify and... Continue Reading →
Students love to view their peers' work, and students can learn quite a bit from structured and purposeful sharing. "Project Walks," sometimes called "Gallery Walks," are great opportunities for students to obtain new ideas and to consider how they can incorporate these new ideas into future work. Direct students to display their projects on desks or... Continue Reading →
Tobie is approximately one hundred and eleven years old. No one really knows his human age, because he is a fifteen and a half year-old dog (human-to-dog-year conversion ratios vary). My wife and I do know Tobie has become quite wise through his life of travel and intense introspection. Here are some of his most poignant... Continue Reading →
My student’s hand shot into the air before I could finish my sentence, and I called upon the jersey-clad, lacrosse-obsessed eighth-grader knowing exactly what his question would be, the same one bouncing within most of my students’ heads, “Do we have to draw, or can we use the internet?” “I want you to draw.” Cue... Continue Reading →
I arrived at the 2015 Philadelphia Writers' Conference having brought pants. Preparation is very important. My wife and I had traveled to Mexico for our 10th anniversary in 2011. A sign posted in front of one of our resort's restaurants stated "Business Casual Attire." Having only packed shorts, I asked the host if dress-shorts would be adequate. He... Continue Reading →
Creativity inspires creativity, and Alexandria, Virginia’s Torpedo Factory churns out inspiration as much as it does creative expressions of the human spirit. This artists’ cooperative-- three floors of studios, galleries, and installations housed in a repurposed torpedo production facility-- inspires unique ideas, new perspectives, and encourages artists of all mediums who pass through its doors. ... Continue Reading →
Memory cards and stacks of scribbles from our trip to Niagra Falls continue to remind me collecting raw material is only the beginning of a time-intensive process. This is not, necessarily, a bad thing. Travel's initial thrills always inspire and increase my productivity, yet time's passage tempers the eye and helps me disregard cliched thoughts recorded feverishly through star-struck eyes.... Continue Reading →
Nineteen, a freshman in a sophomore-level education class, my first week of college, and my prof assigned an article summary on an education-based topic of our choosing-- one line of directions in a syllabus and a point value. Being nineteen and a freshman loving to write, I read this as an invitation to compose an... Continue Reading →
david cooper writing 
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