Article in "Classroom Notes Plus"

Some publication news! At the end of the last school year, I began drafting an article for Classroom Notes Plus, a National Council of Teachers of English journal for secondary educators. The journal articles are basically descriptions and directions for lesson plans: how they impact learning, and how to implement them in the classroom. My article involves a lesson with A Midsummer Night's Dream using a concordance (finding repetitious patterns of words) combined with a "gallery walk" (having students make posters in groups full of text quotes and insightful pictures).

The article will be published this month, in both print and electronic forms. (It prints four times a year to approximately 6000 subscribers.) Unfortunately for the general public, you need to be either a direct subscriber or (if you're a member of NCTE) wait until it's electronically archived to view it online.

More information on Classroon Notes Plus is here.

Special thanks to Felice Kaufmann for her encouragement and editing. Because of her, I now have my first publishing writing credit as an educator!

April's new book "Butterfly Rocks"

I'm very proud of April's creativity. Finding sometimes a few minutes at a time, she's finally published a children's book: Butterfly Rocks. Her artistically talented mother (Jo) was the illustrator.

The story is sweet yet powerful, weaving the story of a woman named Sue (who has cancer, but refuses to let that define her) and a boy named Jack (who receives a mysterious "butterfly rock"). April deftly handles cancer; although matter-of-fact about the impact of illness, she never treads heavily on the subject in a way to scare children. The story is both comforting and inspiring. As for the pictures, Jo may have found her second calling.

What's even more amazing is that it's based on a true story. For the sake of privacy, I'll stop there. But it adds another level of warmth to the book.

It's available from the website Blurb, where you can buy single copies. I've permanently added a widget for the book to the right of my blog, but here's another one to go with this entry. Note that the sample pages are random, and skip around different parts of the book:

Butterfly Rocks by April Watson (Illustrated by Jo Wathen) | Make Your Own Book

Congratulations, April! You're artistic and beautiful! I'm very proud.

In other quick personal news, the school year has started in a fine way -- the students and my classes are great -- and even had a chance to finally launch that long story (which looks like it'll be novel length) with a little help from friends (thanks, Laura!). I'm writing in small chunks at a time, but my goal is to finish it by the end of next summer. More news later . . .

A Castle, a B & B, and a Lodge

Three recent happenings and some pictures to share.

In mid-May, Ayla had a tea party with three of her friends at Yew Dell Gardens, inside of a real castle on its grounds! (I've raved about Yew Dell in a previous post; plan a visit there, especially during its "Sculpture at the Dell" in the summer.) The setting made the afternoon perfect. We were told that we were the first to have a children's tea party there, which is hard to believe; one look at the castle and it seems a natural place to rent for princess or tea parties for the girls, and "wizards and knights" for the boys. Michelle Cook (our beloved Ayla documentarian!) was our photographer, and did an incredible job, as always. Here's a few shots, done vintage style:

Over Memorial Day weekend, April and I wanted to do something different to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary. We decided to stay at a bed and breakfast for the first time, but we didn't want to drive too far. After Googling and reading some reviews, we went with the 1888 Rocking Horse Manor (at the edge of Old Louisville) and booked their Grand Victorian Suite. To say we were pleased is an understatement. The place was delightful (the backyard garden alone made the stay worthwhile), the breakfast delicious, and the hospitality of manorkeepers John and Ricardo would be difficult to beat. We are already mulling a return trip. During our stay, we walked a few blocks and ate at Amici Cafe, an Italian culinary treasure; I recommend their Penne alla Lorenzo! Here are a few pictures of the manor:

We took our most recent trip last week. April, Ayla, April's parents and I stayed at the Breezy Mountain Lodge just outside of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was a family reunion of sorts for April's father's side of the family, where everybody pitched in to rent the Lodge as a private getaway, complete with a mini-movie theater and a game room. Not only was it good to see old faces, but we enjoyed a trip into "town" and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We had fun walking down the Parkway (visiting the Hollywood Wax Museum was definitely worth the admission), hiking up to see Laurel Falls , and eating some good meals, including Huck Finn's Catfish Restaurant, a pleasant surprise and a must if you're in the area. (Any place that has "all you can eat vittles" has my heart for sure.)

Now, back home to rest, write, and prepare for next year's classes.

Widgets, Iron Men, and the Latest Hijinks

Forgive me fathers and mothers, I have sinned. It's been 10 months since my last post. There's no particular reason for my delay, except that (mostly) school has kept me hopping around. So I hope to make up for it with some content in today's blog entry.


As far as writing, teaching has kept me hopping too much to be terribly creative. That said, I got a great story idea that will at least be a extended short story, based on a creepy experience that actually happened to me in the last few months. I hope to pursue it this summer, along with a possible polish and submission of a few older short stories. While I'm still holding out for a publisher of another book's worth of poetry, I fear that ship has sailed, so perhaps I'll look at alternate opportunities to get the verse out into the world.


As for school, I've enjoyed creating a semester's worth of lessons for Myths and Legends, a class I never taught before this year. Speaking of school and summer, next year I'll be teaching AP Literature for the first time, so prepping for it in June and July will be part of my upcoming agenda.


Despite hectic lesson planning and grading, April, Ayla and I have tried to enjoy ourselves over the past year. Last August, we made it to Toronto, and despite a sanitation worker strike, had a blast seeing Canada for the first time and visiting with old friends. (Some highlights of the trip: Niagara Falls, Louis Tussaud's Wax Museum, the Ontario Science Centre, Casa Loma, and of course, the CN Tower.) Last fall, we went to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal -- easily in the top 5 museums we've had the pleasure of partaking. Last but not least, we went to Fort Boonesborough a few weeks ago and really felt like we stepped back in time. Here's a pic:

Gotta love the bonnet, eh? (Ayla bought it from the fort's gift shop.)


I decided the blog needed a minor facelift, so besides its appearance, I added two widgets. The first comes from Grooveshark.com (a fantastic music website -- if you use Pandora, give Grooveshark a chance!). I recently edited Live From Waverly Hills in multiple tracks and uploaded it to their site; listen in streaming audio! (If you want more info on the 2003 show, click here.) I also added a goodreads widget. I created an account at the end of last year, and for the past several months, I've done short reviews for some of the books I've read. It's not meant to be "professional" reviews -- it just captures some first impressions when I finish a book. If you're interested, click on the widget.


Last but not least, April and I saw Iron Man 2 on an IMAX screen this past weekend. I enjoyed the sequel, but not quite as much as the first one. (That's a tall order, though, since Iron Man is right up there with Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight as one of the best comic book action movies ever.) The action and special effects were fun to watch, and the somewhat darker tone added some nice character moments; for example, Downy, Jr. struggling with his mortality and perhaps drinking a bit too much, echoing a 1980's comic book plotline -- although I could have done without the "DJ Iron Man" cringeworthy scene. Paltrow and Favreau's characters are given more to do as well, Rockwell was amazing (although not threatening enough), and Rourke was perfectly cast (if a bit underused) as a Russian heavy. I'm in love with Johansson, and although she didn't have much to do as Black Widow, it was worth it just for her scene storming Hammer's headquarters. As much as I'm a fan of Don Cheadle, I missed a bit of the playful spark from Terrence Howard's take on Rhodes, although the script might be to blame. All in all, highly recommended to see on the big screen.


I hope to post a time or two during the summer (I promise!), so until then . . .