My Brain Hurts

"What brain?"

Hahahaha--whatever.

No, seriously, it's been a busy week and while my brain doesn't hurt, I am ready for the week to be over. It wasn't bad busy or anything, don't get me wrong, just lots of stuff piling up.

"Like what?" you asked?

I'll tell you.

I've been helping Becky with the testing of the Resume Generator, but that's just the start. I had a great idea for redesigning a couple ReadWriteThink pages, so I worked up some mock-up examples for discussion...and then got feedback on them, and needed to do some more work.

I also got asked to fill in for a some voice work for the Engage / Teacher to Teacher blog Listen Up! podcast (yup, that's me in the intro!).

There's a bit of work I'm doing for IRA's Annual Convention -- which will be in Chicago April 29 - May 2, 2012. More on that coming in the following months (shhhh! It's a secret!). Fun stuff--good for a laugh, I hope, and informative.

And I'm pulling all kinds of statistics and traffic numbers for ReadWriteThink so that we can analyze usage and make some changes/improvements. So I get to look at charts and graphs and columns of numbers in order to make charts and graphs and columns of numbers that make more sense and show the information we really need.

This is why my brain hurts. But at least my charts are pretty.

I know, not the most interesting blog post, but busy doesn't always equal fun/entertaining.

I hope to have a more interesting blog next week. If not from work stuff, then just something I make up and talk about anyway.

Wes

Upcoming RWT Goodness: Resume Generator

I meant to post this on Thursday, but I was too busy working on the Resume Generator interactive to actually post about it. And by working on it, I mean testing it. I mentioned a few weeks ago about how I was the lead designer on the K-W-L Chart Creator interactive. Becky is lead designer on the Resume Generator, and she did an excellent job researching current resume practices, finding templates, and creating the tips.

It looks AWESOME!




Of course, looks aren't everything. It also functions extremely well. It's not only intuitive, but it has audio tips throughout to help guide users in creating a stronger resume.



And it does result in a pretty swanky-looking resume when you are all done:






Testing that was my Thursday. As always, there were minor changes that need to be made, some small things we wanted to see a little different, but all-in-all, our programs did an excellent job--which was no surprise. Those guys are great to work with.

We are hoping to have it ready for release in August. We still need to get some more testing done--by you! That's right, we want to have a sort of open beta test for this interactive. If you are interested in trying it out, send me an email or drop a comment on this blog, and I will hook you up with a link to Resume Generator so you can give it a whirl.

More cool stuff still to come from ReadWriteThink. I scooped the K-W-L Chart Creator, and just introduced the Resume Generator, but we've still got a third new interactive rolling out this year--but I'll keep that one under wraps until we get a little closer to finished.

It's pretty exciting, though!

Wes

RWT secrets revealed: K-W-L chart creator!

It's been a month--a month!--since my last blog. That just won't do!  Though I have a good excuse and a couple doctor notes.

What to talk about now that it is July?

Hmmm.

Maybe I should unveil my big ReadWriteThink project of the year....

Sure, let's go with that.

I mentioned in a previous post that I have been working on redesigns of RWT interactives: giving them a new luck, adding new features, and updating them with the Work Saver functionality. What I did not mention is that we are also working on three new interactives for the site. We hope to have them up for the new school year, but we don't have a set-in-stone timeline yet.

I won't reveal them all (yet) but I will talk about the one that I spearheaded, the interactive K-W-L chart creator.

I assume you know what a K-W-L chart is, but in case you don't, here is the gist. The name stands for what I Know, what I Want to know, and what I Learned. It begins as a pre-reading exercise in which students list what they know about a topic and what they want to learn about the topic before reading about the topic, filling in the K column and W column respectively. After the reading is finished, the students then list what they learned in the L column.

If it is just a chart that students fill in, then why make it an interactive? After all, RWT already has a printout.

This is where the Work Saver feature comes in handy--it allows us to think about interactives as something teachers and students can go back to rather than just use once and immediately print out a final result. It gives us the ability to consider whole-classroom uses.

The idea with the K-W-L chart creator is that a teacher could start a whole-class discussion about the topic the students are going to read--ideal if the classroom is fortunate to have an interactive whiteboard, but that's not necessary. The class collectively discusses what everyone knows about the topic, and the teacher fills out one K column for the class, maybe the W column as well. The teacher can then save the file and send it to all the students so they can fill in the L column as an individual assignment.

So there is a sneak peek of what we have in the works for this year. And there are two other new inteactives coming. I'll reveal those in the upcoming months, along with screenshots when I can manage.

And that does it for this week. See you back here later for more behind the scenes at IRA! Maybe I'll sneak into some meetings and see what other people are working on in the building.

Wes

Vacation Right Around Corner

I am going on vacation tomorrow--flying out to CA for a friend's wedding in Yosemite Park!

It's a pretty busy day today, wrapping things up before I'm gone.

One of the things I am wrapping up is the new Community Stories page the the ReadWriteThink.org site. What's new about it? We changed the layout, made it a little more friendly and story-writer focused, and we added the Story Highlights, which displays pictures and videos from the classroom.

This new layout was a pretty big project. It started during a group meeting we had last summer, when our NCTE team members came out to IRA headquarters. The concept discussion started then. We planned the layout in the following months. Then we got the designers involved. Then there was the testing.

Big project, and it is coming to a close. The page is up and working, and we received some great stories with excellent highlights showing teachers using ReadWriteThing with students in their classroom. The new stories have been a good way to continue the testing of the process--still ironing out some kinks, which is what I was working on today.

Another little wrap-up for the week was finalizing the most recent Chatting About Books monthly podcast. My involvement is minimal, but it is usually the last step--adding the book cover images. I finished that up this morning, and the new podcast should be live tomorrow.

That is a little glimpse into what this editor has been up to today, besides e-mails and meetings and debates about proper grammar. Yes, that last one is true; some of the other editors and I had a very lovely discussion about grammar rules today--we were all in agreement over what was correct; however,  none of us could give the rule as to why it was correct.

I'll leave you with the same question, then, and see if I get any responses in the comments.

Which sentence is correct and why? What is the rule?

"I am suppose to go to the store."

"I am supposed to go to the store."

And I shall be back the week after next, when I return from California.

Wes

Returning From Holidays

Returning from a holiday weekend can be a bit of a--hmmm, what is the word?--chore. Takes a little extra effort to get out of bed. After the over-eating of a gluttonous weekend (I rarely have any other kind), the hunger builds a little bit more during the day then usual.

I end up stalking the halls and corridors looking for snack food.

Alas, there was none to be found yesterday! Probably for the best.

The other problem is all the catching up to do on work. Meetings and emails and looking over the to-do list from last week for any stragglers.

The second day back from a holiday is a little more productive.

So what am I working on today?

Specs for the updated Bio-Cube interactive on ReadWriteThink. We've been updating several interactives, giving them a new look, making some user-requested changes, and adding the new work-saver functionality.

So far, we have updated these interactives:

1. Acrostic Poems
2. Letter Generator
3. Compare & Contrast Map
4. Diamante Poems
5. Essay Map
6. Persuasion Map

If you look at the preview images, you might notice a couple things. First and most important is the little Save and Open tabs on the top right side of the interactive--that is the really cool save function.

Second, if you check through a few of them, you will also see that I like steak, that I also enjoy salads, and that I've read The Hunger Games (and in case you were wondering, I really enjoyed the book).

But back to the Bio-Cube. We will be updating the look to match our current design theme. We'll be adding the work saver. We'll be altering a couple of the questions on the cube.

One of the most requested features is for teachers to ask their own questions on the Bio-Cube. We plan on adding that functionality. Teachers can fill in the questions, use the work saver to save the cube, and then distribute to their classes for the students to fill in.

Now I just need to figure out how to implement all of that.

So let me toss a question or two to you, the readers. Have you every used an interactive from ReadWriteThink with your class? If so, which one(s)? Which would you like to see the work saver added to next, or do you have any other suggestions for improvements? Drop a comment on the blog or email me.

OK, so that's the scoop from inside IRA!

Time to get on those specs.

Wes

Sound check. Sound check. Is this thing on?

Hello!

You probably don't know me. Yet. But since you are here, let's change that.

My name is Wes Ford, and I'm an editor at the International Reading Association (IRA). More specifically, I'm the Associate Editor for ReadWriteThing.org, a joint venture by IRA and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) funded by a grant from Verizon Thinkfinity.

Before working with the ReadWriteThink team, I was a production editor at IRA working on books and journals. If you had articles published in The Reading Teachers, The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, or Reading Research Quarterly between 2006 and 2010, I might have worked on it.  Of course, I was probably in contact with you during the process, so you might recognize the name.

I also worked on a number of books in some capacity, usually proof reading or copy editing. I'm not going to list them all out.

I've done work for IRA on other projects, some in an editor function, others not so much. I've worked at the IRA Marketplace/Bookstore for a few of the conventions (Toronto, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago). If you were ever at the Marketplace, we might have met!

This year in Orlando, I had some different responsibilities. There were a bunch of ReadWriteThink meetings to attend, and we hosted a couple of sessions at the convention. I also had the privileged of video recording some behind the scenes footage as well as some interviews with IRA staff and attendees.

Not sure when that footage will become available, but I'll let you know.

So what's the point of all this? The introduction? The blog?

Just a bit of fun. A way of introducing the staff of IRA to the membership. A little bit of an outlet from the main office. Even a way to contact one of the IRA editors.

The hope is give an insider perspective. Give some details on what goes on at IRA, who we are, and what we do.

Maybe we have met, you and I, via emails about manuscripts or perhaps at one of the IRA conventions. And that's awesome if we did! I hope it happens again.

But for everyone else, all those other members who have never met anyone from IRA, well, now you have.

Hi! I'm Wes, and I'm an editor at IRA.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

I hope to talk to you again real soon.


Wes