It's Been Two Months?

More than two months, even. Ouch! I need to get back on my blogging horse.

What have I been up to?

Well, first was Winter Break, which was a solid two weeks. And then a January and February filled with missed days due to snow and ice and cold. Not my favorite weather.

In that time, I had two cavities filled, released the Android version of Trading Cards, launched the new Video Library section on ReadWriteThink, and finished Haiku, both the interactive and app versions. I know, crazy. Two cavities? I brush everyday--electric toothbrush and everything!--and use mouth wash. It's the flossing, really. I'm bad at it, and I know it, and I'm trying to do better.

A haiku about my dentist visit!

With the new year underway, I tallied the traffic from 2013, and we found we had a record year: over 20 million visitors to ReadWriteThink.org! Thank you so much! It really helps us push forward, knowing we are reaching so many educators and students.

So what's coming up?

I have one more interactive on the redesign block: Crossword. Specs are in, I've had multiple discussions with the designer, and the coding is underway. It is a massive undertaking, even after all the other app work we've done. We always seem to have some new idea to push the envelope on what our apps can do.

Lisa has a few interactives in redesign: Fact Fragment Frenzy, Hero's Journey, and Word Matrix. I'll keep you post on those as they move in to testing; I think we are more likely to see those before Crossword.

International Reading Association's 2014 annual conference is fast approaching. New Orleans! The Big Easy! I am looking forward to that. Becky, Lisa, Shannon, and I will be there--or at least they will. I assume I will; they usually like to have me around to move heavy boxes at the very least. As we get closer, and our schedules get firmed up, I'll share with you what we will be doing and where you can catch up with us.

I'm sure I'll have more inside information for you soon, and if we're lucky the weather will stop getting in the way of my working. At the very least, I want discuss project-based learning. So many topics. Just need to keep on it.

Have a great day,

Wes

Deconstructing a Music Video: Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball

I assume you've read the title of this post and therefore know what you are getting yourself into. Allow me to once again point out that, even though I am an editor for ReadWriteThink.org and dole out information about the site, my personal views (particularly those I am about to give) are not reflections of those of the site, the other editors of the site, the various organizations behind the site, nor do they represent good teaching practices, as I have never been a school teacher.

Yes, I started this post with a disclaimer. That's a good indication of how this one is going to go.
A little background as to how this all came about: I am a Glee fan. My wife and I watch it together. My radio choice is hard rock and heavy metal, so Miley Cyrus is not typically on my radar. However, she's hard to ignore completely considering she's been in the news, so when Glee did their version of Wrecking Ball, I recognized the song as Miley's, though it was my first time actually hearing it.

Despite my listening to heavy metal, I do still enjoy the stupid teeny-bopper pop tunes. I really do. Call Me Maybe?  Love it. These songs get stuck in my head for days until I eventually go seeking them out on YouTube to listen to them again--and then I see the video. If you've never see the Call Me Maybe video, I recommend it: 3:06 - 3:10 make the whole thing worth it in my opinion!

Which brings us to my love for music videos. I used to collect them back in college, because there was no source for them like YouTube back them. I love how a video can add to the story of a song, expand on the message, or even tell a completely different story than you would get from the lyrics (November Rain and Gives You Hell, I'm looking at you).
So, with Glee's version of Wrecking Ball bouncing around in my mind, I fire up YouTube so I can get the real deal. And I see the video. The one I read about in the news with all manner of unkind things being said about Miley's decision to do said video. I can understand the media's reaction, but I disagreed with it (more on that in a moment). I'm going to be discussing the video in some depth, so if you are interested in my commentary (and you've made it this far, so I assume you are) and haven't watched it, you really should.



As I tend to do, while watching the video I read the comments below the video. There was much negativity there, which I expect from online comments. There were also people saying the director's cut was better, and Miley should have released that instead and not been so sexually charged. So I watched the director's cut.

First off, I will say Miley's face-only performance was amazing. I think she sold the pain and loss and heartache of the song extremely well in the director's cut. The song itself does a great job already--it is a raw, emotional tragic song!--and the director's cut emphasized that pain wonderfully.

I disagree that it is better than the released version. I believe the director's cut tells a different story than the released version. The story the director's cut tells is that of loss and pain of a relationship that didn't work out--the same story of the song, but more emotion in that we see the visual as well. It is terrible and awful and we get that. Good stuff. Miley conveys the sense of being wrecked from the fall out of the relationship.

The story the full version tells is a little darker and even more tragic than what is in the lyrics. That's the story of a young woman who is madly in love with a guy (or girl, I suppose--we don't know, but for pronoun ease, I'm sticking with a guy). She is so in love with him and so wants to win him over so badly that she gives him her virginity. Alas, this does not actually make him love her, and she is left emotionally broken and tormented by having given something precious over to someone who doesn't return her love, and maybe only used her for sex in the first place.

A sobering poignant tale, and one that is a really relevant to modern teens with a sensible moral: be careful who you love.

"Poppycock!" You might say. "Total malarkey!"

To which I reply, "Awesome word choices! But please allow me to break this down."

There is not a wide variety of imagery in the video: The 3-wall concrete structure (first seen at 0:42) symbolizes the man in question. He's got 3 walls rather than 4; he's not totally closed off as to be emotionally stunted or socially awkward--he's not an emotionally damaged Pink from Pink Floyd's The Wall (yeah, I go for classic rock as well). But this guy does not let people in; he does not fall in love.

Miley first walking around the dark walled structure before any demolition takes place represents their first meeting perhaps? Or maybe the moment she fell in love? She struts about knowing she wants to start demolishing the concrete barrier.

The breaking down of the walls represents getting to deeper emotional levels within him. Upon breaking down all three walls, Miley will have gotten in and claimed his heart. And thus the various demolition implements (most the sledgehammer and wrecking ball), represent Miley's attempts to win this guy's heart. Who's to say what forms these flirtations take: poetry, make-out sessions in a parked card, sexting, mixed tapes? Doesn't really matter.

Throughout the video, Miley is showing sensuality and sexuality. She is in no way coy in her attire (underwear), glances (seductive), and actions with the hammer (suggestive is a loose term). This gives some clues as to what form the flirtations were taking, but also reveals a young girl who is sexually aware and "ready," though overt and thus possibly naive. All the while, though, Miley looking very calm and confident (and still suggestive) as she wields her hammer and rides the wrecking ball. She's slowly getting through to the boy, making emotional connections, and she feels sure she can win his heart.

At 1:14 she's naked on the wrecking ball. This is the moment maximum escalation--this is the representation of Miley and the guy having sex, and her losing her virginity. But she is still confident, still in control: This was her decision to use sex to try to win him over and make him love rather than him coercing her into it. At 1:36 we see the structure is now down 2 walls, and there is but a single wall remaining.
At 2:53, Miley leans against the last wall--still standing despite the impact mark. This wall is never knocked down despite all her efforts, and Miley is no longer calm and confident in her interaction with the wall/structure. She smacks it with her hands, looking wounded and weary she puts her head on her knees (3:12). She never got "in" and thus, despite her momentous use of "force," (i.e., trying to charm him with sex) she never claimed the guy's heart.

That is exactly how I read the video the first time I saw it, and I find that a more interesting--and more tragic--tale than the lyrics or director's cut suggest. I was profoundly surprised by the depth that was shown, especially considering the media hype I had read.

The Glee version parallels this reading specially because of their less sexualized spin. [SPOILER ALERT!] When Marley rides the wrecking ball, she remains fully clothed, which makes sense because she loses the love of her life not after having had sex with him (which I suggest the nakedness in the Miley video represents) but because she refuses to have sex with him. She tried to take down his walls with love alone, but he wanted more. It's only right, then, that she remained clothed as she keeps her "innocence."

I can't say that this is what Miley or her director were going for, but then when it comes to art, we often do not know exactly what the artist intended, and much is left to our own interpretations. This is mine.

I understand the disappointment parents might feel when their children's idol Hanna Montanan suddenly starts riding around construction equipment naked: not really something parents want their daughters doing. But with a some critical thinking and deep reading of the "text" (in this case, the infamous video) there is a profound teachable moment in there. I feel like that gets missed by assuming that there the video has nothing deeper than the idea that sex sells and therefore she's naked only to get more people to watch it. From most of the comments I read, that does seem to be people's take, and as said, most people were very negative and expressed disappointment that this is what Miley did with her career (though reactions to the song itself seemed positive).
 
And that is my deconstruction of Wrecking Ball, a look at an actual meaning and moral to a video that seems to be demonized by the media. There are thousands of examples of things like this, where we see something at face value, or worse, are told by some outlet or another that something is a particular way. We need to be able to see for ourselves whether there are deeper layers. Students need to learn to think critically and dig deeper.

So many valuable lessons to be learned, even in something like a pop song music video.I assume you've read the title of this post and therefore know what you are getting yourself into. Allow me to once again point out that, even though I am an editor for ReadWriteThink.org and dole out information about the site, my personal views (particularly those I am about to give) are not reflections of those of the site, the other editors of the site, the various organizations behind the site, nor do they represent good teaching practices, as I have never been a school teacher.

Wes

Do You Haiku?

A few weeks back I posted a little teaser about an up-coming product from ReadWriteThink.org:

Poetry trio
Needs a new companion app
Details forthcoming

I'll note that no one took a stab at guessing what the product might be, so no one gets the really cool prize for guessing it correctly.

"But you never said anything about a prize!" you might say.

"I'm whimsical like that," I would reply.

The poetry trio mentioned in my little poem are the current interactives already available on ReadWriteThink--and soon to be available on your iPad or Android tablet:

1. Acrostic
2. Diamante
3. Theme

The new companion app, that would be Haiku.

Maybe I shouldn't be showing off the concept art...but I'm going to show you the current concept art for the load screen! Cause I'm excited about it and that's what this blog is for, revealing cool things like that. Please note that as concept art, the final app design might look nothing like this, and we cannot vouch for the correctness of the characters used in the image--though we are pretty sure they say "haiku." Anyone out there who can officially vouch that for us?

The real difficulty of the project is teaching the haiku writing process. We want to make sure that the app provides solid haiku writing instruction, not to take it out of the teacher's hands but to make sure students have all the scaffolding they need when it comes time to do the writing. A refresher on what the teacher modeled in the classroom couldn't hurt, right?

But how do you teach haiku writing? That sounds rhetorical, but it isn't. I'm asking: If you have ever taught haiku writing, what did you do? What did you teach? How did you frame the lesson? I've been doing research, and I found fun little inconsistencies like the follow:

• Traditional haiku are themed around nature or philosophy...but that's not a requirement.
• Traditional haiku have a juxtaposition statement...but not always.
• American haiku have three lines...but they don't need to.
• American haiku follow a 5-7-5 syllable count for the lines...but not all of them.

From my research, haiku writing is fairly free form--not at all what I was expecting when I first delved into the project.

I don't want to write How to Haiku instructions in the app and find them counter to what teachers are teaching in the classroom. I don't want to create an interactive and app that promote a rigid conformity to a three line, 5-7-5 syllable paradigm if that isn't what teachers are modeling.

Just to note, our Haiku app won't force the writer to use three lines (though it will only have three lines available), nor will it enforce a syllable count--in fact, it won't count syllables at all. We leave such checking and correction up to the user. The app can be used to write free-form poetry. But what should the instruction model?

If you have any information about how haiku writing is currently taught in the classroom or how you'd like to see it presented in this product, let me know.

Or to put it another way:

Seeking opinions
On proper haiku techniques
--Wes doesn't have a clue

Wes

Let's Talk About Videos

I've "starred" in a few videos myself for various International Reading Association marketing efforts (alas, I think they have all been removed from the internet!). Videos can be fun and informative; entertaining and educational. There are several videos embedded in various ReadWriteThink resources, from examples of teachers using our lessons in the classroom to some videos showing off our interactives to a whole collection of videos that show users how to make best use of the site features.

But they aren't always easy to find. Yet.

This is a little scoop on a pretty major change that we've been working on over summer: ReadWriteThink is adding a video library right on the main navigation. This totally new section will feature all of the videos that appear on our site as well as link to webinars or other videos that we have done or sponsored but are not able to host. As part of our on-going efforts to make ReadWriteThink as mobile friendly as possible, our videos are being converted from a Flash format to mobile-ready videos.

Some videos are student facing, but most are for teachers. So far.

We are always on the look out for quality video that we can add to our collection. We want to show lessons in action in the classroom. We want examples of research-based best practices. We'd love to get some informational videos on the Common Core and its implementation.

If you have ideas, let us know. We'd love an opportunity to work with you. The majority of our content is already user-submitted, after all.

Even if it isn't what we are looking for for the website proper, we also have a Youtube channel and we love to support and link to user-created content. Quite a few videos have been made by users showing how to use the various interactives. Useful if you want to use one in your classroom: You can give the link to students in case they forget what they are suppose to do. But don't think we are only about the RWT-based videos. Have you seen the What's Your Writing Style video? How cool is that?! Kids singing and dancing about writing! I love it!

I'll make a note of the video library page when it officially launches, but now you have the inside scoop of what is up and coming from RWT. I'm on vacation next week, so you won't be hearing from me. The week after, I should have loads of links to new stuff and some cool announcements about all the neat projects I am working on. We've got some really cool stuff coming down the pipeline.

But for now, I am off on vacation. Toodles!

Summer Vacation

I would love to say I haven't written on this blog cause I've been on vacation. That would be two months of vacation! I think I could handle that.

Alas, that's not how that went down.

I usually update the blog Friday afternoons. At IRA, the office is closed Friday--we work Monday to Thursday.  Which means I'm not here on Friday afternoons.

Worse excuse ever, I know, but alas, it is also the Truth.

And rather sad 'cause it means I haven't updated anyone on all the cool stuff I've been working on. And yeah, it is cool stuff. Things or user base is likely interested in.

For instance, I'd previous mentioned our Alphabet Organizer interactive and our Venn Diagram interactive. I never got around to tell you these are now available as mobile apps on Google Play and iTunes store.

I don't know that I even mentioned the changes being made to Timeline. App version releasing soon.

The tomato example. Relevant for RWT Editors: Most of us grow tomatoes! 

Even cooler, we have more apps coming soon. Some of our favorite and most popular interactives are being app-dapted (get it?) right now.

What can you expect? RWT's poetry suite: Acrostic, Diamante, and Theme Poem will all have app versions releasing in September*.

I've got even more apps and interactives in the works. I'll hold off on releasing details of those until next time, which should be in a week or two. Cause this is the last Friday I have offer before non-summer hours kick back in. That will help me keep on my schedule of hope-to-post-once-every-two-weeks.

Though really, with all the neat stuff we are pushing, I might need to post more often

OK, so one little teaser about the project I was working on today:

Poetry trio
Needs a new companion app
Details forthcoming

Wes


*Said with confidence, but not with a solid promise. I'm 100% sure they will, so there is a 95% chance it will happen.

A Is for Alligator

B is for Bayou. C is for Cypress Trees. D is the Dew.

Anyone recognize this? It's from an old Sesame Street song--one that to this day I still have in my memory. Did it help me learn my alphabet? I don't know, but there is something about the way it was done that has always lingered in my mind. The way Kermit breaks up his sentences with the letters.

"U is the Universe that's V vast and W wide." I've always loved that line

My writing it here does the clip little justice, so I shall link to it as well:

This is a perfect example of what students can do with the newly improved ReadWriteThink.org Alphabet Organizer. Now with the ability to save and import pictures, students can write their own ABCs story.

Sesame Street has a few examples if you feel like looking through the youtube channel or their child-friendly website. For adults who grew up watching Sesame Street, a trip through their channel is an amazing blast from the past--and I imagine a fun way to share good, wholesome, educational videos with kids.

So this was me reliving my childhood through our interactive:

All the words in chart form.

All my notes, which make up the lyrics to Kermit's song.

I really should have put Kermit's name in there instead of my own--this was not my song, just a slice of my childhood that lives on.

Wes

Summer Learning

Most people might know ReadWriteThink.org as a collection of resources for teachers and students--and we are, so that is a good thing! But we are also a resource for parents/guardians/after school providers and kids (my distinction here being the not-so-scientific classification that a student is a kid who is in school--like actually in the school building doing school-based stuff).

We have these resources stored in an aptly named Parent & Afterschool section(which we typically call P&AS; I mention this because I will be using that initialism throughout the post). If you are a teacher, you should share these with parents. Especially the summer initiatives. We had one last year, Bright Ideas for Summer, for which Becky coordinated having some P&AS activities written/altered to fit a summer theme. And that is still up, still available, and still completely awesome for helping kids beat the Summer Slide (the "slide" backwards in progress that happens over summer when kids are no longer engaged in learning activities).

This year, little more of the same and little bit of something different. We have some new activities and some re-vamped activities come at you. BUT we spruced up the whole package this year.

Have you heard of We Give Books? They provide free books online for kids to read. Awesome, right? Of course! Free books over summer! That amazing!

And we've partnered up with them. We have ten P&AS activities in the works being that are being specifically written to accompany a book that will be provided for free from We Give Books. Each activity   uses of one ReadWriteThink.org's interactives to engage kids after reading the book, to keep them thinking and learning and having fun.

The books are free. The interactives are free. The learning that can be achieved? Priceless.

I'll be adding a link to the resources when they go live. You can also keep an eye on our Summer Learning board on Pinterest. I've pinned the Bright Ideas info; I'll be pinning the We Give Books stuff as it becomes available. The whole thing launches mid June, so we are closing in.

And that is what we have coming for Summer Learning!

Wes

What Happened to April?

Wow. I lost a whole month!

Usually in April I am blogging about the International Reading Association's annual conference, and how ReadWriteThink is hosting sessions there. And where I'll be so you can come see me.

Alas, I failed. We went to San Antonio, we spoke to the teachers, we had an in-person team meeting. And I got a cowboy hat. And Becky laughed at me.

Here's a way to show this in a graphic representation:

I'm not the only one who fits in the center, though.

Whoa! Look at that! A Venn diagram!

Yes, that's right, after talking about it for a few months now, we have our new Venn Diagram interactive live on the site.

The iPad and Android versions are in production and (fingers crossed!) will be out by the end of May, maybe June.

We have a list of our interactives we are trying to turn in to apps for tablets (to avoid the whole Flash-does-not-run-on-iOS-systems issue) as well as list of interactives to be updated with the work saver. I'll get into more detail with those once we have deadlines and designer approval for our ideas and workplan.

If it all comes together, it will be very exciting.

Next time, I'm going to go in to our summer plans for this year. It's pretty cool, and we are very excited by the partnership we were able to strike up for this project.

But for now, all you get--other than the handy link to the new Venn Diagram interactive--is a picture of me photo-bombing some poor conference attendees. Don't worry, they totally got another picture without me in it.

Wes

What are we looking for?

I thought a good post today would be to describe what we (and by we I mean the acquisition editors of ReadWriteThink, which is not me at all) are looking for in new lessons and strategy guides. Your proposal--which is always preferred as first submission--is much more likely to garner a request for a full-lesson submission if you follow the topics/themes I am about to share with you.

Lucky you, to have the inside scoop!

Mobile

We are looking to expand our lessons that deal with using mobile technology (smart phones, tablets, and other wi-fi connected devices) in the classroom. These lessons should use mobile technology in an interesting and innovative way, taking advantage of the capabilities of the device rather than using it simply as an alternative to a desktop computer. The key things to consider: how mobile allows students to interact with others, how mobile tools make a task easier, and what product students can create with a mobile device (camera, video/audio recorder).

STEM

We currently are focusing on STEM based lessons that use the various facets of literacy within a real-world problem. For a lesson to be considered STEM, it cannot just have a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics component, but must fully use the problem-solving mindset of the discipline within a literary context.

  

Common Core

Although many lessons on ReadWriteThink.org can be adapted to fit the common core requirements, we are looking for lessons that specifically address the required skills highlighted in the CCSS document. Specially we are looking for lessons for the early grades (K-5) on writing that align to the CCSS (such as opinion/persuasive pieces, which are at the 3^rd and 4^th grade level). I know we have a few people working on lessons that focus on “reading” others forms of non-paper media, but I think lessons on this topic would still be appreciated.

Now, those are the topics, but there are some other considerations that always help get a lesson accepted, such as if the lesson is connected to pre-existing ReadWriteThink resources such as our interactives, apps, and print-outs.

We also try to make sure every lesson is innovated; if a lesson is similar to another lesson, the major difference being it uses a different book or RWT resource, it will likely be rejected. We believe that no lesson should be tied to single resource; the major tenets of the lesson should be able to be adapted as the classroom teacher sees fit--change the book, use a different interactive, have a different output from students. The lesson should hold up to these changes.

And there you have it! A little helpful information on what we're looking for!

Oh, I guess I should tell you how to contribute. You can fill out this for and you'll hear back from a rep from NCTE or IRA--which would be me, by the way, you lucky person you!

And I'll also use this space to confirm that, yes, lesson authors are paid a stipend upon successful publication of the lesson--this being after internal review, blind peer review, and copy editing.

Hope that helps!

Wes

Thanks, Dr. Seuss!

How's everyone doing today?

Good, good.

Me? Oh, I'm fine. First day of March--Read Across America Day. Good day. I celebrated with a little Dr. Seuss. Another look at Tweetle Beetles, which I believe we discussed around this time last year. Ah, I was talking about international poetry day that time.

And I cannot agree with John Lithgow more. The man is a genius. Thanks, Dr. Seuss! What you provided for the youth of yesteryear will resonate for decades to come.

My cohort Becky and I were discussing some favorite Seussian moments over the cubical wall after my Tweetle Beetle reading. Lines we still remember and can quote.

Sure we know Sam I Am and his oddly colored culinary offerings or the Lorax and his ability to converse for the otherwise silent fauna, but our recollections turned to other works such as the lessons we learned from the Sneetches on the beaches. And how to be brave, or at least, how to try:

"I said, 'I do not fear those pants.
With nobody inside them.'
I said, and said, and said those words.
I said them. But I lied them."

I'm glad to say that Dr. Seuss has not been lost in a gap of generations. I have some very young in-laws, and a couple years ago, I won over a wary 4 year old with a reading from The Cat in the Hat.

I had pulled out the book--which is prominently displayed with a dozen other Dr. Seuss books in my in-laws' living room--for my own entertainment. The book was fairly beaten up from decades of repeated use (which in book terms means love); no doubt it belonged to my wife way back when. No sooner did I have book in hand then I had child in lap--a child who was often shy/reserved/frightened around me. I hadn't expected a companion in my return to a childhood memory, but undaunted our hero (me) plunged onward.

I'm not used to reading aloud, and particularly not to children. Dr Seuss, however, dances off the tongue (well, except Fox in Socks and Oh Say Can You Say, which don't so much as dance as wrestle). I read that book, even discussed some of the themes and reflected up the plot, and followed with the Cat's return before we were called to dinner. I've been in Lily's good graces ever since.

But Dr. Seuss is more than childhood memories; his works have marked several milestones in my life. Like many of my friends and acquaintances, I have an unbattered copy of Oh the Places You'll Go with words of encouragement, pride, and love written on the inside cover from my parents. It was given to me upon my graduation from highschool. An appropriate token and wonderful sentiment.

Dr. Seuss had long been a part of my life. His works helped me to read and helped me to love reading. Truly a noble gift to give any person, and the Dr. gave it to so many. He will always have my thanks and admiration.

Wes

Guest Blog on Reading Rainbow

I'm going to keep this week simple: Today we have guest blog post up on the Reading Rainbow blog. It is an aptly times poetry post--aptly due to today being Valentine's day. Had I been more prepared, I'd have made a Valentine's Day poem to post here.

Instead, I'll just say you should go read that blog post instead. Lisa spearheaded the venture and Becky edited it. So it will be a refreshing change in that it wasn't written by me.

And I'm still planning on getting Becky to write a blog post here, but she's been busy.

Wes

Welcome to 2013

Welcome to 2013! We've been here a while now, but still, welcome.

Here at the RWT collective (since we don't have a specific headquarters), we are trying to sort out the year's projects. We have a lot of cool stuff in the works, but its always a puzzle to figure out what we will work on and what might not make it.

For instance, we recently had a survey about making a mobile version of the site. The survey was pretty informative and, I think, will help us make improvements to the main site--but it wasn't overall convincing that we should do the remote site. At least not yet.

Instead, we're going to try to make more of our interactives mobile friendly. That seems to be the direction we need to go.

That's a change we hadn't anticipated at the beginning of the year.

Other times, things just pop up unexpected. Just today, I got asked if I would like to attend the SoMIRAC Conference in Maryland in April--not just attend, but to do a session. Pretty cool getting the request, but it adds something on to my list of projects, and it's right before the IRA annual convention. Time Crunch!

I'm also on interactive/app duty (whichever direction we decide to go), which means coming up with an idea and writing specs.

Anyone out there have any ideas for me?

Next week, I'm going to go more into what sort of content and lessons we are seeking to add to the site to help bulk up some areas we see need improvement...or I'll get someone else to do it. I keep saying this is a joint blag thing, and then doing all the blogging myself.

Wes

10 Years of ReadWriteThink

In 2012, ReadWriteThink.org celebrated 10 years of supporting educators and providing resources to teachers, parents, and students. And we're proud to say that 2012 was our best year ever, shattering the 18 million visits mark!

ReadWriteThink.org keeps getting bigger and better, and as new theory and technology arise in the world of literacy education, we grow and change and adapt so that we can provide innovative materials and resources to the teachers and students who need them most.

We expanded on the number of student interactives that feature our work saver program, and massively updated and improved upon some of our most popular interactives, the Cube Creator, Trading Card Creator, and Printing Press.

Our largest project in 2012, by far, was the release of our first education apps for iPad tablet devices, our Trading Card and Word Mover mobile apps. These two were our pioneer projects into mobile technology, and by no means our last offerings in this realm.

This past year was a challenge, but a fun one for us at ReadWriteThink.org, and our success and popularity has us excited for opportunities in 2013. We'd like to thank you, our users, for making the site so widely used and so well loved. We couldn't have done it without you, and as always, your comments and feedback are appreciated.

Thanks for a great 2012!

-The RWT Team

Last Post for the Year

Today is my last day in the office for the year, and I'm getting out early!

It's a busy day, and I have a few announcements to make because we had a bunch of projects wrap up recently.

I mentioned in the last post that I'd have something fun and cool to show off. Turns out I have a couple.  First is a quick video about our Trading Card app:

I hope that works, embedded in there like that. Seems like it should.

Second, Printing Press is now live and looks awesome! That was a big project for Lisa and Christy, and they  really knocked it out of the park. Maybe next post I'll make part of the post in the printing press and paste it up here. I should have done that with this post. Alas, my creativity comes to me too late!

I've talked about one of the projects for next year being a potential mobile-friendly version of ReadWriteThink. We made a survey about what our users want to see on such a site, and we've just pushed it live. Please take a moment to answer the questions and help us make the best possible site we can for our tablet, smart phone, and mobile device users. Which can include the students, if we see that that is the trend among the responders.

That's it for me for 2012! Catch you in the new year. Have a safe and happy holiday session.

Wes

Not a Millionaire

Despite a weekend Vegas and $550 million dollar lottery, I am not a millionaire. Ah well, maybe next time.

So what am I going to talk about this week?

I'm at a loss, actually. I've had a catch-up week, coming back from a trip to Vegas (productive and fun!) and then a major US holiday last week. I spent the beginning of November prepping for the NCTE convention and the Doug Buehl webinar (which went extremely well--we have the archive up for free is you missed it). I came back and am kind of in a holding pattern. I'm waiting for Venn Diagram and the Android version of Trading Cards to be available for testing. I've been doing a lot of small, uninteresting-to-write-about job maintenance projects: follow-up on emails, researching traffic projections, designing banners for the homepage.


That last one is a new thing for me--my coworker Becky usually handles that for the IRA side, along with Christy on the NCTE side. But alas, Becky is no longer in the office having given birth to her third child this past weekend.

The last few weeks have been kind of boring for me, I guess! So let's look ahead: What does December have in store for the RWT team?

The already mentioned testing of apps is a big one. We have a 2013 work plan to draft out (which will give me more to talk about as we figure out what we are looking to do in 2013). The survey for the mobile site should be out next month as well.

One of my goals in December is to get out in to our social media platter and figure out how we can be more interactive with users. Fix up the areas that we aren't really representing ourselves. We have a Pinterest account, for instance, and I've not really familiarized myself with using Pinterest.

I know one area we will be adding something in the next couple weeks is YouTube. But I'll save that post for next time, when I have something to show you rather than just talk about. The showing is important for this one.

Wes

Halloween, Hurricanes, and Las Vegas!

The Delaware-based side of ReadWriteThink faired the recent Sandy storm well. We look around at the destruction that just missed us to the north, and our thought go out to those who were hit hard my the hurricane.

Halloween has now come and gone, and with it, my sugar rush.

And that moves us closer to NCTE's convention in Las Vegas next week! Whoa! I've never been to Las Vegas before, so this is really exciting for me. I not only get to represent IRA, meet with the NCTE team, and have a fabulous and productive dinner with the RWT Advisory Board, but I get to see Vegas! AWESOME!

OK, business. What have we been up to here?

Word Mover (which I have mentioned before) is now out on iTunes! It's free and it's fun, so download it, create some poems, and share them with us.

This week had us preparing a webinar presented by Doug Buehl, one of IRA's authors (DevelopingReaders in the Academic Disciplines and ClassroomStrategies for Interactive Learning). More information about the webinar can be found here.

I've had several chance to meet Doug over the years I've worked at IRA. He's a great speak, very interesting, and I think pretty funny. He's got a great whit. He's also very knowledgeable.

We're still very focused on what the next big thing for ReadWriteThink will be. We are pondering a mobile-friendly version of the site, but we need some feedback. Is it even a good idea? If so, what areas should be mobile friendly? How do we best present information in the mobile format?

We'll have a survey coming out to better help us decide how users will use the information. I hope to have some more info after the group meeting and advisory board dinner in Vegas.

Hmmm? What was that? How did the 5k race go?

Thanks for asking! It went horribly! It was my worst 5k time ever--I'm blaming the 15lbs of gear I had on as part of my costume.

Wes

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Guess what the topic of this post is about?

"Gee, maybe how you can't even keep up with an every-other-week posting schedule?"

....... No.

"Really, Wes? Really?"

...... Sorry.

It's about mobile technology!

First, I'm going to wow you with a couple links to a couple blog posts that are all kinds of awesome. A huge Thank You to Julie Ramsay who featured the Trading Card app as part of her post in her blog over the weekend. And even bigger THANK YOU (yes, I actually made it bigger) to her students, who used the Trading Card app in class and then posted about it in their class blog! They included their samples, which was really awesome, being able to see students using something I worked on.

Second, the Android version is nearly in our hands for testing. I'm going to guess that is still a couple weeks at least before it is downloadable.

Third, Word Mover went through beta with flying colors and is well on its way to being out there. I did a poem or two for testing. I suppose I can share one of the masterpieces.

The assignment was to right a poem about a book. I picked my favorite, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Does it make sense even if you've read the book Neverwhere? Maybe. But it was a fun exercise, using the limited words to try to write about the book!

Fourth, RedWriteThink is investigating making a mobile site, an abbreviated, mobile-optimized version to make browsing on a phone or tablet much easier, faster, and cheaper on your data plan. This idea is only just being to be floated around the ground, and we have a lot of research to do about what sort of content to put on it, how will it look, and even is this something teachers want?

Which is why I'm writing about it here--is this something you might want? Do you browse for lessons and classroom ideas on a mobile device? Would you if it was made easier and faster? Or is this something that will likely remain a desktop job for a while longer and making new apps and interactives would be a better use of our time?

We want to know what you want! How else would we know what to get you?*

Fifth, I have another 5k run coming up this weekend. I did one earlier in the month, and am looking to beat my previous time (and this time I'm running with friends; the hope is to beat all of them, too!). It's also a costume run. Fun fun! I'll update next time with pictures from that.

Wes

*This argument never flies with my wife when it is gift-giving time. She insists that I should be able to figure something out on my own. Apparently the surprise is part of the fun. I'd rather know I was getting something I wanted than be surprised by something I didn't.

Hello, October

First, I need to say PUMPKIN!

It's my favorite flavor. I particularly love pumpkin-flavored coffee or coffee creamer. I drink much more coffee this time of year not because of the temperature, but the flavor. Love it!

And now to ReadWriteThink-related topics.

The Android version of the Trading Card app is still in the works--I received a couple emails about that previously, and if I told you that it would be out by the end of September, I apologize. I think we will be closer to mid-October. Sorry. At least we have pumpkin-flavored coffee to hold us over, right?

Word Mover has moved to beta testing, so that is crushing right along. I'll share another Wes original with you after I do my test run.

I will down at the Diamond State Reading Association (DSRA) meeting tomorrow in Dover, DE. They are one of IRA's affiliate councils. This gives a chance to interact face-to-face with teachers and talk about ReadWriteThink.

And speaking of face-to-face, last week...no, two weeks ago...the editors of RWT had one of our face-to-face meetings between the NCTE team and the IRA team. I always love our in-person team meetings. I feel like it fosters a better work environment and improves communication. It's always fun, and I do enjoy getting to see Lisa and Christy and to catch up.

We went over site traffic (up 16% overall!) and where RWT is getting hit, what the trends show as areas to improve. We've come up with some interesting ideas for future fixes. We plan on revamping some older lessons, and we'll of course keep fixing the old interactives (Venn Diagram is already in the works).

The Professional Development side received a lot of traffic this year, which we like to see. We're now discussing how best to improve this section: what's work? What isn't? What's there that shouldn't be? What are teachers looking for when they go to that page?

If you've gone to the Profession Development section of ReadWriteThink, what did you think? Did you find what you were looking for? If you have any thoughts on what RWT can and should be providing, let us know!

More big things to come as we design the work plan for 2013. I'll keep listing out the cool things as they come up. It's an exciting time of year.

Because pumpkin flavor is back in season!

Wes

We Have an App!

I shall keep this one short and sweet. Or perhaps it is sweet because it is short?

I'm thinking of the Muppet's Christmas Carol when Fozzywigg makes his Christmas speech and Statler and Waldorf (as Jacob and Robert Marley) heckle him "That's it?" "It was dumb!" "It was pointless!" "It was obvious!" "It was...short...." "We LOVED it!"

<crickets>

No? Just me? Okaaaaay, moving on.

We have an app! We aren't officially marketing it yet, and we've only had one successful download from the iTunes store as far as I know. So here it is, another Wes-is-posting-something-without-clearing-it-first exclusive: the Trading Card App in iTunes!

Hope you like it!

Even more, I hope you can download and install it....

And for all the Android OS users out there, we have the Android version in the works, and we hope to be testing it soon, and have it released at the end of the month. We might need some beta testers for that...any volunteers?

Wes

Showing Off the Apps

Every other week at least? Really, Wes? Really? (My coworkers will get that joke....)

Yeah, it seems that the blog I had planned to write last week should have been written and posted last week to keep up with my goal of posting AT LEAST every other week.

Alas, alack!

I'll make up for it this week with pretty pictures and cool announcements.

Announcement 1: Trading Cards: The App is going live for iPads! The exact date is not known, but I am submitting the interactive to iTunes today for review. We're guessing it should be up and out there for download in a couple weeks <fingers crossed>.

And now for a pretty picture:

Sample of the Trading Card App printout

This is a final print out of a Fictional Person card from our interactive. I made this during testing, so it is a bit quick and dirty, but I thought it was pretty cool, so I decided to use it here.

The App allows used to add in their own pictures to the top area--I grabbed this one online. I believe it was one of the promotional posters for the movie Sucker Punch.

Note that me mentioning this movie here in how way reflects ReadWriteThink's view of the movie nor the views of any of the other editors or our parent organizations. I thought the movie was AMAZING! I was expecting a shallow, action-packed thrill-ride and found something that blew my mind. Haunted me for days! I'm not going in to any of my theories here in this post, but I did enjoy the movie so much that I made a couple cards based on the it, hence the Rocket card you see.

The App also allows for users to pick from a variety of styles for the card. I liked this one for Rocket because it is less stylized--which leans more focus on to action-packed image!--and does have a little softness and femininity in the way the purple fades, but is still a bold and vibrant color.

OK, that is image and announcement 1. Onto number 2.

RWT's second app, spear-headed by the NCTE team, was released to us last week for our first round of testing and it wicked cool! It is based on our Word Movie interactive but goes well beyond that in functionality and shear awesome. Similar to the interactive, you have a passage from a famous work from which you can select words to make into found poetry.

Unlike the interactive, it looks sleek, makes the words from the passage look like magnetic poetry strips, and has text from a few famous works preloaded, and has a large word bank that can be used instead of famous works. Users can also add their own words in case they have a particular list they need/want to use.

I have absolutely and totally NO permission from the NCTE team to post this picture, so I hope they won't get mad at me for doing so, but the initial testing  went so well and the app looks great; I wanted to show it off.

I call this poem Play on Words. Get it?

I didn't do much of a poem; some of my other works were longer. You can see the word bank is on the bottom, pops up and down into the work space. There are different background options as well. The words can be resized (I made them large since I was only using 2), rotated, and colored. The fonts can also be switched. Lots of options.

Again, this is alpha build stuff here, so things might change before it is finished and released.

For next time, maybe I'll see if Lisa or Christy want to chat about the latest interactive they have been working on, a redesign of the Print Press.We were testing that recently, too, and I'm excited to have that one released on the site. Very useful, very full-featured, and it looks great! I think the final release is scheduled for early September--but if I can get either of them to take a turn at posting here, they can probably give an actual date.

That's it for now. I'm out!

Wes