Mark W.F. Condon: Blog

Come join me as I continue to offer support to parents and teachers everywhere who nurture the best in reading and writing in their families.

You’ve probably seen these kinds of images before, cut-out looking images that fit over a photo that allow you to add comments and thought and such to liven up pictures. 

Man, wouldn’t it be great if RealeBooks had sounds, too?!

DONE! I just created a demonstration of how a sound book works using RealeWriter 3.3 (our newest version, just out two weeks now). If you haven’t gotten that, the free download is available now from http://www.realebooks.com). If you already have 3.x, then you’ll want to download and install this latest version just out. Your activation code for 3.x will work for this one as well!

This Tuesday, we will launch the Literacy Commons, a new venture in local publication that may v ery well revolutionize the way children and families learn and learn to read.

Stephanie and Ernie Stevens have opened the door to new possibilities for local publication with RealeBooks. Stephanie is a graphic artist and photographer. She and her husband have created a marvelous book that blends photographic images of their beautiful family along with graphic artwork into a magnificent RealeBook they called, My Bright Imagination. This very unique story, which celebrates their family’s heritage and strength, has been contributed this week to the Signature RealeLibrary for the rest of us to enjoy. (http://signature.realelibrary.com/index.php/read/105).

Yesterday we launched the Literacy Commons. Historically, a “commons” is land shared by all community citizens. The Literacy Commons will be picture books shared with the world. We hope the Literacy Commons will become an additional, powerful new direction for local, community-based publication. 

Those of you who have read my blog or visited my RealeLibrary for awhile may remember a RealeBook I made a year or more ago for a little neighbor boy who had been under the weather. The book (shown here) called “Hey Rhino Face” was my attempt to offer some entertainment to a very active little man who at the time was house-bound with a cast on his leg. Cedric is now finished with first grade, having brought home a report card with ALL O’s (Outstandings) across the board, except in PE, a mere S+. (FYI: As it turns out, PE is just recess.) To recognize his fabulous academic record, and perhaps as a nod in the direction of his need for more physical activity, his parents erected a nice basketball goal for him here in early summer to celebrate his not insubstantial academic accomplishments. 

Okay, so let’s say that in at least one marvelous way (and perhaps many others), that you are an interesting person. By that I mean that maybe you are a collector…coins, Beanie Babies, stamps, cool shoes, sports memorabilia, books from long ago, antiques, old comic books, etc. 

It is a favorite game of pre-school children – Playing School. With tiny chairs in rows and a chalkboard and a pointer, the “teacher” spends her time bossing other kids around. Do this, don’t do that. Line up. Shut up. Not surprisingly, this game isn’t particularly popular the farther along that kids get in school.
The bad news is that some adult, paid teachers just play school. This is not what you need for your child, so every parent should know what to look for to see if their child’s teacher is like that.

When two people “connect” it is a special moment in both their lives. Writing that is worth doing can feel every bit as personal as two strangers discovering a new friend in each other. Writing builds a corridor between the author and reader through which only those two can pass.

It’s been my experience with software that folks use it as a tool, to help them do a job they want to do. Otherwise we leave the tool in the tool box and don’t think about it much. We therefore tend to learn how to do what we want to do, use the tool, then put the tool down and walk away. But here’s the revelation: If we don’t already WANT to do something, if we don’t know what the tool can do, then we never learn how it works. The feature that does stuff we never knew we could do just doesn’t exist for us. 

You know the system is improving when the results just keep getting better.

One of the usual “knocks” on RealeWriter is that the RealeBooks we share in the RealeLibrary system tend to be so simple. This is a natural and appropriate criticism because when we began our little journey in leading children in the making of picture books, it was to support the youngest of our learners. So teachers and parents made simple naming books or concept books or pattern books. But things have begun changing! 

I’m an average speller. I was taught phonics well it appears (though the nuns used Dick and Jane) and I write enough that I know when a word doesn’t “look right.”

What I was never taught was what to do next.

Picture books are what we do here, both providing them to families looking for a good read and inviting those with a creative urge to publish their own picture book, at no cost of course.

We were particularly gratified to have received the contribution to the Signature RealeLibrary* of a very nice poetry book in the last week called Winter Poems. The book was co-created by members of Mrs. Muchow’s Fourth Grade Class. Each student in the class wrote and illustrated a poem about winter, included it in a RealeBook anthology and sent it along for the world to enjoy. The poems are delightful to read and the illustrations are wonderful too! ... one in particular!

The teacher and I were making small talk in her room early that morning, when she announced her intention to have a slumber party for the girls in her first grade class. She has 8 girls and she had decided it would be a wonderful opportunity to get to know some of them better, and of course for them to know her as a real person, not just that woman in that room at school. 

You may think that making a sharp looking book about their learning lives is cool…it is of course…but kids of 2008 are expecting a book that explodes or dances. So, one way to engage kids, especially older kids, in accepting a challenge of writing a book about what they are learning in school or in life is to show them how to do cool things with RealeWriter that they might some day put into a book.Demonstration is always the best teacher. 

The entertainment industry’s writer’s strike brought Hollywood and New York television to a complete standstill at the end of 2007. Upon their return the recent collective sigh of relief from performers and viewers alike has been very impressive! Besides taking Jay Leno off the hook for his inability to create sufficient material over the past 8 weeks, I would like to suggest that this also means something to those of us interested in the education of young children. 

If you want to get your kids excited about writing, then you may want to consider inviting them to write books. Right, books. As odd as that sounds, even very young children can and WILL write books if we give them a structure that is manageable. The path to good writing is not a direct one. If you can get them excited about the possibilities of creating colorful books using unusual media, or making snazzy books using a computer program, then you are well more than half way to making writing not just acceptable, but in fact as exciting as it should be for every child. 

There are basically four challenges for excellence in composition that parents and teachers need to help young writers understand and meet. 

Oh no, there it is! Way off in the distance, yet as it slowly approaches it is already beginning to grab every bit of many a teacher’s attention. TESTING! The 500 lb. Gorilla will soon enter the classroom. It is impossible to ignore, try as we may.