Writing Marathon - Saddlery Write - Poem

A blast of an earthy smell.
Animal, glue, and chemicals,
I can't quite tell.


Dull steel glints
Amongst a sea of leather.
Assorted ropes, straps, and bits.

The front superficial and modern,
But the back is base and genuine.
The essence of the West at every turn.

Sometimes we need a whiff of the past.
To escape the norm,
And just have a blast.

Writing Marathon - Thumper Write - Game Rules

How to play Yeti

The Ultimate Game of Musical Chairs

Step 1: Gather as many chairs (preferably non-folding ones) as there are people playing minus one, and place them in a circle. So if you have 20 players, you need 19 chairs. There is no limit to the number of players, but if you have more than 40 you choose to split them into 2 groups. The remaining person stands in the center of the ring of chairs.

Step 2: The person in the center says, “Have you seen my Yeti?”. Then you give a description. Example could be: “He is wearing a blue shirt”, “She had green eyes”, “He has 2 brothers”, or “She has shot hair”. It can be anything really, but it should describe at least a couple of the players.

Step 3: Anyone in the circle who fits that description has to get up and find a new chair. The catch is that someone will inevitably be left without a chair. That person repeats steps 2 and 3.

There is no set end to the game. The point of the game is really just a fun contest to race for the chairs and learn a little bit about the other players while you’re at it. It’s a great icebreaker for all ages and is extremely fun once everyone gets past their hesitation. It helps to have a couple energetic people who have played it before to get the ball rolling. Sometimes people will get a little too excited, but I have never seen anyone get seriously hurt.

 

Writing Marathon - School Playground Write - Children's Story

Once upon a time there was a girl. When she was young she loved to play. Recess was her favorite time of the day. It was the time when you didn't have to be quiet and could just enjoy yourself doing whatever you wanted.

But as she got older, they had recess less and less. School became harder, and the girl and her friends had no time to play. The pretended to be “too cool” to play and did other things, but they were secretly jealous of the younger kids. Eventually she even forgot how to play and how good it felt.

But then one day she went with her class to the playground and were told to go play. She and her classmates were confused. “Why would we want to play? We are all grown up, so we’re to mature to play anymore. Playing is for children”, they all thought. But the teacher had told them to do so, so I guess they had too.

The girl got on her old favorite, the swings. At first she lazily swung back and forth very calm and dignified like. But then that feeling returned from her childhood. The feeling of being as light as air, as your stomach swung back and forth inside of you. It brought both fond and forlorn memories of her long forgotten childhood rushing back. Despite the bad, the good was more than worth the reminder the girl was thankful for this reminder of better times. She swore that she remember them this time around.

So let this be warning to all of you. Don't take those memories for granted, for if they're neglected, they will soon vanish. And those memories are precious things, that much be cherished.

Writing Marathon - Museum Write - Letter

Dear Mom,

                 Oh my god, you would love this. We went to the Headwaters Heritage Museum today and it was incredible. I could have spent 3 days in there and still not seen everything. Remind me to never take you in there or else we will be in there for 3 days.

                 Downstairs there was just a maze of crammed display cases and walls. There were mannequins, statues, pictures and scrap books everywhere. One display case held hand carved animals and thins ranging in size from a baseball to the eraser on the tip if a pencil. The detail was absolutely amazing! And it wasn't just pioneer age stuff. I saw a bunch of memorial for veterans of recent wars. There was a safe that we were all joking about locking someone in. I went in there and almost had a panic attack when Jacob closed the door, even though it didn't latch.

                The upstairs had several small rooms that were set with different scenes and complete with mannequins. You know how I hate those creepy things. One was even getting freaking perm! Then in the hallway there was a huge wall covered in a display of barbed wire accented with a bunch of competition ribbons. I didn't even know there was such a thing a competitive barbed wire showing! J Maybe I’ll take you there if you PROMISE a 2 hour max, maybe.

Writing Marathon - Sacagawea Write - Brochure

Information and photos compliments of http://www.sacajaweahotel.com/

Why technology can enhance our learning.

     Technology is an essential part of our learning now, and in the future. Sure, there are some limitations and negatives, but the vast opportunities that new technology offers is far too valuable to be rejected because of some small problems. But technology should NOT be a replacement to traditional teaching methods. One example is handwriting because physically writing activates parts of your brain that are very important to creativity and mental health.
     That can be a problem because the tendency is to replace traditional methods with new technology. But that can be easily solved with some cooperation and education. Another problem is that technology offers many distractions. But let's face it, technology is an inseparable part of our growing world and will be in someway involved in our daily living for the rest of our lives. So all of us just need to learn to control our temptations, and what better place to learn than school? It's a nurturing environment with a lot lower risk than possibly failing once you get into the job force, which you can no longer afford to do.
     Technology offers routes of learning for people with all different learning styles and brand new methods to learn previously difficult concepts. Something that I have found absolutely indispensable to my learning in my old school is Google Apps for Education. It presented so many new opportunities, like an collaborative online word processor, a group contact list, and cloud storage of multiple media types. Cloud storage with Google Drive was absolutely revolutionary because it gave an easy solution to the problem of accessing your files when using multiple computers. That's a particularly rampant problem with students. The problem of "I forgot it on my home computer" is totally eliminated. The collaborative online word processor allows multiple people to easily edit the same document simultaneously from anywhere in the world. You can even leave notes and have real time chats with other collaborators within the same window. And that's just the beginning! There are so many technologies that are not yet being fully utilized or haven't even be invented yet. The possibilities are endless.