Guatemala: 3-Part Service Learning Presentation

In 2006 I participated in a service learning trip to Guatemala. I put together a 3 part video series that overviewed the experience. In order to keep them more manageable for uploading and viewing, I tried to keep each part under 10 minutes. However, in doing so I ended up not including information some may find valuable. In order to help answer more questions I am including the San Lucas Toliman Mission webaddress. It is as follows:

http://www.sanlucasmission.com/

Part One: Overview of San Lucas Toliman, the Mission's Mission, program areas, and brief introduction to a couple of the projects we participated in while there. The link to this video is:

The Second Part of the presentation series looks at some stories and surprises we encountered while at San Lucas Toliman. The link to this video follows:

The third and final part of the presentation looks at a few more of our adventures, including time spent traveling outside of San Lucas Toliman. The video follows:

Writing with Will Weaver -- "Writing for Young Adults"

The following notes come from Will Weaver's 3rd session at Central Lakes College. This session was titled "Writing for the Young Adult". It ran from 2:00-3:30 on April 24, 2009.

"When writing, think about using description as you would use a camera..." like a lens moving across the subject.

It might not have been about until late 60's that books were specifically written for young adults. The Outsiders, written by a young adult for a young adult.

Real life events can be a stepping off point for one's writing.

Smaller event, finding the sensation of that event and then elaborate on that.

There's a book for every child--the right book at the right time. Different genres for different populations--check out awards for young adults which list them by category.

There can sometimes be a challenge for kids: finding the books that reflect their life. "I don't like to read"--"why do we have to read that?" can be statements that reflect this discrepancy.

Will is working on a 3 book series "motor books". First book: "Saturday Night Dirt" . To get more kids interested in reading about something that does reflect real life, the book is being promoted with a real stock car and a real teenage driver. They've nicknamed the car the "Bookmobile". The real life teenage motorcar driver is curently racing real races in Minnesota. The teenager's Dad was the crew chief. They take the car around to different schools during the off season. It has been so popular with the schools that they have more invitations than they can currently accept.

They've also made some promotional video which is used at the schools and on the blog http://www.motornovels.com/ (a site created just for Team Weaver). Some of video took place right at NorthCentral Speedway here in Brainerd. Many of races take place in Bemidji as that is where Will lives. Will went to NWTech in Bemidji to attend some classes and immerse himself in motor cars again.

According to Will, the real life story of the real driver is "interesting narrative" too. Skylar was struggling with school and Will decided he should give him the chance to race the car on the condition that he stay in school and improve his grades. Will even monitors his grades a bit and steps in a bit if he feels Skylar needs a little reinforcement.

As far as whether or not a young adult book needs to have universal teenage issues, Will says "they could be there, doesn't have to be--it just needs to hold your attention".

Dialogue has an edge or an issue otherwise it's just conversation. Soap operas seem to have alot of arguing. Use the issues to spark the dialogue versus boring conversation.

According to Will, generally there's distance of the kids (point of view) and "the parents". Tends to be part of the genre.

Value added part of the story "...something that in the end that would allow me as a writer to compete with Grand Theft Auto 4"

In the end it all comes down to sentences. You can have the greatest idea and concept but if you don't have the sentence and the desription to write good stories it won't go anywhere.

Part of the author's job is "looking for a universal transparent language that doesn't have a shelf life...if it uses alot of current phrases then it gets stuck in time"

As for feedback will says, most writers will have a writers group or class. Some of them wing it. Will now uses his editor.

"Writing is truly a step by step process not a miracle". Alot of revision--each page gets revised about 15 times.

Writing with Will Weaver -- "Short Stories"

The following are notes from Will Weaver's second session, "Short Stories", which ran from 11-12:30 at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota on April 24, 2009.

"We all have stories, interesting stuff, great thoughts...we have to get them out"

"I think there is a built in need for stories {that's a part of being human, it's} a way of organizing life or expressing ourselves"

Ideas can come from very simple places/concepts too.

Sometimes as writers we overlook those little moments, family moments that are rich with potential.

"Insufficient"

Great arch--the contrast

Stories can be fun and light.

Short stories often have tidy endings.

Will: "True art...something we can revisit again and again."

Short stories need a great opening line.

Story should go somewhere--up the ladder, conflict crisis resolution.

Limit characters

"Writing is more what you leave out than what you leave in"

When do write best? Find your own biorhythms

The right topic, finding the right topic for you is KEY. It has to interest you. Leave the reader thinking.

Writing with Will Weaver--"Our Own Stories"

The following are notes as I took them from the Will Weaver workshop "Our Own Stories" held at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota. "Our Own Stories" was held from 9-11 am.

http://www.willweaverbooks.com/

Quotes by Mr Weaver:

"Write intensely with authentic local details..."

"Former Students" Poem by Mark Vince

"We are surrounded by our material and think twice about it"

"Revisit, reexpress our own stories"

Realistic Fiction have some basis of your own perception, your experience (like 80 fiction/20 life)

story should be personally valuable and important to us

Nature can be an inspiration. Metaphors very important

"Pre-writing Strategies: Every book is its own puzzle"
1) How much time am I going to cover (a summer, a lifetime)
2) Point of View--how much distance (first person--very intimate)
3) Audience
4) Focus


Approach Big Subject through a very small lens

Gertrude Stein once commented that there are only 10 stories that just get told and retold (like coming of age, love found, love lost). So how do develop your own voice for telling that story?
*Use strong desription, full-range of imagery and details to make it REAL
*Need Sensory Imagery. Most people remember visual imagery, but forget the other sense. So don't neglect olfactory, tactile, aural, and details you can almost taste.
*There also needs to be a balance of time for story and the details (too many details can affect the tempo)
*Use symbolism
*Conflict--puzzle
*Create a movie in your head
*Get feedback

But sometimes you have an original idea or concept.

Tips for how to catch editors attention can be found on his blog. But you need:
*Strong sentence structure and writing skills
*Write with "Zing"
*Have a strong story to tell

Short stories have a tight ending (clean clear ending)

Will commented that he benefited from the exercise of taking his work and another person's work and comparing it page by page.


"If you want to be a writer you also need to be a reader"


Poems and short stories can be sent directly to magazines (realizing it is a non paid submission--usually get a couple of copies of the journal) or there are some onlines sites.

Will's not a fan of self-publishing--he comments that this is a debateable topic in writing circles. He adds, "Some people want to be a writer more than they want to write...maybe these people are starting at the wrong end."

Be ready for rejection. And even after that feel as if the work wasn't wasted, wasn't for naught

His experience was that working with the independent movie makers was much more collaborative than big hollywood. When your works get taken on by someone else, expect changes and have a thick skin.

Croci & Hope

The croci are out so I figured I should be too. I turned off my computer, put on a pair of tennis shoes and went for a walk. Even more exciting is that after walking 2.6 miles, I ran the last mile home! Woohoo! I was a little concerned that after being computer-bound all winter and not running that it would take me months to get back to being able to run my 3.6 mile route. But the fact that I completed that mile without feeling like I was dying really gave me hope. But afterall, isn't that kind of what spring is all about? Hope that we'll have warm summer days. Hope that as we have more sunlight each day that our hearts will be lighter and the lazy days of summer will seem longer. And hope that life will seem as rejuvinated as the spring flowers that burst with bright colors from the post-winter ground, just like the bright purple crocus flower that's the first to greet me in the spring. Spring--gotta love it!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

W 2.6. R 1. B 3

Windows and Mirrors Video; A Wedding in Norway

Twitter History--one in a million

I am writing this blog entry at 1:52 am after staying up to be a part of Twitter History. For the last 3 hours I've been multi-tasking, toggling between twitter, facebook and Ashton Kutcher's live streaming video. As I understand it, Ashton made a comment that he had more followers on Twitter as a single person than the conglomerate CNN. Somehow, this then turned into a challenge which actually was quite close. Although the lead changed when it came down to the wire, Ashton had about a 1,000 person edge that narrowed as the hours turned into minutes--but he pulled it off. And I was there to witness it, as only our modern multi-medium high tech world would have me: IM'ing two people at the same time on facebook, listening/watching his live stream, updating my twitter feed, and googling the history of the CNN/Kutcher Challenge. When it's all said and done, he apparently not only won the race, but became the first person on Twitter to reach a following of 1 million people. And yes, I was one of them--guess that truly does make me one in a million!

Taxes, Trash and more Youtube videos

Well it has been awhile since I posted. I've been working on new videos. These videos cross a range of topics and courses. Some videos are podcasts I shot with my friend's help. While others are edited pieces from interviews I conducted with local mass communication specialists. The first person I interviewed was Pam Colby, the Executive Director of Minneapolis Television Network, a community access medium. The other person I interviewed was Heidi Holtan, who works with KAXE, a community radio organization out of Grand Rapids that also has a Brainerd broadcasting channel. I will post these videos in separate blog entries but worth noting is the fact that as of tonight, I have created and uploaded to youtube 264 videos--all since I've been on sabbatical.

As some of the videos were uploading, I ventured out for a walk in this beautiful weather we had today. Although I had completed my taxes a whole week early, I was still very aware of it being the tax deadline day. I apparently have been pretty oblivious to certain news as of late and only recently came to hear about all the "tea bag parties" that were scheduled for today. Although I believe in the first rights guaranteed by the first amendment, I still took issue with these types of protest parties. I'm not going to go on a rampage of my own--I didn't think that would be productive or particularly advantageous to anyone. So instead, I decided that I would do something that was productive and that did have some type of concrete benefit to my community.

First I walked to the local grocery store and purchased food for the local food shelf which I carried in my reusable grocery bag. I walked my non-perishables over to the donation site. After that I walked over to the nearby river walk and local park where I spent an hour collecting garbage from the grounds, the shrubs, and along the banks of the Red River. There are tall grasses that grow along the side of the river and trap quite a bit of garbage.

I am glad I took the opportunity to do this today. I am thankful for many things and today was a day to remember a few of those reasons why I am thankful. And that I felt was worth noting.