National Day on Writing Testimonials

National Day on Writing Testimonials

Today the National Gallery of Writing and associated galleries open to the public. Tune in to special events today and read these great comments from well-known writers on why they write. It's not too late to contribute your own writing, either. The galleries will be open through early June. This is a remarkable effort deserving of our support. It's also an intriguing one in its use of 21st century tools for creating and disseminating the gallery while focusing on one of the most important literacies in human history--writing.

Fish Is Fish

This children's story teaches a lesson about the use of background knowledge.

North Korean Comics

There's a fascinating review of North Korean comics at this site. Here's the opening to give you an idea of the whole post. I recommend it.

"Our mandate here at Sleep is for the Weak can be generously summarized as “hilariously review the comics and cartoons of the exotic East.” This primarily means that we look at anime and manga coming out of Japan, and maybe the odd Korean manhwa or cartoon that was produced in China.

But there’s one country whose comics (or as they’re called there, gruim-chaek) have pretty much gone unnoticed by everyone. There’s a reason for that. Generally, that’s because the country that they’re from - North Korea - is the most isolated and hidden country in the world."

Senate Bill Supports 21st-Century Skills

Senate bill supports 21st-century skills

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Such a bill seems to have merit. What do you think of the work of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the ideas of this bill? I'd also like to hear from someone in the states that are cited in the article. What do you think of your state's standards regarding these skills?

Language Abuse?

On the Common Craft blog, there's a great post discussing the need for plain English and how the language gets used for obfuscation rather than clarity. I find the comments as interesting as the orginal article. Where will our use of the language lead us? How will the language use in various discourse communities will shape our thinking and be shaped by our participation?