For weeks, we've been silent about things that have been going on in private deals. And now, finally, one of the conversations has come about. Our Book Review!
To follow this up, we are also running a contest (in addition to what's on Tim's site).
If you comment on our Facebook page, you will get one entry per comment into ParaEducate's contest to win a free copy of our book. This includes all comments starting August 1, 2012 until August 31, 2012, midnight PST. On September 1, 2012, Megan or myself will let the winner know by FB message.
Questions:
Q: But wait, don't you have a Google + page too?
A: Yes, but we only have 3 people who 1+ our Google Page right now. So it's more of a contest on FB. Sorry.
Q: What are the rules?
A: Glad you asked. We're keeping them simple.
So the nitty gritty:
1)
Comments only count here on our FB Page (not the FB group about the
books).
2) August 1st through August 31st at midnight PST. (yes, you can
back comment on older posts from this month!)
3) Megan or Renay will
contact the winner via FB message. Thank you all for helping to support
us. Good luck! (and in case you were wondering: Megan Gross and Renay H. Marquez don't get a chance to win...)
If you have more questions, go ahead and ask. Can't wait to hear from you all.
Showing posts with label paraeducators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paraeducators. Show all posts
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Some Announcements
We just confirmed the details, Megan and I will be presenting a workshop about inclusion teams at TASH this year in Long Beach. In addition to our presentation at TASH, Megan will be running a workshop with co-author, Jennifer Kurth. And if we're really lucky, Lisa Yamasaki will also be with us.
So look for us at TASH 11-29 to 12/1 in Long Beach. We may even talk about our upcoming Project Alpha. But I know Megan, she'll keep me on topic and we'll talk about what a team really looks like from the administrative end going to the students.
In addition: Megan is on a podcast, The Inclusive Class, on October 12, 6am PST. She'll be talking about our book and what people should know about the role of paraeducators. So the next few weeks are quite busy.
On the Project Alpha front: layout for the pages is in progress. And I go back to full time work starting on the 20th of this month and juggle all of this, support my co-founder, do the family thing, and anything else that gets thrown my way.
So look for us at TASH 11-29 to 12/1 in Long Beach. We may even talk about our upcoming Project Alpha. But I know Megan, she'll keep me on topic and we'll talk about what a team really looks like from the administrative end going to the students.
In addition: Megan is on a podcast, The Inclusive Class, on October 12, 6am PST. She'll be talking about our book and what people should know about the role of paraeducators. So the next few weeks are quite busy.
On the Project Alpha front: layout for the pages is in progress. And I go back to full time work starting on the 20th of this month and juggle all of this, support my co-founder, do the family thing, and anything else that gets thrown my way.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
One Year Ago
I will wax poetic here.
It's been one year since I handed over a draft to start my first collaborative writing effort. The end result is ParaEducate, available at Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, and Kindle formats.
And by our first meeting and after 5 hours of work, we had made 50% progress to our first draft. By November, we had a physical first draft. By December we had finished up all major edits and January we had spent most of doing graphics. Feburary was fine tuning, marketing, getting our company established, and on February 29, 2012, we were live just in time as we walked into our first conference.
And now, we've done a total of 2 speaking venues as a company, we've been accepted to the national stage to speak for the first time to a wider audience. Our book has sold the first copies. We've been reviewed as authors.
And I'm preparing several new projects as an author.
I sit back and have to let out a deep breath. It's been like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and we've not even reached the height of where we want to go.
Life will lead if you are unprepared. But I know this, I have never been more honored as an author to have written with Megan, Jenny, and Lisa. I cannot wait until our next project is ready to be shared.
It's been one year since I handed over a draft to start my first collaborative writing effort. The end result is ParaEducate, available at Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, and Kindle formats.
And by our first meeting and after 5 hours of work, we had made 50% progress to our first draft. By November, we had a physical first draft. By December we had finished up all major edits and January we had spent most of doing graphics. Feburary was fine tuning, marketing, getting our company established, and on February 29, 2012, we were live just in time as we walked into our first conference.
And now, we've done a total of 2 speaking venues as a company, we've been accepted to the national stage to speak for the first time to a wider audience. Our book has sold the first copies. We've been reviewed as authors.
And I'm preparing several new projects as an author.
I sit back and have to let out a deep breath. It's been like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and we've not even reached the height of where we want to go.
Life will lead if you are unprepared. But I know this, I have never been more honored as an author to have written with Megan, Jenny, and Lisa. I cannot wait until our next project is ready to be shared.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Project Alpha
So I would name all my current writing projects but that would get silly. At any one time I probably am honestly thinking about 20-30 plot lines, some even within the universes I create and then the plot lines I'm teaching my students to follow and trying to keep my fiction ideas separate from my non fiction ideas.
Crazy right?
So here's the deal: because I sincerely believe I will be doing more work related to special education, I'll label these projects. I think my short stories, especially the many that will remain incomplete are always mine and soley mine. The way someone might call a child 'mine'. Nobody else will get to deal with those characters the way i have through the lives that they choose to share with me.
But my special education topics, I need to get out to the world to hopefully make it easier for future people to have access to the materials and ideas. There are a million blogs about special education but not one of them are soley dedicated to making sure that the ideas are available.
Am I losing sight as an author? No.. My writing will be directed here. I will still talk about my writing process. I will still be dealing with the amusement of having worked for hours on a paragraph when I could have worked on any number of other things.
So Project Alpha has just completed Phase 1. Phase 2: adding illustrations. And due to this wonderful degree I have in architecture, students will see my hand drawings instead of illegally copied images from the internet. Unless the images are public domain...
The future of Project Alpha starts now.
Crazy right?
So here's the deal: because I sincerely believe I will be doing more work related to special education, I'll label these projects. I think my short stories, especially the many that will remain incomplete are always mine and soley mine. The way someone might call a child 'mine'. Nobody else will get to deal with those characters the way i have through the lives that they choose to share with me.
But my special education topics, I need to get out to the world to hopefully make it easier for future people to have access to the materials and ideas. There are a million blogs about special education but not one of them are soley dedicated to making sure that the ideas are available.
Am I losing sight as an author? No.. My writing will be directed here. I will still talk about my writing process. I will still be dealing with the amusement of having worked for hours on a paragraph when I could have worked on any number of other things.
So Project Alpha has just completed Phase 1. Phase 2: adding illustrations. And due to this wonderful degree I have in architecture, students will see my hand drawings instead of illegally copied images from the internet. Unless the images are public domain...
The future of Project Alpha starts now.
Monday, May 14, 2012
What Was Behind ParaEducate?
So my latest book, is ParaEducate. Previously, I've stuck to fictional works. Both Small Voices: Delusions, Discourses, and Discoveries and Putting It On The Line were all fictional. I've published some other short stories, but the point is, I like writing my imagination. Characters come to life. I want my readers to care about who I've created in my own head.
But ParaEducate isn't any of that.
First, my day job: I'm a Paraeducator. Purely by job description on my campus, this means I walk around helping students with moderate to severe disabilities. I have a functional knowledge of what to generally expect in every class with a student and how to best get that student to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject at hand. I also represent 1 of roughly 300,000 paraeducators across the country. Eight hours a day, I see students with autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, and assorted behaviors. And they bring that with them into the classroom and some days are more successful than others.
As a whole: paraeducators are tended to be "dumped" on: expected to demonstrate more knowledge than they are capable of with the least amount of resources and training. There are many, many, many, wonderful paraeducators out there. But there is also very high turn over. In my eight years of working full time, there is one person who is still with me at the same campus who started off with me eight years ago. Of the 16 paraeducators on my campus, there were 10 new people this year all of whom have had less than 2 years of full time experience, let alone experience with grades 7, 8, and 9.
I was fortunate, I got to work with Jenny, Megan, and Lisa through my 8 years of being at the same school district and then we all collaborated and created this book. This book covers all the things a paraeducator should be told and a few other things that usually aren't told. Even if you've been at the job for years, it's always hard to remember where you might have first heard something about a specific disability or even about a method that is a part of best practices. Megan did an insane amount of research and helped complete the significant parts that I did not have formal education. (If you've seen, I studied architecture, and I've never regretted one moment of that decision).
ParaEducate is most definitely one of those books that defines a career. And even if you're not going to be a paraeducator for your entire life, you deserve to be given appropriate tools to help you learn to navigate what could be one of the hardest jobs you have the pleasure of ever doing.
If you haven't picked up a copy, take a gander at the sample online. You might see something that sparks your interest. If you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment here I will get back to you.
But ParaEducate isn't any of that.
First, my day job: I'm a Paraeducator. Purely by job description on my campus, this means I walk around helping students with moderate to severe disabilities. I have a functional knowledge of what to generally expect in every class with a student and how to best get that student to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject at hand. I also represent 1 of roughly 300,000 paraeducators across the country. Eight hours a day, I see students with autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, and assorted behaviors. And they bring that with them into the classroom and some days are more successful than others.
As a whole: paraeducators are tended to be "dumped" on: expected to demonstrate more knowledge than they are capable of with the least amount of resources and training. There are many, many, many, wonderful paraeducators out there. But there is also very high turn over. In my eight years of working full time, there is one person who is still with me at the same campus who started off with me eight years ago. Of the 16 paraeducators on my campus, there were 10 new people this year all of whom have had less than 2 years of full time experience, let alone experience with grades 7, 8, and 9.
I was fortunate, I got to work with Jenny, Megan, and Lisa through my 8 years of being at the same school district and then we all collaborated and created this book. This book covers all the things a paraeducator should be told and a few other things that usually aren't told. Even if you've been at the job for years, it's always hard to remember where you might have first heard something about a specific disability or even about a method that is a part of best practices. Megan did an insane amount of research and helped complete the significant parts that I did not have formal education. (If you've seen, I studied architecture, and I've never regretted one moment of that decision).
ParaEducate is most definitely one of those books that defines a career. And even if you're not going to be a paraeducator for your entire life, you deserve to be given appropriate tools to help you learn to navigate what could be one of the hardest jobs you have the pleasure of ever doing.
If you haven't picked up a copy, take a gander at the sample online. You might see something that sparks your interest. If you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment here I will get back to you.
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