Mrs. Morris, Lang. Arts 7-2

CTWP 2011!!!

Catherine Avril Morris — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:06 +0000

I’m taking part in such a great workshop this month! The Central Texas Writing Project holds a Summer Institute each June, during which educators come together to write and share best teaching practices for teaching writing to students. I feel so lucky to be taking part in the Round Rock-based CTWP group this summer.

Here is a log of what we did today (click on the images to see them in a larger format):

Hello, Class!

Catherine Avril Morris — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:42:38 +0000

Yay, thanks for visiting me! (I’m assuming if you’re here, you’re one of my students from CPMS.) I miss you guys already! Ha ha, we just said goodbye this morning…

If you poke around this site a bit, you’ll notice a lot of the posts and pages are “fake” content. That’s because I created this site for one of my final projects in graduate school, when I was earning my Master’s degree in Secondary Education in the summer of 2010. This summer, I intend to get rid of the old, made-up stuff so I can use this site as a way to keep in touch with my CPMS family. When the baby comes in August, you can bet I’ll post photos!

In the meantime, I’ll be thinking of you…and hoping your memories of this past school year are as fond as mine are.

Digital Storytelling

Catherine Avril Morris — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:44:01 +0000

I’ve created a little Digital Story of the first portion of my story, This Is What Will Be. Unfortunately, the sound quality is very scratchy; it’s the best I could do with the built-in mic in my MacBook. Sigh.

But I actually kind of like the scratchy audio. It reminds me of an old LP, which fits with the slightly historical setting of this story.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little project!

Note: All images from Flickr Creative Commons; music by Portishead.

It’s Storytelling Friday!

Catherine Avril Morris — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:30:05 +0000

Hello students,

I’ve recorded Part 1 of my short story podcast. Please have a listen, and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

– Mrs. Morris

P.S. Don’t forget to upload your own story podcasts! If you’re having trouble, email me!

Judy Blume video

Catherine Avril Morris — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:07:56 +0000

If you think you might want to be a writer, and if you like Judy Blume (or even if you don’t) — here’s a great start to a video interview with author Judy Blume:

Poem: My Granny by Lewis J. Byrd

Catherine Avril Morris — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:24:57 +0000

my grandmother would prefer it if we were all in boxes
she would like to shut down the clank cage door herself
pat pat her hands one two, poofing off imaginary dust
then walk down her clean white hallway
lined with many such boxes, rows of metal doors
all neatly rectangular, gleaming and padlocked
“they are all right where they should be, finally”
she’d think

Short story part 1 by Dawn Dale

Catherine Avril Morris — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:17:43 +0000

The Premature Death of Henry Willis: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Fable of Bad Karma

. . .

It was Christmas Eve in the year 2046 when renowned architect Henry Willis learned he was going to die.

Of course, everyone dies, even Mr. Willis. He had no illusions he would live forever; after all, he hadn’t made any deals with the devil or encountered any vampires who might suck his blood in exchange for immortality.

But, but, but…he didn’t anticipate it would be quite so SOON. After all, he’d lived through the Great Heat Wave of ’24, when Austin’s temperatures had risen to 135+ due to the ravages of global warming. He’d survived three wives, seven children and twelve rude, nose-picking, money-grubbing grandchildren who only pretended to love him because he was rich.

He’d outlived all that. He still walked two miles each morning and played tennis once a week, and his wealth even enabled him to live on a macrobiotic diet prepared by the preeminent Chinese chef he’d read about in Vogue magazine back in ’42.

But now, his aloe plant informed him, he was scheduled for death. And he wasn’t headed for the Pearly Gates.

. . .

Stay tuned for the next Henry Willis installment, next week!

Poem About Poultry by Keesha D.

Catherine Avril Morris — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:01:02 +0000

Feet scratching
They never have enough Nivea!
Oh, chickens.
Even a spring chicken
has the hands of an old, hard-working hen.
All chickens ever do
is scream at the rooster
Or sometimes at
the pit bull that came to kill them.

When the Water Left by Mrs. M.

Catherine Avril Morris — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:30:47 +0000

Ten-thousand years ago, they say –
they measure it by checking
stratification of rocks and fossils, protozoa and such –
all the water splashed off the earth
and onto the floor of the universe.

With it went all the fish, and the
boats, the oil derricks and the oil spills, with their spreading webs of
rainbows.
Also went the whales and their
plankton, the squid with their
black ink clouds, and the jellyfish.

Also went the octopi.

Also went the Styrofoam cups,
the Whataburger bags, the
straws and the half-empty
ketchup containers.

Also went the single, muddy shoes, the
coat-hangers, and the lost
keys that someone had dropped
long ago on a boat trip to somewhere else.

If that sounds strange to you
It is because once, there was water, and the
wind would push it and whip it,
and boats would float upon the top of it, as if
buoyed up to the sunshine,
the starlight,
the day and night.
Now there are craters in the earth
like a dusty brown ball
mouthed too long by a focused
and insistent Labrador.