The article below was printed in The Norwalk Hour
Thursday, May 6, 2010 Vol. 139 No. 126
http://www.thehour.com/story/486058
Photo from TheHour.com

NORWALK
By DANIELLE CAPALBO
Hour Staff Writer

Ryan Bud took a break from his memoirs to reflect.

He never thought he'd be an author, he said. Not in his whole life. Meanwhile, in about a month, Bud will experience a gratifying milestone: the publication of his first book. It will be great, he said. He will share the book with his parents and his friends.

"But I really wanted to be an archaeologist," he said, then resumed coloring. To be fair, Bud has plenty of time to pursue that dream, too. He's only 5 years old.

"My book is going to be about play dates," he said. "It's going to be about the first time I had a real play date, with my friend Jackson, which I liked a lot because we played games."

Through financial support from the Naramake Parent Teacher Organization and the vision of Naramake kindergarten teacher Lori Huber, Bud and every other student at the school -- about 400 in all -- will see their classroom work transformed into printed and bound books they can keep as souvenirs of their childhood experiences, aspirations and imaginations.

Some kids will write books about history, Huber said, or collaborate to publish anthologies of poetry. Other kids will write fiction or archive what they want to be when they grow up.

"What I wanted to do was support and enhance students' literacy skills," Huber said. "To me, when the kids work that hard, they like to see a published piece and they're very proud of the work they do. They can read their own book, see their work in print."

In September, the PTO announced its first competitive mini-grant program for teachers, and Huber said she applied for a relatively small fund. She wanted to finance a publishing program in her classroom yet, in no time, the project spread from 22 students to nearly 18-times that.

"The school has really bought into this," said Lisa Lenskold, a PTO board member.

Lenskold said the PTO awarded $2,576 in grant money, funding eight innovative programs that included Huber's book publishing, a composting bin in Michelle Burnham's second-grade class, a hands-on demonstration of the butterfly life cycle for all second-grade students and a schoolwide reading challenge developed by Iziar Mikolic but led by Naramake's ESL students.

"It is having a trickle-down effect where you're seeing other teachers challenge themselves, too," Lenskold said.

Huber said she is publishing the books through a company called Studentreasures, which works with schools nationwide. The company publishes the first copy of each student's book for free, and the grant money -- $312 -- bought massive amounts of magic markers and colored pencils.

Huber said the books are important for a number of reasons: they improve students' literacy, foster a sense of pride in the students' hard work and capture a moment in time for students to revisit when they're not students anymore.

"It's really a snapshot of what they've done at this age," Huber said. "The best part for me is, these books show how the students have all learned and grown since the beginning of the year."

"The most wonderful part about it is, the PTO sees the impact of what teachers put into their class and what teachers are trying to do with their limited budget," she said.

She said she hopes the books will be ready by June 14 so the school can host an outdoor reading celebration.

On Wednesday, Huber's students put the finishing touches on their eight-page autobiographies. That's the genre her class voted to explore, she said. The books document special events, like Bud's favorite play date or a nice, long walk that Samantha Wallak took. They each start with the basic details of a student's life -- "This is me. I am 6. I am special," by Benni Tucci -- and conclude with a reflection on a student's unique strengths.

Paolo Escobar wrote that she likes to baby-sit, because she likes taking care of "little people." Estefania Carvente wrote that she is proud of herself because she has made so many friends since the beginning of the school year; before she finished jotting down her sentence, she confidently recited the names of all the kids at her table.

"It's so incredible to watch," Huber said. "They've come so far."

Please print out the license plate frame below and affix it to your car's license plate if you:

1. Drive less than 50% of the speed limit most of the time.
2. Make left turns from the right turn only lane when the light is red.
3. Make right turns from the left turn only lane when the light is red.
4. Leave your turn signal on for more than 30 second intervals.
5. Swerve from the left lane to the right lane going way too slow, and don't let me pass.
6. Brake for crossing leaves.
7. Don't understand that left hand green arrows mean you should turn left, and not just stare at them.
8. Don't let people merge into traffic on the higway when they are trying to get on in the correct place.
9. Drive in the shoulder.
10. Wait until the absolute last possible moment to merge left when getting onto the highway.
11. Don't understand the GIANT signs telling you that you are in an exit only lane and then swerving out of said lane at the last second to go where you actually were supposed to go... I mean how much bigger does that sign have to be?

I often struggle with background images and patterns for websites.  This article from Shutterstock is a great reference and clearly explains how to make a seamless pattern in illustrator. Good Luck!

http://www.shutterstock.com/newsletter/100/article3.html

There is nothing worse than intending to write one thing, and having it come out as something else.  Take the truck art pictured in this post, for example.  I have seen this same graphic on every AAA truck.  You would think that someone MIGHT suggest some alternate wording to make it sound like they are doing something other than changing the batteries in your television remote control. Unfortunately, as I have said before, most people don't actually read what they write – they just send it to print.

My advice to everyone is to read, re-read, and then read it again.  And once you are done, have someone else read it too.  Get as many fresh eyes as you can. Everyone makes mistakes, after all we are only human, but the don't let YOUR marketing materials end up as someone else's punchline.

A long time friend of mine and a great musician Damon Grant has a habit of always pointing to something or someone in the photos that he posts on Facebook.  There is always something striking about the photos even though they are usually just random snapshots from a social event.  The reason behind this is VISUAL PATHS.  By pointing to something he is creating a strong visual path to guide your eye through the image.  Instead of just staring at random faces in the photo, the eye is guided along a path which creates movement and a natural flow.  More examples and information can be found in this great article by iStockPhoto.com.

http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=697