Interview with Twilight's scriptwriter and more

Melissa Rosenberg is the scriptwriter on the film of Twilight.  Read an interview with her here (and it's not just relevant to Twilighters, but also to those interested in the process of translating a book to film).  The interview's from the Shock Till You Drop site.

Extract:

Shock: The first Step Up was your first feature film, Twilight your second, furthermore, an adaptation which can be tricky. Can you talk about the process of sifting through what Meyer established then deciding what to keep and what to excise?



Rosenberg: It was less trimming the fat and more condensing it. There are a lot of conversations that play well obviously in the book, less so on the screen - the sitting and talking scenes, I mean. The essence of it, you distill it down to the essence of those character's emotional arcs and still hit the same points to move the story forward and stay true to the book.
 
For another view on the Twilight film, the director, Catherine Hardwicke, has a production blog here. 

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Fiction Friday: Tales from Outer Suburbia

A teacher librarian friend said to me earlier this year, "You have to read this book."

I said, "Yes, sure.  It's by the guy who did The Arrival (last year's Picture Book of the Year).  I should read it."

I meant to.  For yonks, I meant to.  Recently, I did.

This teacher librarian says to you, dear blog reader, "If you haven't read this book, you have to read it."

Shaun Tan has an amazing imagination.   It works in all sorts of different, thoughtful, unexpected directions.  Sometimes the stories in this book will make you think.  Some will make you wonder.  The final double page spread of "Eric" had me smiling in delight, and sharing this story with anyone who came into the library that day whom I could collar for long enough to read it.  (I was halted by someone then borrowing it...)

The publisher's website page for this book sums it up thus:

Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.
 
I'd happily bought it for the school library.  Among its many possibilities, it could be used for related material for the HSC Area of Study: Belonging.  All of the stories are illustrated, but in a variety of different ways - the balance of text/illustration in telling each story depends on the story.
 
Enough of it being useful.  How much do I like it?  I went back and bought a copy for myself.
 
Read an extract here (.pdf)  It includes "Eric".  Consider yourself collared.
 
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Health articles: NYT

The New York Times' Health section has a huge resource of articles with new ones added all the time.  There's also a weekly email newsletter you can sign up for, to track changes and read new articles you may be interested in.  One for your school's PDHPE and Home Ec. faculties to know about.

From memory (since I did it a long time ago) there's a once-only free registration to use the site.

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Spinebreakers

Penguin UK has a site by and for teenage readers - Spinebreakers.  While some of the content is UK-specific (eg. local events), there are author interviews, tips for teenage writers, and so forth, which are of use to those overseas.  Content includes written, audio and video. 

From their About Us page:

Spinebreakers.co.uk is Penguin's pioneering online book community for teenagers, run by teenagers themselves. Editorial control of the site is in the hands of a core editorial team of nine teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years, supported by a large network of contributing teen editors from across the UK.


Working with journalists, authors, editors and web designers, the teen team will produce a wide variety of multi-media content including video and audio reviews, alternative book jackets and endings, soundtracks, author interviews, podcasts, blogs, short stories and much more.

Spinebreakers.co.uk launched in September 2007 and is the UK’s first online book community for teenagers, giving them the opportunity to discuss, debate and interact with Penguin’s rich source of publishing from contemporary titles such as Meg Rosoff’s Just in Case, Nick Hornby’s first book for teenagers Slam, Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation to classics such as J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.
 
Penguin Australia has The Squawk, a e-newsletter for up to 13 years, and Between the Lines for teenagers (but not, from the looks, by teenagers as per Spinebreakers).

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Mirror writing

Sometime, for any one of a number of reasons, you may want to have a piece of text, or a library sign, or part of a display, in mirror writing (ie. when you look at it in the mirror it's readable).

Easy peasy! she says, having had to discover how this past week.

I particularly wanted to use quirky fonts, from my selection garnered from Scrapvillage (I've mentioned this site before - lots of great TrueType fonts there to download) and this way, I can.

• O-kay.  Write your text in a Word document. 
• Copy it. 
• Paste it into Paint (Windows/Accessories). 
• Choose the dropdown menu for Image, then Flip/Rotate.
• Choose Flip Horizontal.
• Save your image (suggest you choose .jpg for a smaller file than the default .bmp)

Lots of possibilities: signs, puzzles, whatever you can imagine.  By using more involved/elaborate fonts you can get harder-to-puzzle out mirror writing.

Accreditation: Accomplishment/Leadership (NSW Institute of Teachers)

From the NSW Institute of Teachers:

Accreditation processes at the higher levels of Professional Accomplishment and Professional Leadership are now available. Accreditation at these levels is voluntary and will recognise the talents and expertise of outstanding teachers in all NSW schools.

A quote from the Evidence Guide for Professional Accomplishment:

Teachers working at Professional Accomplishment are:

• recognised by their peers and colleagues as outstanding practitioners across all aspects of classroom practice and associated professional activities
• able to maximise the learning of their students, and assist peers and colleagues to do likewise, using their outstanding depth of knowledge and highly effective teaching skills as described in the Standards
• able to use, and support peers and colleagues to use, consistently effective and varied teaching activities to elicit high levels of student engagement
• able to provide support and advice for colleagues as a result of the oustanding quality of their teaching practice and through their contribution to the school and educational community
• active in helping to establish the porfessional environment which maximises the professional practice opportunities of colleagues and learning of students

Read a Canberra Times article about this here.

Read more at the NSW Institute of Teachers site here.

Catchment Detox

Catchment Detox from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.):

It’s an online game where the player manages a virtual river catchment. It’s not a pristine catchment, there is agriculture, industry and tourism already in place. There are also environmental problems that need to be fixed. The game goes for 50 turns and you make as many changes to the landscape as you like (you can also do none!) before taking your next turn. The aim is to create an environmentally happy catchment with a sustainable and thriving economy.


Home page is here.

Teacher info page is here (thanks, ABC!)

There's a competition running right now that finishes in two weeks (early Sept 2008) but I haven't yet found any indication of whether they'll leave the game after that (hope they do).