Hypercard -- what might have been

Wow. Hypercard. Haven't thought about that in awhile. But this article in Wired made me think back to the days when it was the hot app. I loved Hypercard and so did the kids. It was easy to use and created such cool "stacks". Interesting to read how Apple held him back.

Our state book award results were announced at our conference. Rules by Cynthia Lord won in the Grades 4-6 category and Perfect by Natalie Friend won in the Grades 7-8 category. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer won the teen award. (Twilight won last year!) I'm going to be adding the booktalks and podcasting them during the next month. Always a fun time. This year I am also having my students video the booktalks and am adding them to my school blog -- Blue Duke Reads. I have a few of them ready and will put them up today. Although it is supposed to be a beautiful day so I guess I'll have to work in the backyard! I also have some mp3 files to finish up to put on the school page. What I really should be doing is studying for the GRE exam. I just can't remember all that math. I sat in on a math class at school the other day and the teacher had to ask one of the kids to sit with me to help. Too funny -- at least the kids thought it was funny. Later that day, the study hall kids kept asking if I needed help with my homework!

Today's podcast is for John Wilson's Four Steps to Death. It is on our state reading list and is an interesting perspective on WWII. It is an interesting look at events from both the German and Russian points of view. I have always liked Wilson's war books and this is no exception.



It’s December 25, 2004. Constable Sergei Illyich Andropov, 70 years-old, cold and tired has been called to a construction site because two bodies have been found in the cellar of an old building in Volgograd. They turn out to be something other than the gangland murders that he expected. Sergei is forced to relive a time 62 years in the past when the Germans had laid siege to Stalingrad. His hero was sniper Yelena Pavlova. Four Steps to Death tells the story of the Siege of Stalingrade from both the Russian and German point of view, as Sergei seeks to identify the bodies frozen in the basement. (New Hampshire Isinglass Award Nominee, 2008-2009)

http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks/mp3/wilson_four.mp3