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"The kids are so interested because of the comic book set, the creative illustrations, and the fantastic writing. It is very well put together and can apply to a broad range of ages." Melissa M. |
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Posts Tagged ‘Chester Comix’
American’s Back!
Written on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 [permanent link]
A few weeks after I posted a blog here about the death of the magazine American Heritage, I was wandering through my local Barnes and Noble and the American Heritage logo jumped out at me! It’s BACK!!
Editor Edwin S. Grosvenor has reinvented it as a quarterly magazine pushing History in the headlines – just look at that cover of women soldiers in the Middle East! Throughout the mag there is a push to use History to understand what the news is now.
I’m happy to see print isn’t dead. But there’s no mistaking the priorities here. The mag is now published only a third as often as it once was, and it really becomes a glossy marketing tool for the staff’s website (which carries the tagline “History’s homepage”). The good news is that the mag and the website are in step in their new, lively dance. The website features:
* the news of actor Heath Ledger’s death because he starred in the well-received historical movie “The Patriot”
* easy-to-find blog entries, including one about how to volunteer on an archaeological dig at Mount Vernon
* news of the rediscovery of photos of Lincoln’s second inauguration, which had been mislabeled long ago
It’s a great resource for teachers making the case to students that History is new everyday. It’s been a great resource for me! www.americanheritage.com
Tags: American Heritage, Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, historian, History's Homepage
Posted in History Book Review | 2 Comments »
Multimedia Mantua Elementary
Written on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 [permanent link]
Earlier this month I spent a day at Mantua Elementary in Fairfax County – a wonderful neighborhood school in a wooded, older and quieter section of bustling Northern Virginia. My presentation needs are simple because I travel with my own overhead projector, but Mantua’s library was tricked out! There was a digital projector for me, several computer stations and even a scanner (the tech I use all the time to get my hand-drawings into a digital form). It was tantalizing (I’ve used whiteboards at schools and shown my PowerPoint to civics groups) but I stuck with my old overhead because it allows me to work the magic of drawing and still face my audience.
The funniest tech interaction was between me and the signers who came to two of my four sessions. The school has several hearing-impaired students, one who needed me to wear a mike so he could hear. It all went well – I asked the hearing-impaired students some questions directly as I did my Phil Donahue routine in and around the audience. But the poor signers had to figure out what to do with my active style. I literally walked circles around one signer. The other one decided to trail me when I went to the back of the audience for one questioner, and she and I got back and forth just fine.
And the snowfall that day gaveth and tooketh tech away: school wasn’t cancelled, but I spent too long talking to teachers after my presentations and got stuck behind the afternoon bus line. A PT Cruiser’s car wheels won’t get me around big buses in the snow! So I just stayed in the library – where some of my earlier audience members discovered me and gathered around my Mac laptop to see me coloring one of my new cartoons. That was a fun day!!
Tags: Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, Fairfax County, Mantua Elementary, snow day
Posted in Author's Purpose | 1 Comment »
An Author's Stride
Written on Friday, January 25th, 2008 [permanent link]I’ve spoken to school groups for more than a decade. Each visit energizes me as much as it does the students and teachers I meet. Last week I was up in Fairfax County, Virginia, for a whole day at Mantua Elementary and had a great time talking to students about rough drafting, language, symbolism and my Author’s Purpose in creating Chester’s adventures — and I think I even held the students’ attention from the snow falling outside!
Now I’m going to work with WorldStrides to connect to school groups VISITING Virginia! I worked for this great Charlottesville-based company last spring as an on-site coordinator, steering school groups to their destinations in the Historic Triangle and making sure their hotel stays were pleasant. Now I’m offering an evening program for WorldStrides client groups called “Hysterical History” for school groups looking for something to do after the museums close.
We’ll brainstorm ideas as I cartoon about the historical stories they’ve witnessed that day. We’ll talk about what the early American experience says to our lives now. We’ll talk about Why things happened. And we’ll draw a big nose on George Washington. It’ll be fun! I have five school groups scheduled for the spring already, so if you’re coming to Virginia with WorldStrides, ask about my “Hysterical History” program. You can find out more about this school travel company at www.worldstrides.com.
Tags: Author's Purpose, Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, student tours, Virginia, WorldStrides
Posted in Author's Purpose | No Comments »
