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I have posted a number of videos I created for NCTE and FCTE's respective Advocacy Days, among other items.

Destination: Inspiration 2 ~ New Orleans Charm

See my submissions among the pages of Destination Inspiration: New Orleans Charm.

By clicking on the title of the post you can view sample pages of the final publication.

Writers on Wheels

Discover the Hypnotizing Heritage of Charming New Orleans

Cost includes...

• travel from Merritt Island to New Orleans and back (accommodations can be made for a prior night’s stay or alternate pick-up locations)
  hotel for six nights in the French Quarter
  Registration fees
  Writing workshop
  a copy of published book Writers on Wheels: The New Orleans Tour
  wine & hors d’vours in a New Orleans's home Wednesday night
  French Quarter Tour
  Southern lunch and narrated cruise on the Natchez Steamboat
  Garden District Tour
  Cemetery and Voo Doo Tour
  Friday night Cajun Dinner
  Night Swamp Tour
  Creole Tomato Festival
  Zydeco Music Festival
  Preservation Hall set
  Hurricane (drink) at Pat O'Brien's
  Tuesday night dinner at the Praline Connection
  
  Total cost $675.00 based on double occupancy*
  *We can help you find a roommate, if you are not booking with a friend.
  Single rates are $330.00 more based on availability
  
  Payment Schedule
  January 31 - nonrefundable registration fee $50.00
  March 15* - $210.00
  April 15 - $210.00
  May 15 - $215.00
  
  *Refunds after March 15 are not available. In extreme emergency cases, up to 50% of your payment may be reimbursed.
  
  Contact information
• Kristin Pitts – 321-720-8157 writersonwheels@aol.com
  
• Marjorie Weiffenbach - 321-986-8064
  weiffenbachm@brevard.k12.fl.us

Come join Writers on Wheels for the New Orleans Tour

June 10 – 16, 2009
Who: Writers on Wheels (Anyone who loves to write and experience new places with a desire to be published.)

What: A week-long writing trip

When: June 10 - 16, 2009

Where: New Orleans, LA

Why: because we want to have an unbelievable writing experience!

Cost: $675.00

Articles of note

FAMU graduation rates tell complex story
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200812220200/NEWS01/812220321

Senior FAMU faculty member Walter Mercer says he has more work to do
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200812270200/BREAKINGNEWS/812270309

Is it not good to be alive!

I captured this photo earlier this year on the side of an eatery off Wahnish Way near the campus of Florida A&M University. It seems quite apropos now. I have published only one other post to this site regarding this year's historic election, and it called for supporters of all candidates to provide links to positive videos and messages of hope. I posted a link to the Will I Am song with Zoe Kravitz. My 2-year-old loved the beat, the energy and the spirit of the song. Who wouldn't?

However, on this auspicious occasion I am somewhat perplexed about the state of American Education. I think it criminal the seemingly calculated treatment of disadvantaged youth entering our crumbling school systems. How can a third grader need drop out prevention? I am so furious with our lackadaisical attitude toward the education of 'other folks' children that I could swear. Expletives, won't solve any problems, but sometimes it is more professional to swear than to cry.

Teaching at a Historically Black College/University makes my heart often more heavy. Students, and not the ubiquitous choir members who always receive sermons from on high, but those who lack compassion, character, intelligence and a sincere desire to read beyond course requirements, to investigate their own intuitions, and to inspire students to greatness. I am a firm believer that if I find a teacher unworthy of teaching my son, he or she should NOT be allowed to teach anybody's son or daughter. We have too much at stake to continue this road to the ultimate wasteland. I have unfortunately witnessed students put more money and effort into partying and attending homecoming activities than attending conferences at student rates that are almost always less than $50. I have witnessed students walk across the stage graduation after graduation and not have completed and or passed all their coursework, passed their required certification and general knowledge exams, or have a grade point average worthy of attending school for, on average, 6 years. And these students want to teach? Why?

How did they get so far without someone saying, this profession is at a most critical time in history and we can ill afford to have such low caliber students enter our most challenging, underfunded, overcrowded, most needy, majority-minority classrooms, even though we know this is where the vast number of minority beginning teachers become employed. We must say no!

It is also perplexing how many small-town USA voters found it okay to say aloud, I have no reason not to support Obama other than the fact that he's a N******. WHAT! How dare you! I have no qualms with those who tow the party line. That's your right as a US citizen. That's my right as a US citizen. But the blatant arrogance of fading dinosaurs who fail to realize that all species must either adapt or die, and their belief that "this land is their land" more than it is "my land" ticks me off. Last night was the culmination of many tears, prayers, boycotts, marches, watch night services, and other vigils of hope and constant steadfastness. It was also the day that, unbeknownst to him, my 2-year-old can say with conviction, even arrogance, that HE too, can become the President of the United States. However, paradoxical to that revelation, as his parents, we will certainly consider how the towns of perspective colleges and universities that he may contemplate voted in this election before packing him up and sending him off. He's too precious and precocious to leave to the "kindness of strangers" especially those who will forever see a N*****.

We can simply not rest on Obama's, excuse me, President-elect Obama's deeds, credentials and feats. We must assist. It was impressed upon me during the inauguration of FAMU's 10th president that we must vow to pledge our undying support to Ammons to ensure the university's success first, his, second.

I will be afforded the opportunity to travel once again to our nation's capital in April 2009 for the annual NCTE Day on The Hill as a newly appointed member of the National Council of Teachers of English SLATE Steering Committee. It was in April 2008 as the Florida Council's SLATE representative that I captured this photo of Obama's placard located outside of an office that was under renovation at the time. Clearly, this office will be occupied by someone else. However, the call to The Hill in April supersedes all waxing nostalgia. We are committed and we have a purpose. Those who journey there from the Sunshine State have a dual purpose this year. We are seeking support to begin a Florida Day on The Hill in Tallahassee for teachers, especially English teachers, to meet and discuss the impact and treatment of NCLB legislation at the state level and other pieces of legislation that impact English teachers, instructors, and professors, alike.

Our kids, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, Godchildren and young fictive kin are at risk of failing and forever falling. Your kids, these kids and my kid are simply too important for dropout rates to continue to soar while impeding their ability to rise, spread their wings and fly!