Promo 1

Promo 2

Promo 3

Getting Organized for Writer's Workshop

Good morning!

I am taking a break from math workshop this week to write about how I organize for Writer's Workshop!

I LOVE writer's workshop.  Honestly, it is probably my favorite time of the school day.  After a brief mini-lesson, I put on some classical music (which research says is the best "brain" music for writing....absolutely NO lyrics during writing time).  Then we have a short period of silence where absolutely NO talking is allowed (this gives students time to think about what they will work on for the day), and then we are off and writing.  I try to ensure that my students have 30 minutes of independent writing time per day.  On some rare and wonderful days, they get more, but usually that is all we can squeeze in.  It is a calm, creative and pleasant part of our day!

If you also teach writing, you have probably discovered that the papers, notebooks, and "stuff" of writing can be hard to manage.  If you don't have a system for keeping students organized, the paper shuffling can become a nightmare.  Students will spend their valuable writer's workshop time looking for their work from the previous day instead of spending it on writing.  I know many of you have been there...LOL!

The system I have developed over the years is not perfect, but it has helped A LOT in keeping the paper shuffle to a minimum and allowed for more "pencil to paper time".

"Writer's Notebook" can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. In my classroom, the writer's notebook is place where students can experiment with their writing and try out new things they are learning, without having to worry about being judged or graded.  This is a simple composition notebook, decorated by the student, and used for all writing genres.  They keep it in their chair pocket at all times, are welcome to take it home and can write in it whenever they have "extra" time.  I encourage students to use the notebook to "play around" with the new writing strategies that we are learning during our writer's workshop lessons.  I make it clear early on in the school year that I will never collect, or even read, their writer's notebooks unless I am invited to do so (by the student).  Sometimes I will give students a writing activity for their notebooks.  For example, if we do a "quick write" to get their juices flowing at the beginning of writer's workshop, I will have them do that in the notebook.  I feel that it is really important that students have a "safe" place to try new things with their judgement, no critique, no grade.   These get used  A LOT....students LOVE them and often fill up more than one during the school year.  And yes.....they can draw in them too!

All students get a yellow legal pad too.  I keep these in baskets rather than in their chair pockets because they only need them every once in a while and they are a bit fragile.  We use these for creating a final draft of writing pieces that will be "published".  Most of the writing units that I teach throughout the school year culminate into a final published project.  For example, our first unit on Personal Narrative writing results in a story that each student makes into a book.  They will work on the story for several weeks, taking it all the way through the writing process, including many revisions.  The revisions happen as new mini-lessons are taught and students go back into their story to "try out" the new strategy they learned on some part of their writing piece.   They do all of this "drafting" in their drafting notebook (which I'll talk about later in this post).  The final step is writing out their story, including all of those revisions and edits, onto the yellow pad.  This is a "polished" form of their writing piece which has been edited by the student who wrote the piece and a peer before being written out on the pad.  Once they write out their piece onto the yellow pad, it is turned into me, the FINAL editor.  I do any final edits, getting the piece ready for the final publication stage.
Later in the school year, I stop doing final edits.  I found that my fledgling writers get a little lazy and figure that I will fix things for them, so they don't put quite as much effort into their own editing.  So, when I pull the plug on that, they don't like it so much because they DO want their piece to be correct, so they put a bit more effort into checking spelling, punctuation, etc.

At the end of the school year, we tear out all of their drafts, which are taken home or recycled (their choice) and I keep the (now empty) yellow pad for the next school year.  They can last a few years if treated gently.

The drafting notebook is the most important component of our writer's workshop.  This is where I place all of the lesson and strategy work that students will do throughout a unit.  They get a new drafting notebook at the start of each new unit:  Personal Narrative, Essay, Informational Writing, Research Writing and (if we are lucky), Writing Fiction.

I use a lot of graphic organizers with students.  I find that they really need them in order to fully understand how to use a new writing strategy.  In my early days of using a writer's workshop students only had a blank composition notebook.  They would write their stories and other pieces inside the notebook.  When I taught them a new strategy, I would ask them to go into their notebooks and try it out on whatever piece they were working on.  I trusted that they would, but there was no good way to check, so the accountability factor was missing.  This is where the drafting notebook comes into play.

I copy all of the graphic organizers that I will use with students during a unit, including lesson notes and examples of writing strategies in action.  It's rather like a workbook (now there's an outdated term).

In the front of the notebook, there is a placed to write the learning target of each mini-lesson taught during the unit.  It looks like this:

I usually run this on a different color paper (students will need several copies in their notebook).  You can get this form for free in my TPT store (just click on the photo above).

The middle of the notebook is all of the graphic organizers that are specific to that unit.  To get an idea of what I put in this section, check out any of my writing units on TPT.  These units are collections of the graphic organizers that I use.  All of them include the learning target of each mini-lesson and writing samples for each strategy.  I use the writing samples for helping to teach the lesson, but to conserve paper, I do not include them in the drafting notebook.

I teach a writing strategy, then the students try it out in the drafting notebook.  They find a place in the story or writing piece they are working on and they revise it or rewrite in in the drafting notebook.  And yes...then they also revise it in their actual story/piece (which they work on in their writer's notebook).

The drafting notebooks are collected every day so that I can look at them and give students feedback on how they used the strategy that was learned that day....accountability...voila!  I keep them safe and sound in bins rather than in their chair pockets and redistribute them each day when writer's workshop begins.  I also use these when conferring with students.  I plan my conferences with students based upon the work I observed when I looked over the drafting notebooks the day before.  It becomes quite obvious who needs some immediate feedback and assistance with their work.  This is so much easier than wading through 25 composition notebooks searching for the use of a particular strategy that you asked them to use.  Here is an example of a couple pages in the drafting notebook for our informational writing unit:

The back of the notebook is a collection of reference sheets that students can use as they work their way through a piece of writing.  I also copy these on a different color paper, so that students can find them easier.  Here are some examples:

All of these can be found in The Ultimate Writer's Notebook at my TPT store.  There are a lot of other useful reference sheets for students included as well!!  I use all of them frequently throughout the year for different purposes.

I used to use our school binding machine to put together our drafting notebooks, but I now use the pocket folders with prongs.  It is not as fancy but is much simpler to put together and more durable plus it is really nice to have pockets!

In the back I also keep a data sheet for students to track their progress on the on-demand writing assessments and a goal-setting sheet.  The rubric for each unit is kept at the front of the notebook or in the pocket.  How do I assess student writing??  I use a combination of the work they do in the drafting notebook, on-demand writing prompts (given every few weeks), and the final versions of the writing projects that students complete for each unit.

If you are interested in some assessment tools...I have two really great products that will come in handy as you work on trying to assess your students' writing:

At the end of each writing unit, the drafting notebook goes home.  It is wonderful for parents to be able to see all of the lesson work for each unit, including teacher feedback, and how their child applied those strategies to their completed projects.

Thank you for visiting today!  I hope you find this post helpful.  I would love to hear about how you organize writer's workshop in your classroom!

Math Workshop Monday - Math Vocabulary 1-2-3

There are THREE  really important ways to directly teach vocabulary:

You can download this form for free HERE

Don't forget to link up!

Math Workshop Monday - Data, Statistics, & Graphing... Oh My!

Whew!  Trying to keep up with the weekly posting is proving to be a challenge!

This week I have been working on preparing for our first math workshop unit of the school year...graphing!!  Most districts have this last in the scope and sequence of the school year...but not ours!!  Since it is our first unit...I want it to be GREAT so that it hooks students into math workshop and primes them for a year of great math thinking and learning.  I want them to know that math in our classroom will not be "regular" or "ho-hum" in any way, shape or form.  I want them to get excited about math!

Graphing and analyzing data is really STATISTICS!  Yep!  We are preparing our littles to be statisticians with our new common core standards.  Statistics is actually not a concept that is traditionally linked with math.  However, statistical questions are often asked in assessments with questions that are mathematical in nature rather than statistical (how many more, how many less, etc.).

What we really want to do with our students in our graphing lessons is to get them deeply involved in statistical reasoning...not computing numbers.  We want them to be able to read and ANALYZE a graph, compare information in multiple graphs, and be able to use that information in a useful real-world way that is meaningful to them and to their lives.

Through data analysis (statistics), we want students to be able to ask and answer questions about our world.  The first goal in the Data Analysis and Probability standard of the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics says that "students should formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize and display relevant data to answer them."  Yes! Yes!  Yes!

After all, don't students love to "find out stuff" about their classmates, friends and family members?  They love to dig into the data that relates to them personally.  That is what a really good graphing unit should allow students to do.  Right?  Are you following me here?  We want STUDENTS to ask the questions.  We want STUDENTS to collect the data.  We want STUDENTS to decide how to organize the data and present it.  That is very engaging work for them and filled with higher level thinking and problem solving that is also meaningful.

In our graphing units, in an attempt to prep them for the state test, we tend to GIVE students the data, and even the graph itself and then ask them a few comparison questions and call it a day.  Blah...boring....and not engaging at all.  When we do this we miss out on a huge opportunity to hook students into some great thinking and math discussion that they can truly connect to their lives.

Instead, we could amp things up a bit by asking students to come up with data analysis that they are interested in.  Third graders want to know how tall they are, the length of their feet, how much t.v. their classmates watch, how many teeth they've lost and how that compares with second and first graders.  They want to know how high different balls can bounce, how tall their plants will get in a week, and how much rain they will get this month.  Those are HIGH INTEREST questions for third graders!

When they have a question that they'd like to dig into, let them follow through by figuring out how to gather the data, how to organize and present it and then talk about what it all means!!  That is REAL WORLD MATH and doesn't involve spoon feeding our students and will result in authentic and meaningful learning!  AND IT'S FUN!!

My students and I are going to dive head first into statistics this fall and I just can't wait!!

My blog post would not be complete if I didn't share with you another book recommendation that relates.  The following book is a "must-have" for any teaching that teaches math in grades 3-6 (Volume 1 is geared toward K-2).  It is pricey, but really, really worth it.  It offers important teacher background information for all of the math concepts we are required to teach.  It also has suggested hands-on activities and lesson plans for teaching these concepts.  I mention it now because I found the chapter on Helping Students Interpret Data to be quite profound and actually inspired this post.

I worked all week on creating some great graphing problems and math journal prompts that will really get my students thinking about data analysis.  I would highly recommend going through the process of coming up with questions like these for your own students.  It's not that hard but gets you thinking about the concept on a higher level.  However, if you need something quick...I have posted these problems and prompts at my TPT store.

This set includes 10 multi-step problems and 13 journal prompts.  They are designed to challenge students by engaging them in higher level thinking.  They are perfect for math workshop because it will take students more than a quick second to solve each and will encourage math thinking and discussion.

One more friend Tracy, from Wild Child Designs starts her graphing unit off in the most wonderful way...with song!  She blogged about it here.  Check out her Graphing Song at TPT.  I now know how I am kicking off my graphing unit.  LOL!

Thank you so much for stopping in for Monday Math Workshop!  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Don't forget to link up below with your own post about Math Workshop!


Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is defined as “any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities” (ATIA, In this section, I will discuss different types of AT-low, medium, and high-tech-and process for selecting the right device.

Forms of AT

According to the Assistive Technology Industry Association, AT can be in many forms, including:

  • low-tech: communication boards made of cardboard or fuzzy felt.
  • high-tech: special-purpose computers.
  • hardware: prosthetics, mounting systems, and positioning devices.
  • computer hardware: special switches, keyboards, and pointing devices.
  • computer software: screen readers and communication programs.
  • inclusive or specialized learning materials and curriculum aids.
  • specialized curricular software.

I will group all of these forms into three main categories of low-tech, medium-tech, and high-tech.

Low-tech options of assistive technology require no complex computer systems or chips. Items in this category can involve simple electronic circuit boards, or no electronic components at all. Examples of low-tech options include manual wheelchairs, canes and walkers, pencil grips, some picture exchange communication systems, mounting brackets, and the list goes on.

Medium-tech refers to items that consist of more complicated electronic circuit boards and computer processing chips. However, the interfaces are fairly simple and the devices do not contain complex computer operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac OS). Some picture exchange communication systems, sound amplification and relay devices, and word processing units fall under this category.

High-tech refers to devices with complex circuits and computer processing power. These devices use computer operating systems and may serve more than one function. Personal computers and tablets, motorized wheelchairs, and voice-command home operating systems are some examples of high-tech options.

AT Services

AT services refers to “any service that directly assists a child with with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device” (Georgia Project for Assistive Technology). Devices are essentially worthless without the instruction on how to use them. Therefore, it is imperative that professionals consider ease of use and learning ability/opportunity for each device with every individual.

Many adults and their families do not know how to find support after grade school. School personnel and support/service coordinators need to partner with assistive technology professionals to help select and acquire needed devices and services that extend beyond k-12 education.

Comparing Options

High-tech options might be the instinctive go-to AT option for many professionals. After all, the advanced computer processing gives an individual with disabilities the greatest chance for success; right? Not necessarily. Sometimes, the low-tech option is the best option. Low-tech options are often readily available, thereby costing little to no money for a parent or school. The key to remember when selecting AT devices or services is that the individual’s needs are met, and not what the latest and greatest cool gadget(s) exists for a particular function.


Common App Draft

Before applying to my middle and high school, a single-sex public school that houses grades 6-12, as a mere fifth grader, my world was small. I went to school, saw people that came from families with the same socioeconomic status as mine, went home, did my homework, and went to bed. I was hardly involved in any activities, so I didn’t meet new people often. I was comfortable in my bubble. I didn’t understand how great of an impact the acceptance into my new school would soon have on my life. Shortly after the new school year started, I began meeting people from all over my hometown whose lives were completely different from mine. I soon realized that not everyone had grown up the same way I had. One of my classmates in particular has impacted my life the most. Her effect on my life was most noticeable when she moved in with my family during my sophomore year of high school.

Ebheni moved in with my family in October 2015 when she needed help getting to school and volleyball practices because her family lived across town. Directly after she moved in, I began learning from her. The first thing I learned was that Ebheni’s background is very different than mine. We come from different parts of the state, from different families, and from different cultures. She often has a different point of view about social topics or events that happen at school. Because of this, I often find myself turning to Ebheni to ask her opinion about topics ranging from global issues to whether or not she liked the lunch she ate that day. I have noticed that since she moved in with us, I search for new perspectives everywhere, not just when I’m with her. I enjoy hearing my classmates’ opinions on different social issues because their perspectives open my eyes to new ways of thinking. I actively research biased and unbiased news articles so I am not stuck in a bubble of my own partiality. I have discovered a new interest in learning why others think the way they do and how their backgrounds have shaped them.

My school teaches leadership as an important life skill. For a long time, I thought I didn’t possess the qualities to be a leader. I thought there was a cookie cutter definition of how one is supposed to lead; they must be outgoing, loud, and extroverted. In fact, I was wrong. The second lesson I learned from Ebheni is a leadership quality my school allowed us to learn on our own: people lead in different ways. Ebheni is one of the most outgoing people I know, qualifying her, by my original definition, to be a great leader. I, however, am not quite as extroverted as her, nor as extroverted as the stereotypical leader. From viewing mine and Ebheni’s leadership roles on our volleyball team and at school, I’ve realized that I can be quiet and a leader the same way others can be loud and leaders. These leadership qualities balance each other out in the long term.

The experience of having Ebheni become apart of my family is one I will remember for the rest of my life. Not only have I learned more about someone I only knew as a classmate and teammate for most of my middle and high school career, but I have also learned a lot about myself. From Ebheni, I have learned the importance of diversity of thought and background, and how to keep an open mind. I have turned disagreements into learning experiences, and I don’t immediately shut out those who are expressing beliefs I disagree with. Also from Ebheni, I have learned the importance of variety in leadership. My quieter form of leadership is just as important as a louder, more outgoing form of leadership.

Rhetorical Analysis of George C. Wallace’s Inaugural Address

In 1963, George C. Wallace gave his gubernatorial inaugural address in Montgomery, Alabama. Gov. Wallace had many strong beliefs that he proudly expressed in his address. For example, he spoke heavily on the topic of his support for segregation as well as his belief in a less powerful federal government. Wallace claimed that a strong state government is necessary for the United States to function as a country. The governor presented this speech in hopes of appealing to his conservative, white supporters from Alabama by using religious diction, historical references, and a sarcastic tone.

When George C. Wallace gave his inaugural address, he was speaking to a very limited audience: his white supporters in Alabama. When Wallace enforced his faith in God and Christianity, his audience was able to relate to him. This allowed Wallace to incorporate his beliefs of stronger state governments in a way that was understandable to those listening. According to the Pew Research Center, Alabama is currently the most religious state in the United States, with 82% of the population that are absolutely certain God exists. Wallace says that the United States was never meant to be united as one, but “a united of the many… In united effort we were meant to live under this government… whether Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, or whatever one’s denomination or religious belief…” (pg. 8) By incorporating many different denominations of Christianity, Wallace was inclusive towards most of his Alabama-native audience members. When Wallace tied religion into his argument, he created a religious relationship with his audience increased the audience’s trust in Wallace and his views.

Throughout his speech, Gov. George C. Wallace used historical references to argue his belief in stronger state governments. Many times, Wallace turns to the original ideas of the founding fathers to explain why we should lessen the power of the central government. Wallace believed that all forms of government are unable “to give freedom… or deny freedom. As Thomas Jefferson has said, ‘The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; no King holds the right of liberty in his hands.’ Nor doe any ruler in American government.” (pg. 7) Wallace explains to his audience that America hasn’t followed the decentralized path set by the founding fathers. Gov. Wallace wants to recreate an America where the nation isn’t, “…a unit of one… but a unit of many… that is the exact reason our forefathers established the states, so as to divide the rights and powers among the many states, insuring that no central power could gain mast government control.” (pg. 8)

Finally, throughout Gov. George C. Wallace’s speech, Wallace carefully chose his wording to create a sarcastic tone. In doing so, Wallace degraded progressives and pushed his conservative views onto his audience, leading Alabama to become one of six red-states in the 1964 presidential election. Gov. Wallace mentions how faith and reasoning have “long since been forgotten as the so-called ‘progressives’ tell us that our constitution was written for ‘horse and buggy’ days… so were the Ten Commandments.” (pg. 6) Using the words “so-called” and placing the word “progressives” in quotations, Gov. Wallace nearly seems disgusted at the idea of progressive motives; motives that he doesn’t believe are progressive at all.

According to Governor George C. Wallace’s inaugural speech, he deeply believed that the decentralized plan of the founding fathers is the way the United States should continue to run the government. Wallace interpreted quotes of the founding fathers throughout his speech to show that a strong state government is what the founders of the United States wanted. Wallace also used God and Christianity to relate to his audience. When Gov. Wallace used God as a reason for the need of strong state governments, more people were able to understand his argument due to the high number of those that believe in God in Alabama. Lastly, Wallace used a sarcastic tone to degrade progressives for their belief in a constantly changing interpretation of the constitution. Wallace makes it obvious he disagreed with the progressives through his word choice and tone. By the end of his speech, Gov. George C. Wallace made sure his motives were clear: to lessen the power of the federal government and to strengthen the power of the state governments.

Works Cited

“Electoral College Votes.” 270toWin. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017. Chart.

Lipka, Michael, and Benjamin Wormald. “How Religious Is Your State?” Pew Research Center, 29 Feb. 2016. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

Wallace, George C. “Inaugural Address.” 14 Jan. 1963, Montgomery, Alabama. Speech transcript.

Trend of Violence in the United States

I created this video to compile the never-ending news reports about shootings and violence in the United States. History continues to repeat itself. Schools, places that are supposed to feel extremely safe, continue to have shots fired within them. Why didn’t we change anything after 20 first graders were shot? Why do school shootings continue to happen? Why do we have to prepare and practice lockdown for such horrors? And a simple speeding ticket should not end in the death of a black man or woman. A trigger-happy cop should not end an innocent black person’s life. And yet, this continues to happen on the daily. We have too many hashtags. There are hashtags for names of those who have innocently been shot by the police, of places that we need to #PrayFor because they have suffered gun violence. A hashtag isn’t enough. And we, as a country, need to do something, anything about it. What will convince us to change our laws? Why have we let so many people die because of our stubborn ways? When will we say enough is enough?

Girl Writes Satirical Paragraph; Teacher is Shocked

On September 1, 2016, Claire L astounded all by writing a satirical paragraph for her English class. “I am shocked,” Ms. Langley, Claire’s English teacher, commented. Because the paragraph was assigned, L challenged herself to write a satire. The 16-year-old wrote tirelessly before finishing her final product. The astonishment of her classmates only lasted a brief moment, and soon everyone began ogling over other students’ work. Meanwhile L sat back, looking at her work and saying, “This paragraph is my love; my life.”

Creative Response Proposal

As a response to Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, I plan on creating a video compilation of news reports, viral videos, and video that I take to demonstrate the need for violence in America to be controlled and, eventually, stopped. Whether the clips are about the black lives matter movement or gun control, for example, the video will portray the message that there is too much violence in the United States. My video will also portray the message that we, as a nation, need to step back and see that there are ways to stop the brutality and the only thing standing in our way is our stubbornness. My audience will be anyone who is willing to watch my video, though I will most likely post it to my WordPress. My hope is for those that are not supportive of the message my video is trying to convey will have a new perspective on the problems in America.


Physicists and chemists work with molecules

View Full Document Right Arrow Icon

Unformatted text preview: an element. Very often scientists work with entities smaller than cells or atoms. However, no matter how small it is, it is always something tangible. While molecules, atoms and particles are DISCRETE objects, in Calculus we work with CONTINUOUS entities like the functions that describe the motion of an object - its position, speed, acceleration and so on. We call these CONTINUOUS operands. Mathematicians like to study the behavior of a function at a point or instant and p oint instant over a very small interval around a point or instant. The interval is so small that we point instant have the special word inf initesimal to describe it. Understanding the behavior infinitesimal i nf of a function over an inf initesimal interval will help us to: infinitesimal : i nf 1. Formulate an expression to describe its behavior at a point or instant. point instant 2. Use this expression to extract more information about the behavior of the function, i.e. is the function increasing or decreasing, at a maximum or minimum, or changing direction. Let us see an example of a CONTINUOUS operand and the kind of operations we would like to perform. 1 M OT I VAT I O N h e i g h t y(t2) y(T ) = maximum / 2 y(t3) y(t1) h1 y(t4) h3 h2 h4 (0 , 0) t 0 t 1 t2 T / 2 t3 t4 tn = T time Throw a ball up into the air. Suppose we know the height at any instant in time, i.e. we know the function y(t) that describes the height. From this we can estimate the CHANGE in height with respect to time. Example: CHANGE in height from time t 1 t o t 2 i s simply : h 2 -- h 1 which is : y(t 2 ) -- y(t 1 ) From the function y(t) can we find out the RATE OF CHANGE in height at any chosen INSTANT ? What is the ver tical speed or RATE OF CHANGE in height at time instant t1 ? What is the expression of the INSTANTANEOUS RATE OF CHANGE in height ? xpression CHANGE in height We know that ver tical speed = CHANGE in time y(t 2 ) -- y(t 1 ) Ver tical speed between t 1 a nd t 2 = t 2 -- t 1 2 This is the AVERAGE VERTICAL SPEED over the time interval t1 to t2. No matter how close we take t2 to t1, i.e. no matter how small the time interval is, we still get only an AVERAGE VE...
View Full Document

{[ snackBarMessage ]}

Ask a homework question - tutors are online


White eggshells - Did you know that eggshells are a great, inexpensive, natural…

How to Make Eggshell Calcium (and Why You'd Want to

The primary culprits that suppress our immune systems are well worth knowing, not just for warding off colds and flu, but for soothing the chronic inflammation in our bodies that causes both accelerated aging and most diseases.

White On White

Anchor Artists provides specialized representation of creative professionals in the fields of hair and makeup, fashion, wardrobe, prop and food styling.

Jamie Chung is a photographer based in New York.


Hypnosis Questions

Frequently Asked Questions on Hypnosis

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a super-concentrated state of mind brought about by suggestions, which can be direct or indirect. Hypnosis produces a hypnotic state, or trance that’s actually a natural phenomenon. One can tap into this relaxed state of mind through intentional self-hypnosis (the person hypnotizes himself), through induction by a therapist, or accidentally by sheer repetition of a phrase or “mantra.” The hypnotic state is a “normal” altered state of consciousness, similar to, but not the same as being awake. It also is similar to but not the same as being asleep.

How long has weight loss through Hypnosis been around?

Hypnosis has been around as far back as humankind itself. The induction of hypnotic state goes as far back as the medicine men of primitive tribes for religious and therapeutic ends. Magicians and priests of ancient civilizations were also known to practice hypnosis. People go in and out of trance state all the time, and have been since the beginning of recorded time. There were many well known practitioners, such as: Father Josef Gassner (1727-1779), Frederich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Milton H. Erickson 1901-1980).

How does one achieve Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is achieved by a central focus of attention in surrounding areas of inhibition. The state of hypnosis will produce an increased concentration of the mind, an increased relaxation of the body and an increased susceptibility to suggestion.

What happens when I am hypnotized?

The word hypnosis was coined in 1841. It is the Greek word for sleep (hynos). This is misleading because the trance state is not sleep at all. Most of us are in a trance state quite often. When we daydream, watch television, drive a long distance in the car we are often in a trance state.

What does the body do in this trance state?

During hypnosis, whether self-induced or guided by someone else, the body is deeply relaxed and the brain waves are at a frequency of eight to 13 cycles per second. This is the Alpha State, which is slower than the alert Beta state but above that of sleep or even deep mediation.

Where will I go during hypnosis?

Persons in hypnotic trance are fully aware of their surroundings, but their attention is intensely fixated and purposely focused on something in order to distract from something else, such as: pain, overeating, worries, smoking etc.

Is hypnosis a "cure all"?

No, hypnotherapy is not a “cure” all. It is actually not a cure at all. It is an effective method of alleviating the subject’s symptoms. Although hypnosis provides great relief and change, the underlying cause of the symptoms must still be identified and treated. This is where clinical psychotherapy can be highly beneficial.

What is hypnosis used for?

Hypnosis is being used to treat the symptoms of such conditions as: asthma, arthritis, Parkinson’s, migraine headaches, depression, phobias, addictions, bulimia, insomnia, hypertension, nausea, gastric hyperacidity, burns, skin disorders, weight loss, smoking cessation, improve study habits and low self-esteem. These are just some of the ways hypnosis can be implemented. The list is endless.

Audio Download FAQ

Answers to common question our visitors have after receiving an audio hypnosis cd.

How do I download my self-hypnosis file?

Once you make your purchase, you should receive an email.  That email will contain a link.  Please visit the link which will direct you to a third-party website.  This third-party website is safe.
From there, please click the link to download the file.  Then when offered to save the file, make sure to “Save as” in a location, you can locate.  We recommend your Desktop or Media folder.  Once the file is downloaded, you can add the file to your iTunes, Windows Media Player, or other favored program.

Where is the email containing the link to download the hypnosis file?

Please visit your email inbox that you entered when you made your purchase.  A link to download the hypnosis audio you selected was sent there.  If you do not see the email in your inbox, please check your spam/junk folder.  To prevent this in the future, consider adding the email address to your safe sender list.

Do you ever run promotions?

Absolutely! Make sure to sign up for the Weight Control Therapy mailing list which will make sure you get all the most up-to-date information when products are released and when promotions are running.  You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter to receive news, information, and promotions from Weight Control Therapy.


Sergey Rozhkov

Won three single World Cup races.

2017-01-2610:15 Mona Lisa Skipnes

Sergey Rozhkov, born in 1972, is a former biathlete from Murmansk, known for his speed. He started his sports career at twelve years old and achieved his first victory in the World Cup in 1995. Later he won a further three single World Cup races. His best season was in 2004/05 when he finished fifth overall.

Rozhkov has a total of one gold and three silver medals from the World Championships and three gold and two silver medals from the European Championships. During the Olympic torch’s journey to Sochi, Rozhkov was given the honor to carry it through Murmansk.

When Barents Winter Games takes place in Luleå 16-18 March 2018, more than 1000 young athletes from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia will compete in 15 different sports, including three parasports.


Meet the team
Team member image

Rahul Khatana

Rahul Khatana is the Founder of DesignSprings, which he started from his dorm room in 2016. During the company early years, Rahul acted as the sole developer, designer, and support representative for the entire Designspring platform, allowing for it to be a stable business from the outset.

In addition to his main responsibilities in running the company and setting overall product strategy, he remains actively involved in the development, design, and product teams within the organization.

Team member image

Ashutosh Jha

Ashutosh Jha is the co-founder & CEO of Designsprings, serving on the Board of Directors and Executive staff. An entrepreneur from an early age,. He is involved in crafting the company culture, shaping the design aesthetic, and innovating future growth opportunities. Ashutosh Jha has spoken globally about both entrepreneurship and design, and received numerous distinctions such as the Inc 30 under 30 and Fortune 40 under 40.

His lifelong appreciation for art and design led him to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he earned dual degrees in Graphic Design and Industrial Design. designsprings now serves on the institution's Board of Trustees.

Team member image

Alina arbolino
Vice President of Finance and Operations

Alina is Vice President of Finance and Operations at Designsprings. He has more than 25 years of experience across a range of start-ups and high technology businesses. Tod is responsible for Designsprings Finance, Legal, HR and Facilities functions. He helped his company raise millions in funding from leading venture capital firms; acquire companies to meet strategic objectives and take appropriate risks to drive revenue growth.

He is operationally focused and helps companies achieve their revenue and profit objectives. He earned his MBA from San Jose State University, and his BS in Finance from San Diego State University. He is also a Certified Management Accountant (inactive)

Team member image

Jackline Mcane

As the leader of designsprings Strategy division, Jackline is responsible for developing the analytical frameworks that shape the company business. Since joining designsprings, he has grown the division into a team that covers everything from business strategy and customer insights to analytics and data science. Prior to designsprings.

He has also conducted research on jury selection, assisted in the prosecution of a ring of body part thieves in Philadelphia, and collected ticks for a nationwide study of Lyme Disease. Jackline graduated from Yale, where he majored in Psychology and was an editor at the Yale Daily News.

Team member image

Kewin Bradley
Customer Service

Kewin is Customer Service Executives. He establish and monitor standards for customer service in the company using a recognized benchmark, such as the International Customer Service Standard promoted by the Customer Service Institute of America. Standards like that help executives to measure a company performance against industry benchmarks and identify areas for improvement.

individual metrics for different aspects of service, such as time to respond to an inquiry, the number of calls a representative handles in a given period of time or the percentage of late deliveries.

Team member image

Boyd Shrader
UI Designer

UI design stands for user interface design. UI design is basically designing a user-friendly interface that easy to use, clean, and in working condition. UI focuses on the user interaction with the website to make it an enjoyable experience. Pretty much everything we use that is computer-driven has a user interface of some sort: your desktop/laptop computer, your phone, and a website are some of the most common examples. The user interface of any technology makes it unique.

Oftentimes, a UI designer is the web designer who has the most difficulty perfecting their work because getting the perfect UI is not easy. You have to accommodate as many users as possible, which is why it good to target a specific demographic. For example, the younger generation visiting Instagram does not really care for the text as much as they do the pictures. The user interface should easily navigate them to the pictures they are looking for with the shortest and cleanest way possible. Writing a text box for them to read in order to figure out how to find the pictures they want to see is going to frustrate and irritate many of their users. This is the same for all websites, no matter the field.

Team member image

Dravino Harris
UI Developer

A User Interface Developer (UID) for short is not someone who knows a bit of HTML. As developers for the Web, we must know about HTTP (and siblings), HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, Ajax, Jason, multiple browsers (and their individual differences), tools, and programs that deal with Web communications. As developers, you must know about the human cognition, basic psychology, and logic sorting.

You should also have good common sense and must know about all technologies offerings in accessibility and usability, interaction principles, MVC (Model-View-Controller pattern) separation, languages for creating interfaces, and generally tool kits, tools and programs that deal with the interface.

Most people assume UI development is about creating websites and writing HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but User Interface goes far beyond these technical terms. The goal of user interface is to make the user interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals.


July 17, 2007

Day 2 All Through

Tonight's racing began with a 25 lap points race. The important thing for Emily and I is to stay on even laps during the omnium races. The pace was tolerable and I even went for some sprints. I think I got 2nd and 3rd in 2 of the 5 sprints. Then Emily took over the grrr and picked up a few more points for us. We got 3rd and 4th place in that race. The mass start races are scored 10, 9, 8.. .and so on points, for the riders finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd... and so on.

The next race was a point-a-lap. I played follow the leader(s) during this race. Emily scored a point or two. Then we finished 3rd and 4th in the finish, putting us 4th and 6th overall.

The Madison was scheduled for 20 minutes. We completed 16 minutes because it started to rain, then stopped shortly after. I thought we got down another lap, but the results show different. We're still down 1 with 40 points. It doesn't matter how many points we get though until we get a lap back or one of the other two teams goes down one. Stay on lap... stay on lap... stay on lap.... However, this is tough with Mike and Brian on separate teams vs. us! Here is a link to a sample of what a Madison exchange looks like, if you've never seen one. This is not at Alpenrose. It's pretty amazing to feel the momentum transfer from your teammate as you're thrown into the lane and have to catch up with your pedals!

I am having fun so far with this. I'm feeling comfortable on my bike and have a gear that I can accelerate, and I'm feeling strong. It's a fun, novelty to play madison/ mass start racer for a week. I feel like I fit in with the skinny kids!


Join ACFW |  Forgot Password |  Login:

Writing Historical Stories

By Diana Wallis Taylor

A friend of mine who took a hiatus from writing due to health concerns, went to lunch with me and said she felt God was leading her to write again. She wanted to talk about writing about her grandmother who came from Ireland possibly as a mail order bride. She wanted to know how I went about writing historical stories.

We talked about organizing to write historical works and I shared the following:

First, find out all you can about the country you are writing about in the era the story takes place; real or fictional.

Second: what were their houses like? What did they eat? What utensils did they use? What type of clothing did they wear? What were typical expressions in conversation? What mode of transportation did they use? What types of animals were common to where they lived? What were common family names where they lived? Ask questions of things you would want to know in reading this book. Look up foods and find out what a typical meal was like. My readers seem to enjoy reading about the meals. Just make sure the foods chosen are authentic and common to that time and place. Make sure your information is as accurate as possible. I had my Biblical Martha fixing potato latkes and a reader gently informed me that they didn’t have potatoes there at that time.

Third, what other books were written about this person? This era? In my friend’s case she would look up books about Ireland at the time her grandmother lived there. Maybe books written by other young women who had chosen to become mail-order brides. What was the process for a young woman in Ireland who chose to do this?

Fourth, what caused young women at the time to become mail-order brides? Family hardship? Famine? Running away from something or someone?

Fifth, what was America like at that time? What was the procedure for arrival from Ireland? What hardships would she encounter? No doubt at that time she went through Ellis Island. What was her experience with that?

Most importantly, I start a notebook and divide it into sections with tabs for each possible category; food, homes, clothing, transportation etc. especially the names of the characters. It makes an easy reference guide, to keep track of them. It’s frustrating to be working on chapter 20 and have to go back to remember what a character’s name was that appeared in chapter four!

Some writers map out their stories with an outline, or do storyboards, or Randy Ingermanson’s “snowflake method”. Everyone is different. What works for one may not work for another. I write a detailed summary for my editor’s benefit but that is only a basic idea of the story. I have been known to change up the story mid-point or write a different ending!

Before I began to write Biblical Fiction, I was overwhelmed by the idea of looking up all that information. Then I found that the research was really the fun part!

Diana Wallis Taylor, an award-winning author, has published six books of Biblical Fiction and has just completed her seventh. She has written three other books of fiction, a book of poetry and a book on Halloween. Along with her books, her writing has appeared in various compilation books and magazines. Diana recently completed an Easter cantata, “Glorious”, with her fellow collaborator, Carolyn Prentice, who wrote the music. She enjoys speaking and sharing her heart with women of all ages. Diana lives with her husband, Frank, in San Diego, California. Between them they have six grown children and nine grandchildren.

This entry was posted in Advice, Friends of ACFW, research and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.


Chennai Mathematical Institute

3.30 p.m.
Evasiveness and the Music of Primes

Raghav Kulkarni
University of Chicago.

Keywords: Decision Tree Lower Bound, Evasiveness, Group Actions, Simplicial Complex, Goldbach Conjecture)

A boolean function f on N variables is called "evasive" if its decision tree complexity is N, i.e., one must query *all* the variables (in worst case) in order to decide if f(X) = 1. A graph property of n-vertex graphs is a boolean function on N = n \choose 2 variables which is invariant under the relabeling of vertices. A graph property is called monotone is it is closed under deletion of edges, e.g. planarity, 3-colorability etc. The following conjecture due Aanderaa-Rosenberg-Karp is a longstanding (35+ years) open question: "every non-trivial monotone graph property must be evasive." An important special case is the class of properties given by a "forbidden subgraph," i.e., all n vertex graphs which do not contain a fixed subgraph H.

We confirm the evasiveness of several monotone graph properties under widely accepted number theoretic hypotheses (e.g. Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, Chowla's Conjecture on smallest Dirichlet primes etc). In particular, we show: (a) forbidden subgraph is evasive for all large enough n (b) any montone property of sparse graphs (< n^{3/2 - \epsilon} edges) is evasive.

Even our weaker unconditional results rely on some deep and interesting properties of the integers such as Vinogradov's theorem on Goldbach conjecture asserting that every odd integer can be expressed as the sum of three primes. Our main technical contribution here is in connecting the topological framework of Kahn, Saks and Sturtevant 84,(further developed by Chakrabarti, Khot and Shi 02), to analytic number theory via better analysis (e.g. using Weil's character sum estimates) of the orbital structure of permutation groups and their connection to the distribution of prime numbers.

This is a joint work with Laci Babai, Anandam Banerjee and Vipul Naik.

Search WWW Search


Earned Suffering and “Hello Kitty Must Die”

On Unearned Suffering

I’ve noticed something of a pattern in my, and other people’s, approach to the conflicts of stories and the way the main characters suffer: there’s got to be a reason to it.
The idea is simple: a focal bad thing happening to someone needs to have some sort of reason, or else we look at the [...]


Chapter 3: Authorship. In the matter of life and death.

In this chapter I take Roland Barthes' literary idea of author and his political call for The Death of the Author (1977) and transpose it for the live artist who is both author and performer of her own artwork. This is in order to discuss how she might begin to mediate her own presence within that artwork. Barthes challenges the author in literature. I will parallel Barthes' literary author and his desired absence of the person of the author from the work, to the live performer, citing her person as present and fundamentally irremovable from the text of a live event. I suggest in this chapter, working on the premise that how one is present in an artwork is political and significant in the production of meaning in that artwork. I deconstruct Barthes' literary death in order to illustrate how a performer cannot 'die' in Barthes' sense unless they are first performing in the present tense.

Our comparative relationship is this:

Barthes describes the author as “a modern figure, a product of our society insofar as ... it discovered the prestige of the individual, of, as it is more nobly put, the 'human person”. Barthes then says of literature “It is thus logical ... it should be this positivism, the epitome and culmination of capitalist ideology, which has attached the greatest importance to the 'person' of the author” (Barthes, 1977: 143). Barthes is concerned with “restoring the place of the reader” in modern literature (143). The question that I pose in this chapter is how does a performer mediate her own presence in order to restore the place of the reader in a live event?

The image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is tyrannically centered on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions... The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through their more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us (143).

The person of the author is the origin of a literary work. Of course there is always a hand that puts pen to paper and writes. There is always, in this sense, an author. Barthes critiques an author who uses the text as a way to speak for or about herself. To remove the person from the literary work is to destroy a traceable point of origin and also then to remove a desire or need in the spectator to trace. To destroy the author is to destroy the function or purpose of traceability, “the whole of the enunciation is an empty process, functioning perfectly without any need for it to be filled with the person of the interlocutors” (145). The death of the author as I understand it, is the presentation of a text in such a way that does not incite the reader to look towards the author of that text in order to find out what the text means. It is a way of presenting a text that demands the reader to consider the text and ultimately her own relationship with or experience of it.  I wish to state that an author's conscious decision to remove her person from her work, and her ambition to provide an open text for the reader is already an indication of that author's life, tastes and passions. The want to construct a situation whereby the reader writes is in itself a political one and says something therefore about the author. There is in the first place a politic of presence that has been preferred. In respect of this politic I add that the death of the author is '(re)/presentation' without an intent to educate or impose the reader'. The author in the first place takes an authoritative position, and secondly through a set of presumptions falsely assumes a knowing of her reader.

In respect of the live event we must also approach the death of the author by removing not so much one's identity from the writing but rather the idea of a singular body writing. In other words one could destroy a singular point of origin by presencing or activating multiple origins. In a live event we must look towards the whole space of the theatre and the collected bodies within.

The idea of collective or communal creative drive is quite important. I think that is a deeply political position to take. In relation to that but also a separate political dynamic that is carrying a lot, in fact… the work… carries something… that is this openness, it generates spaces rather than closures. I think this is a really simple politic, but as far as I am concerned is the most important one - it is against consuming - it demands a lot from the audience - it demands that you work as hard as the person making the work. That's what makes people say that some work is exclusive, but it isn't exclusive, it's just that people don't have the opportunity to get into a position where they can work that hard. It's important that we make work, which pushes away a consumerist politic (Lynch, 2001: Appendix 4).

In his essay, Barthes' analysis moves between the text and the reader. It is the text itself that is scrutinised by Barthes. In order to discuss authorship within the live performance event, and to write this towards the performing body we must consider the text in the first place as it becomes written upon the space of the performance by the performer. It is the movement between the performer and the text that I focus on now. To consider the author within live artwork (and by this I mean all art work that employs a live presence) we must consider performing synonymous with writing. I will look not to the text but to the relationship between the performer and the text. This is an investigation into the act of writing.

I begin with Barthes' image of the text which functions as a transparent allegory. I suggest that for the live event the way the performer performs their text-act holds more significance than the text-act itself in terms of constructing an ultimately performative relationship to the text-act for the reader-spectator. The body of the artist-author-performer is present. No matter how much the text-act is predetermined or how much a body is constructed and focused on performing a text act, there is a leap from one to the other and this takes place in real time by a body that is experiencing, consciously or less so. In a live event, the author may be conceptually and theoretically 'written out'. The author may secure devices and concepts in and around the performing body that serve to communicate to an audience that the text-act is 'open'. However, the death of the author cannot be constructed into the text-act. Even if the death of the author was the theme of a live work, 'death' will not happen if the performing body does not consciously enter the realm and condition of the live whereby the “temporality is different... every text is eternally written here and now” (Barthes, 1977: 145).

Barthes introduces the performative:

Barthes is concerned with the construction of a text in such a way that it remains open for the reader to gain access, to write herself into the text.

When we refer to the live event we need to fold our comparative view of the act of writing

Peggy Phelan states that:

The interaction between the art object and the spectator is, essentially performative and therefore resistant to the claims of validity and accuracy endemic to the discourse of reproduction (Phelan, 1993: 147).

Phelan supports Barthes affirmation that once the author is removed the claim to decipher a text becomes quite futile. If one authors a text then, a limit is imposed on its potential for significance. One closes the writing. Ultimately for the performer, the only way to refuse authority is to have a performative relationship to the text act also. In this sense, a performer needs to read as well as write, or needs to witness as well as perform. She must, through the mediation of her own presence, induce a performativity within the reader. Writing begins with the performing authors own submission or indeed 'death'. The “the modern scriptor” is “born simultaneously with the text” and “is in no way equipped with a being preceding or exceeding the writing” (Barthes, 1977: 145). The performer is writing live, weaving a line into the fabric of a social space. The body of the performer is interlocked with the body of the spectator through recognition of oneself as being part of the place of performance. The site of performance is not the body, or even a focus on one's own body as a singular entity. The whole space is an absence of self as a singular notion and does not describe the 'person' of the author or the 'person' of the reader but rather blows open, fragments and interlocks the persons; the personal into the social. Presence (present-ness) announces the people of the author - the plural - the multiplied line. Jacque Derrida asks:

But what is a stage that presents nothing to the sight? It is the place where the spectator, presenting himself as a spectacle, will no longer be either seer (voyant) or voyeur, will efface within himself the difference between the actor and the spectator, the represented and the representer, the object seen and the seeing object. With that difference, an entire series of oppositions will de constitute themselves one by one. Presence will be full, not as an object which is present to be seen, to give itself to intuition as an empirical unit or as an eidos holding itself in front of or up against; it will be full as the intimacy of a self-presence, as the consciousness or the sentiment of self-proximity, of self-sameness (propriete)” (in Zarrilli, 1995: 33).

In the live event I suggest that the performing body is the first site for the spectators inquisitive gaze. It is towards the body that performs that they will look first. The performing body is in a critical position due to the fact that, as Barthes says, the witness will be “determined to listen to (their) relation with the body of the man or woman singing or playing”. Barthes goes on to say that.

This relationship is erotic, but in no way subjective… The evaluation will be made outside any law, outplaying not only the law of culture but equally that of anti culture, developing beyond the subject all the value hidden behind 'I like' or 'I don't like' (Barthes, 1977: 188).

A performative relationship for the spectator must begin with the performative relationship within the body writing and what is being written. The performer must work to shift the spectator's focus away from his or her own body as site and towards the space of performance as site. Places in which all present are a part. And then, what can she say about that space? What is the potential for knowing about a site in which we are all living, and dying from moment to moment; occurring?

It is here that I choose to set up improvisation as a practice that (amongst many things that it does and can do) trains the performing body to consider the real time nature of performing (or writing). Improvisation in its simplest definition has no pre determined plan and no pre determined goal. It is the practice of writing in real time. It is a temporal practice which asks the performing body to be in the condition of the here and now. To achieve a present-ness which considers neither past nor future. For the performer, only when she acknowledges the space and time of her performing can that the text-act can be liberated in what Barthes calls an 'anti theological' activity.

An activity that is truly revolutionary since to refuse to fix meaning is, in the end, to refuse God and his hypostases - reason, science, law (147).

To achieve a state of performing in the present tense I imagine a double body, a split consciousness, which does not halve, but multiples my sense of awareness. This play forces a displacement of the fringe of contact between what happens and how it comes to happen. When I perform I am oscillating between (at least) two bodies. There is 'me' performing, signifying, committing. There is 'me' receiving information, a receptor, my mind put amongst the collective energies of a gathered crowd. When I invite a public to witness my performance act I have authored this act. I have made and I am making it happen. I bring my text-act into the site, and this material is, governed by my own principles and laws, as author. My performing occurs out of the principles and laws governing the whole space of the event and so contaminated by the collective presence of all bodies within. The author must coexist between writing 'what she came here to write' and reading her own writing as it occurs within the condition of things as they unfold in real time.

In his essay 'Lesson In Writing' Barthes writes:

The reign of the quotation, the pinch of writing, the fragment of code, none of the promoters of the action being able to take responsibility in his own person for what he is never alone in writing… the stressing of codes, references, discontinuous observations, anthological gestures, multiplies the written line  (172).

Barthes speaks again about a disconnection of the author from a locatable 'origin' or 'person' in his essay The Grain of the Voice (179) he refers to vocal music and outlines a part, “the very precise space (genre) of the encounter between a language and a voice” (181). The grain is the name that Barthes gives to this space of “significance” and positions the voice in “a dual posture, a dual production of language and music”. I am paralleling this dual posture with the double-bodied state of the performer, which initially must exist as a consciousness of this duality, an intentional focus for the performing body.  The performer is on the one hand part of the object (that which has entered) of her performance and on the other; she is part of the site (there where she enters) of her performance. The grain is “the materiality of the body speaking its mother tongue; perhaps the letter, almost certainly significance” (182).

The person who wishes to put herself in her own artwork as part of that artwork but who does not wish to author her work in a modernist sense needs to physically understand the grain in order to relinquish responsibility for her actions, optimising the potential of what those actions might come to mean. That person wishes to stimulate, by an activity of rubbing against, another. They wish to move towards a mode of presence which will exceed a self referential play between signifier and signified, and move into an un ending, processual play of significance, the effects or consequence of which the performer does not seek to know or control. It is a dynamically implied or enforced destination in time that will identify the person of the performer.

The death of the Author is a paradoxical state for the performing body. 'Author' is a position from which the performer moves towards and away, departs and returns continually as writer and as reader of the text-act. There is a submission that is essential in order to let events unfold without leading the writing, without dictating it. This submission is conscious and authored by the performing artist.

The performer is placed as both signifier and signified. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary only in the sense that it is not absolute. The process of relating though need not be rendered ultimately subjective or personal. The grain, for Barthes refers to what he acknowledges as the “apparently abstract side, the impossible account of an individual thrill” or rather an experience of listening (181). For the performer, experiencing her self-performing, this inspection is useful as it gives us an image of an oscillating movement between 'private' and 'social'. Here I might appropriately use any number of 'oppositions': action - reaction, speaking - hearing, past - future. There is 'energy', a potency which is generated through this oscillation. If a performer focuses in too directly on her text-act (if she acts and speaks from her past and of her future) she will not 'let in' the present. She will only signify and thus presence, (or the live event will be reduced to) an irritation, a cough in the audience, a heckle, a mislaid prop.

Our focus is the hyphen itself. In language not an utterance, not a 'this' or a 'that', but a suspension, a tension that dissolves, that is the blur of any finite distinction between one and another. This hyphen, or this oscillating play is spatial. As it concerns the live event it includes the lived space that the performing body inhabits. So, for this writing, the image of the double- body is necessary only long enough for us to understand that the space the body inhabits is part of, or gets in between what signifies and what is signified. Between the signifier and the signified the event occurs. The live performer is present: not either but both signifier and signified. Presence is firstly a loss of self as a singular idea. One is not absent; rather one has a pluralistic presence.

For the performer I ask for a critical and practical awareness of her relationship with herself as author, and with authorship.  Barthes refers us back to Brecht's 'veritable distancing', his Verfremdung, speaking about the author being 'distant' “like a figurine at the far end of the literary stage” (145). However, he also says that the author needs to be “born simultaneously with the text”, there is no past, no future, the text “eternally written in the here and now”. In this sense I wish to reconsider Barthes' image and to take quite literally the notion of 'distant' for a performer. To distance herself she would need to have a chosen point of origin from which to be 'distant'. I take the word literally because it is taken literally in much live artwork that I see. I see an interpretation by the performing body, almost an illustration of 'distant' that seems to have become a post modern 'style'; the performer has a 'distant' look, she is remote in her manner, possibly aloof. The notion of distance if understood literally by the performer will easily serve to separate the performer from the time and space she is in. This brings us back to the introduction to this paper and to a discussion of 'neutrality' as a mode of performance that whilst having no practical methodology, has become aestheticised. Ultimately, this mode of presence hopes for but never reaches a real engagement with site. I suggest that the author, in order to 'die' must consider death as an expansion not a removal. 'She' is everywhere.  Her attention is peripheral and heightened. Death of the author is not a removal of the author but a presencing of the author expanding, covering the whole space of performance, exploding almost in full Technicolor into the eye of the spectator, into the whole space of the event.

Barthes uses Julia Kristeva's theoretical distinction between the pheno-text and the geno-text to enable a theoretical disengagement of the 'grain' from acknowledged values of, in this case, vocal music.

The pheno song “covers all the phenomena, all the features which belong to the structure of the language being sung, the rules of the genre... the style of interpretation: in short everything in the performance which is in the service of communication, representation, expression”.  The geno-song is “the volume of the singing and speaking voice, the space where significations germinate from within language and in its very materiality; it forms a signifying play having nothing to do with communication, representation or expression… it is, in a very simple word but which must be taken seriously, the diction of the language” (182).

The distinction between the pheno-song and the geno-song which is useful for the performing body to consider, is that the first serves to communicate and to express something, whilst the latter attends more directly to the performing of a text without communicating anything above or beyond that text through one's own performing of it. The pheno-song is such that the person of the performer relates and thus expresses her own relationship to the text, whereas the geno-song describes a relationship with ones body as it performs.

I shall briefly describe two examples of performance that in the first instance of describing what they do fall side by side into category, genre and style.  Two female vocalists. A and B.  Both of these performers appeared in the same performance space as unaccompanied solo vocalists. Both were framed in space by a single spotlight. Both performers were technically of a high standard with a similar range and ability. Neither performed from a pre determined score. Both were improvised, written live, out of choices made by the performers in real time. In the event of writing critically after these performances it is clear to see how they appear common to one another. A shared categorisation is easily imposed if I only speak of the event by describing what it was. However, these two performances and indeed these two performers are worlds apart.

In respect to the pheno-song, A is irreproachable, but to borrow again Barthes' words, “here is the soul which accompanies the song, not the body” (183). A, as a performer, excluded her spectator's writing from her own. Her presence told us how her song felt for her. We, her present readers, could only behold her undeniably impressive performing. A illustrates as she performs the feeling of what happens, of what is happening to her.

B describes her own performances as 'intense explorations of the intra-action of voice/body'. She approaches and tests her own body frame as an architectural site for vocal production, placing/directing the voice to various resonating chambers. B commits herself to all the processes of enunciation with what Barthes might call an expressive reduction. She says herself that her work is very formal and this sense of formality might come from the very specific perameters she sets herself when she performs. She is though, however formally, quite clearly improvising. When she speaks about how sound is being made in her body, she describes it as a two way process: she makes a sound, listens to it and it instructs where and how the next sound should happen. For B there is space between her voice and her body and there is most certainly time. Waiting is part of the process central to her vocal production. For B this is not a spiritual/emotional experience, she does not use mental imagery or memory or fantasy to inspire her next sound. She sees the room she is in. She listens to how her voice sounds as it hits the wall and creates an echo, as it cracks or trembles from the dust in her throat. Within the performing of her scores there is a process of choice making in real time. She looks at me and I know she sees me. It is clear that there is a double- bodied state of consciousness for B when she performs.

What transpires physically is so subtle and so fundamental to her ability to open a text which is so intrinsically produced by a very intimate relating to her own body. I can see her listening to her own voice.  I can watch her body preparing, coping, and waiting. This solid, almost matter of fact physical presence holds the weight of the powerful image and sound that B is creating and at the same time not expressing but being expressed. B works within an improvisational space, or rather she acknowledges and works consciously in a real time state of affairs. Her process of experiencing something, listening, responding, is an improvisational process set within a rigid structure.

It is transitive/open as opposed to static/closed. I have heard so many different images related back to me after a performance by B, writings and experiences of the work that are neither imposed nor censored by her.

The mode of presence that A adopts we must assume in a professional capacity to be a choice. We must assume that it is her intention to seduce her audience with her performance. This is a desire, an ambition that might succeed on some and fail on others. I do not wish to dictate how a performer puts herself in front of her public but must emphasise that if one chooses to write in the domain of the live, if lived space is the medium of one's choice then how one chooses to place one's body in there is a political one. Cullen's intent did not seduce me, but colluded, implied and involved me.  To place one's consciousness between one's self as signifier and signified, as performer and spectator, or finally as hyphen in between these oppositions is to introduce site as a genre itself; the genre of encounter, of liquidation; the grain.  In the translation of these performances from live to recorded mediums it is very possible that A would here become preferable. Something is lost in the recording of B's performance. That is, the live event itself. Because A does not submit her performance into the live, she is possibly more totally preserved in a recording.

Between the writer(s) and the written “nothing occurs to interfere with the signifier” (183). We can say now that 'no thing' occurs, or rather space occurs. In the language of criticism, when 'described', the works of A and B sit in close proximity to one another. When their presence is considered as a political and affective organising tool, their work must be read as almost oppositional.  Barthes speaks of the grain as a genre between the voice and language. There is a lack of writing towards lived social spaces and spatial culture, possibly because the only way these texts could become written is collectively as dialogues, as collaborations, with multiple lines from multiple points of origin. It is because one could never write towards a point but would have to submit, in part, to a lack of knowledge or only ever a partial knowledge about the subject(s) of enquiry.

For the two vocalists I have mentioned I could borrow Barthes' paradigm; “there is one whom I like very much (although (she) is no longer heard), the other very little (although one hears no one but (her)” (181).  This sentence plays between two levels. On a micro level, the idea that 'she' is no longer heard illuminates the whole space of performance as active. The body is the whole site of which B's body is consciously a part. B's body produces sound into and out of the space we are all in. She submits her body as vessel, as a means of interlocking the entire space and time of the performance and as a spectator I am allowed in, allowed my own personal and private meaning. With A, in opposition, all I can hear is 'her', her feelings, her meaning is signified and I am uninvolved. Her body is a temple not a vessel.  On a macro level we can easily see how the place of the author remains dominant in our cultural values. In contemporary culture we still fix too much attention on the body as site, rather than the body as part of site.

Barthes contextualises the grain into an art history saying that “the whole of musical pedagogy teaches not the culture of the 'grain' of the voice but the emotive modes of its delivery” (183). The grain occurs when presence exceeds this culture. Barthes says of the pheno-song that it will not move us to jouissance. Jouissance remains un-translated from the French language that Julia Kristeva first wrote it. This is because 'no thing' exists in the English language which quite explains its meaning. The word suggests a 'loss' but also a pleasure of the loss of self as a singular notion or entity. The movement between signifier and signified is at once totally abstract and as it passes through a lived space, totally material. Jouissance is a transformative moment for the experiencing body as it moves in and out of site/sight. It is a loss of one's own 'subject', fragmented but in the sense that it is multiplied, spread over, and engaged with the present as a “space of pleasure, of thrill, a site where language works for nothing” (188). Here language works for 'no thing', or rather for space. Jouissance is a social pleasure; it is a brief loss of identity as a singular being and a submission into a social body, into liminality.

Through my experience of performing, my body has become more articulate and knows better this state of 'play'. What I have understood is that I will never know it fully. In the moments when I have panicked, resulting self conscious thought, a clinging on to some alien sense of 'I know what I am doing' - when my ego, exposed, has failed to cope with its on position, I have felt the live die. All that is left in these moments is I lost, and a broken bridge, my audience lost, and nobody knowing where to look; like in a conversation, when without thinking (out of nervousness or naivety) I have said something wrong. Instead of admission, or silence, or letting time pass, I panic and say more, keep saying more and more in an attempt to rectify my wrongness, and I bury myself in a hole full of things I do not 'mean' but in which my flailing body is trying to 'pretend' meaning, to save itself. There is no live art work which, however 'open' in its construction in terms of its inviting the audience into a position of reader, places the performer in a less 'tyrannical' position.

I wish to end my comparison between these two vocalists by mentioning how their own presence affects the space through the idea of 'mistake'. I suggest that A is more likely to suffer 'mistakes' because her mode of presence is not 'open' to the occurrence of lived space within her and her text-act. In the words of John Cage:

Value judgements are not in the nature of (her) work either as regards to composition, performance, or listening. The idea of relation being (that) anything may happen. A 'mistake' is beside the point, for once anything happens, it authentically is (Cage, 1990: 107).

There is no emphasis for B on leading the audience towards a desired response - there is instead a construction of the viewer to experience the whole space of the theatre including her own presence, as part of the performance act. The value of a work is not placed upon a successful construction, i.e., the text-act does not hold a primacy in the work. Rather it is open, in that it pursues a presencing of the spaces around the text-act. 'Meaning' is substituted to induce an experience as authored by the receptor. The relevant 'body' is the collective social body. There is, in the performer always ambivalence, a coexistence of opposition and conflict between a presence and a dilution, a fluidity of presence. One does not attempt to remove oneself from the whole picture, but one becomes (and thus incites the spectator to become) part of the whole. A useful question that a performing artist might ask herself is whether or not something could 'go wrong' with her intended performance once it is placed into the unpredictable live domain or is the construction of one's text-act willing to be de/reconstructed in the live domain?

Performances' major contribution to knowledge falls outside of the existing structures of language, aesthetics and certainly of documentation. Contemporary philosophical and literary debates surrounding the body often seem to 'block out' the body as it is lived live. 'The body' is removed from time and space, from local, lived contexts. When we discuss mind and body, the relationship between them is not social, lived, temporal space. In our criticism and our analysis, in order to discuss the body we need to consider the constructive frames through which we write. Is there really any reason to imagine a body outside, or set apart (distanced) from the context in which it is occurring? In contemporary live art practice there is an over emphasis on the body-as-site.

Improvisation is a way we can approach the movement between thinking and doing. This movement is improvised. It is a leap (of faith). Consider the sense of time between the ideas of reaction and action. The first is immediate, instinctive, the latter is placed in time and a choice has been made. Consider site, the site that gets in between thinking and doing. Site is not abstract, it is material, and site is a condition that we are all in. Unique to the live artist, and to the live domain, is a consideration of time and simultaneity of multiple writings. The site of her enquiry is the space and time that her text-act occurs within. This occurrence is always a first time thing.

Within the performance act, the author is present and dying simultaneously, from moment to moment and a successful 'death' is dependent on the level and quality of engagement invested by the performer into the text. Mina Kaylan writes a description of this engagement. The word presence, she says, often connotes a “mystifying and metaphysical quality of being, an essence ascribed to the person of the individual actor or performer” (Kaylan, 1991: 48).  This quality is eternally ambiguous and does not easily invite critical enquiry. When one is approaching the site of performance then presence is a poetics of embodied space. The hyphen drawn between the performer and her text-act is marking the place that presence is.

As a performer, I do not imagine my body to be the site of my enquiry. My body is a dynamic element within site. The presence of my body within my work serves to perform a relationship to and a reflexive position within whatever context has been 'set up'. I build a frame around my body and invite a reading of 'place' as occupied and contaminated by 'bodies'. In other words my body 'practices place'. There is something that is almost polemical to what can be understood from a body -as- site. The body here foregrounds - makes primary a 'pushing away', off the body towards place and towards place embodied: Place as Body.  Therefore the witness is invited to invest in the social event: in the social, considering them selves as an active and affective part of an event.  The body is part of site, and a reflective and reflexive organising tool that works to presence the infinite circuitry of shifting connections and relationships that take place as part of the social (whole) body. Frame building is one major craft of the contemporary live artist. Constructing a clear conceptual/fictional frame allows for a critical dialectic space within. It is the constructions and the concepts that map out the artist's chosen site of enquiry. Site becomes the event. The writing of live art loses 'site' due to an over emphasis on the artist's body-as-site.

Kaylan states that:

The main problematic in investigating presence as an element in the signification process of live performance is the difficulty of placing it within the categories of analysis already offered by contemporary critical theory (48).

It is necessary to stress how easily writing about the performance act can slip into the discussion of criticism - of the problematics of 'recording presence' as different, but constantly falling into my attempts to speak about the performance act. In terms of 'presence' - the grain, the geno-text, semiotic consciousness - are all assimilated from criticism, all appeal to the live presence of the reader. There must be then, writing towards the poetics of space that for the performing body becomes a poetic of self(s). Performance Studies needs a clear distinction between an imagined science of space on the one hand and an experiential knowledge of the production of space on the other, of negotiating the tension between structural/symbolic and local/illustrative explanations.

What makes the live arts unique is writing into a social present; writing as performance; a multiple writing that occurs from within an embodied site. It is strange then that within criticism the person of the author, her subjectivity, is held back or written out. It seems necessary to reconsider her person(s). I have set up the performing body as being at least double in its function within a live event. Performance theory, as a critical text, is nervous about writing the 'self'. There is a mistrust of citing any 'first person' with regards to writing after the event. Performance theory functions as a critical language that avoids reference to 'self' because it is a complex, unsophisticated or unreliable writing. However, if a performer wishes to negotiate her own death in performance she must first come to critical terms with her own live presence. Unless presence can be discussed as part of a semiotic language, all we are left with is the singular person of the performer. The singular body is caught in our sight deferring of the plural body(s) existing fluidly and temporarily in site. The presence of the performer, if not acknowledged by the performer as critical and signifying will perpetuate paradoxically a 'tyrannical centering on the author'. The actuality of site will be deferred, written out and filled in by the author. We need models of habitation that respect the somatic and affective integrity of our existence.

When we draw Barthes' critique of the author towards the live act, the author is present. A performer's presence will serve to make the text-act transparent to the extent that she, the (single) person, can be seen through the text-act she performs. Her own sense of 'self' as constructed by the presence of a gathered crowd is effective. Her life, his tastes and his passions will contaminate the unprotected text-act. Death of the author, for Barthes, is “to reach that point where only language acts, 'performs', and not 'me'” (Barthes, 1977: 143). This death restores the place of the reader.

I have to negotiate death and life in order to not close my text-act, to not let it slip into a purely visual, semiotic reading, or, into an account of the personal, the charismatic 'me'. I recognise the tyranny of authority within the production of a live artwork and through this recognition see the importance of considering how 'I' exist within it. On the one hand 'I' have intention, I will carry out the activities that I came here to do. This 'me' will get on with the job at hand, to perform the job as well as possible. Another me is whatever falls outside a construction or an idea in the moment of its becoming. I take in my audience, I am at the same time as quiet, anterior to the performance act itself, also front lining, exposed to the unpredictability of a gathered crowd and the unknown factors at play within the live event. This exposure I believe, incites an exposure of the reader, induces her reception, and her own agency. If the performing body is not conscious of this 'unknown', particularly in an artwork that is explicitly exposing that body, then the presence of that body is in danger of undoing its own artistic and conceptual intent I will try to know.  We are reconsidering the person of the author, not as a key to meaning, but as a pluralistic member, an interlocutor, which makes liminal this notion. Recent critical theory has reduced subjectivity to a spatial dimension, yet it is through time that a sense of self and agency occurs.

The author will not die until she first knows how to live.

Make a Free Website with Yola.


More ideas from Abid
Healthy lunchish thing

TROPICAL FRUIT PLATTER - Cute idea to make a healthy, fun snack that kids will actually eat! Kiwi for the leaves, sliced banana for the trunk, and sliced oranges for the ground.

Serving fruits for parties

Rainbow fruit plate food fruit rainbow healthy healthy food healthy eating food images food pictures rainbow fruit plate **try it with rose petal or pomegranate


More mounting evidence that the Punkeys are getting more aggressive. From NPR:

A peculiar band of chimpanzees lives amid the grasslands of Senegal in western Africa.

While most chimps live in the canopies of tropical forests, these primates live mostly on the open ground of the savannah. And they have adopted highly evolved survival strategies — such as hunting with weapons.

Photographer Frans Lanting traveled to an area of Senegal known as Fongoli last summer to record the chimps for National Geographic. He teamed up with anthropologist Jill Pruetz, who has spent six years in the region studying the animals. Each morning, they would get up before dawn and follow the chimps as they foraged — sometimes traveling as much as 15 miles.

“They don’t look different from other chimpanzees,” Lanting tells NPR’s Alex Chadwick. “It’s more that they live in a very different environment.”

To cope with their harsh environment, the Fongoli chimps have developed unusual behaviors. Lanting and Pruetz observed the primates fashioning spears from tree limbs to capture bush babies, small mammals that hide deep inside hollow trees.

“No one has ever seen that before in any other chimps elsewhere,” Lanting says.

The Fongoli chimps often displayed behaviors akin to those of early humans.

“There is very little fundamental difference in my opinion between how these chimps live and how our very earliest ancestors lived,” Lanting says. “It’s just like looking at human beings. I regard these chimpanzees as very shy, private people.”

Like humans, the male chimps also seem to have a bit of a rhythmic bent; Lanting observed them drumming on hollow baobab trees as a way of impressing potential mates and intimidating rivals.

It took several months for the Fongoli chimps to begin accepting Pruetz and Lanting, who says they wore the same clothes every day so that the animals could become accustomed to their presence.

On days that the chimps let their guard down, Lanting says, he and Pruetz were able to observe behaviors that “are all confirmation to the fact that the boundaries between humans and chimps are really quite fuzzy.”

Oddly enough, while this is a story about photographing chimps with spears, there were no photos showing a chimp with a spear accompanying the article. Have the MIBs (Monkeys in Black) come and erased the evidence? I wouldn’t put it past them.


Which Candidates Do You Want to Meet?

Following our fantastic success in 2016, Spokane Talks Online (STO) is once again producing a series of 10 - 12 minute “Meet the Candidate” video and audio podcasts of candidates from a select group of contested Spokane area races. We have 28 interviews already posted, but there are seventy candidates left in contested races.

We need YOUR help to know how we can best help YOU. Tell us which races you’d like us to add to the lineup and we’ll invite candidates to interview.

* 1. Select one or more school district director races from the following list:

* 2. Select one or more city or town council races from the following list:

* 3. Select one or more special purpose district elections from the following:


700 sqm
7,500 sqft

Blurring the line between the indoors and outdoors, Bugaboo’s new home maximises a reduced floorplate while making room for future growth in a playful, urbane environment.

A leader in mobility retail, Dutch design firm Bugaboo transformed the industry with their modular stroller system fifteen years ago. Headquartered in Amsterdam with offices worldwide, Bugaboo currently sells products in over 50 countries.

Both dated and isolated, Bugaboo’s original space did not reflect their company culture or their modern, playful brand. Planning for growth, they saw a new space as an opportunity to improve their work environment.

Through a comprehensive information gathering process we explored various aspects of the company, brand and culture. Findings from this process drove the choice of location and the resulting design and plan.

Their new space is part of a recently renovated, creative campus with shared amenities. Designed to blur the boundaries between interior and exterior space, it’s open, modern and consistent with the Bugaboo identity.

Aesthetically, the space references their trademark European strollers - clean, stylish and contemporary. The neutral colour palette acts as a backdrop to showcase the strollers as lively pops of colour.

The new space’s footprint represents a 2,500 sqft reduction from Bugaboo’s previous workplace, which raised concerns over future growth with the leadership. By shifting the ratio of private offices to workstations and increasing shared management space, however, we were able to add ten work points, two additional meeting rooms and a large boardroom.

Our strategy to remove physical barriers and open lines of communication between all staff resulted in a dynamic and collaborative environment that has room to grow. The design also allowed Bugaboo to reuse much of their furniture, a significant cost savings.

Need more information? Get in touch