Graphic Organizer No. 2

I remember the sound of lead. I like it.

It wasn't so many years ago that I always composed my writing with a No. 2 pencil on college ruled paper. There was just something about the sound of lead pushing down the rows and across the lines that put my thinking in a zone. It is where I could hear my voice in my writing.

Then came computers. It took a couple of transitional years for me to cross over, but have to say now that it would be tough to compose on paper now. I have tried and can when I have to, but it seems like such a horrible waste of time. My old dog typing skills are easily twice as fast as my young buck days. The word flow now.

As I experiment with Bubbl and Gliffy, I for the first time in a long time felt the urge to get it on paper before I put it in electronic form. I know the electronic form will look and read better. I know if I were collaborating, it would be an easier tool. For my solo thinking, however, the pencil and paper still seem to be my style. It is how I learned. It is what I fall back to.

As I administered the GQE today, I had to wonder how many of the students would do better and be more comfortable on a keyboard than they were pushing the No. 2 down the rows and across the lines.

I'm not done with this post yet. I will put up the new and improved version of my web. Perhaps someday I will prefer it, but for that to happen I must at least have a beginning place.