Getting the Garden Ready

Preparing for the English Student Summer Camp

A Message from Robin Murray about “Reading and Writing Comics and Graphic Novels, or ‘Comics are just words and images. You can do anything with words and images’ (Harvey Pekar)

Welcome Campers! To prepare to read and write comics and graphic novels, all you need to do is surf your favorite comic books or their television or film adaptations and bring along a list to share. We will have a selection of comics and graphic novels to read as models. But we’ll also explore the massive collection in EIU’s library, so you can find (or align with) your favorite genre(s).  By exploring a variety of comics and graphic novels, we hope to get a sense of the comic/graphic novel medium as multi-genre. 

After reading our selections, our goal will be writing our own comic book scripts, telling different kinds of stories and speaking to diverse kinds of audiences. Together we will also create teaser trailers for the camp Student Showcase. As Petropolis author and illustrator Marjane Satrapi explains, “It's like, people, they think that comics is a style, like comics is a superhero story. Comic is just a narration, and is a medium; you can say any kind of story in comics.” To get you started, here are a few links to comics you can read online, as well:

 https://readcomicbooksonline.org

http://marvel.com/comics

https://www.dccomics.com

http://www.africacomics.net

Teacher Appreciation Day and Week!

National Teacher Appreciation Day, also known as National Teacher Day, is observed on the Tuesday of the first full week in May.  In 2018, National Teacher Day will take place on May 8th.  This day is part of Teacher Appreciation Week, which is the first full week in May of each year.

The National Education Association describes National Teacher Day  “as a day for honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives.”  

Thank you to all of the great teachers who give their all every day to prepare students for their future!

HISTORY

Political and educational leaders began discussions for a day to honor teachers in 1944.  In 1953, Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim National Teachers’ Day.  Congress declared March 7, 1980, as National Teacher Day. The National Education Association continued to observe Teacher Day on the first Tuesday in March until 1985 when the National PTA established Teacher Appreciation Week as the first full week of May.  The NEA Representative Assembly then voted to make the Tuesday of that week National Teacher Day.