Staff Directory
| Name: |
Daryl Myers |
Monte Vista Middle School |
| Position: |
| Email: |
|
Phone: |
(805) 482-8891 |
News and Information
Important Announcement for All English Language Arts 7 Honors and English Language Arts 8 Students:
Each one of you will produce an anthology of your writing in a book project. The project description and guidelines can be found under the "File Library" section of this website. Although links are included in the project guideline, I have copied the links below to the "Book Cover Creator" and "Stapleless Book Maker" for your quick reference. If you prefer to use a different program for making your book and cover, you do not have to use the ones I included, but they are there for you to use as needed. Good luck, and remember, this is a chance to show the world the brilliant writer you are!
Writers of the Month for April, 2013
Due to STAR testing and the Camarillo Springs Fire, which personally affected me, the announcement for the April "Writers of the Month" comes a little bit later than usual. That being said, it was another difficult challenge to narrow down all the worthy candidates to select the winners. I am continually amazed by all those who day in and day out demonstrate their talent, creativity, and imagination as writers. The following winners certainly have earned the title of "Writer of the Month."
Period 1A: Andrew L and Ali
Period 2A: Jasmine C and Alberto
Period 2B: Khylie and Jace
Period 3A: Cassandra and Tommy
Period 3B: Natalie and Alex
Writers of the Month for March, 2013
Period 1A: Isabella and Logan
Period 2A: Elijah B and Peyton
Period 3A: Daisy and Elijah S
Period 2B: Josh and Amy
Period 3B: Natalie and Alex
Congratulations again to this month's deserving winners!
The First Writers for Life Class Glog: A Special Spring Break Treat!
Attention all student Writers, I invite you to please take a look at the first W4L class glog at
http://socalteacher.edu.glogster.com/mr-myers-and-the-writers-for-life-class-glog. It is still a work in progress, but I wanted to show all of you what a wonderful tool Glogster Edu can be. Just a reminder for those of you who have not registered yet, your classmates have already begun to create some very original, creative glogs. Don't get left behind! If you haven't already registered, follow this link
http://edu.glogster.com/register?edu_type=student and sign up today! Don't forget to put Mr. Myers's educator code: 6HBB86. Have a great Spring Break, and keep on writing!
February Writers of the Month
Yes, it's March, which means it is time to announce the Writers of the Month for February. As usual, there were many outstanding and deserving candidates, but the following students clearly demonstrated that they were worthy of the title "Writer of the Month"!
Period 1A: Eric and Alyssa
Period 2A: Jacob and Carla
Period 3A: Giselle and Joshua
Period 2B: Nick F and Crista
Period 3B: Rebecca and Sarah
Congratulations again to this month's deserving winners!
Writers of the Month for January 2013
After a hiatus around the holidays break, I am happy to announce the first "Writers of the Month" for 2013. The Writers began 2013 on the same high note with which we ended 2013, making having to select this month's Writers of the Month with so many worthy candidates as difficult as ever. As I demonstrated in class, I could easily make a case for each and everyone of you to be recognized as Writer of the Month. That being said, I am still proud to honor the following as the Writers of the Month for January, 2013:
Period 1A: Brigit and Mason
Period 2A: Jack and Kasey
Period 2B: Michael and Elly
Period 3A: Emilie and Daryl
Period 3B: Lindsay and Dylan
November Writers of the Month, Happy Holidays, and Have a Safe, Relaxing, and Writerific Winter Break!
Choosing the Writers of the Month for November was probably the easiest of all the months. Rather than agonizing over so many worthy candidates, I decided to honor those who "won" National Novel Writing Month by meeting their NaNoWriMo word counts. So congratulations to the following Writers, who will also soon be published novelists. Also, it has been a great school year so far, and as 2012 comes to an end, I wanted to thank each and every one of my fellow writers for being the fantastic students and writers that you are. Enjoy your break, and I will see you in January for an even better 2013!
Period 1A Language Arts 7 Honors Writers of the Month for November 2012: Julia, Joey, Serenity, and Sarah S
Period 2A Language Arts 8 Writers of the Month for November 2012: Merissa, Cheyanne, and Abby
Period 3A Language Arts 8 Writers of the Month for November 2012: Carlos, Kayla, and Michael
Period 2B Language Arts 7 Honors Writers of the Month for November 2012: David, Taylie, Elyse, and Caleb
Period 3B Language Arts 8 Writers of the Month for November 2012: Danel and Brenda.
Congratulations National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Winners!
I must say that I am honored and humbled to be so fortunate as to be the teacher of so many talented writers. Each person who signed up for NaNoWriMo had some truly impressive ideas for their novels, and whether you won by meeting your word count goal or not, I encourage all of you to pursue your dreams and keep writing. The following students "won" NaNoWriMo, and will soon be officially published writers and have a novel of their own to give to family and friends (of course Mr. Myers gets one copy of your book!). Again, it is something truly amazing that the following students will already be published novelists in seventh or eighth grade!
Language Arts 7 Honors Period 1A: Trinity, Julia, Joey, Alyssa, Aidan, Leslie, Serenity, Sarah P, Brigit, Chloe, Sarah S, Spencer T
Language Arts 7 Honors Period 2B: David, Taylie, Fionna, Charlene, Elyse, Caleb
Language Arts 8 Period 2A: Shanahan, Merissa, Cheyanne, Abby
Language Arts 8 Period 3A: Carlos, Kayla, Giselle, Savannah, Michael
Language Arts 8 Period 3B: Kaitlin, Harmony, Brenda
October Writers of the Month
I have said it before and I will say it again, I am honored to be the teacher of so many talented writers. In fact, there are so many gifted writers, that it was a difficult decision to narrow it down to those who were honored for October as the first "Writers of the Month" for the 2012-2013 school year. Each month, I will use different criteria for the Writers of the Month. For October's Writers of the Month, I focused on those writers who have taken an early and active role in the National Novel Writing Month virtual classroom; either by being active participants in the forum, providing help, suggestions, and links to writing resources, or by hitting the ground running and actively preparing for the writing of their novels. So, without further ado, it is my honor to recognize the following students as "Writer of the Month" for October:
Language Arts 7 Honors, Period 1A: Sarah P and Spencer T
Language Arts 7 Honors, Period 2B: Jacob, Fionna, and Charlene
Language Arts 8, Period 2A: Shanahan, Jasmine G, and Brandon
Language Arts 8, Period 3A: Nolan and Savannah
Language Arts 8, Period 3B: Jaelynn, Kaitlin, and Harmony
Writer of the Month
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Is Here: Today is November 1, the official launch of National Novel Writing Month. This is the first year that all of you Writers, including me, will undertake this awesome endeavor! Although I know how much you all love hearing my wonderful words of wisdom and inspiration, I have copied below the "Pep Talk" from one of the greatest writers of young adult fiction, Lois Lowry, author of such classic novels as The Giver and Number the Stars. So please, before we begin this writing odyssey together, take the time to read what Ms. Lowry has to say about being a writer and novelist.
Hello, young writers!
It's daunting to sit down and begin a novel.
Daunting? Is that the right word? There might be better ones. Overwhelming? Terrifying?
No, I think daunting is good. I'll leave it.
I went through that small process to show you what I do during the writing of each and every paragraph of a novel. I question the words. Not the ands or the thens. But adjectives? I often question each one. And verbs! Verbs are the most... well, daunting.
(Question? Maybe it should be second-guess?)
It makes it pretty challenging (or exhausting, or time-consuming, or maybe just plain hard) to write a novel.
But fun, too. There is no better feeling than realizing you got the words just right.
I always begin with a character: a character to whom I introduce the reader, so that the reader will enter the novel feeling as if he or she already has a friend... or at least someone to care about.
But very quickly I let the reader know that they have to worry a bit about this new friend, because something is slightly [amiss? askew? out-of-whack?] and the book character is going to have to find a way to set things right.
That starts the plot going.
I'm not going to tell you how I write a plot because everyone does it differently, and your own way is best for you.
But I will say something about the ending of a novel. First, your main character will still be there at the ending. He (or she) will have changed, though. (In some extraordinary cases, the protagonist will be, um, sorry: dead. I've done that now and then in a novel—my book Messenger, for one.)
But most often the protagonist will be alive, and—this is important—will have matured in some way. Grown wiser. Braver. Stronger. Kinder. That is because throughout the plot, the protagonist has made choices (sometimes very hard ones) and he or she has learned and grown from each choice.
(So has the writer, incidentally).
I find that very often, at the ending of a novel, the writer (me, or you) will use a verb like realized, or understood, or knew, or found. It's the job of the protagonist to accomplish all of those things.
And it's the job of the writer to show the reader how it happened, by choosing just the right words.
Have fun,
Lois Lowry
About Me
This will be my seventh year at Monte Vista Middle School and my twelfth year overall as a teacher. I previously taught English at the high school level, including advanced level courses at different grade levels. I earned my degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley, with a minor emphasis in History.
I enjoy reading about history and current events, usually juggling two or three books at a time! I enjoy traveling and have visited many fascinating countries and hope to to be fortunate enough to continue my travels. This past summer I was extremely privileged enough to be a fellow at the South Coast Writing Project's summer institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It was a highly rewarding experience both personally and professionally, and I am looking forward to bringing the ideas I learned there into my classroom.
I was raised in Ventura, but currently reside in Camarillo with my lovely wife, wonderfully boisterous family, and our obstinate dachshund, Scarlett.
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