Project Flop: Good Lessons From A Bad Teacher

The only class I ever failed in college was ‘Intro To Art Education’. Ironic, as I am now the Arts Department Chair at Apex High School. So why a book about failures? Because I believe I can’t take credit for my successes unless I take credit for my failings. There are hundred’s of books about classroom successes. This is a book about failures

Kindle Edition on Amazon 
Paperback on Amazon

All project start off with the best intentions. Whether you create the lesson from scratch or borrow it from someone else, in your mind you envision success. You write your lesson trying to plan for every situation that may arise. The supplies are laid out, a presentation and a demo are reviewed and practiced, and everything should go off without a hitch.

Then, be it fate, a misalignment of the planets or perhaps the art gods are angry, the lesson falls apart. Regardless of your preparation the students don’t understand. As for your enthusiasm, the class simply doesn’t share your zeal for the project. You try to pull it all together but in the end, for lack of a better word, it fails. Worse off, you take it personally. You feel like you failed. You will be happy to know that you’re in good company.

Project Flop consists of stories from some of the biggest failures that Ian Sands ever taught at Apex High School. Some projects were domed from the start, others appeared successful till an unexpected twist occurred.

Kindle Edition on Amazon 
Paperback on Amazon

Here are some of the best failed projects!


Monalloon:
I wanted a project that would out do any project we had done before or probably would do again. I came up with the best idea in the world. A giant replica of the Mona Lisa created out of balloons. Click Here to see The Monalloon!

Interactive Chalk Mural:
I was standing in the courtyard watching the students snap photos of their friends inserted in the art. I leaned over and asked the creative writing teacher what she thought, expecting obvious praise. “I hate it,” she said. View the Interactive Chalk Murals!

Expressive Skittle Portraits:
The project created a class full of students weary of gluing rows of candy, angry moms tired of purchasing Skittles, and a hungry mob that circled the trailer waiting for any chance that the door might open. View the Skittle Portraits!

Broken Kites:
March comes in like a lion and after having been cooped up all winter in a musky auditorium, I thought it would be fun to take the Art History class outside and let them feel the wind in their hair. View the Kites Project!

New Author Website!

Created a New Website with a focus on the writings of Ian Sands. The new site features excerpts, photos, illustrations and of course links to all the books on Amazon.

This site was specifically designed to provide extra info about all the projects gone bad in the book Project Flop: Good Lessons From a Bad Teacher.

Here you will find links to photos and other information about many of the failed projects described in the book. Even if you haven't gotten your copy of Project Flop, this is still a fun site to explore!

Click here for the New Site!

New Book About How Not to Teach Art!

Project Flop:
Good Lessons From A Bad Teacher

The only class I ever failed in college was ‘Intro To Art Education’. Ironic, as I am now the Arts Department Chair at Apex High School.  So why a book about failures? Because I believe I can’t take credit for my successes unless I take credit for my failings. There are hundred’s of books about classroom successes. This is a book about failures 

Kindle Edition on Amazon 
Paperback on Amazon

All project start off with the best intentions. Whether you create the lesson from scratch or borrow it from someone else, in your mind you envision success. You write your lesson trying to plan for every situation that may arise. The supplies are laid out, a presentation and a demo are reviewed and practiced, and everything should go off without a hitch. 

Then, be it fate, a misalignment of the planets or perhaps the art gods are angry, the lesson falls apart. Regardless of your preparation the students don’t understand. As for your enthusiasm, the class simply doesn’t share your zeal for the project. You try to pull it all together but in the end, for lack of a better word, it fails. Worse off, you take it personally. You feel like you failed. You will be happy to know that you’re in good company. 

Project Flop consists of stories from some of the biggest failures at Ian Sands ever taught at Apex High School. Some projects were domed from the start, others appeared successful till an unexpected twist occurred. View some of the failed projects here!

Kindle Edition on Amazon 
Paperback on Amazon

Free Kindle Books!

Christmas Day is finally here! You rip open your gift and to your delight you received a Kindle or iPad or other wonderful device that reads eBooks. How very exciting! What could make that present even better?? A Free Kindle Book!!

Starting Christmas day, and running the day after, you can download any of the following great reads for free! Check them out -->

The Metal Marble:
Tucker's Aunt Nyce is his mom's little sister only she isn't that little and she isn't that nice. He has to get used to it though because he's stuck working at her beach restaurant The Crab & Grab for the next two weeks. 

While hauling boxes of stinky fish from the dock, Tucker and his 11-year-old cousin Trist discover a golf ball size, transparent metal "marble" floating in the sea.

Ignoring the warnings from salty dog Chef, Tucker and Trist leave the marble in the sunshine until it dries. The marble hatches into a half real, half robotic mechanical turtle.

From the moment the marble opens, Aunt Nyce places Tucker in charge of the turtle. He soon realizes the biggest threat comes from his aunt's schemes to use the unique creature to draw customers.


Download The Metal Marble Free December 25th & 26th


-------

Shellless:
Jirst Bluefin's biggest problem is being ignored. Kacela Middleton is the one person in the world who is never ignored. Jirst is about to discover that sometimes it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular over nothing at all.

Shellless is the story of Jirst Bluefin the First as he tries to overcome his biggest problem, being ignored. After befriending Kacelia Middleton, the one person in the world who is never ignored, Jirst discovers that it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular for the wrong.

Jirst Bluefin is a quirky, loner who spends his afternoons talking to imaginary dinosaurs that swim in a pond. The dinosaurs look like turtles that lost their shells. He calls them the Shellless.

Download Shellless Free December 25th & 26th


-------

Crushing Turtles:
Tori crushes turtles. She crushes box turtles and painted turtles, sliders and musk turtles. She secretly wishes she could go to the beach and step on baby sea turtles as they leave the nest. The only turtle Tori hasn’t crushed; the only one she wants to crush, lives in that lake. It waits at the bottom buried in the mud. Tori has never seen it but she knows its there... and she hates it.

Download Crushing Turtles Free December 25th & 26th

Crushing Turtles : Published Finally

Crushing Turtles

Available on Amazon

I started this book about five years ago. After working on it for a week, I stopped myself. This was not my usual, whimsical story. Why was I writing this story?

A year later, I read over what little I had. I liked what i had written and decided to pick it up again. After another week, I had the same experience. This went on for several years.

Finally last year, I was having a discussion about National Write a Novel in a Month with a student. She encouraged me to take part in NaNoWriMo again as I had in the past. I told her I couldn't start something new since I still had stories I hadn't finished. She was persistent so I made a promise to finish Crushing Turtles. It then took me another year to actually post it. So here we are.

Below, are short, excerpts from a few chapters in the story.

Two:
Nick likes Tori. He brings her turtles. Tori
likes Nick. He reminds her of her little brother.
Tori never crushes turtles in front of Nick.
“It would corrupt your soul,” She says.
Nick isn’t sure what a soul is or what
corrupt means, he just knows it sounds bad.

Three:
Tori is never hard to find. She’s at the lake.
Kids swim in the lake. They swim from the shore
out to the float. They dive off the board. Nick
wants to swim to the float and dive off the board.
It looks like fun. Nick is too small. He stands on
the dock.
Tori doesn’t swim. She used to swim near
the shore with her little brother. He was too small
to swim to the float. Tori doesn’t swim anymore.
She stands on the dock.

Nine:
The older boy’s rod bends. He reels in his
line and pulls up a sunfish. It flops around on the
dock. The older boy takes a knife from his tackle
box. He steps on the fish to hold it still and cuts
off its head.
“Stupid sunny.” Says the boy. He flicks the
knife sending the two pieces of fish into the lake.
“Turtle food.”
Nick watches the fish head sink.

Ten:
Nick kicks the sheet off his feet and
uncovers his toes. He thinks about fish heads. He
wonders if cutting a fish in half in front of him
corrupted his soul. But he doesn’t know what
corrupt means.
“What’s a soul?” asks Nick.
“It’s the part of you that doesn’t die.” says
Tori.
Nick looks at his toes and wonders if one of
them is his soul.
“Which part?”
“Inside you. Like, inside your heart.”

The Metal Marble : Free for Kindle!

Get a Free Copy of
The Metal Marble
This weekend
Starting Friday August 9th and running till Sunday August 11th.
Download your copy of The Metal Marble on Amazon for absolutely nothing!

That's right, a Free copy of The Metal Marble!!


The Metal Marble

Tucker’s Aunt Nyce is his mom’s little sister only she isn’t that little and she isn’t that nice. He has to get used to it though because he’s stuck working at her beach restaurant The Crab & Grab for the next two weeks.

While hauling boxes of stinky fish from the dock, Tucker and his 11-year-old cousin Trist discover a golf ball size, transparent metal "marble" floating in the sea.

Ignoring the warnings from salty dog Chef, Tucker and Trist leave the marble in the sunshine until it dries. The marble hatches into a half real, half robotic mechanical turtle.

From the moment the marble opens, Aunt Nyce places Tucker in charge of the turtle. He soon realizes the biggest threat comes from his aunt’s schemes to use the unique creature to draw customers.

Tucker may be scrawny and shy on the outside, but he knows the difference between right and wrong. He names the turtle, Gearbox and together with Trist, faces a constant challenge to foil Aunt Nyce's plans.

Tucker’s solutions only lead Aunt Nyce to generate more horrible ideas. Will it all boil to a head when his aunt decides to add turtle to a special buffet dinner menu??

Nothing says summer like a good book and a wind up turtle!

Aprox 5,000 words. Third Grade.

Grab your copy of The Metal Marble on Amazon!


Looking for more summer reading? Check out our 2013 Summer Reading List!

.

Shellless # 94 on Amazon!

I'm not unhappy to see Shellless at #94 on the Amazon Best Sellers... even if it is in the top 100 free section! But that's good cause it means you get to read it for free! And that's good because it's a good story and it needs to be read! 

Shellless is the story of Jirst Bluefin trying to overcome his biggest problem, being ignored.  After befriending Kacelia Middleton, the one person in the world who is never ignored, Jirst discovers that it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular for the wrong.You can read the entire story from beginning to end, Free! 

This weekend, starting Friday, July 12th thru Sunday, July 14th, Shellless will be available as a free download! How exciting!! 

Click here this during the dates mentioned above to download your free copy of Shellless! 

Shellless: Free This Weekend!

Shellless is the story of Jirst Bluefin trying to overcome his biggest problem, being ignored. You can read the entire story from beginning to end, Free!

This weekend, starting Friday, July 12th thru Sunday, July 14th, Shellless will be available as a free download! How exciting!!

Click here this during the dates mentioned above to download your free copy of Shellless!

Here is a little about this book -->

After befriending Kacelia Middleton, the one person in the world who is never ignored, Jirst discovers that it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular for the wrong.

Jirst Bluefin is a quirky, loner who spends his afternoons talking to imaginary dinosaurs that swim in a pond. The dinosaurs look like turtles that lost their shells. He calls them the Shellless.

After a chance meeting, the intelligent and sophisticated Kacelia Middleton befriends Jirst. Taking note of Jirst's major problem, being ignored, Kacelia encourages him to come out of his shell. 

Jirst tries a few funny, yet failed attempts at gaining popularity. Desperate to acquire recognition, Jirst resorts to telling his classmates the tale of his make-believe, dinosaur friends. However, he inadvertently leaves the impression that the Shellless are real. Believing that extinct plesiosaur swim in the pond of the local park gives Jirst the boost of popularity he covets.

Crushing Turtles : Excerpt

The excitement continues around the 2013 Summer read... First, and this is top secret so don't tell anyone.. there will be three, free giveaways this summer! How exciting! Yes, I know!

First, next weekend, Shellless will be available as a free download at the Kindle Store on Amazon!

The next week, The Metal Marble will also have a free promotional give away!

The week after that will be the launch of the long anticipated release of Crushing Turtles!!

Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from chapter one of the not yet released book...

CRUSHING TURTLES
by
Ian Sands

One

Tori crushes turtles. Sometimes she smashes them with a rock. Sometimes she takes them home and whacks them with a hammer. Her favorite way is to simply step on them till their shells crack beneath her feet. It really doesn’t matter how she crushes them as long as they smush.

She crushes box turtles and painted turtles, sliders and musk turtles. She secretly wishes she could go to the beach and step on baby sea turtles as they leave the nest… but the beach is far away. Besides, there are plenty of turtles to crush at the lake and she can walk there.

The only turtle Tori hasn’t crushed yet; the only one she wants to crush lives in that lake. They say it has a three-foot wide shell and a four-foot long tail. It waits in the mud at the bottom of the lake. That’s why Tori has never seen it. But she knows its there and she hates it.

Shellless

I have to say, with the exception of Crushing Turtles (coming Summer 2013), if you ever wanted to get inside the head of Ian Sands, Shellless is the story.

Shellless is the story of Jirst Bluefin the First as he tries to overcome his biggest problem, being ignored. After befriending Kacelia Middleton, the one person in the world who is never ignored, Jirst discovers that it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular for the wrong.

For a buck 99, Shellless is well worth the the price and is certainly the read. Though written as a children's book, like all of my stories, there is certainly element written for adults. 

Shellless on Amazon, Click Here!

Crushing Turtles : Book Cover

Working on the cover art for this summer's block buster read, Crushing Turtles.. coming soon!

This book is something different then much of what I've written before. A strange title, a strange subject matter and a little dark. I like the characters, especially their voice. In fact, it was probably the character's voice that originally masked the dark storyline.

The turtle on the cover is a musk turtle painted from an observational sketch like this one -->

The 2013 Summer Reading List!

How to Milk a Dinocow

If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half cow, half stegosaurus isn’t weird enough, imagine how strange it’s going to get when Trip Stanley’s class starts drinking the milk! 

Trip Stanley’s best friend Jules spills a glass of creamery milk onto his uncle’s dinosaur machine and activates the contraption. A creature hatches and grows rapidly into a black and white spotted stegosaurus with and an udder. A stegcowsaurus. When the last bottle of creamery milk that Jules had planned to bring to school for show and tell is knocked over, Trip decides to milk the stegcowsaurus. 

Everyone in class is given a taste and the reaction causes spots and horns. One classmate even grows a tail. It’s up to Trip to figure out how to de-dinosaur his classmates and keep from getting kicked out of school, all while preventing his mom from discovering the stegcowsaurus in his bedroom. 

With angry classmates and an upset teacher in his living room, Trip finds a solution in his own advice, when life give you lemons you make lemonade. 

How To Milk A Dinocow Available on Amazon!

----------

Shellless

Jirst Bluefin's biggest problem is being ignored. Kacela Middleton is the one person in the world who is never ignored. Jirst is about to discover that sometimes it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular over nothing at all. Shellless is the story of Jirst Bluefin the First as he tries to overcome his biggest problem.

Jirst Bluefin is a quirky, loner who spends his afternoons talking to imaginary dinosaurs that swim in a pond. The dinosaurs look like turtles that lost their shells. He calls them the Shellless. After a chance meeting, the intelligent and sophisticated Kacelia Middleton befriends Jirst. Taking note of Jirst's major problem, being ignored, Kacelia encourages him to come out of his shell. 

Jirst tries a few funny, yet failed attempts at gaining popularity. Desperate to acquire recognition, Jirst resorts to telling his classmates the tale of his make-believe, dinosaur friends. However, he inadvertently leaves the impression that the Shellless are real. Believing that extinct plesiosaur swim in the pond of the local park give Jirst the boost of popularity he covets.

Shellless Available on Amazon!
---------

The Metal Marble

Tucker's Aunt Nyce is his mom's little sister only she isn't that little and she isn't that nice. He has to get used to it though because he's stuck working at her beach restaurant The Crab & Grab for the next two weeks. 

While hauling boxes of stinky fish from the dock, Tucker and his 11-year-old cousin Trist discover a golf ball size, transparent metal "marble" floating in the sea. Ignoring the warnings from salty dog Chef, Tucker and Trist leave the marble in the sunshine until it dries. The marble hatches into a half real, half robotic mechanical turtle. 

From the moment the marble opens, Aunt Nyce places Tucker in charge of the turtle. He soon realizes the biggest threat comes from his aunt's schemes to use the unique creature to draw customers.

The Metal Marble Available on Amazon!
---------

The Critter Cube Book

There are three sections of the Critter Cube book. The first section introduces the characters. Since the Critter Cube Book is designed to be interactive, this section allows the reader to decide what characteristics each character will have. 

The second part of the book allows the reader to write his or her own story. There are prompts that the reader can use as helpful guides but they will determine the story. 

The third section of the book is a flipbook that allows the reader to change not only the story line, but also the characters by simply flipping the pages. 

The Critter Cube Book is sponsored by the Graham Johnson Cultural Arts Endowment; a non-profit organization whose purpose is to develop, promote and coordinate the arts and cultural experiences for the community of Wake Forest as well as North Carolina.


The Critter Cube Book Available on Amazon!

--------

Ligers, Tigons And Pizzlies

When two different kinds of animals, which are very closely related, create a new life, the baby animal is called a hybrid. For example, if a zebra and a horse have a foal, the yearling is a hybrid called a zorse. 

Zorse is a cool name. Hybrid however, is a boring name that sounds more like a way to create electricity by pouring water through a turbine than it does a combination of two living creatures. From now on, I'm going to refer to hybrids as newimals. 

Though some are rare, all of the newimals in this book are real.

Ligers, Tigons And Pizzlies Available on Amazon!

Crushing Turtles : Done

Two years ago, while taking a vacation on Bald Head Island, I started a chapter book titled Crushing Turtles. This book was something much different then anything I had written before. A strange title, a strange subject matter and a little dark. I liked the characters right away, especially their voice. Of all the  parts of writing, voice has always been my favorite part. In fact, it was probably the character's voice that originally masked the dark storyline I was writing. 

Not long after starting the story, I stopped. I thought to myself, "Self, this isn't the type of thing you write." I was right of course. All of my previous chapter books had been whimsical. The topics were playful and the characters, though witty and perhaps charming, didn't discuss anything too deep.

Since that time, I tried my hand at writing several other books. Two failed attempts at writing art history books. Another incomplete chapter book and even an incomplete romance novel (though I still have it in my heart to finish that some day.)

It wasn't until I saw a tweet about NanoWritMo that I decided to pick up where I had left off. Even though it was deep or dark or whatever, I just wanted to see where the characters would take the story. I revised the old plot outline and began writing. 

I wrote a lot in November but it soon became clear that I would not finish this book by the end of the month. December rolled around. I had a decision to make. Shelf this book for another year or push through. I continued writing.

Chapters took forever. Where I had previously raced through a chapter in one seating, now took four or five nights just to write a few sentences. 

Then, the night before last I made a break though. I realized I had just written the second to last chapter. The most important chapter. The chapter that brings the story to it's ultimate climax. The rest was easy. 

So tonight I put the finishing words on a 5,000+ word chapter book that has taken me two years to write.  That might seem a less than heroic accomplishment to brag about.... 

but I'm still bragging. 

:)

Now for the revision process...

Dinocow Promo Video!

Download your copy of How To Milk A Dinocow for Kindle for Free!

That's right, this weekend we are running a free promo on Amazon and you can download this great book for zero dollars!

Right here, right now --> http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Milk-DinoCow-ebook/dp/B006S8DF50/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

For all the latest updates, "Like" the How To Milk a Dinocow FaceBook page"

How To Milk A Dinocow hits #1



How To Milk A Dinocow hits #1 on the Amazon top 100 Best Sellers list for Children's Books! Pretty exciting!

Download your copy of How To Milk A Dinocow for Kindle for Free!

That's right, this weekend we are running a free promo on Amazon and you can download this great book for zero dollars!

Right here, right now --> http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Milk-DinoCow-ebook/dp/B006S8DF50/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

For all the latest updates, "Like" the How To Milk a Dinocow FaceBook page"

Look What's #4 on the Amazon Best Seller List



How To Milk A Dinocow hits #4 on the Amazon top 100 Best Sellers list for Children's Books and is ranked #59 on the Amazon Top 100 Best Sellers! Pretty exciting!

Download your copy of How To Milk A Dinocow for Kindle for Free!

That's right, this weekend we are running a free promo on Amazon and you can download this great book for zero dollars!

Right here, right now --> http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Milk-DinoCow-ebook/dp/B006S8DF50/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

For all the latest updates, "Like" the How To Milk a Dinocow FaceBook page"

Amazon Top 10!!



How To Milk A Dinocow hit the Amazon top 10 list!

Download your copy of How To Milk A Dinocow for Kindle for Free!

That's right, this weekend we are running a free promo on Amazon and you can download this great book for zero dollars!

Right here, right now --> http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Milk-DinoCow-ebook/dp/B006S8DF50/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

For all the latest updates, "Like" the How To Milk a Dinocow FaceBook page"

How To Milk A Dinocow in Carolina Parent



Dinocow is right there on page 23 of the February issue of Carolina Parent Magazine. Next stop, NY Times Best Seller List!

How To Milk a Dinocow Available on Amazon click here!

Or Download to your Kindle for only 99 cents!



Get your copy now!

A Dinosaur Tail that is Udderly Unbelievable!

If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half-cow, half-stegosaurus isn’t strange enough, imagine how strange it’s going to get when Trip Stanley’s class drinks the milk!

"How to Milk a DinoCow", written by NC author Ian Sands, will be released on December 10th, 2011 by Peak City Publishing but you don't have to wait! You can purchase a copy online starting today!

You can find out more here -->
http://zonkeystreet.com/dinocow/



Readers, aged six to ten, will quickly fall in love with the baby hatched from an ostrich egg who grows to a full size DinoCow. Not sure what to feed the mooing animal, Jules and Trip feed him lemons, creating the deliciously addictive milk their classmates begin to demand. Believing they are drinking creamery milk, the students begin to look to Trip and Jules to provide more, or be deleted.

Or order online at Peak City Publishing

http://www.peakcitypublishing.com

New Cover Art for Dinocow!



The new cover art is in for How to Milk a Dinocow and I couldn't be more please! Abby did a great job!




For all the latest updates, "Like" the How To Milk a Dinocow FaceBook page"

Or vist the website --> http://www.zonkeystreet.com/dinocow/

or both!