Beating the Zaner-Bloser Blues! 1-23-09

This week, I've decided to write about and share some of the resources I have come across while searching the Internet for links related to our curriculum. One that has truly helped me out recently has been the Zaner-Bloser website: http://www.zaner-bloser.com/educator/products/handwriting/index.aspx?id=4296 . Our principal is very committed to teaching our students to write legibly in print and cursive so that they are able to express their thoughts and respond in writing proficiently with increased speed and hopefully, in more detail as writing will not be as "painstakingly" a task. I have purchased several font cds over the years, and downloaded many online to use to create papers to use during instruction in the cursive and manuscript handwriting. The fonts have always been close to the Zaner-Bloser style we use in the county, but there have been certain differences that always bothered me and caused me to have to white-out and over letters or words. This would often make me feel like just writing the documents myself like in the "old days". While I think that I have decent cursive handwriting, it takes me some time to write documents for the children because I am meticulous in my attempt to form the letters correctly. The style of cursive I learned as a child is quite different than the modern style we teach today. In fact, just a few years ago, Zaner-Bloser changed a few letters once more. Goodbye to the capital Q shaped like a 2, and hello to the O-shaped capital Q. This is one letter I can NEVER seem to get right on the first try! I also like to use the cursive font when typing notes or graphic organizers on the laptop during instruction. The problem is that I am constantly having to remind (or be reminded by) students that the computer is forming a letter “incorrectly” or not as we are being taught to form it. In an effort to avoid having to go through this on a daily basis, I went on yet another quest to find and download or purchase the EXACT Zaner-Bloser font style being currently used. I searched several sites, but always came upon a letter with an added loop or missing tail. The Q was incorrect or the undercurve was off. Finally, I ventured back to the Zaner-Bloser site to see if I could just purchase the entire curriculum on CD, hoping to be able to access the font then. To my great surprise, they currently offer grade-level specific templates that you can type into in cursive or manuscript. The templates are lined appropriately and can even be translated into Spanish!!! I was thrilled at the find and began to type in the week’s poetry lesson template into a blank page. When I got to the point I wanted to print and save, I came to a halt. It is with great disappointment that I realized that I could print, but could not save my work. I was left feeling a little gypped, cheated out of the ability to preserve this masterpiece of cursive perfection! Still, I went ahead and printed a set of 3 copies - one to copy and 2 to file, and continued on to a new blank page to type this week’s spelling words. I guess the saying is true that sometimes, you can’t have it all…