Month: January 2014

I am joining in on this weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week there is a different top ten list topic and a bunch of bloggers weighing in.  Head on over there to see more of the great blogs participating.

This week’s list is full of great books that I loved reading.  All of these books have amazing characters who work to survive against the greatest of odds.  Many of these worlds started out seeming not-so-bad but any time spent there would reveal the awful circumstances in which the citizens find themselves. All of these places were great worlds to visit for a while, but I am super happy I do not live in these places.  In no particular order, my picks are as follows:

1. Divergent : I would never want to be sorted like the people are in this world.  I think variety is what makes us all interesting.

2. Legend: A world in which there are multiple plagues killing off poor citizens and a military state that rewards the rich? No, thanks!

3. The Hunger Games: No explanation needed here.

4. Rot and Ruin: Umm, Zombies.

5. The Knife of Never Letting Go: Despicable people that do despicable things.  Noise that doesn’t stop and a crazy man chasing you.

6. The House of the Scorpion: The world in which Matt lives is a hostile world ruled by a drug lord.  The inhumane treatment of clones makes the world that much more awful.

7. The Giver: A world with no color in which every adult takes a pill to suppress their urges…not cool!

8. Ready Player One: I just keep thinking about those mobile home parks with towers of RVs.  I hope things never get that crowded.  Also, a world in which entering a virtual reality is the choice that many people make to escape their reality does not sound like a fun world to me.

9. Super Sad True Love Story: This is a depressing look at what the future may hold for us.  It is a tale of commercialism taking over the world and a place in which everyone is dependent upon their tablets for everything.  Much of the book was really close to home and I really hope we aren’t living in this world in 20 years.

10. Delirium: A world in which love is viewed as a disease is just not a world I want to live in.

Books I Finished This Week:

Books I am Currently Reading:

What’s Next?

                                               

This is a fabulous idea from Ruth Ayres in which we write about something to celebrate each Saturday. I am looking forward to participating in this link up each week and hearing about the awesome things happening in everyone’s classrooms and lives.

I didn’t get to write last week because I was so busy with the literary seminar.  I absolutely love Key West Literary Seminar.  It is always well done and worth the time and money.  Sitting in an auditorium and listening to authors talk about their process and their books is such a balm for the soul.  This time the theme was mystery/thriller which is my absolute favorite genre.  I enjoyed everything from the Keynote address by Elizabeth George to the panel discussions with Michael Connelly and Lee Child to the talk about struggling to become a writer by Lisa Unger.  The best thing about this conference is the way they try to keep things informal.  The panels are really just a few authors up on stage talking about the topic.  It is funny and relaxed and it is always entertaining. The mix of new authors with just a few books and veteran authors with multiple bestsellers and multiple series is always refreshing.  I came back recharged and with a much longer TBR list.  I also have a few pages in my notebook full of ideas that I got while listening to the authors.  A few things really resonated with me as a writer as well.

I also was able to spend an amazing weekend with my sister, her baby, and my mother.  My sister lives in California so I don’t get to see her that often and it was great to spend time with her.  I also really enjoyed the time with my niece who is 9 months old.  She is so much fun!!!  The time with my family was really great.  I love that we can share the love of reading and writing together.

I was really happy this week to spy two girls at my reading door.  The two girls were pointing to the covers displayed and saying “I want to read this one, and this one, and this one, etc.”  I love seeing these small moments in time that show that the students are interested in reading.

Yesterday, I found out that one of my students won the “Draw a Quarkbeast” contest.  She is super proud of the fact that Jasper Fforde selected her drawing.  The drawing will be published in the paperback of The Song of the Quarkbeast which will be released next fall.  We had many students enter that contest this fall because Mr. Fforde visited our school in September.  I love the way the author visit is having a lasting effect for this student.

What are you celebrating this week?  I hope you have had an amazing week!  I would love to hear from you in the comments.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I Finished This Week:

Books I am Currently Reading:

What’s Next?

                                               

This is a fabulous idea from Ruth Ayres in which we write about something to celebrate each Saturday. I am looking forward to participating in this link up each week and hearing about the awesome things happening in everyone’s classrooms and lives.

It was SO HARD to get back in the swing of things this week.  We only had a 3 day week, since we had school cancelled for Monday and Tuesday because of the extreme cold.  On Friday, I overheard two conversations that reminded me why I do this job.

First, there was the conversation at lockers:

The two girls were talking about the pile of books Girl 2 has in her locker and her excitement about a book she is looking forward to.

Girl 1: “I thought you didn’t like reading.”
Girl 2: “I didn’t, but now we’re in this class and Mrs. Payan reads all the time and it’s just different.”

I love the way this conversation reinforced the importance of the teacher who reads and the way that influences attitudes.

Later that morning I overheard another student:

“When you have a book that you are really interested in it is so hard to stop reading.  I sit down to just read for 15 minutes and the next thing you know it has been hours.”

This student had no interest in reading at the beginning of the school year.  Over winter break she ordered multiple books and came back to school super excited about reading.  The Dead and The Buried by Kim Harrington was her book.  Now, she is recommending books and influencing her friends in a positive way to get them reading.  This conversation was an attempt to explain to her friend how she needs to find a book so that the daily required reading is easy to do.

I am going to this event starting on Thursday:

This will be the fourth time I go to the Key West Literary Seminar with my mother.  We have not gone every year, but it is a wonderful event that we enjoy together.  This will be the second time that my sister will also be there with us.  It is even more exciting because my sister is bringing my niece.  I love this literary seminar because it is a weekend full of authors speaking and panel discussions.  It is also full of receptions and multiple opportunities to talk to authors in a more informal setting.  This year, the theme is right up my alley.  I am so looking forward to being in beautiful Key West with my family and enjoying this awesome event.  Judy Blume is on the board of this event and is always there.  Maybe this year I will be brave enough to approach her.  I usually fangirl from afar.

What do you have to celebrate this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments.  Have a wonderful week!

The ladies at Two Writing Teachers host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

2013 was a mixed bag of fun and amazing moments and some not so great moments.  Here is my list of the top five important moments of 2013:

1. My niece Lena was born on May 1st, 2013.  I was so happy when she was born both because now I had a beautiful baby niece and because my sister would not be suffering anymore.  Her pregnancy was awful.  I had never heard of Hyperemesis Gravidarum before, but I learned a lot about it during my sister’s pregnancy.  At the end of her pregnancy, she was 10 pounds lighter because she was unable to eat for the most part.  Now she feels like it was all worth it because she has this little peanut to love.

2. The highlight of my year was going to Pasadena, CA to stay with my sister and help care for Lena.  I was there for three weeks and had some quality sister time as well as fun-with-baby time.  I love my sister and her husband and had a blast there.

3. My husband, Ramon, was supposed to do student teaching this semester as his university time came to a close.  He had the placement all lined up and had met with the cooperating teacher already to start planning his experience.  Then, a week before school was supposed to start, he got an e-mail.  A local high school was in a bind because their Spanish teacher had resigned on the first day back to work. The classes they offered in this high school were for heritage speakers so they really wanted to hire a teacher who was a native speaker.  My husband’s professor knew that he would be a good fit for this job.  The professor called and talked to the principal and Ramon had an interview that same day.  By the next morning, he was hired and had to report to work the following day.  The paperwork was submitted for doing student teaching on the job and he went to work.  We both felt so blessed by this amazing turn of events.  The best part of everything was that now he would be paid for this semester of teaching.  Ramon has done an excellent job and I am so proud of the excellent teacher he has become.  Although it meant extra work for me (I basically took on the role of cooperating teacher), I have felt rewarded all semester seeing how happy Ramon is doing this job.

4. I was able to coordinate two author visits to my school through the local bookstore Boswell Book Company.  It was so awesome to see how excited my students got about being able to ask questions of a real author.  We had one visit last Spring from Amy Timberlake and another visit this fall from Jasper Fforde.  Both of these authors did fabulous presentations and our students were excited to meet the authors and get their books signed.  Being able to provide these experiences for students at my school made me feel so great.  I can’t wait to set up more visits in the future!

5. This one is important, but not in a good way.  One day in September, my feet started tingling.  By the time a few days had passed and I started being unsteady on my feet, I knew it was time to visit a doctor.  I went through about two weeks of urgent care visits and testing.  A hospital stay and two MRI’s later, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  This diagnosis basically consumed my energy for all of September.  I am now injecting myself every day with one of the medicines to try to prevent the disease from flaring up as often.  The diagnosis definitely explains a lot about the medical issues I have had in the last five years or so, but it was not very fun to hear.  I am doing fine and I have done a pretty good job of accepting that which I cannot change.  2013 will definitely always stick out in my mind as the year I found out I was not healthy.

Looking forward to 2014, I have a few things that I would like to accomplish.  Here are the top five things I hope will happen in 2014:

1. I want to eat better in 2014.  My husband and I both got lazy in the last few years while he was going to school.  Many of his classes were evening classes so we got into a pattern of quick, unhealthy alternatives for dinner, usually eaten late at night when he got home from class.  My plan is to eat following a diet outlined in The Blood Sugar Solution.  It is close to the Whole 30 plan with many natural, whole foods, and very little processed food.

2. One of the hardest things that we have dealt with in the last few years has been infertility.  Over the summer, my husband and I decided to move forward with a procedure.  Then when I was diagnosed in September, it seemed more prudent to focus on that health issue and learning about the disease.  Now, we are ready to move forward with the procedure.  I am crossing my fingers that this year will bring luck and a new addition to our family.

3. I am seriously contemplating some sort of career change in the coming school year.  I have really been itching to move or at least look around at the opportunities available in other schools, but have stuck with my comfort zone in the last few years.  This year, my principal is retiring at the end of the school year.  I am thinking about applying for a sabbatical next year and going to school full time for either a second Masters degree and a reading license or starting a PhD program.  I also might apply for a coaching position in the district.  Lately, our district has had a difficult time filling those positions so it might be time for me to try it out.  I also might just look around at the positions available in the district at other schools.  I miss working with students in 4th and 5th grade.  My goal is to really force myself to examine my options and not continue to settle for what I already know.

4. I look forward to spending some time in Spain this summer.  My husband and I have already decided that we want to do this because we are unsure how long it might be until we can do it again if things work out for us.  It is always a wonderful time staying with my in-laws at the beach.

5. Last, but not least, I plan to really get back on track with fitness this year.  I have a fitbit and it is really motivating for me to try to get my goals each day.  The new secretary at our school is a Zumba instructor and will be starting to do a Zumba class on Thursdays after school.  I also have my spin bike at home and will be committing to at least 2 intense spin sessions a week.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?  I would love to hear from you in the comments.

                                               

This is a fabulous idea from Ruth Ayres in which we write about something to celebrate each Saturday. I am looking forward to participating in this link up each week and hearing about the awesome things happening in everyone’s classrooms and lives.

Celebrating this week:

1. Although she is not human, my dog is definitely a big part of our family.  I am celebrating having her back home with us after we got home from out of town.  I love the place she goes and am very thankful for the excellent care she receives while she is with them.  Here are some action shots from the doggy spa:

I love that we have a great place to take her and know she is happy and safe while we’re gone.  Now, I am happy to have her cuddled up with me on the couch as I write.

2. I had a blast with Ramon’s family in Spain.  His cousin threw us a surprise welcome party on the day we arrived.

Ramon and his mom enjoy one of their favorite dishes…snails!

After that, it was nonstop family time over the holidays.  It was beautiful as always in Sevilla.  The holiday lights are amazing there and it is always fun to see his family since we don’t get to see them often.

3. Almost ten years ago, I bought a necklace from an artist that works with glass at the art fair in Sevilla.  I went back to this same art fair each year we were there over the holidays, but have never been able to find that artist again.  This year, she was there again along with another artist with gorgeous pieces!  I am celebrating my new beautiful necklaces!  I love these because they are so unique.

4. Ramon and I brought an iPad mini for his parents.  We went with them to set up internet in their house and showed them how to use e-mail, Skype, and FaceTime.  I am so excited that they will be able to do video conferences with both Ramon and his twin brother who lives in another part of Spain.  They were so excited when they were learning the technology.  I am so happy we brought this for them and were able to teach them the basics.  I just know that Ramon’s parents will love being able to use the internet and connect with their family.

5. Our trip home was the smoothest trip I have ever had.  We had very little downtime…we didn’t have to run in the airport in Madrid to connect with our flight, but we were able to board immediately when we got to the gate.  We had a smooth flight which is made better because the plane now has individual video screens and you can select your own entertainment.  It definitely makes the 9 hour flight go faster!  I enjoyed watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and The Great Gatsby (which I thought was very well done).  I also had some good time to read on the plane.  Then, going through customs in Chicago was quick, our bags came up fast, and the bus to Milwaukee was waiting when we got outside.  We usually have to wait about 45 minutes for the bus because we usually get outside about 5 minutes after the bus left.  It was nice to get home an hour earlier than we had anticipated.

6. I know this sounds weird, but I am also celebrating the fact that our car and house were fine when we got home.  No break-ins or any other bad things…I am always a little nervous that something will happen while we’re gone.