May 2014 - Mrs Payan Reads

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/26

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:

The Boy Book by e.lockhart is the second Ruby Oliver book. I really enjoy the fun and realistic stories of what happens to Ruby and her friends and the boys in her life. It is a fun and quick read. I highly recommend this one for middle school or high school readers.

The Treasure Map of Boys by e.lockhart is the third Ruby Oliver book. It is also a fun read and I enjoyed the way the story really came to a nice conclusion for Ruby.

I was intrigued by the book Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain because of the author. This was an okay mystery, but there really wasn’t much character development. I also am not too interested in organized crime stories. What I did like about this book is the fact that it was centered around the lives of chefs so there was a lot of reference to food.

Books Abandoned This Week:

I decided to abandon Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I would still absolutely recommend the book to fans of fantasy. The characters are interesting and the book is very well-written, but I was only 150 pages into the book after three weeks of reading. I am just not that interested in reading about monsters.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am listening to Please Ignore Vera Dietz and reading Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer and The Summer I Turned Pretty

What’s Next?

It will depend on my mood and the amount of time I have this week.

Celebrate 5/24

Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

This week was a super busy week and felt so long! I have lots of little things to celebrate this week.

Here is what I am celebrating:

A surprise retirement at my school which opens up a 4th grade position for me to take…the answer to some prayers about what to do next year. ***Throws Confetti***

A beautiful day for the neighborhood clean-up project with our student council and the amazing middle schoolers who put in their time to do this service.

Some great poetry performances at our parent night.

Watching the 2013 version of Romeo and Juliet with students who have really enjoyed this unit and analyzing the movie and the way the story was adapted for this version. So much deep thinking!

Pizzas for my students who had earned a class incentive. The way that these students know how to be appreciative of the things I give them.

A change in dosage of the injections I do which makes it a 3-times-a-week injection rather than a daily injection.

A return to running and some successful walk/runs as I follow the program for Couch to 5K.

Beautiful weather for a nice long holiday weekend!

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

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/19

Books I Finished This Week:

I finally finished listening to this audiobook this week. Rotters is a really creepy story. It is hard to say that I liked or enjoyed the book because of how disturbing the book gets, but I definitely thought it was a well-written story. The audio is performed really well. Definitely don’t be eating while listening to this story…

Ilsa Bick came to visit my school back in February. I have wanted to read Ashes since then, but my students were so excited about the book that I had to wait my turn. This is a very interesting science fiction story. I will be really curious to read more in the trilogy to see how this world ends up. Dr. Bick told us that this book was not a zombie book, and I see what she means since it isn’t a disease that starts the trouble. However, there is blood and gore and kids who attack and eat people. Any student (or adult) who likes zombie stories will like this one too. I would highly recommend this book.

I just finished reading this book this morning. I have enjoyed this series by Susan Beth Pfeffer, but I am glad to be finished with her depressing world. I have been reading too many post-apocalyptic books lately. I definitely need to lighten it up. That being said, I really liked the way all of the books were realistic and gritty. I would highly recommend this series.

I was caught up in this story from the first pages. There is so much mystery in the book as Cadence is trying to get back her memories of an accident that happened to her two summers ago. This is one of the books that is hardest to review, because you are better off not knowing much about it when you start reading. I devoured this book almost in one sitting. This one is highly, highly recommended.

Books I Am Currently Reading:

I started listening to Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King. So far, I like the story and the narrator. I am still reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville as well.

What’s Next?

I need to find a few books that are not so depressing and heavy. Lately, many of the books I have read are so bleak and paint pictures of a future that would be awful. I am going to look for some more uplifting titles on my shelves for a while (I think). I cannot wait to do bookaday this summer and possibly clear some of my to-read shelves. If I can just refrain from buying more books, I might have a fighting chance.

What are you reading this week? Any recommendations for me? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate 5/17

Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

Here’s what I have to celebrate this week:

1. On Thursday, we went on a field trip to see Romeo and Juliet performed by a local theater company. Students in my class paid rapt attention to the play and were very involved during the talkback at the end. I was so proud of them while we were there. Then, when we got back to school, a group of girls in my class were eating lunch and started to have a spontaneous conversation about the actors and the way they portrayed the characters. The conversation turned to a comparison of the movie we watched and the play without any prompting from me. It is amazing to see the great critical thinking that they do.

2. Our meetings were cancelled this week, so I had time for planning and getting work done before school every day this week. It was a treat to be able to have some extra time to get my work done.

3. Last week, they installed a new bulletin board in the hallway outside of my classroom. It is something I have been asking for, and there finally was money in the budget for it. I can’t wait to make great displays on the new board.

4. There are so many new businesses opening up in my neighborhood. I am excited to be able to give my business to local, small businesses. The best one lately is a bakery that has amazing treats! This morning I had a delicious bacon and cheddar croissant that my husband brought me as a surprise. YUM!

5. In my search for lessons to go with my Romeo and Juliet unit, I stumbled across the PBS series Shakespeare Uncovered. The English major nerd in me is so excited to watch this series and learn more about some of his works.

As we approach the end of the school year, my days at school require more patience and more energy (especially with the 8th grade students). I am so happy to have this habit of looking for things to celebrate so that I can keep focusing on the positive. I hope you all have a fabulous week!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/12

I don’t know exactly what is happening lately that made me miss out on this weekly blog post for two weeks in a row. I guess it was due to the busier Sundays in the last few weeks, which have actually felt like Spring (FINALLY).

This will be a little longer list than usual since I am writing about 3 weeks worth of books.

Books I Finished:

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal was a Printz Honor book this year. While I recognized the literary value of this book, it took me a long time to get through it. I found myself not exactly avoiding reading, but not too excited to pick the book up again. It was an interesting premise, but I was not able to really like any of the characters and that made it difficult for me to enjoy. I would definitely still recommend this book, because it is a good story and well-written, it just wasn’t to my liking. (I think the Printz committee from this year and I have different tastes. This is the second Honor book that I did not really enjoy all that much).

I enjoyed Ruthless by Sara Shephard as much as I have enjoyed any of the other Pretty Little Liars books. It is fascinating to me how this author is able to keep the story going. I have fun with the twists and turns.

The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer was just as compelling as Life As We Knew It. I liked reading about Alex and his sisters and how they were trying to survive in Manhattan after the moon was pushed out of orbit. I read this book almost in one sitting. I highly recommend this series.

Heartbroken is a thriller by Lisa Unger. I enjoyed the mystery and how the stories of three women were woven together. It was definitely one that I had a hard time putting down towards the end of the book.

I was so excited on Tuesday when this book showed up in the mail. I thought it was coming out later in May so I was pleasantly surprised. Then, the power in my house went out on Wednesday about 10 minutes after I got home. All there was left to do was to read by flashlight all evening. I was almost finished by the time I went to bed. Then, I brought the book to school on Thursday. My students enjoyed watching my reactions to the events in the last 20 pages or so. I was happy to finish so soon so I could pass the book on to the student who I celebrated with when I received the book. I can’t wait to talk about it with her.

One of my students was really enjoying this series earlier this year. He was quite insistent that I should read the books when I had the chance. I did enjoy the story, but it is not really my cup of tea.

I liked how This World We Live In brought together the characters from Life As We Knew It and The Dead and The Gone. This series really has a bleak world, but the characters do their best to make the most of what they have. Post-apocalyptic books are so depressing, but I really enjoy the way Susan Beth Pfeffer imagines the scenarios that might happen.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am still listening to Rotters. I will most likely finish this book this week. I also am reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville and Ashes by Ilsa Bick.

What’s Next?

I will probably read The Shade of The Moon this week to finish the series. Then, I am not sure what I will pick up to read next.

Celebrate 5/3

Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

How did it get to be May already? Lots of small celebrations all around make the week a happy one.

1. I forgot to celebrate the fun book giving of World Book Night last week. I had so much fun handing out copies of Code Name Verity to students. The thing to celebrate this week was the fact that I saw multiple students starting to read that book right away. I can’t wait to talk to some of them about it!

2. I love seeing my students reading. So many of them are choosing to read during study hall or free time in class. It is so amazing to really have created this environment in which everyone knows to respect the reading space of classmates.

3. After a week of rainy days, the sun is out today.

4. On Wednesday, the student council hosted a Teacher Appreciation breakfast. I love the way our staff responded to this nice gesture. These students are such a great group of kids and I love working with them. They wanted to do so much more for the teachers, but setting up the breakfast and being there to thank the teachers was enough.

5. One of my less structured lessons this week was the one in which students picked groups or decided to work on their own to prepare a spoken word poem. They all had handed in a poem to me ahead of time, so they had to choose one of their poems to perform. I also gave them the option of finding a poem if they didn’t want to use one of their own. I was amazed at the good work that was happening. Students were spontaneously revising and editing poems, combining poems to make a new one, and working hard to figure out how to perform. There was one group of boys in particular that I couldn’t believe were working so well together. They usually play around and don’t get their work done, but they all worked and were keeping each other in check as they figured everything out.

6. After some disappointment in the job search, it was nice to start thinking about our plans for next year. I really do have some great colleagues and I think we have a great plan for the coming school year. I am working on figuring out a way to be able to teach reading and language arts to all four seventh and eighth grade classes. It will take some tricky scheduling, but I would love the flexibility of only planning for these subjects and the ability to really connect the lessons. Right now, I teach language arts to three classes, but only have one of those classes for reading. My principal has come up with a schedule for our switching that would give me all four classes for language arts and now we just have to figure out the morning and how to make the reading work. I am thankful for colleagues who see that this would be a good idea and are willing to work with me to make it happen.