October 2014 - Mrs Payan Reads

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/27

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:

I actually finished The House of Hades by Rick Riordan this week. I love this series! It was such a great adventure and I am so excited to read the next one soon.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I just started reading The Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. I am also listening to The Peculiar.

What’s Next?

I am not sure what I will read next. I have a stack on my nightstand that I will choose from in the next week.

My posts have been so short lately. I have so much work to do with the new grade level. According to Goodreads, I am something like 34 books behind schedule for my yearly goal. Ha! I will get back on track soon.

Have a great reading week!

Celebrate 10/25

Join the celebration by linking up at www.ruthayreswrites.com or just visit and read the great celebrations!

A list of celebrations this week:

1. Trick or Treat for Unicef and students who are excited to be helping a good cause.

2. My nephew is coming over tonight to go trick or treating in my neighborhood. Our Trick or Treat is always the last Saturday in October. (I think it is kind of weird this year since Halloween is on a Friday, but that is what is happening)

3. The first time my students groaned collectively when it was time to stop independent reading.

4. We’re almost at the end of The One and Only Ivan. My students are so attentive and engaged in this book.

5. My students’ excitement when I showed up at their volleyball games this morning.

6. Our school is getting some new Chromebooks and I will be sharing one of the new carts with just one other teacher. This will make it much easier to incorporate technology into our day.

What do you have to celebrate? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/20

Books I Finished This Week: Ummm…none

Books I am Currently Reading: I am more than halfway through The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. I also am still listening to The Peculiar which seems like it will take me forever and a day at this rate.

What’s Next? At this rate, I am not sure I will even get to another book before next week. I am seriously bogged down with the new grade level and the chatty kids in my classroom. I will get on a more even schedule soon.

Celebrate 10/18

Join the celebration by linking up at www.ruthayreswrites.com or just visit and read the great celebrations!

This week I am celebrating:

1. I actually got back in the groove and wrote 3 blog posts this week! I need to make the time for more writing, but I am happy that I was able to do the Celebrate, It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? and Slice of Life posts that I did this week.

2. Our new roof is completely installed and we got a thank you tin of cookies from the contractor. The cookies are so cool! They have the company’s logo on them (and they’re delicious).

3. My mom invited me at the last minute to go see Jason Mraz in concert last night. She and my step-dad were supposed to go, but he was sick. I jumped at the chance to go with my mom to this concert. Not only did I get some time with my mommy, but the music was amazing. The band that he is traveling with is Raining Jane and they are amazing too.

Slice of Life: Hectic days

Every Tuesday, a number of amazing bloggers write a Slice of Life. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

This school year, I am happier than I have been in a long time. I was given the opportunity to move out of middle school and back into fourth grade. I jumped at the chance. I went into education to be an elementary school teacher. I love being able to teach all the subjects. I love to read, I love to write, I love math, I love science, I love history, I love teaching it all. I also think that there is a definite comfort zone for every teacher. Yes, I am certified to teach grades 1-8, but I am most comfortable with 4th and 5th grade. This year I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I am invigorated and working hard again.

That being said, I have one of those crazy active classes that drive me bonkers some days. I get hugs and pictures to make up for my patience being tried, but I do reach the end of my patience some days. We are working hard to establish a safe and caring environment. We do things in the Responsive Classroom way, we have morning meetings, and we work to be sure everyone is accepted as part of our collaborative community. This is really hard to do when there are a few kids that struggle with empathy. We are getting there. We will get there, we will.

This school year has been especially full of new things for teachers in my district. There is a new student information system and online gradebook to learn to use, a new evaluation system that requires an in-depth plan, and more mandates from the central office than we can keep track of.

I am working hard to plant my two feet firmly on the ground and to get us all on track. It feels like we take two steps forward and one step back. Part of the problem is the ridiculous amount of fabulous ideas out there. Taking a step back and evaluating my goals will go far in helping to make the decisions I must make. It is mighty overwhelming at times, but I know I will succeed in providing what my students need and giving them a classroom in which they can feel safe and loved. It will all work out, it will.

This is a message I need to give myself today because the day was crazy. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn there was a full moon today. It must be something else in the air. Now, I need to take a deep breath and repeat to myself: it will work out, it will.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/13

I haven’t posted since the beginning of September! I am so busy with school. I am going to go ahead and share all the books I read for the last few weeks since that list is not too long. Here’s to getting back on track with blogging!

I checked out and read some picture books over the last few weeks. I really enjoyed My Teacher is a Monster and Noisy Paint Box. I also thought The Lion and The Bird was a really sweet story.

I loved this new one from Raina Telgemeier. I could absolutely relate to the sibling rivalry in the story. My students will love this one.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver took me quite some time to read, but it was worth it. The story weaves through a man’s life from childhood to death. There are some interesting details about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo as well as an intriguing story about the paranoid anti-communist thought in the United States after World War II. I really, really enjoyed this one.

This was a fun thriller that would be appropriate for a younger audience than most of this type of book. It starts with a kidnapping and goes back and forth between what is happening with the girls who are kidnapped and what is happening with the police and the families. I would recommend this one for kids who like scary movies but are too young for the young adult thrillers.

I enjoyed this modern retelling of Jane Eyre. It made me want to go read the classic again. I wonder if it would inspire a teenager to want to read the classic.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson is a beautiful memoir. It would make a phenomenal mentor text, especially in middle and high school.

I love Veronica Mars! This book picks the story up from the end of the movie. It is Veronica Mars and a good mystery. I am excited to read more of these.

The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer was a really fun book. I am going to be seeking out the other books now because I am pretty sure my fourth grade students will devour them. I don’t know why I waited so long to read this book, but I am glad I finally did.

What I am Currently Reading:

I am listening to The Peculiar and just started reading The House of Hades. Reading is slow going for me because I am spending a lot of time planning for my classroom.

What’s Next?

I have no idea what I will get to next. It will depend on my mood and whether I get through what I already have started.

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

Celebrate 10/11

Join the celebration by linking up at www.ruthayreswrites.com or just visit and read the great celebrations!

During our math stations time on Wednesday, a little group of students was sneakily working on something. I pretended not to see them doing it, because I knew they were trying to surprise me. I let them work on this for about 5 minutes or so until I called them back to work. The survey started out as who loves/who “disloves” Ms. Payan and evolved into this when they realized that it might not be very nice if people “dislove”. They also put a little tally chart with a few teachers to do a survey about favorite teachers. They were completely off task but completely engaged in this endeavor. I posted it on Facebook that night and had comments from a former student and a parent of former students that basically said I was the best. Warm fuzzies all over!

We had Parent-Teacher conferences this week. I really enjoy talking to parents. I like meeting them and touching base at the beginning of the school year, but I really wish our conferences were a little later in the Fall. I am still working on solidifying my procedures and don’t have as much to say about academics as I could later in the Fall. Many parents absolutely love ClassDojo and I was glad to hear that.

This time of the school year also means visits from former students. I loved hearing about freshman year from a few of last year’s 8th graders. One girl is going to the high school of the arts and majoring in creative writing. She credits her writing passion to me and my ELA class. I was flattered to hear that and so happy that I could inspire her to be creative. I also love it that many of my former students went to see The Maze Runner. I read it aloud to them last spring and they were eager to share their thoughts about the actors, “Thomas is HOT” and the way the characters were portrayed.

The day off on Friday almost made it worth being at school until 8:15pm both Wednesday and Thursday. I sat and mindlessly binged on TV watching all afternoon after helping a colleague figure out her Educator Effectiveness plan in the morning.

I love the Fall and pumpkin everything. I tried another great pumpkin beer last night. I think I will look up a recipe and make pumpkin bars today. At this time of year, I am glad to live in Wisconsin and get all the seasons in all their glory.

We got to see the lunar eclipse on our way to work Wednesday. I thought it would not still be visible, but it was. So COOL!

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