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This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

When I got the Troll and Scholastic catalogs as a child, I felt this deep sense of wonder and excitement.  I would pore over the catalog circling every book that sounded interesting and longing for the luxury of being able to get every book I wanted.  My parents usually gave me a price limit and I would agonize over my decision for days.  Finally, I would bring the catalog and my payment back to school and the interminable wait would begin.  How long would it take until my books arrived?

And then, the day would arrive.  The book box would show up at the classroom door as if brought there by fairies (yes, I loved fantasy books as a kid).  My teacher would sort the orders and the pile of shiny new books would be placed on my desk, sometimes towering precariously from the height.  All I wanted to do was bury my nose in that glorious pile and sniff the aroma of new book.  Oh, if they would only figure out a way to bottle that smell.  Being a pretty smart kid, I realized that I needed to restrain myself from book sniffing in public so I just picked up the books and paged through them.  If I was extra lucky, the books would arrive right before silent reading time.  Then I could spend my reading time savoring one of my new treasures.  

When I started teaching, I went in search of the Scholastic catalog because I knew I wanted to share this experience with my students.  What I didn’t anticipate is that I would be just as excited about the book box now.  I have a serious book addiction and cannot help myself when it comes to good book deals, so I spend hours agonizing over my selections as an adult also (more so since I am paying for it).  When the book box arrives, I am so excited to sort the books and give my students their books…I only hope their reaction is as enthusiastic as mine used to be.

So yesterday, when that red box arrived at school, I dove right in and sorted through the treasures inside.  I cannot wait to crack open those new books and find the riches waiting there.

This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

This week I am frantically trying to catch up with all of the grading I need to do so that I can turn in report cards on Friday.  I always start out the marking period with the best of intentions.  “I will keep up with it this time,” I say to myself.  And then life gets in the way.

This year especially, my work load seems to always be about three times what I could reasonably be expected to do.  Our district is under strict mandates from the state DPI because we have not met adequate yearly progress.  Did I mention that we are a large urban district with a very high poverty rate?  According to these mandates, we need to be doing response to intervention in all subject areas and differentiating all day long.  Also, we need to do bell to bell instruction and should not have any down time (even in elementary school classrooms).  Also, we need data.  Lots of data.  I do not have an issue with giving students formative assessments so that they can understand where they are and I can plan better.  However, not every one of those assessments is going to be one with a numerical score that I can “analyze.”  There are many things that are far more valuable that are more qualitative in nature.  Yet, here I am bogged down with scores that I MUST turn in.  (Don’t get me started about how the assessments I am required to use do not align with the standards I am teaching) Since my report cards are standards-based report cards, all of this data is extraneous.  All of these mandates make it impossible to get my work done in a reasonable amount of time.  I usually am at school at least 2 hours a day longer than required and if I don’t do about 6 hours of work on the weekend, I am behind all week.

Therefore, I find myself scrambling in this week when report cards are due to look at and analyze the work that my students have done this trimester.  I do not want to sell anyone short when determining their proficiency in the standards.  Little by little, I am developing a system to help all of us understand the standards better.  I want my students to be able to self-assess and understand why they receive the scores they do.  Time to take a deep breath, buckle down, and get those grades done.

This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum is the name of the condition that is changing my sister’s life right now.  If you have heard of this condition, then the next words out of your mouth might be, “Isn’t that what Kate Middleton had to go to the hospital for?”  The answer is yes.  My sister is suffering from extreme nausea during her pregnancy.  Did she try ginger? You might ask.  Yes. Did she take Zofran? Did she eat soda crackers? Did she try peppermint? Yes, yes, and yes.  My poor sister has been nauseous since September when she found out she was pregnant.  She got exactly 2 days to enjoy the news and has been miserable ever since.

By December she was feeling sick but still able to wrestle down some food.  In February, she had to take medical leave because in her state she just wasn’t able to do the twelve hour shifts that her first year of residency asked of her.  She has had to defer her spot at Harvard for her neurology residency until two years from now because next year she will be making up her time off.  Now, she has started an IV line at home along with a Zofran pump.  They are having to pay an exorbitant amount of money for home health care and she is still miserable.  The good news is that the baby seems to be growing well and everything seems healthy.  However, there is no relief in sight for my poor sister.  There is absolutely nothing that the doctors can do to relieve her nausea and she has to continue to try to get food down because she needs the nutrients and so does that little baby.

I am so excited to meet my little niece in May and I know her parents will love her also.  I just wish my sister didn’t have this to deal with throughout the pregnancy.  I had never heard of this condition before but I will know more than I wanted to about it from now on.  If you ever have a friend suffering from this, know that they will need your support and comfort.  They may not be able to talk on the phone, but they will appreciate messages and e-mails.  I know that my sister and I have had much more contact in the last month or so because she needs someone to talk to.  Being at home and unable to move around very much can get quite boring.  I have gotten so I look forward to the message I know is waiting for me most mornings.

What I am most impressed with is my sister’s amazing resilience.  She is going through something that is unimaginable for most of us and she is never getting any relief from that nausea.  Does she get down every once in awhile and express that frustration? Absolutely.  However, she manages to keep finding a bright side and to look forward to the precious baby that will come from all of this.  She is strong and beautiful and I am so lucky to have a wonderful woman like this in my life.

This weekly meme is hosted by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Texts.  Head over there for more great ideas of kid literature and young adult books to add to your TBR.

I had a great reading week this week. It helped a lot that I had the day off on Monday for mid-winter break and then ended up with a snow day on Wednesday.  This reader was a happy camper this week!

Books I Finished This Week:

I absolutely LOVED Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers.  I thought that the author did a fantastic job of blending mystery, fantasy, and adventure in this story.  The premise of the book is so creative and I found myself quickly swept up in the narrative and enchanted by the story.  I cannot wait for the second book in this series.

I finally finished listening to The Selection by Kiera Cass this week.  I really enjoyed this story and I like the narrator on the audiobook as well.  It was a great book to listen to.  I will be interested to see how this story plays out in the next books.  I am not a huge fan of the love triangle that seems to show up in many of these YA books, but I definitely am intrigued by this one.  It seems impossible for things to work out for everyone and that tension is what will keep me coming back for more.

The book Shooter by Walter Dean Myers is another great book by this outstanding author.  It is written as a series of transcripts from interviews after a school shooting has taken place.  Through the interviews, the reader meets the friends of the shooter and begins to put together what happened.  I was intrigued by the format of the book.  The case file tells the story and gives the reader a way to gain a little distance from the horror of the event, but also gives the reader a glimpse of many different points of view and reactions to the shooting.  Like his other books, this one is easy to read but compelling and will be of interest to my 8th grade readers.

I was thrilled when I got approved on NetGalley for Hide and Seek by Kate Messner.  I will be writing a more thorough review of this one closer to the release date.  This is a great mystery that will appeal to a lot of kids.  It was really fun reading about all the wildlife that the kids encountered in the rain forest and learning a little more about the Silver Jaguar Society.  I will be buying this for my classroom when it comes out for sure.

Invincible Microbe by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank is a fascinating read.  I did not know very much about Tuberculosis other than the fact that it used to be called consumption and it shows up quite often in 19th century novels.  I also knew that people who have TB usually end up coughing up blood.  I have to admit, I never exactly knew what Sanatoriums were.  I knew they were like clinics, but found out by reading this book that there was much more to it.  This book really grabbed my attention and kept me reading.  I would highly recommend this book to teens and adults.  It is an excellent example of compelling nonfiction and will definitely be an asset to my classroom library.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I started Prodigy this week and will be finished with it very soon because it is so compelling.  I also am in the middle of Finnikin of the Rock which I am enjoying very much.  I started listening to The Night Circus and am enjoying both the story and the incredible narrator on the audiobook.  I actually got this audiobook because I wanted to read this book and then read Jen Vincent’s post about her favorite narrators.  She is so right about Jim Dale as a narrator.

Books I will read this week:

Aside from finishing the two books I have already started, I am not sure how much reading I will get done this week.  I have report cards due on Friday and mountains of papers to get through before then.  I also am participating in the Slice of Life blog challenge so some of my reading time will be dedicated to writing and reading other blog posts.  If I do have time, I would like to get to Sunrise Over Fallujah this week.  For nonfiction I will read The Great Fire this week.  I also think I would like to get to a Printz book or two to work on my nerdprintz challenge so I might pick up Hard Love or Airborn.

This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

If you have ever lost someone close to you, you know that the grief can hit in odd places and come out of nowhere from a reaction to something in your world.  No matter how many years have passed, there are things that happen which slap you in the face with memories of a loved one who has passed and cause the waterworks to start.  There are also those moments that make you pause and smile, thinking about a good memory.

In the past few days, I have found myself thinking a lot about my grandmother.  It was triggered by my choice in books to read this week.  I picked up Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for the Cure and was fascinated by the information I read.  This book made me think about my grandmother because her mother contracted TB and was taken to a sanatorium when she was a young girl.  I found myself really imagining what that must have been like for a young girl to lose her mother in this way.  Her mother did not die for a few years after leaving home, but also never came home.  What struck me most and really made me pause while reading was the idea that the medicine for a disease often comes too late for many people.  I have often lamented the fact that the advances in the treatment of heart disease came too late for my father to be saved.  Did my grandmother feel the same way as they found cures for TB during her lifetime?  Did she feel it was unfair that her mother was taken from her?  I wish I had talked more to her about this.

My grandmother was always the person I went to when I had something I needed to talk about.  She was able to listen in a way that made me feel special and loved.  When my father had his first heart attack, I was 9 and he was only 37.  He had a massive heart attack and had to have a pacemaker from then on.  I remember being able to talk to my grandmother about all the things I couldn’t tell my parents.  I felt so angry.  It was so unfair that this had to happen to my dad and that I had to change everything because of it.  I talked through it with Grandma.  Now, as an adult, I realize that this must have been a difficult conversational theme for her.  She must have been able to empathize in a real way with my feelings because she might have had some of them herself.  I miss my grandmother every day.

Of course, after spending some time remembering my grandmother, I was feeling a bit nostalgic.  And then, I watched an old episode of How I Met Your Mother last night.  At the end, Marshall is told that his father had a heart attack and died.  And just like that, I was immersed in my own grief over my father’s death.  Watching a sitcom is supposed to be uplifting, right?  My father passed away over twenty years ago, but there are still many moments that slap me in the face and surprise me.  Luckily, since it has been so many years, that feeling doesn’t stay with me for too long.

Today I find myself feeling nostalgic and remembering two amazing people.  Here’s to the marathon Monopoly games with my grandma that lasted all weekend.  Here’s to long car rides with the sunroof open, windows down, and Peter, Paul, and Mary blasting on the radio with my dad.  Here’s to living my life to make each of them proud and loving their memories with joy not sadness.  

This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

Today I am joining the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

Yesterday, our new dryer arrived.  The old one had begun screeching and grunting and making very odd noises.  Since the dryer was one that had been here when we bought the house, and it was probably about twenty years old, we decided to go buy a new one rather than trying to repair it.

When my husband and I went to Home Depot, we were determined to just buy a regular dryer without bells and whistles.  That determination quickly diminished with the options in front of us.  We did pick out a dryer that was more economical than others, but our eyes were drawn to this one and we got some bells and whistles.

It is amazing how exciting new appliances can be (yes I am even nerdy about this).  I rushed home yesterday to see the new dryer.  My husband had already started doing laundry and I saw that the load was finished drying so I opened up the dryer to take out the clothes, and it started singing.  Yes, my new dryer plays music when it is opened after the cycle has finished.  How cool is that?  It certainly made me smile.  And it made me think about how even the smallest surprise can lighten your mood.

Although I won’t be singing to anyone today, perhaps I can spread the cheer with a few small surprises for those people around me that I care about.  All it takes is an unexpected good turn to put a spring in your step and a smile on your face.  Thank you to my new dryer for this reminder.

Title: Strands of Bronze and Gold
Author: Jane Nickerson

Publication: March 12, 2013

Source: NetGalley

Publisher Summary:

My Thoughts:  I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson.  Let me just say that I LOVE 19th century literature…I gobbled up the Romantic novels of that period when I was younger.  Gothic novels were so popular during this time period in literature and I have read every last one I could get my hands on.  Had I gone on to get a PhD in English, this would have been my focus for research and publication.  Jane Nickerson wrote a book that could fit right in with the classics such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for the Gothic elements included.  This book is a retelling of the Bluebeard fairy tale and is told in such a way that it made me immediately want to dig out my copy of Jane Eyre to reread that classic.  Not everybody is going to love this book as much as I did, nor will everyone appreciate the gothic elements as I did when reading, but I think this author deserves recognition for what had to be a very intentional decision to write using these elements.  I will absolutely be buying this one when it comes out and sharing it with everyone I know.

What I really appreciated about this book is how quickly I empathized with Sophie, and how desperate her situation became.  It would not be difficult to isolate someone like this even today if someone wanted to hold them captive.  The mind games that Bernard de Cressac plays throughout the book are stunning.  I have to admit that I am not familiar with the fairy tale so I am unsure about which details the author might have embellished, but this book is fabulous and not to be missed!

I would recommend this one to teens and adults alike, but especially to fans of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and other Gothic classics.

5 out of 5 Stars

Title: The Runaway King
Author: Jennifer Nielsen

Publication: March 1, 2013
Source: Netgalley ARC
Goodreads Summary:

Since elephants are my second favorite thing after books, they are helping me with my rating system.

This weekly meme is hosted by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Texts.  Head over there for more great ideas of kid literature and young adult books to add to your TBR.

Period 8 by Chris Crutcher was an excellent book.  It combined mystery and realistic fiction in such a seamless way and will definitely appeal to teens.  The author left enough clues that it was pretty easy to figure out some parts of the mystery but left enough intrigue and surprises to keep me wanting more.  I have read Staying Fat for Sarah Barnes but have not read anything else by Chris Crutcher.  I absolutely have to remedy that soon.  A special thanks to Jennifer Fountain who lent me her ARC of this one.  I will have to buy a copy when it comes out later this spring!

Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur came in one of those special free packs of books in my Scholastic order.  The cover looked interesting and the story sounded intriguing but I didn’t plan to make this one a priority until one of my students came to school RAVING about it.  My student told me I HAD to read it, so I did.  I was really touched by this story.  The characters in the book were all lovable and I could really connect with Elise, the protagonist. The book is about Elise, who has been raised by her uncle and aunt because her parents both passed away when she was very young.  Her father, who had a terminal disease and knew he was dying, set up eight rooms of memories for her to discover and unlock when she is ready.  Throughout the course of this book, Elise opens the rooms as the keys mysteriously appear for her.  She learns about her parents and is given the treasure of advice from a father who is no longer there.  I wept through this book, not because it was sad but because it was touching (especially since I lost my own father when I was thirteen and was connecting with how amazing it would be to suddenly get a message he had left me).  I wrote more about the book HERE.  I would highly recommend this one to grades 5 and up.

I have to admit that I thought You Gotta BE the Book by Jeffrey Wilhelm would be a more practical book with strategies and lessons to immediately apply in my classroom.  I liked the book and appreciated learning about his teacher research and really thought about my own classroom throughout my reading, but this one was very scholarly and dense compared to many other professional books I have read lately.  I just kept waiting to get to the chapter that would take this research and translate it into strategy ideas for me.  It’s not that there aren’t ideas, they just aren’t really laid out in such a way that I could take those ideas and use them tomorrow.  This is one I would recommend to reading teachers, but maybe it is more of a summer read when you can really take your time and process the ideas.

I cannot believe that this is my whole list.  I think it has to do with the fact that the professional book really took some focused reading on my part.  Also, there was another book I started to read but really didn’t love it so I stopped.  That doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.  I am just glad that I didn’t buy that one.  I might go back to it sometime, but probably not.  There are too many other great books out there!

What I am Currently Reading:

I decided to read Teaching Literacy for LOVE and WISDOM: Being the BOOK and Being the CHANGE by Jeffrey Wilhelm and Bruce Novak because I was intrigued by Wilhelm’s talk at WSRA13.  The book is another one that is full of theory and teacher research, but this time I am ready for it.  I am also about a third of the way through Grave Mercy and a few chapters into Finnikin of the Rock.  I will be finishing The Selection on audiobook soon…it is getting so exciting that I will probably do an extra long workout tomorrow just so I can finish!

What’s Next:

I would like to get The Night Circus on audiobook.  I really want to read that one and have heard that this is a good audio.  I also will read Shooter and Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers.  I want to get those ones to school because I have some students who I think would really like them.  I have Hide and Seek from Netgalley as well and Prodigy is calling my name.  For professional books, I think I will read Opening Minds by Peter Johnston next.  I also have Invincible Microbe from the library and would like to make my way through that one.  I will most likely not get to all of these books but a girl can hope, right?

What are you reading this week?