Celebrations 12/21

                                               

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.

This week was crazy with the full moon coming the week before Winter break!  

The first celebration has to do with the reading lives of my students. This week so many students embraced the idea of making a reading plan for the break and took home bookstacks. I also had some book recommendations go really well. One student flew through Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles in one day and borrowed Living WithJackie Chan right away also.  Another asked for a book after loving The Fault in Our Stars and I gave her Thirteen Reasons Why. The next day she was halfway through the book. A third student had only read two books this year so far because she wasn't really reading at home and is not very motivated to change this. I gave her The Dead and The Buried by Kim Harrington and she was finished with it in three days. I guess I am just celebrating the power of great books to ignite that passion for reading.  I am so excited for the rest of the year because I am seeing the way our reading workshop is turning my students into avid readers.  

The second celebration is something that amazes me. Earlier this fall, I put a project on DonorsChoose to get a few Kindles for my classroom. I have so many titles in my Kindle library and I wanted to be able to share those titles with my students.  Once the project was funded, one of the donors contacted me and asked if he could send me cases for the Kindles. I was so grateful for the generosity of this stranger. I have been able to share more titles with my students and I don't have to worry so much about the Kindles I lend out to students because they are in these nice cases. This week, the same person contacted me and informed me that Amazon had a sale on Kindles this week so he ordered two more Kindles for my classroom. I am truly thankful for the kindness of this amazing person.  I love that we will have two more devices in the classroom. Yeah for unexpected generosity!

The third celebration is just the fact that we started Winter Break. The fact that I am traveling to Spain for the holidays will make my vacation a bit less relaxing, but I am excited to have time away from school to rejuvenate. Now, everyone cross your fingers that Mother Nature is nice to Chicago tomorrow.