It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/31/15

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.

This week I had a crazy busy time. I was able to get in my classroom to start setting things up on Monday and officially started work on Thursday. My sister and her family chose this crazy time of year to come visit from California, so they were staying with us on Thursday and Friday nights. Love the time with my nieces and my sister and her husband, but I was so exhausted by the time they left! This weekend was spent supporting my husband who is still a relatively new teacher and is struggling a little bit with designing courses and planning for four preps without spending hours and hours working. I am trying to help him streamline, but we think differently so it is sometimes bumpy. That being said, I am proud that I actually finished a book this week! It is much less than usual, but I will take it!

Books Finished This Week:

The Traitor's Smile is the sequel to The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliot.  The books are set in revolutionary France. The main character is an aristocrat and therefore in danger during this time. Both books are full of intrigue and were interesting reads because I learned a lot about that time in history in France. I would recommend this book for grades 8 and up.


Books I am Currently Reading:

I am reading I Crawl Through It by A.S.King. I got this copy from NetGalley. I am having a hard time with this one. I really love all of this author's books and I know I will probably love this one once I understand what is going on, but I am really confused right now.

What's Next?
Frankly, I have no idea what I will read next. My students start tomorrow so this week is just surviving and getting everything prepared for the first few days of school. I do know that I will be reading Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin for my first read aloud because Liesl Shurtliff is coming for an author visit later this month!

What are you reading? Do you have any recommendations? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/24

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.

I didn't plan to do so, but I seem to have taken a break from blogging for the last month or so. It was kind of nice to really not worry about what day it was and live in total vacation mode. Going back to work later this week makes it important to actually know what day it is. And, oh, guess what? It's Monday! Here are the books I've been reading:

Books I Finished:

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat was a beautiful, but deeply disturbing book about growing up in two cultures and coming to terms with your past. It is definitely a novel I am glad I read but some of it was quite difficult to read. This is a book I would recommend to adults. 

Stella by Starlight is another fabulous book by Sharon Draper. The Ku Klux Klan has moved into Stella's town and now tensions are really high and everyone needs to be extra careful. I read this book thinking it would be too much for my fourth grade students, but I don't think it would be too difficult for them content-wise. I was impressed by the way the author dealt with this sensitive and scary subject matter in a way that I would be able to incorporate into my classroom. Of course, the book is also very appropriate for older grades as well. I would highly recommend this one to grades 4 and up.

I loved The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein, but not as much as I loved Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library. I still would absolutely recommend this excellent adventure to kids in grades 4 and up. 

I loved how Liesl Shurtliff wove together the worlds of Rump and Jack. I read Rump with my students at the end of the school year and they loved it. I know they will also love Jack! What's awesome is that my school has an author visit scheduled for Liesl Shurtliff to visit in September. I cannot wait to share this book with students and have them fall in love with this author too!

I finally got my hands on a Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales graphic novel. This one is The Underground Abductor. It is about Harriet Tubman. I actually learned a lot and I know my students will love this graphic novel. I highly recommend it!

The Trap by Steven Arntson is a really interesting fantasy which explores an idea about being able to have out of body experiences. I would recommend this one for grades 6 and up. 

I LOVED The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen. The story fascinated me from the very first page. I was able to connect with the main character from the very beginning. I liked the way the author really highlighted the idea of really seeing the people around us who are disabled and not seeing just their conditions. 

I have also been reading a bunch of the Who Was and What Was books. I love learning more about some of these things and I know my students will enjoy these books too.  

Have a great reading week!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/3

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.

My poor blog has been quite neglected and pitiful this summer. I am enjoying my summer and it has been nice to just play it by ear and not necessarily stick to a schedule. This blog post will include the books I have read in the last two weeks since I didn't get to write last week. 

Books I Have Finished:

I bought Life After Theft because I was really interested in reading it after seeing Aprilynne Pike talk at an event. She is so funny! I really enjoyed reading the book. The characters are witty and clever. This is a fun read that many young adults would really love. I highly recommend this one for a light read.

Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori Lee is a very intriguing fantasy book. It captivated my attention from the first page. I highly recommend this book to grades 8 and up, especially fantasy fans. 

I love Rainbow Rowell and all the novels she has written! Landline is a novel written for adults and is a realistic look at marriage and the way people choose their priorities. The way the author weaves together a science fiction element and the great story about relationships is magic. I really loved this one and would highly recommend it for adults, especially those of us who can remember having to memorize a friend's number and call back multiple times in order to reach our friend. 

Milo gets pulled into a world full of Ogres and needs to figure out his way back home. He goes on a big adventure with lots of dangerous escapes. I know my 4th graders will love this book! I can't wait to share it with them when it comes out in September!

I have seen a lot of great things said about this book. I completely agree with all of them. What a magical story! I cannot wait to share this story with my students. I would highly recommend this one for grades 3 and up. 

Currently Reading:

I am reading The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World from NetGalley. It is a fascinating historical account of how science tried to prove that the psychic world exists. I am really enjoying learning about this time in history. I am also reading Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat and listening to Rebecca.  

What's Next?

I am not sure what will be next. I do have a pile from the library and a shelf full of books from my class library that I wanted to read this summer. 

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

Summer Reflections-The Best Year Yet

     This summer, I have been lucky enough to attend multiple professional development events and to read some great professional books. All of the reading and reflecting has my head spinning with the possibilities in my classroom this next school year. I have been reminded this summer of the vision I have for a truly student-directed learning environment in my class.  I also have been inspired by truly excellent ideas for innovation in education such as flipped learning, genius hour, and gamification. Now, I need to begin to synthesize my learning and to decide what to focus on for the coming school year. There are some beliefs that I know I need to adhere to when thinking about my classroom:

• Classroom culture is the single most important thing. It is imperative to spend the time needed to teach students to respond to each other with kindness and to give them opportunities to collaborate with each of their classmates. 
• Students should be leading the learning. I want them to be setting goals and keeping track of their own learning and communicating that with their parents. 
• The classroom is OUR classroom. Involving students in setting it up and establishing some of the routines is important to me. 
• The workshop model is what works best for me and what I think is best for students. 
• READING is essential. Read aloud and independent reading need to happen every single day. 
• Encouraging a growth mindset is also imperative to helping students succeed
• Involving families in our learning is important. I want parents to have a place to go to see what we are doing each day in our classroom. I want them to feel like they are part of our learning. I want them to truly understand the standard-based report cards they receive each trimester. 

When I picked up Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz, I expected to get a few good ideas from the book. I didn't expect to be reading the perfect book for my professional journey. I want my classroom to look like Mr. Solarz' classroom. I want my students to be able to feel the ownership that it seems like his students feel. I know that I will be going back to that book again and again as I consider how I will start the school year and what procedures and routines I want to establish. One of the absolute musts in my book will be establishing the student jobs that I know will make our classroom function more smoothly. I love the idea of the students who have the specific job of reminding other students to complete morning duties. I also love the idea of having a student who is responsible for getting the Smart Board up and running if I haven't already done so. I am also thinking that it would be good to have a student responsible for picking the GoNoodle brain breaks and navigating there when it is time for those breaks. I also loved his ideas for how to handle the end of the day. I will definitely be doing something similar this year. 

I also know that I need to establish a Genius Hour in my classroom. I want my students to have the opportunity to explore and learn for the sake of learning. I think this is one of the most important lessons we can give students. I still am working on thinking about how to make this work in 4th grade. When I was switching and had multiple classes for shorter amounts of time, it was easy to figure out 20% of the time. We spent one class a week on Genius Hour. With 4th grade, I am with them for so much more time. I am pretty sure that I want to establish a time every day or every other day to work on projects. I also want to encourage maker space type projects and working on challenges to solve problems. I don't know whether to create a separate time for that or to include it in my Genius Hour time. Perhaps we could do Genius Hour projects four days a week and then have a challenge problem on the fifth day. My biggest issue is how to have students record their work and set goals. I think it would be good to have them decide on the standards that they are working on and to assess themselves on those standards. 

I know I also want to use flipped learning in some way in my classroom this year. I don't yet know how I will use this idea. I also am really interested in gamification. I think I could perhaps connect the game to ClassDojo in some way. The issue that I have is that it will promote some competition among my students, which is counterproductive to the collaborative classroom culture. These are two innovative ideas that are still bouncing around in my head. The trick this year is going to be to take small steps and not to leap into too many big changes at once. 

Looking back over the reflections thus far, I see the need to carefully plan the first weeks of school so that I will be focusing on those things that are most important to me. I need to make sure that I have thought through everything and am absolutely prepared for the beginning of the school year. You would think after 15 years that this would be easier to do. I am determined to make this the BEST SCHOOL YEAR EVER! 

What are your ideas for the new school year? Are there things that you are considering adding into your curriculum for the year? Do you have routines that you deem to be crucial to creating a collaborative culture? I would love to hear your feedback and ideas in the comments!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 20

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 enjoyed The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick as much as I enjoyed The Silver Linings Playbook. I have to admit that I have a weird issue with narrators like this. The book is really well written and many people would give it a rave review, but there is just something off for me (this is the case with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night as well). I did like how the resolution of the book turned out. It definitely was a good ending and I am glad I read this one. I would recommend it to adults. 

I can understand how this book won the Pura Belpre award. I was riveted from the start. I felt so awful for the protagonist, Piddy, who was bullied from the first day at her new school. What was so awful was the way that things spiraled out of her control and she hadn't done a thing wrong. I highly recommend this book for high school and up. 

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare is an amazing book. It absolutely would be a great one to recommend to all Harry Potter fans. These two authors are amazing fantasy authors and they hit this one out of the park. I can't wait to read more of this Magisterium series! I highly recommend this one to grades 5 and up. 

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am reading Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike. I am also listening to Rebecca thanks to a free audiobook download from Sync audiobooks. I also have started reading Day by Day for ideas about writing workshop. I also started Flipping 2.0. 

What's Next? 

I have Unsnared and Stella By Starlight on my shelf from the library. I also got a few pages into A God In Ruins and need to get back to that book. I have an entire small bookshelf of titles from my classroom that I want to get to. I also might like to pick up The Martian. We'll see! 

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 13

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.

I have been in California visiting my sister and her family this week. That means tons of cuddles with the 2-year-old and 3-week-old nieces. That does not leave much time for reading or writing...and at night when I do have time I am exhausted. However, I did manage to get in some quality reading time this week and finished some excellent reads!

Books Finished this Week:

Olivia Takes Ballet is a cute story featuring Olivia. I did not realize when I bought this one for my niece that it was not written by the original author of Olivia books. It was still a hit.

Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus was another big hit in this household. It is a favorite song and so quickly became a favorite book.

I am so glad I bought Firebird by Misty Copeland. It is a gorgeous book and will be an excellent one to share with my students. I think that this dancer is such an inspiration and I will be highlighting her story this year at school. This picture book is a perfect way to share the idea of working hard to accomplish big goals.

This is another picture book that I am glad I purchased. I will love sharing it with my students early in the year when we are focusing on growth mindset.

Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta was a really great thriller. I had this one on my Kindle because I think this author is amazing. When I saw the ALA tweets and realized that this one had been on the Alex award list this year, I got reading right away. I don't know how I missed that. Suffice it to say, I completely agree that young adults would love this book. I am a big mystery fan and this one had all the makings of a great mystery book. I highly recommend this book to high schoolers and adults who love a good thriller.

I went to the library specifically to look for The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough when I saw the author Gae Polisner gushing over the book. She compared it to The Book Thief, which is one of my all-time favorite books, so I had to check it out. The praise was well-deserved. This book is beautifully written and resonates with you long after you finish reading. I also am now in love with this author after reading her post on Gae's Friday Feedback post for Teachers Write. I highly recommend this book for high school and up.

You know how sometimes a book comes along with just the right message at just the right time? This book was one of those books for me. In Learn Like a Pirate, Paul Solarz outlines his methods to create a collaborative class environment that is student-led. Five years ago, I had a classroom like that. Then, I switched grade levels to middle school and did not have the same class all day long. I sort of lost my mojo. Last year was the first year back in elementary school for me and I sort of envisioned that my class would function the same way it had years ago, but I forgot how much work is needed to get it there. I loved this book because it gave me some really concrete ideas of how to achieve what I want to achieve in empowering students to lead their own learning. I loved the reflection questions at the end of every chapter. I will absolutely be coming back to this book over and over again to help myself refine my vision for the school year.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am still reading The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick and A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. I am also still listening to Rebecca. 

What's Next?

   I have no idea what I will choose to pick up next. It will depend on my mood.

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 6

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:

Reawakened by Colleen Houck was a fun adventure. I got this one from NetGalley. It is similar to the Tiger's Curse series in that I was a little annoyed by the character's teenage thoughts. However, the character is a teenager and I think her writing would appeal to teen readers. This one was a fun trip to Egypt. I would definitely recommend this one to teenagers and adults who are fans of her other series.

Cold War on Maplewood Street by Gayle Rosengren will be coming out in August. This is a really well done historical fiction book about the feeling in the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the author's note the author says that she was surprised that so many people didn't really know about this time in our history because it was so vivid in her own memory. I have to admit that I am one of those people who was ignorant of that tense time in history. I loved how this book made this history accessible for young people while at the same time really letting the reader know how scary it was to be living here at that moment in history. I highly recommend this book for grades 4 and up. 

This book is another one that I got from NetGalley.  These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly was one of those books that grabbed me and I could not put it down. I should have been doing many things in preparation for my trip, but instead I was reading for hours. The book had the perfect combination of my favorite things. It was a mystery set in a victorian period with a strong female protagonist and just a little bit of romance. So good! I highly recommend it to grades 8 and up. I know now (if I didn't before) that I need to look for other books by this author. 

The Living by Matt DeLaPena is a very thrilling read. It was the perfect book to be reading as I travelled because it really captured my attention and kept me busy as I spent what felt like endless hours flying across the country. One thing that you need to know about this book is that it is the first in a series. Don't expect a huge amount of resolution at the end of the book. It is also quite difficult to read at points since it really is talking about surviving a Tsunami while on the ocean. There are a few graphic scenes. I highly recommend this book to high schoolers and adults. I know I will be looking for the second one in this series very soon.  

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am reading Learn Like a Pirate and am totally inspired by this book to work on making my classroom much more student-centered. I feel like the book is reminding me of the things that I used to do and want to get back to doing. It is going slow for me because I am taking the time to reflect and write down ideas as I read. I also have started to read a bunch of other books. I am a few pages into A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick, Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta, and The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough. I don't know why I am feeling so scattered, but I am sure I will settle on one soon. I am visiting family this week so I have a lot less time for reading. 

What's Next?

I will probably not start any other books this week. I will be reading lots of picture books this week with my niece. 

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