Celebrating Mid-Summer Meanderings

                                   So excited to join Saturday Celebrations with Ruth Ayres! 

                      It is fun to live my week thinking about what I will celebrate on Saturday.

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

I'm loving that the pace of my life has finally ramped down to summer slow.  It's taken until this week for this to happen.  I am still waking up on school time, but find that if I read a bit and go back to sleep, I can stay in bed until almost 8.  Such an indulgence!

 

I'm enjoying time to wander around Twittersville a bit.  This week Twitter led me to this web site - http://debbieohi.com/read with many great ideas for encouraging summer reading.  I couldn't resist printing this poster and framing it.

I'm discovering wonderful connections.  While reading the Choice Literacy newsletter, I read "The Rolling Pin:  Looking into Things" by Shirl McPhillps.  I noticed at the end of the article, that she co-authored the book  A Note Slipped Under the Door.  I've dipped into this book before, but never had the time to actually read it.  I retrieved it from my bookshelf.

 


I'm working on my book stack for NY.  When I visit my daughter, I plan to work on some curriculum for our extended core classes.  I have three short units to write:  Poetry, Literature Circles, and Slice of Life.  Guess which one I'll be working on in NY?

I'm participating in an online book study of Linda Rief's new book, Read Write Teach, with several blogging friends.  I'm loving the book, the learning, and the discussions.  Even though I'm a bit behind schedule, I know that the conversation on our google doc is there waiting for me each time I finish a chapter.

I'm walking and taking pictures.  After catching a beautiful sunset, I jumped in the car and drove madly to Slater Park (my favorite savoring spot), hoping to catch a bit of the sunset there.  Eureka, I caught it!

I'm updating the Sweet Summer Reads blog for my students.  I added five new posts this week.  I'm hoping that some of them are stopping by, even though they are not leaving comments.

I'm breaking my resolution to not buy any more educational books (dumbest resolution I ever made)!  I purchased Celebrating Writers by Ruth Ayres and Christi Overman and added two more books to my want-to-buy list this week - The Writing Thief:  Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing by Ruth Culham and Poem Central:  Word Journeys with Readers and Writers (Shirl McPhillips newest book).  Now that I'm retired, I'm hoping to finally have more time to read.  All these books I'm purchasing are free, thanks to a very generous gift card to Island Books (our local indie bookstore).  My friends know how to put a smile on my face!

I'm wandering more.  The clerk in the Hallmark store kept wanting to help me, not understanding that I was reveling in a chance to merely meander.  Look what I found!