Necessity is the mother of invention!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by 
Two Writing Teachers.

Sometime during the fall, I agreed to January 27th for our team field trip. Around the middle of January I realized that our field trip conflicted with the date for the ALA Midwinter Media Awards.  I do Mock Newbery literature circles each fall and our culminating activity is enjoying breakfast together as the awards are announced.  A quick meeting to announce the awards before the field trip did not allow us to have our usual breakfast celebration.  So, I created an event to honor the Newbery awards, recognize the winners (current and past), and allow my students to have food in conjunction with the event.  After all, everyone knows that middle schoolers, celebrations, and food are all closely linked! 

I named our event Share the Newbery Love. In preparation for our celebration on January 31, students made a list of Newbery books they had read.  Amid groans of "I haven't read any," or "I've only read two," I encouraged them to look at the list.  I reminded them that they could include Honor books as well as the Newbery Medal winners, and they were welcome to include any book they had read or someone else had read to them.

After they compiled their lists, I asked them to write a book review of their favorite title. Students brought in copies of books they had read to display with the list and book review.  I set up the room with two rows of desks facing each other and we walked through the classroom as if in a gallery to view the lists and book reviews.  Students recorded titles in their WRNs (writer's reader's notebooks) for their Someday (I Want to Read) lists.  I asked that they record at least three Newbery possibilities during our gallery walk.








Almost all of the students discovered that they had read or listened to more than a few Newbery titles.  One student had 44 titles on her list.  We created a special recognition known as the Newbery Decades Reader for any student who has read at least one title from each decade. Two students earned the recognition that day, and several others are working toward receiving the recognition.

A Newbery Decades reader who has read 44 Newbery Medal and Honor books!

This week we moved our lists and book reviews to the hallway bulletin board so that we can share our Newbery love with the school community.  

The pink hearts bordering the display list each student's favorite title.
On Valentine's Day, we're inviting other students and teachers
to stop by and add a heart with their favorite Newbery title.
We hope to see this board jam-packed with Newbery love on Friday! 

Smaller classes top this week's celebrations!

                                   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!

One:  The Seahawks Victory Parade on Wednesday in downtown Seattle meant that approximately 1/2 of my students were absent from every class.  My students who came to school on Wednesday enjoyed smaller classes, tickets for cookie bars, and leftover chips and pretzels from our Newbery celebration the previous week.  

Two:  I won the drawing sponsored by our Social Committee at Wednesday's District Directed meeting - a $25 gift card to Shell!

Three:  I attended a poetry writing workshop this afternoon sponsored by Nathan Cummings, a local senior who is one of five National Student Poets.  We wrote exquisite corpse poetry and created beat poems from song lyrics.   I can't wait to invite him into my classroom for our poetry unit.  

It was a mind numbing day!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by 
Two Writing Teachers.

We're doing something new this year - reading screenings in 6th grade.  It's something I've begged for ever since I started teaching at this grade level in middle school.  I always "kind of knew" where my students were in reading, but I never had data to back up my assumptions.  Now we find ourselves in the position of administering a screening tool to students from both of our blocks in one day, three times a year.  The district brings in subs for the day and we pull our students out of classes to complete the screenings.  I like that I was able to screen all of my own students this time, but talk about mind-numbing!  I'm not sure how elementary school teachers do this.  I want to create a fractured tale from the three samples our students read.  I know I can't, but it appeals to the writer in me.  It's certainly something to keep me chuckling as I listen to 50+ renditions of the same stories.  How about it?  How do you keep your sanity when administering the same assessment tool over and over and over and over and over? 

Phones, teammates, parties, and books!

                                  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!

 One:   I celebrate phones!  The bill from Ma Bell no longer frightens me.  I don't have to set a timer or remind myself that each minute I chat is costing me money.   Fox Photo is no longer a major budget item.  I celebrate the ease with which I can take many pictures, delete the bad ones, save the good ones, crop a picture, enhance a picture - all with the push of a few buttons.

Two:  I celebrate my content team!  I'm blessed to work with a team that inspires me, pushes my thinking, helps me iron out my technology mishaps, shares freely, and makes me laugh.  Our time together is always fun.

Three:  I celebrate our Share the Newbery Love party!  Our Monday field trip and the shortened time to celebrate the Newbery announcement forced me to think outside the box.  The new event I created encouraged us to celebrate all the Newbery winners.  I'll write more about it in my slice of life on Tuesday.

Four:  I celebrate books!  After I watched the ALA Youth Media Awards on Monday, my fingers were busy requesting titles that I hadn't already checked out from the library. 

Look what was on my hold shelf at the library yesterday.  I can't wait to dive into some of these books this weekend and share with my students on Monday.

Yesterday was one of those days!

                               Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by Two Writing Teachers.

A long time ago in a meeting I attended, my colleague inquired about a date for a January field trip for our team.  We agreed to the last week in January.  For some reason, our field trip ended up being scheduled for Monday.  Who schedules field trips on Mondays?  My teaching partner, apparently!  It wasn't until last week that I connected the dots and realized that Monday, January 27th, the day the Newbery Awards would be announced, was also the day of our field trip.

Since the ALA midwinter meeting was on the east coast, and we're on the west coast, that meant I got up Monday morning at 4:45 a.m. to listen to the live webcast.  My cat was thrilled that I was actually sitting in a chair so early in the morning.   I took careful notes so I could share the results with both blocks of my students in a quick meeting from 8:30-9:00 before our scheduled 9:15 departure for the field trip.  I was excited to see that the webcast would be available at 11:00 Eastern time, 8:00 Pacific time.  That meant I could fast forward to the Bink and Gollie clip and watch the webcast to the end with my students in the 30 minute time slot available to us.

When I arrived at school, I took my computer to the library, hooked it up to the document camera, and hoped that the stars would align so the webcast would arrive on time.  I took our Mock Newbery books to the library along with the other Newbery possibilities that I've been sharing with my students.  As the winners were announced, I would move them to a special display table.

In between setting up books,  picking up meds, securing a bin for sack lunches, and packing my backpack for the field trip, my colleague popped in and asked if I had picked up the registration form from her room that she had been filling out for the field trip.  After a quick look at my desk, I replied that I hadn't picked it up, but I would help her look for it. You see, I am the queen of lost items and so I have great compassion when others end up in the boat with me.  Unfortunately, we didn't find it before the bell rang at 8:20.  I dashed off to let my students in the classroom and began frantically searching for my list of award winners that I had compiled that morning.

When I didn't find it, I decided that I must have left it in the library when I set up the book display.  I walked my students to the library and found that my students from the other block had already arrived.  Unfortunately, my list of winners wasn't in the library.  A quick look at the computer screen revealed that the promised archived webcast still wasn't available increasing my need for that list of winners.  I left our library clerk with 60 sixth graders, sprinted back to the classroom and found the page.  Thank goodness!

Unfortunately, in another meeting a long time ago, I had committed to reporting to our PAC (Parent Advisory Council) about our Mock Newbery project.  I did realize at the time that the meeting was the day the Newbery awards would be announced.  I thought it would be fun to share the Mock Newbery project with our parent community on the same day that the Newbery award was announced.  Unfortunately, I didn't know that we would have a field trip on the same day.

Fortunately, it was a great field trip!  We arrived back on campus for some of my 6th period planning time.  I managed to snag some former students to help me put up paper for our upcoming "Share the Newbery Love" bulletin board.  Unfortunately, I forgotten all about the PAC committee meeting after school and that I had planned to spend 6th period collecting my thoughts for the presentation.  Fortunately, our co-principal found me to sadly report that the meeting was cancelled because too many of the parents on the committee were unavailable.  He was a bit surprised at my glee over the meeting cancellation!

And I wish that I could report that was the end of my crazy day.  But unfortunately, a student arrived at my door after school asking about her lunch bag from the blue bin.  I checked in with the two teachers I had borrowed bins from (one bin was not big enough), and discovered that only one of those bins had made it back to school.  My colleague had phoned me at the Science Center to say that she had picked up my bin, not knowing that I ended up with two bins.  Fortunately, when I called the Science Center, they found the bin.  And that was the end of my rather exhausting, but extremely active Monday.  Fortunately, I can report that I managed to accrue more than 12,000 steps on my Fitbit, so I didn't need to add walking to the end of my day!

Sunshine, Sunsets, Food, and Books . . .

                            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!

1.  Sunshine and more sunsets . . .

     This week we had several days when the sun broke through the clouds.  It's amazing how my spirit lifts with the arrival of the sun.  It encourages me to leave school before dark and to glimpse the setting sun as I drive home.

2.  A delicious lunch provided by our parents . . .

     This month they chose a tailgating Seahawks theme.  I love the food, the chance to visit with teacher friends who don't usually join us for lunch, and connecting with parents of "my" students (current and former) who serve the lunch.  I mentioned the lunch when I returned to my classroom, and several students chimed in that their parents had contributed to our delicious lunch.  Go Seahawks!  Go Parents!

3.  The arrival of The Art of Holly Hobbie on an interlibrary loan . . .

     A conversation with Nancy at Island Books led me to this book (out of print) and the discovery that I could purchase it for $68.99.  That sent me scurrying to my library web page (not in their collection), so I pushed a few keys and the book arrived this week from the Tacoma Library.  I love KCLS (King County Library System)!

4.  The last caramel from the snowman jar . . .

     A dear friend sends us homemade caramels each year.  One of our favorite holiday traditions is one caramel a day.  These well-traveled caramels from TX arrived in WA, traveled to DC in a suitcase, and traveled in a Christmas box to NY where a few made it into a suitcase for travels to England and Scotland.  It was a special treat to savor my last caramel this week.  

5.  A four day week filled with books . . .      

We had our final Mock Newbery book discussions on Wednesday and finished evaluating the books in our WRN (writer's reader's notebook) using the Newbery criteria.  Thursday we used the Newbery criteria to write a paragraph nominating the book we felt should win the 2014 Newbery Award.  Small groups of students defended each title in fishbowl discussions on Friday before we placed our online votes with the YCTNN at King County Library System.  Did I mention how much I love our library system?

Seasonal OLW Intentions

                               Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by Two Writing Teachers.

I was inspired by Beth's post today sharing her monthly OLW intentions.  

I've been thinking about my OLW and how to keep it a part of my life for the entire year.  

I know creating a visual reminder would be a good strategy, but I'm not artistic.  

So I created a seasonal check-in time for my OLW.  

I consulted the calendar and discovered a 

5th Tuesday during April, July, September, and December.  

I love that each 5th Tuesday falls during a different season.  

Spring, but in April, after our daily SOL challenge in March.  

Summer, but during July when most of us have finally calmed down, 

and not yet headed back to school (mentally or physically).  

Fall, at the end of September after the initial back-to-school rush, 

but when we still feel that anything is possible this school year.  

Winter, after the holiday rush, but before we march into a new year.  

  I'm choosing to savor each season of 2014:

Winter finds me savoring comfort foods, sunsets, chocolate, 

a book club retreat, and writing for the March SOL challenge.  

As spring begins I'll be savoring poetry, blossoms, bunnies, laughter, and birthdays.  

My best summer solitary savoring 

is lunch on the deck with book in hand, sunshine caressing my back.  

When my solitary savoring craves company, I'll join family and friends 

to savor fireworks, hiking, Island Celebration, picnics, and Music in the Park.

Fall finds me savoring walks filled with gorgeous colors, 

trick or treaters (hopefully I'll have some), 

my many blessings, and the celebration of my Savior's birth.  

I know that by living with intention I will discover more to savor each season!