What Are You Reading?

I just finished reading Tricky Twenty Two by Janet Evanovich. I love the Plum Series! I started reading her books one summer and read all 19 that were out at that time. I look forward to each new one. I love Stephanie's incompetence at her job but she keeps doing it. I enjoy the love triangle between her, Ranger & Morelli. Lula, Grandma, and Mom (Mrs. Plum), what's not to love about these women?!? 

I'm part of a book launch group for a book called Raising Grateful Children in an Entitled World by Kristen Welch. This is my first time to participate in a book launch and I'm super excited! This book is a total slap in the face. I don't feel I'm entitled. I feel like I've worked for everything I have but this book is making me wonder!

For my student book club I'm listening to Nightmares! By John Segel. This book takes the nightmares of a young boy and makes them real. He actually has to enter his nightmares in real life. What a scary thought! I can't wait to discuss this book with my students!

For our librarian book study I'm reading Making the Match: The Right Book For The Right Reader at the Right Time, Grade 4-12 by Teri S. Lesesne. Dr. Lesesne was one of my professors when I was getting my masters in library science. I'm on chapter two. I'm learning a lot about matching the right book to the reader. I never thought about the pitfalls of recommending books that don't fit to a already reluctant reader. 

I'm also leading a book study for the reading teachers at my school. We are studying Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller. I read this book with the librarians last year. Yesterday afternoon was our first meeting. I'm really looking forward to applying what we learn to our reading classes. 

Had To Get Custard

I took Reagan and my nephew to get Andy's Frozen Custard... in the rain... cuz Andy's is worth it!

What Are You Reading?

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (the fully illustrated version) by J.K. Rowling last week. The illustrations are amazing!  It took me a little longer to finish this book because I would just stare at the pictures. They are so detailed. The pictures of the people made me want to stroke the page like I could really feel them. I can't wait for the other books to come out (one a year for the next six years). 

I started The Heir by Kiers Cass. The title should of told me that the series was going to have a new main character but... I'm just so unaware sometimes! After I read the first few pages I had to google the book to make sure I was in the right series. After reading the Cass's blog post about the series I realized that I was indeed in the right series but we are now reading the story from the daughter's POV. I'm on chapter three and really liking the book so far (now that I'm not confused). 

Read Alouds

Last week I read Separate Is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh to 3rd through 5th grade. This book is on the Texas Bluebonnet Nominee List. Tonatiuh tells us the true story of Sylvia Mendez and her family's fight to desegregate the schools in Orange County.  I started every lesson with a statement like "We are going to read a book that covers a sensitive subject. As we read we will stop and discuss some of the situations we read about." Students never cease to amaze me! Their insight on Sylvia and her brothers being separated from the white students and forced to go to a Mexican school was... well, deep. Their understanding of segregation and the injustice of it amazed me. We compared what Sylvia's family went through with other times in our nation's history. They brought up people like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges. I highly recommend this book!

I read My Teacher Is A Monster (No I Am Not by Peter Brown to Pre-K through 2nd. This book is on the Texas 2x2 list. This is an excellent read aloud. Bobby has a problem... his teacher Mrs. Kirby is a monster! Only when he meets her outside of school he realizes she really is human. We had so much fun with this book! Mrs. Kirby starts out looking like a green monster. But as Bobby realizes she's not a monster Mrs. Kirby starts to change color and starts to look more human. Sometimes students would notice these changes on their own and would frantically wave their hand in the air (I highly discourage frantic hand waving) to tell me about the changes. Other classes I had to point it out. The most fun questions I asked was at the end. I asked students if their teacher ever turned green. Then I'd ask who made their teacher turn green. Some students were so funny! Man! Their hand would fly in the air, they totally owned their behavior. Others sat there sheepishly with a little grin on their face while other students (good naturedly) pointed at them. I got some real insight to some of our teachers! Ha!

Nothing of Substance

I'm having blogging block. 

Is that a thing? Like writers block...? I don't know. 

Not much has happened in the last two days. Just typical stuff. Staff meeting, Bible study, work. Nothing exciting. 

I need to relish the nothingness cuz the holidays are coming up quick. And life gets a bit hectic. 

So here's to nothing! 

School Showcase

Some of the administrators from the district came to our school today. We had the meeting in the library. And of course I had to decorate! With the help of some of the other faculty we made the library shine! 

We served them drinks and muffins before the meeting started. 

And after the meeting we served them lunch. 

During the meeting our principles talked a little at the beginning of the meeting then turned the meeting over to the school admin team and me. 

Each person talked about what they are doing to help improve the school, like student test scores, reading abilities, positives behaviors etc. 

I showcased the library. My heart started beating like mad seconds before it was my turn to talk! I had to take some deep breathes to calm myself. But once I started talking about what I love I was totally in my element! I talked a bit about what a typical library period looks like. I showed my book check out statistics and how they are continuing to go up. I showed how much my Book Fair sales have gone up from the last three years. And I ended with technology in the library as well as me being the communication person for our school. 

I was asked if we had enough books per student. The answer to this question is misleading. The answer is yes we do but, and that's a big but, the age of my collection is very old. So even though we have more books per student than is required they are not necessarily quality or current books. When I explained all this admin said they'd be able to help me in this area. 

It seemed like everyone (district admin & school admin) were very pleased with the way the meeting went. We are making great improvements to our school!

Halloween 2015

We had a fun Halloween! We spent the day laying around the house listening to the rain, reading, and watching Netflix. 

That night we went to a friends house for family fun!  It stopped raining so we were able to take some of the kids trick or treating.