We're Very Versatile!

At least our friends Marylee and Franki at A Year of Reading think so! As part of being chosen as versatile bloggers, we need to thank them, so...thank you! We can honestly say these wonderful ladies were our mentors -- first, by jumping into the blog world themselves and showing us how it could look. Then later, when we were ready to jump into blogging, they were there for us again, supporting us, getting us started with the tech stuff (thanks, ML!), and connecting us with other smart bloggers. There, step one done.

Step 2: List 7 things about us:

1. After this post we are 2 away from 600 blog posts...and they said it wouldn't last!

2. Our blog was "born" on a very cold Groundhog's Day 2008 at a Panera in Columbus, Ohio.

3. We will be hosting our annual Looking for Newbery series beginning in December.

4. We used to teach in the same school, and for a while, we were even at the same grade level. Then life changed for both of us, and we are no longer in the same building. We really do need to sit down more often because our conversation is always good!

5. One of our favorite things to do is to present new books to the teachers attending the Dublin Lit conference in February. We've done it for the last four years in a row! Even if no one else appreciates us, we crack each other up!

6. We still get a little giggly and excited when an author responds to one of our posts.

7. Picks From THE PIT provides some pretty good read alouds.


Step 3: List 15 (or so) blogs we follow and enjoy. This one was a little tough because a lot of the blogs we enjoy and follow have already been listed at other sites. Here a few in no particular order:

100 Scope Notes (a very smart librarian and contributor to SLJ)

James Preller (we fell in love with Jimmy when he made a visit to our school. )

Barbara O'Connor (both James and Barbara post so much more than just about their lives as authors - always entertaining!!)

Anne Marie Corgill (aka: AM Literacy Learning Log)

Kate Messner (an author and teacher extrodanaire!)

Lori's Lessons (we're not the only ones who Lori is versatile; she's gotten at least one another nomination as well!)

Word from the Corner (love Mandy's lessons, and her learning journey with her new iPads is fun to follow)

MotherReader (one of the first blogs we followed; love her 48 Hour Book Challenge)

The Reading Zone (loved her when she was blogging as a 6th grade teacher; now that she is in high school, love hearing about how English/language arts can look in that setting)

Teach Paperless (a great place where a variety of contributors think about 21st century learning)

Heavy Medal (this is a blog at SLJ that just has to be followed as we head into award season)

My World- Mi Mundo (a blog that our fellow Central Ohio blogger, Stella, writes. She's part of the Columbus Area Writing Project and she is an ELL teacher. So thoughtful!)

Carol's Corner (We've served on the Cybils NFPB panel with Carol, and Karen seems to have very similar tastes in books as Carol.)

A Book Maven's Haven (Susan and Karen connected this past year via twitter, and ended up having their classes blog together about Out of Mind, and culminated in the 2 classes having a skype book chat together. Susan works in Maine and Karen is in Ohio.)