Celebrate! - June 7

I am celebrating several things this week:

1) Tuesday became my official first day of summer break.  I loved my students and we learned so much together this year, but there is a joy that accompanies the flexibility of a summer schedule.  Exercise when I want, including that 8:30 AM yoga class with the instructor I love.  Going to Book Club in the middle of the afternoon.  Breakfast with a friend.  Time to do errands, make phone calls, schedule appointments.  Time to sit on the screened porch and read.

2) My birthday present arrived this week, and is now on our screened porch.  I love this loveseat, and all the promises it offers of friends gathering, great book reading and cozy nap taking.

3) I went Thursday night to one of the many premieres offered at our local theatre for The Fault in Our Stars.  My youngest daughter pre-ordered our tickets, we munched happily on popcorn, and then got lost in the wonderful-ness of this movie, complete with buckets of tears.

One of my mentor text areas

4) After 2 1/2  full days, my living room went from a war zone, where not an inch of carpet was visible, and there were piles of books and supplies on every piece of furniture, to two separate areas of mentor texts, with all my professional books on the very sturdy bookshelf in our actual den.  Such a hard job, but this space now allows me to focus on helping teachers meet readers and writers' needs next year in reading and writing workshop.

Purchases from Cover to Cover

Thanks to Mandy for this picture!

5) On Friday, I gathered with fellow Columbus area bloggers for breakfast and book buying at our wonderful local independent children's bookstore, Cover to Cover.  As Mandy mentions, it can become a dangerous proposition to be in a room with that many book lovers, as well as the wonderful staff at CTC, and try to stick to any type of a book budget.  I cherish our times together.

Thanks for stopping by - I hope there were celebrations in your week as well.  For more celebrations, visit Ruth Ayres' blog.  Thanks so much to Ruth for hosting this happy celebration event each Saturday!

Reading Success! - #endofschoolyeargratitude

Today, I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves:

50 readers.

1,080 books read in one class.

1,404 books read in the other class.

2,484 books read altogether.

We had a range of 19 - 200 books read per person.

We averaged 49.68 books per person.

Each person read at least 15 more books than they had the year before.

This is data worth celebrating!  These numbers share that readers lived in room 206 this past year.   Reading success, indeed.

Teachers Love Books - #endofschoolgratitude

I wrote yesterday about the Great Book Giveaway with my students, and the subsequent autographs they asked me to do; I felt like such a rock star!

Two days later, right after the kids left for the day, I hosted a book sale in my room for the teachers in our building - $1 for hardbacks, $0.50 for paperbacks.  My thought process was still about getting these books into the hands of as many student readers as possible.  Since I knew I would not be going back to the classroom, this was the second best way to accomplish that task.

As emotional as the first day was, this day brought its own set of emotions, and right off the bat, there were moments of hilarity.  You know the pictures of brides-to-be lined up outside Filene's before a wedding dress sale?  Well imagine a much shorter line, yet still quite as determined.  The first person in line had her roller cart, ready to make some great choices.  The second person in line saw her come down, grabbed the nearest container, and hustled down the hall.  They were cracking me up.

That laughter helped me quite a bit because as every book left my room, I felt a little pang of panic inside.  Was I doing the right thing?  Should I be holding on to more of my books?  Each book came with a memory - a class with whom I had shared it, the person who had recommended it to me, a review I had written about it, a special message it gave me, a favorite character, a favorite author whom I now consider a friend.  The list goes on and on.  I realized that having books is quite a personal thing for me.  But, I had to hold on to the idea that the books would be put in students' hands; just not my students.

As I continued to look around the room while teachers were perusing/buying, it brought me a sense of peace.  I watched as teachers thoughtfully looked through the selections, asking me questions about books unknown to them.  One teacher, currently an intervention specialist, will have a 4th grade classroom next year.  She was there to do some serious shopping.  Another colleague was leaving first grade and will be in a third grade classroom; she was shoring up her book collection.  There were several second year teachers and one first year teacher.  And I haven't even mentioned the veteran teachers who just wanted some new titles!

When it was all said and done, the last person left my room at 6:30; she "shopped" for almost 3 hours.   I loved how important it was for all these teachers to get good books into students' hands next year.  So, yes I still miss some of those books, but I know some child will thoroughly enjoy them next year.

And in case you were wondering, no one asked for an autograph on this particular afternoon. :)

Fan Signing - #endofschoolyeargratitude

I won't be a classroom teacher again where a community is built from Day 1 of the school year, and we begin our lives as readers and writers together that same day.  A friend predicted there would be many "ugly cries" as we left our respective buildings, and she was so right.  But what lies ahead is good; it just won't be in "my" classroom.  I will be one of several literacy coaches in the district next year, working beside teachers in their workshops.

So, as the school year drew to an end, I was both savoring every moment with my classes, as well as frantically packing to leave my classroom.  But now, two days after the end of school, I find myself filled with gratitude for what some of the last few days and weeks at my school held in store for me.  In these next few posts, I would like to share moments that I'm labeling #endofschoolyeargratitude.

The first moment came from the Great Book Giveaway in our classes.  Knowing that I had such a multitude of books, and no place to put them (I will be traveling between four buildings next year), I first culled out the books from my personal library I would still need as mentor texts or great read alouds as I work alongside teachers next year.  But after that, I was puzzled as to what to do until I came up with the idea of the Great Book Giveaway.

I scheduled this event in my lesson plans on the same day I knew we would be formulating summer reading plans.  I had explained what would happen to the kids a few weeks before the event, so they would have time to make a "wish list" to help guide them when their name was picked.  The first round, I encouraged students to choose a favorite chapter book or one they were dying to read.  The second round, they were choosing from picture books (fiction or nonfiction), poetry, or graphic novels.   The final two rounds were from books they had never seen - books and ARCs that had been sitting in my house or in the cupboards, and for one reason or another had never seen the light of day this year.

Needless to say, happiness and excitement reigned in our classroom that day.  Fifty students had developed into readers that sighed when a book they were hoping for got chosen first, and who clutched their eventual prize to their chest in sheer happiness.  As a teacher of readers, it was delightful.

The signing...

Then, the funniest darned thing happened - after all the rounds were done and students had 4 "new" books in their possession, a group of them came to me and asked for my autograph in their book.  Remember the "ugly cries" I talked about earlier -- this was one of them.  I burst into tears and laughter at the same time.  This group had a simple rationale - they wanted me to inscribe a book they would be keeping so they could keep the memory of me.  Sweet, right?!

So, after summer plans were made, this group of students came to me with their books, and from there, it snowballed... everyone wanted a signature.

I signed 200 books that day, and to look at students' faces, it meant the world to them.

So yes, I am filled with #endofschoolyeargratitude as I think about how important books became to this community of readers.

What students did after their summer
plans and the signing...

Camp with 5th Graders - #SOL

Today, our 5th graders went to camp as an end of year celebration.  The forecast hadn't looked promising for a day planned entirely with outdoor activities, but Mother Nature was kind.  We had amazing weather - sunny skies, a nice breeze, and warm temperatures.

The kids had a wonderful day.  They had their choice of many games, canoeing, rock wall climbing, s'more making, horse grooming, and much, much more.  I had originally planned to go from spot to spot, checking in on students and chaperones, but after my first station, I stayed right where I was.

See, I had started at the canoeing station, and it was a hoot and a half.  That breeze I mentioned earlier really picked up in intensity at the lake, and watching students try to battle that breeze became quite comical at times.  My teaching partner and I stood on the dock that they circled, and would shout encouraging words to them to help them navigate: "Pull on the left.  No on the left.  No, on your other left!"  After these directions and still many canoes running into the dock or getting pushed the wrong direction by the breeze, I would get the giggles.  You just can't buy entertainment like that.

After all 6 of our groups rotated through the canoes, it was impressive that not one boat tipped over.  However, at least 4 boats had to be rescued by the camp counselor because they lost control of their boat and got so far away from the dock, he had to tie his boat to theirs, and help row them back.  I'm pretty sure they don't pay him enough, but he was a truly good sport about it.  I'm guessing these weren't the first kids that had trouble with canoe navigation.

But through the hilarity and fun, today was bittersweet for me.  I mentioned a while ago that I have taken a literacy coach position, and I am quite excited by all that entails.  However, moments with a community of children like camp today will not be part of my new job.  I will miss that dearly.

So as this school year winds down, I plan to hold on to every classroom and community moment I can.

For more slices, head over to Two Writing Teachers blog.  Thanks to the crew over there for hosting us each week!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

At the end of last week, I got to read Jennifer Holm's latest, The Fourteenth Goldfish, and loved it!  I love the message of "believe in the possible" that occurs frequently throughout the story.  Somehow Holm manages to mesh the realistic fiction genre with the science fiction genre in a very believable way.  It was done so well, I never found myself questioning the unrealistic elements.  I had to believe in the possible as well.  This is a must have book!!

The other part of this post is what I will be reading -- the blogs Great Kid Books, The Show Me Librarian, Kid Lit Frenzy, and The Nonfiction Detectives.  I recently saw on Google+ where MaryAnn Scheuer and her librarian colleagues have begun to help gather nonfiction titles around a high-interest topic, and then find books that gradually increase in text complexity.  This process has produced book lists that will be wonderful resources for teachers, librarians, and parents as they help connect students with texts on a favorite topic, let them build some background knowledge, and then possibly move up in text complexity over time.

The category I just saw dealt with baseball.  The books have been divvied up at different blogs based on text complexity:

• beginning readers (grades K - 2)
• read aloud picture books (grades K - 3)
• middle grade readers (grades 3 - 4)
• older middle grade readers (grades 5 - 6)

I am so excited about this resource and can't wait to check out more of their collections!  This is something teachers do on their own all the time, but what a wonderful starting point for all of us.

Check out what everyone else is reading at Teach Mentor Texts.  Thanks to Jen and Kellee for hosting the kidlit version of this meme.

Celebrate! - May 2

One of the things I had hoped to post today was a picture of my feet in the beautiful waters of Longboat Key, Florida.  Alas, a storm cloud full of much rain, thunder, and lightning has followed us to the south.  However, the group of people we are with have been having a lot of fun; much laughter and hilarity has taken the place of the sunshine.  Though I will be so glad to see the sun tomorrow and Monday, for now I am celebrating the fun and joy friends can bring.

I am also celebrating the next phase of my professional life.  I just received the news this week that I will be one of 6 literacy coaches in my district.  Though the thought of leaving the classroom makes me a bit teary, the chance for professional growth in a new direction is quite exciting!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week, and be sure to check out Ruth's blog for more celebrations.