Day in a Sentence

On this three day weekend celebrating Casimir Pulaski, I am appreciating an extra day for catching up.

Check out this week's Day in a Sentence challenge at Kevin's Meandering Mind .

Slice of Life Story Challenge 2009

Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers are hosting the 2nd Slice of Life Story Challenge. The challenge is to write about a slice of each day in March. I would like to give it a try. I will see if I can squeeze a few more writing moments into 31 days. Maybe it will help daily writing to become a habit.

Day in a Sentence

The challenge this week is to limit the week to only 3 words! Check out the results here at Anne's website.

My 3 words...

BIG dinosaur project!

Buying Books

I have partially completed part 1 of Amy's 2009 Book Challenge. I went to the book store and bought a book... for myself...for fun. It is grave surprise by Charlaine Harris. It happens to be the second in a series so I may need to read the first book before reading this one.

Now, for some reflections -
It was/is really difficult for me to go to the book store and buy a book - for me - for pleasure reading. This was my second trip with this challenge in mind! I actively use the library and I buy books at used book sales, garage sales or used book stores. I have always thought that this was environmentally friendly. I believe that this is a personal issue with frugality and being raised not to buy presents for myself. I can buy books that I love or want to read more than once. For example, I waited to read the first 3 Harry Potter books until friends had finished them and I could borrow them. I bought books 4-7 soon after their release. ( Number 6 had to stay in the trunk until I finished a big grad school project!)

I have no trouble buying books for my classroom. I believe that part of this is the book's length. I can stand in the bookstore and read a whole picture book and know if I love it and/or how I can use it. (I bought 3 on this trip!)

I have no trouble buying books for gifts and do so often.

Now the dilemma -
I obviously read all the time and do want to support the work of authors. This has given me a dilemma to ponder that I had never considered before.

Day in a Sentence

Patriotic feelings swell in the midst of Lincoln's 200th Birthday Celebration.

My picture shows Lincoln in Post-It Notes created by Chris Killham and displayed in the windows on the bridge that spans Jefferson Street.

All the excitement was contagious living in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois. I even was rerouted through the mall parking lot when the Presidential motorcade (Obama, not Lincoln) went by. That certainly doesn't happen very often.

Here is President Lincoln dressed for his birthday at Lincoln Library. (The city library where I checked out an armload of dinosaur books for an upcoming project, not the Presidential Library.)


And one more of Lincoln's home decorated for the celebration. It is only a block from Lincoln Library.

Happy 200th Abraham Lincoln!

Image from The Library of Congress on Flickr.


Last night, I attended Let Freedom Sing! with some friends. This citywide musical celebration was organized to honor President Lincoln's 200th Birthday. We blew into the Prairie Capital Convention Center on a cold night wind. The feeling inside was of warm excitement. The seats began to fill. Preconcert music began to fill the air and musicians began to parade by to take their places. A sea of colored robes from area churches and colored shirts from area schools flowed into the chairs at the front. Instruments marched by as the Springfield High School band and the Illinois Youth Symphony joined the Illinois Symphony orchestra. Jerry Lambert provided a welcome and the show began. Patriotic fever filled the air as the color guard brought in the American flag followed by our national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. The music was wonderful and included many opportunities for the audience to participate. We sang an impromptu Happy Birthday to President Lincoln prior to his reading of the Gettysburg Address while the Symphony provided accompanying music. Finally, Abraham Lincoln borrowed the baton from Karen Lynne Deal and proceeded to enthusiastically direct all the musicians in the final song of the evening. It was a wonderful combination of church and state to honor a great President.

Check out the cool picture of Lincoln's spotlighted home.

Skating

Laura hosts the 15 Words or Less Poem Challenge each week. This time I only used 15 words but I also wrote 2 poems. Check out this week's frozen picture and other fun poems at her site.




Come...
You're the first.
Skates on.
Push off.
G-L-I-D-E
Smoothly over
A frozen reflection pool.


Words skate
Across the page
Gliding from
My pen.
Thoughts recorded.
Memories saved.
Stories shared.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge - February

Happy Birthday Meg Cabot! (February 1)

This month I read Size 12 is Not Fat by Ms. Cabot. I read this one all this afternoon. The main character, Heather Wells, is a residence hall assistant that lives with her ex-boyfriend's brother, a detective. Her topsy-turvy life becomes more interesting when some of the residents are murdered! Now I guess I need to look for Size 14 is Not Fat Either.


Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

A Math Challenge

The challenge was to find as many ways as possible to make 100¢. The students could work alone or with a partner. They needed to organize their work. They could only use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.




Everybody spread out and got right to work. (One student was sent to the hall to work. One pair had to return to their seats for off-task behavior. Two of the three unfocused students did end up with a product.)




Several examples of completed work are shown here. No one found all of the possiblities and no one used a strategy for organizing their work to make sure all the answers were found. It would be an interesting followup discussion.



In an ideal world, this kind of exploration would be a normal part of the math routine. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to fully integrate it yet. But....I haven't given up!

Day in a Sentence on Stixy

This week Kevin has challenged us to add our Day/Week in a Sentence contribution to Stixy. This is a fun site that works like a bulletin board. Check it out here .

My contribution this week: A math challenge keeps almost all my second graders engaged!

I am wondering if this could be a good place for some staff collaboration. For example, we are currently challenged to integrate productive talk experiences into our daily instruction. Could Stixy be a good place to share/celebrate ideas? Unfortunately, it is currently blocked by the district. I am wondering why.

Buy One Book & Read It Challenge

Amy at My Friend Amy has posted a challenge for 2009. There are 2 options for this challenge. #1: Buy one book and read it. The challenge for me is that it must be a novel read just for fun, not for work or for children. #2: Buy one book and read it each month of the year.

I am going to complete #1 and may increase my goal to #2. If I complete #2, I think that I will expand my goal to include the banned professional and children's books. Since there is only one day left in January, I guess that I get to go shopping tomorrow!

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge - January

Happy Birthday Harley Jane Kozak! (January 28)

This month I read Dating Dead Men by Ms. Kozak. Keeping me awake is a feat for almost any book these days and I stayed up reading this one on several nights. Wollie Shelley, greeting card store owner and artist, is busy attempting to date forty men in sixty days while staying in touch with her hospitalized brother. During a visit to P.B., her brother, she encounters a dead body and gets swept into an adventure that involves meeting an interesting guy and trying to outwit the mob. I'm glad that I tried this one and look forward to the next Wollie adventure.


Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

Racing By....

Okay... I can count and realize that this is not 15 words or less as required by Laura at laurasalas
so I did not leave it in the comments. But... unfortunately, this poem really expresses the way I have been feeling about the school day. Laura's choice of picture this week inspired the following poem.

Take a deep breath and...

Zoom!
We're off.
The day has begun.
Here come the kids!
Math is first -
Number one.
Then comes reading,
A trip to p.e.,
More reading ,
And then
Let's go to lunch.

Breathe....
For...
A minute or two.

Inside recess,
Oh what fun!
Some spelling,
And writing
Science is done.
Pack up.
Coats zipped.
Hugs goodbye.
Another school day
Has raced right by!

Year in a Sentence

Kevin at Kevin's Meandering Mind has asked for a sentence describing 2008.

Here is my contribution,

A roller coaster year is completed!

2008 included friends' new babies, friends' and grandma's deaths, friends' marriages, mom's hospitalizations, and my completed master's' degree.

One Little Word

Ali Edwards at {A} encourages the readers of her blog to choose one WORD to focus on throughout the year.

I am loving this inspirational idea. This year I have spent a lot of time with words and just recently found your site through Ruth at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. After some contemplation, my word for the year is STRETCH. (Not too thin, I hope!) I need to stretch physically. As a teacher, I am always stretched mentally. I need to encourage my students to stretch. I also need to stretch myself out of comfortable routines in order to get more out of life.


Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2911042795/

P.S. Hmmm... My word was not included on the l-o-n-g list of words at Ali's blog. So, I "searched" for it assuming that it had been lost in the blogosphere. Not true and I was not the only one with this word. Maybe it is some sort of sign that this is not my word. I guess I must think about this some more.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

I began by trying to find the birthdays of the Lipstick Chronicle authors. I have not read many of their books but enjoy their blog. It was not easy to find their birthdays, so Elaine Viets and Nancy Martin are in limbo at the bottom of my list. Maybe I will discover their birthdays before the challenge is over or perhaps they will need to be part of next year's list. Here is my list of possibilities.

January 28 - Harley Jane Kozak - I read Dating Dead Men.
February 1 - Meg Cabot - I read Size 12 is not Fat.
March 5 - Mem Fox (alternate Lois Lowry)
April 12 - Donna Andrews
May 6 - Kate Collins
June 26 - Charlotte Zolotow (alternate Robert Munsch)
July 29 - Kate Flora
August 18 - Paula Danziger
September 21 - Stephen King, On Writing
October 19 - Sarah Strohmeyer
November 25 - Charlaine Harris
December 19 - Eve Bunting

Elaine Viets
Nancy Martin

Remembering - Creating Memories

Stacey at Two Writing Teachers has made me think again. (That's the whole idea, right?)

At the end of each quarter we try to take some time to reflect on the accomplishments and set some goals for each student. I think this ties in perfectly with Stacey's thoughts.

I found a couple of sites that I think might help us to "remember" first quarter. Beth Lewis has an example of an "I Remember" poem at About.com: Elementary Education. I like how this guides the students to think about their first impressions, a field trip, a math activity, etc.... I also found another sample and an online version that will print the created poem.

Here is my poem.

Instant I Remember Poem

I remember popping into a new school year.
I remember meeting 28 students and their families.
I remember teaching about how to choose "just right" books
and how to build reading stamina.

I remember exploring a nature trail.
I remember shaking cream to make butter.
I remember making an accordion book about the planets
even reading word wall words by flashlight.

I remember writing a story about the Mysterious Squeak.
But my favorite memory’s yet to come!

I love the final line: But my favorite memory’s yet to come. Some memory-gathering at the end of the semester will set us up to write some goals when we return in January!

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Purpose?

I believe that it may be time to decide on a purpose for this blog. It was originally started as a class assignment (in other words: something that I had to do, not necessarily something that I wanted to do). Through my grad classes and more assignments to write blogs and read blogs, I have discovered that I tend to read 3 types of blogs: book blogs, teacher blogs and tech blogs. I suppose that I have the most to say about teaching, but I have some reservations about having enough quality information to pass on to others. (Do I really need an audience for this? Would it be helpful?) I also have had difficulty finding the time to write this fall. A plethora of second graders and an ill family member have required a lot of time. I continue to believe the TWT mantra that a teacher of writing must write, but lately I have felt that teachers of writing are too busy to write!

Message for Me?

Today as I wrote "Don't give up" as the moral on 24 papers for students that certainly don't understand the moral of a fable, I began to wonder if the message was really meant for me.

Written in the style of One Sentence - True Stories Told in One Sentence.

Day in a Sentence

Falling from the sky and covering the ground, the orange stars confirm the upcoming appearance of winter.

Brrrr…. I’m not ready!