Virtual Coffee Date

During my senior block of college, we watched a video from Harry Wong. One of the biggest things I took from the video was this:

"Steal, steal, steal."

He was trying to teach us not to recreate the wheel and steal ideas from other teachers. I can do that! In fact, I am going to do so now. I am stealing the idea of a virtual coffee date blog post from fellow teacher and friend, Cassie.

Liquid heaven from The Mean Bean
with Scotti and Erin Molly

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that we only have 18 days of school left! Where in the world did the year go?! I have had a good year with a group of kids who make me laugh most days.

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you about this one student who is inspiring me like no other.

This picture was taken the day she told me that everything was made in China and then asked me if she was made in China! She caught herself before I could answer and laughed and laughed. Another student happened to find a "Made in China" sticker and put it on her.
 If I have only done one thing right all school year, it will be helping Grace discover her love for writing. She participated in the Slice of Life Challenge in March and wrote every day. She did better than I did. Whenever she has a free moment in class, she is writing. The stories she comes up with are amazing and I am convinced that she is going to grow up to be a children's book author.
Another reason she inspires me every day is the fact that she is ALWAYS positive, happy and confident. I am hardly ever those things! Her confidence is better than anyone I have ever seen. She is how she is, she likes what she likes, and she doesn't care what others think. Today she wore lipstick and rocked it! It looked so good on her and to tell the truth, I was a little jealous!

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that TED and I are thinking about getting a divorce. He once again needs maintenance done and my bank account is getting pretty upset about it.

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you how I was in the depths of despair that Johnathan Crombie passed away. He made Gilbert Blythe come alive in the hearts of every girl who has ever watched the Anne of Green Gables movies. The way he smiled at Anne and said he was sorry, made my *heart flutter* every time!

If we were having coffee together, I'd ask you what was going on in your world?

Middle of the Night Movitvation

Anyone else up at 1:40 in the morning super motivated? Yeah...didn't thinks so. But I am! Motivation seems to hit me at the worst times. I should also learn NOT to get on Pintrest when I am trying to go to sleep.

It all started when I worked really hard to reach my latest workout goal of getting my next Fitbit badge. I got up early to get on the treadmill and then also got on the treadmill when I got home from school. I was successful!

I think that all this activity made me a little sleepy, so I decided that I would go to bed at 8. Not normally a problem, I have gone to bed that early before and slept the whole night through.
Not this time! I woke up about 11:30 thinking it was time to get up and start the day again.

Well, like a toddler that won't sit still for long in fear of falling asleep, I read a bit and then picked up my phone, BAD IDEA!

Pintrest got me to thinking and before I knew it, I was sitting up in bed with my computer and notebook!

Read alouds and novel studies are the main thoughts keeping me awake.

Lately I have been thinking about how to make each of these events in my classroom better. I have always been content with just reading the book and talking about it and there are times that I think this is ok, but it seems like there is something missing.

I have a plan and I am excited. I also figure what better time to try it out on kids when there is only a month left of school. I can see how it goes with these kids (also without a lot of plan and prep time) and then if it goes well, I can do some more planning and preparing over the summer for the next batch of kiddos.

April 2015 TBR

Didn't March just start? This month flew by and has been VERY busy. We did our first round of state testing, and there was lots of prep time before that. With having meetings after meetings, and other things that needed to get done, I didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked. I finished three books and all three of them were middle grade children's books. I enjoyed all three of them, especially Rain Reign and sharing it with my students. You can read about that here.

• Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere
• Rain Reign
• Tangle of Knots

For April, I have changed up my reading plan to make sure that I am a good example with AR in my classroom. I have not been able to meet my AR goal at all this year, because I usually read books that didn't have tests. (One issue that I have with AR.) 

I am finishing up this one that I am reading with my sisters.

I have been listening to this one in the car while driving.

It has been awhile since I have read a Sharon Creech, and this one happens to be worth some AR points!

Current read aloud and everyone seems to be enjoying it. It is also inspiring some of the students to read other books by E.B White.

I am not trying to dream too big in the book department this month, since we have state testing....again, and the end of the year tends to be busy. 

What books are on your list for April?

Impossible

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible  things before breakfast.” – the White Queen, Alice in Wonderland.

What are the six impossible things you believe in? (If you can only manage one or two, that’s also okay.)
Reaching every student - I want to reach every student who walks through my classroom door. I want to meet them where they are at and help fulfill their needs, no matter how basic or complex. Yet, because we live in a imperfect world, this is impossible. There are too many things that get in the way: lack of time, state testing, other classmates, meetings, paperwork, deadlines, standards, grumpy moods, etc. etc. etc.
The war against gray hair - it's in my DNA and is impossible to change. My mother blessed me with a crown of gray hair at an early age. I started showing signs about the middle of college. By the time I started teaching, I was having to color my hair every few months or so. Now, I go every four to six weeks! It looks as if when I do finally stop fighting the battle, it will be a pretty silver color and I like silver. I am just too young to stop fighting just yet.

Here is what I am hoping for!

Stop/more time- We all have moments in our lives when we would have liked to have stopped time and had more of it. More time with a loved one, more time with your children and stop them from growing up so fast, more time to do the things we love, to get more work done, just more time in general. Sadly, time always runs out and stopping it is impossible,
Taking a selfie. IMPOSSIBLE for me to do! I CANNOT take a selfie to save my life! I do better if someone else takes the picture and I can't see what it looks like until after the picture has been taken. I am horrible at Snapchat and only do so with my sister and rarely is it a picture of myself. Molly is good at selfies:

I am not. I am going to spare you my attempts at taking selfies, but will give you ONE that I did ok with and even then, I have issues with it:

Class response: I asked my group of 21 fourth graders to respond to the prompt, and they were all very different and creative. I picked some of my favorite. (I asked the students to make up a fake name to protect the innocent, and that was the hardest part for them!)
~Adotudanus Gratutudy
I believe in me flying without wings and smelling sparkles. I also believe that my Beenie Boose could come to life and I could smell colors, have a pet minion and Olaf. I could have a magical land that I could dance whenever I wanted to. Water that healed everything, even being sick. A magic pen that never runs out.
~Emmy Lou

One is to see a minion riding a unicorn while dancing to "All About that Base."

~McFuzzy Pants

I believe that you can smell sparkles because whenever I walk in a room with sparkles, it smells different. I believe that you can communicate with birds because whenever I talk outside, they always chirp back.

What do you believe in that is impossible?
Have you read Alice in Wonderland? I want to, but am a little scared.

P.S I would give credit to where I found the prompt, but I can't find it again. Pintrest is an amazing thing!

Made Me Smile Today

Happy Monday! This morning my class and I discussed which day of the week was our favorite. No one seemed to like Mondays, but they don't bother me too much. What do you think about Mondays?
Either way, I had a moment today that made me smile.
During read aloud, we are reading Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin and everyone is enjoying it very much. I have one student who doesn't mind reading, but doesn't get too excited, ask for read aloud each day. Today he informed me that he isn't excited for read aloud anymore. I thought that my heart was going to be ripped out, but then he said,
"I don't think that Rose is going to get what she wants and that stinks."
He is invested in the character and the story!

I don't know how the story ends, but I am hoping that Rose and my student get what they want!

Long Time No Blog

Hello! It's been a few days and boy have they been busy! I am pretty excited about today since I have the whole day ahead of me without any plans! At first I wasn't sure what to do with myself! Monsters Inc. is providing background while I explore my blog world some. Thanks to these ladies, I was motivated to write my own blog post!

What I have been up to lately:

I have been hanging out with my two boy friends the past two weeks. We have gone on a few walks, cuddled and had some gratifying tummy rubs.

Molly came to visit this weekend to do our "traditional" St. Patrick's Day 5k and she made two new friends. Molly laid down on the floor to give Wellington lovins and before anyone knew, they were cuddled up! I think both dogs were sad to see her leave this morning.

I've:
~ been dreaming about projects
~ sharing cups of tea with old friends
~ getting to know Rose and Rain with my students
~seeing my students grow as writers while they do a better job at the Slice of Life Challenge than I am
~laughing with my sister over a giant strawberry sopapilla
~made a new friend
~told parents how proud I am of their child

This next week my biggest adventure is our first round of state testing. The rest of the time I hope to find some other adventures and get a few things checked off of my to-do list!

What have you been up to lately?

March 2015 TBR List

Here we are again looking at another month! This is the time of year when I start writing 2014 on everything instead of 2015 since the excitement of the new year is gone. It is also where we face some of our snowier days and I tend to read more when it snows.

What I didn't get read in January, I got caught up in February! It's been a big month for reading! Here's what I read in February:

• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library 
• Crossover (the 2015 Newbery winner and a book with a one-word title) 
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 
• The Green Mile (A book with more than 500 pages)
• Where the Red Fern Grows (my traditional read aloud. I think I was the ONLY one crying!)

Adventures to come:

Current read and am LOVING it! I wish that my cold wasn't keeping me from reading because I really want to be reading! I love the voice. Plus I like that the story takes place during Hurricane Katrina, since I (nor have my students) haven't read anything set during that time.

My sister's new job found her traveling which found me dog sitting the two rat dogs (that is my term of endearment for them...really.) As my payment/thank you, I asked her to get me a book each time she traveled. This one came from Austin, Texas. Have I mentioned that I was born in the wrong era? 

This book is part of the Reread 2015 plan. I didn't read this one that long ago, but liked it a lot. If I remember correctly, it only took me a day to read.

Santa brought me this book off of my wish list! I have probably read more James Patterson books than I have any other author. It helps that he writes a book a week! Still making my way through the Alex Cross series.

I grew up reading The Babysitter's Club by Ann M. Martin, so I was excited when my class voted for this as our next read aloud. I hope it is good!

Going to read this one with the sisters. I am having a hard time finding a copy and I am still trying not to buy anymore books. Thankfully, my librarian loves me and is on the search for a loaner.

Whoa, that's a big list for a busy month! We will be starting state testing this month and since everything is so new, I don't know what to expect. This may cut into my reading time. OR it could be my escape from such a crazy month!

What is on your March TBR list?