Celebrate This Week - June 21, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Is it only me, but do others find it hard to write a Celebrate This Week post on Friday nights, or do you schedule your posts?  Since I like to think of it as a reflection of my week, I want to wait till Friday to write it up.  However, Friday nights tend to be busy and Saturday mornings tend to be filled with errands. I would love to hear how everyone does their posts? 

So, here it is.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

1.  Friends willing to share their expertise. - On Friday, I spent nearly 6 hours with my friend Marianne Wallace.  She is a biologist turned author/illustrator.  I am working on creating a training for teachers on using nonfiction books as mentor texts for writing.  During our time together, we poured over a few dozen nonfiction picture books discussing the styles of writing and how we would classify these books and more.  Though I still have to put together the trainings, I feel like I have a much greater awareness of what I need to focus on and what gaps I have with the broader category of children's nonfiction.

After I left Marianne, I picked up my friend Alethea (@frootjoos) and we grabbed some dinner and she spent at least 5 hours with me as I learned how to use a new blog platform. She is so patient when I get stuck and struggle to figure out how to do certain things.   I am also thankful for how much she knows when it comes to web-development and that she is willing to share that knowledge with me.

Though both of these projects will be on-going, I am thankful for how much I was able to learn yesterday that will be helpful as I continue work on them.

2.  Katherine Applegate is the most amazing author. - On Wednesday, Katherine was in town for some other meetings and came to Once Upon a Time in Montrose.  She met with a small group prior to the event in the store and talked about her writing, and winning the Newbery Medal.  We had so much fun with her and she is simply charming.

3.  Lost and Found Books and a clean trunk. - If any of you have ever had an itinerant position, you will understand what I am talking about.  I work with several schools and before I know it more bags and boxes of stuff end up in my car from different projects, training, and work related things. I seem to never get around with cleaning and organizing it.  This week, when I misplaced a stack of books, I thought it was time to clean out the trunk in hopes of finding them.  The 13 year old and I emptied the whole trunk and reorganized it. Some stuff ended up in the trash, and other stuff (like the 30 books that were in there) were pulled out and are waiting to be shelved in the house. Good news - not only do I have a clean and organized trunk but I found the missing books.

4.  The Sixteen Year Old is officially a driver. - I can't take credit for teaching him how to drive.  His mom gets all the kudos and awards for being the patient person while he practiced driving.  However, as a good auntie/god-mom, I am rejoicing on his behalf.

Hope everyone is enjoying the first day of summer and finding ways to celebrate all the little things around them.

Celebrate This Week - June 14, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

As I write this post, it is still Saturday on the west coast.  I find it a challenge to get this post up every week.  Partially due to the fact that I hate working on a blog post on Friday nights.  Too often I am out and by the time I get home it is a bit too late.  And Saturdays are often packed.  Since, I missed the past few weeks, I felt that I had to get something up for today.

So, this might be late but here it is.

Here's what I am thankful for this week... 

1.  Summer Break - I am thankful for some much needed time off to reflect and be creative.

2.  Authors - Have you ever said or heard someone say "authors are rockstars".  It is definitely true, and this week, I had a chance to interact with some wonderful writers and illustrators.

Arree Chung -  Recently, I participated in a blog tour for Arree Chung's new book NINJA. I truly think this is a wonderfully delightful book.  Thank you Arree for this beautiful signed print. I can't wait to frame it and hang it in my office. 

Tracy Holczer -  I love living in Southern California where so many wonderful Children's and YA authors live.  One of those wonderful folks is Tracy Holczer, The Secret Hum of a Daisy.  This past week, Alethea and I had dinner with Tracy.  We had a wonderful evening talking books and writing and more.  As a thank you, Tracy brought us "answer jars".  Read her wonderful debut novel to find out about "answer jars". 

Jillian Cantor - Thank you Bloomsbury Press for inviting us to meet Jillian Cantor prior to her signing at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. There were 4 of us who had a chance to chat with Jillian and ask her questions about her new YA novel, Searching for Sky. Jillian was wonderful to hang out with, and I am looking forward to reading this book.

Walden Pond Press & Christopher Healy - Though I have never met Christopher Healy, I recommend his books all the time.  Today, I received from Walden Pond Press a copy of The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw with a signed bookplate as a thank you for participating in the recent blog tour.

3.  My friends is home from the hospital. - Yes, after two more surgical procedures, my friend is home.  It is still going to be a long recovery period but we are thankful for how he has pulled through this most recent round of surgeries.

4.  Collaborating with friends - At the end of this month, I will be presenting at the American Library Association Annual Conference.  I am honored to be able to present with Mary Ann Scheuer, Cathy Potter, and Louise Cappizo.  I was also super thrilled when I discovered that SLJ recommended our presentation Common Core IRL: In Real Libraries as one of their staff picks.

5.  Great Tweets & Facebook posts - On Friday, I received some tweets from John Scovill.  He made my day when he shared that teachers that he works with cited me in their presentation on informational text.  It really goes to show that we are connected in so many ways to other teachers and educators and we have no idea about how our work influences others.  I am very thankful for my Nerdy Book Club friends because it is through them that I have come to know so may excellent educators.

Hope you are having a wonderful week and weekend and a Happy Father's Day.

Celebrate This Week - May 31, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week... 

1.  My friend's first of two surgeries went well. - I have shared in some other Slice of Life posts about my friend who has undergone some very difficult surgeries this year.  For the past few months, things were settling back to normal.  Recently, he was told that he was going to need a couple of surgeries.  The first of the two was this past Wednesday.  The surgery went well and his family celebrated that he came home on Friday evening. This week he will have the second surgery. We are continuing to pray that all goes well and also for his wife and children. It's been stressful for them all though they have been hanging in there surprisingly well.

2.  The 2013-2014 school year came to an end. - This is the first year that we have finished school before June 1st (and also the first time we started so early in August).  It was an odd year for me in some ways but also wonderful in others.  I still have six more days before I am officially off for the summer so still a lot to do but I know it will be here quickly.

3.  End of the Year conversations with teachers.  - On Friday, I stopped by several classrooms to chat with teachers that I have been working with. We had some wonderful chats about the work we started this year and the work we hope to continue the next year. I am looking forward to some possible conversations over lunch this summer in between everyone's planned vacation trips. 

4. Summer Vacation and Summer Learning - I talked about my summer goals in my Slice Post this past week.  I am so excited about the various goals and activities that I have for this summer.

Celebrate This Week - May 24, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

My typical Celebrate This Week focuses on five things that I want to celebrate.  As I thought about this past week, I decided that I wanted to celebrate one thing.

Over the past few months, I have regularly referred to a class of first graders that I have been working with.  Yesterday was my last time to see them for this school year.  I am going to really miss these 24 kiddos.  I am thankful for how the teacher and students welcomed me into their learning community.  When I come on campus, and I run into one of the students in the hallway (outdoor walkways in CA), I get huge grins and big hugs.

As part of what I have been working on with them, we have done a lot of writing. And having two adults in the room, has also allowed more time to conference with students about their writing. Students have grown as writers during this time.  While reading one student's reflection writing, I realized that he had gone from barely writing one line to now writing six or seven sentences.  He is also willing to ask for help, and by that I don't mean that he wants me to dictate what he should write, but instead, we dialogue about options and ideas for what he can write. Also, his drawings show an amazing amount of understanding about what we have read.

I am also celebrating those students who have started to write even when there are no sentence starters or the word they are looking for isn't on the word wall.  I praise their courage and willingness to take a risk.

And, I am celebrating those students who trusted me enough to dialogue about what challenges them most when facing a blank piece of paper and asked to write something down.  When they get even a couple of sentences down on paper, we celebrate their words.

Though I may not be working directly with these students next year, I want to work with this teacher again.  I believe we can do more to encourage authentic writing and that even our English Language Learners can become confident writers. For this, I celebrate teaching partnerships.

Celebrate This Week - May 17, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week, and well last week too...

I missed being able to do a Celebrate This Week post last Saturday.  As a result, I am sharing my celebrations from the past two weeks.

1.  Debut Author Launch Parties - In Southern California, I am fortunate to meet and get to know and interact with a number of Children's and Young Adult authors.  Recently, I was invited to attend the Book Launch Parties for Tracy Holczer (The Secret Hum of a Daisy) and Catherine Linka (A Girl Called Fearless). Both of these authors are super nice and their books are amazing.  I was thankful for the opportunity to celebrate their books with them and their friends.

Tracy Holczer does a dramatic reading of The Secret Hum of a Daisy.

Catherine Linka talks about her book, A Girl Called Fearless.

2.  End of the Year School Open House - Not this past week, but the week before, I had the chance to attend Open House at several of our elementary schools. I love going and watching children and parents visit classrooms and celebrate learning with their teachers.  It is certainly a time when teachers get to shine and show off all the wonderful things that they have been doing with their students.

Art from one first grade classroom.

3. Screening of The Fault in our Stars - Earlier this week, I received an email from my Penguin Book Rep asking if I would like to attend a special screening of the movie version of The Fault in our Stars. I jumped at the chance to go with several other book buddies. It is one of those rare times where the movie adaptation of the book is well done, and I was glad for the opportunity to see it with friends. The movie releases on June 6, 2014.  Even if you have not read the book, you should still go see it, and then read the book afterwards. 



4. Cross Country Collaborations - Social Media may seem strange to those who do not understand it but for me it has opened up some amazing doors to collaborate with colleagues across the country.  Those collaborations have resulted in new friendships, great discussions, and opportunities to speak at conferences such as the American Library Association Annual Convention (June 2014) and the National Council of Teachers Annual Convention (November 2014). I will be sharing more about this in future blog posts.

5.  Local Collaborations - Alethea (@frootjoos) and I had dinner last night with our friend, Non (@subjectplusverb).  Last night, we talked about various book and literacy projects that we were engaged in and the possibility of collaborating on future ones. One of the things, we talked about was what we loved to spend time doing.  I suspect that Alethea, Non, and I will never be on some fast-track to becoming billionaires, but our priorities were certainly in the right place.  I, especially, loved hearing Non talk about those things that were most important to him, such as, the time spent building his relationship with his wife, or doing projects or volunteer work that were meaningful and made a difference. I am so thankful for those that I have encountered in this journey called life that understand what is really important, and are willing to celebrate that with others. 

Celebrate This Week - May 3, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

This week has been a strange week.  I feel like I have rushed through one day to the next and moving from one meeting or event to the next meeting.  As a result, the week feels like a blur.  However, I do have some things to celebrate.

1.  Surviving April - This year, we had our spring break in March, which meant that April was the long month without any days off.  It was also very, very busy and every weekend too was packed. My mantra was "May is coming."  So, I am celebrating that I survived April.

2.  #WeNeedDiverseBooks - I am so excited that this is trending and that authors, teachers, librarians, students, bloggers and well just about everyone is bringing this need to everyone's attention.  I loved seeing the post on the LA Times website about the campaign going viral.

3. Special Edition Literacy Café -  This week Barbara Brauner and James Mattson came to Roosevelt School and did a literacy café with a group of fourth and fifth graders.  I was thankful for my connection with Scholastic Book Fairs, which helped me be able to provide every student with a copy of The Glitter Trap.

4.  Pasadena Teen Book Fest - I have been waiting to grab some photos from friends in order to do a wrap-up on this event that happened last Saturday, but I haven't had any time this week to search for them or ask friends. Last week, I celebrated that we were having it, and today, I am celebrating that it went well.  I promise better pictures to follow at some point.

5. First Graders - I am really, really enjoying my time in classrooms.  This week, we continued to work on a writing project for Open House (basically taking what we have been learning and applying it in a fun way). I had to take photos of the students for the project. I have enjoyed editing the photos because I am reminded of each of their personalities.

Celebrate This Week - April 26, 2014

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

Some weeks it is a bit more of a challenge to find things to celebrate. This was one of those weeks. On Friday, I posted on facebook...

I am so happy to have made it to Friday. *collapses on couch*

There were a few times in the week that I wondered if I would make it to the end of the week with my sanity intact.

However, I did make it through the week and there were some highlights for me. 

1.  The classroom teachers and students that I am working with are part of the highlight of the week for me. No matter what else is happening I know that when I enter the classroom to work with a teacher and students that I have been transported into a wonderful place.  Watching kids learn and be excited about something and try really hard to do well is the best thing in the world.

2.  I had lunch with James Mattson and Barbara Brauner this week to plan a Special Edition of a Literacy Café for their visit to one of the elementary schools that I work with.  I will report back how it went next week.  In addition to some great brainstorming, I had such a lovely time chatting with them about their writing partnership and books and well more books.

3.  This week I was also invited to a special dinner by my local Simon & Schuster Rep for Morgan Matson who has a new book called Since You've Been Gone. Morgan is charming and everyone had fun chatting with her.  She was a former bookseller at Vroman's before life took her in the direction of becoming a writer. 

At the end, Kelly Stidham (Simon & Schuster) did some impromptu book talking from the back of her car. And then I received a special bag of goodies (see below).

4.  Today, I will be helping out at the Pasadena Teen Book Fest, which will be held at the Pasadena Public Library.  I am very much looking forward to all the fun we will have.  I will also be moderating a Middle Grade Panel at the end of the day. 

5.  Finally, I am thankful for friends.  I don't have pictures of everyone I want to include and I likely couldn't remember to list everyone who did something special for me this week or just let me vent when I needed to or helped me out with something but I am rich in friendships. And for that I am most thankful!

Celebrate this Week - 4/19/14

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

April has been an extremely busy month.  I really should look at the full calendar when planning things.  Despite how busy it has been, this past week was filled with some great things.  

1. The Los Angeles Times Book Festival - This year I was an honorary bookseller for the weekend (April 12-13, 2014). What a marvelous experience.  Check out my wrap-up post.

2. Author Event: Tomie dePaola - When I heard that author/illustrator Tomie dePaola was coming out for the LA Times Festival of Books and then doing an event at Once Upon a Time, I knew I had to meet him.  Tomie's newest book is one he illustrated for Lin Oliver's poems.  Tomie was so wonderful and good with all of the children and teachers and librarians and parents who came out to see him.
 

3.  Distinguished Schools Visitation Team - This week I had the opportunity to serve on a Distinguished Schools Visitation Team. What a fabulous experience!  I loved learning more about the process, visiting classrooms, hearing parents and students and staff talk about their school.  It was definitely worth doing.  I also loved the emphasis on writing and student writing was evident everywhere. 

4. Open Mic Poetry Event - We held our first joint activity between the schools and the library and celebrated National Poetry Month with an Open Mic Poetry Event. It was smaller than we had hoped but the energy was good and everyone is talking about seeing this happen annually. I blogged about it here.

5.  First Graders and Writing - I have been continuing my pilot writing and comprehension project and expanding it to a couple of additional classes.  Can't wait to share more. I love watching first graders as they figure things out.

So, what are you celebrating?

Celebrate This Week - 4/5/14

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

1.  District Professional Development Presentations - I presented on two different topics this past Monday at our Professional Development training.   Both presentations went well, and I was very appreciative of Cathy Potter and Cynthia Alaniz for taking time out of their busy schedules to skype in.

2.  My work with First Graders - I was excited to continue my work with first graders on comprehension and writing. Even in just one week, we have made progress.

3.  Literacy PLC Meeting - On Wednesday of this past week, I led a meeting for whatever principals and teachers could attend on independent reading, classroom libraries, and summer reading.  I was thankful for the support from my Scholastic Book Fair rep who planned and presented with me and who also provided food for the meeting. It was not a large group, but it was certainly a group who was interested in learning and applying what they learned.

4.  Author Visits - On Thursday, we had fun welcoming authors, Rohan Gaven (Knightley & Son) to Jackson School and Shannon Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities ) to Marshall Fundamental and San Rafael School.  I love watching how students respond to authors and how excited they become to read the book after meeting an author.

5.  Meeting up with an on-line friend - Over the past 4 years, I have had the opportunity to meet up with a number of my twitter and facebook teacher and librarian friends.  What started out initially as on-line professional encouragement and support has moved to real friendships and working collaboratively on projects and presenting at professional conferences.  Mary Ann Scheuer (Great Kid Books) was visiting the Los Angeles area for spring break.  We had a chance to meet up for dinner and work on our presentation for ALA Annual this June.

6.  Literary Orange - Today, I had a chance to moderate the Young Adult: The Awesome Age Panel, which featured Kendare Blake, Jessica Brody, and Maurene Goo.  The time flew by and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

So, what are you celebrating?

Slice of Life - Celebrate This Week - 3/29/14

Slice of Life is hosted by Two Writing Teachers on Tuesdays.  For the month of March, I am participating in the March Challenge by posting a slice daily.

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week... 

1. Back to work - I miss the lazy schedule of last week.  The first week back to work after a break always seems crazier than normal.  It was a good week and I am celebrating that I made it through the week.

2.  Comprehension Lessons - For the next 6 to 8 weeks, I will be piloting a series of comprehension lessons in a couple of 1st and 2nd grade classes.  I started by working with a fabulous first grade teacher at one site.  Her class is a lot of fun and we made an immediate connection.  I start with the other classes in the next week or two.

3.  Earthquakes - Well I am not really celebrating an earthquake, more like celebrating that everyone and everything is alright. This was the second or third one that we had recently.  Not really a fan of earthquakes and like when I just sleep through them.  However, the one last night was a little longer than we have had in awhile.

4.  Math Field Day - I am going to celebrate this one a bit early.  It is happening this morning (Saturday) and I will be helping with registration and some other logistics this year.  

So, what are you celebrating this week?

Update on 3/30/14 - Some of you have asked about Math Field Day.  Here is a post that I added to Facebook that I thought I would share here as well...
This has been my 8th year at Math Field Day for our District. My heart always broke as I watched teams of student receive no medals and other teams sweep their category. The results were always teams of kids who would burst into tears and think they sucked at math and never wanted to try again. Though I think there is a place for competition and winners and losers, I was pretty sure that wasn't the message we wanted to send to students about math or learning, but I could never figure out how to make it more equitable.

Thanks to some changes in logistics, process and scoring there will be more winners and more recognition of hard work. Nothing is ever perfect and someone will inevitably not like the new system, but if it will result in less tears and more opportunities to build a love of math and a confidence in learning then for this I celebrate.

Slice of Life - Celebrate This Week - 3/22/14

Slice of Life is hosted by Two Writing Teachers on Tuesdays.  For the month of March, I am participating in the March Challenge by posting a slice daily.

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

1.  Spring Break - Though it is almost over, it has really been a pretty perfect week.  I enjoyed hanging out and putzing around.  I could sleep in or stay up late and no need to dress up all week.

Homemade Poptart from Nickle Diner in Los Angeles

2. Hanging out with Friends - Last Sunday morning, I had a chance to visit with Teresa Bunner (@rdngteach) while she was in Los Angeles for the ASCD conference. We had breakfast at a little place in Los Angeles and even had homemade poptarts. Yum!  Additionally, I got to have lunch later in the week with some of my local teacher buddies that I do not see often enough.

3. Movies and Friends - I seldom see movies in the theater and I even more seldom see them on release day or during the release weekend.  Last week, I kicked it off by going to see the Veronica Mars movie with some friends.  It was a blast to watch it with other folks who knew the characters and were just as eager to see it.  I finished the week with going to see Divergent with a different set of friends.  I love my book community and how we not only share favorite books but movies and more.

4. Skyping with Cathy Potter's students - Cathy Potter is a school librarian in Maine.  This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet via Skype with some of her 5th graders to answer questions about the Schneider Family Book Award. What a great group of students and some really good questions. 

5. Cleaning and Sorting - Though I took my time with closet cleaning and other sorting projects, things are slowing shaping up.  I was excited to be able to pull together about 200 books that will be welcome additions to classrooms and libraries in my District. Additionally, I found a gift card that I had misplaced (yes, now I can get those new running shoes I wanted), and a sweater that I was looking for.  Sadly, I still seem to be missing a couple of pillowcases and a bunch of socks.  What is it about the dryer that seems to cause things to disappear?

What are you celebrating this week?

Slice of Life Meets Celebrate This Week - #sol14 - 3/15/14

Slice of Life is hosted by Two Writing Teachers on Tuesdays.  For the month of March, I am participating in the March Challenge by posting a slice daily.

This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

Here's what I am thankful for this week...

1.  First graders - This past week, I was able to spend the week doing one on one reading assessments with first graders. I loved chatting with them, listening to them read and discussing what they read. They are all so different and all are at such a fun age. 

2.  Reading Communities - I love watching as a school begins to grow as a reading community.  Yesterday, I received a great email from one of our Library Coordinators.  She has been working to build more of a love of reading and challenged the students to each buy one book at the fair and if they did then she would color her hair blue.  The students rose to the challenge and the book fair was their best ever.  Now when they return from Spring Break, she will be showing off some blue hair.

3.  Girl Scout Gold Award - Last summer, a close friend's daughter asked if I would be the Project Advisor for her Gold Award for Girl Scouts.  It has been fun watching her grow through the months.  She is an amazing young woman and I suspect she will go far in life.  This past Monday, I was watching her as she met with a group of first and second graders for their sixth or seventh session.  She is using songs to reinforce reading skills.  At the beginning, the students were shy and barely sang along.  Now, they are excited to see her and are very engaged and sing loudly.  They will certainly miss her when she is finished with the project, but it has been a neat experience for all of them.

4.  Veronica Mars Movie - Yes, it is finally out.  I loved the first two seasons of Veronica Mars (and try to pretend the third season did not exist) and though I have not been following all of the details of the movie, I am excited to finally have more Veronica Mars.

5.  Spring Break - It has been a crazy busy few weeks and I am finally excited that spring break is here.  Believe it or not, I am excited for spring cleaning.  I am also looking forward to staying home and hanging out in sweats.

Now, off to enjoy my spring break...