Blessed to Teach and Read

Scrolling back through the photos on my phone - wow, what a full year it's already been, and it's only the beginning of November!  I'm just so grateful to work with the amazing students and staff at my wonderful school! Went back to an oldie, but goodie - Quiver Vision app to make our Dot Day come to life with virtual reality. I gave students the option to donate their dot to our display, if they didn't want to take it with them.  I've seen cute, color-coordinated Dot Day displays on Pinterest, but I LOVE letting the kids express themselves and make a dot that is uniquely theirs.   Last year's 5th Grade Class Legacy Project donated enough money to buy our library 2 sets of Cubetto and some new, non-fiction books!  Both kindergarten and first grade have already done coding in the library!  Students coded routines, and subroutines, to move Cubetto around the map.  The excitement in their voices is priceless!    I added a fun lesson for second

At the end of the first, full week of school, I was feeling on 'empty' in the emotional and physiological tank.  I was stressed, and I was completely exhausted, despite getting more sleep than usual.  Driving home after 5 p.m. on a Friday, I saw a man riding a bicycle toward oncoming traffic, on the sidewalk, though.  My mind did that, "Is that a baby on the front of his bike?!?" right as he came into focus and my brain realized it was, in fact, a toddler, and she was adorable and waving at every car as her dad biked her down the road.  I wish I had a picture.  She was the cutest!  I immediately waved back, and the man's face smiled, big, and he waved back, too.  My heart just melted.  And I was restored. Our school year started very early, on Wednesday, July 24th.  Our first day back was a district-wide look at our county's new Instructional Framework infographic.  From all that I've read about the messages companies' send to their employees, our c

Another great year is in the books!  Am already looking ahead toward next year, gathering ideas for genrifying sections of our library, but am definitely taking some time to relax, restore, and spend time with family.   Here's a brief overview of happenings from March to May: Thanks to the VERY supportive parents of our school, we held our Spring Follett Book Fair.  (I helped decorate a bit.)  While the set-up was super easy and they give 30% cash, we've decided to go back to Scholastic Book Fairs, until they build more Follett distribution centers near us, and/or hire more staff.  We missed having a regional person on-site, to ensure that we were getting the books we needed.     I continued on with monthly Biblionasium Challenges, ending in the grand prize giveaway of 2 Paperwhite Kindles, donated by our local Zaxby's.   Loads of more lessons for my K-5 kiddos, with an emphasis on a variety different authors: James Preller, Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert, K

No need to have watched or read Marie Kondo's "Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up".  I have a hoarder for a husband, and I LOVE to purge stuff.  I've begun weeding our "E" for everybody picture book section. It's astonishing how many of our books from 2002-2003 are still on the shelves, having never been checked out, even once, or less than once a year over the past 16 years our school has been open. Our County Head of Media Specialists, Kristen Deuschle, shared about a local charity, Reaping Nature , which will donate our weeded materials to needy schools in our county.  Perfect! As I've been consulting the Historical Report and looking through each story to decide its fate, I've had more ideas churn up.  Definitely planning on beginning to genrify the fiction section next year, but WHAT IF I also made an "Upper Elementary" picture book section???  I already started the "ECH" Early Chapter books section and "Easy Reader