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 les...

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 e...

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:...

Look at that shelf. Such disarray.  That's kind of how I felt around mid-August.  Pulled in too many directions.  On overload.  In need of a bookend to hold me up and set me straight.  (or, in need of more time in my day)  One week, I tried staying no later than 4 PM, and leaving undone what I couldn't accomplish, but that was stressful, too! I currently spend around 30 minutes everyday, either during classes, during planning, or after, afternoon car duty, to keep all of the books shelved.  I'm doing a better job of preventing the shelves from looking like the one pictured above.  (We've had 3 different moms come a collective six times to volunteer to help with shelving. Yay for Mrs. Stratton, who has come back multiple times!)  I implemented a new change this year, to allow 4th and 5th graders to re-shelve their own fiction or everybody/picture books.  That has helped! I also started a 5th grade program called "Castle Apprent...