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 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...

 

Celebrate This Week - A Day Late - 2/2/14

Maybe at some point, I will actually be able to get a Saturday Celebrate Post up on a Saturday.  However, this one is going up a day late.   Celebrate This Week is hosted by Ruth Ayres and is a great community of writers.  Why don't you join in and link up with #celebratelu
________________

This past week I had a lot to celebrate.  I kicked off my week with the 2014 ALA Youth Media Awards held in Philadelphia, PA on Monday, January 27, 2014.

After early morning pictures, committees enter the room where the announcements will be made.  I discovered that the Schneider Family Book Award Jury's seats were right between the Newbery Committee and the Caldecott Committee. 

Here is John Schumacher with fellow committee member Amy Koester. 

After the initial welcome and the Alex Awards, the Schneider Family Book Awards were announced.  Yes, I was definitely celebrating this. After months of reading and deliberations, we had made our decisions.

And these were the books that my fellow jury members and I were celebrating....

Though I don't have a lot of great pictures from the exhibit hall, here I am with Schneider Book Award Jury members Caroline Ward and Peg Glisson holding A Splash of Red with all it's beautiful bling.

Over at the Simon and Schuster booth, several other award winning books also looked very shiny with new medals.

When I arrived home from Philadelphia, I was thrilled to find my signed copy of Locomotive, winner of the 2014 Caldecott Medal and a Sibert Honor recipient. 

Mr. Schu made this great image of all of the 2014 Newbery Winners.  I loved these choices.  It was the first time that I had read every one of them prior to the announcements.

I, also, celebrated finding my signed copy of Flora & Ulysses, which won the 2014 Newbery Award.

When I got back to Pasadena, it seemed that my book adventures were not over.  Thank you to Nicole White, Penguin Publishers, I was invited to a dinner with Sally Green, author of Half Bad, which comes out in March.  It was a lovely evening with great food and even better conversations with several booksellers and Ms. Green.

This weekend, I am trying to hold onto the wonder of the past week while returning to my regular routine.

Celebrate This Week - 1/17/14

As part of my focus for the new year (I am refusing to say resolutions since I always break those), I would like to increase my attention to the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.

___________________________________

Do you ever wonder if children who grow up in homes that find ways to express joy, and gratitude, and optimism become adults who are much more positive in their overall outlook, or if we our more prone to having a certain nature that leans in one direction or the other regardless of our families?  Sometimes, I wonder if it is a chicken or an egg dilemma.  Are children predisposed one way or the other but depending on their surroundings able to change?

Despite coming from the same parents, I do believe that siblings can and do have very unique personalities right from birth.  Some may favor one parent or the other, as well.  However, I suspect that nature vs. nurture applies to this area as well.  Children raised in an environment that values gratitude and expressing joy will create those habits even if they may have a bit more contrary personality.  I am envious of those who both lean more towards a sunny disposition and grew up in homes that modeled what it means to surround yourself with thankfulness. 

In looking back over my week, I recognize that there were a few incidents that can really overshadow how I perceive the week.  If I use those situations as my lens in which to reflect, I would say the week was terrible.  I am thankful for a lens to identify the positive.

Here is what I am thankful for this week...

Community - I am a big believer in community.  Over twenty years ago, I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together.  It was probably one of several factors that influenced my commitment to creating and building community.  Throughout my life, I have sought to live and work in community.  Sometimes it is easier to foster than at other times. I am thankful for the community of friends that I am surrounded by.  They are quality people who make my life better because they are in it.  The time this past week spent either sharing a meal, or going to a movie, or lending a hand, or chatting is truly what inspires me.  Community, also, provides me with a sense of belonging to something greater than just me. 

Doing What Gives Me Energy - When I think back over the week, there are definitely moments or times when there is no need to fake excitement or enthusiasm.  This week, I had an opportunity to present to a group of student teachers and to talk about how to help children develop a love of reading.  It is in that moment, when I am both teaching and sharing my love of literacy that my personal energy reserve is being filled up despite whatever energy output is happening.  I am and will always be a teacher.   Sometimes that sense of calling and purpose gets muddled in lots of other things, but when I am teaching something that I love, and I can tell that the class has dialed in, the high is like nothing else.

Hitting the Submit Button on my NCTE '14 proposal - Last week, and the first half of this week seemed to be filled with writing and re-writing my proposal for NCTE '14. Fortunately, I had help from Cynthia Alaniz. We spent hours on the phone and also on our google doc chat hashing out what we would submit. Regardless of whether the proposal is accepted or not, I am thankful for collaboration opportunities such as this. 

What are you thankful for this week?
 

Celebrate This Week - Four Things I am Thankful For

As part of my focus for the new year (I am refusing to say resolutions since I always break those), I would like to increase my attention to the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me.  To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.
__________________________________

This week was one of the busiest weeks I have had in awhile.  I know that it is busy because I normally manage to stay on-top of my work email, but I wasn't able to this week. Since I am almost a bit OCD about work email, I am trying not to stress, but instead find ways to celebrate.

4 Things I am celebrating this week....

* Safe Travels - This past Sunday, I traveled from the east coast to my home in Southern California.  I was one of the lucky people who had no cancellations or significant delays with my flight.  We, also, had a very uneventful flight, which is just the way I like my air travel.

* Beautiful Weather - One of the things I love about Southern California is the winter weather.  It is chilly at night and usually sunny for at least part of the day.  Most days get up to the high 60's or low 70's.  Granted that might just be for a couple of hours but it does a lot for my overall mood.  

* Time with friends - I missed being able to hang with friends while I was away for the holidays. When I go home for the holidays, I spend most of my time with my parents and a few other family members.   Most people have so many family obligations that it is hard to connect with others.  Add in unpredictable weather and well, social visits seem to be out.  However, now that I am back in California, I do not have those excuses.  On Friday night, despite being tired from the week, I had a wonderful time hanging with some friends.  There was friends, food, books, lots of discussions that were all over the place, and it was just what I needed to close out a very busy week.  

*  Professional Presentations - This week, I did receive a couple of emails asking me about doing several presentations.  Since I am still confirming some of the presentations that are being scheduled, I am not sharing yet, but it is still exciting to have some opportunities to consider. 
 
What are you celebrating this week?