Saying goodbye and moving forward...

It has been a long 8 days...

Saying Goodbye

A shock came to our community on July 4 when we suddenly lost, Bob Horan, the most dedicated and passionate superintendent you may ever meet. We are a small school district (less than 1000 students) and on any given day at our elementary school, you could find Bob reading to first graders, observing an author Skype, playing with bots or just walking through the hallways.  He was a big fan of STEAM so I will do my best to devote some time to STEAM in the coming years in his memory.

Here's Bob with Chris Grabenstein at our school in January.

National Tragedy

While we were mourning Bob, the events that unraveled in Baton Rouge, Minnesota and Dallas hit me hard.  I feel hopeless and wish there was something I can do to make things better.  I'm worried for my children, my family and my students.  The best I can do is advocate, read and share books and poetry that can make a difference.  I appreciate this post with a #BlackLivesMatter booklist for teens:

#BlackLivesMatter booklist

I also want to share Kwame Alexander's interview on NPR on Sunday.  He always gives me hope:

While running late last week, I listened to an old podcast on This American Life.  It was so relevant to today, I feel like I want you all to listen to it, too. W. Kamau Bell's part is Act II and about 18 minutes into the podcast.

The link is here:

Then I actually went to W. Kamau Bell's website to view his blog and the post mentioned in his story was right there.  Here it is:

Blog post from January 2015

You may or may not know, that I am a big fan of Sean Qualls and Selina Alko and the book referenced in the stories.  I just hate that it all has to come down to this. Way over a year has passed since this story was aired, I hope things have changed, although with the events of the past week, I am just not so sure...

Looking Ahead

Only days after Bob's passing, we were scheduled to share our Towers Falling project ideas with our Board of Education.  Needless to say, it has been put on hold for a little bit.  However, we still moved forward in our planning and are hopeful that we will be able to commit to an end date soon.

So on Monday, with support from our principal and Director of Curriculum, we continued to plan this project that takes a tragedy and turns it into an amazing inquiry, project based cross curricular year long study on heroes, patriotism, history, memories and resilience based on Jewell Parker Rhodes, Towers Falling. Two months to the day before the 15th anniversary of September 11, my fifth grade collaborating teacher, Mr. Reischer, and my fabulous volunteer couple, Mr. and Mrs. Warland and I drove down to NYC to visit the 9/11 Memorial and get some face time with Little Brown.  We didn't know what to expect and it turned out to be a way more incredible trip than we ever imagined.

The steps that lead many folks to freedom.

We learned that our students may be captivated by just seeing a firetruck.  We were in awe by how it was destroyed.

The saved column.

The beautiful education room.  

Mrs. Warland, Mr. Reischer and Jennifer, the amazing educator who we are thankful spent so much time with us.

On a side note, we even met up with my friend and inspiring librarian, MaryAnn Scheuer, who was visiting New York from California.  She was able to sit in and participate while we met with Jennifer and we hope to collaborate with her students, too, as part of some cross-country component. Everything just keeps getting better and better...

The footprint of the South Tower.

The Warlands in front of the Survivor Tree.  An incredible story:
http://www.911memorial.org/survivor-tree

Since it was the day before the release of Towers Falling, we only had the arc.
The book's cover now matches the color of the sky.

If all goes as planned, students will be able to experience this state of the art conference room at Little Brown...

...with views of Radio City!

I posted this collage on Instagram.
It was just so wonderful to meet and spend time with the team from Little Brown.

This project fills me with excitement and hope.  We will push ahead with the enthusiasm and passion of our late superintendent and the nearly 3000 people who were killed on September 11, 2001.  We will move forward in this life changing and unforgettable project.  Thank you Jewell Parker Rhodes and the folks at Little Brown and the educators from the 9/11 Memorial for challenging and pushing us forward to help bring this project to fruition for the students and families of Schodack. We are excited to share all the details soon with administrators and the Board.
                                                                                                                                                 xoxo

Want to read or listen to more?  Here are a few more links:

• Jewell was on NPR last week discussing Towers Falling.  Here's the link for the interview:

Jewell's NPR interview

• Here's another article about Towers Falling--even Mr. Reischer is interviewed.  Although, it says we will be visiting in September which is not the case.

ASU article about Towers Falling

Reflections on AASL in Columbus--PART 1

Yes, we got back to the land of Great Danes and Saint Bernards on Sunday after living in the Buckeye State (and NOT even tasting a buckeye!) for three nights but, as usual I needed some time to sit back, think about it all and then process the experience.

It was another great conference.  After Mrs. Harris came with me in 2013 to Hartford to present about our Newbery project, she hasn't turned down a library conference since and this one was no exception!  So there she is picking me up at 5:30 am on Thursday so we could head out for our 8:00 flight to Columbus.

All went smoothly with our travel and we managed to check in, unpack with time for some lunch and ice cream at the North Market

Maria, from Buffalo, and I leaping at Jenis Ice Cream.

Boy was that Oatmeal Cookie ice cream sandwich delicious!

and then to our first event, the IdeaLab.  It was there that we met up with a few old friends and already made some new ones.  My favorite "booth" was the one about the Elementary Library Centers.  Those women are amazing and so creative! Here's a link to the presentation they were sharing from Carolyn Vibbert:

LIBRARY CENTERS

Heidi Hayes Jacobs was the opening keynote. I don't think anyone will argue with you that she wasn't inspiring and motivating.

The exhibits opened that evening and Karen and I had a good time meeting more people, especially some friends from Texas.  I am always in awe of their enthusiasm and energy around conferences and their connectedness to one another.  Whenever I see tweets from Texas librarians, it makes me want to be a citizen of the Lone Star State.  Hey! I'd be proud of any state that Anne Richards hailed from and lead!

Super Librarian with Maria!

In her next life, Karen will be a Super Librarian! For now, "Super Teacher" will do!

We had a fun dinner out that night with Sue Kowalski and the crew from Britannica.  Lots of learning going on there, really.

Friday, for me, was literally an authorpalooza.  It started out with a huge bang in a front row seat at Shana Corey's facilitated panel that included Shannon Hale, Sara Pennypacker and Troy C.  

Just a few stars right here.  BTW Sara has a new series coming out, Waylon. 

Can't wait! I almost snagged an ARC but missed my opportunity!

Yeah, I got Shannon to leap with me!  

I just realized that if I write about every minute detail it will take me days to post.  This really must be the highlights.  And so...fast forward to some exhibit time meeting Sean Qualls, illustrator extraordinaire and then our last workshop of the day facilitated by Matthew Winner and where some new friendships were made and others strengthened.

I wish we had The Case for Loving around to leap with. I just love that book!

But I love Emmanuel's Dream, too!

Love this picture!

I met Shana for the first time when she came with Chris Grabenstein to CES.  

It was so great to hang with her!

 And leap with her!

See the woman in the hat?  That's Gennifer Choldenko!

 With Marc Nobleman

It was here that I learned that I am one of the guilty ones that was fortunate to Skype last year 

with Jonathan Auxier of The Night Gardener fame.

The headless leap because Jonathan is so tall!

Karen moved back to get the full leap!

With Matthew Cordell (you must read his new book, Wish, with a tissue by your side) 

and my friend, Loren Long

Karen told Loren that Little Tree reminded her of her upcoming retirement. Ahhh....

How lucky am I to get these guys to leap with me?

(from left: Matthew Cordell, me, Loren Long and Matthew Winner)

I am going to have to make this a two parter--Stay tuned for more reflections and of course, more leaps!  

The Case for Loving

Happy Saturday!  Since my commute is a .3 mile walk I don't get the luxury to listen to NPR to and from school.  The beauty of this world today is that nothing is missed with the Internet and online streaming.  (and yes, me who is always up till midnight actually fell asleep on Dave Letterman's last night but luckily got to watch it the next day this very way)

I have been tweeting a lot about how much I love Junior Library Guild and my "books of the month," especially the ones recently.  In my May box, I received,

Such a beauty by SELINA ALKO and SEAN QUALLS.  I didn't realize it, but I already "knew" Sean Qualls--He's illustrated a bunch of other books  including, Dizzy, Scit Scat Raggedy Cat, Before John was a Jazz Giant and more!  We used all those books for our Acoustic Rooster jazz musician project for Kwame!

The Case for Loving is getting a lot of attention now and was even on NPR (YES! There's the connection to NPR, if you were wondering) yesterday.  If you missed it, here's the story:

   The illustrations are gorgeous and help tell the story of how it was illegal for interracial couples to be married as late as 1967 in Virginia.  I am sure this would be hard for any young person to grasp these days, even me!  This hits home to me personally because my own inlaws are an interracial couple.  Although slightly different circumstances since they are Asian and Caucasian and living in California, it was still 1967 and they could have still experienced some discrimination.

The Lovings moved from their home state to Washington, DC (where it was legal) so they could raise their family without grief.  You have to get your hands on this book!  Good discussions could be had with students of all ages.  I have to be honest, I haven't had the chance to share it with my students, but definitely will in the future.  It is a great addition to my library and again, I am grateful to Junior Library Guild for passing it on to me.  The book could be paired so well with some of our chapter books with the older grades, too.  Hmmm...like, Revolution by Deborah Wiles perhaps?  As an aside, I know she is working on the third book in the trilogy now and I believe it will take place in the late 1960s, so definitely, YES! Looking forward to that one when it comes out...

I'm all over the place this morning.  Probably haven't had enough coffee yet.  I just wanted to put a shout out for Selina Alko and Sean Qualls!  Maybe they'll be at ALA and I'll get to jump with them?More later….