Short but Sweet

I'm tired.  I can't keep my eyes open.  Why is it that the end of the school year always feels like we go-go-go and then STOP!  And this year I won't have any time to even rest because, as you know, I AM OFF TO SAN FRANCISCO!  I cannot wait! We had some visitors this afternoon from Miller Hill Elementary School in Averill Park to sort of rack our brains on what we do in our library and I took the opportunity to tell my Kwame story! Do you have a minute ever?  Because if you do, I'm happy to tell you our story!

We are still busy working on the NYS Archives projec with fifth graderst.  I don't know how it is ever going to get completed. The last day of school is next Thursday and then I fly out to where?  I can't remember. Why am I leaving?  lol.  Anyway, Mayor Keegan gave us a template of The Castletonian that I used today to plug in some of our articles.  They look good but again, I'm so afraid we are going to run out of time!  I wish we had spent more time on the editorial piece.  A lot of the articles seem like reports, biographies, etc.  This could be SO good if we had just one more week.  I still may send it to Deborah Wiles, since she was our inspiration oh so long ago, and if it looks like we used enough primary sources, then it will go off to competition.

My eyes are droopy.  I need to get to bed.  I just have to say that I finally read Yard Sale by Eve Bunting with illustrations by Lauren Castillo this week.  I read it to myself a few days ago and then read it aloud to Miss Leavitt's class yesterday.  I didn't cry but I had to clear my throat.  That was a tough one--beautiful in every way.  The details in the illustrations are incredible--even the faded sticker with a "10" on it.  Anyone that has ever been to or had a garage sale, knows about ht

Yesterday was my birthday and did you hear what I got besides a trolley car Pandora charm?  Yes! Netgalley approved me for Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate.  Mr. Schu, guru of all children's literature, has been talking about this book for forever.  I'm dying to read it and now I can, but maybe when I am confident I would get farther than the first page without my eyes totally closing. 'Night y'all.

Newsworthy

Today Casey Seiler, from the Times Union came and spoke to our fifth graders about writing newspaper articles. WOW!  I could have listened to him speak forever!  If I was a fifth grader with no knowledge of what I wanted to be when I grew up, he actually might have turned me on to being a reporter.  Really.  He was that inspiring and so good with the kids.

We invited him in to give our students a little idea of how to write a newspaper article.  They will all be writing articles for our edition of The Castletonian.  He gave them some great ideas and had some really meaningful quotes, such as:

"All the things that make a good piece of journalism, make a good piece of fiction."

"Competition makes you better."

And I forget the exact question Casey was answering but his answer was profound:

"I don't feel like I understand something till I've written about it."  That makes a lot of sense!  I think I'm seeing that with this blog, even in its infant stages.

Thank you so much, Casey, for coming in and speaking to our fifth graders. We hope you will return!

5th graders just had awesome chat w @CaseySeiler Ready to start our #Revolution inspired newspapers @deborahwiles pic.twitter.com/soXMQcG2PH

— Ms.Rattner (@C_ESLibrary) May 26, 2015