GOOGLE Classroom, HONEY, JLG and more = Full first day!

I really cannot remember being this excited about the first day of school!  That's not to say that I didn't have a "wake-me-up" nightmare last night that was only about Kwame Alexander coming to our school and the students being totally unprepared and NOT treating him like the super star rock start that he deserves to be treated like.  And, to top it all off, a sudden snow storm appeared out of nowhere, making it very unsafe for anyone to leave. Agh!  Needless to say, I woke up in a sweat.

I skipped and jumped around all the hallways today.  It was fun to meet the new kindergarteners and get reacquainted with everyone else.  I'm always amazed at how everyone's names pretty come back to me as quickly as they do.

The day started and ended with 5th grade Boot Camp.  We started to read HONEY by Sarah Weeks aloud and I think I transitioned them well from their "detective work" last year to their "Committee work" coming up.  I even wore pink! And, yes, we got a jumping picture with the whole grade!

A little blurry, but we are all jumping!  Leaping into a great year together! Can you tell we are holding up copies of HONEY?

My only break of the week occurred in the mid morning.  I opened up a box from Junior Library Guild and smiled.  I always love getting those books!

In between the 5th graders, I saw a first grade class and a third grade class.  Always a good time.

Doing something new this year with Boot Camp with 4th and 5th--Google Classroom.  I created an assignment in Google Drive and shared it on Google Classroom. The students log in, share the document with me and I am able to see their progress on the tasks almost immediately.  Today the fifth graders only logged in, renamed the document and shared the document.  Everyone was successful.  Tomorrow will be the real test as we pair Boot Camp tasks with Google Classroom/Drive.  I have faith it will all work smoothly.

Logging into Google Classroom for the first time this year!

A safe space under my desk.

Everyone is in teams to work together on their Boot Camp tasks. "Teamwork makes the dream work," right?

A very full but exciting day ahead of me tomorrow. 

The summer that will be remembered...

What a SUMMER!  It started hours after school ended on June 25 as I boarded a plane to ALA in San Francisco to Barcelona, France, mountains of North Carolina, two Broadway shows, a 15k, Jersey Shore, Virginia and more...This pictures are so *random* but capture a little taste of my unforgettable summer. 

FIRST day of SUMMER VACATION!  On my way to ALA!

Bill Konigsburg (no relation to E.L.) I picked up this book for my daughter and then she read it for her summer reading homework!

I forgot!  The music teacher, Mrs. Gibney, and I saw Trombone Shorty live.  He was AMAZING!

If you ever have a chance to see him, GO! And pick up his book today!  It's illustrated by our friend, Bryan Collier.

Getting as many cousins and more to jump with me on the Jersey shore.

La Familia Sagrada in Barcelona--pretty incredible.

A leap with my cousin in Barcelona

I took that Crossover book everywhere with me.  This gentleman must have thought I was crazy when I asked him to pose with it!

Relaxing at my aunt's house in Lagleygeolle, France.

Leaping during our night bike tour of Paris.

It didn't matter how heavy my backpack was, that book was coming with me for the day!

A final leap in Paris. We WILL be back!

And I read a little, too.  I always wish I could read more.  In no particular order, I read Crenshaw (comes out in a couple of weeks), George, Sunny Side Up, Roller Girl, Book Scavenger, Circus Mirandus, Lost in the Sun, Unusual Chickens, The War that Saved My Life, Enchanted Air, Stella by Starlight, Hilo and just today I started listening to Echo in the car. Ah, man.  I really wish I had read more.  Everything I read I enjoyed and I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED having my FIVE book groups over the summer.  I will definitely be doing that again next year.

Tomorrow is our first day of school.  I'm super excited.  We are going to have a Sarah Weeks year with a sprinkling of Chris Grabenstein and who else?  Last year Kwame Alexander was our big surprise.  Right now I'm humming all songs I can think of with the words "honey" and/or "pie" in it for my introduction to Sarah tomorrow.  I want to get those kids crazed for her and I know I will!

Today I got up early and drove to Albany to shop at Trader Joes.  I stuck the first CD of Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan in the CD player and was instantly mesmerized.  I'm hooked.  Only that I walk to school and don't have much time in the car alone to listen.  Winter time is my book listening time because I can just throw my ear phones on and shovel to my little heart's content. Fortunately, there is no snow yet but unfortunately, I'm looking for a long road trip to come my way.

I have never felt so excited about a first day in a long time (of course, I have no plan for what to wear, but do have my lunch made).  I'm excited about Sarah and Chris and the collaborations that will take place over the course of the year.  October and November are going to be super busy with my daughter's Bat Mitzvah, NYLA and AASL but it's all good.  By Thanksgiving I will need to stay under my covers for a while and not come out for a few days.  Great time to catch up on my reading that I never had a chance to do while I was "summering" all summer.

May you all have a wonderful start of school and splindiferous year ahead of you!

The War that Saved My Life--WOW!

I could not move out of bed this morning until I finished this incredible 5* book by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.  This one is going to stay with me for a long time.

[DISCLOSURE:  I am still new at figuring out how to write coherent book reviews...please forgive...Also, please forgive because I realized that my blog is so simple looking and I need some help jazzing it up but have run out of time.  I'm glad that I at least have a blog.]

10 year old Ada and her 6 year old brother, Jamie, live in London with their mother, Mam.  Mam is so ashamed of Ada's clubfoot that she keeps her inside all day, every day.  She is not even allowed to crawl to the shared hallway bathroom.  She sits in a chair looking outside to a place that she can never appreciate. When she crosses Mam, she is sent to the reeking tiny cabinet where all the roaches roam. Ada's speech and vocabulary are limited because of her seclusion from the outside world.

Then World War II hits England and children are sent out to the country to be safe and are called "evacuees."  When Jamie goes to the train, Ada sneaks out with him.  When no one chooses them, they are taken to live with Miss Susan Smith, a single woman, who ends up benefiting as much from their placement as they do with her.  And so begins a long, hard journey of trust, friendship, love, perseverance, heroism and ultimate joy during the War that saved more than one life.

I cannot wait to share this book with my students beginning on Tuesday, our first day of school!  I will be meeting with the whole class of fifth graders not once, but twice!  I can see myself holding this book in my hands and telling them it will be at the top of my Newbery list.  I will stumble with my words because I will be almost too excited to describe it coherently.  My only regret is that I didn't pick it up when it first came out in this past winter so I could have shared it with last year's students.  And it will definitely be a fifth grade book group selection!  If you have students reading it, please let me know and maybe we can chat about it virtually together!  It's a winner! It will bring anyone who reads it hope and JOY!

The book paired perfectly with my cup of joe yesterday morning.

PS-Look! Another Junior Library Guild selection! If there is one vendor I feel most strongly about promoting, it is definitely them!  Save on collection development time, great customer service and excellent book selections!

Filling in a couple of other book club pictures...Book Scavenger, Unusual Chickens and Roller Girl

I realized that I just posted about tonight's book group without sharing anything about the other three. The summer has gotten away from me.  Remember my blog from this morning?  I wanted to cross BLOG off my list.  That sharpie is out to put that big, black line through the word, "BLOG." But right now I am just procrastinating doing anything else.  At least this is a productive way to procrastinate.

Some of my students had this to say about, Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones:

4 1/2 * I like that she writes letters as the text.  

I also like that she finds more chickens as the book goes on.

4* It's funny, sad and an interesting writing form.

4* Funny book and sometimes sad and mysterious

4* Funny, sad and weird.

5* This book was great! 

It was mysterious, interesting, funny and sad.

We had a great time at Starbucks in East Greenbush (except for the fact that I spilled some hot chocolate!)

Can you believe this is a summer book club?  These kids are awesome!

Look how serious they are!

And the obligatory LEAP!

A week later we met at 16 Handles for our Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson book club meeting.

We talked about what our roller derby names might be.  Here are a few the students came up with:

COOKIE SMASH

HOT SAUCE

PURPLE SPIKER

COLORFUL POKADOTS

SPANISH BEAST

CRAZY ONE

I love these!  The kids loved the book. They thought it was funny and sad. One said she "liked the book and would read it a lot." Most of the ratings were 5*!

Frozen yogurt with a side of Roller Girl. Yum!

The rain stopped so we could jump!

I can't seem to find the reviews for Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman but know that the kids loved that book, too!  They loved the mystery!

What a summer filled with great reading!  I am looking forward to a fall filled with just as many good books!

LOST in the SUN

Back in June when I was planning my summer reading book clubs, I kept calling myself words like, "insane", "crazy" and other synonyms along those lines when I planned for FIVE. Especially when I knew I'd be heading to Europe, North Carolina, Virginia, and Utica. Now that the fifth one finished tonight I promise I will do it all over again next summer. Mark my word.

Seven 5th - 7th graders showed up tonight at 16 Handles for some yummy yogurt (sponsored by the Schodack Faculty Association) and a great discussion on Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff.  They LOVED the book.  Here are just a few of their quotes (note there may be some spoilers):

5*Best book ever!  I loved the ending.  I hope there is a second one just as good!

I like how it ends in mystery.

4 1/2 * This was an amazing book.  

It had a great ending with how they didn't tell you how she got the scar. 

[He didn't give it 5* because he really did not like Dad.]

I liked when Trent made friends with Fallon because they both had no friends.

I didn't like the ending because it didn't tell how she got her scar.

There better be a second one!

Some of the kids were so mad about the ending that one threw it on the floor and another one punched the couch!  If that doesn't say they were into it, I'm not sure what is!

Of course we LEAPT!

Lost with the sun in our eyes...

A new month, a new year...Collaboration!

I love crossing things off my to-do list.  Sometimes I will even put the inevitable on there (eat dinner, pick up kids from where ever they are) just so I can cross it off.  Well, down towards the bottom of this week's to-do list was "BLOG" (yes, just like that in all caps) and I really don't feel I can cross it off unless I squeeze just one post in now before I head off to school to meet up with my colleagues.

Last year was such a great year all around.  Kwame Alexander won the Newbery and then came to CES! Chris Grabenstein, with editor extraordinaire, Shana Corey, lead our "CES Library Olympics" evening and it was incredible! We even got the approval to pick him at the train station with a YELLOW school bus! Sara Varon came up just for the night to be our special guest for our Grades 2/3 Read Over Sleep Over.  (I'm a big Bake Sale, and all around graphic novel, fan!).  Scaredy Squirrel came to a K-2 assembly and visited classes.  And although Trombone Shorty didn't play in our physical presence, we dedicated a whole monthly assembly to him.  I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting.

The bus for Chris!

Our FIRST of two Skypes with Kwame in early January, 2015! BEFORE he won the NEWBERY!

So what about this year????!!!!

SARAH WEEKS! YES!  I've been a fan of hers for many years.  She is the very first author I connected with in my very first months of my job.  We couldn't Skype but I had students do a VoiceThread back and forth with her.  I love Oggie Cooder!  I remember sending her a copy of an article from the NYT Magazine about pie crusts around the same time that Pie was released.  Yeah, long time fan here.  So when I got to meet her at the NYLA-SSL conference in April and we connected, I begged "Please come to CES!" and she is!  She also agreed to have us have our year planned around her and a theme--Collaboration, or as I borrowed from Twitter,

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

I'm so excited!  Today is our first day back with faculty and staff.  I asked my principal if I could have a few minutes at the faculty meeting to share my vision for the school year and he agreed.  Yes! I hope to get my teachers pumped and we will have another stellar year!

Oh, and Chris is going to come back!  Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics is due out the first week of January and we will be his FIRST school visit of the book!  Couldn't get on his calendar for the release party like we did last year for The Island of Dr. Libris but that is OK! Just got to collaborate for some great ideas to make it another fabulous visit! (Considering that we did all Olympics last year, hmmm....)  just as a quiet aside, this book is dedicated to three people including Mr. Reischer, my collaborator extraordinaire, and ME! AGGGGHHH!!!!

And not to be overlooked, a couple of first grade teachers asked if Franklin the Turtle could come to school, like Scaredy Squirrel. Sure.  I will do whatever you like my friends.  Teamwork makes the dream work....So...Now can I go cross "BLOG" off my list?