Twitter as a Professional Development Source

We all know the value of Twitter as a source of information.  There is a lot of stuff out there!  I teach in a small school and although my administrators have been very supportive of me and all our teachers attending conferences, we obviously can't attend something every week or even every month.  We all try to get to one each year.  

Twitter offers a way for me to keep in touch with other educators and librarians and to continue to learn daily and weekly.  I follow some of the most interesting people in the literacy field including authors, librarians, teachers and administrators.  

I just finished #titletalk facilitated by Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp.  There were probably 30 to 40 teachers and librarians in on this chat.  It was awesome.  I have always wanted to join this.  I am ashamed to say, this was the first one I have gotten to.  It won't be the last.  I have already set it up to re-occur in my calendar.  

Tonight we chatted about summer reading.  How do we keep students engaged.  Lots of ideas floated around.  The ones I gravitated to, that seemed realistic to me, were setting up a book swap before the end of the year, opening the library during summer school 2or 3 days a week, and maybe... setting up a little free library on our main street.  

Another thing that was discussed at length was the value of offering incentives to reading.  Does it hinder students becoming lifelong readers.  I am going to be reading the research on this.  Interesting topic.  It kind of flies in the face of what we buy into.  

I have a lot of books on my pile for summer.  I think I'll get an early start, like now!  

So this Rarely Happens...

Rarely do my 7th hour, 5th grade group come into the library ready to work.  It's the end of the day and they are finished, finished, finished.  This hour is given to them to help them make the transition to middle school.  It's an hour where they can have a homeroom type atmosphere and I can help them get organized with homework, they can get anything they may have left in their lockers, or have free reading time.  Usually, when they enter the library, I here all kinds of things like, "What are we going to do?"  Or,  "Can we have free time?"  But today, oddly, when they came in I said, "You have two options:  Poetry notebook or Book report."  They went right to work. Crazy, I know. 

When I said those two things, they knew immediately that I had been chatting with the middle school ELA teacher and that there were deadlines looming ahead.  Throughout the year I have battled them over deadlines and becoming responsible and really just using this time to work thoughtfully.  Are they listening, finally?  

We have been working on poetry all week.  I have been showing them examples of Poetry Slams and kids writing poems.  We have investigated all the poetry books in the library (I need more, by the way!)   I always try to connect what they are doing in class to something in the library and I'm taking this opportunity to teach them a little about free verse and how they too can put together a poem without a formula.  

I am very proud of the progress we have made this year.  Personally, I think 5th grade is really too young for middle school and switching classes every hour.  But, I get it.  In order to make our staffing ratio's work out we have gone to a 5-8 middle school.  They adapt ok. However, this is the time of the year when I see them truly get the concept of middle school.  They grow up.  

New Books. Old Books. Books, books, books!

New Books.  Old Books.  Books, books, books!


Yesterday my son and I traveled to the big city!  We both had Barnes and Noble gift cards that NEEDED to be used.  As we headed into town, I remembered the used book store that we like to visit and so I made a left turn to head up to old town where it is located.  I love this used book store.  I have never paid more than 4 or 5 dollars for a book.  People donate books there and they also receive the weeded copies from the large public library and the very large school district located in this city.

Yesterday I found five of the "Who is/Who was"  biographies for 50 cents each!  I buy a lot of things for myself when I shop.  But some things, like those 5 I mentioned above, get donated to our school library.  After shopping here we headed to B and N.  Since it was just my son and I, and our purpose for coming to town was to shop for books (and Chili's queso), I knew I had time to look through all the shelves without rushing.   I started in the history section and picked up a book about Teddy Roosevelt.  I wonder how his presidency would have gone had he had access to Twitter!  I also purchased The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.  Read the book, watch the movie!  I then headed back to the student section.  My Diary from the Edge of the World, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, looked interesting and so I picked that up also.

I believe that to surround yourself with books is to surround yourself with wisdom and opinions and knowledge from other sources so that informed decisions can be made.  I think those can be new books or used book or borrowed books.  I am always surrounded by books.  I am a librarian.  I choose to always be surrounded by books. However, I think this is good practice for everyone.  I love when students talk to me about books they have at home.  I always encourage them to bring in for me to see.  I look for suggestions everywhere!

The books I purchased yesterday are now added to the stacks of books that take over my house:  the living room stack, the bedroom stack, the dining room table stack...  No matter where I go in my house I always have access to a stack of books.  I like it that way!

Happy reading!

Elephant and Piggie, where have you been all my life?

I know I'm late to the party! But. Seriously. Elephant and Piggie where have you been all my life? I have heard about these books for a few years now.  The first one was published in 2007.  My youngest child was 6 then; and so, as a teacher and a mom, I should have paid more attention to these books.  I have read the Knuffle Bunny series and the Pigeon books, but for some reason, I had not read the Elephant and Piggie series.    

Scholastic put together a 6 book collection of these books and I ordered them. I'm so glad I did.  I will be buying more!  They are so funny. I love the way that any aged person can read them and put the sense of humor that they have into voice.  A first grade student will probably use a different tone than a 50 year old would. Books like this transcend generations.  

I also found that this set of books teaches valuable lessons about friendship.  The first one I read was My Friend is Sad.  This book is about the importance of sharing important things with those you love and that concept needs reviewing from time to time, no matter whether you are 6 or 36.  

Thank you Mo Willems!

2017 Reads

2017 Reads is my Pinterest board where I will track what I read in the year 2017.  I began doing this in 2014.  What I have found is that I both want and need to read more.  From 2014 I have increased the number of books that I read each year.  That's a good thing.  But I have resolved to do more.  

Last night I began reading Wonder, by RJ Palacio.  This book was published in 2012.  It's been in my pile since the beginning of the school year.  I'm about 1/2 way though it.  I love the small chapters (1 to 2 pages.)  I have found that several authors use this technique.  I can see how this writing style would make the book more appealing to young readers.  They can plow through a chapter fairly quickly.  They can feel success.    

Update:  Finished the book.  Loved it!  Easy read.  I know the students I will be recommending it to. I have one fourth grader in particular who I think will really move through it quickly.   

Discovering new authors

Recently, one of my 5th grade students has been asking me to read one of his favorite authors, Mary Downing Hahn.  I had resisted because I always thought her books were in the scary genre.  I'm not too crazy about the scary genre because I just don't like scary things.  However, it seemed really important to him that I try this book.  So, I asked him to recommend one to me and he did.  I brought it home to read during Christmas break.  I just finished it last night.  

Well,  that's sort of an understatement.  I finished it last night after having picked it up 2 or 3 hours before.  That's right, I picked it up and I couldn't put it down.  I'm hooked!  The book he picked out for me was Stepping on the Cracks.  It's about a group of kids growing up during World War II.  All of their older brothers have either enlisted or have been drafted.  They spend their time wondering about where their older brothers are.  There is some sadness.  Some of the sadness comes from family dynamics, some from the fact that there is a war and not everyone comes home.  There is also joy; joy when the war is over, when love is found and when justice is served.   This book was not scary, it was full of suspense.   

I can't wait to get back to school and check out another book from this author.   The kids have always checked her out consistently. I noticed this, but I resisted.  Silly me.  

There's Something About that Word "Smart"...

I came to my blog today to write a post about a book and I found this draft post.  I re-read it and decided I can't remember why it hadn't been posted... so here it is

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THAT WORD "SMART"

There's something about that word "smart."  Today, I had a student say to me, "Mrs. Brattin, I'm just not smart."  We have all had students say that to us.  I'm sure most of the time I may have said something like, "Of course you're smart!"  I decided to try something a little different.  Instead, I said to the student, "You know, I really don't like that word, smart."  He just gave me a confused look.  I felt I had to expand.  

I explained to him was that the word smart implies a finished product and that he is not a finished product.  I told him that I understand that he may be struggling with the assignment and that's okay.  Struggle just means there is more work to do.  That's our job as students; take up a challenge, struggle, learn more and get better.  

I also snuck in a buzzword those of us who follow Carol Dweck's research are all too familiar with, "yet."  I explained that he isn't an expert on the topic, yet.  However, with more work and practice, he will soon be.  I think he felt a little more empowered after our conversation. 

We also discussed words that we liked better than "smart."  We decided that being wise is something to strive for.  All in all, this was a pretty good day in 5th grade intervention class.  This student became a little more resilient today;  and that's a good thing, much better than becoming smart.