Celebrate This Week!

For the Celebrate this Week Link Up, visit Ruth Ayres Writes!

This week, we are celebrating a week of leisure--not of doing nothing, but of having a little bit of extra time over spring break to browse online, to read a few more posts than usual and to find some gems!  Here are the things we found online this week that are worth celebrating and sharing.

If you have not read A Snicker of Magic , it is one of my favorites of 2014 already.  I was thrilled to see that author Natalie Lloyd had a post on Nerdy Book Club this week and even more happy after I read it. It is an amazing piece that you'll want to read.  There's A Lion in My Closet.

My good friends Drew and Candis Jones created a new product for their Etsy store which I LOVE LOVE. They shared the new produce on Facebook and I was so glad I saw it right away!  I own a few too many of their necklaces but I can't imagine I could ever own too many of these bracelets! Check them out!

Then, I found this amazing Ted Talk thanks to @kylepace on Twitter. Drew Dudley's "Leading with Lollipops". Such a powerful message.  I happen upon Ted Talks I love once in a while but knew that Mary Lee had a goal of fitting more Ted Talks into her life.  So I passed it along. She loved it too.

Mary Lee here: I had high hopes for getting caught up on reading through the blog posts in my overflowing Feedly. Alas, that, and thoroughly cleaning the house one room at a time just didn't get done. I did manage to get in a TED talk with illustrated notes. Thanks for the link to Kyle's post about "Leading With Lollipops," Franki!

And I loved this piece by Tammy at Assessment in Perspective, "Practicing Until It's In Your Bones". An important message for teachers.

At Michigan Reading Association, Colby Sharp hinted that there'd be a big SharpSchu announcement coming up soon so I was thrilled to finally hear details about their new challenge!  Looking forward to hearing their thought on the Geisel winners!

My daughter and I went to see Divergent this weekend. We both loved the movie. I became fascinated by the idea that Shailene Woodley is playing the part of Tris and of Hazel in the upcoming Fault in Our Stars movie.  What am amazing actress to be able to play both of these roles well. I loved her interview that I found somehow.

One thing I like about social media is the way that it gets word out about important issues. I try to focus on positive stories but there were a few negative stories that pulled me in this week. One story that has stayed with me was the story about the runner wearing a tutu who was made fun of by Self Magazine.  I don't often repost negative stories on FB or Twitter but I felt like sharing this story was important. It is a celebration for me because once it was shared in social media, it was clear that most everyone in the world knows this is wrong.  That treating people like this is not okay.  Lots of people sharing the story as a way to take a stand against people being treated like this. A very small thing to do but small things are important.