Teaching is hard.

Teaching is hard. No, wait. Let me rephrase that. Raising up twenty-seven 10- and 11-year-olds to be kind, responsible citizens is hard. Doing that makes adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators look like a piece of cake.

We make mistakes. (At least I do.) But hopefully, we also reflect, and talk to our unpaid counselors (brother, husband, friends), and come back the next day ready to do a better job.

This is year 36 for my tradition of making cookies for my class to decorate. And this year, I made the mistake of holding cooking decorating over their heads as if it is a reward for good behavior.

And it's not.

And it never has been.

Cookie decorating is a gift I give to my students. It's a gift of my talents and my heart. It has always been and always should be given with joy and love.

Like a parent, I must compartmentalize my disapproval of and frustration with a child's behavior, and my love for the child as a growing, learning young human. As an adult, I must model for my students how to criticize constructively while loving unconditionally.

I'll stop there, because I need to go iron my Pajama Day pajamas and get to work.

Celebrating the Winners of the 2019 Charlotte Huck Award for Excellence in Children's Literature

The Charlotte Huck Award® was established in 2014 to promote and recognize excellence in the writing of fiction for children. In particular, the award recognizes fiction that has the potential for transforming children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.

WINNER:

From the ashes of Victorian London emerge a girl, her Golem, and the sparks of child labor reform.

HONOR BOOKS:

Discomfort precedes understanding. Understanding precedes change.

Can Lucy be her father’s missing arm? Recovery, resilience, and the ripple effects of PTSD.

Humanity comes in many colors. Can you see me?

Familia, the glue that keeps the heart and mind together.

When war invades the hearts of adults, it is the children who make their refugee classmates feel welcome.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

Celebrate This Year: Things I Loved in 2014

Visit Ruth Ayers Writes for the the link up for Celebrate This Week!

So, 2014 was not my favorite year.  Lots of things that weren't so happy.  But I decided to make myself think about the things about 2014 that were happy. Things that came into my life in 2014 that brought some fun or joy.  Thought I'd share.  Consider this like Oprah's Favorite Things list--these are some of my favorite new things from 2014.

How did I live in this world without theSkimm?  Yes, I read headline news and I try to keep up on the basics of what is happening in the world. But theSkimm made that so much more fun. The girls who write theSkimm are smart and very funny, in a clever way.  I now read theSkimm every morning before work. A great way to know what is up in the world and to smile a little while doing so. They explain things in a way that catch readers up on issues. Amazing how much more I feel like I know about what is going on in the world since I've been reading theSkimm.

I forget which month I started Stitchfix but what a happy thing it is!  I am not one of their best shoppers as I only usually keep one or two items from a fix. But what a fun treat. Such fun and easy shopping!  Every month, it is like getting a present in the mail and it has been a good way for me to try new styles and prints.

And thank goodness I discovered Glennon and her amazing book, Carry On, Warrior. I won't go into details on how, but this book found me when I needed it.  I listened to the audio which seemed to be like an extra treat.  And the book led me to Glennon's blog and to her Ted Talk and to one of my favorite posts of all time, Courage Today. Glennon (I like to call her my new BFF) got me through lots this fall without her even realizing it.  Definitely one of my best discoveries of 2014.

I put my friend Stella on a mission to be in charge of the Franki Beautification Program. At 50, it takes a lot of work and I feel that I am falling apart slowly.  Stella is a good friend so she agreed to help me out.  So, for my first step in the Beautification Program, Stella suggested a fabulous lotion from Lancome--expensive, yes, but worth every penny for how happy it makes me every time I use it.

I loved attending Nerdcamp for the 2nd time. And I loved that there was a Nerdrun. But my most favorite thing was being part of Team Saunter/Team Shortcut!  Can't wait to "run" with this team again in 2015!

I am a person who loses things all the time. Since I always do more than one thing at a time, I put things down without remembering where. Needless to say, I often lose my keys and I often lose them in my purse or in the bottom of some bag filled with books. But this year, I ordered one of Candis's amazing keychains from The Jones Market. This wristlet keychain is meant for busy moms who are lugging around babies and diaper bags and things. But even though I do not have a baby, I am always lugging around books and bags and things. And I often throw my keys in the bottom of whichever purse, bag or pocket is most handy. With this keychain, I can wear the key on my wrist until I can take a minute to THINK about putting the keys away. So when I am in Target, going from my car to school, etc. I keep keys right there until I can put them where I can remember where to find them. This little keychain has saved me hours of digging through bags wondering where I tossed my keys. And isn't it also adorable?  (Looks like they are totally sold out on the site--not surprising--but I imagine she'll restock soon. Follow The Jones Market on Instagram if you want to get advance notice of restock days!)

Voxer is another  new favorite. I always love ways to keep up with my friends but with Voxer I can actually hear the voices of friends who I don't get to see face-to-face on a regular basis. But I can have great conversations every day.  What a great app:-)

I met lots of great new people this year and was able to spend lots of time with some new favorite people.  Isn't it great when you meet new people who you love instantly?  I feel so lucky to be in this amazing circle of literacy educators and it is always amazing to meet people that share beliefs about kids.  This year, I got to learn, hang out with, and laugh with Katharine Hale, Kristin Ziemke and Katie Muhtaris. They are not the only amazing people I got to know better this year, but they are 3 that made a difference in my year.  And they make me laugh!

I am a huge Kate Middleton fan.  The Duchess is the best!  And I so loved her eye roll when being told to Keep Wrapping.

I'd highly recommend adding all of these things to your life in 2015!

Celebrate -- The Kidlitosphere!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we have celebrated it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month this year, we have celebrated a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

In January, we launched the year by celebrating Kevin Hodges.

In February, we celebrated Ruth Ayres.

In March, we celebrated The Nerdy Book Club.

In April, we celebrated Pernille Ripp.

In May, we celebrated Jen Robinson.

In June, we celebrated Mother Reader.

In July, we celebrated Mr. Schu.

In August, we celebrated Kate Messner.

In September, we celebrated Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.

In October, we celebrated Sylvia Vardell.

In November, we celebrated Barbara O'Connor.

We're going to end our year of celebrating bloggers who are children's literature fanatics, teachers, teachers-of-teachers, librarians, authors, and poets who inspire us the most by celebrating those who help to build and maintain the Kidlitosphere "community" itself.

Here's to all the bloggers behind the scenes who curate the webpage, Kidlitosphere Central, organize the yearly conference, KidLitCon, coordinate and judge and blog about the CYBILS (Children's and Young Adult Blogger's Literary Awards), and run the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group. 

This is a huge group of volunteers who make the world of blogging a better place by making it feel more like a cozy neighborhood and less like an indifferent city.

To honor ALL of the bloggers who keep the wheels of the Kidlitosphere machinery running smoothly, we made a donation to the CYBILS.

Celebrating Barbara O'Connor!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

This month we are celebrating author, Barbara O'Connor.  We LOVE Barbara O'Connor. If you search "Barbara O'Connor" on our blog, you will see how obsessed with her books we actually are. We mention Barbara quite often, as a matter of fact!  How could we not love her so much? Her books are brilliant! She knows how to write for middle grade students in a way that is just right--she has a respect for these 8-12 year olds as human beings that comes out in all of her writing. So there's that. 

But there is also the voice she brings to the Kidlitosphere. Her blog celebrates literacy and children and teachers and schools.  She shares school visits and letters from her young fans. Her blog post and Facebook/Twitter (@barbaraoconnor) updates let us in on her life as a writer and as a person. She is generous with her time and seems to always make time for the children and teachers who are big fans of her work. The honesty and joy she brings to the conversation is one we celebrate today!

To honor Barbara, we made a donation to READ Dogs Minnesota: Improving Literacy One Tail at a Time, an organization that utilizes dogs as reading buddies. We thought this was a perfect tribute to Barbara O'Conner because it combines three things she cares about--literacy, children and dogs.  We think this organization is brilliant and have made a $25 donation in Barabara's honor.

Please help us celebrate Barbara O'Connor for all she does to celebrate children, teachers and schools!

Celebrating Sylvia Vardell!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

This month, we are celebrating teacher and blogger, Sylvia Vardell. Sylvia blogs at Poetry for Children, which is one of the most amazing poetry resources for classroom teachers you can imagine! Sylvia works tirelessly to promote poetry for children at every professional conference she attends, through the journal articles and professional books she writes, and, of course, through the Poetry Friday Anthologies she edits with Janet Wong.

On her blog, Sylvia has thoughtful posts like the recent one on Poetry and Social Justice.

She also has a series called Poet to Poet, in which she features one poet interviewing another about his/her new book. 

Plus, she shares readers' guides she's written, like the one for the fabulous novel in verse, Crossover.

To honor Sylvia, we made a donation to the American Academy of Poets (poets.org), an organization that supports educators with tips for teaching poetry, a monthly educator newsletter, and events such as Poem in Your Pocket Day and National Poetry Month.

Please help us celebrate Sylvia for all she does for poetry and for teachers!

 

Celebrating Amy Ludwig VanDerwater!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

This month, we are celebrating teacher and poet, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater! Her blog, The Poem Farm, is an amazing poetry and writing instruction resource for teachers. On the "Find a Poem" page, Amy has all the poems on her blog indexed by topic and technique. There is also a link to her amazing A-Z Poem Dictionary Hike, her 2012 National Poetry Month poem-a-day project.

Amy shines a spotlight on teachers and students and the poetry work they are doing in the classroom. On her "Poetry Peek" page, you can visit the classrooms she has featured.

If you and/or your students keep writer's notebooks, you will want to check out Amy's other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. In the introduction, Amy writes,

"Hello, nosy friends! This blog is written by many different notebook-keepers, highlighting pages from a variety of notebooks: paper, digital, napkin, any kind! Read here, and learn how students, authors, artists, teachers, and people of all types use notebooks to strengthen their thinking. After reading, you might wish to try something new in your own writing, drawing, thinking..."

Amy is the co-author of one of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study writing guides, and is in the midst of a beautiful swan dive into the crystal blue water of children's book authoring, with one published (Forest Has a Song) and FIVE more forthcoming.

If you read Amy's blog or follow her on FaceBook, you know that besides being a poet, writer, and teacher, she is mother of three, wife of a science teacher, and very much the farm girl of her blog's Poem FARM name. And you know that one of her (and her family's) passions is rescuing and placing orphaned cats and kittens. Although it veers a bit from our typical donation to a literacy or child-based organization, it just feels right to donate this month, in Amy's honor, to Colony Cats, a local organization that rescues cats as well as practicing TNR (trap, neuter, release) to support the feral cat colonies in the Columbus area. The cat who generously lets AJ and me share his house is a former Colony Cats rescue cat. He gave a twitch of his tail as the sign of his approval of this donation.

Celebrating Kate Messner!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.


This month, we are celebrating the amazing author and educator, Kate Messner. We have learned from Kate Messner in so many ways. Real Revision: Authors' Strategies to Share with Student Writers was important for both of us as writers and teachers of writing. Her children's books resonate with readers and have an important place in our classroom libraries. And as a former teacher she shares generously --she is an advocate of classroom visits by authors, offering free Skype visits to classes for many of her books, and maintaining an extensive list of children's, YA, and adult authors who will also Skype for free.

But the reason we are celebrating Kate today is because of her blog and her initiatives to support teachers--especially Teachers Write! Kate has worked tirelessly for the past several summers to support teacher writers. The community is a strong one and the Summer Camp is amazing.

To honor Kate, we we are making a donation to one of our favorite local organizations, The Brian Muha Foundation. This is an organization that supports children in our local area. We love the story of the foundation and believe strongly in their mission. You can learn more about the foundation and the Run the Race Club on their website.

Celebrating Mr. Schu with a Donation to The Reading Village

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

Our year-long blog birthday celebration continues as we honor blogger and Super Reader, Mr. John Schu at Watch. Connect. Read. We have so many reasons to celebrate Mr. Schu! His blog is one that keeps us up to date on new books, new authors, and new book trailers. Mr. Schu reads more than anyone we know and by knowing him, we read more too!  He has shown us what a reading community can look like in a school, with the library as the hub. We aren't sure how he does all that he does but we know that the reading community is better because of him. We love his Newbery Challenge and his Book Release Calendar. We love the Sharp-Schu challenges and the Trifectas.  

Mr. Schu is generous with his book giveaways as he is always one to pay it forward with books. Mostly we are celebrating Mr. Schu because of his generosity to this reading community that we love.  It seems he is always giving something to children, teachers, and librarians. His passion is contagious and we are so glad to celebrate him and his blog today!  If you don't follow John, you can find him on Twitter at @MrSchuReads. And if you want to hear Mr. Schu himself talk about his library, I had a chance to interview him for Choice Literacy a few years ago.

To honor John, we are making a donation to The Reading Village. This organization is one that is working hard to build a culture of literacy in Guatemala.  Building leaders in literacy and bringing a culture of reading to communities is key to making change.

Celebrate!

Check out more Celebration posts at www.ruthayreswrites.com

1. Franki has unveiled her new digital learning blog: Click Here Next. What an amazing resource for teachers K-5 who are anywhere on the spectrum of learning about and using digital tools in their classrooms!

2. My multi-equational "Gardener's Math Poems" poem-set was accepted for publication in Carol-Ann Hoyt's upcoming (October) anthology of poems for children about food and agriculture.

3. One of the swallowtail caterpillars that I am hosting in a big jar on the counter by the fish tank is now a chrysalis! 

4. The Choice Literacy writing retreat. What a gift to be able to relax in a beautiful setting, connect with smart and funny teacher-writers, and have the gift of TIME to be able to write without interruption.

5. This cute little baby:

Celebrating Mother Reader With a Donation to First Book!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

Our year-long blog birthday celebration continues as we honor blogger Pam Coughlan, aka Mother Reader, with a donation to First Book.

Pam also started blogging in 2006 and has been active in the Kidlitosphere over the last 8 years through the CYBILS, KidLitCon, and Kidlitosphere Central. She has written some hilarious posts throughout the years, and heads up BACA (Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors).

But what we'd like to recognize MotherReader for most of all is her 48 Hour Reading Challenge. In its ninth year this year, this read-a-thon has become an end-of-the-school-year ritual for us. We usually gather with local bloggers for breakfast and a trip to our local independent children's bookstore, Cover To Cover, and launch our summer #bookaday with a weekend filled with as many hours of reading as possible.

This year, Pam has taken the 48HRC to a whole new level by focusing on the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. She writes,

"I'm hoping with lots of participants over the weekend, that we can saturate the blogosphere with dozens - nay, HUNDREDS - of titles that show the beautiful range of the human experience. That's our challenge."

In honor of all of the reading Pam has inspired over the years with her blog and with 48HBC, and especially because of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks focus this year, we are making a donation in her honor to First Book, a non-profit organization that provides access to new books for children in need. In their video "Empty Shelves," First Book states their mission poetically. Because of access to books: 

"Heads fill with thoughts,
Homes fill with works,
Schools fill with learning,
Communities fill with leaders."

Thank you Pam! Thank you, MotherReader, for all you have done for books and literacy and the Kidlitosphere!

Celebrating Jen Robinson with a donation to RIF!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

Our year-long blog birthday celebration continues as we honor blogger and reading champion, Jen Robinson, of Jen Robinson's Book Page.

We have known Jen since we began blogging in 2006. Jen's blog was one of the first we read and one that became a kind of mentor blog for us.  In July of 2006, Franki noticed her "Cool Girls in Children's Literature" and "Cool Boys in Children's Literature" lists and decided to start a similar "100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature" list. Jen and other bloggers in the newly named (as of June 5, 2006, with thanks to Melissa Wiley) Kidlitosphere linked to our blog and our list. We think it's fair to say that this blog is what it is today because of that launch by Jen.

Although not a librarian or teacher herself, Jen is one of the most active proponents of reading, not just in the Kidlitosphere, but the big wide Blogosphere. She reads avidly, review thoughtfully, all while raising her very own bookworm.  She is a resource for both parents and teachers and works tirelessly to support readers everywhere.

To honor Jen's passion for putting books in the hands of children we will be making a donation in her honor to Reading is Fundamental (RIF) this month.

Thank you Jen for for sharing generously and for all you do for readers and reading!

Celebrating Pernille Ripp with a donation to Global Read Aloud

We continue our year-long blog birthday celebration by honoring blogger and Read Aloud Activist, Pernille Ripp. Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us recently. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

We have been learning from Pernille Ripp for many years at Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension. She is a generous, honest, funny, and both thoughtful and thought-provoking writer. She is a constant contributor to the world of teaching and learning and always advocates for doing what is right for kids. A while back, Franki did an interview with Pernille for Choice Literacy. Pernille tweets @pernilleripp.

And, if you didn't know, Pernille INVENTED The Global Read Aloud! This international literacy event connects students, teachers and classrooms from all over the world around books and reading.
Because she is a classroom teacher, she has made the whole process doable for anyone who wants to participate. Just like her inclusive classroom, the GRA has evolved. There are now lots of options for readers and classrooms at all levels. If you've never taken part, make it your goal for the fall of 2014. Mark your calendar for October 6, and make your voice heard right now: second round voting is open now for the 2014 books/authors for Global Read Aloud.

We'd like to support Pernille's work on The Global Read Aloud, so our donation this month will be to her very own cause!

Thank you, Pernille for all you do and all you inspire others to do!

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.

Celebrating The Nerdy Book Club with a Donation to LitWorld!

We love that even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year!  On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us recently. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

This month, we are celebrating the team at the Nerdy Book Club: Donalyn Miller, Colby Sharp and Cindy Minnich.

The Nerdy Book Club is the most democratic club on the planet. "If you love books, especially those written for children and young adults, then you are an honorary member of The Nerdy Book Club."

The Nerdy Book Club blog is the most democratic group blog on the planet. Want to write a guest post? Go on -- submit one! FIVE HUNDRED FIFTEEN other writers have written for The Nerdy Book Club blog! Join them/us!

The Nerdy Book Club is huge -- when last I visited, I was greeted by the proclamation that "You and 2,781 others like Nerdy Book Club." There are nearly 70 Nerdy Book Club Bloggers in the blogroll

Have you been to a Nerdy Book Club meet-up at a national conference like NCTE recently? Readers and authors fill a room and spill out into the adjacent areas. It's such a happy gathering with lots of hugging and laughter and photos that go straight to FaceBook and Twitter. There is no need to be a wallflower at a Nerdy Book Club meet-up. Everyone has lots in common: books, reading and readers. 

We are honoring the Nerdy Book Club by making a donation to LitWorld in their name.  We love LitWorld and this month seemed the perfect month to donate to them as March 5 is World Read Aloud Day ! If you have no plans to celebrate World Read Aloud Day in your classroom, you might want to change your mind!   World Read Aloud Day is "about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people."  What an amazing cause. LitWorld has lots of other amazing projects too.  And we believe in all of them.

Here is a little glimpse of the vision and work of LitWorld:

Celebrate!

Join others who are celebrating this week at www.ruthayreswrites.com

I'm not just celebrating this week, I'm celebrating this MONTH.

Goodbye, February! Been nice to know you! We had some fun times...but mostly we had snow and cold. I know you can't help being who you are. It must be rough to be post-holiday and pre-Spring. You have to wait four long years to special in any way. But you know what? Even though it feels like a grueling effort to make it through your days, you actually help me to fine-tune my Signs-of-Spring Senses. Just the other day, for instance, when you gave us that glorious spring preview and we were able to have salmon on the grill for the first time since fall, I heard the robins singing in the dark.

In this mosaic, we begin with wing tracks in the deep snow that seemed to last forever. The rest of the first row: award winners in our classroom library, a message from the Universe that I have yet to decode, TED notes made with my...new pens... ROW 2: ...that bleed through but I don't care. Community band at Old Worthington Farmer's Market brings me joy every week (their tribute to Pete Seeger made me teary), another message from the Universe that couldn't be clearer (and it's just a tiny bit ironic that I took a PICTURE of it, eh?), the sky at Gene Barretta's airport vs. the sky in Columbus (he was the only author who didn't make it to #DubLit14). ROW 3: #DubLit14 -- student work, authors, celebrities. ROW 4: The last of the snow (or, based on the current forecast, should I say, the last of LAST MONTH'S snow) looks like a beached whale at our curb, auto tracks in a dusting of snow, (next 7) this is a visual rendition of That Silence I wrote about here (and I promise this is the last time I'll link to that review), LASTLY: a mosaic of the March Birthday Cake: "The Making." In the March Mosaic, you'll see March Birthday Cake: "The Icing and Eating."

A better view of the photos in this mosaic can be seen on Flickr.

Celebrate Today!

We LOVE the tradition Ruth Ayres has created our blog inviting bloggers to Celebrate each week. Take some time to visit her blog for the link up of everyone's celebrations this week!

Today is our 25th annual Dublin Literacy Conference!  We love this conference--it is one of our favorite days of the year. Not only do we learn lots, but we get to see so many friends and colleagues.  We get to hear amazing speakers and buy books.  So we thought today, we'd do a daylong photo essay. Throughout the day, we'll be adding photos to this post to celebrate the day!  So check back for new additions:-) We hope you enjoy the day with us!

Celebrating student work. 

Celebrating technology: the Blogger app (we're blogging from our phones today), the Mosaicam app ("celebrity" photos to follow), and the Skitch app (which I used to annotate this screen shot on my phone)! We will also be celebrating technology later this morning when we Skype with Gene Barretta, the only author who was not able to make it here yesterday during the Great Pre-Conference Flight Delay Mayhem. 

Top, L to R, celebrating blogger friends from far and near -- Betsy and Julie. Bottom row -- Celebrating Gene Barretta's flexibility in Skyping for our family session. 

More celebrities! Cathy, Bud Hunt, Katie and Franki. 

#dublit14 Authors: Penny Kittle, Bryan Collier, Kassia Wedekind, Don Brown

Look what Penny brought for me!

Celebrate this week!

1.  #nerdlution -- What started last December as a "jump on the bandwagon" has gone past habit to become a cherished ritual: get up, walk for 20-30 minutes, sit down with my tea and yogurt and write for 20-30 minutes. If I start my day by doing these two things for ME, then a day never passes when I do everything for others and neglect myself.

2. Boundaries -- I stop working at 8:00 PM. That doesn't mean I always work until 8:00, that just means that if I am still working, I stop at 8:00. This boundary means I don't do any of those 8:00 PM Twitter chats, but it also means I don't spend my last waking hour doing Twitter chats.

3. Valentine boxes -- I wish I would have taken pictures! My students were SO creative this year! There was a minion, a MineCraft creeper, a black night-sky box with a styrofoam earth (on a tilted axis) with a smaller styrofoam moon (with spray painted craters) suspended (well, stuck on a stick) in the "night sky" above the box (yes, we are studying earth and moon in science), a race car, and one that had a string of lights that lit up with a battery inside it...among the other tissue paper/hearts/red+pink creations.

4. Life outside of school -- I organized a combination online (FB) / live auction that culminated this week. We raised over $700 for Casting for Recovery!

5. My weekend tea mug -- another ritual I cherish is switching on Saturday from my weekday regular-sized tea mug and teabag tea to my extra-large Writer's Almanac mug and super strong loose tea made in my infuser from NorthStar Cafe (from back in the day when they sold them). More tea = more time to sip. Ahhh...

EDITED TO ADD: Cybils Awards were announced yesterday! Congrats to the winners!

Those are five of the things I celebrate this week. How about you? What are you celebrating? Join Ruth and other bloggers at www.ruthayreswrites.com for the 18th edition of Celebrate This Week.

Celebrate This Week!

It was a crazy week but I found myself noticing little things throughout the week that I wanted to make sure to remember to celebrate in this post.  Thanks, Ruth for a reason to live in a way that helps us pay attention to the little celebrations!

Visit Ruth Ayres Writes for a round-up of everyone's weekly celebration!

--Our 100th Day of school is next week.  We stayed after school to set up a morning of math fun for Monday morning when the kids arrive. I have 14 math activities set up around the room and kids can have fun thinking and collaborating around math wearing 100 Day glasses.  One extra celebration during our set up was this:

We revised some of the activities and the older version included weighing 100 Tootsie Rolls. My colleague Kami picked up this giant bag of 760 Tootsie Rolls for the fun. As we were setting up today, we realized we revised that activity and Tootsie Rolls were no longer needed.  I have to admit, we weren't disappointed that now we just have to eat them:-)

--I might be getting a little bit better at yoga.  We are so lucky to have so many great studios and so many great teachers in Central Ohio. I have found a few classes that I look forward to each week. And I am finishing up Week 3 of my 16 week Couch to 5K run program. At the 3rd week, it isn't so hard to get started each day and I actually feel good afterwards. I am so glad I am taking the running slow and adding more yoga to my life. I have been doing a bit of yoga for 2 years and finally feel like I have the basics down. I am ready to get a little better and am trying to get 3 days of yoga in a week (although 2 is more doable.).

--My #nerdlution of wearing lipstick daily has been more of a challenge than one would think but I am getting lots of gifts from friends to help make it easier.  Several friends have shared their fave lipstick/lip gloss with me. Even though there are many days where I have put lipstick on at 8 pm because it was the first time I remembered, I am making progress.  I am not ready to try Mood Lipstick yet, but how fun to know it is out there!

--Love the learning happening in our classroom this week. I always love January and February because the learning becomes so evident and kids are just buzzing along being amazing.

--I read and loved a new middle grade novel, Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy . It is a Snow Queen story and it is fabulous!  A great winter read that I highly recommend!

--I've discovered a new blog that is helping me think about digital tools. Katharine who writes at Teachitivity teaches 5th grade and integrates technology into her Reading and Writing Workshop. Thanks to Troy Hicks for introducing me to Katharine and her work:-) Katharine and I decided we needed to harness all of the great work going on in elementary schools around Digital Literacy so we created a hashtag and a Facebook page for anyone interested in talking about the ways in which digital tools can impact elementary Reading and Writing Workshops.  If you are interested, you can join our open Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/430858380380820) and use the Twitter hashtag #k6diglit if you have posts, etc. to share on the topic.


And the biggest celebration has to be this sign I saw shopping last weekend. If winter wear is on sale, that must be a sign that there is an end in sight to this snow and -20 degree weather!

CELEBRATE TODAY!

On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us recently. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

This month, we are celebrating Ruth Ayres and her blog. Ruth Ayres Writes is a blog that grounds us on a daily basis. Ruth's honesty and joy about all things teaching, parenting, and beyond is one reason we love her blog. But the thing we've loved best lately is the gift she has given all of us with her Saturday CELEBRATE TODAY Meme  We love reading everyone's posts in her roundup but so many of us who participate regularly realize the gift that this roundup offers.  Ruth has invited all of us to look at our weeks with new eyes--and to find the things to celebrate each day. It is a mindset change when our weeks aren't as we hoped they'd be,  and we love Ruth for giving us this gift.

We are honoring Ruth by making a donation to BOOK LOVE in her name. If you don't know the BOOK LOVE FOUNDATION, it is a non-profit started by Penny Kittle. The mission on their website says this:

"TO PROMOTE THE LOVE OF READING AMONG ADOLESCENTS BY PROVIDING CLASSROOM LIBRARIES OF HIGHLY ENGAGING BOOKS TO MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS."

 Brilliance indeed!  If you don't know of this amazing new foundation, we encourage you to check it out!

So our CELEBRATE post this week is a celebration of Ruth and all she does for the Blog Community! BOOK LOVE to RUTH AYRES this month as we celebrate those people who inspire us on a daily basis!