We're Versatile Bloggers!

Thank you to Vintage Teacher for recognizing us!

After accepting this honor there are some things we are requested to do:
1. Thank the person (people) who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog.
2. Share 7 things about you.
3. Pass this award along to 15 other blogs that you have discovered.

So, here are 7 things about our blog:

1. Sometime this week, we will post our 2000th post.
2. We are only about 40 followers away from having 1000 blog followers (not counting all those who follow in a reader).
3. We are a few teachers away from having 150 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature on our list.
4. Franki has 21 books on her Books I Could Read A Million Times list.
5. The two of us combined have been teaching for about a half a century.
6. We've been blogging since 2006.
7. We don't HAVE time to do this, we MAKE time to do it! And we're thankful that we are co-bloggers, because neither one of us could keep a blog afloat on our own!!

Here are 15ish bloggers (in no particular order) that we'd recognize as Versatile Bloggers:

Abby and Lauren @ Authentic Learner
Bill and Karen @ Literate Lives
Cathy @ Reflect and Refine
Julie @  Raising Readers and Writers
Katie @  Creative Literacy
Mandy @  Enjoy and Embrace Learning
Maria @ Teaching in the 21st Century
Tracy @  Thinking Stems...
Stella @ My World - Mi Mundo
Tony @ atychiphobia
Kristine @ Best Book I Have Not Read

Nicole @ Nicole's Book Nook
Deb @  Primary Perspective
Scott @ Scott Sibberson

Which of the Top Hundred Have YOU Read?

Reading is breathing.

We couldn't live without it.

We've got books in our veins

and stories in our souls.

Our life work is to

make readers,

coach readers,

cheer readers,

tempt readers,

help readers,

guide readers,

read alongside readers.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Thanks to Teacherninja for this great meme!

So...which of Betsy Bird’s Top 100 Children’s Novels have you read? The titles of the books Mary Lee's read are blue. The ones Franki's read are red. The ones we've BOTH read are purple.

100. The Egypt Game – Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard – Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe – Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches – Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking – Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons – Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn – Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted – Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall – MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father – Cleary (1977)
88. The High King – Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday – Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek – Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse – Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief – Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three – Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book – Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family – Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain – Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember – DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust – Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog – Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers – Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain – George (1959)
72. My Father’s Dragon – Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning – Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy – Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons – Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher – Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins – Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes – Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago – Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake – Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock – Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl – Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart – Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars – Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG – Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows – Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret -- Selznik (2007)
51. The Saturdays – Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell (1960)
49. Frindle – Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks – Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy – Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass – Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest – Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie – Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me – Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix – Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret – Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire – Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach – Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – O’Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic – Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh – Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising – Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess – Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II – Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet – Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women – Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods – Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux – DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief – Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting – Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda – Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee – Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy – Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie – DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia – Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit – Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game – Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables – Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden – Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes – Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 – Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte’s Web – White (1952)

Thank You Ink Spells!

A Year of Reading has been awarded a Kreativ Blogger award by Susan at Ink Spells. Thank you so much, Susan!

We've been looking for an excuse to share a little linky luv with a couple of new blogs you should check out, so we'll pass this award on to:

Read...Write...Talk, a new blog that is taking a smart look at reading and writing workshop. Her classroom is 8th grade, but her thinking is universally sound. Head over and take a look -- great stuff going on there!

AND

Some Novel Ideas. Stacy is also a middle school teacher, but she's thinking about technology, school libraries, Scholastic Book Fairs, and more. Add her to your reader and watch for great things to develop on her blog!

Here are the rules for passing on this award, but we are going to fudge a few of the steps since things are pretty crazy in both of our lives this week.

1) Copy the pretty picture and post it on your blog. √
2) Thank the person that gave it to you and link to their blog. √
3) Write 7 things about yourself we don't know. (gotta pass this time, but here's an old meme that might tell you a few things about each of us that you don't know...)
4) Choose 7 other bloggers to pass the award to. (we'll stick with two...)
5) Link to those 7 other bloggers. (or two, as the case may be...)
6) Notify your 7 bloggers. (or two, as the case may be...)

The Nearest Book Meme

I saw this little meme on BestBookIHaveNotRead and decided to give it a try. Here are the rules:

* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence - either as a comment here or on your blog (link back to us by replacing the trail link with this blog’s link).
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don’t look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

The book nearest me right now is ZORGAMAZOO by Robert Paul Weston. The 5th sentence...well, that's not as easy as it would seem. This is a novel in verse. Not the kind that is made up of many poems that tell a story. This one is one novel-length (rhyming, even!) poem.

The fifth line on page 56 is "It was then to his horror that Mortimer knew". The fifth sentence on page 56 is "He couldn't just sit there, he couldn't just wait."

I've only read to page 42, so I'm not even sure what's going on on page 56. But I followed the rules and picked the book that was closest to me.

Now I'll cheat and check the second closest book, THE SAVAGE, by David Almond. "The savage lowered his ax." That was a great moment--a turning point in the book. I like that one better.

Now you try it. If you post, come leave a link in our comments, or just put your line in the comments, whichever works for you.

We *HEART* These Blogs

We are honored to be *hearted* by Charlotte's Library.  We're going to pass the luvv on to our local pals.

Here are the rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs! 

Creative Literacy
Literate Lives
Talkworthy
Authentic Learner
Read, Read, Read
My World - Mi Mundo
Best Book I Have Not Read
Caterwaulling

A Break from 48-Hour Read With Summer Goals Meme 2008

So, it seems to be time for that Summer Goals Meme. Mary Lee and I were just talking about it this week and then Amy at My Breakfast Platter mentioned that she was ready for it too! Last year, I wasn't so successful. I set some great goals and then didn't meet very many of them! I guess summer goals might be like that--no big deal if you don't accomplish them!? So, I am going to be more realistic this year. When I looked back at my goals, it was kind of depressing because I have still not accomplished some of them! The two books that were on my to-read stack last June are still on it today.

So, here are some goals that I have:
1. Read Lots
2. Continue Boot Camp but also add a 30-60 minute walk about 3-5 days a week.
3. Learn a few new recipes.
4. Drink more water.

Okay, so that's it. I am trying to be realistic yet change a few habits. We'll see how it goes!

And to get the meme restarted, we tag Katie D at Creative Literacy, Karen at Talkworthy, Bill and Karen and Literate Lives, Abby at Authentic Learner, Stella at My World-Mi Mundo , Mary Lee here at A Year of Reading, Amy at My Breakfast Platter and Megan at Read, Read, Read.

Happy goal setting!

Meme of Five

We've been tagged three times this week for The Meme of Five, but we couldn't fit it into Graphic Novel Week, so here are our fives. In lieu of tagging, we have included a bit of a roundup of the ones we've seen around the Kidlitosphere. If we missed one (especially if we missed yours) let us know!

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

FRANKI'S FIVE:

What were you doing five years ago?
Of course, Mary Lee has a diary that tells her exactly what she was doing on this day 5 years ago. I will just have to try my best! 5 years ago, I was just finishing up my first year teaching at Eli Pinney--we opened the school that year and it was a great year of teaching and learning. We were also in the midst of the adoption process and were waiting to bring our youngest daughter home.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
buy a few birthday and retirement gifts
get a few sets of handouts ready for summer work
pull a presentation together for this week
make cookie dough
laundry

What are five snacks you enjoy?
(I am going for the unhealthy ones--treatlike snacks)
My new favorite: DOVE Ice Cream Bars
chips and salsa
those really cheap vanilla cream cookies that you can by anywhere
DOTS
Doritos

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
(not in order of action folks!)
1. Buy books for kids and adults who don't have them and for children's hospitals
2. Put money into schools for girls in places where it is hard for girls to get an education
3. Do something to get rid of testing and punishment of schools for test scores..
4. Buy a house somewhere warm and calm
5. Hire a few people to live here (or close) to do the things I don't like to do (laundry, weeding the yard, etc.)

What are five of your bad habits?
1. I ask a lot of questions.
2. I overbook myself.
3. I don't exercise enough.
4. I eat junk food.
5. I make piles everywhere.

What are five places where you have lived?
(be careful--this may be just too exciting..)
1. Ohio--Youngstown
2. Ohio--Howland
3. Ohio--Bowling Green
4. Ohio--Hilliard
5. Ohio--Dublin


What are five jobs you’ve had?
1. Bob Evans hostess
2. Bob Evans waitress
3. Desk and Night Clerk (college)
4. worker at Hot Sam's Pretzels
5. TEACHER:-)


MARY LEE'S FIVE:

What were you doing five years ago?
Five years ago on May 16, my students were baking cookies (5 groups, 5 different recipes) for the "World Premiere" of their multi-media project "Social Issues in the World." (I know this because I have a 10-year diary that I've been keeping for 7 years now.)

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
1. Walk in the Race For the Cure. (It did NOT rain!)
2. Get gas. (Found some high test for under $4/gallon!)
3. Pick up watches. (7 got new batteries and one got a new band. I now have 17 working watches! And now you know one of my obsessions. Other women go for shoes. I go for watches.)
4. Pick up my new glasses.
5. Grading, grading, and more grading, then maybe start report cards?

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Potato chips. Especially with onion dip.
2. Cheetos.
3. Hubs peanuts.
4. Jeni's ice cream.
5. Pam's cheddar popcorn. (I also like grapes, apples, veggies, Bill's guacamole with corn chips, Cheezits, dark chocolate, peanut M&Ms, Chex Mix...well, you get the idea...)

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Fully fund Ohio's Casting for Recovery program.
2. Buy enough lobbyists to get NCLB fixed or nixed.
3. Save the Arctic from oil drilling.
4. Travel.
5. Buy a house with enough shelves for all our books and enough wall space for all of our art.

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Procrastination.
2. Sloppy handwriting.
3. Taking laundry out of the dryer, laying it in a neat pile on top of the dryer, and then not folding and putting it away for a week.
4. Taking on yet another project.
5. Speaking before thinking.

What are five places where you have lived?
1. Burlington, CO
2. Denver, CO
3. Aachen, Germany (only six weeks, but that counts, doesn't it?)
4. Dallas, TX
5. Columbus, OH

What are five jobs you’ve had?
1. Babysitter
2. Lifeguard
3. Cashier at Ben Franklin's
4. Nanny
5. Teacher

OTHER FIVERS:

Wild Rose Reader
The Miss Rumphius Effect
Welcome to My Tweendom
Read. Imagine. Talk.
A Wrung Sponge
Big A little a
Check it Out
Greetings From Nowhere
HipWriterMama
jama rattigan's alphabet soup
Jen Robinson's Book Page
MotherReader
My Breakfast Platter
Read Write Believe
Read, Read, Read
Shelf Elf
The Reading Zone
Two Writing Teachers
Wizards Wireless

Meme: A Blog Retrospective

Way back in March we were tagged by Two Writing Teachers for the Blog Retrospective Meme. If you want to play, you go back through your archives and find five posts you really love. Here are ours:

5 of Franki's favorite posts:

1. Tracking the word KIDLITOSPHERE -- authentic word study.
2. Mom's Overture (Teachers' Overture, too) because they make her laugh every time.
3. Interview with Peggy Gifford, author of Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little.
4. Teachers According to Clementine.
5. Our first birthday post.

5 of Mary Lee's favorite posts:

1. One of the best book reviews I've ever written. It was easy. It was a great book.
2. One of my favorite Poetry Friday posts.
3. Our Robert's Snow illustrator features, Matt Phelan and Jeff Newman.
4. My review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Summer reading really will come back, won't it?
5. The post in which we highlight a great new blog -- Two Writing Teachers!

Edited to add:
Becky at Becky's Book Reviews is playing. Go check out her retrospective!

Meme: Passion Quilt

Monica, from Educating Alice, tagged us for the Passion Quilt Meme.

Here are the rules:

• Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce

For us, just like for Monica and Doug, at Borderland, it's a struggle to untangle our passion from the passions of our students, and on top of that, to find a photo that represents it all.

The best we can come up with is this one. In a Choice Literacy article, Franki wrote about creating Revision Toolbags for her students -- big ziplocks filled with all the fun tools for revision that she uses when she writes: highlighters, sticky notes of all sizes, scissors and tape, gel pens with colored ink, staplers and staple removers. Knowing that our children have only been writers for a couple of years, really, and that they are still children, after all, her idea was to let children play with revision, let them experiment with revision and all the tools writers might use. I read the article and it made such good sense that I stopped at Staples after school that very day and spend a wad on revision tools. And sure enough, when I introduced the revision toolbags, revision's popularity soared. Suddenly, revision was fun.

So here's a picture that shows Franki's idea and the way one of my students put her idea into action. It's a picture that exemplifies the ways we share professionally and "borrow" each other's ideas either flat out or with a new spin. It shows how our students try on our passions (reading and writing) and make them their own.


We'll tag Karen and Bill at Literate Lives, Katie at Creative Literacy, Megan at Read, Read, Read, and Meredith at Learning Together. We know that one of you is in Chile (last we heard) and two of you are up to your ears with report cards. Do this when you get around to it. Can't wait to see what you come up with! (I did a blog search of Meme: Passion Quilt and there are hundreds of entries. It would make interesting reading, but alas, report cards are calling my name, too. Actually, I need to finish grading...sigh...NOT my passion!)

7 Things Meme

We've been tagged by Travis at 100ScopeNotes for the "Seven Things" meme. We're never ones to follow the rules of a meme to the "T" (remember this one?), and we've already shared 8 random things about ourselves, so our seven things this time will be...

"Seven Things About Me As A Reader."

MARY LEE'S SEVEN

1. My to-read pile is a stack of 20 graphic novels for the Cybils Graphic Novels nominating committee. (I should say, ONE of my to-read piles. Piles, with an S.)
2. I am currently listening to WATER FOR ELEPHANTS on the commute to and from school. The readers are brilliant.
3. I am reading aloud THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET in my 4th grade classroom. Actually, if I use the correct educationese, it is a shared reading. We have a half-dozen copies of the book (thanks again for the loan, Franki!) and the students follow along as I read aloud. The conversation about the story and about the pictures is amazing.
4. I read series books in order. Part of the reason that stack of graphic novels is so big is that a book which is number FIVE in its series was nominated. I will read 1-4 first.
5. I keep a list of all the books I read. I've done this since 1987. So far this year, I have read 80+ children's books (I don't count picture books, but I do sometimes lump together easy readers or short graphic novels) and 17 adult books.
6. For me, listening to an audio books counts as reading.
7. I always give CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM at a baby shower for first babies.

FRANKI'S SEVEN

1. I only like to read new books-I hardly ever use the library or go to used bookstores. Something about new books make me happy.
2. Some of my favorite books are middle grade and young adult novels.
3. When I was in elementary school, I visited my grandma's library every Sunday to choose my Nancy Drew reading for the week. (She had the entire collection up there. I considered it my own personal library.)
4. Most of my reading takes place at night before I go to sleep. I also seem to get a lot of reading done as I am walking from place to place--magazine and journal articles get read that way.
5. I have subscribed to "Runner's World Magazine" for 12 months so far and haven't yet started to run. (I need to learn about it first?)
6. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls was one of the best adult books I've ever read.
7. A long time ago, I thought Mary Lee told me that she reads 26 children's books a year. So I thought I'd give that a try and was very proud at the end of the year when I had read 26 children's books. Turns out, that I misunderstood--Mary Lee reads 52 children's books a year. I love having lots of friends who read more than I do!

We're tagging Creative Literacy, Read,Read,Read, The Reading Zone, and My Breakfast Platter. Get busy, folks!

Teaching Meme

Mentor Texts tagged us for this meme. Franki's answers are first, in green. Mary Lee's answers are in purple. We each answered the prompts and then combined our answers, so any overlap is...because our thinking overlaps!

I am a good teacher because...I work really hard to get to know each of my students. I never sit back and think I'm a good teacher. Every year (sometimes every DAY) there are new challenges that cause me to grow and reinvent myself.

If I weren't a teacher I'd be a/an...I'd be a full time reader (is that a job?) Architect. (A story for another time: one high school teacher's gender discrimination killed a dream.)

My teaching style is...inquiry based/talk-based. Continually evolving.

My classroom is...chatty. I think kids learn a lot by talking so there is a lot of talking between kids all day. Full of books!

My lesson plans...don't ever fit into neat boxes. Begin in my imagination.

One of my teaching goals is...to keep as much student ownership in the day as possible. We are being pressured to get rid of that in the name of testing and it is the way kids seem to learn best. Create a classroom community as quickly as possible at the beginning of the year.

The toughest part of teaching is...that you never stop thinking about it--It is really the best part too--we never have it totally figured out and that makes it fun and challenging at the same time. Trying to make sure the work we do is authentic.

The thing I love most about teaching is...seeing kids grow and change and become themselves. When the lightbulbs go off (theirs or mine)!

A common misconception about teaching is...that we can all just follow a scripted program and all will be better. Meeting the needs of every child is much harder than that. "Joe/Jane Public/Politician" knows better than I do how I should be doing my job.

The most important thing I've learned since I've started teaching is...that kids do best with lots of choice and usually when I get out of the way, the totally surpass any expectations I had! There is more art than science in teaching.

*************
We're tagging Read, Read, Read and Creative Literacy.

Five Things Meme -- Results Are In

The complete list of questions and surveys from the original June 25 post is here.

1. Five things I was doing ten years ago.
89% said Mary Lee. You were correct.

2. Five Snacks I Enjoy.
100% said Franki. You were correct, although it could have been A Little of Both because I like dark chocolate.

3. Five Songs I Know All the Lyrics To.
63% said A Little of Both. You were correct. The first two are all Franki and the last three are all Mary Lee.

4. Five Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire.
63% said A Little of Both. It was actually all Franki, but I definitely concur with the naps and the giving a lot away. I don't mind laundry, but I have less of it!

5. Five Bad Habits.
50% said Franki and 50% said A Little of Both. It was A Little of Both. 2 and 3 are Franki and the rest are mine.

6. Five Things I Like To Do.
67% said Mary Lee. You were right. But it could have been A Little of Both because of the reading, writing and napping.

7. Five Things I Would Never Wear Again.
67% said A Little of Both. It was actually all Franki, but I agree about the bikini. I gave that one up in junior high.

8. Five Favorite Toys.
100% Mary Lee. You're right, but Franki does love her stickie notes, too!

We've Been Memed!

NYC Teacher (who is now known as Literacy Teacher) tagged us with the Five Things Meme. We're going to play a guessing game with this. In each category, either Franki or Mary Lee will supply the five things, and then you will be able to vote on whose five it is. Sometimes the answers are a combination of Franki and Mary Lee. How well do you think you "know" us?!? (Surveys are located BELOW each set of five.) Five Things I Was Doing Ten Years Ago 1. Looking for a house. 2. Learning to train my first dog. 3. Walking to our favorite restaurant (Gottlieb's). 4. Using a computer mostly for word processing. 5. Baking bread frequently.  Five Snacks I Enjoy 1. DOTS. 2. red licorice. 3. Oreos. 4. orange slice candy. 5. dark chocolate.  Five Songs I Know All the Lyrics To 1. All of the songs from GREASE. 2. "I think I love you" by the Partidge Family. 3. Don't Worry, Be Happy. 4. Ring of Fire. 5. Lollipop Tree.  Five Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire 1. Take a nap every day. 2. Buy family members lots of vacations. 3. Redecorate the whole house all at once. 4. Give lots of the $$ away. 5. Hire someone to do the laundry.  Five Bad Habits 1. Procrastination. I'm get lots done, but not always what I need to do right now. 2. Talking on the phone. 3. Asking questions before I get the answer to the one I just asked. 4. Not folding laundry when it comes out of the dryer. 5. Being late for appointments because I do just one more thing before I leave.  Five Things I Like To Do 1. Take naps. 2. Read. 3. Write. 4. Teach. 5. Fly fish, bike, hike, garden.  Five Things I Would Never Wear Again 1. A bikini. 2. The 1980's version of the Bob Evans hostess uniform. 3. Pigtails. 4. Cowboy boots. 5. Shoulder pads.  Five Favorite Toys 1. iPod. 2. USB vacuum cleaner. 3. iMovie/iDVD. 4. Fishing gear. 5. Office supplies.  Lots of folks seem to be on blog holiday, so we won't tag anyone in particular. Join in if you want!

8 Things Meme

We've been tagged for a meme! This one is the 8 Things Meme and it comes to us from Kelly at Big A little a. Here are the rules:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

This is just the time-waster I need when there are stacks of end-of-the-school-year paperwork calling to me from the kitchen table, so I'll go first:

8 OF MARY LEE'S FACTS/HABITS
1. My favorite colors in nature are the purple of a post-thunderstorm sky and the bright green of the freshly washed leaves against that purple sky.
2. My favorite landscape in nature is the flat, arid, emptiness of the western plains. That's where I grew up and it seems to have become a part of my psyche.
3. My favorite dessert is creme brulee.
4. My favorite exercise is swimming. I am addicted to the shock of the cold water and the smell of chlorine.
5. I love the art of Laurel Burch.
6. I own a polka-dotted purse.
7. I have a freckle on the palm of my left hand.
8. One of my favorite books as a child was Just Plain Maggie by Lorraine Beim. I still have the 1967 Scholastic edition of this book ($.35). Did anyone else ever read this?

8 OF FRANKI'S FACTS/HABITS
1. I carry a flashlight when I stay in a hotel, in case the electricity goes out.
2. I have fallen off of a treadmill 3 times.
3. I have a film credit in "Light of Day" (I was a one-day tutor)
4. In college, my music ed professor made me promise, in front of the class, to never sing in front of children.
5. Every Sunday, in 5th or so grade, I'd go up to my grandmother's attic to pick out another Nancy Drew book for the week.
6. My favorite movie candy is DOTS.
7. My purse is ALWAYS a mess.
8. I drink hot tea all day, every day.

We tag:
Chicken Spaghetti oops! A double tag! Kelly already got her. Okay, we'll go with...
Blog from the Windowsill
GottaBook
Mentor Texts
Proper Noun
This Just In
Inspiring Readers and Writers
Liz in Ink
Gathering Around the Table

Non-Kid-Lit Blogs

MotherReader tagged us in a meme that originated at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy.

Our mission: Name five non-kid-lit blogs we read.

First, from Mary Lee:

Indexed A blog where the daily post is a picture (or more specifically, a chart, graph, Venn diagram...) that is worth a thousand words.

Tech_Space Daily notes on science and silicon from USA Today blogger Angela Dunn. Fun little tidbits of this and that.

Blog Du Jour From Visual Thesaurus. Collections of blogs on a variety of themes. And I LOVE Visual Thesaurus.

Pragmatic Chaos A peek into the life of a smart and funny nanny. Plus, I like her blog title.

LibraryThing Blog I'm going to buy a barcode reader and get my classroom books into my LibraryThing. Or maybe I should realistically say I'm going to ATTEMPT to get that done. Reading this blog reminds me that I paid for a lifetime membership and I should really be doing more with it!

From Franki:

Pundit Mom
A blog for moms with a lot of politics included. She also writes a bit about adoption.

Suburban Turmoil
A laugh-out-loud blog by Lindsay Ferrier of the Nashville Scene. Great posts about being a mom. My favorite posts are her posts of photos and captions.

Mentor Texts
I love reading about the classroom things happening on this blog.

NCTE Elementary Blog
NCTE has a new blog and the Elementary Section just started one of its own. There are only a few posts so far but people like Shelley Harwayne and Curt Dudley-Marling are writing for this blog. This one is not funny but it does bring up some great issues regarding education.

Brotherhood 2.0
Okay, so this one is connected to Children's Lit, but the two brothers' video blog is one of my favorites. The topics cover everything and they always make me laugh.

We tag HipWriterMama, Liz in Ink, The Blue Rose Girls, and Jen Robinson.