Second Book Finished

If THE BOOK OF THREE is about Taran's impetuous immaturity and the continuous mistakes he makes, THE BLACK CAULDRON is about how Taran begins to learn to deal with others. His biggest challenge is Ellidyr, a nasty, spiteful, mean-spirited person who acts as a mirror, forcing Taran to look at and overcome his own worst tendencies.

In the end, Ellidyr turns it around and makes the ultimate sacrifice by jumping into the cauldron to destroy it. "He has lost all else, even his steed."

"Or perhaps gained all," Gwydion answered. " And his honor shall be certain." Gwydion goes on to say that a barrow will be raised for Ellidyr, and also for Morgant, who switched sides at the end and who would have used the cauldron for ultimate power. Taran is incredulous that Gwydion would honor Morgant.

"It is easy to judge evil unmixed," replied Gwydion. "But, alas, in most of us good and bad are closely woven as the threads on a loom; greater wisdom than mine is needed for the judging...I honor Morgant for what he used to be, and Ellidyr for what he became."

Worth remembering.

I had hoped for all five books of the Prydain Chronicles in the 48 Hour Reading Challenge Weekend, but two will have to do. The other three will go with me to Colorado.

Marley: A Dog Like No Other

As Mary Lee mentioned, we are participating in Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge but not really the challenge part. We are kind of "auditing" but participating:-) We are trying to get in lots of reading and blogging but can't drop everything else. My youngest daughter has been visiting with my parents for the last few days. Today I had to drive to pick her up. So, I decided to pick up an audiotape. I chose MARLEY: A DOG LIKE NO OTHER by John Grogan--the middle grade version of MARLEY AND ME. It is performed by Neil Patrick Harris. I am not always a fan of dog books but I love this one for middle grade kids. I love that the book goes through the dog's whole life--from puppy 'til death. It is a great story and you come to love the dog and the family. I am putting it on my List of Possible Read Alouds for next school year. There are some places that seem a bit more adult than others but my 7 year old was listening to the last 1/2 with me on the way home and laughed and cried along with me. So, it works for both adults and kids. Regardless of whether or not I read it aloud, I will definitely pick up a copy of the book for the classroom and have the audio available too. I can think of lots of kids who would love the story. I also think that each chapter can almost stand alone and can see using it in Writing Workshop to really look at good writing--good samples of short pieces from real life. So, my first book was an audiobook but I think I used my time well. If it weren't for the 48 hour read,I wouldn't have picked up an audiobook. Made the trip far more fun! I am anxious to pick up the picture book, BAD DOG, MARLEY for my 7 year old since she seemed to love the audiobook of this version. I do love these books that the whole family can enjoy together. I also spent some time on the author's website . And you will be happy to know that he also has a blog .

First Book Finished

I'm not going to be able to read for 48 continuous hours, but over the course of the Challenge weekend, I hope to read all five of the books in the Prydain Chronicles by (and in memory of) Lloyd Alexander.

I wasn't 20 pages into THE BOOK OF THREE before I had to go get my stickie notes. I had forgotten how much wisdom Alexander packs into these books:

"In some cases, we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." p.18

"Well, that is one of the three foundations of learning: see much, study much, suffer much." p.19

"The task counts more than the one who does it." p.31

"I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all." p. 36

"Every living thing deserves our respect, be it humble or proud, ugly or beautiful." p. 142

"Neither refuse to give help when it is needed, nor refuse to accept it when it is offered." p. 143


"Once you have the courage to look upon evil, seeing it for what it is and naming it by its true name, it is powerless against you, and you can destroy it." p. 211-212

"As for me, what I mostly did was make mistakes." Dallben's reply to this, in part, reads, "If you made mistakes, you recognize them. As I told you, there a times when the seeking counts more than the finding.

Does it truly matter which of you did what, since all shared the same goal and the same danger? Nothing we do is ever done entirely alone. There is a part of us in everyone else -- you, of all people, should know that." p. 217-218

Summer Goals Meme

We've been tagged by NYC Teacher to list our summer goals. (btw--check out the new look on her blog! Way cool! I have banner envy!)

Here are some of my summer goals:

• Read. Lots. Piles. Especially all the professional journals that haven't been touched for months.
• Transfer the yard waste from the old composting bin in the corner of the garden to the new one that will not allow chipmunks to nest there. (did that today)
• Plant the herbs I bought today. (That's on tap for tomorrow.)
  
• Walk to the farm market every Saturday.
• Dust off my bike and go biking again.
• Swim in a one mile open water swim. (Somewhat unlikely, due to falling off the swimming bandwagon in May, but that's what goals are for, right?)
  
• Catch up on letter writing.
• Make bread baking a habit again.
• Blog.
• Scan all of my classroom books into LibraryThing with my new CueCat scanner.
• Read. (Did I already mention that one?)
• Try new recipes.
• Start writing in my writer's notebook again.
  

Newspaper Clipping Roundup

The headline at The Daily Sponge reads: School's OUT!

Eric Luper's headline is Muscle Car Goes Missing.

Ask Amy's headline reads One Book Talk Done, 19 To Go. If I'm reading the article correctly, we're invited to help her with the remaining 19!

NYC Teacher explores the classroom posibilities for the Newspaper Clipping Generator in her article titled Discovery!

::Suzanne:: has found the cure for wiggling children! Find out more in Wiggle-less Children.

Go to The Newspaper Clipping Generator and make yours. Send me a link and I'll round you up here!

How Did This Happen?

Back in April, when Mother Reader announced her 48 Hour Book Challenge, the weekend beginning June 8 was as smooth and clean as a new marble countertop.

School would be out, and, ahhhhhhh, we'd be FREE! The livin' would be easy!

Now reality has hit. That smooth, clean, new marble countertop of life is crowded and cluttered with everything that was delayed and deferred during the last few weeks of (I had a bunch of meaningless adjectives in here, but I'll leave them out and just go for the basics) end of school... stuff.

So...we'll be with y'all in spirit, but not in strict adherence to the rules of The Challenge. We will read in every spare minute between Friday morning and Monday morning (including, for me, blogs -- I've missed you!) and we'll try to put up a record number of reviews in three days. Hopefully, much of what happens this weekend will highlight...

...The Good News From The Kidlitosphere!

Reading Labels

Stuff

So, I haven't had much time to blog.... It has been a crazy two weeks. I have been working on a book for Scholastic Professional and it finally went in the mail today. Won't be out until February but the final copy went to the editor today. So, I feel like I have time to breathe again. That deadline stuff is no fun.

No, I am not sure what we were thinking--a book deadline and the end of the school year all at the same time. Craziness for sure. But, it worked out well. I went on high-speed for a month or so and now everything will come to a close. It was actually good to have some diversion to the end of the year. As much as I love summer and the different pace, extra time with family, etc. the end of the school year is always sad. 20 years of teaching, 20 classes of kids. No matter how long you teach, every class is different. Every class takes on its own personality. Every class stays with you in some way. So when the last day of school comes up, you realize that there will never be another year like this. A great feeling to have been part of a great group of people learning together, but a sad time too.

The kids were feeling it today too. They were quite cute. We had a special POETRY FRIDAY on Tuesday since we don't have school on Friday. We had a ball. Several of the kids wrote and shared their own poems about the last few days of school. They certainly understand poetry and how to play with words. Others had fun sharing favorites from the year.

So today has been the first day I've been able to think about the actual end of the year. As I said, the book was a good diversion--the end of the year is a bummer. It is fun to see the kids grow up and move on but knowing that we'll never have a year just like this one is always a bit sad.

I imagine lots of us are having our last days of school sometime soon. And I think we all go through the same thing every year--as teachers, parents, kids.

Happy Last Day of School:-)

The Secret is Divulged

Here is the website where you, too, can make newspaper clippings:

The Newspaper Clipping Generator

Go make a clipping, post it on your blog, then send us a link in the comments and we'll do a round-up of clippings. Have fun!

Thank You For Your Patience

The finish line is in sight. Two more days.

We finished GOONEY BIRD GREENE today. She's no Clementine, but the kids did love trying to figure out what was absolutely true about her stories. I might read her first in the fall next year and start with story telling as our first unit of study in writing workshop. But I'll wait to see what the new District Language Arts Binder has in store for me before I set that in stone.

The reading assessments and math fact assessments are done and scored. The spelling assessments will be done tomorrow. Report cards will be done tonight before I sleep and printed tomorrow morning. Awards are ready for tomorrow's assembly. Six iMovies of our two years together as a looping class are done (not without near disaster and an unwanted learning experience) and about 1/3 of the 25 dvds are burned. The end of loop party is planned and ready for Wednesday. Students took home everything but their supply boxes today.

Mom's 80th birthday party is on rails -- some supplies have been mailed out to her, rental chairs are ordered, cakes will be ordered later this week, the soundtrack needs just one more tweaking and it will be perfect.

Yesterday we planted the rose bush that Bess' doggie play date buddy, Bender, sent in memory of her short but joyous life.

I beg to differ with T.S. Eliot that "April is the cruelest month." This year, May was. We couldn't flip the calendar pages over to June fast enough. As if to distance itself from May in every way, June has cooled down, substantial rains have come to break the drought, and, not to repeat myself, but...

The finish line is in sight. Two more days.