I am in awe.

I have a new student. His family has been in the country since November. On his second day in our class, he started teaching me Arabic.

A little with our alphabet, then a little with his.

On the way to the bus at dismissal, we traded words: bus, car, the numbers on the buses.

That was day two.

Yesterday, he taught me manners -- how to say please and thank you.

This morning, he heard us sing happy birthday in six languages to a classmate. He was able to play the multiplication game with me and Google Translate by his side. He practices listening to sounds and spelling simple words with an app on the iPad, followed by a break to play a video game online. I say "10 minutes iPad, 10 minutes video game." He says, with a mischievous smile, "15 minutes video game." I say "15 minutes iPad," and he says, "20 minutes video game!"

This afternoon, he told me, "You America (hand over heart). Me Iraq..." and then he sang me the Iraqi national anthem all the way to the bus. Before he boarded, he told me, "YouTube -- Matahni (spelling is mine) -- you go." So I did, and there it was (Mwtini).

This is a kid with spunk. This is a kid with grit and perseverance. This is a kid who is not going to let school be done to him -- we will work together and there will be learning on both sides. He will see to that. I'm sure he won't let a day go by for the rest of the year that he doesn't teach me something. He already knows that education isn't a one-way street, from the teacher to the student. He knows he has power. His native language gives him power, his ability to learn gives him power, his willingness to collaborate gives him power.

I am in awe of this young man, and thankful that his boat washed up on my shore.

Slow

The Slowest Book Ever
by April Pulley Sayre
illustrated by Kelly Murphy
review copy provided by the publisher
Boyds Mills Press, April 2016

This book is the perfect antidote for the hurry-scurry of the modern world. In order to enjoy it, you must sit on the couch and meander through the chapters in no particular order, spending an entire afternoon learning about and thinking about slow plants, slow animals, slow geological processes, slow art, slow music and imaginary slow motion movies, to name a few topics in this fun book!

At the end of the book are two pages where you can lay your head down while you "mull over the mysteries of inner ears or dark matter."

After that, for the reader who loves to keep going even after "The End," there is an excellent glossary of "Chewy Words," the funnest acknowledgements ever, and entertaining endnotes for "snailish sorts."

And even after you have come to the end of the last page, you won't be finished with your foray into SLOW if you follow April's advice -- you'll be picking up a field guide and heading out into the world for a leisurely walk, ready to stop frequently and gawk appreciatively at the world around you.

Poetry Friday -- Rare

RARE from Joel Sartore on Vimeo.

I ran across this video on The Kid Should See This. It filled my heart with love (and concern) for this ball of rock and water upon which we float through space.

beautiful world 

everything we do matters

every single thing

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

And this behind the scenes bit made me laugh out loud:

RARE: Behind the Scenes from Joel Sartore on Vimeo.


Tara has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at A Teaching Life.

Information in So Many Forms

This week, a new episode of The Yarn was released. In this new episode,  author Anne Ursu talks about her book, The Real Boy. I LOVED The Real Boy and read the ARC as soon as it was available. I am a huge Anne Ursu fan so I loved having a bit more information on her process in writing this book. If you do not subscribe to The Yarn, I would definitely recommend it!

This interview with Anne Ursu is the first in a 3 part series. Keep your eye out for the next two in this series where Colby and Travis talk to Tracey Baptiste and Matt Tavares.

The podcast got me thinking about how many interesting ways there are to share information online that weren't available just a few years ago. There are such fascinating little pieces of information out there to share with students around books and literacy.

These little snippets of information really have me thinking about how I approach informational reading and writing in the classroom. They are crafted in a much more informal way and I think there are different skills needed to produce things like this. It is interesting to me, that with all of the ways to share information out there, there is still a lot of "report type" writing and big finished products when it comes to informational writing. I am wondering how I could better spend my time studying pieces like this and helping kids learn to create smaller pieces whose format matches purpose so clearly.

Here are some of my new favorite informational pieces--some for me and some for my students:

Emily Elizabeth Smith was given the Donald Graves Award at this year's NCTE convention. Her classroom sounds amazing and when I visited her class website I found some incredible podcasts on their HIVE RADIO link.  There are many different genres and topics created by her 5th graders.

I recently loved this short interview with Charlotte Huck Award winner, Sharon Draper. In this clip, she talks a bit about her book Stella by Starlight. It is fun to hear an author in person and to hear some extra background about a book I love.

Information like this is everywhere when we know where to look. I love this clip of Loren Long sharing some thoughts about his new book, Little Tree.

Ruth Ayres has created a series of videos that teach writers strategies for better writing.  How much we can learn in these short clips is incredible.

My 3rd graders are huge fans of Steve Harpster's drawing books. Recently they've discovered his YouTube channel and are learning how to draw so many things with these quick videos.

Friends with Fins has been extremely popular with my 3rd graders this year. So much information about the ocean and ocean conservation packed into these short, engaging videos. I especially like this one because Jaclyn talks about the research and how there is not yet a definitive, agreed-upon answer for this question--Do Fish Feel Pain?

I am in the process of collecting things like this for our work informational reading and writing that will begin in January. I am not sure where we'll go with it but I know that I want to think a bit differently about the study this year.

Poetry Friday -- Community

I'm writing a haiku-a-day again this December (inspired loosely by Bob Raczka's The Santa Clauses). I wrote a haiku-a-day last December, too, but it was different last year.

I wrote alone.

This year, I invited my Poetry Month Partner in Craziness, Carol (Carol's Corner) to join me. I put my links out on Twitter and one of my other Poetry Month Partners in Craziness, Steve (Inside the Dog) agreed to come along. Kevin (@dogtrax) is joining in on Twitter. A new writing partner, Leigh Anne Eck (A Day in the Life), has joined in. My students (well, some of them) are writing a haiku-a-day between arrival and morning announcements/beginning of content time.

I am not alone.

And as if I needed to be bludgeoned repeatedly with the idea before it would truly sink in -- I am learning (again) that while the writing habit opens my eyes to the world, encourages me to NOTICE (my One Little Word for the year), and instills discipline, it is the community and the conversations that make it a writing LIFE.

My haikus and the rich conversations in the comments are at Poetrepository, and you can also find us on Twitter: @carwilc @insidethedog @dogtrax @Teachr4 @LoreeGBurns

Here is my haiku for today:

Birthday Wish

I'll be a ginkgo--

golden leaves circling my feet,

one ring wiser.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Buffy has the roundup today at Buffy's Blog. The Call For Poetry Friday Roundup Hosts (January-June 2016 edition) post is live here.

Poetry Friday -- Call for Roundup Hosts

It's that time again. Six months have passed since last we queued up to host the Poetry Friday roundups.

If you'd like to host a roundup between January and June 2016, leave your choice(s) of date(s) in the comments. I'll update regularly to make it easier to see which dates have been claimed.

What is the Poetry Friday roundup? A gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.

Who can do the Poetry Friday roundup? Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape or form (Mr. Linky, "old school" in the comments-->annotated in the post, or ???) on the Friday of your choice. If you are new to the Poetry Friday community, jump right in, but perhaps choose a date later on so that we can spend some time getting to know each other.

How do you do a Poetry Friday roundup? If you're not sure, stick around for a couple of weeks and watch...and learn! One thing we're finding out is that folks who schedule their posts, or who live in a different time zone than you, appreciate it when the roundup post goes live sometime on Thursday.

How do I get the code for the PF Roundup Schedule for the sidebar of my blog? I'll post it in the files on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group, and I'd be happy to send it to you if you leave me your email address. Speaking of the the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group, I'll try to set up reminders on the calendar there (currently it's not letting me in). Plus, I'll put the schedule on the Kidlitosphere Central webpage.

Why would I do a Poetry Friday Roundup? Community, community, community. It's like hosting a poetry party on your blog!

And now for the where and when:

January

1 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

8 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

15 Keri at Keri Recommends

22 Tara at A Teaching Life

29 Catherine at Reading to the Core

February

5 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

12 Kimberley at Moran Reflections

19 Donna at Mainely Write

26 Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass

March

4 Linda at TeacherDance

11 Irene at Live Your Poem

18 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

25  Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe

April

1 Amy at The Poem Farm

8 Laura at Writing the World for Kids

15 Michelle at Today's Little Ditty

22 Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup

29 Buffy at Buffy's Blog

May

6 Sylvia at Poetry for Children

13 Violet at Violet Nesdoly | Poems

20 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

27 Julie at The Drift Record

June

3 Jone at Check it Out

10 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink

17 Carol at Carol's Corner

24 Diane at Random Noodling

Two Great National Geographic Kids Books

Edible Science: Experiments You Can Eat
by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen with Carol Tennant
National Geographic, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher

This book is going to be in high demand for Genius Hour projects! How much fun will it be to do science that you can eat?!?

This will also be a great mentor text for Technical Text.

The chapters include Mixing and Unmixing (with projects like Ice Cream in a Bag and Ricotta Cheese); Solids, Liquids, and Yum! (with projects like Baked Alaska and Maple Candy); It's a Gas (with projects like the ever-popular Egg in a Bottle); Actions and Reactions (Jiggling Gelatin and Banana Bread); and Biology in Your Kitchen (Mock Apple Pie and Mealworm Brownies).

All of the instructions are clearly laid out, with the things you need, the things to watch for, the steps to take, and the science behind what happens.

Brain Games: The Mind-Blowing Science of Your Amazing Brain
by Jennifer Swanson
National Geographic, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher

This is a great book for browsing. It is organized with challenges for your brain, an explanation of what is happening in your brain during the challenge, and lots of extra information on the topic in the sidebars.

I was fascinated by the sections on long and short term memory, and what happens inside your brain when you try to multi-task. Hmm...wonder why those sections popped out at me?  :-)

2 Books to Help Children Think About Changing the World

I am exited to share these two books with my 3rd graders as we learn about our own community and ways we can help make our communities and our world better.

31 Ways to Change the World  is based on the idea that "Small Actions X Lots of People = Big Change".  The book is filled with ideas of things kids can do to make things better. They are small things such as "Make Someone Smile" and "Don't Charge Your Phone Overnight".  Each idea gives an explanation of how this helps.  The layout for each idea is different so kids can read the pages in any order they wish. This is not a book that needs to be read cover-to-cover.

Can We Help: Kids Volunteering to Help Their Communities by George Ancona shares many ways kids help in their communities.  The book is filled with the ways kids of all ages can help in their communities and the photos show them in action.  There is a good variety of volunteer opportunities that I can see readers being inspired by one or more of the ideas shared. The book also gives the  message that volunteering and doing things for your community is a fun way to spend your time. 

November Mosaic

November is always such a gallop, what with mammo/onco appointments, parent conferences, report cards, 5th grade concert...but lookie there...I took time for a coloring page at The James, a concert at Natalie's, a bonfire,  and a bike ride before NCTE, plus a lovely afternoon at the Audubon Metropark as our Black Friday #OptOutside after NCTE. And of course, NCTE was all kinds of loveliness in the middle of all that other craziness!

You can see the images in this mosaic on Flickr here.

A Fine Dessert....What Does This Mean for Teachers?

Last month, there was an online conversation around the picture book, A Fine Dessert by Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall that expanded my thinking about the idea of teacher-as-reader/teacher-as-decision-maker.

A Fine Dessert was published earlier this year and has received several starred reviews by major reviewers such as School Library Journal and Booklist. It is a book that is loved by children and teachers everywhere. It has been talked about as a possible Caldecott contender on the blog Calling Caldecott (here and here).

Then issues were brought up about the book and its depiction of slavery (A Fine Dessert: Sweet Intentions, Sour Aftertaste).  Sophie Blackall responded, explaining her process and the thoughtful choices she made as illustrator.  Honestly, it was something I completely missed and overlooked and like the author of Reading While White, I am a bit disappointed with myself for missing it.

(To catch up on the entire conversation, you can find many of the posts and a timeline of many events on Debbie Reese's blog.)

The conversation last month was a long, intense conversation that happened mainly through blogs and Twitter.  I listened in to the conversation daily and tried to keep up with all that everyone was saying about this book and the issues surrounding it. Social media is a tricky way to have conversations like this because lots of people jump in and out of conversations and sometimes 140 characters isn't enough to dig into a topic this big.

So, what does this mean for teachers?  As teachers we need to be readers. But we also need to be readers of discussions like this one so that we understand as much as we can about the books we put in our classrooms and in the hands of children.  Here are the big take-aways I had after thinking about this for a few weeks.  These are the things I've learned from the conversation:

1. This is one reason many of us are on social media--to hear different perspectives, to learn from people we did not always have the opportunities to learn from, to grow in our thinking.  I've always believed strongly that teachers need to be readers, but this online controversy reminded me of the reasons I spend so much time reading book reviews, blogs, etc. Not only do I need to be a reader of books, but I need to be a reader of all that surrounds a book if I am going to make good decisions about the books to share with my students.  Whether you agree with the opinions of others or not, being aware of perspectives of others is important in our work.

2. This is not about one book--it is much bigger than that.  Even though the conversation felt focused on a book and individual people, this is really a bigger issue than that.  And it has been an issue for a very long time.  If you aren't aware of the campaign, We Need Diverse Books or the NCTE Resolution on The Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books, they are important to know about. I also think Roger Sutton's piece, We're Not Rainbow Sprinkles, in last month's Horn Book is worth a read on this issue.

3. There was very little teacher voice in the conversation. And I believe that our voice needs to be part of this conversation.  We need to respect the teacher-as-decision-maker in these and all conversations and I didn't see that happening in this conversation. Ultimately, we are the ones who make decisions about which books are in our classroom libraries.  I remember years ago, reading the issue surrounding an Alvin Ho book. I realized then how many things we need to think about as teachers when we choose books for our classrooms.

4. Change happens because of the conversations. It doesn't  happen overnight but it does happen. Betsy Bird recently shared a post about the new edition of Ladybug Girl and Debbie Reese shared many books whose stereotypic depictions have been changed in recent years. This is all good news for children.

5. Social media is a tricky place to have hard conversations. Conversations without judging is key--we can have heated conversations that help us all grow and understand our own biases. It seemed that early on, as people were making sense of the issue, some people were unintentionally shut down a bit when they didn't agree immediately. And this was a conversation between a group of people who ultimately spend their lives working to get diverse, quality books into the hands of children.  This was a group of people working toward the same goals. I learned that there will be missteps in language as we each make sense of our own biases and make sense of some of these issues.  It seems we have to be a bit more careful when we are having conversations on social media--careful so that we broaden the conversation--so that we invite more people in instead of unintentionally shutting people out.

Poetry Friday

periodically

the carousel slows and stops

blur refocuses

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015 

I've been away from Poetry Friday for too long. It's good to be back, to have time to visit the roundup, which is hosted this week by Carol at Carol's Corner. Hard to believe that the year is winding down -- next week we'll start building the roundup schedule for January-June 2016!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Happy Poetry! Happy Friday!

My NCTE Top Ten(s)

Top 10 Famous People I Heard Speak 
or With Whom I Ate Dinner

Peter Sis

Vicki Vinton

Allison Bechdel

Kate Messner

Laurel Snyder

LeUyen Pham

Marilyn Singer

Kadir Nelson

Laura Amy Schlitz

Dave Eggers

Top 10 Books I Can't Wait to Read (or re-read) Because of NCTE

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (see photo below for why)

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson

Long Road to Freedom (Ranger in Time #3) by Kate Messner

Currents by Jane Smolik

A Whole New Ballgame by Phil Bildner
Are You My Mother? by Allison Bechdel

Writers ARE Readers: Flipping Reading Instruction into Writing Opportunities by Lester Laminack

Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies by Kylene Beers
The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching edited by Matt Glover and Ellin Oliver Keene

Top 10 Quotes from NCTE Speakers

"I write to figure out stuff that's bothering me." --Allison Bechdel

"Fear motivates me to take on something that seems daunting and impossible...why would you bother with anything less?" --Allison Bechdel

"If kids can find the answers faster [using Google], maybe we need to ask different questions." --Jen Vincent

"It was a big deal to me that I got it right." --LeUyen Pham (The Boy Who Loved Math)

"Writing is not always fun. It is always more fun to have written." --Dave Eggers

"I think of America as a large family. Every family's stories are a part of the American story." --Kadir Nelson

"We have to be careful that we don't jargonize joy like we did rigor and grit." --Kathy Collins

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." --John Dewey (quoted by Vicki Vinton)

Our students don't need more content and vocabulary (as the Common Core states), they need a reading identity and agency. They need to be "...deep thinkers with a knack for problem solving." --Vicki Vinton

"Use a problem-solving approach to reading (the way we do in math workshop). Words aren't the problem...what does it MEAN?" --Vicki Vinton

Two Amazing Moments That Happened at NCTE, 

But Don't Really Have Anything to do with the Conference Itself

I had the opportunity to go to the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, and among other artifacts of children's literature, we saw (and touched) the first three drafts of Because of Winn Dixie. 

These native dancers. I happened on them by accident one evening when I was walking through the convention center back to my hotel after a reception. My fifth graders are currently studying the "ancient people of Latin America," and here those people were, alive and well and wearing spandex shorts and glasses, honoring their Aztec ancestors by keeping their traditions alive, all the way north in Minneapolis, MN.

NCTE Book Awards!

This year, NCTE Children's Book Awards were announced at the children's luncheon at convention. It was great fun to have them announced at the luncheon. It was also fabulous to hear the award winners speak at the luncheon. The luncheon has always been one of my favorite events at convention and now it's an even better event!  

Each year at the lunch, not only do you get to hear great speakers (and now be there for the live announcement of the award winners each year) but everyone gets to sit at a table with a children's author. This year, I was lucky enough to sit with Deborah Wiles!! What a treat!

I was lucky enough to serve on the Charlotte Huck Award Committee and have loved the conversations with others committee members about the books. I love everything about this award. If the award is new to you, here is what the NCTE website has to say about it.

The NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children was established in 2014 to promote and recognize excellence in the writing of fiction for children. This award recognizes fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.

This is such a great lens to read with and there have been so many 2015 books that definitely have the potential to transform children's lives.  I so love our list this year! 

You can find the list on the NCTE website.

The other award that was announced at Saturday's luncheon was the Orbis Pictus Award. This has always been one of my favorite lists because it is the place where I find so much great nonfiction. This year, I didn't have the time to read nonfiction that I usually do, because I spent so much time reading fiction for the Huck award. So I am anxious to check out many of the books on this list. The award is described as:

The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award  was established in 1989 for promoting and recognizing excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The name Orbis Pictus, commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures(1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children.

You can find the Orbis Pictus list on the NCTE website too!

If you want to read more about NCTE book awards, there was a recent post on the NCTE blog.

I love award season and the season has begun! If you did not attend the Saturday luncheon on Saturday, you may want to put it on your list of convention to-dos for next year. It is great fun!

A Working Blog Vacation

We're taking a week off for professional learning. Hopefully, we'll see many of you in Minneapolis at NCTE's Annual Convention! We might do some live blogging, and we'll certainly have some follow-up posts next week.

WILD...in honor of Irene Latham's Blogiversary

When in doubt, use your

Imagination to discover what it is you

Love with a passion that cannot be

Defined...or denied.

Happy 10 Year Blogiversary to Irene Latham at Live Your Poem!

Irene's One Little Word for 2015 is WILD, 

which is the theme of her celebration.

Visit her blog to check out other WILD posts

that celebrate Irene, her blog, and her OLW.

The Ripple Effect of Award Lists on the NCTE Blog

Stacey Ross and I wrote a recent post for the NCTE Blog.  It is about the NCTE Book Awards. You can find it here.

Looking forward to hearing many of the award-winning authors at this year's convention!

Poetry Friday -- Drip, Drip, Drip

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Praveen

steady drip, drip, drip

annoying, continuous

rain...and sinuses

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

The class cold. Oh, joy. At least I have time to get better before parent conferences next week and NCTE the week after that. Small blessings.

Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat. has the Poetry Friday roundup today.

Little Tree by Loren Long

I was able to see an advanced copy of this book over the summer and fell in love with it. And when the real book arrived last week, I fell in love with it all over again.  Loren Long is a favorite author of mine. He is an author who is able to write about complex issues and ideas that are accessible for young children. His Otis books have started some of the best conversations in our classroom over the years.

I love Little Tree as much as I love the Otis books.  Loren Long's words and illustrations are brilliant and I can't wait to share this book with my students.  The book tells the story of a little tree who decides he does not want to let his leaves go when all of the other trees do.  He holds onto them year after year. The story is a simple one with a big message about changing and letting go. It is told in a soft, non-threatening way as we see the difficult decision Little Tree has to eventually make.

This story is one that is good for all ages. Just like the Otis books, children of all ages will have an entry point, come to love Little Tree and understand the author's message.  This would also make a fabulous gift book as it is one that I am sure will be one of those books that children beg to have  read  to them over and over!

You can hear Loren Long talk more about his new book here:

Professional Reading: Note and Notice

I have been trying to fit more professional reading into my life lately. There are so many great professional books that have been piling up. I have found that if I focus on one book at a time and try to read 20ish pages a day, I can finish a professional book in a couple of weeks. The 20 pages a day happened because I wanted to give myself a doable amount of reading to do in a day to get more professional reading in. But what I've found is that 20 pages a day gives me a good chunk of information to think about and a good amount of time to study a topic. So when I dig into a new professional book, I am thinking about the topic for two weeks, really giving myself time to digest and reflect on what I've read. In the past I have sometimes rushed through new professional books, reading them in a weekend and this seems to be a better way to read and digest the new thinking.  The 20 pages also makes sense for my reading life.  I don't have to "give up" fiction reading to read professional books if I am just holding myself to 20 pages a day. I can fit in both with that expectation of myself.

This week, I am reading Kylene Beers' and Bob Probst's new Nonfiction Reading: Notice and Note Stance, Signposts, and Strategies and I am so glad that I am taking my time to read it and not rushing through it. I am not far along as the book just arrived a few days ago but already I find myself rethinking much of what I thought I understood about nonfiction reading.  I am doing just what the writers hoped I would do. As they state on page 1 of the introduction, "And we do want this book to challenge you. We want you to pause to consider new ideas, mull over comments we make, mark passages you want to reread and discuss with colleagues."

I want to share with you the reason my new strategy of reading 20 pages a day of a new professional book is making good sense to me.  I started the book over the weekend.  On the first day with the book, I did a pretty heavy preview--looking through the book to see what to expect.  Then I dug into the first 20 pages.  And then I stopped for the day. On reflecting, I was amazed at how much I had to think about with just 20 pages of reading.

-I am thinking about the students we teach today and how their experiences are quite different from my own at their age. Beers and Probst state, "By 2016, every student in school will have been born in the 21st century. They will have grown up with the world at their fingertips."

-I am thinking about the idea of stance that is part of the subtitle of this book and what it means as a teacher of nonfiction.  Beers and Probst state, "This book had to discuss a stance that's required for the attentive, productive reading of nonfiction. It's a mindset that is open and receptive, but not gullible."  I have read and reread this line several times and love the idea of what it means.  One sentence that says so much about something far more important than the traditional ways I've been thinking about teaching nonfiction.

-I am processing the 5 day cycle of lessons that the authors share and how to build Big Questions along with understanding of signposts to build more time and engagement with nonfiction text.

-I am excited to look at the videos that show these things in action. Throughout the book are QR codes that lead readers to videos that go along with the thinking in the book.

-And I am fascinated by the authors' explanation of the way in which nonfiction has been defined over the years. "It's really not surprising that the meaning of nonfiction has shifted as well.  What was once a term used by librarians to signify that the text simply wasn't a novel morphed into meaning "not false" and even "informational". While note surprising, we do wonder if this shift has served us well."  This section of the first 20 pages fascinated me and made me think about the way in which I have defined nonfiction for myself and for my students and how that might evolve.

As you can see, my 20 page strategy is working for me. Giving myself time to read and think about the professional books that have been on my stack seems important. Even though I am dying to keep reading, I know that this is a better way for me to take in most professional books. This particular one is so packed with great thinking that I'd hate to rush past some of it.

I am excited to continue this first read of this book as I know my teaching will change for the better because of it.

If you don't have this book yet, I already highly recommend it. The first 20 pages are worth the price you'll pay--trust me.  Heinemann has some great videos of Kylene and Bob talking a bit about the book as well as some great Sneak Previews to give you a sense of what to expect.

Math Monday: Estimate 180

Last week, my colleague Kami Wenning and our math coach, McKenzie Zimmerman conducted an informal morning PD session on the site Estimate 180. Kami has been using the site with her 3rd graders and the conversations around it have been astounding so they wanted to share the resource.

Estimate 180 is a website created by Andrew Stadel (@mr_stadel). According to his website, he is a middle school math teacher and coach. He began the site in October 2012 with estimating activities he uses with his students each day of the school year. 

After the PD, McKenzie and I talked about how I could use this site She facilitated the class while I transcribed and listened to her language with students.  She went through the 4 day Lego Estimations and I watched from the back of the room to learn what I could about how best to use this resource and to listen to and record my students' thinking.  The goals for the lesson were from the math practice--explaining your mathematical reasoning and understanding someone else's math reasoning. So that was the focus of the talk over the four days.

The conversations across days went so far beyond the typical estimation activities I've seen. The way that the site is built, the learning builds from one day to another and kids have information to build from.  The talk around numbers was incredible and the engagement was high.  Knowing the standards so well, McKenzie was able to take advantage of the last day's conversation to create a number sentence with a number to solve for.   I am finding that oral language and conversation is such a huge part of math learning and Estimate 180 definitely supports this.

There are so many amazing things about the Estimate 180 site. There is a huge variety on the site. So many math concepts are covered in the over 200 estimation activities on the site. In a few weeks, I am going to use a series of lessons designed around estimating height and I am looking at another that estimates the amount of money in coins.  You can browse the site or search estimations based on math topic.  I also love that these are multi-day activities that are built to help kids think across time and to use understandings from one day to solve the next day's challenge.

Mr. Stadel must think about estimation all day every day because so many of these estimations come from real, daily life and I think kids will start seeing estimation opportunities everywhere after a few weeks of these.

I loved this site so much that I just had to share. I am excited to jump into another estimation with my kids next week (Cheeseball Estimations) and see where the conversations go!

September/October Mosaic

I missed my September mosaic. Time just slipped right by and it wasn't until the middle of the month that I realized I hadn't done one.

This combo looks like an Insect Edition -- at the beginning of September, we were just finishing up with Monarch chrysalises, there was an awesome spider on the porch at the Casting for Recovery retreat (yes, I know spiders aren't insects...), I'm pretty sure that incredible caterpillar will someday be an Imperial Moth, and the preying mantis is eating a stinkbug (go, preying mantis!).

It could also be a Seasonal Colors and Moods Edition, or a Cute Cat / Horse Butt / Caged Dog / Ram Head Edition.

The selfie of me and AJ is a joke. In the background is Thomas Edison, holding up a lightbulb. On first glance, I thought he was taking a selfie, so we took our selfie along with him taking his. You can find Mr. E. in the Ohio Statehouse, which is where we were for the Ohioana awards reception.

The quote in the center was shared by Anthony Doerr (author of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, and as amazing a speaker as he is a writer), and the quote at the end is from THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING by T.H. White, the book I'm currently listening to in the car back and forth from school).

The images can be seen full-size on Flickr.

Poetry Friday -- Wild Wows

This Wednesday was the perfect day for Environmental Club to stay indoors, look through our observation notebooks, write poetry, and paint with watercolors. Outside, the wind blew, dark clouds moved so quickly across the sky that at one point we could see both a downpour and bright sun out the window. 

After snack, I gave a quick demonstration lesson on using words and phrases from my notebook to write haiku

spiderwebs glisten

between green and yellow leaves

sun warms my shoulders

and Fifteen Words or Less poems

The back

of the milkweed leaf

is as soft

as velvet.

Here are a few of the students' creations (made in 45 minutes, please excuse the lack of editing):

Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Check it Out. 

#GNCelebration -- Graphic Novel Publishers, Websites, Imprints

This is the final Thursday for our celebration of graphic novels. We have teamed up with blogger friends at Kid Lit Frenzy and Assessment in Perspective, and it's been a fabulous month! You can read our Nerdy Book Club post telling about the month-long celebration, and you should check out the Google Community where there is now an amazing collection of resources around graphic novels!

None of this graphic novel love would be possible if it weren't for the publishers, so this week, I'd like to shine the spotlight on them.

I'll start with AMP! Comics for Kids -- Andrews McMeel Publishing. They are:

"...big believers that when you make reading fun for kids, it gets them in the book reading habit, and creates lifelong book lovers. So we’re big proponents of comics and graphic novels, because they do just that. In fact, that’s most of what we publish!"

These are the folks that bring us Big Nate, as well as many other characters, books, and series. If you explore their website, you'll find information about all their books, videos, fun stuff to make and do and know, a blog, and information for teachers and parents on teaching with comics.

Scholastic has the Graphix imprint, and a variety of activities (including a comic-maker) can be found on their website. Graphix has brought us Bone, Amulet, Captain Underpants, Ricky Ricotta, Sisters, Drama, Smile, Babysitter's Club, and Sunny Side Up. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that books from this imprint have been gateway books for some of the most reluctant readers in my classroom over the years!

First Second, the graphic novel imprint of Macmillan, may not have the flashiest, most kid-friendly website, but if you browse the SEVEN PAGE list of their books, you'll find an amazing lineup of award-winning books and authors. Lots of books you need to put on your TBR can be found there. First Second has brought us Giants Beware, Zita the Spacegirl, Adventures in Cartooning, George O'Connor's mythology series, Fable and Fairytale Comics, American Born Chinese, and many many more.



Thank you, publishers, for bringing us this vibrant format that has hooked so many of our students and helped them to develop a life-long love of reading all kinds of books! You help make our job easier!

Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet

Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet
by Buzz Aldrin (with Marianne J. Dyson)
National Geographic Kids, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher

Buzz Aldrin is a man with a vision. He truly believes that we can and should make plans to colonize Mars. He boldly states,

"Plans for building the first homes on Mars are already in progress. Through this book, you'll learn why I think it's time to commit ourselves to building a permanent home on the red planet."

This book walks the reader through preparing to go to Mars, getting to Mars, landing on Mars and constructing homes, and the potential to change the climate of Mars after 1000 years of human habitation on the red planet.

I am continually telling my students not to be worried that all of the possibilities for scientific discovery will be used up by the time they grow up. This book is proof of that. The amount of creative thinking and problem solving that will go (has gone) into this possibility (probability/reality) is absolutely mind-boggling.