The One With My Girl Crushes #sol15

Every Tuesday, I participate in the Slice of Life challenge at Two Writing Teachers. If you want to participate, you can link up at their Slice of Life Story Post on Tuesdays or you can just head on over there to check out other people's stories. For more information on what a Slice of Life post is about, you can go here. 

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I love music. I love all sorts of music. I grew up listening to what we called "the oldies" in the 80's and 90's...which was music from the 50's and 60's but I also listened to NKOTB and Debbie Gibson and Tiffany and Madonna. In high school I found alternative and went to see Oasis, Dishwalla, and Counting Crows in concert. I love CCR and Green Day and Barenaked Ladies and Garbage. After college, I started listening to country and lately I'm back to pop but I still am always on the lookout for songs that catch my attention. I have a friend who I'll ask to send me a song-of-the-day, especially when I need something different or unique to get my mind off of things.

But recently I heard a song that made me cringe. It's called Girl Crush by Little Big Town. You can watch the video and the lyrics are included if you do (FYI, it's not very kid friendly). Basically, the song is all about a girl who envies another girl because the guy she likes is in love with the other girl. I really like the song...the tempo and the mood...and I was intrigued when I heard girl crush until I figured out what they meant by a girl crush. Honestly, I'm all for girls crushing over girls but not in the way Little Big Town suggests. Why can't a girl be inspired by another girl instead of being envious of her? Why can't a girl look at another girl and see her confidence and wish she could be like that too? Why can't a girl look at another girl and stand taller knowing she's a girl and she rocks, too? It really irritates me. 

What I would say to any girl who has a girl crush like Little Big Town suggests is: Look. Forget about him. If he loves her, he loves her. You go be you. Be awesome. Be passionate. Pour your energy into the things that make you happy and people who appreciate you. Love yourself. Love life. And love will find you. 

So in the spirit of girl crushing my way, I'm sharing some girl kid lit authors who I've so totally got a girl crush on right now. All of these women are doing amazing things for children's and young adult literature. And, lucky me, these are only a few of the amazing women who inspire me as a teacher, reader, writer, mother, but most importantly, as a woman.

Kate Messner

Ame Dyckman

Jacqueline Woodson

Raina Telgemeier

Jenny Han

Who are some of your girl power author heroes in kidlit?

Girl power for the win!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 6/15/15

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

It was a whirlwind of a week. We read some of Oggie Cooder and listened to some of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. I adore Harry Potter but so far Peanut isn't interested. I'm still reading and enjoying Lost In The Sun by Lisa Graff.

Reviewed Last Week:

Click on any picture above to go read my review/post.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

I'm taking a break from book reviews this week but hope to back and at it the rest of the summer. It's going to be a busy summer with Nerdcamp and Teachers Write! I'll share posts here and on Twitter. I am still reading Lost In The Sun and I'm hoping to read Lois Lane: Fall Out by Gwenda Bond.

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

Let's Celebrate Geocaching Adventures!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating geocaching adventures!

*throws confetti*

This week, I worked on curriculum writing with a great group of teachers. When we took a break for lunch, one teacher asked if I had ever done geocaching. I was excited to tell her about my adventures geocaching with Peanut. We've found a few and spent lots of time looking for another one we never could find but we definitely had fun. Others in the group had never heard of it so we started explaining what geocaching is. 

We explained the Geocaching app and how it interacts with geocaching.com. Then we found one close by and set off to find it. It was at the top of a parking garage structure so we had to make the trek all the way to the top. And then we had to try different spots before we finally lifted this metal piece (below) and found a water bottle full of trinkets and a weathered piece of paper where we logged out visit.

In case you ever go geocaching, this is a great tip. At the base of light poles like this, you can often lift up this metal piece at the base and find geocaches underneath!

It was a little bit silly but a lot of fun. We discussed the opportunity to practice problem solving and critical thinking skills and use technology with practical skills and decided we love geocaching. If you've never tried it, I would definitely recommend checking out the website or the app and seeing if there are any caches hidden near you! 

What are you celebrating this week?

Poetry Friday - Fight Song

 Today Poetry Friday is at Jama's Alphabet Soup!
Be sure to visit and check out all the great poetry posts!

I love music and I usually end up sharing lyrics for songs I love when it's Poetry Friday. Today I'm sharing Rachel Platten's Fight Song. As a mentor text, I love the similes in these words and the imagery thanks to that simile. Peanut was telling me about something this morning and he used a simile. It was simple but it made me realize how naturally similes can be and how having lots of examples can help kids think about similes, when to use them and why. 

More than that, I love the sentiment of this song. The idea of believing - in whatever you believe in - and not giving up is powerful. This school year while doing some committee work, a colleague described me as idealistic because I was holding teachers to high expectations. I think she meant to help me see that my ideas are a bit too pie-in-the-sky and that I needed to adjust my standards. But I quickly acknowledged that while I might have high expectations and while I might plan for the ideal situation, I'm not naive, and I know that once we set an expectation, it will be work to help people to reach those expectations and that I'm glad to do the work. I also made it quite clear that I don't believe in settling for the status quo or for good enough just because it's going to be work to support people if we demand more.

Last weekend, Peanut and I went to see the movie Tomorrowland. I thought it was great, sure there were some things that could have been better or explained. And it would be great to think that the future might be a bit more tolerant than was portrayed in the movie. But despite all of that, I love that it celebrates the power of one person to make a difference. When we are passionate about something and don't give up on our convictions, we can make a difference. Usually, when I feel like giving up, that's when I find just a little more strength to persevere and that's when I see what I'm capable of and when not giving up is worth it. 

I hope you keep believing in yourself and your power to make a difference! If you need some inspiration, check out Rachel Platten's video below.

"Fight Song"

Like a small boat

On the ocean

Sending big waves

Into motion

Like how a single word

Can make a heart open

I might only have one match

But I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice this time

This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power's turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong

I'll play my fight song

And I don't really care if nobody else believes

Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Losing friends and I'm chasing sleep

Everybody's worried about me

In too deep

Say I'm in too deep (in too deep)

And it's been two years

I miss my home

But there's a fire burning in my bones

And I still believe

Yeah I still believe

And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice this time

This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power's turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong

I'll play my fight song

And I don't really care if nobody else believes

Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

A lot of fight left in me

Like a small boat

On the ocean

Sending big waves

Into motion

Like how a single word

Can make a heart open

I might only have one match

But I can make an explosion

This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power's turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong (I'll be strong)

I'll play my fight song

And I don't really care if nobody else believes

Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Now I've still got a lot of fight left in me

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 6/8/15

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

I listened to Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle and I can't say enough good things about it. It was just great. We read more of Oggie Cooder and have been listening in the car. Both kids loved listening to the book and Peanut was surprised when Little Bean laughed at a part in the book...I don't think he thought his little brother was actually paying attention!

Reviewed Last Week:

 

Click on any picture above to go read my review/post.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

Since I finished Better Nate Than Ever...I get to dive right into Five, Six, Seven, Nate. This is my last week of school so we'll see what else I fit in reading-wise. I'm just totally looking forward to summer!

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

Let's Celebrate My Little Preschool Graduate!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating my little preschool graduate!

*throws confetti*

A couple of weeks ago, we attended Little Bean's preschool graduation. It was sweet to see him sitting with his friends in his white cap and gown. When it was his turn he recited a poem, read a book, and even showed how he could count and name shapes. 

I know the idea of a preschool graduation is a little bit silly but Little Bean is my wildly curious guy who likes to move, move, move and I'm not sure he's ever been on stage quite like that before. For me, it was awesome to see him sitting still, and being quiet until it was his turn to talk. 

I'm so proud of my little dude and I can't wait to see what he does in kindergarten and beyond. He's already writing so much and thinking about how letters to together and it's awesome to see how a child grows up firsthand. I am so lucky to be a mom and cherish it everyday.

What are you celebrating this week?

The One With A Teachers Write Remix #sol15

Every Tuesday, I participate in the Slice of Life challenge at Two Writing Teachers. If you want to participate, you can link up at their Slice of Life Story Post on Tuesdays or you can just head on over there to check out other people's stories. For more information on what a Slice of Life post is about, you can go here. 

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Believe it or not, our fourth summer of Teachers Write will start on July 6th! How exciting is that!?! We'll be doing four amazing, jam-packed weeks of exercises, prompts, sharing, cheerleading, and celebrating writing. The usual suspects will be back: Kate Messner, Gae Polisner, and Jo Knowles along with some great guests Kate has lined up. Of course, I'll have Sunday Check-Ins here, this time with an emphasis on thinking about how to carry over our experiences to our work supporting student writers.

For more information, be sure to check out Kate's blog, join our Facebook group, or follow the #teacherswrite hashtag on Twitter. We'll be announcing some Twitter chat dates soon in case you have questions or are ready to get excited about the best ever virtual summer camp for teachers.

Be sure to grab our new Teachers Write logo (above), head on over to Kate's blog to see what she has in store this summer, and, most importantly, get signed up. If you've joined us for Teachers Write before, please share what you loved about it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.