Summer Reading

Whew! Only 5 and half days left...wow. I feel like I have SO much to do and time is just racing by at this time of year. I am super excited to take a break and enjoy my summer though. My summer plans include a trip to the beach to celebrate my 3rd wedding anniversary, presenting about Google a few times, going to some trainings, playing with my dogs, working out, and of course READING!

The first time I met our former music teacher she mentioned that she loved reading and that she would share books with the former librarian. I decided to carry on that tradition last year by giving our current music teacher, Kami Nelson, a copy of Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan. 

I read this book because it was a Bluebonnet book last year and I was hesitant to read it because of its size. However, it was a page turner and has become one of my favorite books of ALL time. If you have not read it, do so now! It has a great message of how music can save lives. 

Kami gave me a copy of The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Album...and shockingly it was even thicker than Echo! I put it in my stack of books to read, but I did not get to it until a couple months ago.

I sure was glad that I did start reading and as soon as I did I was hooked. It was so neat how the author tied different parts of the story together. 

One really cool thing is that Echo and Frankie Presto are actually VERY similar in theme...plus they are both centered around music!

This year I am giving Kami the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I know, I know...I am very behind on finally reading this book. Again, it is one that hung out in my "to read" stack forever. 

I finally had time to read it after I finished the Bluebonnet books for this year. I think it will help spread the message of how powerful kindness can be and we need that in today's world. 

My student teacher gifted me with the companion book with a bunch of precepts in it so I am excited to read that this summer in anticipation of the live action movie coming out. 

Well, back to book fair and end of the year craziness. See you next week for my final blog of the 2016-2017 school year!

Region 10 Tech Conference

On Monday, I got a chance to escape the library and attend the Region 10 Tech Conference along with the other i3s in the district. It was a great PD experience and I learned from each session. It is busy season in the library so this post might be a little scattered, but I wanted to share some of the highlights from the conference.

Our keynote speaker was Steven W. Anderson @web20classroom He got the conference off to a great start! He talked about how when he was a kid he would go to the library to play Oregon Trail. A librarian introduced him to the Little House on the Prairie books and he fell in love with reading. Woohoo! Go librarians!

This cartoon from the keynote presentation made everyone laugh because it can be so true. We need to teach tech by letting students actually use it!

I love a Hey Girl meme and this one was great. We cannot be isolated. Teachers and other professionals have to be ok sharing.

My first session was about Adobe Spark. Our wonderful presenter fought through the wifi troubles and gave us a good overview of what can be created with this free program.

Here is the link to the session. 

Sorry for this picture being super crooked-I was trying to avoid a head in the way. My second session about about technology in T-TESS along with using GAFE for student-centered learning. It was a fast and furious amount of information, but I look forward to digging into it all soon.

Here is a picture of one of the important slides and the link to the page of material.

After this, I snuck out to grab some lunch from the the food trucks. I am in love with the mac and cheese from Soul Bowl. I wish we could have them parked out front for lunch everyday!

I ate really quickly because I wanted to keep going to sessions. I was looking forward to the makerspaces and badging one, but it was not quite what fits in my library. It did give me some ideas for making the badging movement work for me. Also, I learned about Human Libraries. I shared the idea with our 5th grade teachers for their biography projects for next year. 

This was a fun factoid! The link to the presentation is Makerspace and Badging

Next, I went to a great session about 10 Ways to Get Creative with the iPad by our very own digital learning team. They did awesome fitting in tons of tips in a short amount of time. 

For ways to use Educreations, Seesaw, numbers, and Google Slides...check out the link! 

\My next session was You Shared What?! about digital citizenship. This is something I teach once a year, but I now know ways to incorporate it throughout the year. Plus, the presenters were the most energetic and hilarious of the day!

My final session was about hyperdocs and was led by one of our digital coaches. I am doing a choice board session at iCon this year so I am always looking for new ideas. The funny kid videos also kept me awake after a long day! Here is the link. 

It was overall a very productive day and I cannot wait for next year's conference!

I Still Believe in 398.2

I have my blogs for the rest of the year planned out, but I did not really have anything that I was excited to write about this week. So, I thought about it and decided to just share about my love of fairy tales. I love reading different versions of the classics, fractured tales,and books for older kids/adults that are inspired by fairy tales.

I think my love of fairy tales began early through Disney movies. I was a sold on fairy tale life when I saw Belle's library and Ariel's hair. I think deep down we all long for that Prince Charming and the happily ever after. 

I love the flamingo choir in this scene too!

As I got older, I learned that the original fairy tales by the Brother Grimm and Charles Perrault were actually very dark. I took a storytelling class in college where I learned about Bluebeard who is definitely no Prince Charming.

Here are some of my current favorites:

This series was so good! It tells the story of two friends who go to school to learn how to be good and how to be evil so that they can make their own storybook. We had the first book in our library, but I felt the second one was above 5th grade level so I did not order it for the library but I did buy it for myself. I am so glad that the author has decided to continue the story of the initial trilogy ended.

This is a classic, but I love the illustrations. The kids always enjoy watching an animated story by this author and I love how he makes minor changes to the original that are so funny.

I found this book on the Reading with Rodney bus a few months ago. I took it with me to jury duty and read it in about an hour. I cannot wait to delve into more of the series about a young girl trying to survive in a fairy tale world.. I have ordered a few for the library since there is nothing inappropriate it in thus far.

I am current on this series that hopefully will continue. It is about a descent of the Grimm family and her curse to live out different fairy tales or fables. It is a fun read for adults even though it is aimed at high school students. 

I know that I have read many more books and series about fairy tales. I am a sucker for them. If you have any you would recommend, send them my way!