Poetry Friday - A winner and poetry sessions at my Colorado literacy conference

                   Renée La Tulippe is our host today for Poetry Friday at beautiful No Water River. Enjoy the news about her online class!  I've read her post, and it sounds wonderful.  And, it seems that I won her giveaway from last week.  Such a delight to hear,  Renée!  Thank you, and for hosting!

I have a winner for my giveaway from last week for Catherine Johnson's new poetry book, Wierdo Zoo.  Here are the pics, the bowl of possibility, and the name I drew!  Ta Da!  

Congratulations, Keri.  Please e-mail me your address (find my e-mail on my profile) and I'll pass the information over to Catherine.

My slice of life - Anticipating!

Thanks to those writers at Two Writing Teachers, we share parts of our lives on our Tuesday slices. Link up to add your own story.

Slicing this week is full of lists and planning. I'm off to my state reading conference on Thursday, early in the am.  

         Since I'm filled to the brim with anticipation, it makes me pause to wonder how much we as teachers take for granted that students will be excited about a new activity, assignment, or trip?  What if we did something like producing a fun calendar or flier about something coming to the classroom?  What if we created a special song or rhyme that invited a certain tradition that occurred every week?  What if?  I know with the catalog, the e-mails, and all the advertising my reading association is sharing, I am really excited!  I am preparing for a positive experience!  I'm hoping to learn and to bring back ideas for colleagues!  We live in a world of marketing.  Is there a way to use some of the ideas marketers use with our students? At least it's something to contemplate?

It's Monday...

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, and shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS for more reviews.  Great books are being shared!

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

        Don't forget the Cybil's winners will be announced on Valentine's Day! The finalists-all wonderful books-can be found here!

             It’s been a good week of reading and finding wonderful books, many of which I find because of those who share on “It’s Monday, What Are You Reading” with Kellee, Ricki and Jen. Thanks everyone. I hope you find a few books here you will enjoy.

          For the CORL challenge at Gathering Books (see on the right), and #MustReadIn2014 (see above).

far far away – written by Tom McNeal

               I think I am a reader who loves variety. I love mystery, newly created worlds whether fantastical or dystopian, and sentimentality. I like characters who touch me, whether humans or animals, and in the case of this story, ghosts. Jeremy Johnson Johnson has heard “voices” since early childhood, and although he is teased throughout his small village because of it, he is comforted by the voice, who happens to be one of the Grimm brothers. Through teenage yearnings to do something out of the ordinary, Jeremy is talked into a small adventure by a girl he knows from high school. Smart and pretty, Ginger wants adventure. One night, Jeremy, Ginger and two of her girlfriends set out to play a trick on the town baker. It is a trick, but with far-reaching consequences the teens rarely expect, and this time, Jeremy’s ghost, supposed to be his protector from The Finder of Occasions, is also caught up in the events that happen next. I don’t want to spoil your read. The pages turn easily, sometimes quickly in extreme tension, and the characters grow ever more endearing as the plot thickens. There are fairy tales told and lived within this book! ”When the king’s son sees the portrait of the princess, his love for her is so great that if all the leaves on all the leaves were tongues, they could not declare it.” I loved the story, believe it’s definitely YA and older.

Celebrating The Little Things

    Thanks to Ruth  at Discover.Play.Build, Ruth Ayres Writes for creating a place for everyone to share their celebrations. 

                  It's a week of sweetest 'little things', some already shared on this blog, on Facebook or Twitter, but still it's a pleasure to remind myself that those 'Little Things Mean A Lot', as an old song says.  

*On Monday, the ALA Youth Media awards were announced, and my Newbery club celebrated our own vote along with the official vote of the committee.  What an exciting morning!

          

*We awoke Tuesday to hear of the death of Pete Seeger, and since then, music has been much on everyone's mind.  Posts on blogs and Facebook along with tweets have celebrated his life of songs that touched and influenced so many in his life.  I remember more than one time seeing him in a small concert place in Denver with my family, my kids loving seeing him after hearing and learning his songs while growing up.  Among them, one I've always loved and shared with students, this song, one for females of all ages.  Written by his sister Peggy, and made popular by Pete, it speaks to me still:

Winter Chalking

Betsy Hubbard, a teacher who manages two blogs, Teaching Young Writers and I Think In Poems, and writes for Two Writing Teachers, also started a tradition at the end of the month last year sometime where some of us link up after having "chalked" a poem on our sidewalks or driveways somewhere.  I've been using a chalk app, but today, with snow falling, I thought I'd take a picture and use Skitch to share a chalky poem.  Here's the result of chalking in the snow!