School's Out For Summer!

It's about time, don't you think? I thought a little vacay was never going to come.

Due to the overload of the events this week (and the great weather here in the Bay Area) I have completely s-l-a-c-k-e-d in the blogging department. I had high hopes of maintaining a schedule and blogging daily. While I LOVE that idea in theory, I really don't think it's manageable. But, I'm here now. I'll try to be consistent. And away we go....

I really enjoyed being at school today. We had to say goodbye to our rising 5th graders and dedicated staff that have been with us for a while. Transition is hard, and it feels like we've been a school in constant flux for the past 3 years. In the face of unwanted change and hard financial times our school did a great job of appreciating folks for a job well done. It was lovely to have a day celebrating all of our hard work over the course of this year.

my summer garden, ahhhhh i love sweet peas



So what does the summer hold for me?

Reading Tutoring: Two of my reading intervention students are going going to come over to my place for a couple of 1/2 days each week during the summer for reading help. I want it to be very low key, and my main goal is to get them hooked into the joy of reading. They are best buds and will be in 5th grade next year. We're going to take trips to the library, do fun projects related to their reading, I'll do read alouds, and perhaps read in the park; there's endless possibilities, I know it's going to be great! I know I'm going to be scouring the blogosphere for project ideas. But I'd love any feedback or ideas any of you have!! Share your ideas in the comments section below. 

Travel: My hubby and I (also a teacher) are going to spend a week on Lake Michigan with his family (lots of g-parent and cousin time!) and then we'll also take a road trip to Zion National Park.

Syllabus Writing: My husband and I are co-teaching a 6-unit Lit Assessment and Lit Development course for an online teacher ed program this fall through the collaborative effort of Aspire Public Schools and the University of the Pacific. We need to craft a mighty fine syllabus. I'm looking forward to this (I really enjoyed teaching the class last semester), but it's going to be a plateful. What do you wish you knew before you started teaching? If you have any tips, share in the comments below. I'm excited about our main text, Teaching Reading in the 21st Century by Michael Graves.

RtI (Response to Intervention) Planning Time: I have a couple of stipended days on my schedule so far. With a team of people from school, we're hope to refine the SST and RtI process at our school. Good times!

Hopefully summer will be filled with a lot of moments like this!!!

R&R: I hope I'll have lots of reading, blogging, and craft time! And of course, lots and lots of time with my family!!!

What do you love about summer?

Be Well! Read On!

p.s. This post was also brought to you by the help of my husband, who is graciously prepping dinner solo so I could get my blog on. Woot woot for awesome husbands everywhere!

Library Loot: 10 Minutes to Closing

To make my blogging more organized, I created a schedule for what I blog about when. Thursdays (today) were set aside as Read Aloud Thursdays. I think I am so ready for school to be out of session, because I posted for Read Aloud Thursday yesterday, and (sadly) I really thought it was Thursday.

Here's my self-imposed blogging schedule (I'll try to stick to it):

Monday: Non-Fiction Monday

Tuesday: Pulse of the School

Wednesday: Literacy at Home/Library Loot

Thursday: Read Aloud Thursday

Friday: Events/Organizations in the Community

Saturday: Day off

Sunday: Teaching Tipster

So because of my absentmindedness I overlooked posting about Library Loot for this week, which I thought I'd share quickly with you all. My small familia took a quick trip to the library yesterday afternoon (it's just a short walk away). As it was 10 minutes to closing (and we already have a massive stack of library books at home awaiting perusal), we checked out just a couple of books.


I'm into Jaime Oliver right now. So when I saw Jaime's America I had to grab it. My sister and her hubby have been into Jaime Oliver's Cookbooks for a few years now. And I always found myself attracted to reading them  when I was over at their place. But they can be pricey ($10 bucks for his mag, and $38 for his cookbooks), and they tend to have a lot of ingredients that are hard to find in the US, since he's British. This book is more up my alley- it has food I know I'll love to eat, and I can get most of the ingredients easily.

The more I read Jaime's America, the more I think I need to have it for my own. I love the recipes he's included in here, as well as the book's design and the tone of the writing. I can't wait to try these stand-out recipes over the next few weeks while I have this book checked out from the library:

• Southern Red Beans and Pork
• Candied Bacon Green Salad (How could I resist it?)
• NYC Cheesecake
• 1 Steak 2 Sauces
• Beautiful Breakfast Tortillas
• Chili Con Jamie
• Blood Orange Granitas
• Sweet Tamales 'N' Chocolate
• Mexican Breakfast
• Bourbon Pecan Tart

Okay, maybe I should limit myself to 3 of these dishes. If I try all of these recipes before the book is due back at the library, I surly won't fit into my just-ordered bathing suit this summer. Some of you know that Jaime Oliver is all about eating fresh ingredients. He's also about moderation. While he's tried to make healthier versions of these American foods, they are by no means low-fat low-cal dishes. So as he tells his readers in the forward, "be sensible about mixing it up".

Here's some recipes that look intriguing, but I doubt I'll be making them anytime soon (where could I even find alligator in the Bay Area?)

• Trout and Salad
• Beer Butt Chicken
• Ham Hock and Green Grits
• Old-fashioned Peach Ice Cream (No Ice Cream Maker)
• Venison & Creamy Beans
• Tuna Tartar
• Cajun Alligator
• Popcorn 'Gator

Have you all been watching Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution? I've loved it. And it's definitely convicted me about some of my food habits. It's hard to eat any kind of candy or ground meat after you watch it- so beware. It has affected me a lot more than Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
.



The second book we checked out was for my my hubby: The Information, By James Gleick. I feel like I JUST heard about this book for someone else's recent loot.


From NY Times Review: Drumbeat to E-Mail: The Medium and the Message By JANET MASLIN

“The Information” is so ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it. Don’t make the mistake of reading it quickly. Imagine luxuriating on a Wi-Fi-equipped desert island with Mr. Gleick’s book, a search engine and no distractions. “The Information” is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand.

I know when my spouse reads a book like this, I always feel like I'm along for the ride!

Here's a quote my hubby shared with me last night:

As the role of information grows beyond anyone's reckoning, it grows to be too much. "TMI," people now say. We have information fatigue, anxiety and glut. We have met the Devil of Information Overload and impish underlings, the computer virus, the busy signal, the dead link, and the power point presentation.

I think I'm hooked, how about you?

I'm linking up to Library Loot: Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

 Be Well! Read On!

Library Loot: Travel from New Orleans to Spain and Back

I love browsing section after section at my library, pouring over book jackets and reviews... pulling books off the shelves, reading a couple of pages, mmmmm, just lovely!

However, with a toddler in tow, I can't aimlessly meander through the library, sporadically reading books I like. I have to be focused or else...

Today, while I was quickly sampling book after book, my industrious toddler put 30 books in her stroller's basket. Whoops. I suppose I took my eyes off her for a couple of seconds. I don't think the librarians were probably too enthused about that little act of cuteness, but come on now, it's literacy awesomeness! My daughter, at a year and a half, knows what to do at the library- We get books. We bring them home. We read and read and read them. We go back and get some more. I love it! This is why we bring our kids to the library! It has to soak in early: Library good. Books good. Reading fun.

So we picked up a bunch of books earlier this afternoon. Even though I have a Kindle, I thought I'd get some adult books too, to preview any books before I buy them. The novels I am usually drawn to are usually labeled HOT PICK- which means you can only check them out for a week, and there's no way I can finish a novel a week these days.

Books to Preview For the Kindle (for me!)



I tend to like dark novels. The premise of The Convent, by Panos Karnezis, instantly drew me in- an abandoned baby was left in a suitcase at the steps of the convent. The book hints that there is a connection between the baby and the Mother Superior's tainted past.



Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson- I love detective stories, and this had a well-designed, youthful cover (I am a bit of a sucker for a pretty book). The jacket said it was full of wit and wisdom- we shall see!

Books to Share with My Students:



Over My Dead Body, by Katie Klise: I'm always drawn to her books because her husband was in my teaching credential cohort years back. She writes the books, and her sister illustrates them. I love the playfulness of these books, as well as the doom and gloom of this series. My students are obsessed with ghosts, goblins, and all things scary- so I'm sure it will be a hit!  

The Secret River, by Marjorie Rawlings: Beautiful- can't wait to read it!

Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes: A book for young readers about Katrina- I had to pick this up.



Backyard Birds of Summer, by Carol Lerner: This book is for kids. But I got it for my husband and I. We have some crazy loud birds outside these days. I thought this book looked great and would help us to identify our fine feathered friends. 

  

Drummer Hoff, By Barbara Emberly: 70's old school Caldecott winning book about building a cannon. Looks fun! I think this may be more for my toddler than for my students though!

  

Phew! I'm having a ton of formatting issues with this. So not all of the books got on the list. Sorry about that! Hopefully we'll get to dig into these over the next couple of weeks! I can't wait!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.



Library Visit: A Couple of Weeks Overdue

Some of these books will look familiar! I took a trip to the library in last week mid-week to get some choice read alouds books to share with a group of 20 K-1 students at a local after-school program here in Oakland. Here's the stack of books I have sitting in my living room:

I checked out 3 Mem Fox books, and read Boo to a Goose and The Magic Hat to the K-1 students:


This book, Pierre the Penguin, was a hit with the K-1 crowd! Check out my review of  this book this coming Monday!


This is Jan Brett's version of the 3 Little Pigs, set in Africa. I'm contemplating is this should be my next read aloud to the K-1 students. What do you all think?



Kevin Henkes is the best!! I got a few of his books to meander through. I'm deciding which ones I want to read aloud to this K-1 after school kids:


I was proctoring the state test this past week for small groups of students (who-hoo! There's nothing more fun than that!). One of the boys was really into dragons, so I picked up this neat Gail Gibbons dragon book for him to read after he finished his test- he liked it a lot. I really like Gail Gibbons books, and kids do too!


Have a great weekend! Read on!

I linked  this post up to Library Loot. Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.



Picture Book Review: I am a Bunny

Happy Easter! I just picked up this book for my daughter's Easter basket. I love any chance I get to give a book.  Many of the displayed books were Easter-themed, but poorly written (and honestly, not even interesting). After 30 minutes of browsing (I can be so indecisive), I came across I am a Bunny, by Ole Risom (Illustrated by Richard Scarry). This book is a classic- I've seen it around, but I don't know if I'd given it a read. It's delightful. The pictures lovely. The writing simple, yet beautiful. Next time you need to stuff an Easter basket, check a book out at the library for your toddler/preschooler, or buy a baby shower gift- consider this book. You'll love it.  I can't wait to introduce my daughter to hollows and toadstools and the four seasons. I hope she loves it as much as I do!

I love the detailed illustrations. Scarry uses repetition (see snowflakes, raindrops, butterflies below) throughout the book to create visual interest.

Product Description from Amazon-

I am a bunny. My name is Nicholas. I live in a hollow tree.In the spring, Nicholas likes to sniff the flowers, and in the summer, watch the frogs in the pond. In the fall, he watches the animals getting ready for winter, and in winter, watches the snow falling from the sky. This beautifully illustrated, gentle story is one of Golden’s most beloved titles.

Random House Children's Books (2004) - Hardback - 26 pages - ISBN 0375827781

Watch the book being Read Aloud here-


What book would you stuff into an Easter basket?

Read On! 

Library Visit

I'm trying out this new feature where I report out about what I checked out at the library for the week. If I was one of those super organized moms/teachers, I would visit the library with my toddler weekly. But my visits are not as consistent as they should be (reason being-we have a lot of great books at home and I have a Kindle). Hopefully this new feature will inspire me to take a weekly trip to my local library (only a short walk away!). My social, book-loving daughter certainly loves it- and that's reason enough, eh?

I do love going to the library. I like browsing through the new fiction books, DVDs, and cookbooks. I absolutely love running into neighbors, talking with friendly strangers, and feeling connected to the local community. It really is such a gift that books are made available publicly- for anyone and everyone to access.

My local library- The Dimond Branch, Oakland CA

Here's what I checked out:


For my daughter (17 months):

• My First Spanish Word Board Book, by Angela Wilkes My daughter loves these DK board books with real pictures. This book is packed with small images of everyday things, and showcases a lot of the words that she knows (banana, duck, apple, bread, table, book) or has heard often. My daughter also goes to daycare in a home where they speak Spanish only. I thought this books would help me brush up on some Spanish vocabulary, and help her to make a connection to the words she uses at home and daycare. We'll see how it goes...

For my students (elementary):

This spring I began doing read alouds (when you, as the teacher, read a book out loud to your students) weekly. Since I am a reading intervention teacher I usually have specific goals I'm working on with the students (expression, comprehension, teaching reading strategies, etc...) and much of the time I am working through a reading intervention curriculum with the students. I felt these different curriculum were effective on many levels, but weren't fostering a motivation to read (and that needed to change!). Reading a book to the students once a week for 20 minutes has dramatically improved their motivation to read (while building their knowledge about the world and their vocabulary!). Engaging read alouds are essential for many reasons (I could go on forever!), and my students' change in attitude proves it! I usually use read alouds as a teaching tool to focus on particular reading strategies. But sometimes we read a book just for fun!

• Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen I love Jane Yolen. I was introduced to Owl Moon during my teaching credential program. This book is beautifully written. A daughter and her father go "owling" together. I would use this book to focus on author's craft or visualization. 
• Mrs. Katz and Tush, by Patricia Polacco You'll probably see Patricia Polacco turn up often on this blog. I love her books- and her characters, themes of love, community, and the importance of history, all keep me coming back to her books again and again. And since I love her books so much, my students always do too (funny how that works). I chose this book blindly- I had never read it. But it's simply perfect for this week. There's a Seder in it (Passover is observed this week, I think). What a great way to teach my students about Passover (building their background knowledge) and share a heartfelt story about friendship and community. I'm excited to read this one. Bonus: The setting of this book is my hometown- Oakland, CA.
• My little Car, by Gary Soto. Again, I love Gary Soto. I chose this blindly too (well, knowing that i enjoy Soto's writing). Soto stories often convey the life of the Mexican American youth, and my students have always connected to his books. This story I like, but don't love. I would use this to have the students share connections and reflect on the character's poor decisions.

For Me:

• The Essential New York times Cookbook, by Amanda Hesser Recipes for me and my hubby!
• Too Many Cooks by Emily Franklin Recipes for the family!
• Ortho's All About Additions We may add on to our house- we'll see.
• One-Yard Wonders, by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins  I would love to learn to sew well. This book motivates me to make my Christmas presents this year.

Why do you like your library? What book(s) have you checked out recently?

Take your kids to the library early and often!

Read on!

Fridays with MOCHA at Oakland Public Library

Hey local friends!

Check out Friday with Mocha at the Oakland Public Library!


Mocha is a great kids art organization located in Old Oakland, downtown. When I ran after school programs in Oakland, my students loved coming to MOCHA! They often have programs free to the community.

MOCHA artists will be collaborating with the OPL this spring, possibly visiting your local branch.

Today, April 8th at 3:30- Dimond Branch (My library!)
Today, April 8th at 3:30- Lakeview Branch by Lake Merritt
April 15th at 3:30-Cesar Chavez Branch in Fruitvale (by BART)
April 29th at 3:30- Melrose Branch in East Oakland

Enjoy! Read on!