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This year is going so fast!  This week was a crazy week with students full of energy and difficult to get them to work.  I am so glad I have this weekly ritual of looking for celebrations because the positive energy really pulled me through the week.

The power of a good read aloud is something to celebrate.  I read Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen every year because my 8th grade students need to start learning about the awful things that happened to slaves.  This book is quite graphic, but powerful and a great story.  This week we got to the intense part of the story and the quiet descended on the room.  I love when that happens!

I chose an article of the week that was about slavery today in the world.  Then, I sat back and listened. I love that my students made the connection that I was hoping they would make.  They were astonished to learn that there is still slavery in the world.  Their thinking was so deep and I was so happy to see that I was extending their world view and giving them something to think about.

This week, I also started using the brilliant ideas of Jeff Anderson.  I had planned to use his ideas throughout the school year, but never got myself together enough earlier in the school year.  This week we did a study of commas after introductory phrases.  I love how my students reacted to the ridiculous acronym AAAWWUBBIS.  They really got it and I am excited to do more with it next week.

One of the best lessons, in this series of lessons about the comma, was writing using the inspiration of “If I had $1,000,000” by the Barenaked Ladies.  I figured out that I need to use music more often in the classroom.  The students didn’t all love this song, but they did love the fact that we used it in the lesson.

A personal celebration this week was my hair appointment on Thursday night.  I love the chance to get pampered for a little while.  I also love it when my hair is straight.  I do not have the patience or the skill to get my hair so straight so I enjoy the day after my haircut and the compliments that I get.

My husband wants to create a classroom library for his Spanish classroom.  He is working on finding books in Spanish for his heritage speakers to read.  Therefore, we made it a priority to get to the Scholastic Warehouse sale last night.  It was such a nice Friday night.  We shopped the sale and I got a lot of great books that I have been wanting to read (although I  really shouldn’t buy any more books until my TBR pile is smaller). We also found some books in Spanish for his classroom.  Then we went to a local burger place for dinner and to our favorite bar for a beer before going home.  It was a nice way to end a stressful week.

I was able to make my #nerdlution goals every day this week!  I am loving the fitbit pedometer for motivation to get to the goals I set.

One last small celebration is the new antenna I ordered on Black Friday from Amazon’s flash sales.  We have had a really hard time getting good reception on TV channels with the other antenna we have. This one is amazing! I can’t wait to watch the Packer game on Sunday without having to adjust the antenna every few minutes.

What do you have to celebrate?  I would love to hear from you in the comments!

I am joining in on this weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week there is a different top ten list topic and a bunch of bloggers weighing in.  Head on over there to see more of the great blogs participating.

This is a difficult list to put together because there are SO MANY great books that are scheduled to come out in 2014.  I may have cheated a little bit and put a few more than 10…

It seems that this year is the year for book three of a trilogy.  These are all the final installments that I am chomping at the bit to read!

I loved The Selection and The Elite. I really can’t wait to find out how things will work out for America.  I also am very interested to see how this world will fare.  Will the caste system remain?  What will happen with the rebels?

I loved Shatter Me and need to get reading so I can finish Unravel Me and be ready for this one.  It is another fascinating world and I am looking forward to seeing how this story ends.

I cannot wait for The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin.  If you have not read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and The Evolution of Mara Dyer you need to remedy that situation immediately.  This is a fantasy/thriller/mystery/romance series that will leave you breathless.  It has been WAY too long to wait for this final one and I STILL have to wait until June.  I can’t wait to see how it all turns out and what exactly is happening.

Perry is one of my biggest book crushes.  The world of this trilogy is such a harsh world and the characters must do so many things and sacrifice so much to survive.  I hope that Aria and Perry are able to find the Still Blue and figure out a way to save the world.  Through the Ever Night was so heartbreaking and I would bet this one will be too, but I can’t wait to find out.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor is the third book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series.  So much is happening in that book and in the world of demons and angels. This is another one that was heartbreaking but beautiful in the second book.  I hope that things will work out well for Karou and all the creatures living in her world.

Raging Star is another book I am really looking forward to reading.  I love Saba and Jack and I hope to see them do good things and change their world for the better in this book.

I loved The False Prince and The Runaway King and I am sure I will also love The Shadow Throne.  

Cress is a third book in a series, but is not the final installment.  In Scarlet, I really became intrigued with the world of the Lunar Chronicles series.  I love how Marissa Meyer is taking fairy tales and giving them the science fiction twist.  I am so excited for this one!

These are the other books I am looking forward to in 2014:

I am really excited to read The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner.  I really loved The Pull of Gravity and I enjoy reading Gae’s posts on Facebook and tweets on Twitter.  I have loved the glimpses of her other writing throughout the summers during Teachers Write and cannot wait to get my hands on this one.

If Threatened by Eliot Schrefer is anything like Endangered, it will be an absolute must-read. I love the concept of his series of books about the big apes and will enjoy reading about chimpanzees in this one.

I love Matthew Quick’s books and am excited to see that there is another new one coming soon.  The Good Luck of Right Now sounds like another great book which will make me think.

There are so many other books coming out in 2014 that I am looking forward to, but I am trying to limit myself and narrow down the list.  I think I did pretty well considering.  I will definitely have a very busy wallet and an ever-changing to-read pile throughout the spring and summer.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

I love long weekends and holidays.  My husband and I stayed home for this one so that we could have a super relaxing weekend.  Therefore, I was able to read like a fiend.  It was AWESOME!!!

Books I Finished This Week:

I love reading professional books that help me justify my professional practices.  I love that Donalyn collected so much research in this book to really support the reading workshop.  I do a lot of the things she suggested, but I am really glad to have templates for some of the record keeping that I always find to be so overwhelming.  Any teacher who is implementing reading workshop or thinking about doing so should read both The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild.

I was so excited to see that there were new books from Gene Luan Yang.  I have a class set of American Born Chinese and love reading that one each year.  Boxers and Saints is a set of graphic novels which tells the two sides of the story of the Boxer rebellion in China.  This is a piece of history that I really did not know anything about.  This is a genius way to tell the story so that the reader has to think about both perspectives.  It really made me think about the consequences of war and the stances that people take which quite often end in senseless violence.  I also love the cover art!

Ruby Red is a fascinating time-travel story.  I was really caught up in this story and flew through it.  I will definitely need to look for the other books in the series to find out what happens next.  I would recommend this one to grades 6 and up.

A colleague told me about Orphan Train and was kind enough to lend it to me.  This is an incredible story.  I love the way the author drew parallels between the character in the present day who was a victim of the foster care system and the character in the past who was sent on the orphan train to Minnesota.  I had heard of these trains, but did not really know the story of them.  The story pulled me in and I had a hard time putting this one down.  I highly recommend this book.

I got this one from NetGalley.  I really enjoyed Splintered so when I saw this sequel on there, I had to request it.  I am so impressed at how the author took the ideas of Lewis Carroll and twisted them into this incredible world that she has created.  This was another fantastic adventure with twists and turns and mystery and intrigue.  I hope the third installment comes out quickly because this one left me wanting more time in this world.

What I am Currently Reading:

I am listening to The Clockwork Prince and thoroughly enjoying the story.  I also started reading Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George.  From now until the middle of January, I will probably be spending more time reading adult mysteries from authors that I will see at the Key West Literary Seminar.  

What’s Next?

I am thinking that I will probably read Unravel Me next.  I have been thinking a lot about Shatter Me and am eager to go back to that world.  I am unsure what I will be in the mood for after that.  There are piles and piles of books to choose from…

What are you reading this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments.  

I cannot believe that it is already the end of November.  The first trimester at school flew by! I like the way our school year worked out and it is nice to be starting a new trimester when we get back from Thanksgiving break.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I Finished This Week:

Books I am Currently Reading:

What’s Next?

I wish I could be celebrating meeting all my PLN friends at NCTE this weekend…I will be eagerly watching Twitter for those excellent tidbits that people share from the amazing sessions they attend.

I finished my first trimester report cards yesterday.  I am so happy to be finished with them!  Our standards-based report cards are overwhelming and difficult to complete.  I love that I can give proficiency scores instead of traditional grades, but it is so hard to get parents to understand the system and my district has made these report cards needlessly complicated.  Therefore, I spend a lot of time with the comments that I write and it is always an overwhelming process.  It feels like such an accomplishment to be done with this first round.

After having a wonderful breakfast last week with some nerdy book club friends, I ordered Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller.  I knew before then that I wanted to read it, but after talking with the two people who were reading it, it was clear that I needed the book immediately.  This morning I am celebrating having time to read in order to dive into this one.

This week, I took one day to book talk a number of books that I have been meaning to tell my students about.  I showed them this trailer for The 5th Wave because I knew they would love it:

I haven’t gotten to the booktalks lately for a number of reasons and I was so glad to get to this. I love how eager my students were to read these books I told them about.  I have at least 5 new waiting lists started from this week.  Our reading community is going strong this year!

I had to switch my schedule around this week because I was not liking what was happening with the morning.  I decided to try flipping my math and reading blocks because I just haven’t been able to get the morning to flow right this year.  This was exactly the right thing to do.  My math time went so much smoother than it has all year.  My students were working in the groups I assigned them and problem solving like rockstars this week.  It is amazing how a small change like this can seem to change the whole feeling of the classroom.  The best part was that our reading workshop procedures are so set that the change did not affect it at all.  I was worried that the independent reading time being right before lunch might make my students less able to maintain focus, but it didn’t phase them in the least.

This week a number of yummy fundraising treats came in.  I got the delivery of Girl Scout chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered almonds along with the Boy Scout popcorn I had ordered. These are guilty pleasures but I am celebrating their deliciousness this week.

What do you have to celebrate this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments below.

The ladies at Two Writing Teachers host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

My dog Carmela is super smart.  She has some great lessons to teach us all.  Here are the top ten lessons she has taught me:

1. Sometimes it is time to put aside the work and relax.  My dog will push the computer right out of my lap or try to lie down on top of it–her not-so-subtle reminder that it is time to cuddle and put away the work.

2. If someone you love is upset or crying, you should drop everything to console them. The doggie form of consolation is licking all over your face, but you could probably pick something else like hugs.

3. You should welcome everyone home with exuberance. That way they will know you love them.

4. Credit cards are dangerous. You should not use them.

5. Sometimes you should be wary of strangers.  Follow your instincts.

6. Books are amazing.  You should kiss them every once in a while because they smell so good.

7. There is no such thing as too many belly rubs.  You should ask everyone you come across for a good belly rub.

8. The best way to start the day is with a good walk.

9. Sleeping in is for lazy bums, but naps are perfectly acceptable.

This is one of my favorite pics from when she was a puppy.

10. If you are naughty, just beg for forgiveness. Who could resist that face?

If you are fortunate enough to be blessed with a pet, I am sure you can relate to this post.  I certainly have learned a lot from every pet I have had.  Carmela just has some particularly great lessons for me.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

My report cards are due this week so much of last week was spent planning and designing assessments to do that last check before scoring students on the standards.  Much of this week will be spent grading and writing comments.  I am very thorough with comments and so report cards take me a LOOONG time to do, but I want to make sure I communicate the best way I can because this is one of the only things some parents look at.

Books Finished This Week:

 I was fortunate to find the last Babysitters Club graphic novel at Half Price Books last weekend.  I have been looking for this one for a while.  It was just in time because I just introduced one of my students to these and she is eating them up.  This was a quick read over the weekend so that I could feel like I at least finished one book this week.

Books I am Currently Reading:

What’s Next?

I had the opportunity to start my weekend out right with a nerdy breakfast.  A few weeks ago Jen Vincent saw my tweet lamenting the fact that I was not going to be able to make it to NCTE 2013.  She immediately got to work to plan a Chicago/Milwaukee Nerdy Book Club meet-up.  Although many people couldn’t make it, there were still 5 of us at breakfast.  It was great to meet Jen in person and to meet some new people to follow on Twitter.  I am so grateful for my PLN and the wonderful people I “meet” on Twitter and through blogging communities.  This was a fabulous way to start the day today! We talked books the whole time. So cool.  It makes up the tiniest bit for not being able to go to NCTE.

This week, I continued to have a great group of kids coming in after school for NaNo time.  It makes me feel so great that these students are giving up their time to come in and write.  One student even missed a sport practice so that he could be there to write with us.

I love the reading community that is happening in my classroom.  There are three boys in my classroom that are reading Divergent right now.  It is fun to see them talk to each other about this book and compare with each other how far they are getting in the book.  I also have a group of girls who are passing around See You at Harry’s.  I love eavesdropping as they share their stories about where they were when they started crying and what conversations ensued with the people around them.  I was able to conference with all of my students this week.  I finally feel like our reading workshop is set and running smoothly.

There were multiple times this week as I read aloud from Endangered when I knew that the students were intently listening.  There is another layer of silence that happens when students are completely absorbed with the book.  I will celebrate finishing this book this week.  It took a really long time to get through this one so I will probably pick picture books for a while before delving into the next read aloud.

My colleague and I have been working with one student to help him boost his self-esteem.  She has had multiple talks with him about the idea of being able to feel proud of trying your best.  He is a student who is so sure he will fail at things that he never even tries.  This week, he showed me a Social Studies test that he did really poorly on and said, “I know this isn’t good, but at least I tried.  I usually would just hand it in blank.”  He was proud of himself for trying.  It was music to my ears.  I hope we can continue to help him work to feel proud of his efforts and understand that it feels good to know that you gave it your best try, no matter what the outcome.

Last, but not least, I want to celebrate my dog.  She is such a cuddle-bug and I love how she forces me to stop working and pay attention to her.  It is nice to have a reminder to put the work away and relax.

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

Here is something that I am celebrating this week:

Last week, my students begged to be able to write.  This is the second year that I have participated in NaNoWriMo and I absolutely love the experience!  I knew that my students needed time to prewrite and prepare for this month so all through October we worked on developing characters and plot.

NaNoWriMo for adults means trying to write 50,000 words in the month.  For students, the word count goal is a self-selected number.  Using this chart, I set the requirements for my 8th graders.  They are required to set a goal between 3,000 and 10,000 words, if not higher.  We use the Word Count Goal Calculator on the Young Writers Program website to prove to students that they will be able to write that amount of words.  I love the way that some students challenge themselves with a higher word count goal than they are required to have.

Once November starts, I set aside at least 2 class periods a week for novel writing.  By having students work so much on prewriting in October, I was able to build up their anticipation for NaNoWriMo.  On November 1st, students were silent and writing.  And every day since the students have begged for writing time and cheered when I told them it was a noveling day.  I also offered after school sessions for students who might want to come write.  I was blown away that there were 18 students who signed up for these sessions.  So far, we have spent three separate days after school until 5pm.  Driving home from school after these sessions, I feel so amazing.  I love that I have students who are enjoying writing so much.

Last year, NaNoWriMo was the number one thing that my students wrote about on my end of the year survey.  They LOVED the experience.  This year my students are even more enthusiastic about this experience.  I would not have believed that this would be such a popular writing activity if I had not tried it.

Although I love NaNoWriMo as a class activity, I have realized that NaNoWriMo does not work for me.  I have not spent enough time doing the work to plan out my novels.  I have the ideas but when I sit down to write, I just don’t have enough.  I am learning that I am the kind of writer that needs to have plans and outlines.  The quick turnaround time of NaNoWriMo does not allow for this outlining and planning.  Even though I am not loving what is coming out, I am working on a draft so that I can celebrate my word count with my students.