October Sky

October Sky is a wonderful autobiography by Homer Hickam.  Homer is growing up in a small coal mining town in West Virginia. His live is changed when he and his mother watch the Russian Sputnik satellite pass overhead in 1957.  He decides he will make and launch a rocket of his own.  Werhner von Braun is his hero.

The high school freshman is joined by others and they form the Big Creek Missile Agency. Their early experiments create problems, like blowing up his mother's garden fence.  They convince the mine machinist to help, and  eventually gain the support of the entire town.

The book follows the group through their remaining high school years, concluding shortly after graduation.  Along the way the boys and the town deal with the realities of life.  Father and son relationships, sibling rivalry, mine disasters and strikes.

It is a great read;  reminding one to hold on to their dreams and shot for the stars.

Choosing books for read aloud

Have you seen the World Read Aloud Day website (http://www.litworld.org/wrad/).  I visited there a couple weeks ago and found their Classroom kit. It has a page of 7 Strengths Countdown.  I have been using it to select books for my PK-2 reading time for the last few weeks. I always have students answer a question or make a comment about the book before they go to check out book. (It is also a way to keep from having the whole class hit the shelves at the same time.)

Here are the topics and the books I chose to read.

      Curiosity:
Press Here (Tullet)
Tillie and the wall (Lionni)
Curious George at the airport (Rey) 
How could you not have at least one of these! I first read about Curious George in my second or third grade reader.

Friendship: 
Dear Little fish (Dahan)
Wallace's List (Bottner)
Laura's Star (Baumgart)
Little Gorilla (Bornstein)
I skipped Frog and Toad, but those books are great, too.

Kindness: 
Knuffle Bunny too (Willems)
Rechenka's Eggs (Polacco)
Horton hears a who (Seuss).

I have been trying to read some different books not just my old favorites and this has been a way to branch out.

New Year, time to restart my blog.  

I joined #SixtyBooks in 2016  -  The goal is to read 60 books this year.  My daughter, Jennifer says that the picture books I read for story time don't count.  You can join by going to this website  - http://sixtybooks.com/sixtybooks-in-2016/

I read a trilogy to begin this adventure.  It is The Irish Heart Series by Juliet Gauvin.  The first book, The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth.  Devastated after the death of her great-aunt Mags, who raised her, Elizabeth Lara leaves her life as a top San Francisco divorce attorney and goes to a cottage in Ireland. Through letters left to her by her aunt she discovers the truth about her parents that had been kept from her for thirty-five years.  Through the letter, Connor Bannon (the owner of the cottage) and the towns people of Dingle, Ireland, Elizabeth begins to rediscover herself.

Book 2 The London Flat: Second Chances.  Elizabeth meets old friends she hasn't had contact with since her college days.  Connor Bannon has followed her to London.  Will the romance with Connor continue or will it be a friend from the past?  She also has a quest, to find Mags' lover, Matthieu, and share the letter Mags left for him.  

Book 3 The Paris Apartment: Fated Journey completes the trilogy.  Many "journeys" including Elizabeth's journey to find herself come to completion in Paris.  There are even a few surprises in the final book that were only hinted at in the first two.

Three down.  Reading October Sky and Strike Three You're Dead.

Picture books read this week:

Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
SkippyJon Jones, Snow What by Judith Schachner
Don’t let the pigeon stay up late by Mo Willems
Shiver me letters: a pirate ABC by June Sobel

Teaching is like Farming

Just read an interesting article "Teaching is like Farming" - very appropriate to our area.  In both, we sow and reap, however the results are not immediate.  Sometimes the results of our "sowing" will the "reaping" by another teacher.  The article also spoke of the constant attention we need to pay to each of our students.  This include not just their academic needs, but social, emotional, and physical as well.


The farming season begins in many areas as the school year ends.  Let us look toward the fall and our new season of sowing.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3333/3546109681_222fc2fb28.jpg

Warning

Since yesterday I am "officially old."  That is I am 65.  So have taken a new motto, so to speak.  It is Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning."  So watch out if I start wearing purple too often.

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple 

With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me. 

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves 

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired 

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells 

And run my stick along the public railings 

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in the slippers in the rain 

And pick the flowers in other people's gardens 

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat 

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go 

Or only bread and pickle for a week 

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry 

And pay our rent and not swear in the street 

And set a good example for the children. 

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now? 

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised 

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

my version of march madness

Sometimes I was more like the Mad Hatter in Wonderland.

This year we hosted Panhandle Conference Quiz Bowl.  (The day after Parent-Teachers conferences, and middle of book fair) After many weeks (months) of planning, recruiting, etc it all came together.  Over 100 participants and coaches from six school, 40+ volunteers, and we made it though the day with only a few bobbles.

I was proud of my Middle School team.  They took First Place!! Two days before they had participated in a warm up competition at Chadron Middle School.  The high school teams did well. Kate Roberts make the All-Conference team. Yeah! Kate.

I really don't like doing all this in one month.  Fortunately hosting only happens once every five or six years.

For Read Across America and into Parent Teacher conferences the elementary participated in a Decorate Your Door contest.  A book was the theme.  Most chose a Seuss book.  The fifth grade had a red Readbox with each student contributing a book cover.   Next year we'll invite the Middle School and High School to join in.  I think they did a great job.  Some are still up, some are down.

  Yes, those are all the doors - sixth, first, third, Title, first, PreK, fourth, Kindergarten.  We are a very small school.

Fun Camps 2013

Instead to teaching summer school this year, I decided to lead some Fun Camps.  This week is Jr. Programming.  I have four very enthusiastic boys working with Scratch.  The first time I saw Scratch and moved the little cat around I wasn't too impressed.  Then I saw a program that someone had done that played "Frere Jacques" in a four-part round. This was so different from moving a cat that I had to give Scratch a second look.
It is easy to get started, but can get difficult and complicated quickly.  We are working on a MiniMario game from ScratchED.