Slice of Life Challenge #11

One of my favorite parts of my day is my drive to work .  It’s only about 15 minutes from my house to school, but I try to make good use of the time I have.  Until recently, I listened to my iPod and just relaxed.  However, I recently began listening to my first audiobook.  As a highly visual learner, I shied away from listening to books because I assumed I would just tune out.  Plus, I love to sing along with my radio (at the top of my lungs), so losing that time made me a little sad.

A few days ago I had to drive to a wedding that was over an hour away.  I downloaded an audiobook onto my iPod and figured I would give it a shot.  As I drove up the parkway and into the mountains, that hour flew by!  I was enjoying the story and realized that listening to a reader would also help me with my read-alouds.  It’s interesting hearing another person’s interpretation of  character’s voices, mannerisms, and speech.

Every morning when I get into my car, I place my iPod into it’s stand and set up the FM transmitter.  Even though I only have 15 minutes (at the most), listening to someone tell me story has now become my favorite part of my morning routine.  Even when I pull into my parking spot at school I sometimes spend a few more minutes in the car, finishing a chapter.  For someone who has regretted the loss of her pleasure reading time, audiobooks are filling a great void in my life.

Professional Books Reviewed

I am very excited about a website I found today while looking for some reviews.  I am constantly looking through catalogs and deciding I *need* every professional book.  However, professional books are expensive and I can’t afford to buy them willy-nilly.  A co-teacher and I are considering purchasing a fairly expensive professional resource but aren’t sure if it will be suitable for our classes.  They seem to frown upon returning  professional resources after perusing them, but what else can I do? However, while looking for the author’s website I found a site that publishes reviews of many, many professional books and was pleased with the reviews I read.  Most of the reviews are written by education professors with many years of experience in the field.  Check it out!