I took the plunge…..last night I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Am I crazy? Maybe. But I’m excited! I have no idea what I will be writing but I plan to give it my best shot. I also have some of my students working on the Young Writer’s NaNoWriMo as part of their independent writing projects. [...]
Filed under: NaNoWriMo | Tagged: NaNoWriMo | 5 Comments »
As many of you know, my schedule was turned upside down this year. Instead of teaching two classes for 2 hr blocks of time, I now teach 4 classes for 50 minutes each. I also went from having 50 students to over 100. Needless to day, it’s been a rough adjustment. I tried teaching all [...]
Filed under: schedule | Tagged: middle school language arts schedule | 2 Comments »
Tomorrow evening Stenhouse will be hosting a live webcast with Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough – their new book is out and it’s called A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades. The book is available for preview in its entirety on our website. I’m almost finished reading it and it’s wonderful! [...]
Filed under: non-fiction | Tagged: georgia heard, jennifer mcdonough | 1 Comment »
Aubrey is alone, but no one can find out. She goes about her day pretending that her mother hasn’t abandoned her without warning. She puts on disguises to go food shopping and doesn’t answer the phone. Eleven years old, she is dealing with issues far beyond her young age. The best word to describe Love, Aubrey [...]
Filed under: cybils, reviews | Tagged: aubrey, cybils 2009, cybils award nominees, grief, loss, love, suzanne lafleur | 4 Comments »
I am thrilled to share the following press release: Lit Drift is a brand-spanking new blog, resource, and community for young adults dedicated to the art & craft of fiction in the 21st century. Besides editorial content, we’ve got daily creative prompts, daily short stories, and a weekly free book giveaway called Free Book Friday. This week, [...]
Filed under: 21st Century Literacies | Tagged: Lit Drift | 2 Comments »
Today is National Day on Writing! Make sure you make your way over to NCTE’s Gallery of Writing and check out the amazing work that is published there. I finally submitted my piece to the Kidlitopshere’s gallery, so what are you waiting for?
Filed under: 21st Century Literacies, NCTE | Tagged: National Day on Writing | Leave a Comment »
The following is a guest review by my fiance’, a huge Lego fan. I reviewed LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary by Simon Beecroft. I was very excited to review the book when Sarah received it in the mail because I am fan of Legos and Star Wars. The book seemed to be written just [...]
Filed under: non-fiction, reviews | Tagged: lego star wars, star wars | 2 Comments »
Today I visited the Scholastic Book Fair with all four of my classes. I loved having that time to booktalk, browse, and help them find great books. Want to know what the hottest titles were? Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) was completely sold-out thanks to my classes. My favorite? When one [...]
Filed under: Hot Books | Tagged: hot books in my middle school classroom | 2 Comments »
You only have a few more days to nominate books for the Cybil Awards! If you haven’t done so yet, make your way over to the nominating form and get going. Not sure what the Cybils are? Check this out from the Cybils website: Our purpose is two-fold: Reward the children’s and young adult authors [...]
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Hallie Durand’s Dessert First is an adorable early middle grade novel about a spunky third-grader named Dessert. Now, who among us hasn’t been tempted to eat dessert first when sitting down for a meal? When Dessert’s new teacher, Mrs. Howdy Doody tells her class to march to the beat of their own drummer, Dessert decides [...]
Filed under: cybils, early middle grade, reviews | Tagged: dessert first, hallie durand | 5 Comments »
