2016 Nerd-cation

Back in 2014, when I was discussing an upcoming trip with a group of English teachers, one of my snarkier students smiled and said, "Have fun on your nerd-cation!"  And although I had never heard the term before, Adrian nailed it.  "Nerd-cation" perfectly describes my annual pilgrimage to the Illinois Reading Conference.

Allow me to share this slice of utopia with you.  Imagine, if you will, an arena filled with:
boxes and boxes of crisp copies of the latest and greatest YA novels

AND tables adorned with glossy professional development books

AND vendors peddling t-shirts bedazzled with reading puns

AND booths laden with free goodies for you and your students (and daughters!)

AND meet-and-greet sections to fawn over (and take selfies with) your fav authors!

Jordan' will be there!

And Joan, too!

And Laurie!

Imagine days where you can :

listen to Barbara of Anderson's Bookstore tempt you with the best titles of the past year

AND learn from professors, colleagues, authors, and researchers in six (or more!) teaching sessions each day

AND gawk at your professional nerd-crushes  (OMG - was that Jefferey Wilhelm? Kelly Gallagher? Kylene Beers? Christopher Lehman????)

AND enjoy meals in the company of beloved authors

AND stay in a hotel (without your children) and keep the reading light burning well past midnight (Seriously. It's insane.)

AND drink coffee & chat & laugh about books & teaching & students & life with some of the best people in the whole wide world!

  

Two of my favorite people ever oxo

All of these idyllic moments are brought to you courtesy of the Illinois Reading Council. Fortunately (?), the host location is Peoria, Illinois. This locale helps to keep all our excitement in check. Nonetheless, we geeky teachers all get pretty psyched to attend ... in three days!  Yes, it's nearly time for my dreamy three-day nerd-cation to commence. Heart be still. 
 

Here she is!  Once a student, now a colleague. oxo

But wait: there's more! At last year's conference, I had the great good fortune of running into a former (dazzlingly intelligent! boundlessly creative! effusively compassionate!) student, who is now a fellow teacher (How amazing it is when the best and brightest join our profession!)  Our encounter blossomed into a blogging adventure with our students, and - as a result - we will be presenting at one of the teaching sessions at the conference.  And that's not all. Sara is coming, too!   And if you want to know who Sara is - you'll just have to wait until my next post.  

Nerd-cation, here we come!

Something New is Brewing

This summer I helped my friend Stephanie set up for the first day of kindergarten registration.  In three hours, we used glitter, a hot glue gun, a paper cutter, a rainbow of construction paper, labels, twirly straws, ribbon, and stickers.  Since my decorating skills are limited to affixing posters to walls with magnets, my awe of the artistic work that she does to make kindergarten special bubbled over. Phew!  I thought. I'm glad eighth-grade teachers don't do this stuff. 


Enter my friend Crys. The best way I can describe her would be Einstein meets Macgyver Meets Nordstrom. She is a genius who can solve nearly any problem, and she does so with style and aplomb. In July, she decided to have a Harry Potter-themed classroom. It's so magical. So darling.And she teaches 7th grade. Hmmm. I thought. That's middle school. Do I *gasp* need a theme?


This thought caused some anxiety because I have been teaching for over twenty years, and I have never have had a theme.  My Illinois certificate reads grades 6-12, which I believe - in fact - makes me professionally unqualified to hang construction paper on a bulletin board.  If you have ever visited my classroom and had been forced to guess a potential theme, the closest correct guess would be something along the lines of "Book Hoaders Anonymous." Nevertheless, I decided to get my decorating game on for the Class of 2017.


Thanks to some binging on Pinterest (and help from the aforementioned superwoman Crys), my classroom theme is a coffeehouse.  And by coffeehouse -- I mean sort-of-a-coffeehouse.  As in, there's no actual coffee nor a hipster barista brewing up a delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte for me.  However, attempts have been made.  There's an awning outside my window and some nearly-matching curtains have been hung (with magnets) (and tied back with binder clips).  I have a cute chalkboard easel and a ginormous butcher- paper coffee cup exploding with books on my wall.  To be clear: my 10-year old painfully- honest daughter gave it a mediocre review.


However, the best component of my theme is definitely not the decorations - nor my caffeine addiction.  My favorite part of this theme is that I absolutely adore goofy wordplay, as in:

We read a latte!  

Expresso yourself!

Try these grande authors!  

The Daily Grind
Have a "Brew"-tiful Day!

Furthermore, as it turns out, I'm a little late to the educational coffeehouse party. Some educators have even started a movement called #starbucksmyroom. Fortunately, I have long been a proponent of choice and comfort, and so this coffeehouse philosophy and my new attempt at style easily converged. Without intention, my theme became educationally ground(s)breaking.

My students have been challenged to name our cafe of reading and writing. Right now, it is "Starbooks Cafe" but I expect they can come up with something more clever.

Hope you will stop by Room 205 for a cuppa minutes and enjoy the new decor! oxo

Leap Year 2016

For most of my life, I can not say that I have been particularly interested in Leap Year.  Don't tell Mrs. Maldonado, but I don't even really remember why we have it - something about the Earth and its rotations and the seasons and the calendar.  I don't know -  it's not something I spend much time pondering.

Since 2004, however, my notice of February 29th increased dramatically.  In an era of parents who (indulgently) (and ridiculously) recognize not only birthdays but also half-birthdays, my daughter's August 29th birthday gives her a once-every-four-years half-birthday.  It's fun. I can make her half a cake and give her just a half glass of milk.  I'm trying to think of some annoying "half" gift that I can give her.  She's 12 which is a fun age for corny half-jokes.

Strange to think that she'll be 16 the next time this day rolls around.  She'll be driving and (maybe) too cool for Mom's silly half-birthday humor.  And my little one will be an 8th-grader - egads. And my 8th-grader students  ... you'll be preparing to graduate from high school and looking forward to colleges and careers.  That's crazy.  We have a lot to learn before you graduate from here.  I guess that's my cue to stop blogging and start lesson planning.

 Enjoy your Leap Year 2016,  my students!  I hope you enjoy a day off from school whilst your teachers "leap" into more learning at our Teacher Institute Day.  Looking forward to your Leap Year Blogging!

Happy New Year!

 

My sweet young students will not recognize this iconic Fisher Price toy from my childhood.  Unlike the chunky figurines designed today, these fabulous tiny people could fit on the tips of your fingers - and apparently, if you chewed on the toy long enough, their heads could fit in your windpipe as well.  Deemed a choking hazard, these little cuties were discontinued in 1990, and now can only be found on eBay, at garage sales, and in grandparents' basements.

Here's the new version of the Fisher Price Little Friends.  You can see significant improvements have been made.  For starters, they have arms and legs.  It is also one piece of plastic designed to thwart toddlers' constant desire to shove everything down their throats.   Sadly, the figures have also expanded from fairly generic designs (that require imagination) to the ubiquitous Disney princesses, Marvel Superheroes, and career-oriented Little Friends. Despite these (mostly) positive changes, my heart swells with nostalgia over the older, armless, legless, and hazardous version.

So while I am not a fan of New Year's resolutions, I do like the idea of crafting my character into a better version of myself.  Like the Fisher Price toys, I want to remember the wonders of my past, yet still be intentional about making changes that will improve my impact on the world around me.