Slice of Life - Brothers

 Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers.

My boys just got back from a weekend with my sister. They bounded into the house, told me stories of the fun things they did. My favorite might have been when Luke said they had gone to Golden Corral for dinner and when he saw all of the food, he was sure he was dreaming. J

When they returned home I noticed Liam was a bit teary. Chris picked him up and at first we thought he was sad after leaving his aunt and niece. But then he really started sobbing. I sat by him and talked, finally narrowing down what was upsetting him so much. Luke is leaving for summer camp on Tuesday and gone through Saturday. This is only the second time they have been separated for more than a day since Liam was born, seven years ago. He cried and talked about missing “his Lukey.” Finally Luke came in, took him by the arm, and they went to our bedroom to watch TV together.

Chris and I talked about how sad it was but how nice it is that they care so much about each other. They are close but also fight just like brothers do. On a regular day they get along and also disagree at different times. Deep down I hope they care a lot about each other. And, as I watched them decided to sleep in the same room last night for Luke’s “last night” at home before camp, I think they do. 

Making Time

Kate’s mini-lesson this morning is on making time to write, not finding time. Making time means it is a priority. I get that. I’m now exercising at least three times a week where I wasn’t at the start of 2012. I always said I didn’t have the time but when I scheduled it, exercise became a priority.

So, for writing this summer I will make time. My plan is at least thirty minutes a day, after working out and showering. I will write in my bedroom because I love it and am comfortable there. I want to write more off of the computer, in my journal. I think I need to brainstorm more.

As for when the school year starts, I think thirty minutes when I get home from school would work well. Before dinner as my boys enjoy some downtime of their own shouldn’t be a problem.

Today’s thirty minutes will start with Jo Knowles blog and her Monday prompt. Can’t wait to get started! 

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I’m joining Jen & Kellee (and many other bloggers) in discussing what we are reading this week. Join us! Go to their site and link up your own blog.

Hmm. Already falling behind in my summer #bookaday. To be fair, I was out of town this weekend and hanging out with the family I was with was more important than reading. That being said, I need to catch up! Here we are on the tenth day of summer and I am reading book number 8! Argh! Oh well. Here's a photo of my reading last week:

All of the books in the photo were AMAZING! Love the Topps League series. Can’t wait to introduce it to some boys at summer reading camp tomorrow.

I’m obsessed with anything Kate Messner writes and reviewed Capture the Flag here.

And One for the Murphys…. Read it. Actually read it WITH a box of Kleenex. I had the misfortune of having my friend, an electrician, in our house as I finished. He was shocked by the amount of tears I was shedding. J

Next up:
Every Day by David Levithan

And

White Stag by Kate Seredy

Teachers Write!

If you’ve been reading this blog since my first post (found HERE) you will know I haven’t been doing this very long. As I write in that first post, I went to NCTE this past November and came back with the notion that I needed to write. Ruth, Colby, Kate, Donalyn, and more gave me motivation. So even though I was in the last year of grad school and had zero free time, I began a blog.

So far, it has gone well. I love blogging my books I’ve read on Mondays. Blogging a slice of my life on Tuesdays. I’ve met wonderful people through it these last seven months. I participated in the slice of life challenge during March and loved it. I’ve gotten feedback on my writing, put it out there for others to see, and I’ve grown.

I think this has transferred over to my teaching. I’ve been able to talk to my students more about writing under a deadline (slice of life), coming up with ideas when staring at a blank page, taking feedback – both positive and negative. All great lessons. And without being a writer myself I don’t know that I would have been able to relate as well to my students as writers.

As Colby Sharp wrote this morning, (HERE), I think that being a voracious reader influences my students and my teaching. I am a better teacher because I read. I cannot imagine trying to help students love to read without actually reading myself. The same holds true for writing. And as I’ve known all year, this summer was the time I was going to give myself to dive deeper into writing.

You see I’ve really wanted to try writing more deeply. A blog post would be, for me, what I consider first draft writing. It usually takes me no more than 20 minutes. I think of an idea, open up word, and start typing. Skim over, publish, done. I know I need to do more, but what?

I truly want to write a book. Not for kids, although that would be awesome, but for teachers. I’ve wanted to write one ever since reading Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer. (And if you haven’t read it yet, stop, go order it, come back. You need this book.) When I read The Book Whisperer, it was like everything I was doing was confirmed for me. I was on the right track. But other teachers I shared it with that weren’t teaching like Donalyn loved it too. They said they loved it because you could tell a “real teacher” wrote it. That someone that understood them. I liken it to Kate Messner’s dialogue in her books between kids. A student in my class said Kate knew how to write kids as they truly are. I think that is because she was a teacher herself and saw kids daily. Donalyn is a teacher, she isn’t suggesting we do things that really won’t work in a regular classroom. So her book inspired me, but I didn’t know where to go from there.

Teachers Write!

So my goal this summer, to try and start sorting out the ideas I have in my head. And now, Kate Messner, Gae Polisner, and Jen Vincent have come along with this virtual writing camp for educators. It’s like they read my mind and found exactly what I’ve needed. I’ve signed up and can’t wait to begin. How about you? Click below the button to learn more about Teachers Write!

Capture the Flag by Kate Messner

This spring when educator friends went to IRA in Chicago I was jealous. As tweets came out about the advanced reading copies they found, there was one in particular I was dying to read, Capture the Flag by Kate Messner.

See when I first joined Twitter almost three years ago, I somehow found Kate then. Her new book, The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z was coming out that September. I knew she was a teacher. I still remember going to Barnes and Noble and seeing the book on the shelves, taking a picture and tweeting it to her after I bought it. She said it was the first viewing of it in the wild. J

After reading and falling in love with Gianna, I shared it with my school librarian. She decided to base our family reading night around it and Kate agreed to Skype with our school. It was wonderful and cemented me forever as a fan of Kate Messner.

Along the way she has written more amazing books – Sugar and Ice, the Marty McGuire series, Eye of the Storm, Sea Monster’s First Day, and Over and Under the Snow. I have purchased and loved them all. So now you can understand my jealousy of the wonderful friends who were reading Capture the Flag!

Flash forward to yesterday.  John Schu had Kate visit his blog to discuss the new book. Kate even posted on the Nerdy Book Club discussing her love of reading and researching. (There is a giveaway of the book on both blogs!) I was quickly checking again to see the release date for Capture the Flag, had they miraculously moved it up to June 1^st? Nope, still July 1^st. Then someone tweeted gratitude to Kate, Capture the Flag had been delivered to their mailbox today. The seed of hope was planted. Sometimes Scholastic sends me copies of her books ahead of time, but they are delivered to school. I raced to school, said hello to our wonderful secretaries, and turned to my mailbox. I let out a loud, “WOO HOO!” which made them jump. A package! It was here!

Quick goodbyes all around and I drove home. I told their boys they were on their own for a bit and dove onto my bed to read.

How to quickly summarize this book is difficult. It reminded me of the National Treasure movies (and one of the kids even said that in the book.) Three children; Anna, Jose, and Henry, meet at the start of the book. All of them are from Vermont but are in Washington D.C. at an event their parents (or aunt) has been invited to at the Smithsonian. Once the event is over someone steals the famous flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner”. This is announced on the news the next day when the kids and their families are at the airport trying to fly home. However D.C. has been hit by a blizzard and all flights are cancelled. The children at this point meet each other and then eventually decide that if they are stuck, the culprits might be stuck too. At first they are only casually trying to solve the crime. But as they get personally involved, and the stakes rise, they race against time (and flight departures) to finish the job.

I loved the story. It was a fast paced adventure. There were small lessons woven in throughout the book that would make this an excellent read aloud to a class. My only disappointment was at the end of the book. I had grown attached to these characters but I was still wondering what was going to happen to them. To my great delight Kate tweeted yesterday that yes, there is a sequel. So thrilled about that. I could see this as a wonderful series. I think if you have students who enjoy this they would also like C. Alexander London’s Accidental Adventure series or Tom Angleberger’s hilarious Fake Mustache. I highly, highly recommend this book.