Dublin

Mandy and I were excited to have the opportunity to share some things that are going on in own classrooms at the Dublin Literacy Conference in Dublin, OH. "Literacy Stations in Middle Grades" was not only fun to create & present, but it was also encouraging to hear such positive responses from the participants. During this session, we shared how literacy stations run in our classrooms with our students. We were able to share sample stations, ideas for managing the stations, and correlation with curriculum standards.
We both use workstations in our classrooms. We believe strongly in them and their ability to provide students with additional independent practice with skills and strategies, provide time for reading/writing conferences, and provide opportunites to work with small groups. Inspired by Debbie Diller's, Practice with Purpose, we used the interests and needs of our students to develop additional stations to our classrooms.

COMIC STATION: gives students an oppotunity to explore another genre for reading and writing. Students can create their own comic online, read graphic novels, use inferring skills to make meaning of comics, or locate comics in newspapers. Many curriculum standards can be addressed using the activities in this station.
FAIRY TALE STATION: gives students an opportunity to explore a fun genre on a regular basis. Students can compare and contrast fractured fairy tales, write their own fairy tale, write a poem about a charater or theme, or create a wanted posted for one of the villians in their favorite tale. We toted several examples from one of our favorite collections to offer examples of books and activities in this station.
BOOK MAKING STATION: allows students another format for publishing their writing. Several online sites describe different styles of bookmaking that students can choose. One great site can be viewed at the following link: book making. We shared examples of supplies included in our book making stations, as well as, examples of student work.
TRAVEL STATION: allows students to explore different areas of interest in the world. This is a favorite! In this station, students can plan a trip, learn about a new place, explore atlases/maps, or use math skills by choosing items from restaurant menus. The best thing about creating this station is that 99% of the items in this station can be gathered for free! Take-out menus, brochures from welcome centers, maps, informational articles from museums/national parks, etc.

We were able to soak in an almost overwhelming amount of information in other sessions we attended yesterday! We are still letting it all soak in & are working on sharing that information. The conference was amazing! Thanks for all the hard work from the organizers and fellow presenters! We are already looking forward to next year.

Happiness.

As I was packing up to leave school one afternoon this week I was hit with this feeling of happiness & contentment with what I get to do everyday.  Even though this week seemed never-ending (first full week since before Thanksgiving because of snow!), it was a really good week.  Really good.  These are the highlights that made me happy:
*Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems.  What Mo book can't spread a little happiness, right?  I read this to my 5th graders.  The way Mo began & ended the book popped out to them.  "Well, you know could always try that, right?"  That was all it took!  Away they went to craft the MOST amazing beginnings and creative stories they've written all year.  It made me happy.

*Inside the Slidy Diner by Laurel Snyder.  I shared this book for the first time with my 5th graders this week.  All I'm going to say is this... we read it right before lunch... 6 of the 7 students were boys... it grossed them out & they were disturbed that I read it before they ate!  Gotta love that!

*Cesar Takes a Break by Susan Collins Thoms.  Again, with the 5^th graders.  Thanks to Cesar we have a new phrase… “puddle of sadness”… we used it all week!

*Everyday this week I heard this after independent reading & writing time…  “Can’t we just do this all day?”  I really think they’ve missed this time!

*Ordering books.  Several teachers at school got to spend some of our Title funds on ordering books.  Ordering books is fun… ordering books on someone else’s dime is even better. 

* Planning trips.  Cheryl & I are gearing up 2 trips.  First to the Dublin Literacy Conference on February 26^th.  We found out this week we are also going to be able to attend a Debbie Diller Institute on 3 – 6 literacy stations in Richmond, VA. 

*The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  Cheryl & I are leading a study group of this book at school.  Our first meeting was Thursday.  We (& our school administrators) LOVE this book!  We were curious to see if everyone else did.  Unfortunately, I think the verdict is still out for some of them… fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised at some of the discussion.  We can’t wait to meet next time and hear what others in our school are doing to prioritize reading in their own lives & the lives of their students.

*Author visits.  Kimberly Brubaker Bradley has spent several days working with our K – 5 students.  Tuesday she gave a talk during our PTO meeting. One of her quotes: "Not everyone wants to be a NASCAR driver, but everyone wants their driver's license. We all won't end up being authors, but we all must learn to write to be sucessful in life!" Who doesn’t get happy about author visits?

*My desk.  This is a strange one, but bear with me!  I’ve been in the middle of Title I monitoring for months.  Everything is due next week, so this week I was wrapping everything up.  That meant I got to remove LOTS of paper piles from my desk.  I also put some of said piles into a neatly organized notebook (which makes my heart smile all by itself!!).  SO, it was right after the study group meeting, I was gathering up my stuff, & realized… my desk was neat and clean!  No clutter!  With a sigh, this allowed me to stand and soak in how much I love my class and my school.  As I looked around I saw the evidence of what we’ve worked on all week… stacks of books they’ve put out for research, writing drafts still by the computer, graphic novels they are using as mentors, scraps of paper from making books… all of it was a scene that made me happy & content.

*Cheryl.  She is who supports me.  She is who motivates me.  She is my book gal.  She makes me happy.

So, those are a few things that made me happy during this 5 day week.  This morning I (mbheartsbooks) created a Twitter account… I  hope that will add to the happiness & not scare me too much!  Cheryl (annrich7) has also signed up.  Follow us!  We're excited about all the possiblities this will offer for networking and continuing to learn from those we admire!