23rd Annual Southern Festival of Books

A celebration of the written word - Nashville, TN!

Mandy and Cheryl attended The Southern Festival of Books on a perfect fall weekend...blue skies, music, great food! We met some fabulous authors and talented illustrators. Our first session was with Matthew Reinhart, co-creator of the Encyclopedia Prehistorica and Encyclopedia Mythologica series. He considers himself a paper engineer and has collaborated with Robert Sabuda, Maurice Sendak, and Tomie dePaola. He says he was inspired by Eric Carle's work with paper and layered look.

In our next session, we met with graphic novel artists Eric Powell, creator of Chimichanga, and Eric Wight, creator of the Frankie Pickle series. Powell worked on titles such as, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Weird Tales, and MAD magazine. Prior to his newest graphic novel series, Wight was an animator for Walt Disney, Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network.

Laura Murray presented her debut picture book, Gingerbread Man Loose in the School. This fractured fairy tale is illustrated in comic strip like frames and is told in wonderful, repetitive rhyme. As a former elementary school teacher, she would begin each year by making a gingerbread man and having the students follow the crumbs throughout the school to find the lost man.

Matt Phelan is the author-illustrator of The Storm in the Barn, and illustrator of many books including: Always, I'll Be There, The Higher Power of Lucky, and Spilling Ink.

Author Laurel Snyder has written such titles as: Penny Dreadful, Any Which Wall, Inside the Slidy Diner, and Bigger Than a Breadbox.

Tom Angleburger had everyone's attention with his talk about "The Embarassing Stain" in The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. He enlisted audience participation, and everyone made the "emergency five-fold Yoda."

Other attending authors we met include: Andrea Davis Pinkney, Tracy Barrett, and Ruta Sepetys. Mandy & Cheryl are already making plans to attend next year's festival!

used book shop

Stashed in attics,
stuck in cellars,
forgotten books
once big best-sellers

now hopefully sit
where folks, like cows
in grassy meadows,
stand and browse.

In a yellowed old history
of Jesse James
two earlier owners
had scrawled their names.

I even found
a book my dad
when he was in high school
had once had,

and a book I found-
this is really odd-
was twice as much fun
as my new iPod.

I always get hooked
in this dusty shop.
Like eating popcorn,
it's hard to stop.

~X. J. Kennedy

There is nothing like finding that book that you've been looking for in an old book shop. When Mandy & I visit a new town, we always seek out the book stores in the area. It's always fun to see what we can find!

glorious dev"I"ces

I spent a little bit of time this summer exploring my new iPads & thinking up ways to use them in my class.  Well, I guess saying a little bit of time everyday this summer would be more accurate!  One of my top interests was publishing.  I felt the iPad would really motivate my reluctant writers.  My first thoughts of publishing started circling in my brain after Tony Keefer's session on digital literacy at the Dublin Literacy Conference in February, before I even had iPads.  One tool his students use for publishing is Keynote.  For our first iPad project (after a couple of pure exploring sessions) I decided on a "Welcome to our Room" presentation.  I asked them to take 5 pictures that represented something we had done during the first weeks of school.  I loved seeing what they chose to capture!  We have the basic work done & will finish up the "sparkle" tomorrow.

Some students preferred to prop the iPad up on one of the docking stations while creating.

Some preferred the wireless keyboard instead of the on-screen keyboard.

Reader's notebook cover. Loved that they captured those images!

You Wouldn't Want to Be books & Graphic Library (some of their faves).

"Read to Self" guidelines.

here we go!

New school years are exciting.  And scary.  I'm always anxious & excited to not only meet the students I'll be spending the coming months with, but try out new things in my classroom.  My first week of school was last week.  Here are some highlights:
*An old favorite - Picture Book Biography of me!!

I started this a few years ago & have loved it!  I gather & display picture books that tell something about me.  It's fun to look through all my books as I'm pulling them back out of summer storage & think about which ones will tell my new students something about me.  I talk about a couple everyday & share how they relate to me.  It also allows me to start sharing my favorite genres, authors, & illustrators!
Wild About Books - obviously :)
Roanoke The Lost Colony - Jane Yolen, history mystery, a favorite series
Mammoth Cave - I love visiting National Parks & collecting National Park Passport Stamps, park I visited last year on annual Corvair road trip
The Journey That Saved Curious George - Louise Borden, former visiting author, great link to research
Olivia - a favorite series... love her spunk!
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins - historical fiction (favorite genre), amazing author & illustrator notes (favorite book feature), in my Top 10 Book Love list.  I actually went out to Crystal Palace Park to see the dinosaurs while I was in London this summer!!!  I was in awe!
The Wonder Book - Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  I love her whimsy!
All Kinds of Families - All my close friends know that adore all cute little objects with faces.  I think I actually squealed at the cuteness of this book when I found it a few years ago.  It is hands-down the most adorable book I own.
The Chiru of High Tibet - Jacqueline Briggs Martin, former visiting author, great author's note & research!
You Wouldn't Want to Live in Pompeii - a favorite series, another place I was blessed to visit this summer!
Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards - word play & mixed media illustrations!
Italy ABCs - informative ABC book, another stop on my summer trip itinerary :)
Queen of the Falls - Chris Van Allsburg, a favorite author/illustrator, love the author's note!
Lewis and Clark Explorers of the American West - visited gravesite of Lewis on this year's Corvair road trip
*Trying something new - Class guidelines

For the past few years I've asked students to help me come up with the classroom rules.  I decided to take that a step further this year.  I asked both classes to brainstorm as many guidelines for class as they could.  Once the board was FULL.  I wrote R-E-A-D acrostic style & told them we could only have 4 guidelines.  They had to figure out how to fit their "rules" into broad statements that began with those letters.  This was one of those times they really impressed me!  I read Do Unto Otters the first day & asked them if their guidelines fit with the lessons of the book.  I read One Smart Cookie the second day & had the same conversation.  This is our school-wide book this year (more posts about that later!) I LOVE how this turned out :)
*Trying something really new - big blank wall

See that BIG, empty wall?  I don't like it.  This is my writer's workshop meeting area.  It is nestled between my desk, the computers, & bookshelves.  It is a nook that I love & in which students respond!  That wall is usually covered in book posters.  Really cute book posters that I loved seeing.  I know that within weeks it will be covered with anchor charts from our writing workshops.  I know that those charts will be more beneficial than my wallpaper/visual noise.  It is still hard for me to look at that blank wall, but it is a change I know needed to happen.  Some of my students from last year have noticed other changes in the room.  Think any of them have asked where the posters are?  Nope.

I feel like we are off to a great start & am excited about what this year will bring to my corner :)

Suppose

Suppose I were as clever as a bird
and the words for what I am
could be contained
in one precise song,
repeated, repeated
while each jubilant phrase
spells it all
in variations
too refined for the human ear

Or that the song has not yet been found
but waits inside me
like the long note that sounds
when a blade of grass
is placed between the thumbs
and blown

It could be
that the place my words are looking for
will turn out to be so small
that there will be room for nothing
but silence
-or an ocean so large
some waves will never reach
the sound of the shore

~Siv Cedering

Reading other writer's words and soaking in eloquent sentences help me find the words I need to say. But only by writing and practicing the craft of writing, if only for myself, is the truest way to find my voice.

Where She Went

It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be.  I do not think I would.

~Edna St. Vincent Milay

This exerpt from "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink," is the introduction to Gayle Forman's new release Where She Went. With an introduction like that, what promise for what lies ahead! I cannot wait to turn the page.

A Day in Richmond

We spent a fabulous day soaking in new knowledge from Debbie Diller at her spring institute in Richmond, Virginia.  The day was focused on Adding Rigor to Middle Grade Workstations, and was held at the beautiful Jefferson Hotel. 

We learned and relearned so many valuable things from building classrooms to the five R's: routines, relationships, relevance, rigor, & reflection. She emphasized that building a classroom with high expectations first is key to establishing opportunities for small group instruction. We can do this by being clear about our schedule and objectives, nurturing independence, and "inspect what you expect" (following up on what your want to happen).

Today I re-learned that my "business is to meet the needs of my kids" and to keep standardized testing in perspective by "knowing my enemy." I also need to re-examine...who is doing all the work? I also re-learned that reflection is a step I cannot leave out. With the pressure of getting all the standards in before state testing, this seems to be the area that I struggle with most. I need to make time to ask: How did it go? What did I learn? Next time I will...

Lunch at Comfort: Cheryl ordered pimento chesse sandwich with fried green tomato and homemade chips & Mandy ordered roasted turkey sandwhich with apple mustard and mac and cheese. The restaurant was located close to VCU and completely adorable.

Supper at The Cheesecake Factory! Enough said...total calories for the day? They don't count on road trips, do they?

 

Our favorite quotes of the day:

"Think.  That's my curriculum for teaching reading."

"Do I need a level on every book?  Save your time & read a professional book."

"Assume nothing.  Model everything."

"You're always modeling, even if you don't know you are.  You're always modeling."