Celebrate This Week 6.05.16

 

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

Thanks for checking in on my daughter's limb lengthening journey!  We're heading into week 7.  I haven't been able to check in since week 3.  Around that time we got into our weekly schedule and it was PACKED.  Then my husband went home.  I often complain that I do everything... apparently not!  I had to give things up and unfortunately it was writing and a lot of reading.  The worst of it was when the dishwasher broke.  For over a week I had to hand wash everything.  That was not fun.  But things have gotten better and I have time to celebrate!  Here are thing things we're celebrating this week!

1.  SCHOOLS OUT.... FOR SUMMER!

Even though I've been "out" of school since we left to come out here, I've still been teaching my daughter.  We finished her last lesson on Friday and not we're both officially done!

2.  Back to swim meets

My daughter has not only gone back to swim practice, but she has also participated in 2 meets!  Yesterday was our first official outdoor meet that was not just our team.  I definitely felt like a fish out of water!  The complex was beautiful - two big pools!  First we had to find her team.  All of the teams were around the pool under large tents.  The kids sat together and the adults sat together.  Everyone brought chairs.  My daughter liked sitting in those way better than sitting on bleachers!  The hardest part was how hot it was!  It was 88 degrees, but according to Weather Bug, felt like 96!  My daughter swam in 3 events.  She didn't have a best time in anything, but I reminded her:  she is diving off 1 leg, isn't doing fast flip turns because of her heel, is swimming in 90 degree heat and HAS 2 BROKEN BONES!!  The fact she was swimming was great!  She enjoyed herself and I'm glad she could do an activity that felt "normal".

3.  Hello Fresh

Many of you know I CANNOT cook.  Really, I mess up everything.  I ordered meals from a company called Hello Fresh.  I made 3 meals, all by myself!  And they were edible. :)  They don't change my attitude about cooking, but I'm glad I could make meals that are healthy for my daughter and me.

4.  Growing growing growing!
Medically, things have been going well.  My daughter's bones have grown about 2 inches already! When we first got here, her shoes from last summer were way too big - meaning the lift was too small.  Now, the lift is almost too big!  She's getting 3cm cut off this week.  It's more than she needs, but as her leg continues to grow, she'll actually need more cut off.  She's almost at 5cm of growth, and she'll stop when she gets to 10cm.  That will not make her even, but that's how much she should safely achieve.

X-rays of the femur.  

Left side shows 1/2inch growth

Right side shows 1 inch growth

X-rays of the tibia.

Left side shows 1/2 inch growth

Right side shows 1 inch growth

5.  Least restrictive
Just like we look for the least restrictive learning environment, my daughter needs the least restrictive walking device!  Which means she's moved from a walker to crutches.  She's thrilled with that move - they are more socially acceptable, according to her!

Thanks for checking in!

Celebrate This Week! 5.14.16 Week 3

 

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

Thanks for checking in for week 3 of my daughter's limb lengthening journey!  Here are thing things we're celebrating this week!

Celebration #1:  SWIMMING!

My daughter would absolutely tell you, hands down, the best thing this week was getting back into the pool.  Her incision sites have closed, and she's allowed to submerge!  She's gotten into the community pool that is (literally) across the street from us.  She's played and splashed and swam and it's been great!  She has her independence back when she's in the water and I know that's a good feeling for her.  Up next:  back to swim team practice!

Celebration #2:  getting wiser
When kids go through limb lengthening, they tend to lose range of motion in the knee.  With everything in the leg stretching and growing longer, muscles don't want to bend as much.  The hour of PT is all spent on getting the knee ready to bend.  The last few minutes of PT is by far, the hardest part of a limb lengthening patient's day.  That's when they have to do the "big bends".  Typically they are done lying on the stomach with the therapist bending the patient's knee.  My daughter was born with limited range of motion in her knee, so the most she bends is about 90 degrees.  Most of us can easily lie on our stomach and bend at the knee.  For my daughter, this is very difficult.  She has had 2 other limb lengthening surgeries.  Doing the big bends were torture.  As always, she still has to so them in this round of lengthening.  But earlier this week she said to me, "bends aren't as bad in this type of fixator."  Having that mentality is HUGE!  She is willing to put up the 30 seconds of torture for 5 bends, 3x/day.  She breathes through them, watches the stopwatch on my phone, even helps push through them instead of fighting them.  What a difference that bit of knowledge has been.

Celebration #3:  local fauna
One of the things I love about being in Florida is the local fauna.  Obviously Florida has a different climate than Illinois and therefore has some different flowers and greenery.  I love seeing the new plants outside!

Celebration #4:  Rocco's Tacos
We went to our first Taco Tuesday at Rocco's this week!  Rocco's is a great Mexican restaurant in Florida.  I like their spicy chips and the table side guacamole is the best I've had.  Love their shrimp tacos!

Celebration #5:  NO medicines!
Knock on wood, right now K is medicine free!  She took her last round of antibiotics this week and she's done with her pain meds.  Positive thoughts that she stays this way!

Thanks for checking in!

Celebrate This Week 5.07.16

 

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

I posted last week about my daughter's surgery.  I am going to use this weekly celebration to take the time and celebrate the positive about our week.  It's really easy to concentrate on the hard parts of a limb lengthening journey.  And there are always hard parts in the week.  But there are good parts.  Here's my way of making sure the good parts are focused on!

Celebration #1:  weather

It has been absolutely gorgeous in South Florida!  We had a rain storm in the middle of the week (I love thunderstorms when they aren't dangerous ones) and it took the infamous Florida humidity with it.  We've woken up to clear skies, low temperatures and beautiful temperatures.  One thing when you're close to the ocean, is there is not a huge range in temperatures.  I've noticed maybe 8 degrees between the high of the day and the low.  Today I woke up to 59 degrees and it's going to be 78 today.  That may be the biggest range of temperatures I've seen here.

Our rented town home is on the golf course.  I can eat and read and write outside, under the umbrella in the shade with a gorgeous view!

Celebration #2:  doctors

K had a really rough beginning of the week.  I knew something was off, but didn't know what.  One of the reasons we stay down here during this process is close proximity to answers.  After PT on Wednesday, we went straight down to clinic to see the physician they have on staff.  We got answers and K turned the corner on her road to recovery.

Celebration #3:  the important things

I was able to get out this week and find the important things.  I know where 3 local Starbucks are.  I joined a gym.  It's not my gym at home but I can go and get a workout in and feel better about things.  I know where the local bookstore is.  I went to the local library and got a library card.  I already have a lot of books on hold.  Yup, the important things.

Celebration #4:  being brave

My daughter hates the medicine she has to take.  The pain meds taste gross - it's a pill but it's one of those that start disintegrating a little bit in your mouth as soon as it hits your tongue.  So rather than take it, she's just dealing with the pain when I stretch her.  She still takes the pain meds for PT, but that's only once a day.  The less medicine in her the better.  The more she is her.  Medicine gives her glassy eyes.  I know it's important to have for pain, but I'm impressed what she's choosing to do.

Celebration #5:  her physical therapist

We were down here four years ago for her last lengthening.  We were so fortunate to be paired up with Mr. Don, her physical therapist.  He knew just how to work with her.  I made a request for her to be with him again and it was honored.  Her first day of PT was with another therapist, but the rest of the week was with Mr. Don.  That first day, the therapist was wonderful, but I could see K searching for Mr. Don.  The rest of the week she actually looked forward to being with him - who looks forward to PT??  They play games, he works with her pain, talks to her, includes her as part of the process instead of just being someone he has to stretch.  It's pretty cool.

Thanks for reading about our journey.

Celebrate This Week! 4.30.16

 

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

Oh, it's been a long time since I've written a Celebrate post.  Seems like always so much going on and my weekend writing has been for getting the during the week posts ready!

But a lot to be thankful for and to celebrate right now.

1.  I'm thankful that our drive to our temporary home in South Florida went well.

2.  I'm thankful that my daughter's surgery went well.  She's going through her third limb lengthening and it's amazing how life changes.  She's a very active individual and this literally stops you in your tracks.  She's at most 50% weight bearing for the next 5 months and she loses a lot of independence.  But we're thankful and grateful that we found the right doctor.  Her leg will grow 4 inches over the next 3-4 months and she'll be that much closer to being even.  She'll achieve that in high school, but she'll take an extra 4 inches right now!

3.  I'm thankful for kind nurses.  The doctor and his surgical staff do some amazing work, but it's the nurses that help in the days after surgery.  I am so thankful for their care.

4.  I'm thankful for the kindness of friends, near and far.  My heart was overwhelmed with the generosity of others this week.

5.  I'm thankful for my daughter's new swim team.  She walked away from the first day with a couple of new friends and she likes her coach.  "Mom, he tells us the same things Coach Derrick does!" said in amazement....

There's a long road ahead of us, but I'm hoping there's more to celebrate.

Celebrate This Week 1.30.16 - Studying the Schneiders

 

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

Last week I wrote about what this year's Schneider Family Book Award winners meant to me. Today I celebrate the work I did with my students around this award this year.

While our school was busy with many Mock celebrations - Newbery, Caldecott and Geisel - I wanted to introduce my 4th grade reading students to the Schneider Award.  We've been doing some work around tracking out thinking and writing longer about an important thought.

We started with modeling.  I wanted to make sure they all heard Laurie Ann Thompson's Emmanuel's Dream, which I already had fingers and toes crossed would win the 2016 award!  Using post-it notes, we worked together as a group making notes of our thinking.  Some were questions, some were thoughts, some were quotes we liked.  After we were done and just talked about the book, we went back through the post-its.  We made piles - thoughts that were interesting but we didn't need to dig deeper into, thoughts we wanted to talk about more, and questions.  While questions are often something to explore more, today was not the day we were going to do that.  Today, we really wanted to dig deeper into those thoughts that made us think.  After looking through them, we picked one to write longer about.  Instead of writing in our notebooks, we went a different route.  This time, we used padlet as our writing medium!  We wrote about the disability, what we noticed from the text and then added our thinking around what the text said.  We've been doing this work for awhile using other texts, so I knew students were ready to do this individually.

I had pulled from different libraries the Schneider picture book winners from the past years.  Students picked out books to read, got post-its and pencils and got to work.  While students read and added thoughts, I conferenced with students.  I took note of their thinking, were they just picking random thoughts, were they making deeper connections with the story, did they find important events to note, were they only asking questions.  After students read, they went through their post-it notes and put them into piles.  Sometimes they could pick what they wanted to write about, sometimes they needed to go back and add to their thinking.  Once they were ready, they got iPads and wrote longer on the padlet.  I loved seeing students put their thinking together with what they read at the end of each post.  Most of them did a nice job drawing conclusions and adding their thinking to what was said in the book.

Here's a look at the padlet they created:

I really enjoyed seeing the work students did around these books.  And I was happy to expose them to a whole other set of #weneeddiversebooks literature. 

Celebrate This Week 1.23.16 - Celebrating the Schneider Award

 

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

This week I am celebrating what this year's Schneider Family Award winners mean to me.

I enjoy finding out which books win the Schneider Family Award each year.  The award is newer, there probably aren't too many students holding Mock awards for this one, but it's one I hold close to my heart.  This year was very special.

One of the winners, Fish In A Tree, made me very excited.  The story is a special one.  When I first heard Lynda Mullaly Hunt talk about Ally and her story, it was one of those moments where the rest of the room just goes away and you only pay attention to who is talking.  To listen to Lynda tell Ally's story is special because it reaches your core.  It's a personal story for Lynda, and you know she is absolutely speaking from her heart when she tells it.  I've had the pleasure of being in Lynda's company several times this past year and I'm so happy to see Lynda and Ally get the recognition they deserve.

Now, as many of you know, my daughter has a physical disability.  She has a limb length discrepancy which has her currently wearing a six inch shoe lift.  She will be undergoing her next limb lengthening surgery this summer, which will get her about 4 inches of new bone growth.  She has a fused ankle and no hip, as well.  The ankle is a permanent situation but one day she'll have a hip made for her.  As difficult the situation, it is a part of her life, but it is not her life.  She leads the life of a regular tween.  She drives her parents nuts.  She loves to be with her friends.  She has her own passions and hobbies.  Which is why the next two 2016 Schneider Award winners meant a lot to me.

I was also thrilled to see Kimberly Brubaker Bradley win a Schneider for The War That Saved My Life.  Ada's story was fantastically written and bits and pieces of her story hit home.  Not because they were similar, but so completely opposite. The passion the story brought out in me and my daughter - how could she be treated like that?  How could the mom be so awful?  How could you mistake a physical disability with a cognitive impairment?  Wonderful conversations I had with students and my own child around this book.  Because of the life my daughter lives, the thought of being isolated and not allowed to do things does not make sense to her.  But it was also interesting to her to see Ada work so hard to do some things - the perseverance was a good lesson.  And she agreed that I'm not like the mom in the story at all, phew!

But the book that caused me to jump up and down with joy when I heard it announced was Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson, illustrated by Sean Qualls.  When I read the book last January, I immediately shared it with my daughter.  We read it together and talked about what it meant, how she saw herself in the book.  In fact we co-wrote the Nerdy Book Club post about the book.  It was the first time my daughter expressed how she felt about having a disability - how she knows people look at her but she would rise above it.  The words in the book, "being disabled does not mean being unable" are words that I feel she exemplifies.  She lives this motto day in and day out.  I will always hold this book close to my heart.

And just a quick celebration I have to mention in light of this post and what it means to us.  My daughter, who has a definite disability, just made a state cut for Wisconsin swimming this past weekend.  She will participate in the Wisconsin state 12 and under short course championships this February.  Many able bodied swimmers don't get a state cut.  It's an awesome accomplishment.

If you want to know more about Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah and his foundation, Emmanuel's Dream, click here.

To learn more about the Schneider Family Award, click here.

Thanks for celebrating this awesome award with us!

Celebrate This Week! 1.16.16 Celebrating the Mocks

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

One of my favorite things about fall/winter are the Mocks.  As I read throughout the year, I think about what books might go on my lists.  I think about what books are going to go on other people's lists.  By the time school starts, I'm having a lot of conversations about what I may put on our Mock Newbery list.  By the time school is in full swing and it's October, then the Mock Caldecott frenzy begins.  Since I work in a K-4 building, I enjoy having a Mock Geisel for the little ones to celebrate.

Here's a look back at the 2016 Mock season.

Mock Newbery

• We changed up our Mock Newbery this year and instead of reading the same book each month and only reading 4 books, we chose 10 books and let the kids choose what they wanted to read.  The only requirement:  in order to vote in January they had to read at least 5 of the 10 books.
• We introduced 6 books in September, 4 books in October.  We chose the books based on Newbery "buzz", age level appropriateness, and variety of genre and content.  We met with the entire 4th grade and introduced the Newbery Club and the requirements in early September. 
• Our Mock Newbery Club met at lunch time, at least twice a month.
• Newbery criteria was introduced and each subsequent meeting had students using the criteria more and more, resulting in deeper, richer conversations.
• Each meeting had opportunities for the students to talk as a whole group, in smaller groups based on common books, and in smaller groups and talking about the different books they had read.
• Here's my original post about our Mock Newbery.  It includes our list of Mock Newbery books.

Mock Caldecott

• We started the Mock Caldecott with me going to the different classes, showing them past winners using the Animoto video Margie Myers-Culver had made.  We talked about different art mediums, lines, shapes, styles to get them used to the vocabulary.
• Teachers read the 10 Mock Caldecott books and potentially some of the "honorable mention" books to their class during the months of November, December and the first week of January.
• Students looked at the criteria that is outlined for the Caldecott committee and used that and their newly acquired art vocabulary to analyze, discuss and rate the books.
• Teachers could use a Padlet that had book trailer videos, author interviews, and other links that related to the books or authors to enhance their Mock Caldecott fun.
• 2nd-4th grade classes participated in the Mock Caldecott.

Mock Geisel

• Clases in Kg-1st grade participated in the Mock Geisel.
• Using the Geisel Committee criteria, teachers read the 10 books that were chosen for our Mock Geisel and students discussed the criteria (written in child friendly language) to determine if the books met it.
• Teachers read the books to their classes, starting in November going until the first week in January.
• Teachers could use a Padlet that had book trailer videos, author interviews, and other links that related to the books or authors to enhance their Mock Geisel fun.

Our Culminating Events

On the Friday before the Youth Media Awards, our entire school voted for the Mock category they participated in.  We had a designated voting area with 4 voting booths set up for privacy.  Kg-2nd grade students had a ballot that had pictures of the books they read.  They voted by circling the book they thought was best for the award.  Next they put their ballot in the ballot box and received an "I Voted Today" sticker.  The 3rd/4th grade students voted using a weighted ballot.  They voted for the top 3 books that deserved to win, with their 1st choice book earning 4 points, 2nd choice book earning 3 points and 3rd choice book earning 2 points.  They followed the same routine:  voting booth, ballot box, I Voted sticker.  It was funny watching the students vote and interact with each other.  Most took the voting very seriously - pouring over the ballot, taking their time making choices.  After they voted, some students whispered together, others kept their vote private.  All were excited to come down and experience the voting process!

The big day came the day after Youth Media Awards.  We had a whole school assembly to celebrate books and reading!  Students walked in while an Animoto video was playing.  The video showed the book covers of all the books in our Mock Geisel, Caldecott and Newbery.  What happened next made my booking love heart so happy.  In the front row were our little kindergarteners.  While they waited for the rest of the students to walk in, they started reading off the names of the books as they saw them on the screen.  They were so excited - the smiles on their faces were huge!  The older kids started to join in.  How often do you have your entire school chanting book titles?  Next we celebrated our school's Mock winners.  We shared the winners similar to how it's done on the YMA webcast - I used Google Presentation and went slide by slide showing the book covers.  It was so exciting to see the kids clapping and cheering and squeals of excitement!  Finally we watched the webcast of the official awards.  We started with the Schneider Awards.  Our Mock Newbery Club had read Fish in a Tree and The War That Saved My Life, and I had read Emmanuel's Dream to my 4th grade students.  After that we watched the Geisel, Caldecott and Newbery Awards.  As usual, the Geisel had stumped us.  We had Supertruck on our list but that was it.  Waiting was on our Caldecott list, so the 2nd-4th graders were happy seeing it mentioned twice.  It was interesting to step back and watch the students' reactions.  At times they were joyful.  At times, confused.  I understood that!

Setting up Mocks for the entire school is a lot of work, but so worth it in the end.  To know that our students were exposed to such quality literature.  That they had a chance to discuss, analyze and share books and conversation with each other.  
That's a celebration.

Celebrate This Week 1.02.16 - Celebrating My Reader's Notebook!

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

This week I am celebrating my reader's notebook.  This is the third notebook I've kept, although I had a my first reader's notebook back when I was a kid.  I remember one year, not sure how old I was, I wanted to see how many things I read.  I wrote down everything.  Books, magazines, everything went in.  I wrote everything down on lined paper and put it in a report cover.  I thought it was so official!  I was preparing myself for Nerdy Book Club status back then!

My notebook has evolved since then, really it evolves every year.  Every January I think I have it set for the year, but then I add more!  Here is the 2016 model!

I love this notebook!  I found it at Target in August and knew this would be my 2016 notebook!  

As you can see I have labels all over it.  The top labels are to categorize the books I read for the year.  When someone asks me about titles, I can quickly get to the right type of book.  As I finish a book, I add it to the right section, writing the date finished, title and author.  I do not write any synopsis about the book, leaving that to my Goodreads page.

The labels include:

• picture books
• nonfiction picture books
• middle grade
• young adult
• adult reads (ha, I'm lucky if I get 6 titles on this page)
• easy chapter books
• transitional chapter books
• graphic novels
• poetry
• professional literature

I also have labels on the side. 

Here's where I keep:

• Book Awards - I'll be adding to this page on Monday, January 11th!  I refer back to this page throughout the year.  While I can list the Schneider, Newbery and Caldecott winners to you, this helps me remember other award winners I may need to go back and read throughout the year.
• Bookaday - I try to keep up with Spring Break, summer and holiday #bookaday.  I try to tweet my books everyday, but often need to refer to this list to see if I remembered to mention each one.
• #10for10 - I really enjoy participating in February's nonfiction picture book #10for10 and August's fiction picture books #10for10.  I have to start with big and/or multiple lists and then wean it down into my list of 10 books.
• Book things - here's where I keep track of some of my upcoming blog posts.  I leave several pages blank so I can add things throughout the year.
• Book releases - I have 2 pages for each month of upcoming book releases.  As I learn about new books coming out, I add them to the month's list.  I star books I will purchase and put an 'L' by the books I want to get at the library.  I try to get a lot of my books at the library.  I remind myself I don't need to own every single book that is published (against my what I wish).  It's also helpful previewing books - I've preordered way too many books, mostly picture books, that I wish I had previewed before purchasing. The library is very helpful for that!

Here's a vine that shows you a few more pages of my notebook.

Do you have a reader's notebook?  What do you keep in it?

Celebrate This Week 12.12.15

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE


I am writing this post a bit late because I needed to wait for the meet to be over, and now that it is, I can officially celebrate.

The past three days, Thurs-today, my daughter participated in her first ever Paralympic Can Am Open swim meet.  This is an international swim meet that has qualifying standards. 

My daughter swims on a competitive club team.  Despite having a 6 inch leg length discrepancy, not having a hip on her right side, having a lack of range of motion between her knees, and having a fused right ankle, she is a good swimmer.  With able bodied swimmers, she is right there in the middle of them.  She's not the fastest, and she is definitely not the slowest.  She will never have times that shine like the fastest of swimmers are able to get.

We found the Paralympic events a couple of years ago.  Our head coach pointed us in the right direction and get us set up to be classified.  Our daughter has participated in two swim meets at the Olympic Training Plaza in Colorado Springs.  The swimmers are supportive, kind, and very competitive.  Sitting on deck with the parents is a great experience.  Everyone is supportive and wants the best for each swimmer.  Everyone is genuinely interested in all of the swimmers and the comments are genuine and kind.  I've seen members of the US Paralympic swimming team take the time to encourage all swimmers and go up and talk to everyone.

This is the first time our daughter has qualified for the "next level".  There are usually two Can(ada) Am(erican) Open swim meets each year.  They do not have one this spring because of Olympic Trials.  Our daughter qualified in one event, the 400m free, and was able to swim in two bonus events.  Since she is undergoing her next limb lengthening surgery this coming May, which will put her out of swim for an extended period of time, we figured we would go to the CanAm since we don't know when the next one will be for her.  It was the first time she would be able to swim in a prelim/finals situation.  Did I mention she's only 10 years old?  

There was definitely a bit more pressure than her regular swim meets.  First of all, she didn't have her swim buddies with her.  She had her coach, but as any parent of a tween know, that's definitely not the same!  And she woke up with a horrible head cold the day we left.  But, she triumphed through it all.  Prelims for the 400m free the first morning were a bit tough.  Somewhere between nerves, not feeling well, swimming in a new pool, left her swimming a bit inconsistently.  But she worked it out for that night's finals and did great.  Friday she had the 100m back, and had a great prelims and finals.  Today she swam the 200m back, which was a timed finals only event (meaning she doesn't have to go back tonight).  She took 25 seconds off from her time in June!

As I sit in the stands and watch these athletes, I feel so fortunate that these kids and adults are recognized as the athletes they are.  We talk about growth mindset all the time in the classroom.  It's an area that should be addressed by the sporting community as well.

I talked with a family this morning who has a son who is in a wheelchair.  He would love to be more competitive in swimming, but there aren't any club swim programs that will take him  on their team.  He swims for his high school, and his coach there coaches him in the summer as well, but it's still not year round.

I talked with a young woman who was there cheering on her boyfriend.  He found swimming after fighting through his own demons after being wounded in war.  He had a dream to be on the paralympic track and field team, but once those plans were altered, he found swimming as a way to continue to compete and reach new goals. 

These athletes that I had the good fortune to meet this weekend showed me that they are determined and are showing us all to not discount them.

What a weekend.  Now excuse me, my daughter is ready to go to the pool.  Except this time it's to play, not swim laps!

Go Team USA!

Celebrate This Week! 12.05.15

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE


I've had a little unintended blogging break.  It happens this time of year.  Life gets very busy.  But in a good way.  Time to celebrate!

NCTE
Late November is becoming my favorite time of the year.  NCTE is such a wonderful conference to look forward to every year.  I look forward to:
1.  The Learning
I learn new things, I learn snippets, I think more, I reevaluate.  
All good.
2.  The People
It's a coming together of friends that I don't get to see, friends I only talk with or tweet with.  Friends that replenish my love and passion for what I do.  Friends that started out as tweeps, who became an integral part of who I am.
3.  The Books
You don't leave NCTE empty handed.  Publishers are very generous.  I try to look for those books that I already know I want to read for a specific purpose or those that will fit my readers at school.  I'm very grateful to have left with books that I am happy to read and then talk about with many others.

Thanksgiving
I love Thanksgiving.  It holds so many traditions for me.  A Turkey Trot in the morning with friends.  Thanksgiving with my family.  Amazing food.  Time to talk and catch up.  Relaxed.  No expectations.

Christmas season
It's here.  I try to be as organized as possible, but it still always leaves me feeling a bit hurried and crazed.  
We started Christmas shopping on Black Friday.  Well, not really, we were out Thanksgiving night.  It's been a tradition for the past few years.  Our daughter has a sleepover at my parents house.  A win for her.  My husband and I have time to go out and shop.  We try and get as much done as possible.  My husband is a night owl - he can stay up and get it done.  I shuffle along, with my eyes half closed, and probably end up buying more than I should because I'm too tired to think.  We sleep in a bit on Friday and then my husband goes back out and gets a few things done.  I stay home and wrap and wrap and wrap.  
The rest of the weekend was spent decorating.  Both trees were put up.  I love taking out each decoration.  And now that it's done, I can sit back and watch TV or read my book or write these blog posts in front of the Christmas tree.  Beautiful.

Thanks for celebrating with me.

Celebrate This Week! 11.14.15

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

Picture Book Month Celebration
I am continuing to celebrate November as Picture Book Month.  I shared my reasons for celebrating a wonderful picture book with my reading intervention students last week.  We had another week of great conversations using these books:
            

     
Great conversations about perspective using all of these books!  I think it's so important to acknowledge the conversations the students have using books and how it impacts their learning to share in the talk together.

Mock Newbery

Last Year
Last year, my colleague and I embarked on our first Mock Newbery Club with the oldest students in our school, the 4th graders.  Having a Mock Newbery Club with this age student can be tricky.  They aren't always ready for the complexities of books that have potential of being a chosen Newbery honoree, but these students are ready to read wonderful literature and share and discuss what makes that book stand out.
Last year we read 4 shared titles.  We read one each month.  Students could pick and choose which books they wanted to read, but we only discussed one title each month.

Getting ready for this year
This year we wanted to switch it up and allow more choice.  And with more choice, we wanted more titles.  We decided upon 10 titles.  The titles were chosen by talking with other educators to compare titles and criteria, looking at blogs that specifically looked at potential Newbery titles and Goodreads Mock Newbery group.  They were also chosen because they would provide a wide variety of reading, both in topics, genre and level, for fourth grade level students.  While we understand that some of them are books that may not live up to the highest Newbery award criteria, they are excellent books for students who range in age from 9-10 years old.

September
We met with our fourth grade teachers and students in September.  The first six titles of our Mock Newbery Club were shared with students.  We discussed the parameters of the club.  There would be ten titles students could choose from.  Students must read five books in order to vote in January.  We meet at least once each month, starting in October, to discuss the various books.  In order to participate, students needed to return a contract that both the student and parent signed.  They received an official "Mock Newbery Committee Member" packet with information, a book order form and Newbery criteria information.  The packet was in a sealed envelope that was addressed to each "committee member" to make it look official!  There were many smiles on the students' faces when they received their packet.
We discussed with students how to get the books they wanted to read.  Our school library ordered copies, often multiple copies, that were placed in a special bin that is housed in our school library.  Only members of the Mock Newbery Club can check these books out until after the YMAwards in January.  My colleague and I checked out books from the public library using our teacher card.  This allows us to keep the books for an extended period of time.  I had a few ARCs of the books that I also added to the pile.  We also talked about how books are available on audio at the local library.  Some students have bought or borrowed books for their kindles.  
Titles that were revealed in September:
                

     

October
We had our first Mock Newbery Club meeting.  About half of our fourth grade students are participating.  Out of my seven reading intervention students, six students are participating.  We meet during the students lunch time.  It's books, food and conversation.  Students sat with other students who had read the same book.  If they had already read multiple books, they chose their favorite to discuss.  We had Newbery criteria sheets to pass out to everyone.  Using the criteria prompts, students, I mean Mock committee members, talked to each other about whether a book met criteria.  What parts did?  Was it the entire book or did one part stand out over others?  Fourth grade teachers, my reading teacher colleague and I roamed between the different groups, sharing in the conversations.  The committee members did a great job talking about the books and the parts that stood out to them.
Next, we had committee members pair up with other committee members who had read different books so they could share.  This gave students who had read multiple books a chance to talk and share all the titles they had read.  Many committee members walked away having an idea of the next book they wanted to read.
Finally, we shared the final four titles on our list.
               
Before leaving this first meeting, students were able to trade books and check a new one out if they were ready, including some of our new titles.

November
Early in the month, we went around to the fourth grade classrooms and took pictures of students holding up the books they had read.  We have a bulletin board that shows pictures of each Mock Newbery title.  Now there are pictures of the students with the books that frame the covers.  Students enjoy seeing who else had read the same titles, and it's a visual reminder to keep reading the books!
We just had our second Mock Newbery meeting yesterday.  Everyone had read two books and because all three of our fourth grade teachers participated in Global Read Aloud, all of the students had just listened to Fish in a Tree.  I was surprised at how many students had read more than three books.  A couple of students were starting their seventh Mock Newbery book!
We started off the same way by having students meet with other committee members who had read the same book.  I'm noticing the conversations are getting even more rich, and kids are asking their own questions to each other instead of relying on the criteria sentence starters.
As students talked, my colleague took more pictures of committee members and the books they had read for our bulletin board.
Next, we met as a group and if a committee member felt very strongly about a book, that they had found the next Newbery award winner, they presented it to the committee and had to back it up with criteria.  Some students definitely had a passion for particular books!
At the end, some students traded out books again and they were reminded it would be a shorter amount of time before our next meeting in December.

Going forward
We will meet with students twice in December.
On January 8 we will have our final meeting where students will vote for their favorites.  I still haven't decided how voting will look.  My colleague and I need to figure out what will work best for our group.  I'm thinking about doing a weighted vote so we can determine if we have an official award winning book and some honors.
We will meet as a school on January 12 to learn the results of our school's Mock Geisel, Mock Caldecott and Mock Newbery votes.  We will cap the assembly off with watching the taped webcast of the YMAwards, specifically those final awards!

I am really enjoying the changes we made this year for our Mock Newbery.  The shared discussions, students' insights and conversations, and doing something as a school is very rewarding.

As mentioned, we're not only doing a Mock Newbery, students in grades K-1 are participating in Mock Geisel, and students 2-4 are participating in Mock Caldecott.  I'll talk about those in weeks to come!