What I've Read

 

What I've Read This Month...

Kristi's bookshelf: march-2020

Engaging Children: Igniting a Drive for Deeper Learning

by Ellin Oliver Keene

It's All about the Books: How to Create Bookrooms and Classroom Libraries That Inspire Readers

by Tammy Mulligan

Literacy Coaching: Transforming Teaching and Learning with Digital Tools and Technology

by Stephanie Affinito

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

by Austin Channing Brown

Game Changer!: Book Access for All Kids

by Donalyn Miller

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

by Paul Theroux

Give Yourself A Break

It feels good to be slicing. It is like a great workout. Getting up the gumption to do it sometimes seems insurmountable, but once you start you are glad you have - and afterwards you have that 'feels so good' high.

It is absolutely pathetic that I haven't sliced since last spring. It isn't that I haven't been writing, but not with these muscles. It feels good to use these muscles again.

The purpose of slicing is different than the writing I have been doing, as well as the lens with which I look at my writing, has been different. All the mini-lessons on narrative writing flit to the front of my mind as I look critically at the previous paragraphs.

Best advice I ever received as a 'slicer', "It's draft writing - give yourself a break."

Disappointments

Disappointments - those things that you have high hopes for and then, well, it just isn't what you had hoped it would be. Let me give you some examples.

Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs. I am a dark chocolate girl, all the way. I can often leave milk chocolate sitting there and not be tempted by it. For some reason I LOVE Cadbury Mini Eggs. You know, those egg shaped chocolates that are encased in speckled, hard candy shells - I love them. It would make sense that Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs would be an improvement on the original, right? No. They aren't. Truly disappointing.

The Hobbit movies that came out in 2012 - 2014. Please tell me you are nodding vigorously in agreement that these movies are on my list of examples of disappointments. I could write paragraphs about my love of the book, what a read-the-book-don't-bother-with-the-movie person I am, and how long it took me see the LOTR movies because of the previous comment, but I'll cut to the chase. I gave the first of the Hobbit movies a chance. Yes, I was concerned that the shortest of the books was going to be made into more than one movie and yes, that shouldn't have been enough of a warning. #disappointment #toomanyogres

Have you ever settled in for a flight, somewhere in the 8 - 10 hour range, looking forward to what movies you might watch with a chunk of time extended before you only to find out that your personal entertainment system - and by 'your' I mean just the one for you, not the entire plane's - doesn't work? And the flight is completely full. And rebooting the system doesn't solve the challenge. Yeah, disappointment.

I was pleasantly surprised that as I thought about ideas for this post I struggled to come up with them. I have a couple of others that made my brain storming list; cancelled trip, professor with deep knowledge, but poor public speaking skills, and something else that I wrote in some form of shorthand that I can't figure out what I mean.

Oh, and this one...
The fact that I don't get to participate in the SOLSC this year as I won't have internet access for a good chunk of the month. Sorry, Mom. I know you are disappointed as you were looking forward to it being your favorite month for the ninth year. #streakendsateight #disappointed