Slice of (Reading) Life

Posted on January 5th, 2021

Nothing is better than Christmas break. The days are full of a lot of time reading in jammies on the couch. Tuesday, December 29 was one of those days. I snuggled up on the couch, the sun streamed through the bow window, there was a wool throw over my lap, and the dog was cuddled up against my side. Christmas carols played through the speakers. And most importantly, I was reading a book that had thoroughly absorbed my imagination: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

The day promised to be great.

Slice of (Reading) Life full post

(588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Posted in Slice of Life | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

Thinking About A Definition…

Posted on December 19th, 2020

I read a lot of YA–duh, this whole blog is about YA. But I don’t only read YA. In fact there’s a lot of contemporary adult fiction that’s sitting in my house waiting for me to read it, and I look at it longingly, and then pick up another YA or middle grades book because my kids need the exposure to books more than I do.

Thinking About A Definition… full post

(852 words, estimated 3:24 mins reading time)

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Reboot!

Posted on December 12th, 2020

Greetings, Gentle Readers (If any of you are still out there)!

It has been quite a long time since I’ve blogged. It’s been quite a log time since I’ve even looked at this blog. This isn’t to say I haven’t wanted to blog. It’s not to say that I haven’t thought about blogging. And it’s not to say that I haven’t had anything to say.

I have wanted to blog. I have thought about blogging. And I’ve had things to say. 

Reboot! full post

(667 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

Posted in Uncategorized

Teacher of the House?

Posted on October 7th, 2018

This past week has been a tough week so I will process it the best way I know how–writing. There were a lot of reasons this week was tough. First, I ended up working what felt like 16-hour days all week, leaving the house at 7 AM and returning to scarf down some food and go to sleep. The reality is that I did have long days every day this week, I’ve been fighting a bad cold (despite the fact that I usually only ever get stomach bugs—teacher immunity—I managed to get this cold), and it’s just been emotionally draining in every aspect of my world. I’d like to wallow in this misery, but I have decided it’s healthier to find some bright spots in my week. And I have to say, I’ve had some AMAZING bright spots this week.

Teacher of the House? full post

(1488 words, estimated 5:57 mins reading time)

Posted in Empathy | Tagged as: , , , ,

40 in 40

Posted on September 30th, 2018

On Friday, the opening writing activity (OWA) asked my students to think back on their first month (3 weeks really) of school and set some goals for the trimester and the year. It also asked them to write down some steps for achieving those goals.

On Saturday morning, a colleague and I presented at NJCTE. The theme of the fall conference was writing, and our topic was building a writing life and strengthening your teaching. The presentation explored five revisions teachers can make to improve writing instruction in their classrooms, one of which was actually writing—not the students but the teacher. We asked participants to interrogate their writer identity. As I presented my writer identity, one of my statements was I am a writer who gets cranky when they don’t write.

40 in 40 full post

(464 words, 12 images, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Posted in Independent Reading/SSR/Reader's Workshop, Reading Life, Teacher Tips | Tagged as: ,
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