What a week!

This has been a crazy, busy week! Monday was training at my new school, Tuesday and Wednesday were county training, Thursday I spent a few hours working on my classroom, and today was spent at the county offices doing all my paperwork and learning the ropes. And I got my new ID!  So I am getting semi-organized in my room, but I still feel like I have so much to do!  Since I found out that I am teaching critical thinking instead of English I am kind of at a loss for what I am to be teaching exactly!

So now I am sitting home, trying to watch Project Runway, but I feel like I need to go into school and do some work! Ahhhhhhhh!  Hopefully I will feel better about things after next week is over and I know the ropes a little better!

Great news!

I have been busy this past week! I was super stressed over a job that I was waiting to hear back about. This past Monday was the day they said they would call. I waited and waited and called (a few times…) and still no answer by 1. As I was waiting I got a call from another school who wanted me to come in for an interview. So, while I was waiting for a call I headed over and did the interview.  They offered me a job on the spot! When I got home I finally got a call from the other school and sadly I did not get that job.  But either way I am now employed!!  And we are starting back a week earlier than all of the other schools so that means I am off to work tomorrow!

A little information about the school. It is an aviation and military science academy.  The school grade has been a D and last year was brought up almost one hundred points to a C.  The principal is trying really hard to get to a B grade this year and he has hired at least 16 new teachers this year!  So I have high hopes for this year! And I am extremely glad to be a part of this huge improvement that is taking place!

So, I have been a busy bee getting all of my classroom ideas together. I have boxes and bags of stuff to get in my new classroom!  Every year, this same weekend is tax-free for school supplies and whatnot so I hit up the local bookstore, who could not offer tax-free, but on their sale books had a buy two and get one free. So they were already marked down to $1-3, plus the third one was free. AND I had a 20% off coupon!  So, I was so pumped to have walked out with 27 books for my classroom library for only $45!

I was browsing online a while ago and I found a link that explained interactive notebooks and I ordered a book that details and explains it all. When I get it I will read it and review!

Tomorrow is the big day!!

Authors…I would love to review your books!

Not only do I like reading YA books along with ALL other books, but I love to read and share with students, friends, anyone!  So, if you are an author and you would like me to read and review your book on my blog, please do NOT hesitate to contact me.  This will benefit me, I can build my classroom library as well as give my students great new books to read and share with others! And this will benefit you because I will be sharing my thoughts with the world, which could get you some great press!

Here’s what you can expect after you send me a book:  It can take me anywhere from 1 week to 3 months to review a book.  This means I may not finish a book by its publication date.  Between my family, lesson planning, and teaching full-time things can get busy. But I always try to read each book within the month that I get it.  Please keep this in mind when you ask me for a review.

So help me and I will help you! Thanks for your support keeping students on the right path, with a book in hand! 🙂

Classroom Library…suggestions welcome!

So it is Saturday night. I am sitting in my quiet house as my children and husband are all fast asleep. No, it’s not late, they all were in bed at 8 pm. I am too old to be a night owl! Anyways, I am halfway through reading Notebook Connections by Aimee Buckner, which has a lot of great ideas! I am alternating between reading and hoping and praying that I hear back from a school I interviewed at on Friday. I am in LOVE with the school and I really, really want to get the position!  I just want Monday to get here! Not only will I hear back from the school (one way or the other), my dad will be here!

Back to my point…

I was also sitting here thinking about how important it is for students to read. Free read. Read what ever catches their eye. I am a huge believer that every English classroom ( as well as all other classrooms, no matter the subject) should have a good library.  I have picked up books here and there lately, when I can find them  for $3 and under. I am working on getting a good library, but also being a first year teacher I need to spend money on other things for organization and whatnot.  So needless to say my classroom library is starting out very sparse. So this is where you, my awesome readers come in.

How do you stock your classroom library?

What hints, tips, suggestions do you have to acquire books for cheap, like really cheap…or free. Free is good.

Also…I take donations 🙂

Book Review: Beloved & Just Write!

I finished two books this week.  The first one I would like to talk about is Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Book review from Amazon.com:

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2007

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.

My thoughts:

Again, this is one of those books that I should have read years before and have not. I guess since it was not a required reading at my school or many colleges I had not picked it up, until this past week.  This book is one of those books that, for one you cannot put down and two, you often have to stop and think about the characters a little more deeply.  There were some parts that I read over a few times just so the information could sink in.  I rarely do this.  But this book has so much going on, so many issues that you often have to re-read a passage to grasp all that Morrison is trying to tell you as the reader.  I would definitely recommend this book to any and all readers.

Just Write: Here’s How! By Walter Dean Myers

Book Description from amazon.com

Publication Date: April 24, 2012

Practice, practice, practice. Now Walter Dean Myers, the new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, walks you through the writing process.

Includes:

• Examples from his writing and reading experiences
• Walter’s six-box and four-box outlines for writing fiction and nonfiction
• Excerpted pages from Walter’s own notebooks
• An afterword by Ross Workman, Walter’s teen coauthor of kick
• Writing tips from both Walter and Ross

Anyone can be a writer, with a little help from Walter Dean Myers!

My thoughts:

This is a great book for middle and high school students who have an interest in writing and even for those beyond school.  But it is written to the school age person.  Myers makes it a little more personal with stories from his own life and actual pages from his journals he used as he was writing one of his many different stories.  As a teacher I found some ideas in the book that I could use in the classroom for brainstorming.  I like how he breaks down his method and show you how simple it is to come up with a story outline.  This book could make those students who are leery about taking on writing a book more excited to do so.  This is a book that I plan on keeping in my classroom library, that way I can easily share with those who are interested in writing something longer than an essay!

Getting prepared!

I have been hard at work today!  Trying to get all classroom organization taken care of as I patiently await for news about a position today!  The waiting is killing me!

Pintrest has helped in many ways getting organized! Also I read the First days of School by Harry Wong and listened to the DVD and they inspired me in many ways!

First binder is the everyday organizational binder.

The tabs in this one include:

-Important information. Such as class lists and schedules.

– Student data.  This will include contact information (a student info sheet), conference/meeting times, and assessment scores.

-Curriculum and Testing calendars and any other school calendars as needed.

-Grades. This will include district grading requirements, 9 week grades or homework mark off sheets.

-Team meeting notes & handouts.

-Faculty/site based meeting notes & handouts.

-Professional Learning Community (PLC) notes and handouts.

-Parent call/contact logs

The forms binder is a place to keep all forms that I will need to reproduce throughout the year!

Lesson plan binder. Tabs seperate by months. I do think that I will add a lesson plan tab to my organizational binder for daily use, then transfer to this binder for future use and reference.

The homework notebook.  I got this idea from the dvd in the Wong book.  This will go in the absent box that I posted a picture of earlier.  I will probably just use notebook paper to quickly write down each days assignment, then the students can look up what they missed and grab the items they need from that day’s folder!  This will be so much easier than hunting them down to tell each of them what assignments they missed! And having them sign it let’s me know who got the assignments and who did not!

I found the cute school themed paper at Michael’s today for $3!

I think I am almost ready!  Now I just need a job!

Book Review: The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath

Book description (amazon.com)

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

My thoughts:

Halfway through this book I kept asking myself, “why have I never read this before?”.  Really.  This book really tugs at your emotions and even to this day there are so many ways that young adults and adults alike can connect with, one way or another.  The story draws you in and keeps you turning the pages, well into the night (I couldn’t put it down)!  I hate when I read a classic that many others have read before and I have not yet.  Why is no one suggesting this book?  I know for sure that I will be urging my students to pick this novel up.  It would make for a great classroom discussion! If you have not read it yet, get it, and get reading!

Organization

Even though I don’t have a teaching position yet, I am trying to get some organizational things done! Here is a little project I did today!

Idea for a classroom newspaper

A great way to take on a classroom newspaper. I think I might incorporate this if teaching at a middle school!  I really like the ideas that this teacher gave for this project!

http://engage.reading.org/READING/Blogsnbspnbsp/BlogViewer/?BlogKey=6dd0d932-b983-48fd-82aa-70cbf2b0b6a0

Life update and a few book reviews!

I want to say that I have had a lot of educational and teacher planning going on in my life in the last month. But, sadly, I have not.  I have just been busy doing the mommy and wife thing, with home maintenence on the side!  We have totally re-done our back yard! We extended it out ten feet, put up a shed, fenced the whole thing, made a kids play area and fenced that off so the dogs can’t get in there, put up a screen enclosure, spread out two dump trucks full of dirt, laid sod, and got a new patio table. That was all pretty much done in the last two weeks. I have never worked so physically hard in my life! I am a more of a read on the side and watch the work being done kind of person!  I am exhausted!  But I love my new backyard!

Last week was my birthday! Nothing exciting happened though. The girls and I just spent a quiet day at the beach, my husband had to work.  It was great spending the day relaxing after all that working.  And the day after I decided to purchase a mini van! I have been resistant to do so, but compared to other large size vehicles it was the best fit for having three little ones and their friends and I have to say that I absolutely love it!

Yesterday I checked the vacancies list again and noticed that quite a few new openings had posted so I made some calls and sent out my resume. Hopefully I can get some interviews lined up. I am so extremely eager to find a job!  This is seriously what I have been waiting to do my whole life and not having a job yet is killing me!  I am already planning out what I need to accomplish to get my room ready, what kind of forms and information I need to ready for the first few days, and much more. I do need to sit down and make a list so that i can be more prepared when I actually start getting things ready.  I went to the store yesterday and saw that all the school supplies are out already! That just gets me even more excited!

In between all the work I finally finished Game of Thrones (find it on Amazon.com here).

 This was a bear of a book to get through. Not because it wasn’t good, because it was!  It was just long and very small print, and there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but all in all, a very good read.  I usually don’t really read these types of books, but a friend suggested it, so I picked one up and started in on it.  I actually picked up the second book  as well, but knowing how long it took me to read the first one I am going to hold off and fit a few shorter books in first!  It is kind of like a historical fiction/fantasy/sci-fi.  And I have to say I am not always a fan of making books into TV shows or movies but I can say that I think this will make a really good show. I have not yet had the chance to wactch, but one day when I get a some free time I plan on sitting down and watching.  Usually I like to give some plot in my book reviews, but it would be really hard, and really long to do so for this book.  But I do think that most readers would enjoy this book. Like I said I am not a sci-fi or fantasy lover at all, but this was a really good read!

I give this book ***

* Wish I never read this book.

** Okay read.

***This was  a good book

****Great book, recommend to all!

Book Description (from Amazon.com)

Publication Date: March 22, 2011

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.
Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin’s stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

 

The next review is for Bared to You by Sylvia Day.

I also read this one because a friend recommended it. It is very similar to the 50 Shades of Gray series. I was going to look at the print dates on both because they pretty much have the same plot line, just with semi different characters. It was a decent read. I read it in just one day, so it is pretty short.  I just wanted a little summer read to clear my mind and relax before I moved onto something more serious!

 

I give this book **

* Wish I never read this book.

** Okay read.

***This was  a good book

****Great book, recommend to all!

Book Description (from Amazon.com)

Publication Date: June 12, 2012 | Series: A Crossfire Novel

“If I were to recommend any book today to readers who enjoyed 50 Shades…this would be the first one I would offer….scorching love scenes.”–Dear Author
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness…
He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I’d never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily…
Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other’s most private worlds…and desires.
The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn’t tear us apart…

 

I have another book to review, one by Tim O’Brien, but I am off to take the girls to the movies so that will have to wait for another day! Happy summer!