Month: June 2021

Hi Friends, Thanks for reading and thinking along with all of us at TBR Blog. It is time for summer break. We will see you again in August with new books, new ideas, and new insights about teaching and learning. Happy Reading and Happy Summer!

I have already gotten MORE sleep in the past week than I have since March 2020 so now it is time to dive in to my summer stacks! I am so glad that my library is open again for browsing! I have missed this so much this past year and I have found some really… Continue reading Summer Stacks and Sunsets

Like many educators, I look forward to summer not just as a time to rejuvenate and recharge, but as a chance to learn and grow by reading all of the texts that I didn’t have time to get to during the school year. This summer, my professional text stack is quite tall as we are… Continue reading Digging into that Summer Stack!

It's so good to be back with all of you. The year was odd and many days I spent taking it one day at a time. Next year, I am moving grade levels and buildings. I will be opening a brand new school in our district and teaching third grade again. This was just what… Continue reading My Professional Summer Reading Stack

Every June, I am curious to learn each reader's favorite book enjoyed in fourth grade. After watching and listening and recommending all year long, I am left wondering what the #1 title in their stacks of 30-40 independent reading books is. Last week, I invited my crew to take out their stack of monthly "Shelfies"… Continue reading An Unexpected Heart Flutter

Normally, I like to create top-ten lists, but for this post I'm including twelve books. I already was one past the ten limit when I attended my critique group last night. Everyone began raving about a title and I couldn't leave it off the list. Here we go! This book released in May this year.… Continue reading My Summer Reading Stack

As school comes to an end, I can't stop thinking about what these first graders will remember about this school year. I want to know their thoughts. Did they feel welcome, included, and valued? Did they feel that I listened? I can't help but wonder what I could have done differently to honor each one… Continue reading Listening and Collecting Feedback

I started my career as a first grade teacher and spent ten years in the primary grades before transitioning to becoming a literacy specialist. Even so, when my district asked me to go back into the classroom this year to help provide cohorts small enough to teach in person, I did have that sneaking fear:… Continue reading What I Learned from Going Back to the Classroom…and What I’m Reading This Summer to Learn More

After last month's post on supporting students' summer reading, I wanted to share some of the texts in my own summer reading stack. While summer is a great time for beach reads and reading for fun, I am also planning to explore some newly-released professional texts. Here are a few that are on my radar.… Continue reading Professional Reads for Summer 2021

  Today, I found myself covering in a fifth grade classroom. It’s that time of year when the teacher absentee list on a Friday gets pretty long. Luckily, I had a copy of Someone Builds the Dream, written by Lisa Wheeler and illustrated by Loren Long, with me. When the kids got kind of antsy, I… Continue reading Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler and Loren Long

I'm going to be honest- it's been a few months since I've read a book. The toll of the pandemic on school this year has impacted something I've always loved to do, and with the summer in sight, I am excited to get back to books! The stack pictured above is smaller than what I'd… Continue reading My Summer Stack

Summer Stacking : A Crash Course June 10, 2021 If you are like me, you have had a rocky road with personal reading this year. It's been up and down, hard to finish some books, difficult to find time to read, more difficult to concentrate when I do. But summer has always been my time… Continue reading Summer Stacking- A Crash Course in One Subject

The book I Won’t Give Up by Daniel Kenney is one of my go-to books at the beginning of the school year and many times throughout. It is about a girl named Cady who expresses her frustration with many difficult tasks. However, she doesn’t give up and eventually reaches her goals. It is a very… Continue reading I Won’t Give Up

A wonderful book that explores the importance of friendship, acceptance and the bravery we must all face when dealing with life's challenges. Anna and Ailey setting up Padlet. Anna and Ailey read The Elephant In the Room together in a book club. They set up a Padlet to share their thoughts about the book. I… Continue reading The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan

This pandemic year, one of the smallest things that has brought me the most joy has been curbside library pickup. At night, typically with a cup of peppermint tea and if I'm lucky a purring cat by my side, I read our collective TBR blog, browse my favorite #kidbookstagram accounts, and fill up my online… Continue reading My Summer Stack

As of today, there are twelve more days before summer vacation. During some of the trickier times this year, summer seemed so far off. Now, it’s at our doorsteps, and ready to be welcomed in. As the opening song of one of my favorite childhood movies (Sarah, Plain and Tall) echos in my mind... Sumer… Continue reading My Summer Spread

It has been a joy to join the TBR blog this school year. Like so many of you, the year has been filled with challenges, and I am grateful for the rejuvenation that the next two months will provide. Here are a few of my summer book stacks. Professional books Children's books Adult books