Category: Blog Posts

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

“Johnny’s Pheasant” written by Cheryl Minnema and illustrated by Julie Flett is a story inspired by the author’s younger brother Johnny and her grandmother. In the story, the two characters happen upon a pheasant lying in the grass. Grandma and Johnny have two very different reactions to the pheasant which leads to a surprise at the… Continue reading Johnny’s Pheasant

Featuring Measuring Up by Lily Lamotte and Illustrated by Ann Xu Immersing our children in diverse literature is on the forefront of many of our minds. We fill our classroom libraries and family bookshelves with stories that feature heterogeneous arrays of main characters. All diverse books, however, are not created equal. In a commitment to… Continue reading Honoring Own Voices Literature

My eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea are a revolution.--Joanna Ho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFz0wktGr2k Author Joanna Ho reads her new picture book, Eyes That Kiss in the Corners. Lines We Love "I have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea.""Her eyes are filled with so many stories; I… Continue reading Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho

From the first year that we transitioned to teaching with authentic literature through the Reader’s Workshop model to last spring, my classroom library grew exponentially.  Anytime I heard about new books being published, I ran to the local bookstore and grabbed them.  I follow several blogs and twitter accounts that are focused on children’s literature.… Continue reading Gert and the Sacred Stones

A must have book for upper elementary classrooms On April fifth, I found myself in a strange situation of having to create a classroom community out of two separate cohorts for the remaining ten weeks of the school year. A few of the questions running through my mind were: How do I do that when… Continue reading A Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters

"Wow. Look at all those books!" This is exactly the reaction I want as kids enter the classroom and find a giant pile of books on the rug. Yes, before a new unit of study that is exactly what I do - I let the children wade through a pile and touch all of the… Continue reading Look at all Those Books! Co-Constructing the Classroom Library

As the days get warmer, my third graders and I are celebrating a year of books read and stories shared. My colleagues and I are thinking about how to support readers in carrying their reading momentum through the summer and beyond. In today's post, I'll share some ideas for supporting summer reading. If you have… Continue reading Summer Reading 2021

Starfish By Lisa Fipps Starfish by Lisa Fipps is a book I wish someone had handed me as a child. When my pre-ordered copy finally arrived, my almost nine year old daughter, Wren, got to the book before I even had a chance. At first, I wasn’t sure if the book would be appropriate, but… Continue reading Starfish by Lisa Fipps

All year I've tried different ways to organize small groups with my first graders while teaching in a socially distanced classroom. Finally, I think I've figured out a system that I'll keep even when staying six feet apart is a thing of the past. At the beginning of the week, I create a slide to… Continue reading Who Would Like to Join Us?

Written by Carrie Finison and Drawings by Daniel Wiseman Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It) is a charming story about personal boundaries. Doug only likes just right hugs from his mom at bedtime. He likes many other things, like his rock collection and high fives. Also, Doug explains that he likes YOU, just not… Continue reading Don’t Hug Doug