trust me, you need to go back and read my poem and joseph’s response when you feel down – I laughed all Friday when I saw it:)

“different seasons” by Stephen king – apparently, this book was king’s effort to prove he wasn’t a horror writer – even though three of the four stories were horror, I thought – oh well, the positive was that I read the book – the negative was that it was entirely too long and I just didn’t enjoy it much – but I can now say I’ve read that – i’m not sure why people enjoy horror though…

“colin fischer” – cute book – not the best book of all time – but cute – colin is like all of us in many ways – we all feel disconnected from people at times – that we can’t read them – or we misread them – so I thought the introduction that pointed this fact out was good – despite the fact that I don’t think kids are this cruel any more (seriously, would an autistic kid get mercilessly picked on by teachers and students???)

“5th wave” – oh my, just when I thought high school romance books couldn’t get cheesier – classic twilight/hungers game combo – it’s the end of the world and we have a brave young girl who battles evil aliens – meanwhile, torn between her high school crush and a friendly alien – don’t worry though – the aliens get 7 billion of us, but true love wins in the end!!!

(yes, the last book was a high school BOB – sheesh people…)

happy reading – i’m sure you’re all out buying 5th wave now:)

maf

so full disclosure, I ran Talladega this morning – all 13 miles of it – so there’s no telling where this blog will go…

“the element” – basically, a book about doing what you love – and getting into it – that most adults give this idea up – there were some good moments in the book – the thing with the planets that the writer borrowed was ultra neat – basically, that the earth looks big compared to other planets – but compared to all of them – and stars, we’re like less than a spec on a picture – gives you perspective

“scene it, be it, write it” – I think this was the title – basically, a book that teaches you to teach kids writing prompts by having them act out the question – it obviously works well for stories – for a literary prompt, i’m not sure how well that would go – that said, i’d love to try it some time so remind me if you want to have acting/theater class some day with a quiz:)

“winning character” by tommy Bowden – former Clemson head coach – I enjoyed this book – I read it in a day – basically, just good advice about what it takes to be successful – to be a man – to be a leader – and a lot of that comes from the three priorities in your life – coach Bowden said that most people say 1. God 2. family and friends 3. something – but that the no. 3 is typically no. 1 – a realization that caused him to decide he couldn’t just give lip service to no. 1 having never read the Bible all the way through – so he started at age 40 and it took him three years – I thought that story was good

I finished fourth, by the way, in my age group – fourth is possibly the worst position ever:)

maf

second block unit 1 remember sixth grade, you don’t blog journals here – just blogs about how awesome the seventh grade is with all these really tough words to learn:)

so the cooler weather this weekend made for some nice running…

“My Best Race” edited by Cooper – great concept for a book – great to use with my middle school students – for budding runners, budding people in general, to read that no matter the age or the distance, there’s always the chance that the next time you do something – good or bad – that it will be the most memorable – certainly makes you think, if you run, what your best race was – so the interactive feature with the reader is an added bonus – very recommendable for my students

“linchpins” – when one of your bosses recommends a book, it’s always good to try and read the book:) and this one wasn’t that bad at all – the author’s basic point was that you should make yourself disguisable – in a good way – in your company – I guess we disagree in the sense that he thinks this is new to business – I think it’s always been there – obviously, we don’t always think that way – the condemnation he has for public school and its attempt to enforce a “sameness” is apt – and well put

“i’d like to apologize to every teacher I ever had” by tony danza – this show was great – this book is even better – danza’s year in a philly public school – he just has some great insight into the system – I guess one thing I carried away was that he was told teachers often have adoption fantasy – they end up wishing the kids they work with were in better homes – and the older I get and the more students I see, my heart often goes out and I wish they had better places to call home

that said, orphan Amanda can keep her box b/c I don’t want to adopt her – just the loveable kind:)

maf

ah, another week teaching first grade… 🙂

“the simpsons and their mathematical secrets” by singh – great book for my middle school mathematically talented – really, for all my gifted kids – because part of the book, beyond the math complexity (which was great to learn – or be reminded) was that most of those early writers were actually great math guys – so the whole idea that you’re gifted at only one thing goes out the window with this book – great reminder – and great book for my students

“the champion’s mind” – great for my students in middle school – book about the mental aspect of athletics – and how the choices we make in our minds often determine the results on the field – accessible for my gifted kids – again, great read and I will pass along some of the tidbits to my kids – along with the book recommendation

“the girls of atomic city” – got this one from the public library – fascinating read about the nuclear, secret facility that the government built in 1943 to enrich the uranium used in the atomic bombs – the author did much of the research first hand – through interviewing the women that remain – and that was a gift from her to us – because those stories are dying out – and so while most of the country looks back at atomic warfare with negative feelings, the book describes a lot better just what went on in the 1940s – and so it’s a great reminder that one shouldn’t judge other time periods very harshly

i’m back to reading “trash” now – my own running books I have – so i’m happy and all is right with the world

maf

big thanks to Ms. Blount who gave me something productive to do during TV timeouts from yesterday’s football games… 🙂

“the geeks shall inherit the earth” – this would be the book I showed you last week for dialectal journals – that the sixth grade freaked out on when they saw “bad” words later in the book – shockingly, sometimes high school kids use bad words to describe other kids – I know this came as a crushing blow to most, but I knew that – what I found interesting – I found lots interesting in the book – was that the author thought teachers were just as cliquish as the students they teach – that b/c they live in an adolescent world, they are adolescent-y – honestly, I don’t think teachers are less mature than other adults – I think lots of adults have petty fights – but I do think teachers should show a better example so the book made me question whether mr. scott and I should let other teachers sit at the cool table…

“the missing girl” – BOB – last one I finished – I put it before the Jobs book for reasons that will come below – missing girl is in a word, creepy – on the flip side, it’s a great “how to” for abducting 13 year old girls and trapping them in your house – again, creepy factor was way high – however, it did fit my BOB rule from a year or two back which was that I could stand any bad book so long as I could read it in a day – and I sped through this one – so mission accomplished and it could’ve been worse – I’ll obviously be curious what the feedback is when ya’ll read it

“steve jobs: the man who thought different” – now, this is the way to close BOB – wonderful book – sad book – jobs was highly gifted – he was a flawed genius – if we had the time, i’d love to discuss in class whether it’s better to be average – and good – in life or to be a flawed genius – I would think the answer is that it depends – but we definitely need those that are brilliant to give our daily lives a richness – I think probably all my kids should read this book – and even better (for you all), it reads quickly:)

reading goals for next week – I have a book on advanced mathematical principles and “the simpsons” – can’t wait…

maf