yep, worship time was “special” today with the kids at church:)

“the making of a man” – by tim brown – NFL great – wonderful book about the decisions guys have to make in life – and the ways men can be led astray – or blessed – because of those choices – I grew up watching Brown with notre dame and with the raiders so it was a great read – and would be good for my sport-ish guys in seventh/eighth grade

“this star won’t go out” – by esther earl – every kid that reads “fault in our stars” should read this book – I’m about convinced every kid period should read the book – earl passed away at 16 with cancer – and while that might seem a “downer,” it’s a reality that none of us get a life of all sunshine and rainbows – life is what we make of it – and I was struck that her father said given the option of knowing her for 16 years or not, you’d take those 16 years – and so yes, a young death is terrible, but it makes you realize better that time is scarce – and we should make the most of it – like spending our time blogging:)

I think lilBri already has more insightful blogging time than several sixth graders that will go unnamed – not to mention a couple of seventh and eighth graders

maf

so I went to the 5k downtown yesterday to watch my mom run – before the kids ran ONE WHOLE MILE!!! the adults ran the Superhero 5k – and teens that say adults don’t channel their inner child often are very wrong at that race – b/c most of the adults were in costume – including a Wolverine, a billion Supermans, Spiderman, and the like

but the fastest superhero finished second overall – The Riddler – huh, who knew…

“Forgotten Sundays” – great book by an NFL announcer about the relationship he had with his father, an NFL coach, and how those memories tied to Sundays from long ago – great non-fiction for football kids

“The Big Sport” – or something like that – basically, a book about football being king – the author is not a fan of Saban – or of the SEC – so he won’t win many fans around here – he does have good points about the advantages the NFL and NCAA take over the fact that people go gaga over football – as a baseball fan, it burns me up:)

“Younger” – I read this one in honor of my grandmother – and then no Avon products were mentioned – bummer – but a book about keeping your skin young – you can obviously tell I do a good job already – actually, I learned from the book I’m pretty bad about it – so you should see a younger me in the days to come b/c I’m going to exfoliate much better:)

“The Plateau Effect” – to me, snow days are free days to do independent study – and so while most people would waste time off, I used it pretty well – I got that book read – and it was a wonderful book – I’d actually teach from it in class if we had enough copies – for my 8th grade – I plan to use the material in a presentation this fall at a state gifted conference – so pretty useful book to me and good use of time during the break

bring on the warmer weather – I speak softly in order not to jinx it

what will the world come to when Bri blogs first???

maf

by the way, I learned at the ’96 games that every country pronounces their name in a three-syllable chant – thus, at those games, I heard for the first (and likely last) time “Tun-ee-shee” (Tunisia)

“Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball” – great baseball book to get me hungry for the season to come – Steinbrenner bought the Yankees for $10 million in 1972 – they’re worth over $1.5 billion today – he was an iron-fisted leader for much of his early years – lots of what I thought I knew about him, I didn’t

“Never Quit” – story of the closest US miler to break four minutes before and shortly after WWII – the guy’s story was what my grandfather’s story was – out poverty and hardship into the modern life – so reading the book made me miss my granddad – but in a good way

“Olympic Dream” – sad biography of a Kenyan who set four world records in less than 100 days – just amazing – and amazing in a sad way, he never was able to compete in an Olympics – boycotts and then age did him in – just makes me appreciate how rare it is to run and run well – and have a chance to win things

“The Heart of the Sea” – my favorite reader, WillRo, read it and said good things about it – so I was curious – he was right – gripping story – I’ve read Melville and read other books by Philbrick so I had more background than a seventh grader, and it still was an amazing read – field trip to Nantucket!!!!

remember, no serious blogs this week b/c you’re memorizing monologues

maf

wow, no school=lots of reading – six books

“run faster” – read it five years ago – wasn’t particularly impressed this time – it was more science than stories – and I could’ve done more with stories

“out of my league” – great book coming out soon to get us ready for baseball season – although, ironically, the book is about being hurt – this is the third book by this author – all of them excellent

“desk atlas” – billy can back me up that this is a book and it counts – I love fact books – so a book of maps and facts was awesome – I looked at population density mapping in there to figure out where to move and teach that’s south and warmer

“14 minutes” – a reread – but a great book – bio on a great marathon runner – great coach – great man – I guess what struck me this time was the struggle he went through to get to the top – and to return to it

“BAA at 125” – awesome book – the boston athletic association turned 125 years old last year – and this book looked at the history of the association – which includes the longest running, most prestigious marathon in the world – and as many books as I’ve read on boston and on its marathon, I actually learned a few new facts – which was great – including one about the middle school I stay at before going to the starting line (it’s connected with Harvard and a Connecticut governor)

“calling life’s signals” – one of my dad’s books – when he was 16 – a former Alabama quarterback, steve sloan, wrote this book in 1967 – with a bit of help – and it was the neatest book to read for me b/c it was my dad’s – and my dad doesn’t read books anymore – hasn’t in years – reading it made me think of jay barker, tim tebow in that it was the classic book of the quarterback with a “jesus” heart – and yet all three men have played their faith out differently – which is cool to me – and as an example of history, it was just fascinating what sloan talked about vs. barker and tebow – for example, sloan included a part against communism – can’t imagine a pro athlete today speaking out against china – or Russia – other countries making life miserable for its people

happy super bowl/commercial watching – hopefully we can return to some normalcy this week with journals – good luck to sixth grade scholars kids for Thursday

maf