hope spring break went well – I called it like Winter Break IV b/c of our previous snow weeks, Christmas, and then this blustery week we just had – oh well…

“Princess Labelmaker” – the latest origami yoda book – great – really, every book has improved the product in the series – in this one, there’s a continued fight over the remedial math the kids are forced to do – and their rebellion against it by threatening the school’s standardized tests – I love the spirit of these kids – they’re not beaten into “the system” like a lot of “good” kids are

“Wonder” – Nicole’s favorite book – it seems – meh, it was okay:)

“Wonder” – okay, the point of view thing never should’ve changed from August but it was okay otherwise:)

“Playing with a Purpose: Baseball” – a reread for me – 13 MLB players and their faith testimony – I guess some overpriced celebrities have cooler stories than others – always encourages me to hear of people who are motivated by more important things in life than fame/money

“Heartbreak Hill” – mystery/thriller from ’02 – I reread it from back in 2010 as I trained for boston – yucky book

hope everyone has smooth sailing getting back into school rhythm next week

maf

the reference will be lost on my sixth grade and rayckhelle’s sister, but we played “Wall” today in first grade with the “battle of Jericho” – which, obviously, wasn’t much of a battle so much as a walk-a-thon – good thing it happened in the old testament – today, the fatties would’ve been too tuckered out to walk around:)

“the myth of the spoiled child” – what if kids today aren’t worse than previous generations? what if their voices weren’t being heard? what if adults were being jerks in schools, in families, towards respecting the voices of the next generation? what if the answer to making things “harder” for kids was to instead make kids feel loved and appreciated – and not driven through the prison-like environments of most schools? this book definitely got me thinking in good, rebellious, ways:)

“the evolution of pitching in major league baseball” – enjoyable to a point – the point being when the author went off on his assumed premise that pitchers today are spoiled brats – and that the game has changed for the worse – just very negative – I guess the positive was I skimmed over many chapters of the rants so I was able to finish quicker

I’m taking my spring break to the streets near you as boston gets closer – today, 17 miles in the rain – yeah!!!

maf

okay, so obviously the blog was down for the weekend – sorry about that…

“william t. sherman” – biography on civil war leader – who actually served as head of the military for 15 years afterward – as i told my dad last week, it’s interesting b/c the guy used to be known for burning up the south – today though, the eco havoc he reigned with the buffalo and with the native americans would get him in much hotter PC trouble – history is always changing like that – great read

“trusting teachers with school success” – i had high hopes for this book – and then i realized i wasn’t a teacher that could be trusted – and so i skim read through the rest to get to…

“racing weight” – the one and only book about endurance athletes and keeping/holding/losing weight – fascinating read – there was a lot more there than i suspected – the author knew much more than i thought might be in there – and so i took my time and enjoyed the book – and learned a few things (like why eating right after long runs is significantly better than not)

“dl moody” – this one was finished sunday – after i usually blog – so i give permission to write about this one next week – i always fear i won’t finish a book in a week – anyway, moody was an influential Christian thinker in the late 1880s/1890s – even though he really never went to school – i guess that means he never had to deal with a blog being moody…

one week to break, five weeks to boston

maf

yeah, daylight savings time, fourth nine weeks – hard to believe…

“focus” – book on our lack of it – basically – in the beginning, there was a pop quiz on material a couple of pages back – and I, like most everyone, failed – we tend to pay less attention to things than we think we are doing – in reading – in listening – good reminder

“one last strike” – book on tony larussa’s last year with the cardinals – he was their manager – good book about motivating people to achieve a goal – larussa is well read – and he’d read management books as well that flowed into ideas he used with the cardinals – I guess one thing I thought was interesting was that he tried to limit meetings – he found his players tuned out – the meetings weren’t productive

“cheetah can’t lose” – I read this to my first graders today – we had just finished “donkey races” in honor of the story of balaam today – so they sat really still – they reacted very differently than my 6-8th graders did – go figure…

happy blogging

maf

so this is a week w/o journals b/c you have an incredibly hard final to study for… 🙂

“keeper of the flame” – book on the history/future of NFL films – irony on many levels in that NFL films has a mythologized past b/c they created a mythologized NFL through their videos – which are classic – both in content and voice – of course, today, media has changed and the book did a wonderful job describing the “threats” to those films – and there’s a very real threat just in the sense that the times have changed for that type of filming

“the gifted” by anna kathyrn davis – so it would’ve made me a better teacher to have read this one, oh, like a year ago – b/c as I read, I kept trying to go back to the Q&A at WIM last year in Pelham – alas… anyway, I guess better late than never – hey, I waited until ’08 for twilight and ’07 for potter so I might as well to wait on this one – still, having heard two presentations by davis, I feel bad it took this long to get it and read it – and, thankfully – unlike most YA, it reads quickly and painlessly – I definitely stand with fred on wondering exactly how a sequel is coming about

so that’s it for the week – again, no journals – but happy postings

maf