for my 8th grade – who have SGA elections to come this fall…

sorry, so busy this weekend getting pumped for registration…

“the sandman and the alphabet of sleep” – has anyone else read this book? it’s a quasi-children’s picture book – very creative – very nice read – only 100 pages-ish – still, a bit more heft than just a picture book – parts of it remind me of a Christmas story – parts are just like a Washington Irving book (book within a book)

“the most frightening story every told” – could be an elem BOB – except parents wouldn’t like it – b/c the book is anti-modern parenting:) part willy wonka, part horror, part history – the book dealt with more than most elem stories deal with – a bit heavy handed at times for me – but would definitely be recommendable to a middle school audience

back to prepping for locker assigning:)

j

My cameo at Media Days

“going postal: history of the us postal service” – wonderful history of the post office – lots of the issues it’s faced for years it’s faced before – or things it has faced are things new agencies face – so a great, great book and an interesting read

“olympic obsession” – great book – about the rivalry between zola budd and mary decker slaney – or media-hyped rivalry from 1984 – great history both of a time period in running – and a history of what happened – the challenges – during that time – slaney was a prodigy in 1972 – and budd still runs – so lots of great parallels to developing talent

“originality” – great book – got lots of ideas for the classroom – just things about how fixing a mindset can improve things in your life – and how certain things can be improved to help spark creativity

j

i have like a fun little story i’ve been writing about captain patrick and trucker kinzie this week – as for what i’m reading…

“little bee” – recommended by a reading specialist – meh – it wasn’t YA, i’ll say that – it was awfully british though – this would be a good example of a book that talks about an important issue – and so people want to like it – as for one of my problems, the 16 year old in the story just wasn’t a 16 year old – she was more like a 35 year old – unrealistically mature and wise

“passing the torch” – what’s better than a little football reading in the summer? not much, especially when you learn some fun facts about the sport that everyone worships and adores

“unexpected something” – definitely recommendable to all of the high school world – it’s currently a NY times bestseller for YA – senior-to-be falls in love with a 19-year-old ex-fantasy writer – he’d already had two books published – but he hadn’t written anything in three years – the book was interesting – not great – but interesting

happy 4th

j

good times yesterday – the band rocked – as per usu…

“the infinity year of avalon james” – okay – good for elem BOB – after reading it, it did bother me that infinity really had nothing to do with the book – but, i think it was a british author and they had a bad week with britxit so i’ll let it slide…

“good vibrations” – story of mike love and the beach boys – great book – something i could talk to my mom and dad about – sadly, most of the 1960s singers are dead – lots of them long dead – from drug/alcohol use – i now have the urge to listen to the beach boys stuff after pet sounds

and, best of all, i finally watched all three high school musicals – they were awesome – HSM, HSM 3, HSM 2 in order of preference – although, i LOVED sharpay’s hawaiian song in HSM 2 – thoughts?

j

new video about the class

help me out peeps – take this quiz – any and all are welcomed – trying something…

“strangers drowning” – study on the role of empathy – great book – about the power do-gooders have – and why people hate them

“presence” – great book we’ll be using some ideas from in the classroom

these are the days that fry men’s souls – b/c it’s just that hot…

“an ember in the ashes” – i’m sure you’ll all love it – i would guess it’ll be the next movie to go see after divergent and hunger games – but it gets a “blah” from me – first off, how many futurist novels do we need to read that are set in the middle ages? isn’t that like a contradiction? second, why would you take your top 4 people to be your next emperor and then have them kill each other off? it was like the hunger games except the games kept not killing them – and what does it mean to be an ember in the ashes anyway? that you survived a fire? that you’re hot? that you were a chop off the old block?

“marcelo in the real world” – wow, what a book – just great – but really only those of you that are very bright will get and appreciate the book – b/c there isn’t romance – and the POV is from an autistic 18 year old – and most of you want a middle school girl or boy battling insecurity and romance – but i absolutely loved the book – and that most of the book was set in a boston i know about b/c of the marathon – and that the author lived in mobile and was a part of the charity – L’Arche – that i run for every january

“better man project” – blah – wasn’t impressed

j