so i have to laugh – i guess – but the opening activity today with first grade – as suggested by my trusty teaching manual – was to give kids milk and tell them we’re going to learn about a lady who gave milk to someone today – from Judges 4 – and if you don’t have a bible or you don’t remember the story – yes, Jael does offer milk – but it’s sort of a trap (if driving a stake through your head is a trap:)

oh, how i’ve read this week…

“operation yes” – an elem BOB – it was good – again, elem BOB pulls ahead of middle school this year in choices – very impressed – and if memory serves me, “yes” and “3 times lucky” both involved middle school characters – i guess kids like to read about the grades just ahead of them and fancy a wonderful time to come

“a field guide for missions” – creative – looked for things to incorporate into class – mission accomplished

“1001 tips for writers” – surprisingly short – just quotes – b/c “everywhere is a quote” 🙂

“self-driven learning” – book on helping students see how to motivate themselves – good book – lots of pages i liked and will copy this week – the book emphasized the relationship over the information when teaching – that students will do a lot, learn a lot, when they enjoy a class – vs. just getting a bunch of info – the author’s background as a community organizer was a boost

“conversations with steve martin” – i have learned a lot – second book on martin in the month – he’s a really creative mind – great example of creative talent – b/c he went from stand-up comedy to movies to screenwriting to playwriting to non-fiction/memoir to novels to kid’s books to twitter to banjo song-writing – pretty cool talents he’s developed

nicole and the detective are at fred’s now in the book – they’re conversing over what happened at camp – fred is desperately trying to get the girls to see that the real evil isn’t tragedy bear – it’s ann marie and waffles… 🙂

maf

i got beat on which item comes next – in my defense, there was no established pattern in the square, triangle, titled square, octagon, blank, triangle rotation

against that defense, i missed pizza, hot dog, taco, blank, hot dog, taco 🙂

“tread lightly” – book on the why’s of running – specifically from the knee below – the impact of training shoes – it was all very interesting – very detailed – the title was a misnomer – wasn’t really about how you run so much as the development of distance running

“three times lucky” – highly recommendable easy read – was an elem BOB this year – all the elem BOBs were at the library the other day – amazing to me b/c i couldn’t find any of them back last fall – all checked out to the end of time – so three times lucky was a mystery – and it twisted enough that it wasn’t predictable – plus, even better, nascar was involved!!!

“wizard of oz: A to Z” – oh, i did love this book – probably most b/c i gave it to my mom to read first and she loved it – so we could share in a good book – basically, a comprehensive guide to the movie – starting with the book and ending with disney and warner brothers fighting over who owns what and what they can film – as always, judy garland comes out a depressing read – sad, sad story for dorothy – i went back and rewatched the movie – which was very worthwhile

“12 huge mistakes parents make” – guy that presented at first baptist in columbiana in february has a book out – and it’s really good – outside parents, for teachers – one idea he proposed that i like: kids should be able to give progress reports to parents/teachers – i definitely think kids are shortchanged a voice often – like they are told to be quiet, to obey – and not to question adults – but adults question people all the time…

more on tragedy bear to come this week!!! 🙂

maf

so i was at the sec tournament final today – i saw fans of all teams – i had to wait until nearly the end for mizzou – uga was hard – so was vandy (billy) – but the one i missed??? yep, a&m

“the closer” – to cap the school year and to prepare for baseball – and b/c it was shockingly in at the library when they had said it wasn’t (most important part of this), i read a book about the yankees’ now retired closer, mariano rivera – rivera is a great example of the case that if you do the right things enough times, things will break your way – he came up from absolutely nothing and became perhaps the most dominate pitcher of his era – in his words, by God’s graces and blessings – it’s the rare athlete that believes this – most attribute their abilities to their work ethic – or skill – rivera just admits God was with him

this being summertime, i’m now working on my musicals – “joseph and the technicolor dreamcoat” is pretty awesome so far – go, go jo indeed:)

enjoy week 1 of break

maf

happy sunday greetings!!!

“creative inc.” – we’ll do a bit from the book – but a book by one of the founders of pixar has to be pretty good on creativity, right??? and it was – including the bit in the subject header – one of my favorite analogies was to sailing – that if you love sailing and you get out there and find it shocking that there are waves and tough seas, it’s like why in the world were you wanting to sail in the first place? in the same way, most of things we love to do we also find troubling at times

“nine make that ten make that nine habits of successful people” – funny tweets by steve martin – made me want to set up a twitter account

remember, we all want copies of the princess sarah elizabeth book – http://www.amazon.com/The-Princess-Sarah-Elizabeth-Chronicles/dp/1499339917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400447435&sr=8-1&keywords=princess+sarah+elizabeth

happy last week of school

maf

story is in joshua 10 – i’d forgotten completely about God throwing hail at the other army – that’s a difficulty to overcome:)

“hollow city” – book two in ms. pengrine’s home for peculiar children – much better than the first book – i know series aren’t my usual recommendation – i don’t like to read them from others b/c there’s such a time investment – but i would recommend the series now – particularly b/c it’s a trendy series and will likely lead to movies – anyway, good reading – look forward to book 3

“born standing up” – this was a good week for reading b/c i had two books i really enjoyed – this one was by a former comic – steve martin – very insightful – good book about how a creative mind adjusts to the world – i passed it along to my mother – who read it in a day – i guess she’s the top reading in the family after all:)

“season of saturdays” – book on why college football is important/worth watching/significant – by a Penn State guy – who’s definitely not an alabama guy – at all – period – that said, i enjoyed that some of the classic stories from alabama are actually a part of other traditions – like things that have been ascribed to bear – to the program – have also been told at other schools – which just makes their origins that much murkier

remember: no journals this week – just an incredibly tough final that destroyed a forest of trees when i ran the copier friday

maf

ah, the wisdom of first graders at the snack table…

“the agent” by steinberg – we’re going to do an activity from the book steinberg used to do with the athletes he’d represent – i actually did the activity with the fifth graders at EHES friday – so they can tell you how terrible it was – anyway, steinberg ruled the world of agents for a while – and then alcoholism cost him his agency – and his family – and he’s now working to get that all back – he’s incredibly bright – highly gifted – so it was a good read about the dangers of being the smartest person in the room

“players first” by john calipari – coach butcher’s kind of book – b/c he’s the head coach at UK – i enjoyed reading it – calipari is not afraid to speak is mind – i found it cool that he spend as many pages on his championship team two years ago as he did the team that “failed” to make it out of the first round of the NIT last year – b/c in basketball, like with teaching, when you work with youth, they’re so sensitive sometimes than when things get bad, it can be hard to reverse that trend – no matter what you try

enjoy testing – no, you don’t have journals this week

maf

ooh… just one week left until there are no journals and all we can fight for is to be first on the blog…

“on the run from dogs and people” by hal higdon – just when i’d thought i’d read every running book there is, at least every book that’s decent, this book dropped into the public library – straight from florida state (surprising that jaimis winston wasn’t reading on it) on loan – book was published in 1971 and dated in many ways – but that was a good thing – like higdon spent a chapter talking about all the drivers that run him off the road – all the police that stop him – and all the things that are said about him – just b/c he runs – today? wow, we just live in a different age – this book definitely rejuiced me to get back on the road and collect miles – just a great read

hope your reading continues well 2

maf

greetings from Beantown!!!

“Hope Runs” – i finished this book yesterday, unintentionally, b/c I had more time on flights with people I wanted to “avoid” – well, technically, I wanted to talk the old guy with the Boston jacket to death, but he put up “shields” – his ultrarunning magazine – and so I had to read as well – oh well – on the positive side, very good book about Kenyan culture – I learned a lot more about their schooling – for example, imaging being in eighth grade and taking a test that determines whether you can continue in school or not – we’d probably have a few more eighth graders taking school seriously…

“stronger” by bauman – written by someone who lost both legs in the Boston attacks last year – i guess i was reminded how incredibly difficult it is to rebound from amputations- particularly, the higher they go – bauman had to face a lot this last year that a lot of 27 year olds don’t have to – he had to grow up real fast and figure out who he was and what he wanted – his positive approach to even the bombers was amazing

“long mile home” – it just worked out this week, i had a chance to read a book about the week of the attacks – so i went rather overboard in everything that happened – the result is that i have a better knowledge base about it all – so yesterday’s 5k in watertown – the special on the officer that almost died in the shootout – the starter, bauman – i got all of that – and seeing survivors at the site yesterday when i went for packet pickup reinforced it all

easter blessings to you all

maf

my Jesus also had a messed up armpit this morning – connect the dots, and i missed the link from 39 to 40 – thus, one should never write in pen when one does connect the dots

“toughness” – by bilas – espn commentator – duke basketball player – attorney at law – not a lot the guy hasn’t done – good book about how most guys try and be “tough,” but they end up being “hard” – that toughness, on the court and in life, is about responding to life’s challenges from a core set of beliefs – not just being stubborn – or getting into fights – bilas wrote a column in like ’09 that went viral – i had thought, once upon a time, that we might spend a Wednesday defining a “tough” classmate – what does it mean to hang tough in the classroom – but we may run out of time

that was it for the week – i slacked off – actually, the library was closed – so it was hard to get anything new – i have one book from a boston survivor to read this week – there’s another book at the public library about the attacks themselves – but I’m not sure i want to read that one before next week

as for that, i may not blog next sunday either – i’ll keep everyone posted

maf

well, and we’re playing b/c it takes up time and keeps first graders quiet:)

“hide and seek with angels” – funny that we’d play with a chicken today when I devoted my week to finishing this book – a biography on jm barrie – the guy that wrote peter pan – really good book – barrie was definitely not of this era – it was neat getting to read about the fantasy worlds he created – brilliant, original writer that the world has forgotten

“timeless” – OH MY HELLO KITTY!!! – a high school BOB – on the oft chance that I’m reading for them, I decided to finish the BOB list – this was the last one – the good part of it? it was very easy to read – less than a day – the bad??? oh, where to begin… 🙂 let’s just say the romance between the 112 year old and the 18-year-old, while heartwarming, was just a bit odd – but I think we all know I gag over romance novels anyway

“unreached people groups in the US” – great read – short read – free read – by one of my pastors at church – sad book – very, very lost world, even in the U.S.

so no anna Kathryn davis chats this week so I might get more blogs – joy… 🙂

maf