ah, liberty day – such classic Columbiana fun – fascinating Mayfield trivia – I was in the first two parades that were ever held

“good news to the poor” by chester – great book that addressed the degree to which the poor need just physical needs met vs. their spiritual needs – the best chapter was probably – ironically – the good news for the rich – lots of examples the author mentioned I will use with us in class this year – things like allowing students to make their own choices – having buy-in – vs. just telling them what to do

“John McDonnell” – biography on probably the most successful coach of all time – McDonnell won 40-plus track and field national championships at Arkansas – just ridiculous how great his teams were – how he built a program out of nothing – through basically hard work – the book had plenty of teaching times for me – coaching is like teaching – and it was good inspiration for running b/c what made Arkansas great originally was just athletes who committed to do doing the work – it wasn’t special gifts or talents – just work – and I think too often, people discount their abilities b/c they are afraid of working hard – desperately hard – for something

bonus if you’re out cheering me when i run by Saturday

maf

i had to start with the above title b/c billy apparently can’t spell Bibles – see previous blog comments from last week – so i figured maybe this would help lead him in the right direction if i used exclamation points

you can see from the below that i read a bit last week

“the dogma of cats for kids” by Snyder – wonderful small-ish book for kids about how to apply the learning of people to the learning of cats – good elem book – good one for my middle school when we work with special needs kids

“cat sense” by bradshaw – great read – I talked my sister to death on our run this morning about it – great for my middle school cat lovers – I wish i’d had this book at my students’ age – i’d have cared and understood my cats better – anyway, great practical book about cats – what makes them tick – what makes them unique from dogs (HINT: they’re not small dogs:)

“opera A to Z” by Lindsay – this should be on our required list for BOB next year – a book about the great operas of all-time – complete with a beginning to what the heck is opera in the first place and with an index in the back to help you go forward for more after reading it – from a non-opera person, I learned so much – my kids would too that I teach – great introductory book – really for all ages

“Birmingham then and now” – this was actually two books – a book on the shopping district and a book on the TV stations – read quickly – lots of photos – I enjoyed learning about the buildings I fly by for Mercedes

“Alabama legends” – mr scott’s book – interviews with Tide legends – i guess the takeaway i had from the book this time was that it really was an interview driven work – you could tell mr. scott didn’t spend his time in books for this book – he was on the phone talking to people – which is something i think most people wouldn’t have thought about his book

“Running Tide” – best named running book ever:) joan benoit samuelson was an elite marathoner in the 1980s – the book came out in 1987 – interestingly enough, she’s still elite at the 50-over female group – she could beat me in a marathon – so the fact that she’s remained so strong for so long, it made the book even better – from a teaching standpoint, she spent like a chapter on her junior high – which was funny – only biography I’ve read recently where someone did that

stay cool

maf

yeah nadal’s win at the French open (and sad that I can’t share this win with Julie:(

“death by living” by Wilson – wonderful humor – unique writing – definitely for my students – Wilson asks questions about life that my kids ask – that we all ask – and his efforts weave storytelling into making his points – the whole first part about stories just in structure would be a wonderful tool for teaching in my class

“facing the music” – by nick carter – Backstreet Boy – while my students are likely not BSB people, they relate to carter b/c nick was 12 when he became famous – crazy famous – so famous he couldn’t handle it – not that most people could – and his problems sort of led to the book – again, good things to share with my kids b/c his message deals with things my kids are soon going to deal with

“eighty days” – enjoyable read – I say that – i’m not sure any of you would want to read it – even at the high school level – but two women went around the world in 1889 – two journalists – and their bravery – in a world where women were supposed to be silent – was a great to read – and there were parallels with Verne’s tale

maf

oh, I was a busy reader this past week…

“the lieography of babe ruth” by katz – wonderful, creative story based on the life of babe ruth – a great baseball player – I’ve never heard of a lieography – so the whole concept – take a guy’s life and run with your imagination – and run with it, the author did – again, great, great idea that we’ll use some in the classroom this fall

“game changer” by cousins – former Michigan state quarterback – current redskins back up to RGIII – great biography – although, not so much a story of his life as much as encouragement for living – the game changer for cousins is Christ – He’s the one who makes everything you do take on meaning and purpose – the book didn’t fit the classic YA tale of the heroic lone ranger we should all live like – at his grand old age of like 24 – cousins book was different – and that was good – highly recommended for my middle school guys (they know who they are:)

“the wayward gifted” two authors collaborated on this one – a story about two gifted kids – highly verbally academically advanced gifted kids – who have a psycho mother – at least for now (I mean, this is book one so who knows what will happen to the mother:) in this book, the kids work to solve a mystery – and they do so in their inquisitive, humorous way – classic storytelling – great read

“the secretary” – got from Pelham library – BBC TV person wrote about Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State – great book – great not b/c Clinton is just super-awesome and so we must bow and worship – I feel like I always have to say that or someone thinks I’m playing politics – it was a great read b/c the author is not from America – she grew up hating the US for what it did to her country – so the book is about the author coming to terms with the US – as we come to terms with our foreign policy roles – really, really enjoyed this book – best book I’ve read in a long time

and finally…

“Cheetah can’t lose” – this book was awesome!!! It’s about a cheetah that wins at every race – and two kittens that try to sabotage the cheetah – the cheetah (spoiler alert) still wins – which proves that speed conquers all – it was an inspiring book that made me realize my life is worthless unless I’m No. 1 🙂

hope to see ya’ll out on the roadways of Columbiana this week in the midmorning – great time for some Boston prep…

maf

my takeaway from the graduation cycle this year – bear Bryant said a lot things he never said… 🙂

(in other words, people love to put words into famous people’s mouths – regardless of whether it was actually ever said that way)

so I’ve been active in the reading cycle – although, already probably five books behind annmarie – which is okay – i’ll crush her this week b/c I have 30 picture books lined up:)

“peanuts, pogo, and hobbes” – wonderful book for my 6-8th graders – gives background on newspaper comics, in particular, the time period from 1940-70 – the author adds his testimony as well as a fairly famous editor in the Midwest – he wrote the book for his grandkids and I think his mission was accomplished for describing an era that’s gone now – for better or worse (pun intended on the comic strip by the same name:)

“chasing the hawk” by sheenan – once, there was a runner – and this runner wrote tons of books on running and was well-known for it – then, the man passed away of prostrate cancer – and nine years later, his son penned a beautiful book about his father – and the son’s struggle to figure out life – the dad was like me – selfish beyond belief in many ways – and the son was like me – beautifully destructive in many ways – I really enjoyed the book – and the running moments in the book

fingers crossed for billy’s vandy team today

maf

okay, so i think it’s only fair that the first to blog this week gets the “teacher’s favorite” award – or whatever it is they call it nowadays…

“coolidge” – so i read only one book this week – but it was long – and had depth – code words for probably slacking – sorry to disappoint all of you that root for me to finish multiple books in a week – anyway, silent cal wasn’t so silent – he just wasn’t connected well to most of that time’s political figures – the good he did? tax cuts and balanced budget – the bad? he turned his back on relief for flood victims – he did nothing to stop the depression that began in 1929 – and he wasn’t much of a leader – all that said, i really enjoyed learning about him

hope your final week is a good one
maf

so it’s probably unfair for me to go anywhere furthre without reminding the sixth grade that you don’t have to blog this week – or any other week until august – otherwise, i’d probably still get three or four blogs a week from kids thinking it’s a requirement – that said, i always look favorably to an addition to the blog – aka, mega bonus:)

next, our book is on amazon – the eighth grade POV parade book from the fall – click here to order

“on the run” by marty liquori – found at the thrift store for $1.25 – a steal – liquori was a great miler in the 70s – his book was entertaining – even if it was 30 years old – it was cool to compare with – like no runner today could write 300 pages on one year in his life – it would never be published – sadly, US running isn’t that much better than it was when he was running – except that the runners are taken care of better now

“olympic gold” by shorter – auburn library ready – from 1984 – shorter has been attributed with jump starting running in the US – quite an individual feat to do – his story is really encouraging – and the fact he was running in ’84 was even more amazing to me – he didn’t just win gold in ’72, win silver in ’76 (the guy ahead of him was stoked up on steriods – which we’d come to learn in ’89) – he kept going – he even is probably the only runner ever to earn a law degree just b/c he was bored with running:)

“mapping boston” – story of 300 years of mapping a city that has changed – a ton – my favorite fact? the size of the city has grown 4x in size since it was founded – the hills were leveled and used as filler for areas – including the area i hope to finish at in a year – can you tell i’m already excited – oh, the added fun with that book was it was superheavy so i’ve got killer arm muscles from toting it around

happy finals
mafeld

well, that is, if “war for corbotia” doesn’t come out – or my eighth grade book – or any of my other classes – i’ve put together the last three years of the blog in pdf form – so it’s technically an e-book right now – all six years are like 700 pages – more depending on the font and page size – anyway, so be careful what you write, i guess… 🙂

“the signal and noise” by silver – book on making predictions – and why we’re so bad at it – even with all the data in the world we have now – like, take the current baseball season – basically nothing like what early stat people said – and why? b/c we tend to put too much confidence in data that favors things we like – things that we think explain our world – needless to say, the book was good about making me more aware of how i can slant data to support things – and, moreover, how others do that (it’s really bad in education data)

“going long” – christmas is officially over – i bought three running books from my gift cards at christmas – and so i got and read one of my three this week – which i guess means that christmas will officially be over when i finish all three – maybe summer then – i like to save my running books for hard times – anyway, this book was a collection of runner’s world’s best from the last 30 years – although, most of the essays were from the last few years – i guess my impression was sadness – not that all the stories were sad – but i’d neglected to think much lately about a runner that died at the ’07 trials – and i felt awful about taking life for granted – again

happy ARMT week

maf

oh, the questions that keep me up at nights…

“not exactly a love story” – cute book – new book – YA – i guess high school – those are the characters – easily read – for some reason, set in 1978 – really could’ve been any time – guy cold calls a girl – the girl of his dreams – at midnight – and he botches the call (really, really bad) – so then he starts calling her every night – sort of an idiot stalker at first – beautiful lover in the end – ah… anyway, it wasn’t bad – read quick – and that’s all i can ask out of such books – maybe a high school BOB next year???

“i still believe” by far my favorite book of the week – by singer jeremy camp – it’s hard to believe i’ve known camp and his songs for longer than my sixth graders have been alive – anyway, his book is history – the reasons behind some of his songs – he was widowed at 22 – met, married, honeymooned and the wife came back with bad cancer news – all that i knew – more about his hope – how he got through it – i didn’t know – for 130 pages, definitely a recommendable read – and, of course, i had to download the one album i don’t have of his afterward:)

currently reading a book about economic theory – i suppose this is the last week of journals – so hope you have fun with them

mafeld

ps…

“For Julie”
By Mayfield

Three years of your books
and how to reply?

Three years of your ups,
three years of your downs
and how to reply?

Three years of Giants baseball,
of classmates in and out,
band/drama/Scholar’s Bowl
and then it’s all gone
and how to reply?

Goodbye – harsh, I know
for this was the reply
but this is also the end
and there’s no
reply to silence.

“long road to boston” – this one came in maybe the day after the attack – a fiction book from 1988 – weave of the 1978 (fictional) boston marathon and the story of why the guy that finished high (again, fiction – he didn’t exist) was an unknown competiting against bill rodgers – the best part was about the race – just a great glimpse of what that race was like back then – i could’ve done w/o other things in there – particularly with how quickly the guy got over his dead wife…

“off-balance” what do you do when you’re a gold medalist at 14??? i think i have eighth graders near that age – anyway, this gymnast, now 30-plus, had gold at 14 – and had adults that made her life awful – so rather than the tale of a self-destructive teen (although she did become this later), it’s a story of how adults can mess up youth sports so very often – and the way olympic teams are picked in gymnastics defies logic – except that we do it through centralized, undemocratic control (there would be a rebellion in track and field and swimming if teams were chosen based on one family’s control – grrr…)

by my watch, maybe two weeks left of journals – make them count
mafeld