Celebrate: Indie Book Stores

Ever have just an awesome book week? A week where you get your hands on books you have been long awaiting, read some true works of art, or just have time to sit down and read at leisure. I have had the most wonderful book week! Today, I am celebrating Cover to Cover Bookstore for making this possible. 

I have a confession... I tend to buy a lot of books online. I am not proud of the fact, but I do. Recently, some friends and I got together and made life lists- lists where you come up with as many goals to accomplish in a year as your age. One of my goals was to be more purposeful about buying my books from independent books stores. So, this week, I headed into my local Indie, Cover to Cover to pick up a book I ordered. A Book... lol. 

Upon picking up the book I ordered, I of course spotted another I had to have. Sally, the owner of this fine establishment, and I had a fantastic discussion about Ann M. Martin's new middle grade novel, Rain Reign, and she handed this to me to pass to other teachers to read. She then let me peruse her stack of arcs in the back. I squealed when I came across Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath. I have been dying to read this book for months. I also found Spirit's Key by Edith Cohn, another that I was less than anxiously awaiting. As I was heading out with my bag of goodies, Beth grabbed a pack of bookmarks she had set aside for me. She happens to know my love of sloth books! I left the store with my  heart so full and happy. 

This experience made me realize how very important it is that I support a small business like this. For us book groupies, these stores give us a place with knowledgable staff who have the same goals we do- to get books in kids hands. They are not doing what they do to become rich no more than any teacher gets into the field hoping to make millions. 

This experience has resonated with me all week and every time I glance at my small pile of books I grin. Thanks for taking such great care of us, Indie stores!

This celebration post made possible by Ruth Ayres and her Celebrate This Week link up. Head over to her blog to check out other celebrations!

Celebrate: March Book Madness

                           

                      

I love Twitter for so many reasons. One of which is the ability to have 1 min PD from a community of brilliant educators any time. So when I saw this tweet from Tony Keefer, I was very intrigued:

                                     

 I have always been a huge March Madness fan and a huge book fan. The combination of these two had my mind blown! I couldn't wait to get started. Well this week we had out championship vote. Here is my list of celebrations for March Book Madness 2014: 

1. My classroom is across from the bathrooms. The books we chose had maximum exposure and even some students coming in to ask if they could read them. Many times, I would walk out of my room to kids staring at the books or having discussions with other about them. 

2. After our initial seeding, some books were ranked low because students judged by their cover. Those were some of the books that went the furthest. Hopefully a valuable lesson!

3. The students became so invested in the books they wanted to win. Both a good thing and a bad thing. When their book lost, they took it a little to hard!

4. The deeper thinking the kids did about the books never ceased to amaze me! They would try to reason against popular books being up against other popular books. Their excuses ranged from genres not matching, to the same illustrator going up against one another, to a "think and feel" book up against a funny book. When they are trying to passionately convince others of their opinion, their thinking becomes so much deeper!

5. The noise level in the classroom at the time of the championship vote was out of control! I have never felt a quiet room was necessary and the louder the better in certain cases. This was one of those cases. People walking by couldn't help but stop and stare. 

6. Though there could only be one winner, I know all the books were winners in each child's heart. 

These are just some of our celebrations. I can't wait to make this an annual tradition in my classroom! 

Celebrating a Day of Birth

Today is a very special day. Today, March 15, is the birth of my blog. Those of you who know me know that this has been a long time coming. Though every writer feels the guilt of the wasted minute 

before her that could have been used to finally accomplish a goal, I feel that there is no better day than today for a birthday. So, though I have dragged my feet for many months, I am today celebrating. 

There are so many thing I have to celebrate in my life every day. Though I will soon be celebrating the day of my own birth, and subsequently entering the "other side" of my 20s, I feel that to be where I am in life at this age is one of the most amazing gifts. I am feeling particularly blessed to be surrounded by friends and mentors at The Michigan Reading Association conference this weekend. Just an hour ago, I was sitting, mesmerized, listening to Penny Kittle instilling all the wisdom 90 minutes allows. It has been what can only be described as a gift to listen to Troy Hicks, R.J. Palacio, and Jeff Anderson all in one unbelievable day. See why I'm celebrating??

So here's to Book Groupie Blog. (Book Groupie was already take)

Here's to being a book groupie, a learning groupie, and a groupie of all the amazing people I am surrounded by today, and every day. 

What is a book groupie you ask??

Some people get excited for the Oscar or Grammy's. A book groupie gets excited for The Newbery announcement or any other Tuesday a book they have not so patiently awaiting comes out. Some people get excited to spot Hollywood movie stars. A book groupie gets excited and screams out the car window at Louise Borden's doppelganger who happened to be outside their hotel (true story). A book groupie feels the wide range of emotions certain books can evoke in you on a daily basis, so much so that their spouse gets concerned about mood swings. A book groupie know, cares, and loves the people who understand what these and many others feel like. 

So, today I am Celebrating being at MRA (#MRA14), having a supportive PLN that helped me get where I am today, and BOOK GOUPIES! (You know who you are ;)

Thanks for stopping by!