IMWAYR…that stands for, It’s Monday! What are you reading?
Every Monday we will check in and share what we are reading. On the padlet below, put your name & the title of the book you’re reading in the title of your post and then write two sentences about your book. Can’t wait to see what everyone is reading!
Today is World Kindness Day! I love the idea of a day to celebrate kindness. To celebrate World kindness day, I want to engage in random acts of kindness. There are so many simple ways to show kindness to people…
Smile
Say hello
Hold a door open
Pick up something that’s dropped
Leave a sticky note with a compliment
Write a note of thanks
Draw a picture
Let someone go ahead of you in line
How will you celebrate World Kindness Day? Here’s a great TED Talk about a woman who celebrated Random Acts of Kindness…
First quarter ended. I love that we get opportunities to start fresh a few times each year. We end our nine weeks of hard work with a reading celebration called the Zone Day.
We bring lots of books to read. We stretch out on desks and pillows. We settle in and read. It’s heavenly! We spent some time reading our read aloud book too.
I read Karen Harrington’s new book, Mayday. It’s not released until May, but I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy.
I gobbled it up in one day! It’s full of drama…about a boy named Wayne who is struggling to figure out who he is supposed to be. This is happening as he survives a plane crash and learns to deal with his family and friends. Wayne is such a likable character! Karen Harrington, the author, writes tragedy so well. She communicates the layers of life…everything isn’t all good or all bad, and she steers her characters through the messiness of life. I LOVE her books! I celebrate good authors and the chance to read their writing! Look for Mayday this spring! I shared my thoughts with the author. Here’s our conversation on Twitter…
Aw, thank YOU @Mhaseltine ! Did you know this makes me very happy? True story! https://t.co/knS9LD3fCs
— Karen Harrington (@KA_Harrington) October 30, 2015
Hooray for an early review of my next book, MAYDAY, out next May! https://t.co/tqeSW2741R — Karen Harrington (@KA_Harrington) October 31, 2015
Hooray for an early review of my next book, MAYDAY, out next May! https://t.co/tqeSW2741R
— Karen Harrington (@KA_Harrington) October 31, 2015
She even left a comment on my other blog…
Let’s celebrate the National Day on Writing.
Why do I Write? Today is the National Day on Writing sponsored by NCTE. I’ve been thinking about this question for awhile. There are so many reasons that I write…
I write to untangle my insides.
I write to communicate my feelings.
I write to think, to figure things out.
I write to calm myself down.
I write to learn.
I write to explore new worlds.
I write to express myself.
I write to share who I am.
I write for my students.
I write for my family.
I write for my friends.
I write for myself.
I write for my readers.
I write because I don’t know how not to write.
When I don’t write, I lose myself.
Writing brings me back to me.
Writing quiets the crazy chaos of the world.
When I write, everything makes sense.
Double click on the Padlet and answer the question. Why do you write?!?!
I love quotes. Words inspire me and make me feel confident. Words intrigue me and help me grow. Here is one of my favorite quotes…
Created with the InstaQuote app
This one is often attributed to Albert Einstein, but there’s no evidence that he actually said it. I love this! We all have different gifts and talents. Finding out what we are good at can be a long and hard struggle, but I believe we need to go on that journey. Judging everyone using the SAME tool is not a good idea. Actually, I don’t think it’s a good idea to judge anyone at all.
Do you have a favorite quote? What is it?
Snow day. Was that #5 or #6? I’ve lost count. Yesterday was a very productive day. I spent time playing with Bella too because it was her birthday.
Happy Birthday Bella! Do you like the flower on her new collar?
She loves the snow, so we played outside. I love watching her jump and leap into the snow. She has so much fun! My house needed some cleaning and organizing, so I started in the kitchen. Washed all the dishes and organized the pantry.
Newly organized journaling supplies on my night stand.
I cleaned my bedroom.
Bella sitting on the bed with my new orange blanket. (Mess behind her is now gone.)
Laundry is done and I rearranged books on my book shelves.
Love having writing books and favorite books near me.
Next, I organized my office.
My office is also my guest room. The bed was covered with books and papers and markers. I love seeing it cleaned off!
Sparkly lights and a clean work space makes me happy!
It feels great to be organized! I made that snow day count.
Snow day number three today…my phone rang about noon. It was my assistant principal asking me if my students were getting any work done during the snow days. We chatted and I told him that I have a bunch of students blogging and working on their independent writing projects and even more are reading! I asked why he wanted to know. It turns out the public information officer had contacted him and with my permission, he would be contacting me. Sure!! I love when my students get authentic audience beyond me. I emailed links to a bunch of blogs and waited for the next call.
Fifteen minutes later the phone rang again but this time it was a television news reporter from the ABC station in Washington DC, Suzanne Kennedy. Huh? She wanted to interview one of my students. After getting all of the permissions in place, I passed along a name and phone number and then I waited.
Five o’clock arrived. The story was supposed to lead off the news…except there was a mysterious smoke problem with the Metro. I worried that our story got bumped off tonight’s news…until 5:19, when I heard the reporter start talking about our county.
Then I saw Minahil! There she was…on the screen…
What was on the screen?!?! What was she typing?!?! Take a look…
Writing her slice of life, while living it! I love that her blogging got her on the news tonight! It makes me so happy that during the filming, she showed the reporter her slice of life! Slicing has become part of their writing lives…even on snow days! Way to go, Minahil!
There’s a new way to organize information. It’s called inforgraphics. That means you use words and graphics and numbers and charts to represent and explain information. I practiced using infographics last week. It was challenging, but fun! Here are some examples of infographics from USA Today. Here are more I found on Pinterest. I tried to make one too. Here’s mine.
Now it’s your turn. You pick one of the sites: Easel.ly or Piktochart (mine is made with Piktochart) and make your own infographic.
