Thank You - {Celebrate This Week}

If you are stopping by this new space today, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time.  I hope you will stop back by and enjoy this journey with me.

Thank you Ruth at Ruth Ayers Writes for encouraging us to find daily celebrations in our lives.  If you want to read more positive things stop by this week's post, Family Life.

Redesigned and a New Blog - {Celebrate This Week}

Phew!  It's been quite the week thinking about goals, purpose, design, space, and writing.  I've wrestled, yes literally with Blogger about layout and images.  I've played around, made mistakes, called in some support, and preserved.  I've studied mentor blogs and thought a lot about less is more and white space.  You will find current lists for Places I Go for Guidance and Places I Go for Inspiration.  Today I'm celebrating redesigning this space and creating a new writing space!

I started this blog, Enjoy and Embrace Learning in 2008 when I switched grade levels from third to kindergarten.  Franki Sibberson and I were together during a Literacy Connection workshop where I was predicting this grade level switch was coming.  In Franki's usual encouraging way, she suggested a blog to document and share my transition.  That is how Enjoy and Embrace Learning began where I enjoy sharing books and things related to my classroom.

Recently, I started to feel a nudge to create a space where I could organize my thoughts and blogposts focused more on being a writer.  I try to participate in the slice of life weekly posts and for a few years have done the Slice of Life Challenge for a whole month several times.  I love the feel of these posts for a whole month together and often don't post anything else because I feel it would break up the rhythm of how the blog is viewed and read.  I've also enjoyed reading blogs with a slice of life or poetry or celebration focus.  My previous post in these three areas have been moved to Enjoy and Embrace Writing for consistency and possibilities.  

I hope you will visit both blogs physically and just say ohhh and ahhh.  I'll feel the vibes through the rays of sunshine today.  I have the blogs linked to each other via a tab at the top.  Also, if you have Enjoy and Embrace Learning showing up in your blog reader or inbox, please consider adding Enjoy and Embrace Writing, there are links to do that in the sidebar on the right.  

Thank you Ruth at Ruth Ayers Writes for encouraging us to find daily celebrations in our lives.  If you want to read more positive things stop by this week's post, Family Life.

Picture Book 10 for 10 is Coming!

                                                                        

Savoring

Soaking it up

Skipping along 

Summer

There's a new Voxer

Cathy checking in

Predicting my summer projects

Sharing her pd experiences

Then 

She shares the zinger

Sunday is July 10th

Picture book 10 for 10 is coming!

I knew it was coming earlier in the week but then I easily went back to savoring, soaking it up, skipping along, and my current summer plans.  Too be quite honest, even after agreeing to do a launch post today, I woke up and went - Oh, no!  - I didn't get that done and I was out the door to two of the most exciting softball games of the season.  While I was on the field, I read Cathy's post and decided it would be better if I shared mine tonight for our evening readers and twitter friends.  

I hope you will consider joining us.  We started this project because I was reading all of her fabulous suggestions in her book, More Than Guided Reading and wrote my reflections, which connected us.  I thought I had struck gold when she left a comment on my blog and today I still think I struck gold.  We love to brainstorm ideas, listen to each other, and then push each other for various little projects and presentations.  Sometimes I laugh and chuckle at her suggestions because she always has many but in the end, we come up with some good ideas like this one.  

We are thrilled so many people join us.  It increases the positive energy of a new school year.  It brings educators together around something positive and encourages sharing.  

Here's some tidbits for joining us.

1. Grab a Badge (I like to select the image and save image as...)
2. Join the #pb10for10 Google Community
3. Choose Your Favorites:  All you need to do is choose ten picture books you cannot live without for whatever reason.  In the first days of this event, everyone shared their ten very favorite titles.  This still works.  You will notice, however, that many past participants choose some type of theme to determine their selections.  We'll leave this up to you.
4. Narrow Your List to Ten:  It isn't easy, is it?  We've seen some crafty ways to get around that number, but really ten is plenty. 
5. Write Your August 10th Post:  Write a post about the ten books you cannot live without.  Share your post on August 10th and link it to the Picture Book 10 for 10 Community.  
6. No Blog?  No Problem:  If you don't have a blog, this might be the perfect time to start one --- or there are a million digital ways to join (see post below).  Of course, now with the Google Community it is quite easy to just post your favorites directly into the community without a blog.  We will also be tweeting from the #pb10for10 hashtag.
7. Comment:  On August 10th (and maybe for a week --- there are a lot of posts) take some time to read posts from other participants.  Please comment on at least three.

Please share our event with all of your friends and encourage them to join us.  

Slice of Life - Productive Effort

I'm in my ready position and my iPhone lens is carefully placed between fence lines to capture some early Sunday morning softball catching photos.  I wait for the play and before I know it, she's right in front of me!  It's not the picture I planned on capturing which unsettles me for a minute and then I realize what if she catches this foul ball, I better start snapping photos.  

Let's think about what was happening on the other side of the fence and pretend we are A.  

The pitch comes in.  

The batter tips the ball and it up, over, and behind me.  

I have to spin half way around.

I flip off my catching mask.

I turn my head to the sky in hopes of seeing where this yellow ball is.

I reach really wide in hopes of catching this ball for an out.

While flipping, looking, and reaching, I'm also moving my feet backwards and side to side.

I didn't catch that ball.

The batter got to try again.

                          

After I capture a couple of "standard" catching photos I look back through my camera roll and see the photo above.  I love this different angle of the game.  I'm pretty proud of the quality of this shot with my iPhone6.  Then I get ecstatic!  I just captured productive effort!  A made her productive effort public.  Her coach was so excited and praising this productive effort.  

Productive effort are probably the two most important words for me in Who's Doing the Work? by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris, which I shared yesterday.  I can't wait to share this photo and tell this story to my second graders as a productive effort mentor.  If you own the book, productive effort is discussed in the Chapter 2, Read Aloud.  

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for hosting this writing community and for encouraging us to live a writerly life.

SaveSave

Who's Doing the Work?

I finished reading Who's Doing the Work? - How to Say Less So Readers Can Do More by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris.  I think this is a must have book for new teachers and student teachers.  It really anchors and describes reading workshop through the tools of read aloud, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading.  I think this is the perfect book for anyone looking to change their practice.  If you need nudges, descriptions, encouragement and guidance then this book is for you.  As a reader, you will also feel prepared by understanding what makes each tool special for your classroom.  Sections about implementation, misconceptions and what might be tricky when trying these tools is full of guidance.  I found myself feeling blessed for when I began my journey in teaching.  My studies were anchored in these tools and have remained integral in my reading workshop.  So, as I read this book I found myself agreeing with many ideas and breathing a bit easier that these ideas remain important for our students to be successful readers.  However,  any good reader and learner finds things to take away from their reading.  

These are the nudges I found to ponder for the upcoming school year.

- increase read aloud text levels as the year progresses for our chapter book reads

- bring more shared reading into my classroom, how does it look different from my K classroom

- think about library choices and the decisions behind them

- how can I help foster those decisions when I'm not there

- align teaching points more between read aloud, shared reading, and guided reading

These are some quotes that are sticking with me and might interest you in looking at this book more.

-"It's important that students have plenty of opportunity to practice processing their ideas about text and to make their productive effort public."

-"Shared reading primes students with upcoming vocabulary and text features while also helping them formulate visions of their reading futures."

-"Throughout the guided reading session, the teacher makes anecdotal notes about students' reading processes and looks for patterns of difficulty to address in shared reading."

-"Well intentioned, strict definitions of "just right" (and right adherence to them) can seriously limit student choice and ultimately rob students of reading energy."

Right now there is a great opportunity to converse with the authors on the next to Thursdays via twitter.  @DrMaryHoward is hosting and the hashtag is #G2Great.  

The Data Set - March of the Mini Beasts

While on vacation, I found a brand new series for transitional readers but I was a hesitant to pick it up because I found the front cover a bit dark and spooky.  The blurb did peak my interest and I remembered I need more books with guy characters, plus it fit my discover a new book while on vacation goal so I picked up, The Data Set - March of the Mini Beasts by Ada Hopper.  I have to be honest, I couldn't put it down when I read it this weekend.  

Gabriel, Laura, and Cesar are friends who love to gather random facts/information/data and share their knowledge with others.  The story begins with these friends trying to raise money for a school science field trip by selling chocolate bars door to door.  They have two boxes to go and an old run down mansion, the only house left to sell to.  Their interactions with the owner of this house, Mad Dr. Bunsen are entertaining.  The friends are so excited to discover all of his science experiment gear and then he shares his growth ray machine.  He wants to try it on the children but they convince him to try it on Gabe's lucky plastic Stego toy.  As you might predict the growth ray didn't work and the children go home.

A few days later Dr. Bunsen finds the children in  Gabe's backyard in the treehouse Laura designed.  Dr. Bunsen is super excited to share he got the growth ray machine to work and they try it on more plastic animals.  It appears once again it isn't working.  However, with some time they discover the animals may not be growing but they have come to life.  This is a problem and the solution that follows is entertaining.  I have to warn you, it's not a happy ending and takes the reader immediately to wanting to read the second book in the series which I ordered last night.  

I think this book is the right mix of every day life with a twist of fantasy for transitional readers to enjoy and want to read more of.  The print is a bit larger on each page with black and white illustrations to help support comprehension.  There is more white space which I always enjoy as a reader and think it supports the readers in my classroom.  However, the characters are a fun loving group.  They create, they collect things and knowing facts is super important.  A teacher's dream.

WHAT TO DO WITH A BOX {Poetry Friday}

I'm so excited to add a poetry book to my collection of books about boxes.  WHAT TO DO WITH A BOX by Jane Yolen and Chris Sheban was just released this year.  Brown, box like tones and warm subtle colors make this book warm and inviting.  As we often discover as readers, authors love to share the different things a box can be.  Jane Yolen is no exception here but her choices reflect using it as is and imagining something else, using some props, drawing objects, and painting a setting on the box for different scenarios.  Her imagination offers readers practical, wild, and fun uses for a box.  As you can imagine, her word choice is rhythmic, descriptive, concise, and enjoyable.

Here's a sample -

...

YOU CAN CLIMB INSIDE

AND THERE READ A

BOOK.

IT CAN BE

A LIBRARY,

PALACE,

OR NOOK.

...

For the past couple of years I have done a The Box Project to help build community.  My students love this learning how to work together via this project based learning project.  This book will be the perfect addition to my text set.  I promise signing up for this free unit is worth it!

Thank you Carol at Carol's Corner for hosting Poetry Friday this week.