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“in March I’ll be rested, caught up and human.”

— Sylvia Plath, The Letters of Sylvia Plath vol 1: 1940-1956

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Judge. Jury. Executioner.

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OMG I FORGOT TO FEED MY NEOPET

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I love her.

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It’s Banned Books Week and last year has seen an increase in reported challenges. Unfortunately, 2016 was unprecedented in another way by a book reaching the top ten solely because of its author. Bill Cosby‘s children’s book series was challenged because of criminal sexual allegations against him. His name is now also going down in the history of banned or challenged books!

Digging more into statistics from 2016 is a bit disheartening considering the top five books challenged were because of LGBT content. Though if you consider books by or featuring diverse people as a whole, 2015 may have been worse since arguably nine of the books on the list that year fit such criteria. Objections to such content go far back in the pages of history. Accordingly it disappoints me greatly to see continued strong opposition to diverse fiction that not only serves to help people recognize commonalities present between us all but, also inspire or comfort individuals.

(Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association)

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taylor swift 2017:

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I feel like you’re ignoring my question about this leaf

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Seeing people the same age as you doing awesome things with their life

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Reading Conference Tips

Care to write an in depth post on how you run your reading conferences?-PPT

Well usually I flail around mindlessly wondering “Wait- why is this student sitting here? What am I supposed to be teaching them? I suddenly forget how to teach.” Even though I am competent and knowledgeable about my content area and the pedagogy of workshop, and even though I consider one of my strengths to be working one one one with my students, the moment I sit down for a “formal” conference I get spazzy.  99% of the time this comes from me not having a clear idea of what I want to TEACH in that conference. The other 1% is just me being spazzy.

However, when I am confident and have thought ahead and planned properly, a conference can be very useful to a student and myself. Below, I have outlined a few key tips for reading conferences. I find the simpler I keep things, the fewer things I try to juggle, the more successful I am. Keeping in mind that conferences are an area that I am always working to improve, take my tips with a grain of salt, as I am still a learner, myself:

1) Predictable Problems is a term my dept. head uses and I happen to like. If you can predict problems that are likely to occur for you and students, you can use it to your advantage, particularly in conferences. In Reading there are several problems that consistently reappear: choosing a “just right” book, using fix-up strategies, what to put on post-it notes, etc…Therefore, I am currently in the process of planning for these common, predictable problems. Which leads me to…

2)Make a lesson plan. Yes, I actually make a lesson plan for these types of conferences. Often, I have taught these lessons as a mini-lesson but if a student is still struggling then they obviously need to be taught in a different way. My conference lesson follows the same format as my mini-lesson:Warm up, teach/model, try, clarify, independent practice, share/wrap-up.However, it is much shorter than even my mini-lesson because well…I have 25 students per class with about 45 minutes of conference time and I ideally will get to every student once in two weeks (note: THIS NEVER HAPPENS! I AM ALWAYS STRUGGLING TO MAKE CONFERENCE TIME)

3)Text Options. This sounds simple but it is my #1 problem.  You need to have many pieces of short texts/passages for you to model with and for students to practice with.  Sometimes I use picture books I have used as read-alouds bc students are familiar with them and can be quickly used as a model. However, they need something different to practice on.  Considering the crutch of the workshop model is that students practice in “just right” texts (and let’s not talk about Common Core right now. That’s a whole different conversation) it is vital to know your students’ reading levels and have those options available.  I struggle with this because honestly, who has the time? I always say “I’ll search for texts tonight, tomorrow, next week,” but something else takes precedent.  So, that is what I’m doing now, actually. Finding comprehension pieces (fiction and non-fic) and short stories of all different levels. Just collect them and file them in a way that makes sense to me: sometimes with a certain lesson and/or by level, topic, etc…

4)Search and Destroy. There are lots of types of conferences and they are all valuable but if you find yourself crunched for time like I am, stick with the Search and Destroy method. Use conference time to do only one thing: Find a problem or Fix a problem. Sometimes I find one and then I foolishly try to fix it right away. This results in a shoddy lesson that often leaves my student worse off than when she first met with me. If you are checking in with a student and realize they are not using specific text evidence to support their thinking say “Okay,” and maybe give a small assignment “During today’s reading, as you take notes, try to include specific evidence from the text. Have three examples to show me for our next conference.” This gives the student time to create sample work while you prepare for the next conference/lesson where you can be ready to target that problem area.  Slow down, be patient in your teaching. This is a big lesson I have learned.

I hope this didn’t fall into the TL;DR category, but I understand if it did.  I want to make a second post with a sample conference but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.

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Losing your best stuffed animal friend is a terrible thing, so when the staff at the Adare Manor Hotel in Adare, County Limerick, Ireland discovered a sweet plush bunny named Jellycat all by himself, they new he must’ve been forgotten by a child who was surely missing him terribly. Claire, the hotel concierge, immediately started to make some calls in effort to locate Jellycat’s bff and the hotel posted a photo (top image) of the bunny on their Facebook page in hopes that his owner’s family would see it and contact them.

In the meantime other members of the Adare Manor decided to give the lost bunny the royal treatment and post photos of his impromptu vacation. They treated Jellycat to afternoon tea, a massage, a walk around the grounds, and a cozy seat by a fireplace. When it became clear that Jellycat was going to be spending the night, he was put up in a 5-star room with a king-sized bed, a tiny bathrobe, and tasty chocolates.

A few days later Jellycat was reunited with his young friend and her family, who were incredibly grateful that the hotel had worked so hard to find the bunny’s owner and treated him so extraordinarily well during his unexpected stay.

[via Neatorama]

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There’s Handcrafted Harmony in the @mountroyalmint Animal Kingdom

To see more of Sabina’s creations, follow @mountroyalmint on Instagram.

There’s no strict prerequisite for an animal’s selection into Sabina Gibson’s (@mountroyalmint) magical handcrafted menagerie. “I may be inspired by a nature photograph, folk story, fashion trend or a particular color or type of material,” the full-time Toronto artist and new mom says. Her creatures range in size from teeny-tiny to life-size, but most are small enough to fit into your hand. Asking Sabina to choose a favorite is tough, but she does have a soft spot for bears and unicorns. “Bears have a chubby, round form which I find very pleasing and sweet,” she says. “Unicorns are perfectly magical and people of all ages find them irresistible.”

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Persephone

Persephone goes up to the counter and orders pomegranate tea. She drinks half of it. The baristas do not allow her to leave the Starbucks until winter is over.

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We’ve learned all sorts of awesome new things today, including the fact that vampire bats adopt orphans, one pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, and snails can sleep for up to 3 years at a time. These random facts are part of an ongoing series of single panel educational illustrations created by Atlanta-based children’s book illustrator Mike Lowery.

For more of Lower’s fascinating factoids follow the project here on Tumblr at @randomillustratedfacts​ or follow MikeLoweryStudio on Instagram.

[via My Modern Metropolis]