Saturday, April 27, 2013

TLA - Newbie View

Oh HOLY COW - I walked past Lois Lowery in person and wondered why everyone was taking photos of this sweet looking little lady.  NOW I know.  Wow!  I must thank TLA people who put the conference together because it was outstanding.  I was very impressed with the speakers and the caliber of authors attending was just shocking   I almost fell over Saturday morning when I saw Libba Bray just walking through the booths.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  I just missed her time for signing books. But how awesome is that.

I loved my sessions over YA Lit book battles by Dr. Lesesne and Dr. Rosemary Chance from Sam Houston State University.  My TBR list is now taller than I am, which is TALL!  I really learned a lot in the AASL Winning Websites for education. I can't wait to share those great ideas with my teachers at my school. Then the Scholastic Breakfast was awesome with my friends from Everman ISD and Susan Geye. The even served mimosa and bloody marys - unlike any Gifted & Talented conference breakfast.  Seeing Ann Martin just get up and read to us was very neat.  I always picture authors as these great individuals sitting at their typewriters or lunching with an editor as if life was so easy.  But they were just there in real life sharing ideas with us like old friends.  How cool.  So exciting.

I also am thrilled to have all the great books the publishing companies kept handing me, how cool is that.  All this great knowledge under one roof and free books... it was like Christmas for me so much I forgot food one day.  (That says a lot for those of you that know me) But I can say, I may have to attend every year. Then I turned around and Neil Gaimen is speaking Saturday.  Wow.  Who cares about sleeping late, lets go...;o) Here is a pic of the pile of books I have collected. And way cool posters about reading and of course I had to have a Keep Calm and READ on shirt just to bother my teen son who has the CHIVE sign on his Jeep. ;o)


Sunday, April 21, 2013


http://ipadapps4school.com/  Super for ipads in school - you may need some of this info some day. Check him out. He is also cool on Twitter.
I just finished the book Period 8 by Chris Crutcher.  I would give this book 5 stars, I will be able to book talk it to my students who will want to know what exactly happens and why but I shall just lead them along... they will beg for extra copies which I don't have.   However maybe I will make a book trailer for it for my class.

Chris Crutcher has written many books that really entrance boys, or reluctant readers. He normally has a protagonist that is involved in some kind of sport, not necessarily a team sport.  He has strong male leads that discuss difficulties with family and relationships.This story even has a mystery going on around the period 8 where students meet each day for lunch to discuss problems but someone is lying and sooner or later someone will figure that out.


So happy with my readbox for my class, I am going to list pictures from the new releases for the front screen so students can see what they may want to check out. It will promote new books and add visual interest to the library.  I will take more photos when I have it set up in there Monday.

 It has been a reading busy weekend. Off to work.