2019 Books So Far

I saw a tweet back in December where someone asked for suggestions for books they couldn't stop reading. That kickstarted my reading hobby which has been suffering since having my first baby in 2013. This year I have read/listened to 21 books! And there have been some great ones. If you want to follow me on Goodreads, where I keep track of my reads, you can click here.

I want to share some of my favorite reads of the year here.

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1. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sánez

This is the most beautiful story I have ever read. I cannot stop thinking about it. It ended up on my to-read list because the audiobook is read by Lin Manuel Miranda, and I'm so glad I found it! Its about two boys growing up and finding their place in the world in El Paso in the '80s. 

2. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

This is nonfiction. Stevenson is a lawyer who found the Equal Justice Initiative. He works with inmates on death row, those who were sentence to life in prison as a juvenile. He has argued and won cases in front the Supreme Court. His book was truly eye-opening for how the justice system in the United States is not completely just to all our citizens. There is also a young adult version of his book. 

3. Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

This needs to be listened to. Music is such an important part of the story and the audiobook uses music to tell parts of the story. The book follows a harmonica as it travels from a boy living in Nazi Germany, to orphans living in New York City, to a girl and her family living in California during World War II.  

4. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This is a book of essays where the author is writing to his son about race in America. I don't feel like I have words to describe how critical it is for White Americans to read this book, but White Americans should read this book. Toni Morrison calls is "required reading." It is eye-opening to read how life can be so different for someone who lives in the same country as me. Read it. (I listened to it and it is read by the author.)

5. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This is another book that was a great audiobook. There are different voice actors for the characters which makes the story come to life. In this book, a toddler escapes to a graveyard after his family is murdered in the middle of the night. The residents of the graveyard agree to raise him and the story follows him as he grows. 

Do you have any books you can recommend? I am adding to my constantly growing to-read list.

Mathematical Mindsets--Jo Boaler

This should be required reading for anyone who teachers math--from PK to College, from teachers to parents. (affiliate link below)

This book will change how I teacher math this year from the very first day of school. I will continue to blog about how things are going in my classroom, but here are a few bullet points of my main takeaways. 

• I am going to talk with my kids about brain research--not just once--but several times throughout the year and heavily the first two weeks of school. I have to change their mindset about math and their selves. 
• Homework will look extremely different. Jo Boaler says "homework perpetuates inequities in education." She even talks about how her family has two working parents and after everyone is home and fed for the evening, she wants to spend time with her daughters-not in frustration over homework. My homework was very light in the past, but this year it will be more reflections questions and maybe 1 problem to start on that we finish discussing in class. 
• "No one is born knowing math, and no one is born lacking the ability to learn math."
• Mistakes are necessary!
• My grading will look different--if mistakes are necessary, I can't punish students for making them. 
• Mental Math will improve--I especially want to show students ways to think about numbers to improve their number sense.
• Boaler talks about using tasks that are "low floor, high ceiling." Everyone can access the task and anyone and take it further. 

One www.youcubed.org--which is a website Jo Boaler is part of--there are two weeks of inspirational math with videos and activities designed to help students change their mindset about math. What I like most about the activities is they are "low ceiling, high floor" but they also give students practice to work together in math. Math should be a very social subject. I will be using (and blogging about) several about the activities the first two weeks of school. 

Mathematical Mindsets--Jo Boaler

This should be required reading for anyone who teachers math--from PK to College, from teachers to parents. (affiliate link below)

This book will change how I teacher math this year from the very first day of school. I will continue to blog about how things are going in my classroom, but here are a few bullet points of my main takeaways. 

• I am going to talk with my kids about brain research--not just once--but several times throughout the year and heavily the first two weeks of school. I have to change their mindset about math and their selves. 
• Homework will look extremely different. Jo Boaler says "homework perpetuates inequities in education." She even talks about how her family has two working parents and after everyone is home and fed for the evening, she wants to spend time with her daughters-not in frustration over homework. My homework was very light in the past, but this year it will be more reflections questions and maybe 1 problem to start on that we finish discussing in class. 
• "No one is born knowing math, and no one is born lacking the ability to learn math."
• Mistakes are necessary!
• My grading will look different--if mistakes are necessary, I can't punish students for making them. 
• Mental Math will improve--I especially want to show students ways to think about numbers to improve their number sense.
• Boaler talks about using tasks that are "low floor, high ceiling." Everyone can access the task and anyone and take it further. 

One www.youcubed.org--which is a website Jo Boaler is part of--there are two weeks of inspirational math with videos and activities designed to help students change their mindset about math. What I like most about the activities is they are "low ceiling, high floor" but they also give students practice to work together in math. Math should be a very social subject. I will be using (and blogging about) several about the activities the first two weeks of school. 

I Read Books

I have hobbies. 

One of them is reading. I love a good book and right now I am on a reading kick. And I want to share the good books I've read.

Here are some books I've read this year that I would recommend. 

I saw the movie poster, my cousin said it was good, so I read The Martian. In 24 hours. I really liked the science and engineering in it. It was a realistic book. Then I watched the movie which I really enjoyed, but my husband did not. 

Astronaut Mark Watney becomes standard on Mars after his crew thinks he is dead. He has the science the crap out of the supplies he has in order to stay alive until he can (maybe) get rescued. I was on the edge of my seat reading this. 

I think this is THE mystery book of the year. I was number 250 on the library wait list so I was surprised when I got an email saying it was ready for pick up. I was expecting to have to wait a year to read it. 

Rachel takes the same train every day and every day she sees the same couple in their house. She has created a story around this couple; she's named them and begins to feel like she knows them. Until she sees something about them that she only could have noticed. She goes to the police and become entwined in their story. 

This is like a Beauty and the Beast retelling. The dragon comes once every 10 years to a village and takes one girl to live with him. The dragon is responsible for keeping the dangers of the Wood away for the price of one girl who will serve him for 10 years. Agnieszka fears her best friend will be chosen, but is surprised when she is chosen to leave her family, friends, and village to serve the Dragon for 10 years. 

I cannot say enough how I LOVED this book. It is very fantasy, which is not usually what I like, but this was so good. 

I love Mindy Kaling. Of the few TV shows I keep up with, The Mindy Project is one of them. I loved her first book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and I've been excited to read this book since I heard she was writing it. I think she is funny, down to earth, and honest. I love the message that she gives about being true to yourself and not taking constant reject as a finality. 

What books have you read would you recommend? I am always adding to my ever growing to-read list. 

CHAMPS

My campus is a CHAMPS campus.  It is a classroom management system which includes many ideas for managing a classroom.

My favorite part of CHAMPS is having teachers prevent problems before they start. Putting procedures and expectations in place that prevent the most common classroom problems before they even start. If you are struggling for classroom management (which I would say the area I always have to work hard at), I would suggest looking into the CHAMPS Positive Behavior Support.

I have this poster hanging in my room and the students have a copy in their interactive notebook. It tells students what they are expected to do during each type of activity they will do in math class. I have seen this displayed in different ways, but this was the least amount of work for me.

If you would like to use this, you can get it here in Google Drive. Save it as a Copy and then you will be able to edit as you wish.

Mostly at the beginning of the year, I go over this with students every day before every activity. It is one of those beginning of the school year things that gets tedious, but necessary.

Math Review=Warm up
Guided Math=Small Group/Station Time

My campus also uses Voice Levels that are consistent everywhere. Voice Level 0 is no talking, Voice Level 1 is Whisper, Voice Level 2 is conversation, Voice Level 3 is Presentation and Voice Level 4 is outside. Students need to be taught and shown what voice level is appropriate for each type of activity and what is expected of them.

When we were being trained on CHAMPS, we watched videos from the creator Randy Sprick. He shares an experience with a first year teacher. While observing her in an unruly class, she told her students to stay in their seats and work independently. However, if students needed help, some talked to their neighbor which she allowed, some got up and asked her questions, which she sometimes allowed and sometimes told them to raise their hand and she would come to them. Basically, her expectations changed from one minute to the next and the students did not know what was expected of them.

CHAMPS gives teachers a way to decide on expectations they want to have and share them with the students.

Read For a Better Life

My district does a week long celebration called "Read for a Better Life." The superintendent kicks the week off by reading a book at a school board meeting. The next day on our campus, we have guest readers come to our campus and read a book to our students. The 6th graders love it (partly because it means when a guest reader comes in, they don't have to work???) But I doubt many of students have their parents read to them consistently. Especially as 11 and 12 year olds. 

Guest readers are community members, other principals, parents, and central office staff. 

Next year I hope to incorporate more reading into my math class on that day.Readin is an essential part of life!

2014 Books Read

I am a reader. I have been since as long as I can remember. My siblings always made fun of me because I would have my nose in a book instead of being outside playing. I begged my parents to take me to libraries and still visit a library at least once a week. I love taking my daughter there. Even though she is only 1, I want her to love libraries as much as I do.

So, here are the books I read in 2014. I had a goal to read 25 and I read 26.

The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith (really J.K. Rowling)

The Song of Quarkbeast, Jasper Fforde

The Abundance of Katherines, John Green

Death of a Maid, M.C. Beaton

A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett

I Shall Wear Midnight,  Terry Pratchett

The One, Kiera Cass

Wedding Night, Sophie Kinsella

Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett

The Bride Wore Size 12, Meg Cabot

Nation, Terry Pratchett

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, Rob Thomas 

The Elite, Kiera Cass

The Woodcutter, Kate Danley

The Selection, Kiera Cass

Under the Dome, Stephen King

Reached, Ally Condie

Promised, Caragh M. O'Brien

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, J Abner Peddiwell

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Cultural Politics and Education, Michael W Apple

As Texas Goes, Gail Collins

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green

The books in blue are the ones I would recommend reading. Looking at my list though, I finished all of these books so...they weren't all bad. Some years I have books on my list that I read because its there and I am holding out hope that it will be good. Not this year. If it didn't grab my attention in the first 5 pages, I didn't read it. Not something I would tell anyone to always do. But all of these books grabbed my attention really quickly.

What books should I add to my to-read list of 2015? I love finding obscure books that few people have heard of. 

Science Picture Books

At Half Price Books last week I ventured into the children's non-fiction section. Oh my! There were lots of good books there. (Did you know they give a teacher's discount.)

I have seen lots of posts with picture books lately. These are some good books I have found.

Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond

This is a true story about a town in Denmark that reduced their carbon emissions and become almost energy independent. This is a perfect story to read when we get to identifying alternative energy resources in 5th grade.

The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks by Joanna Cole

Can you go wrong with Magic School Bus. In 5th grade, students have already learned the water cycle, so the basics of this but we add to it. This book goes a little deeper than water just circulating through clouds and the ocean while reviewing those concepts.

This is Your Life Cycle by Heather Lynn Miller

 This is a fun way to introduce metamorphosis. It might even be fun to act out this "game show."
 

I have read pictures books to my students as a class before. But I don't have a lot of experience with it. Does anyone have a great way they use picture books in the classroom?