Celebrate: Beginnings

Call me crazy, but the students and I are a bit like laundry that has been hung on the line to dry and spent the day swaying gently as the mountain breeze travels over the ridge. It's still the same laundry that you had before you hung it out to dry, but it has been altered by this experience. Like the laundry, which has dried and taken on the scent of the mountain air, we are also altered by our experiences. We're like that laundry -- familiar, but fresh, the same, but different.

(Okay, this is likely a bit far-fetched for everyone else, but all my life I have spent my summers on a mountain in New Hampshire. There is nothing like pulling the dry sheets off the line and inhaling their fresh scent.)

So, here we all are, back at school, familiar, yet fresh and new. I know these students (except for the kindergartners), but they return with new experiences and are now in a higher grade and we have new curriculum to explore. 

There is one thing that remains the same though: we are all still readers.

(This is like crop circles - but a reading circle -- these students sat this way of their own accord) 

~~~~~

Thanks to Ruth Ayres, over at Ruth Ayres Writes for the opportunity to share our celebrations!

Celebrate: Gardens

My Saturday Celebration post has been interrupted to bring you these photographs. I'll finish my other post later, but these pictures are my true Celebration. This day was filled with such beauty. Blue skies. White clouds. Green Mountains. I spent the afternoon at my parents' house in the mountains getting it ready for their arrival next week.  Amidst the tasks and trips in and out and up and down, I continued to be called outside to look at the gardens. 

My mother does not think she is a gardener, but she is, and the gardens are a testament to that. Even in her absence this spring, the gardens have put on their best show. We've missed the lilacs, rhododendrons, and irises, but from the spent blossoms, I can tell that they were involved in the act (of blooming, that is).  The gardens need my mother to arrive soon. There is plenty of weeding and pruning ahead, but the garden is a garden after all and doing what it does best: growing.  These blossoms are such a celebration of life, how could I not go out and enjoy them?

Celebrate: Time, Talent, Treasure

TIME

Yesterday was the last official day of library classes for this school year, but not my last day working with students, thankfully in the remaining five days of school I will be working in classrooms on projects. It is so hard to say goodbye. This was a hard week, but a good week. I always feel pressure to make the last library classes of the year memorable, so that can put too much pressure on me and the students. Saying goodbye to the fifth graders is the absolute worst, our six-year journey together comes to an end too abruptly. I was forced to change my last lesson with them because I forgot to give them a district-wide assessment (oops), so I thought "no memorable lesson could they have," but I was mistaken!  I've said it before, time is a crazy thing.  How is it that thirty minutes can be so different depending upon one's goals for that time? In thirty minutes, the students took the assessment, reflected on their library experience and then created six word memoirs. I am celebrating the power of these intense amounts of time where the students are so willing to through themselves mind, body, and soul into our work. Check out their six word memoirs.

TALENT

I am celebrating the visit of Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts. She is here in Boston for the weekend and staying with me. We have big plans that mainly involving spending time together. Jen is an inspiration, but even better she is an inspirational leader. Jen is one of the forces behind Teachers Write! a summer-long writing experience that encourages writing from prompts as well as working on projects. Participants receive feedback and advice from established authors.  I signed up two years ago and made it through the first few weeks, but couldn't carve out the time. Last year, Jen worked tirelessly to encourage me, but my father's health and well being took precedence. So here I sit, on the cusp of a third summer hoping this will be "the one." Without knowing it, Jen provided the reassurance I needed, the sense that I could accomplish finding the time to write in a busy life. Lat night, she carved out twenty-five minutes, turned away from the distractions in the room, and wrote. I think I can do that. I hope I can do that. I am going to try to do that. The same pulls and pushes on my time will still exist this summer, but I am going to find twenty-five minutes to write, every day, and see where it goes from there. Thanks, Jen!

TREASURE

The world is full of treasures and I love reminding myself of those that are right in my backyard. This morning, Jen and I are going to The Forest Hills Cemetery to walk around. This might sound morbid, but it is not, it is a beautiful garden as much as a cemetery.  This afternoon, we are heading to Harvard to go to the Harvard Museum of Natural History to see the Glass Flowers. Sure, we'll walk around Harvard Square, which is always fun, but the Glass Flowers are rare treasures that are hard to comprehend until you actually see them.

Here's to hoping you found time, talent, and treasure in your own lives. 

Celebrate: A Student Who Loves Reading

The library received a gift yesterday. 

This stack of books was donated to the library collection as a gift from Adair, a fifth grader. It is a graduation gift (ours is a K-5 school). I am touched that Adair chose to spend money, she has earned or was given, on books for our school library. Additionally, she chose books that she knew her classmates loved and knew were rarely on the shelves.  I love that she was thinking about our library's readers and not about herself. I asked Adair to write about why she gave the books the library. Here is her message:

"I am Adair, a 5th grader. Recently I donated many books to the Mason-Rice School library. I did this for a variety of reasons. First of all, I love Mason-Rice and it’s library. I have a lot of good memories here, and this is where I got really interested in reading. I remember, this is the place where I first read Harry Potter. Also, since second grade, I had been saving up money to donate to Mason-Rice. Then, I realized that I could buy books for the library with my money and then donate the books to the school. So, I got a wide variety of books on Amazon (through the school) and gave them to the library. I have so many good memories here, by donating these books, I will be giving other people good memories of reading, this library, and this school."

Now, just a bit about Adair. She is a voracious reader. She has been from the beginning. When I ran circulation statistics from the past six years, Adair tops the list with 405 books. This statistic is only a portion of the books she reads. I know she borrows many books from the public library in our neighborhood and that her parents support her reading habits with a home library.  (I think my students overall would borrow more books from our school library, if I gave them more time for browsing and borrowing, but with thirty minute classes, I often short change them of this time, but this is a post discussion for another time.)  Today is about Adair and her wonderful and thoughtful gift to our school library. 

These books will make readers in our library very happy. I'll be writing a note to Adair. I am using this card set from Chronicle. It's a perfect choice, right?

There's not much more to say right now, except "Thank you, Adair. Thank you for helping grow and support readers at our school."

Celebrate: Captured Moments

Today, I share some of the sights that made this week a celebration.

Second graders using TinkerCad 
to design objects for the 3D printer.

A student dropping in to share a note 

that she had written to Jane Goodall.

The second graders coming back 
for another day of research.

 Two fifth graders, who join me for lunch on Fridays, 
finding a way to make fire by reflecting (or refracting?) light.

(...and creating characters on the backs!)

The fourth graders creating poetry using text from the 
I Have A Dream Speech on Word Mover.

 Walking to school was a technicolor experience:

  ...and full of questions, like 
"How did this flower land so perfectly?"

There are always moments that cannot be captured, but those I hold safely in my memory.  Happy Saturday!