Great Blog Posts

Here are some great blog posts I have read this week.

• Nerdy Book Club does it again. The problem with reading that blog is that it leads me to other people's blogs, and next thing you know I have a handful more added to my feed list. Good problem! I was inspired by this guy's idea to read all the books at the library to his son. I don't think I could try to do that with our public library. They add books too often. t made me wonder if I could read every book in our school's library!
• I use a lot of websites as reviews - but have also learned you have to be careful too. You can't believe everything you read. This post shows that so well! Turns out it is a regular feature on this blog. Oh oh! Another one to subscribe to. 
• Here is another one of those lists of great books kids should read. Sme of them are a little too complex for my Gr. 3 kids, but a great resource for sure!

Great Blog Posts

Here are some great blog posts I read this week:

• I read the Nerdy Book Club posts daily. Love that blog! I especially enjoyed reading about this blogger's read aloud experiences. I'm so excited to read books out loud to my class this year! I've got it all planned. 
• Kate DiCamillo is amazing. She recently won The Kerlan Award (which I really knew nothing about previous to watching the video). I loved this video. She has a great sense of humor. She provides some great insight into the work required to write. I also loved the banter between her and the other people there. I'll definitely be reading some more of her books to my Gr. 3's this year!
• I have come across many posts about planning read alouds. I have ever put that much thought into it, but these posts made me think maybe I should be a little more thoughtful about it! I'm really excited to embark on some read alouds. All of this has made me think that perhaps we should be talking about this more in our school to get other teachers excited about read alouds! Check out this post,  or this article, or this post with its great list of suggestions. I put all the ones I haven't read on hold! I would agree.....humor makes for a great read aloud. 
• This is kind of a fun website. I'm always googling lists of books kids should read when it is time to pick a new book club book. You can share your results from these lists on Facebook and then get your friends to see how many they've read.

Great Blog Posts

Here are some great blog posts I read this week:

• I've been running across posts by different people who attended NerdCampBC. Looks quite intriguing. They had about 150 people attend. They start with a blank slate, visit and mingle and eventually some people volunteer to lead sessions and then people sign up for those sessions. What a risk eh?! I spent quite a bit of time on A Year of Reading's post about the conference. She had a number of links to things she learned there! Here are the slides from Donalyn Miller's presentation on Reading in the 21st Century. I get to do a presentation on The Book Whisperer and the info in her presentation will be quite helpful! As I kept digging I found an even more amazing link. This link has all the sessions with a link in each that takes you to the notes from that session! Wow!! 
• I found a list of authors who will skype for free! Boy, if we could have an author skype with us for a book club session....yowza!! That would be so fun!
• Mrs. Biggs has some great questions in her get to know you questionnaire. I'd like to do a little revising of the one we use. Her post is a great start!
• I've been mulling over what goals I should have for my professional development this year and I'm leaning towards focusing on formative feedback, especially with writing. This post reminded me of that again. I loved her thoughts about being careful to not look too much at the neatness or perfectly organized paragraphs - but at the content. I learned a lot about that while marking PATs this year. Must remember that as the school year continues! I need to find a good book or expert to use as a study this year to keep myself focused.
• I believe that teachers should be readers. I am a bit like a religious zealot. In my heart I have a great desire to get other people to read. I loved this Nerdy Book Club post, which expressed so well, the importance of reading kids books. This is going to be a part of my presentation in October, for sure!

Great Blog Posts

• How To Conquer Your To Do List attracted me because my summer is slowly slipping away and I really need to get organized so I accomplish some desperately needed tasks before I am back to the mad world of full schedules. I have Evernote on my iPad, so I started using it, and even downloaded it to my phone. I'll get back to you on whether or not I love it yet.
• I found a kindred spirit at Read, Write, Reflect. I live her posts on conferences she has attended this summer. She did some summer reading workshops and book clubs for her students! I especially loved her post on reading logs. This is a must- read blog, for sure. 
• This post, about The Match Box Diary, got me thinking about kids and journals and fun ways to record history. It would be a fun book to read and do an activity on family history. You could use this idea in the classroom too. I can imagine making 10 matchboxes and then each month, choosing something to go into the matchbox to represent a special memory from that month. It would also make a great memory for a family reunion. Grandparents could prepare 10 matchboxes and throughout the reunion kids could pick a match box and listen to the story told that goes with it. Matchboxes are not that common anymore, but you could make your own origami match boxes. This could also be a fun thing to add to our Star Student presentations.
• This post reminded me that I need to do more writing. 
• In my school we have a wonderful program that truly gives kids a great foundation to be great decodes and fluent readers. Every class has a rotating list parent volunteers that come in and read with children each week. We don't do that so much in Gr. 3 because they are usually quite fluent by then. However, 
This post, from There's a Book For That, got me thinking that perhaps I should still be having volunteers do that - but to with the regular "decodables", with regular picture books linked to our learning. Hmmmmmmmm......
• And this has nothing to do with books, but Lara's post reminded me that the really important things in life are often fleeting and can suddenly be taken away. 

Great Blog Posts

I read a lot of different blogs about reading. Here are some great posts I read this week:

• Jen Robinson posted a challenge to read aloud 15 minutes a day. The more I know kids the more I know how important that is. Mine are 11 and 14. I'm going to try to read aloud each day with both of them this summer after reading her great post. 
• Top 10 Ways to Turn Your Classroom into a Hotbed of Enthusiastic Readers made me feel good - like I'm on the right track.
• Lost in My Work made me feel great too. I find myself, in the summer, wanting to discuss books with kids. Everytime I brought up the idea about doing a summer book club most teachers I talked to told me I was crazy and that the kids deserved a break. Thankfully my admin is much more supportive. To me, summer is a great time for more reading, not a time to take a vacation from it!
• I'm a real fan of Donalyn Miller and The Book Whisperer. I found out she hosts a monthly twitter chat with Colby Sharp, another blogger I follow. I really have to figure out how to get in the game with twitter!