Teacher Tuesday!

Today, I'm the featured teacher on the amazing Kirby Larson's blog!

Click on over to http://kirbyslane.blogspot.com/2013/05/teacher-tuesday_21.html and read her interview with me.

Thank you Kirby for asking such great questions, sending me down memory lane, and being such an advocate for teachers, librarians, and READING!  Your books are amazing and I love to recommend them to students.

Tom Angleberger Skype

When we had an unexpected snow day on March 6 -- World Read Aloud Day -- my 6th graders were completely bummed out.  Why?  We could certainly still read aloud the next day with other classrooms and teachers (and we did).  But the author skypes...that required a bit of finagling!  They had been looking forward to skyping with the amazing Tom Angleberger!

Tom graciously rescheduled with us despite his super busy schedule (Spring Breaks!  Book Tours!  Book Release parties!)

I gathered all 90 6th graders in our library along with their 3 reading teachers on May 7.  Sure it was a bit of a squeeze and not everyone was on camera the whole time, but we could all see and hear TOM which was what it was all about!

Tom shared some of his Star Wars origami with us (and quizzed us on our Star Wars knowledge of characters!).

He talked about his books.  He asked students to tell him their favorite books (besides his) and he shared some of his as well.








My students asked him some great questions.  (Where do you get your ideas?  Many real life experiences in school... Which book has been your favorite to write?  Horton Halfpott)

We laughed...a lot.  Tom called everyone Larry.  He joked about some of the books we liked.  At the end, he taught us all how to fold the 5 step Origami Yoda.  Everyone had an Origami Yoda on their finger waving it around to show him.

Basically, my students thought Tom Angleberger was the very best thing since sliced bread.  They grinned and giggled the entire skype session!  It was hands down, the coolest skype ever.

More pictures of our wonderful skype session may be found in the animoto video below:



Just a few of the Thank You notes students made for Tom Angleberger:

"Thank you for letting us Skype with you.  You are the funniest person EVER!  We both like to read but you need to read the Eragon Books. There are 4, Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger, and Inheritance.  Your reader, Zach"

Thank you Tom Angleberger for being an accessible author...for skyping with schools and libraries and for writing such awesome books!  My students will never forget meeting you!

School Lunch Super Hero Day!

I think getting ready to celebrate School Lunch Super Hero Day on May 3 may have been the most fun preparations ever!

At our school, it started on April 26:  my first morning in the elementary for the big schedule switch where I've been assigned to teach 4 classes for the rest of the school year.  I decided to tell the classes about this super awesome NEW holiday where we had the opportunity to say "Thanks!" to our amazing cafeteria staff.

I showed the classes the video of Jarrett J. Krosoczka talking about why he created the holiday.  I showed them the video of the dancing lunch ladies (lot of giggles!).  Each class made a card that day for one of our cafeteria workers. 

I then shared the information with Mrs. Cornell who teaches the elementary library classes all the other days and told her we had to get every student to make a card during library time!

We then decided to have students sign huge yellow banners to hang in the cafeteria.

We also made posters/lists of favorite lunches by each class.

The whole time we emphasized to the students that this was a SECRET!  It would be a big surprise!

I spread the news to the elementary principal.  He spread the news to his entire staff.

I shared the news with my middle school students and THEY made a big banner with awesome messages like "I dream of your homemade rolls!"

We made a big stand up cut out of Lunch Lady so everyone could wear the apron & the hair! 

We put the news on our school website and daily announcements and encouraged everyone to wear yellow on Friday for the big celebration.  

Our awesome maintenance staff hung all the posters Thursday afternoon AFTER our cafeteria staff had gone home for the day. 

That morning before school, the elementary principal and I delivered doughnuts & goodies to our School Lunch Super Heroes.  We took their picture.  He had given them each a "Lunch Lady" button to wear.  They  talked about how surprised they had been to come into their cafeteria filled with yellow...how the messages made them cry happy tears.  All day long, students delivered cards to our cafeteria staff and told them how much they were appreciated.

It was an amazing day.  It is always such a great feeling to recognize others for their hard work and commitment.   I know our "Lunch Ladies" felt extra special and I can't wait to celebrate again next year!   

Thank you Jarrett J. Krosoczka for creating such a fun holiday and reminding us to thank those who do so much for us and our students each day at school!