How I Became a Writer

I have never used an iPad to write a post before. I just want you to know it can be done. I never intended to write a blog post. I mean NEVER. I never intended to write more than a check and maybe a thank you note or two. I blame it all on my sister in-law. She knows who she is 'cause I only have one...
She told me I had to read a book by Anne Lamott. She didn't care which one. So off I went to my local bookstore and I picked up Bird by Bird because I am a birder. I should have gotten a clue that this was not the book for me when the clerk asked me if I was a writer. No, I replied, I like birds. I am a birder. He explained that this had been required reading for a writing class he took. I still didn't get it! I just thought poor guy he wanted to write and he had to read a book about birds. Guess what! If you want to read a book about birds, this is not the book for you.

By the time I was done reading the book I had gone through a box of Kleenex alternating between laughing and sobbing.  Anne made me want to be a writer. Anne helped me believe I could be. That was important to me because I'd always believed I couldn't write. This is all leading up to something. The something is that I am a guest blogger today over at Books First in Maine. Go over there and find out kinda sorta why I blog...

Currently August

How'd that happen? Five for Friday AND Currently falling on the same day?! Whoa! I have never broken the rule about posting once a day...Until today!

I've been thinking a lot about how our classrooms are a family of learners. Like family, we care for one another. We are nurtured. We listen to each other's ideas. We say yes when we are asked to help.  Here is a mini-poster for you to use if you like the idea of FAMILY! 

Click on either picture to go to tpt for your freebie!

Five (plus one) For Friday!

What a week! I actually lost a WHOLE day because I was a good girl and had my colonoscopy. My mama had colon cancer, soooo I have to have one done every five years. You really lose two days. One day of "preparation" followed by a day of sleep. Today I still feel a little achy and I'm talking it up to be worse than it is...Like I can't possibly cook supper, do dishes or have anything to do with laundry. I can garden, tend my chickens and read. Watching movies is good and working on my blog doesn't seem to bother me too much. I can also link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for 5 for Friday!

My family made fun of me for buying this feeder for $15.00. I'd say this girl thinks it was a good investment! The Pileated is one of my favorite birds.

FINALLY! I have an egg. They ate the first one that was laid, but today I went outside and this gem was just sitting there.

Play dates are the best. This weeks theme was fairys and it was magical!

Easy to make fairy doors! I set out paint, markers, moss and little pebbles and let them go to work!

I was inspired to make fairy houses after visiting Maine's Coastal Botanical Gardens this summer. That place is full of magic and flowers!

Whoops here is number six. If you are a real stickler for rules close your eyes and step away. Besides, this picture of fairy bread will just make you drool if you are even slightly hungry. Oh go ahead and look!

Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote a poem about Fairy Bread. I found it HERE. After we had eaten well there were fairy stories to hear and tell!

Thanks for making it all the way to the end!

The Not-So-Together Teacher Gets it Together!

I'm baaaaack! I took two weeks off everything to spend time with my family on a road-trip that wiped me out! My husband thinks vacation means cramming as much in the day as possible. He had us up at 8:00 each day going from one adventure to another and then we would fall exhausted into bed around 12:00 dreaming of the fun we had that day. Niagara Falls, Anchor Bar, Mount Washington, Acadia, Boston and everything in between were the places we explored. I've needed a week to recover from our vacation!

We had one day to cover Boston...and we did!

Now my vacation is over and the vacation from my vacation is over! I do have to mention that my husband and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. If you'd like to see us the way we were follow me on Instagram!

Friday is the day I go help put my room back together after the floors have been stripped and waxed. I feel ready to tackle the coming year, but want to start off being a bit more organized. That's why I jumped on the chance to join Kelly at An Apple For The Teacher in her book study The Together Teacher. Here is how not together I sometimes operate...I waited until the day the study started to order the book. Lucky for me I could read most of the first chapter on Kindle Cloud Reader. What I like about the book is that it comes with a CD with everything ready to print to help me be a bit more together this year. Some people seem to be born organized, don't they? Some of us have to really work at it. I do believe that organization can be practiced and learned even by old dogs like me! 

Maia gave me 10 rules for being together. She also gave me questions to reflect on for each of the rules. They really struck a chord with me. 

Taken from The Together Teacher : Plan Ahead, Get Organized, and Save Time!
by Maia Heyck Merlin

Kelly has more to say about getting organized so go visit her and tell her an Owl sent you!

Don't skip the forward...It is really good!!

The Triple Dip! (Five For Friday!)

***If you don't have time to read this whole long post....Please read #4. I'm asking for an opinion and I know you have one! Thanks!!

Well hello there again! I can't believe I've managed to post some thoughts three times in one week. It is so quiet in my house tonight. My daughter is having a campfire on the HOTTEST night so far this summer and my son is out with friends and I have no idea where my Cranky Bear is, but I think it has something to do with a car and a water tank!

I'm going to do a little double or triple dipping for my Five for Friday. I hope you don't mind. You wouldn't mind if it was ice cream so I know you won't mind it here. Here goes...

On this hottest night of the year I made this yummy snack for the kids toasting out by the campfire. I had my first in St. Louis and I think I've finally found a recipe to rival any I had there. You may have one or two and you may double or triple dip if you like!

Go on...Take one!

So I signed up for Instagram. I LOVE it. I may be late to the party, but I'm having as much fun as anyone else. I'm not sure what the etiquette is for how many times you can post, but I've double or triple dipped today. You can follow me if you want. I'm owlthingsfirst and I haven't figured out how to link my blog to it or if you even can. Come see the wild turkeys in my backyard, or my precious uke player!

Don't click to look inside. Do click to go to a great give away! An Apple For The Teacher is giving this book away AND hosting a book study to along. I really need to win because I need to do a better job planning ahead, getting organized AND saving time! Just click on the book to enter which I hate for you to do because then I don't have as good a chance at winning it.

I am reading along with a group of teachers Donalyn Miller's  Reading in the Wild. It is a powerful text on how to instill lifelong "wild" reading. This week we were to read the section on "Creating a Workshop Schedule That Works for You". One of the things we must keep in mind when setting up a schedule is what  we are required to include. That has me doing some wondering and questioning. Now if you have actually read all the way down to here, I hope you will give me your opinion of what I'm thinking about. I'll stop thinking about it if you think it can't be done. 

So my son has taken a couple of "flipped" classes. They watch video lectures at home and then have more class time to work and have assistance from the instructor. Then they can even go back and listen to the lecture again if they didn't get it the first time. It got me thinking about what I might be able to "flip". I have to teach the basal reader. It is one of my "required" inclusions! In order to make more time for independent reading practice in my classroom, I thought I could send the basal reader home each week with an assignment to complete at home. I would still use the targeted mini-lesson and word work, but I'd be able to use class time to practice the strategies with the students with self-selected books. Do you think it is worth thinking about? I'll leave you with one my favorite quote from this section. I'll leave number 4, anyway!

I hope you'll click on the quote to see some pretty amazing waysothers have set up their schedules for a workshop that works for them. It may work for you, too! 

I leave now to get back to a book I started this morning and have to finish. If you teach fourth or fifth grade this is a book you will want in your library. I love anything WWII and this is not disappointing me at all! A Jewish boy has to move with his family away from his beloved Paris to a safer place to avoid the Nazis. I'm almost to the part where he joins the French Resistance and goes back to Occupied France. Oh my goodness! Look there the book is right there below these words. How cool is that?





Did you catch the triple dip? 5 for Friday, Reading in the Wild, AND a Give Away. Have a great week! Next Friday is the 4th already! Why does time go more quickly in the summer?

Reading in the Wild Chapter 1

My daughter found time to read at her first sleepover!

Reading non-fiction is hard for me. Even if it does deal with subjects near and dear to my heart. I'm a junky for anything dystopic or Historical Fiction. I just finished Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews and was surprised at how hard I fell into it. I'm hoping by joining Think, Wonder, & Teach and 3rd Grade Book Worm I'll be held accountable for reading Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller.

After reading the first chapter I feel good about the time I dedicate each day to independent reading practice. I also feel thrilled that by the end of the year many of my students are taking books to lunch each day and reading to each other.

I have to admit that I need to do more to foster a love of reading for some of my students who fake read. The section in Chapter 1 on Independent Reading Observation was eye opening for me. I usually feel like I have to be busy the whole time my students are reading. Teaching first grade, I spend a lot of time reading to and with my students. I take every possible moment to be actively involved with them as they read independently. I can see the value in sitting back and observing reading habits. Donalyn follows observations, with evaluations, reflections and finally conferences with her students. If she can do it, so can I!

Do you know any wild readers? During the whole chapter I thought of my daughter. She is WILD. She is a wild reader. I read to her before she was born and continued reading through most of the children's section of the library before she started formal education in Kindergarten. I have so many pictures of her where I caught her reading. Today we like different genres, but she'll reading anything laying around the house to feed her habit.

She looks pretty wild, huh? My mom always read to us and
she always loved reading to grandchildren.

Show and Tell

I'm linking up with Barbara to do a little Show & Tell! You can share just about anything you think is worth sharing. You can read more about the linky and find some other Show & Tells by clicking on the image above...The one that says "Tuesday Linky" Thanks, Barbara...What a great idea!

My love for chickens may have started when I read the book Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell early in the year. It may be the best YA title I read with my 7th and 8th grade reading students. I love the kindness that a boy with an obsession for chickens shows a kid with not much going for him after his mother dies leaving his family emotionally shipwrecked. His Granny tries, but she is quiet a character and doesn't get along with her son-in-law.  Whoops! Sorry....I didn't mean to go on quite so much about the book! Back to chickens...
I took these pictures to share with you today. My ladies are getting pretty close to laying their first eggs. They never go to far away from each other and like to follow me around the yard. Sometimes they'll hop up on the windowsill to look for me. If I sit down outside, they hop up on my lap and try to settle down.

Like Tobin, I have learned some things about life from my chickens. It is okay to be curious, it is fun to play in the dirt, eat whatever is offered, and most importantly...find a friend and stick with them!