Linking up with Five for Friday | Mentoring in the Middle

Linking up with Five for Friday

I keep trying to link up with DoodleBugs Teaching, but somehow Fridays just get by me. The best-laid plans.....Yup.  You understand.

This is the coolest stack of books EVER!  Wanna know why?  Because two people who didn't know what to do with their gift cards to Barnes&Noble offered them to me!  I was like a kid at Christmas.  And the look on my students' faces when I showed them the books?  Priceless.
Worked with my students on how to prepare a top-notch response to an open-ended question.  Kids worked hard in groups to put together responses.  I was really pleased with the thought they put into not only citing evidence, but explaining why they picked that evidence as their example.

Now that they've worked on it together, they should have a good foundation for doing this on their own.

 Last week was Open House and I got to meet a lot of our team's parents.  I think they heard me when I explained why their students needed to read for 30 minutes every day.  I don't care whether they do it all in one sitting, or in smaller blocks.  Don't care what it looks like as long as it gets done.  Here's one of the slides I made for them based on the books kids read last year.

Scholastic is sponsoring two cool contests right now.  The first one has kids write an original myth about something in nature.  About a third of my students have decided to enter.  Rick Riordan, of Percy Jackson fame, has done an excellent job of getting kids excited about mythology.  He and Scholastic have paired up for this one.

The second one is with Linda Sue Park, author of A Single Shard and A Long Walk to Water, among others.  She challenges kids to write a a great first sentence.  She will take the winning entry and create a short story from that sentence.  How cool is that?!
Last weekend I participated in a "Walk Out of the Darkness" for a good friend whose daughter took her life last March.  It was both humbling and wonderful to surround her in this way.  At one point, I linked arms with her, and then, just like that, we all linked arms.  Someone behind us took this picture.  These women have been my friends for more than 30 years and I'd walk to the ends of the earth with them.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!


2 comments

  1. Who can resist a stack of brand new books? I love the picture at the end...what a powerful statement of friendship.

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  2. Those BOOKS are great! My daughter just started teaching 6th grade! She'll love your blog! :)
    So glad I found it! :)
    Carolyn

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