A Small Wonder

Welcome one and all, to the AMAZING spectacle of library magic, performed by the one and only Ms. Mawn!

In this trick, I take ugly, brownish, metal book trucks, such as this one:

And transform them into colorful, polished carts, complete with rubber shelf liners (to keep books from slipping and sliding) such as these:

How's that for magic? I'm still waiting on my Hogwarts letter though.  .  .

New School Year 2019!

The new school year is underway!

The first day of school was great. I really enjoyed seeing the students again: who got taller, who got a haircut, brand new backpacks. I got lots of hugs and high-fives.

I have to say that I am really proud of the work I did last year with the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. We spent all year reading books together using the Whole Book approach, a method of reading and storytelling that I learned about in grad school. Using this approach, you don't just read the words and look at the pictures, you invite the students to make observations and critiques about the entire book: the text (color, shape, size, placement), the illustrations, the orientation of the book (landscape or portrait) and the different parts of book anatomy (spine, gutter, endpages, dust-jacket).  .  .ALL of the classes that we read this way with last year have remembered everything! Even the 1st graders (last year's K students) remembered that the left page is called the verso, and the right page is called the recto. I was blown away.

We've been reading "The Day You Begin" by Jacqueline Woodson because it's a Ladybug Award nominee and because it's a good theme for beginning a new school year, and they have been commenting on the endpages, and the pink flowers, and the mixed media illustrations.  .  .It made me feel so optimistic about this year, and what we'll be able to accomplish. It's a beautiful book, so you should watch the trailer:

Last year I applied for the Dollar General Literacy Grant for Youth, and I GOT IT! (or, rather, I got one of them). I authored the grant so that the funds would be used to inspire and support readers who are struggling and/or reluctant, so the materials I purchase with the money will be mostly graphic novels (even if you can't read text, you can read pictures!), Hi-Lo fiction (high interest books for older readers with a lower lexile) and some new Early Chapter books (because our EC collection is kind of outdated). I applied last spring, and when September came, I figured I hadn't gotten one. Then one morning out of the blue, I got an email congratulating me! I did some grant writing at my previous job, but that was just from our Parent Group. This was my first national grant! It's very exciting!

Despite the pride I feel in that accomplishment, I can honestly claim that the work-related event that made me feel the very best was one that took place outside of my school. I have some friends on social media that are former students from my previous school. One of them posted her new college address, and asked for some mail, so I sent her a care package of Emergency Chocolate and a little note. She received it, and sent me a message saying how much it means to her that we're still in touch after 7  years. The connections I make with students is the best part.

It's what keeps me going.

The End of Summer

I haven't blogged in a couple months. I wish I could claim that it's because I went screen free, and spent the majority of the time communing with Nature in a Walden-esque way, but.  .  .I didn't.

I had a great summer, probably the best one I've had in a long time. And I did hike, and walk, and ride my bike, but I also binge-watched ALOT of TV. The Sopranos (never got to watch it when it was on because I never had HBO), Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things, the new Veronica Mars.  .  .right now I am watching Game of Thrones and of course I am watching BH 90210, 90210 IS the series that inspired my very first blog series: Archetypes of Teen Soap Opera.

I didn't spend my entire summer with my eyes glazed over though. As I wrote in my last post, we did our annual trip to DelMarVa, including the ALA conference in Washington DC for me.

We saw some concerts: Natalie MacMaster in the park in Portsmouth, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in Hampton. In a couple weeks we're going to see Blue Oyster Cult.

We also traveled to NY to see our families. While we were in Rochester, we decided to spend a day exploring Buffalo since we never really had before. It was fun. We went to the Anchor Bar, the original home of Buffalo wings.

We also checked off a few Atlas Obscura sites, including:

                                                the assassination place of Pres. McKinley

                                                 an abandoned Wonder Bread Factory

                                                             and the Shark Girl statue.

The worst thing that happened this summer was losing both of our bunnies, on the same day; we were all pretty upset for a few days. But the best thing that happened this summer was this:

We adopted a dog! Her name is Elza, and she is an 8 year old black lab-pitbull mix. 

School started a couple weeks ago, which for teacher signifies the real end of summer. And now that there's a chill in the air, and the sun is coming up a little later, I know that fall is definitely at the door.

I have some thoughts about the new school year, but I'll save those for my next post.

Rehoboth '19

I've been a little slow in writing these updates about our annual summer vacation. We've been back for about a week now, so I'll post these photos now.

Every year since John was a year old, we've gone to Rehoboth Beach for a day in the summer. I'm not a huge beach person, but this one is my favorite. I love seeing how much he's grown when I look at the pictures each year:

                           2016                                                     2017                                      2018

 

With his Hawaiian shirt, he was the coolest 4 year old on the boardwalk!

 

                                             We made a few discoveries

 

And had fun on the rides

2019

Wilmington

While we were in Delaware, we spent a day exploring Wilmington.

There were a couple of places on Atlas Obscura for the state that we hadn't made it to yet, so we decided to cross a few more off the list.

The first place we visited was a rare gem. Gibraltar Gardens is described as beautiful and well-kept, but it was downright magical! I thought we'd just go in and take a quick look, but we were there for a while because there was so much to see.

It's hidden behind a stone wall, so it's very reminiscent of The Secret Garden, and the decrepit mansion that overlooks it could easily be a stand-in for Misselthwaite.

 

I love watching YouTube channels about urban exploration, and I love the gothic beauty of abandoned buildings so I had to get as close as possible. (There is a small chain across the top of the staircase, that I ducked underneath. I just wanted to get some better photos up close.)

The gardens came to life before our very eyes. As we admired the small pond with all the lilypads, we spotted a frog. Before we knew it, there were several frogs, of different sizes, croaking and jumping around and splashing in the water. We also spotted some koi fish of different sizes.

I couldn't stop taking pictures because everywhere I looked was a cheeky frog, or a regal-looking statue, or a Victorian fountain, or a burst of color from the flowers growing in there.

 

We also made a quick stop at the sculpture garden at the art museum to see The Crying Giant. It is a memorial to the people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks. This sculpture is actually one of three that the artist made; the others are in the Netherlands and the state of Missouri.

The original plan was for the statue to be a kind of fountain that cries an endless stream of tears into a pool, but that part never came to fruition, so it's just a sculpture. 

Dinosaurs (Fist Pump!)

We recently returned from our annual trip to DelMarVa. I was fortunate enough to attend the ALA conference in Washington DC on June 24th, so we built our trip around it.
On our way home, we stopped in New Jersey so we could visit the site where the first partially complete dinosaur skeleton was discovered. Prior to this discovery, dinosaurs were known only from scattered bone fragments and teeth.

Amateur naturalist William Parker Foulke heard that local workmen digging in a nearby marl pit had unearthed several gigantic bones. Organizing his own team of diggers to investigate, he soon discovered the fossilized partial skeleton of a bipedal creature with features similar to both a bird and a reptile.

The strange prehistoric beast was later identified as a dinosaur by Joseph Leidy, a naturalist from the nearby Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Leidy gave the fossil the taxonomic name Hadrosaurus foulkii, after its discoverer.

We found out about this site from Atlas Obscura, and Johnny loves his dinosaurs!

I MET RL STINE!

Be Still, My Horror-Loving Heart!

So yesterday I was at ALA in Washington DC. I was glad to be there, and I picked up a lot of good stuff in the exhibit hall. I was a little bummed that some things had run out because yesterday was the last day, but I stumbled into a line. It was supposed to be a closed line, but then a woman came around the corner with a handful of ARCs, so I assumed she was letting a few more people join in.

I asked if this was the case, and she said yes. I looked at the book in her hands, and it was the newest RL Stine!

In case you live under a rock, RL Stine is a horror master. He creates the future Stephen King fans by thrilling us and enticing us back again and again. I spent my youth reading Goosebumps and Fear Street and watching Goosebumps every Friday afternoon and watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? every Saturday evening.

So I waited in line (maybe 30 mins total) to get a not-yet-published book signed by one of the authors that shaped my reading identity.

And when I finally got to meet him, I brought up the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Documentary, because he was interviewed in it. I told him I'm also interviewed in it, so we chatted for  a minute about how much work the creator put into it, and how good the animations in it look.  .  .

It was the highlight of the conference.