Eight years, Four Principals

Last year, the district threatened to make our principal's position to be half-time.   I created this video, "One Principal, Two Schools," to convince the school board that this was a bad idea.


One Principal, Two Schools from Gina Amodeo on Vimeo.

Now it's July and we find out that our principal has been relocated to another school.  Next year will be my eighth year at my school, and the new principal will be my fourth principal.  How crazy is that?

Our school:  full of English learners, surrounded by gang activity, working hard to improve each year.  The school district is like the military, deploying its soldiers wherever they want.  But they don't look at school culture, or even the importance of continuity.  We're working in the trenches here.  It would be nice if you gave us some kind of stability.

Just sayin'.

Space and the Ergonomics of Thinking

My days of summer are divided into various activities.  Read.  Write.  Play piano.  Pull weeds.  Water plants.  Rinse.   Repeat.

I cherish these down times because I know when the school year starts, things heat up.  My plants die.  The weeds take over my house.  And I forget to pay my bills.  (See my previous post on spring break.)

Anyway, today was special because I had absolutely nothing planned, which means I would be reading, writing, playing the piano, and pulling weeds.  What a perfect day.  There was a wrinkle, though.

My son Santino had a friend over today.   Our house is small, so the main area of congregation is our living room.  Two couches, television, connected to the kitchen.  There's not much going on in our bedrooms, not much furniture or infrastructure, so we basically spend 90% of our waking moments in the living room.  While Santino and his friend flopped on the couches to hang out, I relegated myself to the dining room table,  which is connected to our living room--it's one big living space.  I decided to work on writing an entry for this blog.

I floundered as I tried to remember what I was going to write about.  Think think think.  Yesterday I had dozens of ideas, mostly connected to using technology in the classroom.  Today these gems have dissipated into the dusty trails of my mind's canyons.

I know what the problem is. It's the ergonomics of thinking.  I can't think sitting on a chair, at a table.  I mean, I can do it, but for some reason the chi doesn't flow properly.  I need to slouch on a couch.  But I don't feel bad about that.  I'm not a couch potato--much. In fact, I'm extremely active when I'm on the couch.  I read, I write, I multi-task.  But there's something about having my body at a greater-than-90-degree angle that helps me think.  Heck, they have a couch in the Oval Office, so there might be something to this ergonomics of thinking.

Yes, that's Barack Obama moving a couch in the Oval Office.

This made me think of my own classroom.  Kids do most of their work at their desks, right?  But that's confining, and what might seem to be a great area to work might not pan out that way later.  I've had carpets in the past (last year, my carpets mysteriously disappeared).  Once you tell the kids, okay you can work on the carpets, you'd think you'd have the whole class running there, goofing off, and not getting work done.  That's not even close to the truth.

Kids tend to self-select with working on the carpet or other unusual places.  Some kids like to lie down, others sit cross-legged, and still others prefer to work at their desks.  When kids lie down on their bellies, they usually lie in groups, forming a star with their heads at the center.  That way, they can collaborate.  

Give them laptops, and they're more likely to work at their desks.  But they push their chairs around to find the best angle so they can share the hardware.

This year, I bought a few simple rugs for the classroom.  I'm hoping those rug-sitters will find a good place to think.

Admittedly, even though I wrote this blog post at a table sitting on a straight chair, I was still able to create.  It was hard coming and really hurt my brain, though.   I'm looking forward to going back to the couch, where I can slouch and think.

Shaking the Money Tree: Free Stuff for Teachers

Nobody chooses the teaching profession for financial gain.

Having said that, there's a lot of money out there for teachers in the form of grants.

My favorite website is Donorschoose.org.  I first heard about Donorschoose from an instructor in our teaching credential program.  He called it "eBay for teachers." Well, that's kind of close.  It's more like couch potato philanthropy.  Teachers post projects online for review (okay, that part is like eBay).  Then donors like you and me select the projects to fund.  Voila!  Free stuff for teachers.

Through Donorschoose.org, I have added several laptops, hundreds of books, and dozens of musical instruments to my classroom.  To be eligible, you must teach in a public school.  You must have direct contact with students, so administrators can't apply.  But if you need anything--pencils, paper, digital cameras, you name it--this is the place to go.  Grant proposals can be submitted any time and are online for 5 months or until they are funded.

If you're in California, try applying for the FEDCO Teacher Grants.  These are especially good for field trips.  They administer the grants once a year, and grants need to be tied to core curriculum standards.  Usually the grants are due in late September and checks are sent to the teacher some time in February.

Another California grant is the Richard Riordan Recreational Reading Mini-Grant.  These grants pay for up to $1,000 in library books for your classroom.  In 2009, grants were due at the end of November.

Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators provides lots of helpful links for the grant-writing process.

It's hard to teach without spending your own money, but at least there are ways to relieve the burden.  Good luck!

Web 2.0 in the Classroom

This week I have been taking a class sponsored by our school district called "Infusing Technology into the Classroom."  When I had signed up for the class, I was unsure whether the material would bring anything new to my class.  As I posted earlier, our school is wireless, we have an outstanding computer lab with 60 iMacs, and personally I have about 15 more computers in my classroom (that's one for every two kids--sounds great, but my goal is one to one).  We use several applications on a daily basis that are Internet-based; what more could I do?

This answer is LOTS!

I'll keep this post focussed, but suffice it to say that the thrust of the class was Web 2.0.  How do we get our kids to produce content and put it out there in the cloud?  How do we make learning interactive?

For my class project, I developed a lesson where kids will make movie trailers for books they have read. I got the idea when I was reading the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Suzanne Collins used to work in the entertainment industry (here in Los Angeles we just call it "the Industry").  Her book reads like a movie script, so I googled for a Hunger Games trailer.  Lots of trailers came up in my search, but they were all made by kids.  Apparently the Hunger Games film is only in development, so no filming has been done, and they haven't even assigned a cast.  Zillions of kids out there who were in love with the book decided to make the trailers themselves.

I won't bother you with the lesson plan itself, but here is my student sample for "Little Red Riding Hood."  I created this in the omnipresent PowerPoint, which is an application I've never used before.  Usually I create slide shows in iMovie, but I wanted to try something new.  Anyway, I struggled endlessly to get this posted online.  Ultimately I converted the PowerPoint file into a movie file--that was easy.  But a huge problem is that our school district has a firewall that prevents us from accessing Youtube.  Many of the sites I was using required a Youtube version of the video.  On my classroom blog (Kidblog.org), the movie file was too big because the max allowed is 10 MB.  Is there no way to get this video online?

Little Red Riding Hood Movie Trailer from Gina Amodeo on Vimeo.

Anyway, finally I uploaded the video onto Vimeo.com (my new favorite website). Sadly, somewhere along the line (I think when I created a movie from PowerPoint), my sound became out of synch with the video, so the soundtrack is about 10 seconds too short and some of the slides are onscreen for too long.  In the future, I'll just use iMovie from the start so I can control the synch.  No matter--troubleshooting is all part of the learning experience, and I look forward to the moment when my kids solve that problem for me.

Hopefully you get the idea.  Instead of writing the same old boring book report, you can show your understanding of the story, or sell the story to another potential reader, through video--by sharing it with an audience.  Others can add their thoughts through comments or by follow-up videos.  The possibilities are endless, the learning is meaningful, the process is fun.

The Greatest Generation of Hoarding

(reposted from Portable Elephants)

Over a month ago, my refrigerator broke.  Wonderful Marjorie loaned me a small refrigerator until the old one was fixed.

Using that little fridge made me realize--what the heck was I storing in the big one anyway?  When I cleaned out the old fridge full of rotting food, I found three jars of salsa (all different), four jars of mustard (again, all different), and five bottles of salad dressing (don't ask).  What was I doing with all that stuff?

Every jar and bottle had its unique occasion.  Believe me, I used all of those jars of mustard--some for hot dogs, some for cooking, some for sandwiches.  They all had their place.  But in retrospect, my desire to have everything available at all times seems a little nutty.

I noticed another shopping pattern when I discovered a full container of sour cream, and another container only one quarter full.  See, I don't buy sour cream when I've run out of sour cream.  I buy it when I'm about to run out.  If you see duplicate containers of food in my fridge, I guarantee you that one will be unopened, and the other will be about a quarter full.  I never ever ever run out of sour cream.  Or cottage cheese.  Eggs.  Butter.  You name it.

I know where I picked up this habit--from my parents.  Survivors of the Great Depression, they are part of what Tom Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation."  I suppose if there's anything you learn from the Depression, it's how to hoard food.  My parents' garage was crammed full of canned food, teetering on rickety shelves.  Green beans, olives, tomatoes, peaches, pears, creamed corn--it was like walking down aisle 7 at Ralphs.  When my mom was in the kitchen, she would ask me with complete confidence, "Honey, could you please get a can of peas from the garage?"  My mom and dad always knew the exact inventory of the garage stash.

Even though I grew up in the relative financial comfort of the sixties and seventies, I adopted the hoarding habit.  I stuff my fridge and pantry full of duplicates in preparation for that moment when I run out of Tillamook cheese, Worchestershire sauce, or bamboo shoots.

Well, you never know the scope of your crazy until you have to clean it out of a stinky, rotting fridge.

This week, a Ukrainian man named Yuri fixed my old enormous fridge--all he did was replace a broken thermostat.  Now as I'm repopulating my fridge, I'm a little more careful.  I actually let myself run out of yogurt before I bought another pint.  I feel more efficient, more green, and more in the moment.

Yes, they were a great generation.  They worked tirelessly because it was the right thing to do, and with limited promise of reward.  They toiled in the present so that we would all have a bright future.  And they hoarded in the present for that moment in the future when they would need a can of tomatoes for their spaghetti sauce.

Happy Birthday, Atticus

Happy Birthday, Atticus Finch!

Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  I remember reading this book for the first time in 9th grade English class.   If you picture an English teacher (or a librarian) in your head--that was my teacher, Miss Winslow.  Spindly, spectacled, a gray bob of a hair--she was almost a caricature of herself.  Her crackly voice was hard on the ears, but I was grateful that she introduced me to one of my favorite books of all time.

More importantly, she introduced me to one of my favorite characters of all time:  Atticus Finch.  Fighter for lost causes, champion of the underdog, full of integrity--I wanted him to be my friend, my dad, my attorney, my boyfriend, my next door neighbor, President, and heck, I wanted to be him.

He speaks in parables as he teaches his children about life.  And when he preaches to Jem and Scout, he's reaching out to the reader, too.

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."  Thank you, Atticus.

"Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open."  Thanks again.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.  It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do."  This is a guy you want on your side.

I could talk more about the book as a whole--its characters, situations, setting, themes--but then I would be writing volumes.    On this anniversary, it's just me and Atticus.  Happy birthday, big guy.

e. e. cummings: hero or villain?

when i was in high school i started reading poetry by e. e. cummings.  i thought e. e. cummings was so cool, all counter-culture, using inventive spelling, shirking proper writing conventions like capitalization and word order.  he was my hero.

in college, i adopted e.e. cummings as my personal source of writing conventions.  capitalizing nouns like the germans was another idea i toyed with, but i dropped that because it forced me to parse out sentences.  anyway, i completely stopped using capital letters, except for the word i (i was too lazy to dot the i).  on term papers and exams i felt compelled to use capitals, but i gritted my teeth the whole way.    lowercase letters became my personal writing trademark.

then came the internet.  i don't know how this happened, but people started writing everything in lower case letters, starting with emails.  why???  maybe because it requires fewer keystrokes--i don't know.  anyway, suddenly my unique style of writing had become common.  what a dilemma for me.

these days i'm a bit schizophrenic on the capitalization issue.  on emails i generally don't capitalize unless i'm writing to someone who is not a native english speaker, or if i'm trying to prove a point.  but i don't want to prove this point:  that i'm just like everyone else who doesn't capitalize.  i was doing this years before people started abbreviating the term electronic mail.  my ego is inextricably entangled with self-perceived uniqueness in writing style.  i really have to get over this.

once upon a time, e.e. cummings was my hero; now i just don't know.  as a teacher, i struggle to get my kids to ignore the writing conventions of the internet.  i cringe when they write ur instead of your or insert lol when it is or isn't appropriate.  teaching english learners, you have to be exact with writing conventions because they're not really getting support for it elsewhere. now, i don't think it's e.e. cummings' fault that internet writers use inventive punctuation.  but would i introduce e.e. cummings to my kids?  i doubt it.  maybe if they make perfect scores on their tests and can show me they can write correctly--only then would i treat them to this kind of literary counter-culture.  lol.

ttyl

Pronunciation Guide

People have always mispronounced and misspelled my name.

That's partially my fault.

My last name is Amodeo.  Ah-moh-day-oh.  Often people pronounce my last name to rhyme with rodeo, so it sounds like Ah-moh-dee-oh.   It should sound more like armadillo.  However, since the song "Rock Me Amadeus" came out, people have usually pronounced my last name correctly.  But still, they spell my name Amadeo instead of Amodeo. That's because I'm pronouncing the o like an a. My whole family pronounces it that way  (Ah-mah-day-oh).  For a while, I tried to emphasize the long o in the second syllable, but it just didn't sound right--too much of that schwa action going on.  So I gave up.

Why am I bothering to mention this?  It reminds me of what I do in the classroom.  With a class full of English learners, some or many of them learned accented English at home before they started school.  And with accented English comes mispronunciation.  And with mispronunciation comes misspelling.

I am constantly correcting my kids on their pronunciation.  You might think I'm a little harsh on the immigrants, but that's not it at all.  I was raised by immigrants.

My parents' first language was Italian, and their second was English.  They wanted to be American and learned English, almost to the exclusion of their home language.  My parents rarely spoke to us in Italian, and usually only when they didn't want us to understand them.  Consequently (and sadly), the only Italian I learned from them was catch phrases and swear words.  Nevertheless, my parents were very careful to teach us academic English.

Pronouncing words correctly isn't just important for English learners, it's important for everybody.  Do you really know what you're saying?  Or reading?  I remember once I was reading a school essay out loud to my mom.   I had used the phrase "build a rapport" in the essay, but I pronounced the word "re-por" with a short e.  My mom asked me to repeat the word to make sure she heard it right.  "That word is pronounced ra-por," she said, "how did you spell it?"  And you know, I had spelled it reppore.  Gee, I learned something because she corrected my pronunciation.

I remember that moment when I'm in the classroom.  I'm relentless about correcting my kids on their pronunciation.  I just remember that's how my mom taught me.  Correct mistakes in the beginning so they don't happen again.  This is especially important with my students because about 75% of them are learning English as a second language and don't get very much language support at home.

People who read a lot but don't interact much in the real world have the opposite problem:  mispronouncing tricky words they have only read but not heard.  Having read millions of words, they'll probably mispronounce epitome (that has 4 syllables, not 3) or victuals (the c is silent, u is dropped).  When I hear a mispronunciation like this,  I reverse engineer the word and realize that this person probably has more friends that are books than are carbon-based.  It makes me smile.  They're a nerd.

But let's look at the link to writing.  In elementary school, there are some tricky words to spell, even if they're easy to pronounce.  Words that begin with "tr" are difficult for kids to spell if they haven't seen the word written before.  That's because we pronounce that pair of consonants like this:  "chr" or "tchr."  Go ahead, say the word train, treat, or try.  The t sound is gobbled up by that r, and the result is the same as a ch.  So my kids that have limited experience with reading and writing sound out the word, make their best guess, and spell it tchrain.  Usually they put the t in the beginning because they have some vague sense that it begins with the letter t.  But when they actually listen to the word, they hear the "ch" and are compelled to include that in the spelling.  When I read inventive spelling like that from a fourth grader (who should know better), I think to myself:  haven't you read anything at all with the word train in it?  Do you really not recognize this word or its spelling?

I've attempted to compensate for this, unsuccessfully.  I've pronounced the t, aspirating and spitting away, but it just sounds forced and awkward.  "Train" comes out more like "ter-rain."   It's not how we speak.  Plus, in addition to writing correctly, kids need to learn how to hear and understand common spoken English.  It's an uphill battle.  I waffle between annunciating clearly and speaking like a normal lazy speaker.

The link between speaking and writing is clear.  You definitely have a leg up in the spelling department if you can pronounce a word correctly.  If you don't pronounce a word correctly, you will probably butcher it on paper.  But then again, this is English.  If you've only heard a word and attempt to write it, good luck.  The English language is fraught with unusual spellings--and if you have never read the word "fraught" you will probably misspell it.

When you get right down to it, the best pathway to writing well is to read as much as you can.   A mispronounced word comes across as an innocent mistake.  A misspelled word comes across as an ignorant mistake.

Teaching Through Technology: Readin', Writin', and 'rithmetic Online

Tech rules in my school.  We have wireless access throughout campus, a computerized math program, and a fully functioning computer lab that can accommodate 60 kids and is always in use.

Our math program comes from the Mind Research Institute. This computerized game system teaches math concepts using a visual approach.  The time is well spent as our kids go to lab twice a week for 45 minutes.  Since we've started using this program, our math scores have soared.

Another technology tool we use is the Accelerated Reader Program, which is an online quiz bank for reading comprehension on over 100,000 titles.  Using benchmark tests, we develop reading goals for our kids.  They choose books for themselves and take quizzes on their own initiative.  The reading program keeps track of the books they've read and their progress toward their goals.  Regularly I print out reports for the kids to take home to their parents, so everyone is keeping track of their reading progress.

Recently I discovered another online tool to complete the trio--teaching writing through blogging.  Using Kidblog.org, I set up a private classroom blog.  All of my students were eager to jump on the laptops to write their blogs and comments.  Even though they only blogged for about a month, I saw huge improvements in their writing, especially their ability to stay on topic.

All of this tech teaching would not be possible without the hardware.  In addition to computer lab access, I also have countless computers in my classroom.  I say "countless" because as I write this, I can't remember exactly how many I have.  Something like eight of them belong to the school--five of those eight are laptops.  I also won eight more netbooks through grants I wrote on Donorschoose.org.

My kids always have laptops at their desks to use for Internet research, reading comprehension quizzing, and blogging.  It's really amazing, but it's not enough.  My goal is for every student to have a netbook at their desk.

Reading, writing, and math--all online.  The future is here, and it's awesome.

Pledge 2.0

Back when our school was on a year-round program, we used to teach in the month of July.  The Fourth of July holiday came right at the beginning of the school year, and I took this as an opportunity to review the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

I kept the "under God" part, which is often in dispute, mostly because that's how I learned it as a kid and I'm almost hard-wired to say it that way.  My kids have trouble with some of the prepositions, so I have a poster on the wall next to the flag to remind them.  I have them recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day before school starts.  I do this more for educational and classroom control reasons than for patriotic reasons.

First, since we do it first thing in the morning, it signals to kids that school has started and it's time to get ready to learn.  

Second, it means that every day, my kids have to distinguish left from right.  ("Put your right hand over your heart")  You'd be surprised at how many kids forget which is left and which is right.

And third, it's a poem the kids recite every day.  When it comes time to study poetry, I remind them that they've already memorized a poem.

I've recited the Pledge of Allegiance over 1,000 times with my kids.  Yes, it gets kind of dry, but I've found two substitutes.  Both come from Stephen Colbert.

The first is the Pledge of Allegiance for the Confederacy:

I pledge allegiance to a couple of flags of the United-slash-Confederate States of America, and to the Republic for which they stand (or stand against), one Nation (until further notice), indivisible (for the time being), with liberty and justice for all (or y'all).

I suppose the references would probably go over the heads of my fourth graders, but it makes me laugh.  The second is called "Pledge 2.0":

I text allegiance to the flag of the United States of American Apparel,and to the facebook for which it friends, one nation, OMG, indivizzibizzle, with liberty and Jonas for all.

Now that's a Pledge of Allegiance I wouldn't mind reciting a thousand times..

I Pledge My Allegiance

I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I am a sports fan.  Even though I don't follow any particular team, I can chip myself out of hibernation to root for somebody in that playoff, quarter final, or championship game.

Now we are in the midst of the FIFA World Cup.  Americans are famous for their ignorance of the world's favorite sport, even to the extent that we have a different name for it.  Nevertheless, like many big sporting events, I am following.

With international events, I typically root for (1) the Americans, (2) the Italians (I do have a red passport in addition to my blue one), and (3) the underdogs.  With soccer, it isn't hard to root for the Italians since they win the World Cup every few years.  Sometimes I'm embarrassed by their theatrics, but then again, we wouldn't be Italians if we didn't go over the top.

This year, the Americans and Italians were eliminated early.  I was disappointed for the Americans, mostly because this means that American interest in the World Cup is going to drop significantly now.  But also, I was surprised by the Italians.  What happened to those guys?  They won last time.  I can only conclude that in their cockiness, they forgot how to to play soccer.

Anyway, now as we push through each round of the tournament, I am forced to change my allegiances frequently, especially since the teams I'm rooting for keep losing.

My first rule is to root for the Europeans, unless they are the Germans.  One look at my red passport shows over a dozen languages for the  European Union--it's not hard to pick one.  I just can't bring myself to back the Germans, though.  They are the absolute opposite of Italians.  No emotion, just cold, hard precision.   I'm especially troubled when I look at the German team, which plays with technical perfection.  They look like little soccer machines.  Whatever they decide to do, those Germans are very good at it.

I tend to root against the South Americans, because they are the most successful winners of the World Cup over time.  Here I invoke rule #3--root for the underdogs, and root against the favorites.  But if it's a South American country against the Germans--I'll go with South America.  And if two South American countries play each other--I'll root for the better team, more likely to beat the Germans.

If an Asian or African country is playing, I cross my fingers for those guys (unless they're playing Americans or Italians).  So--Uraguay vs. South Korea?  I rooted for South Korea (they lost).   Japan vs. Paraguay?  I rooted for Japan, and of course they lost.

In the quarter finals, three of the matches are a European team vs. a South American team.  Whereas previously I had rooted against Ghana, now I am rooting for them--to beat the Uruguay team and also keep an African team in the tournament.

Confused yet?  I am.  Every day my allegiances change as the teams I root for get eliminated from the World Cup tournament.  I can't take my likes and dislikes too seriously.  However, I worry that the final game will be Brazil vs. Germany.  Brazil is the absolute opposite of underdog, and Germany is, well, it's Germany.  I suppose I should add a fourth rule to my allegiance policy--anyone but Germany.

Maybe I should pick my teams next time by the color of the flag.  Does anyone have purple?

Book Club Biopsy

We had a our first book club meeting yesterday, to discuss Unwind by Neal Shusterman.  I really didn't know what to expect because I've never been to a book club before.  I've heard about them, have friends in them, saw a cartoon version of one, and even got thrown out of a house to make room for one.  But I had never actually seen a book club in action.

So, I did some homework before our first meeting.  I downloaded discussion questions from the author's website, icebreakers from Litlovers.com, and posted links to everything on our book blog.

We brought fixings for guacamole and taco toppings to Anne's house.  After about 15 minutes of prep, we went outside to her expansive backyard to eat tacos and discuss Unwind.

I won't go into the details of the discussion, but suffice it to say that we had no problem talking about the book.  I was so content out there on the patio, I didn't even bother to go inside to grab my discussion questions.  After stuffing ourselves with tacos and chatting about books, we picked a date for our next meeting.  It was Anne's pick:  Ender's Game.

Now that it's the day after, I've had time to ruminate over what book clubs do.  Did we do a good job?  Was our book club like everyone else's book club?  I put the question to a Google search:  "What happens at book clubs."  Without fail, each webpage that popped up had oodles of photos--photos of food and half-empty glasses of wine.  And when I say half-empty, I mean that in the optimist's way-- that is, if you've emptied half of it, you're feeling fairly optimistic.  Strangely enough, though, there was nary a book in sight.  Apparently, the purpose of a book club is social drinking.  Did we do something wrong?

Now let me set the record straight--Anne did offer us wine and beer.  Nobody took her up on the offer, and at the time I didn't think it was a big deal.  In retrospect, did we miss our chance to be a "normal" book club?

It reminded me of an episode of the animated show (that means cartoon) "King of the Hill" where Peggy Hill, a bonafide middle-aged nerd, goes to her first book club meeting.  She's done her homework, ready for probing questions, and voila--out come the wine glasses.  Peggy is shocked and disappointed.  Apparently this is the 21st century version of the Feminine Mystique.

I suppose since one of the functions of book club is drinking, we should at least attempt to create drinks that are consistent with the book we're discussing. If the book was Harry Potter, it would be pumpkin juice and butter beer.  I don't know what to expect from Ender's Game, a sci-fi classic, but when I googled "ender's game drink,"  I found "Giant's drink."  We could have some fun with that.  At the very least, figuring out the appropriate drink could be a great topic of discussion.

Our reading group is great--there really is nothing to fix with us.  But certainly, a little Giant's drink may liven the party.   Unlike Peggy Hill, we can have our book club and drink it too.

Kids Blog the Darndest Things

When my kids started blogging the first week in June, I gave them an initial assignment:  Tell us what you did Memorial Day weekend.


After that first assignment, kids were free to blog about anything they wanted.  Here are some of the more popular posts and their comments.  Every student uses a pseudonym for the blog.  


Jellyfish Sting    by Annie
On Sunday I went to the beach with my friend Alice.  When we went in the water a jellyfish stung me.  After the jellyfish stung me my mom took me to the lifeguard and he sprayed vinegar on me.  Then my mom, brother, Alice and I dug a big hole.  Then we buried my brother in the hole.  Now I'm really scared to go in the water.  But it was still fun.


Comments on "Jellyfish Sting"
zeus      Did it burn when they put vinegar on it?
grinch   That has to hurt!
alice      I know that was scary.
junie     If I was you I would be scared.


A Really BIG Dinner   by Captain
Yesterday I went to an all you can eat buffet.  There was a lot of food.  I almost exploded.  My fortune cookie said, "Luck comes to those who help themselves."  When we were on our way back we went to go check a certain time at the movies.  We were going to watch Shrek Part 4. When we came back home, my dad and I went on the skateboard around the block.  It was a fun day for me and don't ask me why because I just told you dude!


Comments
hercules   Are you feeling lucky right now?
snape       What kind of foods did you eat?
thoth         By the way that sounds really funny, are you actually feeling lucky?
george     Your blog is making me laugh.
hermione Have you actually done what the fortune cookie told you to do that would bring you luck?

He Came Back    by Annabeth

 My step dad came back from the country he was born. It is Peru . He came on Friday on the middle of the night. I saw him the next day. It was when I woke up. First my family went to mc donald because my sister picked that place to eat breakfast.Then we when to the mall to buy some stuff for my big sister’s project. After we went to the movies.  They  made me see “Shrek Forever After.”  That’s what I did for celebrating my step dad’s coming back.

Comments

hermione    Did he come back for a visit or forever?  I also saw the movie Shrek Forever After. I thought it was very funny.  I love your post.  Do you have stepbrothers or stepsisters?

violet          At what time did he come?

annie          What was your sister's project about?

katniss        What was your favorite part of the movie Shrek Forever After?

annabeth   My sister's project was about History.

More stories to come.....