Books, Books, and more Books

I have been reading and reading. So want to share some great titles to add to your collection or for your kids to read in class.

The Shadows We Know by Heart by Jennifer Park

This book is a mystery and romance all rolled into a big myth of the East Texas Woods. Are the Sasquatches real? Why does Dad only have one rule? Don't Go in the Woods? Leah longs to escape a home life filled with grief of her missing brother. When she escapes into the woods and finds a boy who can't remember his past and has difficulty speaking. But he is living with the Sasquatches and she knows if she is not careful someone will find them and then who knows. So she must be careful, but she also must find out what this boy knows or remembers. But who else is watching?

The Stacks of reading continue. Next book I really loved this summer was Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel by Kimberly Willis Holt. "Soulful and Satisfying"- Kirkus Review and I have to agree. Holt just speaks to your soul when you read this story, sure bad things happen to great people but how we deal with those things builds us into incredible people. This one has it all, a tragic event, coping with loss, and dealing with crazy family members and even a slight romance with some humor. It is one of those books you want to say... "Just Read It"!

Comments

Break Out Your Reading Skills!

Break Out Your Reading Skills Challenge This challenge will ask our readers to READ a piece of non-fiction. Then answer 5 questions to get a code. If they get all 5 answers correct their code should unlock the snack box to BREAK out a snack for you and a friend. If you get the first 4 answers correct you should have the code to BREAK out one snack for yourself. So I have three cards of five questions each. These questions are STAAR formatted to keep it familiar to students, and are based on 7th & 8th Grade reading TEKS. Each question tells you page numbers, so you really don't have to read the whole book but you can read parts of the articles or stories in it to answer the questions. Like a short article, or quick story, no more than two or three pages each. Students try a story, to see if their code unlocks the lock. I am using the following non-fiction books: The Queen's Shadow - A Story about How Animals See by C...

I3 - Top Ten Tech Tools to use in your Classroom

Starting this August 2017-2018 school year and I want to share more. So I have challenged myself to share what I learned this year. I learn a lot every day. I am an expert at nothing. I know I learn new things every day about every part of my life. I presented the following presentation for I3 in Everman ISD. Teachers across the district came to learn new tools to use in the classroom. I learned to work faster. I forgot like 3 slides, one whole tool. But we all learn from our mistakes. I was thinking I wish I could tell them all this. That thought is what made me build this blog. I need to start sharing my learning with others. Here is my presentation if you want to learn more: Top 10 Tech Tools to Use in Your Classroom

Thoughts on George Cuoros Presentation at TCEA 2016

Deeper thoughts after a session with George Couros! Innovative Mindsets It is more than New & Better Not exactly Change all the time either, It is more of being better at what you do. You have to disrupt what you have BEEN doing, to be better. Disrupt your routine.YOU do it first. Have that meeting without paper if you want a paperless class to actually happen. He quoted: We need to find the best people & find job titles for them, not fit the people into the job titles. Think about this: 1. Show what you are doing in class each day. What if we tweeted one thing? What would it do to the learning of everyone? 2. Connect with another educator of same grade and learn from each other. It matters when you are sending it out to the world. Suddenly you want to get it right. The freedom is powerful to share. Same thing with kids. Rock Paper Scissors Game - overcoming obstacles in a room when 500 educators play a...

Kistner's Kollection

Search This Blog