While we are BIG fans of March Madness in our house, the term "May Madness" seems to eloquently describe what life at 3257 Foxwood Trail has been like lately. Prepare yourself, faithful readers, this could be a looooong post. :-) In the interest of time, I'm going to keep the updates to one event per post. You'll thank me later.
IRA Conference: International Reading Association Conference
I had started a post about a week prior to going to this conference, and it sounded a little bit like this:
"I am way past excited about my plans for next week. Beyond thrilled. It's bordering just a little bit on maniacal hysteria. I will be a complete nerd for telling you all about it, but you should be excited me for me - your favorite nerd."
Every year, the IRA puts on a conference for teachers, administrators, reading specialists and the like. I was fortunate enough to be one of three teachers selected by our school to attend the conference (we had to write a short essay on why we wanted to go) and I was doubly excitged when I found out my friend and teammate John Roper would be going as well!
While I loved going and learning new ways to bring literacy into my classroom, the highlights of my week involved meeting some of my authors and teaching heroes. Not a day went by that I didn't meet an author and get an autographed copy of a book my kids and I loved. It was fabulous.
Some of the highlights:
Jamie Lee Curtis: Opening SpeakerJamie was hysterically funny, wonderfully real and she even read to us from her upcoming picture book: Big Words for Little People. What really struck me was the way she focused on herself as an author - not an actress. She spoke about her own struggles as a student and how, even for her, getting a foot into the publishing world was not very easy. It was a great way to kick off a fantastic week.
TEACHER PROM!!!
TEACHER PROM!!!
Mr. Roper's first visit to the Aquarium!
My Teacher Prom date :-)
Afterwards, I met Bryan, Toni, Sherry and Jeremy at a very crowded Twisted Taco in Kennesaw for lots of.... water!! That's right - water. The Twisted Taco was so busy, we couldn't even order a drink from our waitress or the bartender (and you know we tried both). Somehow, we managed to get a round of waters in plastic Twisted Taco cups. Not quite the fun we thought we were going to have, but fun nonetheless.
Right now, Mama is thrilled that our cups only held water.The next few days were a bit of a blur, but they included the following:
A dinner banquet featuring Christopher Paul Curtis,
author of The Watsons Go To Birmingham: 1963.
A dinner banquet featuring Christopher Paul Curtis,author of The Watsons Go To Birmingham: 1963.
My students and I used his book as our end of the year read aloud. They were SO excited to hear that I got to meet him and get our books signed.
She also did readings from The Color Purple and several pieces of poetry.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Finally, the absolute pinnacle of the conference for me: Meeting RAFE ESQUITH.
I know most of you are probably thinking: "Who in the heck is Rafe Esquith?" He is, in short, my teaching hero. He lives and teaches in inner city Los Angeles at Hobart Elementary School. He has a 5th grade classroom that is absolutely amazing. His students are no different than mine - low income, ESOL, generally low-performing children. However, once they become a part of his classroom incredible things happen.
Every year, Rafe has some of the best test scores in the state from his fifth graders. They aren't super-genius wonder children. They simply have a teacher who makes a difference because he uses his own passions and interests to make learning fun. His students learn how to play baseball, play rock guitar, read novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Of Mice and Men and Catcher in the Rye. Each year, his students learn and perform a different unabridged Shakespeare production. I really encourage you to visit their website. They are incredibly hard-working students and we really enjoyed the pieces of As You Like It they shared with us at the conference. (Rafe brought about 15 of his students to the conference.) John and I were both in tears during their performance and we had the opportunity to talk with them afterwards. Wonderfully fantastic kids.
I actually had time to talk to Rafe after his speech and he invited John and I to come visit his classroom! I don't know when I'll be able to make that happen, but you know I'll try!!
I'll close this post with a little piece of what we saw from Rafe's class. Make sure you visit the Hobart Shakespeareans... these are kids who know what they're doing! They certainly inspired me to give a little more of myself to my own classroom.
I know most of you are probably thinking: "Who in the heck is Rafe Esquith?" He is, in short, my teaching hero. He lives and teaches in inner city Los Angeles at Hobart Elementary School. He has a 5th grade classroom that is absolutely amazing. His students are no different than mine - low income, ESOL, generally low-performing children. However, once they become a part of his classroom incredible things happen.
Every year, Rafe has some of the best test scores in the state from his fifth graders. They aren't super-genius wonder children. They simply have a teacher who makes a difference because he uses his own passions and interests to make learning fun. His students learn how to play baseball, play rock guitar, read novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Of Mice and Men and Catcher in the Rye. Each year, his students learn and perform a different unabridged Shakespeare production. I really encourage you to visit their website. They are incredibly hard-working students and we really enjoyed the pieces of As You Like It they shared with us at the conference. (Rafe brought about 15 of his students to the conference.) John and I were both in tears during their performance and we had the opportunity to talk with them afterwards. Wonderfully fantastic kids.
I actually had time to talk to Rafe after his speech and he invited John and I to come visit his classroom! I don't know when I'll be able to make that happen, but you know I'll try!!
I'll close this post with a little piece of what we saw from Rafe's class. Make sure you visit the Hobart Shakespeareans... these are kids who know what they're doing! They certainly inspired me to give a little more of myself to my own classroom.
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