LCSD Reads - First Thursdays Book Club Book Review

On the first Thursday of every month, interested folks join together in one of the high school libraries in the Lincoln County School District. What brings us together? 

Books!

I have yet to determine where the books come from, but there are tables and tables of books from picture books to young adult that we are able to take with us as long as we write a review. Thus begins another piece of my #nerdlution ... the intent is that each Thursday I will review one of the books that I picked up from the First Thursdays Book Club. 

Title: Big Bear's Big Boat

Author: Eve Bunting

Illustrated by: Nancy Carpenter

Publisher: Clarion Books

Publication Date: September 2013

Genre: Picture Book

Goodreads Summary: Big Bear outgrew his little boat, so he is building himself a big boat and can't wait till he's rowing, fishing, and relaxing in it. When his friends start suggesting improvements, Big Bear obligingly follows their advice. To his dismay, his big boat is turning out all wrong. It's because he hasn't followed his own dream, and he knows exactly how to fix it. With all the simplicity, warmth, and wisdom of Little Bear's Little Boat, this book honors an important step in growing up.

Grade Level: Preschool/Kindergarten+

Kristin's Thoughts: I found this book appealing due to the fact that it illustrates for younger children that it is ok to try the ideas of others but that when one can determine that the ideas don't work for them that they can say "no thank you" and take action that works for them. As the parent of a preschooler, I see that even at a young age, my daughter is trying to fit in. I appreciate that the character in this book, Big Bear, was open to the ideas of others (my 4 year old tends to be very egocentric) but that later he could assert himself and make choices that better suit his wants and needs. It's important to be open to suggestion but it's also important to stay true to yourself. This book illustrates this idea in a simple, comprehensible way.

Being a Reflective Mentor - Slice of Life 2014

 

 A Slice of Life is a weekly blog hosted by Two Writing Teachers, Ruth Ayers and Stacey Shubitz. Click on Two Writing Teachers to be taken to their website to learn more about this week's Slice of Life.

Today I actually struggled to find something to write about. I often want to blog about my work as a mentor but I constantly worry about inadvertently breaking confidentiality so I choose not to. The topics that I want to blog about focus on the ways that the teachers I mentor inspire me. I think that I just need to take the leap and do it and blog as if my mentees were my students.

I mentor 13 beginning teachers as half of my work (the other half of my educator world is spent managing my district's Collaboration Grant). It is work that I find rewarding. I spend my days observing beginning teachers - collecting data related to classroom environment and/or instruction; as well as meeting with my teachers one-on-one to reflect on instructional practice. My role during these meetings is to listen and ask questions. My work is about helping beginning teachers to find their teacher-selves; not try to coach them into being mini-Kristin Becker's (Lord knows that one Kristin Becker is enough). I am only in my second year of mentoring and already feel inspired and energized about a future return to the classroom - I have learned as much or more from the teachers that I mentor than they have learned from me. Talk about educator blessing - WOW!

Part of my district's mentoring program includes a series of seminars that our beginning teachers attend that focus on topics unique to supporting beginning teacher development. Each January, a portion of the seminar is spent on reflecting on individual beginning teacher growth thus far. The teachers refer back to their self assessments they completed back in September as well as any data mentors have collected from observations (we have a series of tools that we use). A part of this January's mid-point reflection was to focus on a significant area of growth and then the mentee needed to indentify what he/she did to make that growth happen. The idea was for each mentee to see that he/she did something - that the growth didn't just happen by accident or chance. 

It was powerful to see that the teachers I mentor could see their growth and what they did to make it happen. I feel such pride in their openness to feedback and coaching and that each one could state for certain at least one thing worth celebrating. 

I decided to do the same process for myself. 

I found it difficult. 

One of my professional growth goals as a mentor focuses on questioning. My overarching goal is to be a facilitative mentor - as I stated earlier, mentoring is about helping my teachers to determine their own path. Not get them to follow mine. It's not that I don't have great ideas, but I really want to make my actions be more about coaching and less about "here's how I did it". 

I have found that when teachers share their challenge with me and my response is more of "tell me more about..." that the teacher and I are actually able to get to the heart of the challenge quicker and that the teacher is actually able to determine some next steps independent of me. I've noticed that I have stronger more trusting relationships with the teachers I mentor (half of which are not teachers that I mentored last year) based on the fact that I am more willing to listen and ask questions that get teachers to go deeper. Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect with this. I've actually caught myself saying, "when I taught 4th grade, I...". The teachers I support are gracious and accept that type of instructive feedback; however, in that instance I missed my target of being facilitative.

As I move forward for the remainder of the year, I will say that I have grown on as a mentor; I am cognizant of which role I take on (instructive, collaborative, facilitative) yet I want to continue to refine those effective listening and questioning skills.

I am always learning and growing.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2/10/14

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is an opportunity for everyone to share their book journeys: where we've been for the week and where we plan to go next. To learn more about It's Monday! What Are You Reading? with a kidlit focus, jump over to Jen Vincent's blog, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee Moye's blog, Unleashing Readers.

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It's been a struggle for me to find balance between work life, mom & wife life, and reader/writer/blogger life. I formalized my #nerdlution, which I will be blogging about later this week. 

Part of the imbalance involves the nightly #bookpic that Madeline and I had grown accustomed to doing. Things got busy and I quit taking the nightly picture. But then I heard these words,

"Mom, what about a book pic?"

Wow! Talk about accountability! I can promise that we have been reading nightly but I have not been very consistent about even tracking what we read. I'm on night #2 of book pics with Madeline so I promise that the meme for Maddie's book journey will return next week. 

My book travels have been short as well. This week I'm doing something that Donalyn Miller suggests in her book, Reading in the Wild, by keeping a reading itinerary for myself. I'll share my findings next week. 

  

In the meantime, here's where I did travel this past week:

One of the books off of Oregon's Battle of the Books list for grades 3-5.

This was my #audiobook.

 Where am I headed next?

This is another book off the the Oregon Battle of the Books list for grades 3-5.

My audiobook for the week.

 

as part of the LCSD Reads Facebook Book Club

My district mentoring team is rereading this for our own professional development

I feel new life breathed into me as I re-commit to reading, writing, and reflecting more this week. 

What are you reading? :o)

Celebrate! 1/4/14

 

It has been a good week. 

My husband and I have been battling illness for a majority of my winter break, but I think that we are on the mend and I'll be able to return to work on Monday feeling healthy again.

Sunday: Maddie and I drove to my mom's house (three hours away) to spend New Year's at her house. Any time the two of us can travel without incident, and by that I mean, not witnessing any accidents, I feel that there's reason to celebrate. Maddie loves time with her Grandma (and vice versa) so she was happy as a clam.

Monday: I spent most of the day with our Chalkboard Project/Collaboration Grant coach working out a timeline for work left ahead of us for the remainder of the school year. There's nothing necessarily fun about working during your break, however, it felt good to process some of the grant work left ahead of us. I left with a plan of action for the next couple weeks-success!

Tuesday: In my Slice of Life post on Tuesday, I shared about my daughter's participation in making mochi for Japanese New Year. This still sticks with me as the best part of my week since she is engaging in a tradition that my dad and I started together six years ago. Since dad died in 2010, I've been doing mochi for Japanese New Year on my own and it's been lonely. This year, Maddie changed all of that by wanting to be a part of the entire process. It's something my dad would have loved to see - it's something that just makes me smile as I type this. 

Our 2014 Mochi

Wednesday: Maddie and I traveled home...safely. As stated above in regards to travel, any time Maddie and I are on the road without incident then I celebrate. When we arrived, we found my husband still sick but at least without the fever that we left him with on Sunday. 

Thursday: Maddie and I checked the mail to retrieve packages from Christmas that we were expecting but didn't arrive until after. One package that was in there was my National Board Certificate. I completed the renewal process last spring for the Middle Childhood Generalist certificate. The National Board process has been the one thing I've done for myself professionally that I am most proud of. The process has helped me to develop habit where I reflect about my practice and continues to open my eyes about what I do and how I do it. It is the filter that I run things through in terms of - is this action was is best for kids? The feeling of accomplishment with renewal was the same as when I submitted my portfolio in 2004. My husband, daughter, and colleagues have continued to support my efforts to constantly learn and grow and for this I will always be grateful.

Friday: My husband has always been my biggest supporter when it comes to continuing education, personal professional development, basically, anything I do to constantly learn and grow. So, the National Board Certificate was something he congratulated me on but did not get the "big deal" that it us until he saw the 100+ Likes on my Facebook page. He then, on his own, planned a babysitting for Maddie and dinner out at wonderful restaurant in Lincoln City. We rarely go out, and when we do we usually have Maddie with us, so this was a pleasant surprise. I loved that he was willing to make a big deal about celebrating my National Board Certificate.

Saturday: Today, I walked my second Newport Resolution run. What sets this year apart is that I signed up for the Polar Plunge. By plunge, I mean that I dove into the frigid waters of the Yaquina Bay after I finished my race. My husband thought I was crazy, but he did bring Maddie to the finish line so she could see me plunge. For me, this run was unlike last year's in that I spent my time during the "run" thinking about resolutions for reading, writing, mentoring, parenting, marriage, and health. The plunge was a sort of cleansing of old habits to make room for the changes that I intend to make this year. At the end of the race, my friends that finished ahead of me were there waiting for me making the finish all the more special. 

Majalise, Me, & Jana before the race

There is a lot to look forward to this next week: return to mentoring my beginning teachers who I've missed, my last mentor training of the year with the new instructional coach that we hired, the leadership team I facilitate as part of the Collaboration Grant, the books I plan to read and the writing that is ahead of me. 

What are you celebrating?

Have a fantastic week!

 

 

BE About the Tradition - Japanese New Year - Slice of Life 2013

 

A Slice of Life is a weekly blog hosted by Two Writing Teachers, Ruth Ayers and Stacey Shubitz. Click on Two Writing Teachers to be taken to their website to learn more about this week's Slice of Life.

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I was raised by a Japanese American, emphasis on the American. Raised by a father who wanted his children to be loyal United States citizens, my dad ethnically represented Japanese but everything about him was about being "American". As his daughter, I grew up knowing very little about Japanese language, culture, foods, or traditions. It was not until in my 30s, when I was down in Los Angeles celebrating New Year's with my Aunt Suzye and Uncle Chuck, that I experienced the Japanese tradition of making mochi.

Mochi is Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a sweet rice. We use a special rice cooker that steams the rice and then pounds it into a paste. While still hot, we mold the sticky rice paste into round cakes. Traditional rice pounding is a labor intensive process that involves two people taking turns physically pounding the rice with a wooden mallet while the other person "flips" the rice and wets it. There's a rhythm to it or someone can get hurt. I like my hands and fingers so I'll skip the traditional pounding and take the rice cooker. Thank you very much. :0)

In 2008, my dad brought my grandma's mochi rice cooker home with him from California-that was the year dad and I started making mochi together as our way of celebrating Japanese New Year. By 2009, dad had his cancer diagnosis and the time spent making mochi quickly became treasured time. When January 2010 arrived, I was 8 months pregnant and dad had already surpassed the timeframe that doctors had given him for his terminal cancer. Dad and I spent this time together knowing it would be our last (he died June 2010) Japanese New Year together and he wanted to make sure that I knew what to do to make mochi.

Today, was the third year making mochi without my dad. 

It's a bittersweet time, though, because this year, Maddie, just shy of four years old, is old enough to be genuinely interested in knowing what Mommy is doing. And, she wanted to be a part of things. This has been a new year where I particularly miss my dad because he would have loved having Maddie be a part of the activity. He would have loved even just watching her be a part of things. It was a HUGE gift he gave me making sure that I knew what to do, right down to knowing what rice to buy (he was particular about brands), so that I could build this as a tradition on my own with Maddie. It is now more than a time that I miss my dad. It is now a time to share wonderfully fun stories with Maddie about her Papa. It's my turn to show her what to do.

Thank you, Dad, for this wonderful tradition of mochi for Japanese New Year. 

Maddie helping me wash the rice to soak the night before.

Time to steam our first batch of rice.

Rice is finished steaming and now it's time for the rice to be "pounded".

Rice pounding!

Our first batch of mochi to welcome in 2014 - the Year of the Horse.

May each of you reading this have a prosperous 2014.

Happy New Year!!!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12.30.13

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is an opportunity for everyone to share their book journeys: where we've been for the week and where we plan to go next. To learn more about It's Monday! What Are You Reading? with a kidlit focus, jump over to Jen Vincent's blog, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee Moye's blog, Unleashing Readers.

 

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Whooooo... boy! It's been weeks since I posted. A job change with a longer than expected transition, adjusting to the responsibilities of a new job, & coursework for maintaining my administrator license meant that I spent quite a bit of my reading time reading the grant I manage (and related documents) & lots about school boards and being a superintendent. Not my favorite kind of reading. But, I'm back and excited to be reading MY books. 

 

Maddie's reading life did not suffer, but I don't have our weekly set of #bookpics because a lot of the reading slack was picked up by Daddy, Grandma, & Aunt Tracey. 

 

Here's a sampling of where Maddie & I traveled through picture books this past week:

 

 

  Here's where I ventured:

  

And now for where I plan to travel:

#audiobook

 

 

LCSD Reads Facebook Book Club

Happy New Year!!!!!!

What are YOU reading?

 

Picture Book Review: Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

 Title: Llama Llama Holiday Drama
Author: Anna Dewdney
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Publication Date: October 2010
Genre/Format: Picture Book Fiction

Goodreads Summary: Llama Llama holidays. Jingle music. Lights ablaze.
How long till that special date?
Llama Llama has to wait.

If there's one thing Llama Llama doesn't like, it's waiting. He and Mama Llama rush around, shopping for presents, baking cookies, decorating the tree . . . but how long is it until Christmas? Will it ever come? Finally, Llama Llama just can't wait any more! It takes a cuddle from Mama Llama to remind him that "Gifts are nice, but there's another: The true gift is, we have each other." 

Grade Level: PreK+
Kristin's Thoughts: Madeline is three (four in February) during this holiday season and really exhibits for the first time, behavior that reflects some of the craziness that takes hold of this time of year. There's the talk of Santa, the holiday decorations everywhere, the toys at the Fred Meyer where we shop that are strategically placed at little people level, the newly decorated Christmas tree at home, and the fact that our coastal grounds are covered with the white stuff (a rare occasion for us). Maddie is in full affect with the constant questions around "is it Christmas yet?" not to mention the ongoing "I need...." which translated means "I want...."
Llama Llama Holiday Drama was a good reminder that sometimes what we (not just kids, moms too) need is a loving hug. I couldn't agree more that "the true gift is we have each other." Reading this book together ended with some pretty special cuddles.