K is for KINDLE

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

Scroll down this link to find other wonderful A to Z participants.

I'm a crazy reader. Always have been. I was the kid under the covers with the flashlight.

I love the feel of a print book in my hands, but e-books have a special place in my heart.

Why?

FLEXIBILITY AND INSTANT ACCESS

The book I'm reading never leaves my side. Besides my Kindle, I have the app on my phone, my computer at home, and my computer at school, and my tablet.

TEACHING TOOL

I can project the Kindle app from my computer onto my Smartboard in the class room. This allows my students to follow text and pictures when I read aloud wonderful graphic novels like Alan Silberberg's, MILO, STICKY NOTES AND BRAIN FREEZE or his THE AWESOME ALMOST 100% TRUE ADVENTURES OF MATT AND CRAZ.

ADJUSTABLE FONT SIZE

If you're over 40 - enough said. If you're under 40 - just wait.

COOL COVERS

Just got this super fun cover from Disneyland.

TAKE AWAY:

My Kindle means more reading time and instant purchases of all those wonderful e-books being written by so many of you out there in Bloglandia. For someone like me who's all about instant gratification - that's solid gold.

I still buy multiple hard cover books every month for myself and my classroom. Huzzah for print books.  

Are you an e-reader person?

View From the 5th Grade Trenches: April 2013: Milo, Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze

As a teacher in these days of high-stakes standardized testing, no matter how hard I try to be fresh and interesting, I feel like I’m sending pre-packaged knowledge down a conveyor belt at a furious pace and simultaneously dumping it into 33 brains.

The days of “discovery learning” and gradual development of concepts seems to have gone the way of the Dodo.

Every so often, there is a magic experience where the kids and I connect as a collective soul. Our hearts swell and shine as one. We laugh together and cry together.

Thanks to Alan Silberberg, this wonderful synergy happened when I read his amazing story, Milo, Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze to my class.

Alan, perfectly balancing loving honesty and humor, guides Milo through the aftermath of losing a parent while navigating the insanity that is junior high.

There is a child in my class who recently lost a parent so at first I was wary of sharing Milo’s experience. I gave the book to the child’s parent to read. She adored it and appreciated the sensitivity Alan used in his storytelling.

Milo, Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze in addition to being an important story, is chock full of terrific drawings. I am able to project books on an interactive white board in my classroom so the kids enjoyed the illustrations in real time as I read the story aloud to them.

We didn’t just read Milo together, we experienced it. Rich conversations sprang up as we laughed, cried, and shared our own emotional journeys with one another. The student who had lost a parent told me how much she had related to and appreciated the book.

Thank you, Alan Silberberg for the gift of Milo, Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze.

 The kids had a few thoughts to share:

Many students said they made a connection with Milo because they have lost someone they loved.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

Milo trying to make Summer like him

Milo getting really scared in the haunted house

Booger Flavored Freezies

Sylvia and Milo planting the flowers

Milo finding the blanket

Playing with the salt and pepper shakers

Milo wanting to celebrate Mother’s Day

The dentist’s office

Milo writing the poem

Tuna fish

QUESTIONS FOR ALAN

Did you really know a One-Eyed Jack?

Does Summer secretly like-like Milo?

How do you connect with Milo?

Is there going to be another Milo story like how he handles high school?

Why did you make Milo so clumsy?

Did anyone else give you ideas that were in the book?

How did writing this story effect you? Were you sad?

GOLDEN NUGGETS FROM THE SCBWI LA 2011 CONFERENCE

Here is some treasure I’m carrying in my pocket from this year’s SCBWI LA Conference.

Don’t throw anything away. You never know what might be “mineable” material. BRUCE COVILLE, Author

A big mistake is submitting your manuscript too early. TRACEY ADAMS, Agent from Adams Literary

Readers are not trends. They want a story full of heart and soul. LIBBA BRAY, Author of BEAUTY QUEENS (You have to listen to the audiobook. I’m still laughing.)

Know what came before you – classics and current works. STEVEN MALK, Agent Writer’s House & JON SCIESZKA, Author of STINKY CHEESE MAN (And a stack of other books I share with the kids in my class every year)

COWBOY AND OCTOPUS by JON SCIESZKA (I dare you not to giggle for days.)

Start a book on the day something different happens. JUDY BLUME, Author of countless amazing books

Help kids know there is more than one way to look at things. NORTON JUSTER, Author of THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH

Be the kid you were when “it” happened. ALAN SILBERBERG, Author of MILO, STICKY NOTES AND BRAIN FREEZE (I dare you not to feel your heart fill with laughter and your eyes with tears when you read MILO.)

History repeats in every human heart. RICHARD PECK, Author of A YEAR DOWN YONDER

The seed of my art was spinning in my soul. LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON, Author of SPEAK

I'm still floating on a cloud of inspiration. Sell the cat if you have to in order to go to SCBWI LA 2012. You'll never regret it.