5 things I loved about this week

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayres

1.  Blast from the past
This is what happens when you teach at the school you went to: you get to feel cool wearing your old varsity jacket during Spirit Week.




2. What a difference a booktalk makes

On Monday I booktalked Jo Knowles's new book Read Between the Lines to my 8th graders and to my utter delight, one of my resistant readers asked if he could come and check the book out tomorrow morning before class (I generally make kids wait until the next day to check out a booktalked book since I discuss it in all three of my classes). I was so excited that he wanted to check a book out, I told him that if he came after school, I'd let him check it out today. I have to admit, I didn't expect him to stop by. I figured if it was still available he might check it out when he came to class tomorrow. Lo and behold, only a few minutes after the final bell of the day, he comes into my classroom and asks if he can take the book.



3. Intertextual connections
 The Beekle poster in my classroom keeps falling down. One of my students said, "It needs a snicker of magic to keep it up on the wall." (A Snicker of Magic is the book I am reading aloud to my 8th graders right now.)




4. Crushing English Teacher Stereotypes
After I said "get your nails did" in class one day this week, one of my students assertively asked, "Aren't you an English teacher?" To which we had an impromptu discussion about code switching and knowing your audience. So to answer my student's question, yes, I still get to keep my English Teacher Card.


5. A book review blast from the past
I recently came across this review I had written before I had a blog. I honestly forgot that I had read and written about this book. But someone recently liked the review on Goodreads and so I clicked on the link and suddenly it all came back to me. And I was reminded yet again why I used to love to play the piano.