tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902020057371974942024-02-19T08:08:42.777-06:00Miss Kelley Writesand reads and teaches and drinks coffee and . . .Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-26189498893539050952014-07-14T08:56:00.001-05:002014-07-14T08:56:41.119-05:00Three Books You Should Read
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780763656119?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/119/656/FC9780763656119.JPG" id="blogsy-1405344936660.1125" class="" alt=""></a></p>
<p><u>Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out</u> written and photographed by Susan Kuklin</p>
<p><u>Beyond Magenta</u> appeared in my tumblr feed in a post about diverse books, so I sought it out at my local bookstore. Author Susan Kuklin interviewed and photographed six transgender teens, and what I liked most about this book is that it is almost entirely the teens telling their own stories. Kuklin occasionally adds some notes for clarity, but otherwise it's the teens' own voices that we hear, some polished, some raw. Some participants are comfortable being photographed, and other aren't. Some teens have read and studied deeply about gender identity, while others engage in gender stereotypes even when discussing their own experiences. I love that about this book. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781442446915?aff=LeaKelley"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/915/446/FC9781442446915.JPG" id="blogsy-1405344936614.162" class="" alt=""></a></p>
<p><u>Better Nate Than Ever</u> by Tim Federle</p>
<p>Confession: I don't read much middle grade fiction. In fact, I actively avoid it most of the time. And for some reason, this book was in my mind as middle grade, when in fact it's a book that falls somewhere between MG and YA.</p>
<p>I'm so glad I finally read it.</p>
<p>While I enjoyed Nate's adventure to NYC to try out for <em>ET: The Musical </em>(I laughed out loud. A lot.), it's Nate's role in his family and his treatment at school and in his town that have me thinking about how to use this book with my students. The slurs and physical attacks that Nate receives from his classmates are told in flashbacks. Nate doesn't dwell on them, though it's obvious he's been deeply hurt. It's wonderful to watch Nate discover a place for himself in the theater world. (And the sequel is terrific too.)</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780375867545?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/545/867/FC9780375867545.JPG" id="blogsy-1405344936618.6028" class="" alt=""></a></p>
<p><u>Muckers</u> by Sandra Neil Wallace</p>
<p> At last year's ALAN Workshop, Chris Crutcher said that <u>Muckers</u> was the book he wished he'd written this year. That was enough for me to buy it.</p>
<p><u>Muckers</u> is inspired by the true story of the 1950 Jerome Muckers football team. Hatley, Arizona, is a mining town with a dying mine. It's already been announced that the high school will close at the end of the year, so this will be the final season for the Muckers, a football team that has twice lost in the state championship to larger teams. For quarterback Red O'Sullivan, it's the last chance to live up to his older brother's legacy.</p>
<p>Every time I thought I had a grasp on this book, it revealed another layer. It's about football, and a school, and a town. It's about race, and ethnicity, and segregation. It's about religion. It's about war. It's about family.</p>
<p>I highly recommend this book, and I'm going to make it my personal mission to get as many students as I can to read it this year.</p>
<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-40356335868382687672014-07-12T08:50:00.001-05:002014-07-12T08:50:16.689-05:00Celebrate: Two Weeks in Photos<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14654695293" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2917/14654695293_eb76424d9f_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989825.6191" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch at the (new) Red Hot, Tacoma, WA.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14634350932" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3858/14634350932_7d36c9b580.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989780.9514" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've been wanting to do this FOREVER.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14448410307" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5584/14448410307_53f9d31f98_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989871.2234" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So glad the mountain came out on the 4th (Commencement Bay, WA).</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14448214419" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5485/14448214419_bcc0378477.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989801.922" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My dad (right) and his best friend of 35+ years.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14632714394" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3876/14632714394_d5c08526bf.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989825.7314" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vashon ferry.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14634853145" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5490/14634853145_f107b7922b.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989806.6653" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, I did fit all six in one suitcase.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14634449662" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3906/14634449662_94a474a41e.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989791.845" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love the clean shelves. Love the stack of arcs I borrowed.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14654839663" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3921/14654839663_013fcac57c.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989868.8433" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clean desk means my apartment reorganization is almost complete.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14596505716" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2902/14596505716_d495ce78ea.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989788.2422" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maggie Stiefvater at The Book Stall, Winnetka, IL.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14432797149" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3843/14432797149_f0f6a3fe76.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989844.4094" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bell's Brewing, Kalamazoo, Michigan.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14611911186" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5554/14611911186_96114b30a7_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1405172989845.0737" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woke up yesterday to find this in a text message. I'm very excited!</td></tr></tbody></table><p> How was your week?</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-53969140324539328002014-07-10T08:34:00.001-05:002014-07-10T08:34:52.496-05:00Thoughts from nErDcampMI<p> Twice this summer, I have left my apartment and hit the road BEFORE STARBUCKS IS EVEN OPEN. <strong>TWICE! </strong>And both times it's been worth it. I'm not saying I enjoyed leaving at 3:45am to pick up a colleague to drive to Michigan (we were in ANOTHER STATE by the time Starbucks opened), but I would do it again. I probably <strong>will</strong> do it again next summer. (Also, what happened to 24-hour Starbucks locations?)</p><p>Here are some highlights:</p><p><strong>Finding Diverse YA Lit for Diverse YA Readers</strong> (<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mjXPGf4rU4donEE0dQ_wMMwdl7f8siv1Za8QLu7TlyE/mobilebasic?pli=1" target="_blank" title="">Session Notes</a>):</p><p>One thing I sometimes struggle with at conferences is whether or not to go to sessions led by my friends. They're my friends. I talk to them frequently online (and follow their tweets and reviews and . . . ).</p><p>I'm glad that this time I stuck with my friends.</p><p>This session was a true example of the edcamp ideal that everyone is the expert. The room was full, and nearly everyone in there could have led an all-day PD session on diverse books. Seriously, I've been to those one-day workshops where someone covers the best new books, and while those workshops are pretty good, this hour was better. WAY better. The titles came fast and furious, accompanied by nods and affirmations from the room. I don't always look at notes from sessions, but the above list is a terrific resource. This was the best hour of PD I've had this year, with a room full of experts, and I'm grateful that Cindy and Sarah put this on the idea board.</p><p><strong>How NOT to Kill the Mockingbird</strong> (<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ObUHaFE5yBsO1VVimHqGUgrPpsbFvaZNyI6U0OfMxE8/mobilebasic?pli=1" target="_blank" title="">Session Notes</a>)</p><p>If the session above was a room full of experts pooling their knowledge about diverse YA lit, then my first session after lunch was a dozen colleagues working on one of the eternal problems of English instruction in high school. How do we balance required texts and choice reading? What do we do with a required text that is too easy for some students and impossible for others? How do we teach without worksheets if the rest of the team swears by the packet? And how does this all happen with the reality of testing and more testing?</p><p>We might have discovered more questions than solutions, but everyone in the room came away with something to try next year, and the knowledge that other teachers are struggling with the same tensions. I wish every faculty and team meeting could be this useful.</p><p><strong>Where do we go from here?</strong></p><p>Well, in my case, we went to two breweries. (Perhaps I was influenced by <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1srtbovhC-svJJ9OtNjSTbs3uCg2Ke5LjRIFauxFP7rc/mobilebasic?pli=1" target="_blank" title="">this session</a>.) (Stay with me, I swear this is relevant.)</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14617307194" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3865/14617307194_c56ace10b7.jpg" id="blogsy-1404998904570.9243" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dark Horse Brewing, Marshall, Michigan</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14432797149" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3843/14432797149_f0f6a3fe76.jpg" id="blogsy-1404998904595.673" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bell's Brewing, Kalamazoo, Michigan</td></tr></tbody></table><p> We needed to kill some time before driving back to Chicago in order to avoid rush hour, so we stopped for both appetizers and dinner. And because both times we sat at the bar instead of at tables, we ended up talking to our neighbors, and inevitably they asked us what had brought us to Michigan.</p><p>So we told them about nErDcampMI.</p><p>I forget sometimes that not everyone has heard of the Nerdy Book Club, or edcamps, or even reading and writing workshop. Most people, if they think about education, think about their own experience, or their child's, or what they hear in the media. And that, of course, is not the full story.</p><p>As educators, we need to tell our stories to the larger community. </p><p> When someone asks what you did this summer, or why you were in Michigan, or even what brings you to Bell's Brewing on a Tuesday night, tell them about nErDcamp, and about edcamps generally. Tell them about your students and your classroom. Tell them about the book that you can't wait to share when school starts. Tell them about the teachers traveling from all over the country in JULY to sit in a room and talking about teaching.</p><p>The larger community needs to hear our stories.</p><p>See you next July!</p><p> (If you're reading this and you were in one of these sessions, or at nErDcamp generally, please leave a comment. I'd love to follow more people on Twitter who were in those rooms.)</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-89603655098198388952014-06-28T08:11:00.001-05:002014-06-28T08:20:00.866-05:00Celebrate: Finally!
<p> <a href="http://www.ruthayreswrites.com/p/celebrate-this-week.html" title="Discover. Play. Build." style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkPHlC7LxAFNTbvM6dd3e59iYyeQc9pGIx_ZLpFY7v55HhKXGGb_ULyrMCNv4i7FFq5-D4Av8Bt-BcpLS57NOOslCSkfrNYZKETwhw45LUd_I3K6ghjDSnYJHvX7mPB3mDJILGPZs_Mxc/s200/celebrate-image.jpg" id="blogsy-1403961591328.2773" class="" width="200" height="67" alt="Discover. Play. Build."></a></p>
<ol> <li>I love that Ruth hosts this linkup every week, and I knew that when I started writing again, this would become part of my writing routine. So I'm celebrating that I'm finally here!</li> <li>A clean apartment: I confess, I'm not one for cleaning. My classroom is fiendishly organized, but I never adopted the adult habit of vacuuming and dusting and such. I usually wait until I see the dirt or dust, and by then it's too late. It had also been a long time since I had seriously decluttered my space: unwanted TVs, old VHS tapes, a printer I didn't use. So on the last work day after school got out, I bought a new vacuum cleaner. I could write an entire post celebrating my new Dyson Animal Complete. It put a serious dent in my budget (though I did save +$200 off the regular price), but it's so worth it.<br>I have spent the last two weeks hauling things to the dumpster, filling my car with things to give away, and deep cleaning. I am sitting in my new office space typing this (in a chair from my classroom that wouldn't have fit pre-cleaning), and the end is in sight. My hope is to be able to spend the whole month of July just enjoying my cleaner, less cluttered space.</li> <li>A successful shopping trip: I hate shopping for clothes. It is, perhaps, my least favorite chore. However, I have two events this summer that I <strong>knew </strong>required clothing that I didn't have in my closet, so I asked a friend to take me to the Nordstrom Rack. We spent two hours there (this is a record for me) and I found clothes for both events AND got a start on some new items for school in the fall. </li> <li>Pride: It's the weekend of the Pride Parade in Chicago, and the neighborhood is filling up with people and rainbows and, well, pride. I've lived here ten years, and I love how far society has come in that short amount of time. (I will also celebrate that this year I WON'T make the mistake of trying to drive into the neighborhood post-parade like I did after ALA last year.)</li> <li>Change? My teaching assignment is changing this year. This wasn't my choice, and I argued for something else, but it's ultimately out of my hands. That being said, I am excited (will be excited?) to focus my energies in fewer directions. More on that to come, for sure!</li>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih1qMHAMR0Vk6JPuoQxTbGBBFT0g9jg5AuY641INIZ7c_18cVjj70rKblgZHLSed5EsxjUaPiZWZAA4ByFhhwy8YqqI4keL0sUdWQGPtFQCKI1yLNNgr083WHdZAjpaUSDWcIwXGTDyPM/s1024/Photo%25252020140628075436.jpg" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih1qMHAMR0Vk6JPuoQxTbGBBFT0g9jg5AuY641INIZ7c_18cVjj70rKblgZHLSed5EsxjUaPiZWZAA4ByFhhwy8YqqI4keL0sUdWQGPtFQCKI1yLNNgr083WHdZAjpaUSDWcIwXGTDyPM/s500/Photo%25252020140628075436.jpg" id="blogsy-1403961591377.486" class="alignnone" width="500" height="374" alt=""></a></div>
<p> What are you celebrating this week?</p>
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<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-12982969292686344282014-06-27T08:26:00.001-05:002014-06-27T08:26:12.387-05:00Recess Football and Reading Community<p> "Miss Kelley, Miss Kelley!"</p><p>It's lunch time, three years ago. It's also a 1:45pm dismissal day, our version of a shortened full day for PD.</p><p>"Miss Kelley, the boys won't let us play football with them today."</p><p>They're 6th graders at this point. The girls are as tall as the boys. Many are taller.</p><p>"They might get hurt," the boys insist. </p><p>It's at that point that I know that our first read-aloud when they're in 8th grade will be Catherine Gilbert Murdock's <u>Dairy Queen.</u></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14539346233" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5485/14539346233_be665aa79b.jpg" id="blogsy-1403875404269.3694" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="220"></a></div><p> We started the year with <u>Dairy Queen</u>. This class loved football, and played every. single. recess. for three years. I have about 2,000 photos like the one above.</p><p>One of the great joys of reading aloud to students is the element of surprise. This is the second time I've used <u>Dairy Queen</u> as a read-aloud, and both times I deliberately kept the plot a secret. Sure, they could look it up online, and a few had already read it, but most had no idea that DJ would decide to try out for the football team. There is a purity to this reading experience that we don't often get today, with reviews and spoilers and jacket summaries that tell entirely too much information.</p><p>So I read them <u>Dairy Queen</u>. We were, at this point, starting our journey through <u>A Tale of Two Cities</u>, which is difficult and frustrating for the students, so I was glad to have a read-aloud that was easier to understand. And when we finished it, they <strong>begged</strong> for me to read them <u>The Off Season</u>.</p><p>So I did.</p><p>I warned them there would be lots of kissing in the first part of the book. I told them the novel ends on an emotional cliffhanger. They still wanted me to read it, and since I think it's the strongest of the trilogy, a book I had wanted to read aloud but how do you start with the second book, I willingly relented.</p><p>I treated the second book as more of a novel study, primarily through written responses. I asked them questions that forced them to get to subtext, we tried to get at the characters, we close read some passages. They were shocked at the twist in the plot, and they felt personally betrayed when the beloved love interest from <u>Dairy Queen</u><em> </em>let DJ down when it mattered.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14332933617" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3858/14332933617_0a514a4dd0.jpg" id="blogsy-1403875404290.5352" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="100"></a></div><p>I knew, of course, that they would beg me to read <u>Front and Center</u>. I told them they could read it on their own, but they insisted. "Miss Kelley," they argued, "we have to finish it together."</p><p>And so we did.</p><p> <u>Front and Center</u> was our Friday afternoon reward. As one student said as she entered the room last period on a Friday, "This is my favorite period of the week."</p><p>It was mine too.</p><p><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780618683079?aff=LeaKelley"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/079/683/FC9780618683079.JPG" id="blogsy-1403875404356.9998" class="" alt="" width="93" height="140"></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780618686957?aff=LeaKelley"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/957/686/FC9780618686957.JPG" id="blogsy-1403875404356.8538" class="" alt="" width="93" height="140"></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780618959822?aff=LeaKelley"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/822/959/FC9780618959822.JPG" id="blogsy-1403875404301.713" class="" alt="" width="93" height="140"><br></a> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-43961683724537631642014-06-26T07:05:00.001-05:002014-06-26T07:05:16.073-05:00We Need More Time
<p> I woke up this morning thinking about Google forms and spreadsheets.</p>
<p>Really.</p>
<p>Like most reading teachers I know, at some point during the year I want my students to create and turn in a list of the books that they've read that year. I've done this a variety of ways over the years: handwritten lists, spreadsheets imported from Goodreads, spreadsheets from Google forms. </p>
<p>But that's not what I want to write about today.</p>
<p>As I came more fully awake this morning, and as my brain kept thinking about Google forms and spreadsheets, I had the thought that brought me fully awake: Time spent teaching students to make a Google form is time not spent reading or writing.</p>
<p>I knew this, of course. I'd already had that thought awake, but for some reason my sleeping brain returned to it.</p>
<p>So I'm thinking about time.</p>
<p>I haven't made many decisions about next year, and I'm still waiting for some school-level decisions to be made (like how many periods we will have of humanities next year), but I know that I have to take back control over how we use time in the classroom. Reading and social studies have taken too much time away from writing, and writing needs that time back.</p>
<p>Next year I will most likely have 13 or 14 40-minute periods to teach a combination of reading, language arts, and social studies. (While it's listed as language arts on report cards, I always call it writing.) The 15th period is library.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14325241080" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2928/14325241080_d7fb67a6e5.jpg" id="blogsy-1403784268671.2122" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="361"></a></div>
<p> If I were to add up everything I want to do in a week, and everything I'm mandated to do, and everything my students need, I could easily fill all 45 periods on our schedule each week, including lunch, study hall, and mass. Somehow I don't see that happening.</p>
<p>So how do I find the time? How do I stop to teach a technology skill, valuable and useful though it is, when it takes away from reading and writing? And if I can't find the time, how can English teachers with only one period each day to teach both reading <strong>and </strong>writing find the time?</p>
<p>So that's what I'm thinking about this morning. </p>
<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-43404048027519258432014-06-25T07:36:00.001-05:002014-06-25T07:38:06.058-05:00Core Belief 1: I Believe in Students
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">
<em>At the end of Kelly Gallagher's terrific writing book, <u style="line-height: 1.3em;">Write Like This</u>, there's a chapter with his ten core beliefs about the teaching of writing. I have, since finishing his book two years ago, been working on my own core beliefs about teaching. Here is one of them.</em><br>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14317811518" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5595/14317811518_bfe00e692e.jpg" id="blogsy-1403697089977.0374" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="148"></a></div>
<p> <strong>I Believe in Students</strong></p>
<p>At some point in my teacher certification program, we were asked if we were going to be a "sage on the stage" or a "guide on the side." For me, with my shiny college degree and plenty of expertise in English and history, the answer was obvious.</p>
<p>I was going to be a sage on the stage.</p>
<p>I still am sometimes. There are days, or moments, or lessons, when I stand in front of my students and tell them, tell them, tell them something, and hope it sticks. </p>
<p>But, in more recent years, I have worked deliberately to <strong>not</strong> stand in front of the room and teach <strong>at </strong>my students. I repurposed the podium and rearranged my classroom so it wasn't facing the SmartBoard. I left the walls blank when school started so that we could fill them, together. I let my students influence our next read-aloud; I change course in our history study based on their interests. I skip a lesson, or I teach it twice.</p>
<p><strong>I Believe in Students.</strong> </p>
<p> Sometimes they make this difficult. They will work hard to convince me that they cannot do something. "I cannot learn all those countries," they say, and turn in the quizzes and tests to prove it. "I cannot read <u>A Tale of Two Cities</u>," they say, and then they don't. "I cannot use a comma," they say, and they don't, or they throw one in wherever.</p>
<p><strong>I Believe in Students. </strong>Even when they don't want me to.</p>
<p>Our students can do difficult things. They can learn where to put 160+ countries on a map. They can follow the situation in Ukraine. They can read fifty books in a school year, and write a novel, and cry for Sydney Carton. They can, each year, learn a few more rules for commas. </p>
<p><strong>I Believe in Students.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781571108968?aff=LeaKelley"><img style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/968/108/FC9781571108968.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';"></a></p>
<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-71928616919207868712014-06-24T09:54:00.001-05:002014-06-24T09:54:10.152-05:00SOL: Ready for Reading
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">"You know what today is?" I ask the three and six-year-old as I load them in the car. Once a week I babysit my best friends' three kids for a few hours after school.<br>
</div>
<p>"Nope," the girls respond as they fasten their seatbelts. The three-year-old can almost do all the parts of her car seat without help.</p>
<p>"It's Babymouse's birthday!" I tell them, and they both cheer. The three-year-old might not read yet, but she definitely knows who Babymouse is.</p>
<p>When we don't find the books on the shelf at the bookstore near their house, I lead the six-year-old to the counter. These kids are not strangers to the booksellers, especially the children's booksellers, but it's still tough for a six-year-old to ask for help in the store.</p>
<p>"Go ahead," I coax. "Even if they don't have the book, they'll order it for us, and they'll know that they should order more for other kids."</p>
<p>She finally asks her question, but before the bookseller can look the title up in the computer, we're rescued by Betsy. She's known these kids since they were toddlers mostly interested in standing over the air conditioning vents and watching their clothes balloon up.</p>
<p>"I'm sure we have Babymouse," she says. "Let's look in the back." She emerges with two copies, and each girl grabs one. </p>
<p>"We'll take both," I say. "Hopefully I'll be able to get one for my classroom." Both girls are already reading their books. I have to keep my arm around the six-year-old's shoulders as we walked to the car so she won't trip.</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14517537613" target="_blank" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3888/14517537613_caacc81caf.jpg" id="blogsy-1403621490234.5361" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="257"></a></p>
<p> I leave the six-year-old at the house with her piano teacher when we go to pick up the third grader and his friend at their tennis lesson. The three-year-old brings the new Babymouse for her brother. He is reading it before he's even started buckling his seatbelt, completely ignoring his friend.</p>
<p>"Do you know Babymouse?" I ask the boy.</p>
<p>"No," he answers.</p>
<p>The three-year-old gives him a look of dismay. "Do you know the lunch lady?" she asks.</p>
<p>He shakes his head. "Nope."</p>
<p>"Do you know Squish?" she asks in disbelief.</p>
<p>He shakes his head again. The three-year-old gives a snort of disgust. She can't read yet, but she's definitely judging his knowledge of books and finding him lacking.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14474493256" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3886/14474493256_3ffb5a7064.jpg" id="blogsy-1403621490269.1357" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div>
<p> The last time I looked, she still had the family copy of <u style="line-height: 1.3em;">Happy Birthday, Babymouse</u> on the shelf in her room.</p>
<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-68736839926411106592014-06-23T10:26:00.001-05:002014-06-23T10:34:56.850-05:00What I've Been Reading
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062121844?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/844/121/FC9780062121844.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677590.6118" class="" width="92" height="140" alt=""></a><br><u>Fake ID</u> by Lamar Giles</p>
<p>"Do you have time to read right now?" Betsy asked as I checked out at the bookstore. "I have a book that I really want you to read." She came back with a finished copy of <u>Fake ID</u> for me to borrow. And while I really <em>didn't</em> have much time to read at that point, I found myself completely drawn in by Nick (or is he Tony?). This book has a mystery and a conspiracy, and it's about what makes a family, and how to be a friend. Or not. I will definitely be adding this book to my classroom library when school starts again, and talking it up to my students. Thank you, Betsy.</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374356453?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/453/356/FC9780374356453.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677646.511" class="" width="93" height="140" alt=""></a><br><u>One Man Guy</u> by Michael Barakiva</p>
<p>I had to hunt for this book a little at my local independent bookstore, even though their system said it was on the shelf. I finally found it shelved in the Gay section, not YA. Andrew Smith's <strong>amazing </strong><u>Grasshopper Jungle</u><strong> </strong>was shelved next to it. I'm not sure if the store was trying to get its adult customers to buy these two books by <strong>not </strong>shelving them in YA, but I was surprised. And yes, <u>One Man Guy</u> is about Alek and Ethan's journey to becoming one man guys, but it's also very much about Alek and his Armenian family. His changing relationships with his brother and his parents are just as important as his new romance with Ethan, and I loved reading about an ethnic group that I hadn't seen before in YA.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780803739482?aff=LeaKelley"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/482/739/FC9780803739482.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677655.6003" class="" width="92" height="140" alt=""></a><br><u>Landry Park</u> by Bethany Hagen</p>
<p>I found this book because it had a glowing shelftalker in the bookstore, but then it got shoved aside by some books-I-have-to-read-this-week books and I didn't get back to it until school was out. I'm glad I picked it up again. It's in the style of a moody classic romance (think Jane Austen's <u>Persuasion</u> or <u>Mansfield Park</u>, and anything by Charlotte Bronte), but set 200 hundred years in our future. Class has replaced race and ethnicity as the defining feature in society, and the wealthy have essentially enslaved the poor. I've seen some criticism of how the book describes the outside threat (an Eastern Empire made up of China, the Koreas, Russia, and the Middle East), but I disagree. The people in the book have been lied to for generations by those in power, so it's not surprising that they see the Eastern Empire as they do. There will be a sequel, though, so while I liked this book, I'd love to see protagonist Madeline think even more critically about the world around her in the next book.</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781402284762?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/762/284/FC9781402284762.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677594.8765" class="" width="93" height="140" alt=""></a><br><u>Racing Savannah</u> by Miranda Kenneally</p>
<p>This was definitely the lightest book I've read recently, and I raced right through it (pun not intended, but I'll leave it for now). <u>Catching Jordan</u> is the only other book I'd read by Miranda Kenneally, and I liked but didn't love it. (My DJ Schwenk obsession means I have a pretty high bar for books about girl football players.) I was pleasantly surprised to find that Kenneally has improved as a writer over the course of four books. That's not to say that she was bad before, because she wasn't, but I thought this book was better. And as I sit here writing this, I want to kick myself because I just figured out exactly the reader in my class last year that I should have been giving Kenneally's books to. (Insert mild profanity.) And that is why we read ALL the books. Even the books that are only okay for me might be perfect for a student. Drat.</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062216359?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/359/216/FC9780062216359.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677570.2954" class="" width="92" height="140" alt=""></a><br><u>How to Love</u> by Katie Cotugno</p>
<p>This was a hot title at ALA last year, and our excellent librarian scored us an arc, and then I got a finished copy at ALAN, but it was somehow always in my next-ten-books-I'm-going-to-read list, but never the book I actually picked up. I'm glad I finally did.</p>
<p><u>How to Love</u> has two timelines, Before and After. After, Reena is a community college student who lives with her parents and her fourteen-month-old daughter, Hannah. Before, Reena is a fifteen-year-old high school student with dreams of travel and early admission to Northwestern. After, Reena deals with the return of Hannah's father, Sawyer, and his place in their life. Before, Reena loses her best (and only) friend when Allie starts dating Sawyer, Reena's lifelong crush. The alternating timelines made this feel like a quicker read to me, but I can also see recommending this to a student who I wanted to push into a more complicated text. We forget, sometimes, what a challenge a book with a structure like this can be for teen readers.</p>
<p>I will also say that it's a mistake to approach this book (or to try to sell it to readers) as a swoony romance. It really isn't. Sawyer is not a boy to swoon over. He has problems of his own, and Before-Sawyer is not a very nice person. He screws up, a lot, and while After-Sawyer wants to redeem himself, it's up to the reader to decide if he ever will. (Brian Nelson is my favorite example of a not-perfect love interest. Does he redeem himself in <u>Front and Center</u>? <a href="http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/book-talk-by-lea-kelley/" target="_blank" title="">My 8th graders didn't think so</a>. You'll have to read the fan fiction that only exists in my mind to find out what I think.)</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780802723598?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/598/723/FC9780802723598.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677589.862" class="" width="93" height="140" alt=""></a><br><u>Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom</u> by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin</p>
<p>I picked this up at an independent bookstore here in Chicago that I usually don't visit (not close enough to walk and my two favorite stores have a better YA selection). But I was early to meet friends nearby, so I went in, and since it was nearly closing time, I bought something to justify my visit.</p>
<p><u>Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom</u> has two narrators, Tessa and her best friend Luke. As the novel opens, Luke decides he might love his best friend, and decides to ask her to prom in the most public way possible. Tessa, on the other hand, has never told Luke, or anyone except her brother Danny, that she's gay, but she assumes Luke has figured it out.</p>
<p>He hasn't.</p>
<p>I was thinking about this book while I was checking out at the grocery store yesterday, and a young trans woman was bagging my groceries. Since I live in the Boystown neighborhood in Chicago, I have a number of transgender neighbors. I saw some criticism of <u>TMWGtP</u> (okay, Goodreads reviews) that said Tessa is too stereotypical (she doesn't like dresses) and that the two authors are obviously straight. It's good, of course, to think critically about what's written, and to question stereotypes regarding gender identity. Of course wearing or not wearing dresses doesn't have anything to do with being gay or straight. But I'm okay with Tessa not knowing that. Much of the book revolves around how Tessa's small, very unenlightened town reacts to her coming out. When Tessa gets to Northwestern (hey, I just realized I read 2 books in a row with Northwestern-bound teens), she'll learn that lesbians come in all shapes and sizes and fashion sensibilities. Just because my grocery store hires transgender females doesn't mean that every store does.</p>
<p>And even as I was thinking about this post, I saw this <a href="http://youtu.be/S6kGhtkXGpM" target="_blank" title="">engagement video</a> online. If you read the notes, the writers (presumably the couple) discuss the same idea. I felt strange watching such a personal moment between people I don't know, and the couple expresses this same ambivalence about the video getting so much attention, but not everyone lives in Portland. For a teen somewhere, this video, or this book, might make a difference. And <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/370492383?book_show_action=true&page=1" target="_blank" title="">this review</a> of <u>TMWGtP</u> is also worth a read.</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061791055?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/055/791/FC9780061791055.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677571.411" class="" width="98" height="140" alt=""></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061791123?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/123/791/FC9780061791123.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677631.3435" class="" width="98" height="140" alt=""></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061791192?aff=LeaKelley" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/192/791/FC9780061791192.JPG" id="blogsy-1403537677661.7122" class="" width="94" height="140" alt=""></a><br><strong>The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place</strong> series by Maryrose Wood, narrated by Katherine Kellgren</p>
<p> I am slightly in danger of becoming obsessed with these audiobooks. They are fantastic, right up there with the audiobooks for the <strong>Chaos Walking</strong> series by Patrick Ness. They're middle grade, which I usually don't read, but <u>The Mysterious Howling</u> was a free download from <a href="http://www.audiobooksync.com" target="_blank" title="">SYNC</a> one summer, and I started it on a lark and haven't been able to stop. I bought the audiobooks for <u>The Hidden Gallery</u> and <u>The Unseen Guest</u> (at full price!) and even bought a paperback of the first book to read with my favorite just-finished first grader. I don't read nearly as well as Katherine Kellgren, and it's certainly at the very high end of what this very bright just-finished first grader can understand, but she likes it so far. The series gets compared to the Lemony Snicket books, and they do call those to mind, but these are much more joyful and fun. I highly recommend.</p>
<p>What have you been reading?</p>
<p> </p>
<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-90720830238565077442014-06-19T07:57:00.001-05:002014-06-19T07:57:45.011-05:00What Do You Remember about Jake Barnes?<p><em> <strong>Setting</strong>: A suburban kitchen. The kids are in bed. Mom and dad are both home from work. The babysitter, Auntie Lea, has stayed late to read chapter 2 of <u>The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling</u> with the just-finished first grader. All three adults have been close friends since the first week of college over twenty years before.</em></p><p><strong>Me:</strong> "Have you guys read <u>The Sun Also Rises</u>?</p><p><strong>Both: </strong>"Of course! Yes!"</p><p>She exits toward the garage to get something.</p><p><strong>Him, in pompous voice designed to get a rise out of both of us: </strong>"I read it at <em>The Academy.</em>" The academy is the local Jesuit school. Most of my students end up there.</p><p><strong>Me, not giving him an inch: </strong>"Yes, and I read it at the Washington version of your academy. . ." I, too, am the product of a Jesuit education.</p><p><strong>She storms back in, pointing at her husband: </strong>"We didn't read it at my school, so I read it <em>during the summer ON MY OWN!" </em>She did not go to a Jesuit school. Her grad school, however, trumps both of ours.</p><p><strong>Me:</strong> "I read it during the summer. It was summer reading." This, of course, is beside the point. She returns to the garage.</p><p>After she returns, I tell them that I wrote about <u>The Sun Also Rises</u> on my blog, and that now some commenters said they might read it. I tell them what Jeff said about not missing what is wrong with Jake Barnes. I'm worried people won't like the book.</p><p><strong>One of them: </strong>"I don't remember what's wrong with Jake Barnes.</p><p><strong>The other of them: </strong>"I just remember drinking and bullfighting."</p><p><strong>Me: </strong>"It is just about drinking and bullfighting." I'm tempted to repeat the last few lines of the book, but I resist.</p><p> We go on to argue about the end of <em>A Farewell to Arms</em> (Him: "It's so great, with the rain." Me: "All that, and <strong>SPOILER REDACTED</strong>."). I recommend <em>In Our Time</em>, my favorite of Hemingway's short stories. We debate whether Hemingway wrote love stories or not (Me: "The women are all weak." Her: "There's always a love story." Him: "The Old Man and the Sea?" Her: "Okay, not that one.") We eventually get distracted and talk about something else.</p><p>And now I want to read Hemingway again.</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-87777461552150682982014-06-18T08:37:00.001-05:002014-06-18T08:37:25.655-05:00Why I Broke Up With Amazon<p>I remember when I first heard about Amazon.</p><p>I was working in my dad's law office, and I would hear them advertised while I listened to the local news radio. <em>They have ALL THE BOOKS, </em>I thought. Later, when it became an option, I tried to get my parents to buy Amazon stock: "They have all the books," I said, but my parents didn't listen. (In an often-told family story, my dad also ignored my mom about a small coffee company that went on to become pretty big.)</p><p>People may not remember this, but it used to be a harder task to get <em>all the books.</em> In fact, it used to be a much more difficult thing to even figure out what <em>all the books</em> were. As a young reader, I was obsessed with <u>The Scarlet Pimpernel</u> by Baroness Orczy, but it wasn't until college that I ever saw copies of her other <strong>Pimpernel</strong> books, buried deep in the stacks of Baker Library. I had never been able to check out any of them from my local municipal library, even when I tried interlibrary loans. It just wasn't possible. I hadn't even known they existed until high school. You used to have to rely on the list of books inside a novel to know what else an author wrote.</p><p>Just now, however, I was able to enter "the scarlet pimpernel" into Goodreads, and I found a list of all the titles, in order, and a link to buy them.</p><p>From Amazon, of course.</p><p>When I lived in Ellensburg, Washington, a town with only a college bookstore, I could order any book and have it delivered without driving over a mountain pass. When I was on a mountain in Vermont for four summers, I could order all the strange and wonderful books that my classmates were recommending without driving down the mountain and waiting for a local store to have it delivered so that I could drive down the mountain again to pick it up. When I moved to Chicago, I could order all the trashy romance novels with lurid covers that I wanted, and no one would judge me.</p><p>We have great independent bookstores in Chicago, and most books that I ask them to order for me arrive within a few days. Yet even when I switched most of my non-romance novel buying to my local stores, I still liked that Amazon offered customers the ability to buy <em>all the books.</em> Even when Barnes and Noble rejected a cover (don't even get me started on the power of that one B&N cover guy to drive book purchasing in this country), and it didn't catch the eye of my local store, I could still find it on Amazon. Readers without great local stores could still get any and every book from Amazon, and that, I thought, is good for everyone.</p><p>So why did I finally decide to break up with them?</p><p>It wasn't the change in price for a Prime membership, though I had decided to let mine expire.</p><p>It wasn't when they turned off the MacMillan buy button, or when they messed with the rankings of LGBT books. I watched, but I kept buying.</p><p>It wasn't some of their practices that seemed to aim directly at independent stores (Find an item in a store and buy it from us cheaper). It wasn't the many generous events that I've attended because of independent stores, the readings, the teen book events, the dinners. That earned stores my business, but it didn't turn me away from Amazon.</p><p>It wasn't even <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/17/140217fa_fact_packer" target="_blank" title="">this article</a>, though it certainly pushed me closer.</p><p>What finally did it was that, at this moment, you CAN'T buy <em>all the books</em> from Amazon. As part of their ongoing negotiations with a publisher, certain books are either delayed or unavailable.</p><p>I don't care so much about the negotiations. Publishers aren't perfect. I've spent enough time with booksellers and sales reps to know that publishers don't do themselves any favors. If Amazon can force their systems to become more efficient, that's probably a good thing. </p><p>What I do have a problem with is Amazon refusing to sell me a book. Even though I'm too embarrassed to walk into my local independent to ask them to order me <u>The Duke's Wicked Pirate Bride</u> (oh, that such a book existed!), I could if I wanted to. They will, in fact, order me <em>all the books.</em> I might have to wait for delivery (though not long in Chicago), or they might ask me to pay in advance (not usually). They might even tell me that a book is out of print, and suggest I try the publisher's website or a used bookstore. But they won't refuse to sell me the book.</p><p> Amazon is a powerful company. They're addicting. They've moved beyond <em>all the books </em>to <em>all the stuff.</em> I can save a lot of money buying toiletries and pantry items from them. I can't even figure out how to buy some items without Amazon. I love my Kindle Paperwhite.</p><p>But I'm not okay when they won't sell me a book, because next time, it could be the books about religions, or political candidates, or monopoly businesses. And now that I've actually thought about that, I'm not okay with giving them my business.</p><p>And that's why I broke up with Amazon.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/1020098751/in/set-72157601227246109" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1265/1020098751_8404751368.jpg" id="blogsy-1403098620698.785" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><p>(This won't be the last time I write about this. <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/its-time-to-turn-your-back-on-amazon/Content?oid=19708679" target="_blank" title="">This article</a> also shaped my thinking, and I read most of the posts and articles it links to as well. Comments and questions are welcomed.)</p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-52759707239771160202014-06-17T06:43:00.001-05:002014-06-17T23:30:49.321-05:00SOL: Poolside with Jake BarnesWhen I was in high school, I worked as a lifeguard at our local tennis club.<div><br>
Many of you are no doubt picturing sunglasses, a deep tan, and summer highlights.</div><div><br>
You're wrong.</div><div><br>
I grew up in Western Washington. Summer arrives there in late July, if you're lucky, and sticks around long enough to make the first few weeks of school miserable. Really, I never assumed that the sun would be out on the 4th of July. I figured it'd be raining.</div><div><br>
The pool would open in June, but the crowds would be thin at best. Most of the time would be spent huddled under a beach towel and a hooded sweatshirt, bathing suit on underneath because you had to wear one on duty.</div><div><br>
Usually, of course, we sat in the lifeguard chair, but today it was raining. Or drizzling, more likely. It drizzles more than it actually rains in Washington. There were no swimmers at all, so I was sitting under the covered area near the locker rooms, bathing suit, beach towel, sweatshirt, probably a hat. And Ernest Hemingway's <u>The Sun Also Rises</u>.</div><div><br>
"You taking Ploof's class next year?" Jeff asks, dropping into the chair next to mine. There aren't a lot of customers for tennis either. Jeff is a year ahead of me at Bellarmine, and I'm friends with his younger sister.</div><div><br>
"Yeah," I say, holding up the paperback novel. Junior year is a big deal, academically, and Ed Ploof's American Lit class is an important part of that.</div><div><br>
"Huh," Jeff says, leaning back in his chair. We watch the rain drizzle. Or mist. Often it's just misting.</div><div><br></div><div>"Whatever you do," he continues, gesturing to the book in my hand, "don't miss what's wrong with Jake. I read right past it, and the book makes no sense without it."</div><div><br>
I frown. <em>Don't miss what's wrong with Jake</em>, I tell myself.</div><div><br>
"His war injury," Jeff says. "It's important. Pay attention to that."</div><div><br>
I nod, already worrying. <em>Don't miss what's wrong with Jake.</em></div><div><i><br></i>
And I don't.<br>
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</div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-13644428249321389632014-06-16T07:01:00.001-05:002014-06-16T07:06:53.399-05:00What Are You Reading This Summer?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14412090586" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2909/14412090586_b4dea8d72c.jpg" id="blogsy-1402919584192.3845" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><p> I love summer reading, and have since I first joined the Tacoma Public Library's summer reading program after first grade. I read over 100 books that summer and got to meet the mayor.</p><p>I don't love summer reading assignments. My freshman year in high school, it was <u>Ivanhoe</u>. Junior year, I read <u>Tom Sawyer</u> and <u>The Sun Also Rises</u>. I could not figure out the Hemingway book at all, and wrote that all the characters did was drink and go to bullfights. (In defense of 16-year-old me, that really is all they do.) It wasn't until later in the school year, after studying both <u>In Our Time</u> and <u>A Farewell to Arms</u> with my class under the guidance of our teacher, that I understood the Hemingway.</p><p>As a teacher, I've tried every version of the summer assignment. "Read from this list of classics," I said when I taught AP. "Read from this list of fun books," I said when I switched to middle school. A few years ago I abandoned the teacher-made list entirely and had my graduating 8th graders suggest their favorite books from the year.</p><p>This year I didn't even go that far. In fact, if you read what I handed out closely, you'll find that I didn't <em>assign</em> anything at all. Instead, I issued a <strong>Summer Challenge</strong>. I wrote the following:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14248886117" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3846/14248886117_feb2807ef6.jpg" id="blogsy-1402919584188.452" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="236"></a></div><p> See what I did there? There's no points, no assignment, just a little healthy competition with the younger grades and the offer that books read in summer count toward books read in 8th grade. The truth is, I never gave points for summer assignments anyway, because I was always too busy starting the year to sit down with a stack of book reports (and what you get after summer is a book report, regardless of the year in school). I also hated to have students start the year in the hole because of a summer assignment. I don't know what goes on in their families. I don't know what their summer was like, or even the kind of reader they were at the end of 7th grade. How can I grade them before I even spend one day in the classroom with them?</p><p>As for my own summer reading, well. . . at the end of the school year, my currently reading sign looked like this: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/14248795058" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3837/14248795058_891eb503b1.jpg" id="blogsy-1402919584206.3347" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">I've finished three of the books on there (<u>Fake ID</u>, <u>The Hidden Gallery</u>, and <u>Mortal Heart</u>). Now I'm reading <u>Vertigo 42</u> by Martha Grimes, the 23rd (!) Richard Jury book. I'm listening to the next <strong>Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place</strong> book. I WILL finish those teaching books, and read <u>Congo</u>. </div><p> What are you reading this summer?</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20">Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-50342581882003245782013-12-13T06:04:00.001-06:002013-12-13T06:04:33.903-06:00Thinking about Place<p>This year my students will be learning about <em>The Coolest Place You've Never Heard Of.</em> At least, that's what I call the project in my mind.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/11351542485" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2863/11351542485_3baa5dfe1f.jpg" id="blogsy-1386935168862.0637" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div>
<p>When I started memorizing all the countries two years ago, I realized that there are many (many many) places on this planet that I had never even heard of. Many are islands, some still governed by a European nation. Others are independent. I wanted my students to learn about these places, but I didn't find a way to approach the subject last year.</p>
<p>Fast forward a year. I've been reading Chris Lehman's <strong>Energize Research Reading and Writing</strong>. We have an open house for families at the end of January. I'm a bit between revolutions in history. Why not spend some time researching a cool place and turn it into something to share with families in January? (By the way, it was 2 degrees when I started writing this. Just writing about January makes me colder.)</p>
<p>On Wednesday we started thinking about places. It was, coincidentally, another open house, this time for prospective families, so we had our doors open for visitors. I took my idea for this straight from Chris's book. On some chart paper on our easel, I put a simple 3-column chart. I wrote "I know", and then "a lot", "some", and "a little" at the top of each column. I asked students to open to a double-page spread in their social studies notebooks, and to copy the chart on the left page.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I made my own chart on the SmartBoard. After a minute, I asked them to put down their pencils, and I started filling in my chart. I used it two different ways, both to lists several different places and also to think about what I knew and didn't know about specific places. I gave students five minutes and told them to fill in their thinking sheets as it worked for them.</p>
<p>After five minutes, I asked them to pick one of their places, and write about it quickly on the right page. What do you know? What do you want to know? When you exhaust one topic, either draw a line and pick another one, or go back to your chart if writing has sparked your thinking. I gave them ten minutes to go back and forth between the two pages, and suggested they have 2-3 quick pieces at the end of that time.</p>
<p>When time was up (I let the activity go until everyone had at least two quick writes), I asked them to jot down a list of places that they were curious about after thinking about places. It could be a region or a specific place. At this point I let students spend time looking at the maps on our walls, so they gathered and started pointed out interesting places to each other.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/11351560265" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5493/11351560265_7b3ef201c9.jpg" id="blogsy-1386935168865.2517" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div>
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<p> I realized partway through the second class that it would be helpful to refine the statement at the top of the page to "Places I know (a lot, some, a little) about." It's something to remember next time.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where this project will take us. I've told students that I want them to become experts about a place. Some will hunt out the most obscure place possible, and others are curious about places of current significance. The student in the photo above wants to learn about "places of war", names that we have heard on the news but know nothing about. I love that idea.</p>
<p>At this point, I'd like students to have a general idea for their place (or a few contenders) before they leave on break. I won't assign anything specific for this project over the vacation, but I pointed out that most of us have at least one day over break when we're bored enough to do homework. Why not spend it looking up obscure parts of the world on Google Earth?</p>
<p>And if you haven't yet read <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chris Lehman's <strong>Energize Research Reading and Writing</strong>, I highly recommend it. The thinking sheet and writing we did came straight from the book. I'm still in the early chapters, and it's already changing my classroom.</span></p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-76912952680851586662013-12-10T05:57:00.001-06:002013-12-10T05:57:25.416-06:00How the Lesson Really Went<p>Last week I wrote about <a href="http://misskelleywrites.blogspot.com/2013/12/after-nanowrimo.html" target="_self" title="">my plans</a> for selecting and revising a scene from our NaNoWriMo novels to include in a class anthology.</p>
<p> As with any lesson, there were changes and improvements along the way. One class finished choosing and started revising last week, and the other just picked their scene yesterday. One class followed the lesson plan pretty closely and the other moved in fits and starts.</p>
<p>That's how classrooms work.</p>
<p>We started seated at our imaginary rug. I reminded them what an anthology is, and said that this year I'm <em>determined</em> to put one together for our novel excerpts. I asked them to make a list of scenes, or moments, from their stories. I said they could even include scenes that they hadn't yet written but were part of their story. I sent them back to their seats to make their lists with their novels open in front of them, and I started my own list.</p>
<p>It was hard. Really, really hard. I'd decided to change my set-up completely, so I didn't want to use any of those scenes. I ended up with a list of scenes that I still needed to write.</p>
<p>This was equally hard for some of my students. Most of us look back on our NaNo drafts with a sense of accomplishment and also a sense that "this is not good." We might love our stories, but we know how much work there is to do before they reach the ideal in our minds.</p>
<p>Many students were also stuck on length. Ask them to pick a conversation between characters, they ask how long it should be. Ask them for a scene about setting, they ask how long it should be. I told them repeatedly that it was irrelevant at this point, but I don't think they believed me. I still refused to answer.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/11306326866" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5479/11306326866_cc17d2f1f9.jpg" id="blogsy-1386676508118.789" class="alignnone" alt="" width="300" height="225"></a></div>
<p>Once we each had at least five scenes, we came back to the rug. I showed them a clip of Donald Graves from <strong>Children Want to Write: Donald Graves and the Revolution in Children's Writing</strong> by Thomas Newkirk and Penny Kittle. In the clip, Donald Graves shares his list of writing ideas and then asks students to do the same. I shared my list and then asked students to share theirs with the person next to them. After a few minutes of talk we shared our top two with the group, and returned to our computers to locate those scenes in our drafts. We made electronic copies (so they wouldn't be working with their full novel every day) and printed out the pages for our writing folders.</p>
<p>Next step: Remind them <em>again</em> that revising is more than moving the commas around.</p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-5588275903627055142013-12-05T06:01:00.001-06:002013-12-05T06:01:24.358-06:00After NaNoWriMo<p> Every year I have a new plan for how to handle life after NaNoWriMo. We revise excerpts. We pull out dialogue and practice the rules for punctuating it. It's always a battle because we are caught between Thanksgiving and Christmas, fighting against daily distractions in a school that celebrates all month long.</p>
<p>This year we're changing it up again. Students have already turned in their November drafts electronically. This allows me to verify their word count and that they actually write a novel, no matter how bad it is, and not just gibberish. (And yes, once in five years a student has written gibberish. For a month. Sigh.) I won't read these in detail, but I'll make sure they exist.</p>
<p>Next we're going to pick a scene to revise and share. I'm asking students to look through their drafts and pick at least 5 moments, or plot points, that they might like to revise and include in a class anthology. I don't want pages or even words from their drafts yet, just scenes (fight with mom, missing the foul shot, the snowstorm, etc). I'm going to ask them to share their list with classmates, and only then will they actually pull words and pages from their draft. </p>
<p>At this point, our focus will be on story. Some students will have lots of text they want to use and others might largely start over from scratch. I already know I'm gutting my draft, so my scene might be 99% new words. The same will be true for some of them. </p>
<p>I can't wait to get started.</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-90481858407124655912013-12-04T06:07:00.001-06:002013-12-04T06:07:25.160-06:00Writing about Reading<p> In 8th grade recently, we've been doing a lot of writing about reading.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10401028733" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/10401028733_79bc10865e.jpg" id="blogsy-1386158512251.2808" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our reading and writing notebooks.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>During NaNoWriMo, almost all of our writing time was devoted to working on our novels. </p>
<p>As part of reading, however, we do three types of reading responses each week.</p>
<p>For each installment of <u>A Tale of Two Cities</u>, students answer questions about the assigned reading before we discuss it in class. I post these questions on Edmodo, and they respond using Edmodo's turn in assignment function. Some students write sentences and others write mini-essays. I'm mostly interested in gauging their basic understanding, and it gives me a better idea of who is doing this reading independently and who still needs lots of help.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10098990506" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2811/10098990506_56f1c3b661.jpg" id="blogsy-1386158512268.9536" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Independent Reading labels</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p> I also ask students to respond to their independent reading each week. Earlier this year I gave each student a sheet of labels with a variety of reading response prompts. (Actually, I made them last year but we only used a few. I reused the sheets with my new class.) Each label has a different prompt, and each student puts their name on the back of a sheet. I like this because students must vary their responses each week. They can't write each week about their favorite character. It also allows them the freedom to match a prompt to their current book, instead of forcing them to adapt a class prompt to their book. Sometimes students respond generically to a specific prompt, and this gives me a chance to address with them the need to keep a specific prompt or writing task in mind when they are answering a question. Finally, my tidy heart appreciates that I can actually <em>read</em> the prompt since it's typed at the top of the page.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10046386936" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3684/10046386936_c5089cc10c.jpg" id="blogsy-1386158512239.5232" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="373"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She used an actual prompt, but forgot her label.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10046325444" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3707/10046325444_c8eda79a8d.jpg" id="blogsy-1386158512263.877" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="373"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, we're working on breaking into paragraphs.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10098965226" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3748/10098965226_e642d755cb.jpg" id="blogsy-1386158512276.3152" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are good places to rave about books we love.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p> We have also been answering specific questions to accompany our class read-aloud of Catherine Gilbert Murdock's <strong>The Off Season.</strong> I hadn't planned on reading this book, but the entire class begged for it. I decided that if we did read it, we would be more deliberate in our approach. I reread it and wrote down prompts every few chapters. Some were emotional responses, and others asked students to notice something specific in the text. For example, the first chapter is about the annual Labor Day picnic, but it ends with DJ the narrator sitting in a hospital, remembering that she used to be happy. On their own, most students read right past this, but I pulled the quote out and asked them to think about it. How is this novel structured? When is the narrative happening? What do you think this means?</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10884604554" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3797/10884604554_c8cc303724.jpg" id="blogsy-1386158512332.534" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some examples of whole-class prompts.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p> How do you write about reading in your classroom?</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-31553787062453311802013-12-03T05:00:00.000-06:002013-12-03T05:00:02.002-06:00So there was this<p><em>Setting: 8th grade classroom. November. Students are writing novels. Two girls are laughing manically. One boy suffers quietly at their table.</em></p>
<p><strong>Boy</strong>: "Miss Kelley, did you know what you were doing when you put them next to each other?"<br>
<strong>Girl 1</strong>: "She put us together on purpose. She thinks it's funny.<br>
<strong>Boy:</strong> *sighs*<br>
<strong>Me</strong>: "It's true." <br>
<em>Girls continue to laugh.</em><br>
<strong>Me</strong>: "What is so funny?"<br>
<strong>Girl 2:</strong> "She killed me off in her novel."<br>
<strong>Me: </strong>"You killed her?"<br>
<strong>Girl 1:</strong> "It was the sparkle ponies, but don't worry, she's recalled to life."<br>
<em>Silence in classroom.</em><br>
<strong>Boy at other end of room:</strong> "Did you just make a <strong>Tale of Two Cities </strong>reference in your sparkle pony novel?!?"<br>
<strong>Girl 2:</strong> "Yes I did."<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> "I love my job."</p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-85196274419087159662013-12-02T06:39:00.001-06:002013-12-02T06:39:44.961-06:00What I Brought Back from NCTE/ALAN<p> Usually on Mondays I like to write about what's in store this week, but after eleven days away (for me) and the end of NaNoWriMo, we might just spend today figuring out where the heck we are. We only have fifteen school days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and at least a few of those are lost to various traditions. If my classroom is truly student-centered, then I need to start by reminding myself where they are as readers and writers and what they need from me to keep learning. </p>
<p>I know I will talk about NCTE and ALAN. They will want to know about Boston and about the authors that I met, but, mostly, they will want to talk about the books. Yesterday I pulled a ton of books from my shelves at home, so I'll mix those in as I discuss and recommend titles from last week.</p>
<p>I'll also probably talk about:</p>
<ul>
<li>The highlights of ALAN: Chris Crutcher, Laurie Halse Anderson, A.S. King, and many more. I'll share the idea of resilience lit, and start pulling out and recommending some of these titles. This class hasn't really been pushing into older titles like past classes, but this is the time of year that it usually happens.</li>
<li>The Don Graves breakfast. I'm so glad that an invitation to this event was forwarded to me, because it was absolutely the best two hours of the entire convention. I've seen the videos before, but each time I am reminded that teaching children to write can be as simple as sitting and listening to their voices. The many teachers and writers in that room reminded me of who I want to be in my classroom each day.</li>
<li>What didn't work. I walked out on two sessions, one after only about ten minutes. I left when one of the presenters handed out graphic organizers (webs) and told us we had to use them to brainstorm a topic. Um, no. No no no. I'm a completely incapable of using a web like that for anything, and any presentation that begins with trying to force me to use one is not for me. I demonstrate different organizers for my students, but I always let them pick the one they prefer for use, and many times allow them not to use one at all. And I love that just a few minutes after I bolted from that session, I ran into Chris Lehman, because his books and presentations have been changing my teaching this year, and our three-minute conversation (Me: "She tried to make me use a web organizer thing." Chris: "No." Me: "I know, right.") was far more informative than the session that I left. As terrific as some other sessions were, it's the conversations in between that are the best PD.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-86547237061152293182013-12-01T10:52:00.001-06:002013-12-01T10:52:51.496-06:00Finish that Draft (My #nerdlution)<p>This year, my students and I had secret word count goals for NaNoWriMo. We also had official, public goals. Our official goals counted toward grades and "winning" on the website, while our secret goals were, well, secret. My official goal, of course, was 50,000 words, and I "won" for the fifth year in a row. (By the way, if you want motivation to finish something, tell seventy 7th and 8th graders what you're doing. That'll motivate you.)</p>
<p>My not-so-secret goal was to write a full draft. My best guess is that this would be in the 60,000 to 90,000 word range. I knew this wouldn't happen during November, especially with NCTE and ALAN at the end of the month, but I also knew that after five years, I wanted to push myself further. I know that I can write 50,000 words in thirty days, but can I write a full draft? Can I remain dedicated after November?</p>
<p>So I already had tentative plans to keep writing when I noticed the conversation that led to the #nerdlution hashtag. And, happily for me, the timing is perfect. I won't have to write as many words each day, so I can also spend some time mapping out my story. And while I'm going to adjust my project target in Scrivener to 80,000 words by January 20, I won't have to spend every day writing (and writing and writing). Committing to 30 minutes a day might involve writing, but it will also be planning and plotting and adjusting and doing all the other important writer tasks that I don't allow myself to do during November. Perhaps this year I'll end with a draft that I'm willing to let someone else read.</p>
<p>So #nerdlution 1: Finish NaNo draft.</p>
<p>I also want to get back to writing here. The best time for me to do this during the school year is before school, and I confess that I've gotten a little lazy about this. I get up at the same time, but I read or play games instead of writing. When I started this blog, I told myself that pieces could and should be short and unfinished. Sometimes I would set a timer for fifteen minutes and tell myself I was done when the duck quacked. I need to get back to this. My most recent <a href="http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/book-talk-by-lea-kelley/" target="_blank" title="">Nerdy post</a>, for example, reminded me that a post can be as simple as sharing a conversation that I had with students. </p>
<p>So while I'm not quite ready to commit to 50 posts in 50 days, I would like to get back to four or five posts in a week. That's #nerdlution 2.</p>
<p>And while not officially a #nerdlution, December 1 is also a good time to revisit some of my reading goals for 2013. I reached 200 books a few weeks ago, but my other goals could use some work. I won't read as many professional books or #nerdprintz books in 2013 as I would have liked, but I can commit to one teaching book and two #nerdprintz this December. I also wanted to read fifty books that I already owned, and as of today I've read thirty (though my recordkeeping here might be flawed). Again, I won't reach fifty, but I will expand my goal to include books from last spring and summer that I haven't read yet. I also need to pick up <strong>Middlemarch</strong> again before I forget everything I already read. I like it, a lot, but it's hard to find time when I'm also prepping <strong>A Tale of Two Cities</strong> each week.</p>
<p>Time to reset my project counter:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/11154477813" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/11154477813_ed1f020854_n.jpg" id="blogsy-1385916765483.0989" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="305" height="248"></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/11154358524" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3783/11154358524_97db98d5d6_n.jpg" id="blogsy-1385916765512.4949" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="301" height="247"></a></div>
<p> *cries*<span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span></p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-87325414252719053312013-11-04T06:02:00.001-06:002013-11-04T06:02:18.063-06:00A "normal" week?<p> The last few weeks have been one thing after another. I traveled. The school hosted our rummage sale, so we had classes in the church and in the hallway. We had 8th grade conferences. It was Halloween. I looked at my lesson plans and at the calendar yesterday (yes, I was at school on a Sunday), and I realized that I lost a week somewhere and won't fit in another continent test before I go to Boston for NCTE. Oops.</p>
<p>This week should be calmer. We're learning South America in geography, and finally getting to spend some time discussing the Haitian revolution in history. We're reading <strong>The Off Season </strong>for our read-aloud, most students have finished <strong>Allegiant</strong>, and we're actually a month ahead of last year in <strong>A Tale of a Two Cities.</strong> </p>
<p>And it's NaNoWriMo.</p>
<p>Friday should have been a disaster. It was the day after Halloween. 8th grade was at the high school on Wednesday so we didn't have classes. There was an extra-long mass on Friday. It should have been exhausted chaos.</p>
<p>Instead, there was typing. And when the chicken (timer) would go off, the students would shoot it dirty looks and keep typing. </p>
<p>Who am I to argue with that?</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10668550194" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5508/10668550194_df422d96a9_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1383566513836.3318" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our new currently reading display. I took this idea from my friend Tony Keefer.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-35481222502096808182013-10-24T06:04:00.001-05:002013-10-24T06:04:35.511-05:00The best seat in the room<p> Last year I was looking for something to sit on while working with students, and I didn't want to drag around one of our surprisingly heavy student chairs. I decided to try a $12 camping/fishing stool that I ordered online. I didn't always remember to pull it out last year, so this year I permanently placed it next to my tech setup near the SmartBoard, and we use it all the time.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10450430925" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5486/10450430925_7bef1e7d86.jpg" id="blogsy-1382612204866.998" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Need to sit down to type something on the SmartBoard? Use the camping stool.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>The great thing about using the camping stool instead of a podium or a student desk is that I didn't want a permanent feature in front of the SmartBoard. The SmartBoard isn't the center of our classroom, and I didn't want to be pulled to constantly teach from that location.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10450627623" target="_blank" style="line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3812/10450627623_3e3ff5bc8d.jpg" id="blogsy-1382612204883.575" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></p>
<p>I love the tables in my classroom, and the camping stool makes it easy to join a group of students, or just meet with one, even if every chair is filled. In the past, I had twice as many chairs as I did students so that every student could have a seat in home room; now I have only four chairs per table, and the stool moves around to create an extra seat when I want to join a table.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10450475876" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2838/10450475876_4849ce9222.jpg" id="blogsy-1382612204938.2747" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Need to have a quick reading conference with a student while he's reading in the Adirondack chair? Pull up a camping stool. (Reading conference=speculating in nerdy detail about a book cover for the book everyone is reading.)</td></tr></tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Used the stool for that purpose just yesterday.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10450525436" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3745/10450525436_21990dd526.jpg" id="blogsy-1382612204902.2751" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Need to meet with a small group? Camping stools.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>(I'm embarrassed by the state of this table. In my defense, it gets cleared off each day. This is mid-class.) Obviously, our stools have multiplied. Once per week the entire 8th grade (26 students) has class together in this room, and sometimes they have lunch in here, so we needed to be able to seat 26 without cluttering up the room with extra chairs. I usually keep four stools in the room (one in front and three at this table), but we've had them all out since we've been eating lunch in the classrooms a lot. Yesterday during reading time, a girl lined four of them up like an army cot and stretched out to read. Eighth graders are funny.</p>
<p> We're all big fans of our $15 Adirondack chair (it's very comfortable), and we have one yoga ball/stability chair that causes a minor stampede at class changes, but this year's most valuable classroom chair definitely goes to the camping stool. That was $12 well-spent.</p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-80271316935543220702013-10-23T06:06:00.001-05:002013-10-23T21:21:16.855-05:00Talk<p>When I first decided to do NaNoWriMo with students four years ago, I used a stealth approach. "We're going to write novels," I whispered, hoping the kids wouldn't notice and freak out.</p>
<p>Now, as we approach our fifth year, it's a regular topic of discussion in the hallways between 7th and 8th graders. "What are you going to write about?" students ask each other. "Miss Kelley, are you going to write a novel?" they ask me as we stand in line for lunch.</p>
<p>In 8th grade we started prepping our novels last Friday. We've been using some of the lessons and ideas found on the YWP website, and I've printed out some of the planning materials. (They did the entire workbook last year.) We've been meeting on our imaginary rug to discuss characters, conflicts, and plot, and then breaking into groups to plan imaginary group novels and to work on individual planning.</p>
<p>That was the plan for yesterday. I wanted to replace some middle school level handouts with high school materials, and then send them off to work on plot. Instead, a student asked about my novel, and I shared my idea, and we spent the remainder of the period sharing our ideas for NaNoWriMo. And it was terrific.</p>
<p>I knew when I decided to answer the question that it would totally throw off our timing. We were already running late because new books arrived during lunch, and nothing was more important than distributing <strong>Allegiant</strong> immediately. But that twenty minutes of sitting in a circle, sharing ideas, was just as valuable as twenty minutes working independently (or, more likely, trying to read <strong>Allegiant </strong>without getting caught).</p>
<p>I began by sharing my novel idea, and even told students that I'm going to rewrite from scratch my novel from two years ago. I told them that I got so far behind that year that I wrote over 35,000 words between the end of NCTE Chicago and the end of Thanksgiving break (basically, four days). I asked students what they were going to write, and they shared their plans. There were suggestions for similar books and ideas, questions that helped with plots holes, and plenty of laughs.</p>
<p>In my experience, NaNoWriMo does as much for my students' reading as it does for their writing. When they try to DO as writers something they've done so many times as readers, they really start to understand how story works. </p>
<p>It also leads to conversations like this one:</p>
<blockquote><p>Female student: "My novel has three main characters, and it's from all their points of view, and they're all antagonists to each other. Does that work?" <br>
Me: "Yeah, sure. I mean Voldemorte is the protagonist of his own story, right.? He doesn't wake up each day and say I'm the antagonist." <br>
Various replies, including a boy who I know wants to argue that Voldemorte does wake up and want to be the antagonist. <br>
Me: "And sometimes, the antagonist and the protagonist can switch places. Like in <em>Stars Wars</em>, Darth Vader is the antagonist in the original trilogy but the protagonist in the prequels. Spoiler alert." <br>
Male student: "Oh, man, I haven't read them yet." <br>
Another male student: "They're movies." <br>
Me: "That came out in the 1970's." <br>
Male student: "Oh. I just figure everything comes from a book."</p></blockquote>
<p> You can't plan for conversations like that.</p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-71503521259823249742013-10-21T06:09:00.001-05:002013-10-21T06:09:23.771-05:00End of Quarter<p> I haven't posted in over a week due to travel, lack of sleep, a cold, chaos, and extreme grouchiness. When I wake up in the morning and can only think about how cranky I am, writing about teaching isn't a good idea. And yes, a flight that got in at midnight on a school night had a lot to do with how cranky I was. The trip was worth it, but exhausting.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10401100043" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5496/10401100043_490ae7e9e4.jpg" id="blogsy-1382353669228.2153" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, I did fly out for a football game.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10400970395" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7395/10400970395_bd11989714.jpg" id="blogsy-1382353669157.0474" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="196"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An afternoon on the boat was just a bonus.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p> <span style="line-height: 1.3em;">This is the last week of first quarter. Next week we have 8th grade conferences for two nights, a day off, Halloween, and the first day of NaNoWriMo. Last week we finished our first read-aloud, <strong>Dairy Queen</strong> by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, and students took their first continent test, Europe. We have finished our study of the French Revolution, and we're now learning about the Haitian Revolution. For geography we're going to study the Caribbean and Central and South America. On Friday we started prepping for NaNoWriMo by creating characters; today we're going to talk about conflict. It was perfect timing to finish <strong>Dairy Queen</strong> last week because it gives us a novel that we all know really well to use as our example when we discuss elements of novels. They are begging to read the second book next, and I'm going to give in, but not until next week at the earliest. I actually think <strong>The Off Season</strong> is even better than <strong>Dairy Queen</strong>, so I'm glad they've embraced the series. And it actually works to leave the other read-alouds I've planned until after the holidays.</span></p>
<p>One new thing that I've done this year that is making my life easier is that we marked the reading and writing notebooks with colored electrical tape. I worried that this would be a waste of materials, but it's actually really helpful when I'm looking for reading responses to just grab the green and yellow notebooks. So simple, but it saves a few minutes every week.<span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span></p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/10401028733" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/10401028733_79bc10865e.jpg" id="blogsy-1382353669172.3955" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Of course I straightened this up before I took this picture. 8th graders aren't this neat.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2090202005737197494.post-14490968555724178332013-10-08T06:12:00.001-05:002013-10-08T06:12:55.042-05:00Book Excitement<p> This past weekend I was lucky enough to purchase a copy of a highly-anticipated new book a few days early. I took it to school with me yesterday, and when it was time to set our reading rates for the week, I wrote the title on the board and waited for someone to notice what I was reading.</p>
<p>At the end of each school day I hold open one of the exits doors and say goodbye to students as they leave. Yesterday I was the only one available right at 3 to do this, so I stood next to the door reading my new book in the minutes before school ended, and I held the book in my hand, cover facing out, as the students exited the building. And I waited.</p>
<p>Sure enough, in both instances students noticed what I was reading, and I was mobbed by eager readers. <em>How'd you get that? Is it good? Can I see it? </em>Seventh grade boys who had been annoyed with me at recess because I wouldn't let them lasso each other with a jump rope and a hula hoop suddenly wanted to be best friends.</p>
<p>These weren't accidents on my part. I wasn't trying to be cool, although I'm always glad for students to know that I'm reading what they're reading. What I wanted in this case was to keep building the buzz about books and reading in my school. I wanted to remind students that a new book was coming in their favorite series. I wanted them to go home and beg for a copy. I wanted the dozens of parents who stood nearby to see a teacher with a book, to see students, boys even, eagerly asking a teacher about a book.</p>
<p>Try it. Carry a new book down the hall. Let students see you reading their favorite. They'll notice.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95785590@N00/9564943797" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7302/9564943797_97c9b6d202.jpg" id="blogsy-1381228751176.722" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>Lea Kelleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14302978433153538824noreply@blogger.com0