My 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

The year is days from ending, and people are beginning to talk, write, and post about reading challenges from the past year and the upcoming year. Reading these usually motivates me, but this time it has been hard. This was not a banner reading year for me although it wasn't my worst year, according to my Goodreads account. Reflecting back on the year, I have learned a few things about my reading life.

1. Distractions are real. We hear so much about our student's being distracted by their phones. I know this is true, but I also know my phone is my biggest distraction. I often reach for my phone instead of a book, and it is something I am not real proud of. I know I need to fix this problem if I want to reignite my reading life.
2. My reading life affects my students' reading lives. I know the connection between books, teachers, and students. I have written about it; I have presented it; I have preached it. I used to live by the quote by Steven Layne, "Never underestimate the power of a great book in the hands of a teacher who knows how to use it." That was me. I need to find that "me" again.
3. Bad habits form quickly, and good habits quickly die. Stacking habits is something I believe in. Finding a habit I already do and add a new one to it. For example, when I eat breakfast every morning, read a few pages. This is something simple I can do to help my reading (and avoid #1!)

But I am not going to beat myself up over this dismal reading year. Donalyn Miller once wrote in a Nerdy Book Club post:  "Most readers experience this ebb and flow--alternating between reding binges and dry spells." I will continue to hold tight to these words while looking at ways to end this dry spell.

However dismal this year was, I still read some amazing books that have become my favorites of 2024!

For someone who has never played basketball, I have a long history with it. My sister both played and coached for years, and my daughter has followed in those footsteps. When I see books about girls who play basketball, I have to read it. If you have any girl basketball players, I highly recommend this one! Basketball, friendships, rivalries, and March Madness! What’s not to like?!?! Being from Indiana, I would have loved the girls to have chosen the movie "Hoosiers" to watch!

I was afraid to read this sequel to Frindle for fear of being disappointed. I don't know if it was the backstory about finding the manuscript years later or having read to my students in my first year of teaching, but it was everything I wanted it to be!

Playing sports in the late 70s and early 80s, the struggle for girl athletes portrayed in this book is real. Living in Indiana, the basketball history and culture is accurate. Being a graduate of Butler University, the pictures of Hinkle Fieldhouse are nostalgic. I absolutely adored this book. I even got a little teary-eyed at the end! The back pages with the story of the three athletes on which this story was based, made me appreciate Matt Tavares' research and accuracy. I can't wait to get this in my classroom this fall.

What a book! Two of my high school friends grew up struggling with eating disorders, ten years before Jake's story began. We, their friends, didn't know about it, and then when we did, we really didn't understand. As I was reading this, I wondered if this was the type of pain they went through. Did they feel this alone? Should we have seen something sooner? I wish they could have read a book like this all those years ago, and I wish we, as their friends, could have read it too.

With 2025 around the corner, I am looking forward to getting my reading life flowing again, and I am always looking for recommendations!

Scrapes and Scars

  

I am delighted to be hosting Spiritual Journey Thursday this month. This month our theme change/transformation--a perfect theme for the season. Please link up below if you would like to join us.

I thought I knew what I was going to write about this month, but you know what they say about best laid plans. All that changed after reading Ruth Ayres' lead from last week's Choice Literacy newsletter. And this post is more of a brain dump than an organized, coherent piece of writing.

Ruth wrote about her son Jay and his powerful story about chasing dreams and not letting his past control his decisions. She wrote about how difficult and frustrated teachers can become with students who experience deep trauma. Their decisions and choices don't always make sense. She explains that this happens "when a child is scraped by darkness at the start of life"

The words "scraped by darkness" stayed with me the entire day. After school, I told a colleague about what she wrote, and he says, "I wonder why she chose scraped by darkness instead of scarred."

Of course I have no idea why she chose those them, other than the fact that she is a master at stacking words. But these words have lingered on my heart.

For days, I thought about the differences between the words scrapes and scars. Most scrapes are temporary and can change, but scars are permanent. I touch a scar on my knee, and I can go back to the night I knelt on a needle, and it broke off in my knee.

We tend to forget about scrapes because they can sometimes heal and become invisible, but scars are a constant reminder of pain. I think about the "scars" from my relationship with my dad. I cannot touch those, but I know they are still there.

I believe that we have both scrapes and scars because God wants us to understand the role they play in our lives, in our faith. I know I have been scraped and scarred in my relationships with others as well as with Him.

But it is through His grace and my relationship with Him that I become healed, changed, and transformed.

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A Saturday Morning Blessing

Moving my way down the aisle at the grocery store, I see a family trying to corral a toddler. As she climbs on top of the stocked cases of pop, her mom grabs her, tickling her. Dad looks at me and moves on. Then turns around and says, "You were one of my teachers."

Of course, he is a grown man and looks nothing like a 4th grader, so I say, "Ok, you are going to have to tell me who you are because you have obviously changed since I had you in school."

He tells me his name, and my face lights up. When I ask him if this is his family, he introduces me and tells me what he is doing. My heart flips and flops as I look at him with so much admiration. He is in the army and stationed in Georgia, due to get out next summer. He will have a degree in criminology and wants to come back here and work on the sheriff's department. His wife is working on her master's degree in social work. 

This is a student who came from some very hard places. He saw things as a child that no child should ever see. His mother was a meth addict and was in and out jail so many times. He was exposed to domestic violence and was eventually raised by his grandfather. He was one of those students who you just prayed would somehow break away from those chains. He struggled in school, but he knew school was the safest place he could be.

I wished him luck and thanked him for stopping and saying something to me.

Leaving the store that day, my heart was smiling. Those are the success stories we as teachers love to hear and what makes teaching have a purpose beyond the ABCs and the 1,2,3s.

What a Saturday morning blessing!

  

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for creating a space to share a small corner of my world.

Searching for Wisdom

  

I am delighted to once again be joining other bloggers for Spiritual Journey Thursday. I missed a couple of months, but I am glad to be back this month. Today's journey is hosted by Ruth at There is no such thing as God-forsaken town and the theme is "I don't know." Please feel free to join me!

I have been studying the book of Proverbs this month, taking a deep dive into the definition of "wisdom." I am taking a chapter a day, but I think this is quite fitting for this month's theme:  I don't know.

I always thought wisdom was information or facts I knew. I have come to learn that experiential knowledge is what lead leads to wisdom, not factual knowledge.

I have found five foundational principles throughout these first 10 chapters.

• wisdom--knowledge or an ability to make the right choices
• understanding--rational thinking
• prudence--ability to use reason to discipline ourselves
• knowledge--to experience reality
• discretion--behaving to avoid being offensive
• discernment--ability to judge between right and wrong
• the fear of the Lord--a worshipful awe of God

I have learned that just reading scripture isn't going to help me find wisdom. I have to act on it and gain that experiential knowledge by reading and accepting His word; being obedient by living His commandments; and continuing to search for wisdom like it's a "hidden treasure" (2:4). 

I know when I "do not rely on my own understanding," I will find peace and happiness, my worries will not seem so burdensome, and "He will make my path straight" (3:5-6)." But this is not always easy for me to do. I oftentimes act on impulse; I don't think things through before I do something. 

This is not wisdom. 

Sometimes I think I have the right answer because "I know things." 

This is not wisdom.

Chapter 8 taught me that everywhere I look, wisdom is calling out. But what keeps me from not seeing it or keeps me in the I don't know?" Am I taking the time to search for wisdom or to notice it. Sometimes, it's easier to just say, "I don't know."

It seems like I am always in a hurry. Maybe not so much in the summer, but certainly during the school year. I need to slow down, embrace times of quietness, and discern if my actions are based on wisdom. Again, this is not always easy for me to do.

These first ten chapters have certainly given me something to think about, and I am looking forward to becoming wiser.

As I work through the remaining chapters of the book of Proverbs, I will continue to pray these words: 

                "Lord, help me to slow down in my search for wisdom and 

                come to understand the treasure that she is, so that I can 

                come to know You better."

Celebrate the Light

Image by Mike Sampson

The

world comes

together.

A brief moment

of total darkness

we celebrate the light

and hope we bring each other.

In a collective voice of cheers

my tears of wonder silently stream.

 

Thank you to the writers at Two Writing Teachers for creating this safe place for us to meet, to share, and to grow as writers.

Solar Prominence

   

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Yesterday's word was eclipse (of course!) and I created a found nonet poem. I read a Facebook post by Eric Snitil who is a meteorologist explaining what the read spot on the bottom right of the sun, and I used his words to write my poem.

Equinox Equation

  

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is equinox, and the form is an equation poem.

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April, and today's contribution is added by Margaret.

Orbiting Partners

 

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is orbit, and I wrote a short haiku. 

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April, and today's contribution is added by Irene at Live Your Poem.

Planet Earth

 

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is planet, but I chose to write about the planet Earth. Today's form is a tricube, a three-syllable, three-line, three-stanza poem.

It was my day to add to the progressive poem. Check my contribution here.

2024 Progressive Poem is Here

The Kidlit Progressive Poem was created by Irene Latham and is now being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. This is my 5th year participating in the collaboration, and I am always inspired by and learn so much from the other poets who contribute, and I am grateful they let me play along!

Here are the lines from Patricia, Jone, and Janice.

cradled in stars, our planet sleeps,
    clinging to tender dreams of peace

sister moon watches from afar,
    singing lunar lullabies of hope.

almost dawn, I walk with others,
    keeping close, my little brother.

It was suggested that we consider "the experience of a war child, a climate refugee, a migrant" and I hope I have done that! I also noticed and wanted to keep the -ing verbs to start the second line, so here is my contribution:

hand in hand, we carry courage

    escaping closer to the border.

Irene at Live Your Poem has tomorrow's line. You can follow the poem's journey below.

April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All

Galaxy

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

Much of my inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is galaxy and I wrote a definito poem. This form was created by Heidi Mordhorst and is a "free verse poem of 8-12 lines (aimed at readers 8-12 years old) that highlights wordplay as it demonstrates the meaning of a less common word, which always ends the poem."

a collection of a billion stars,

clouds of gas,

and particles of dust

moving together through space

trying to defy gravity

ellipticals, 

spirals, 

irregulars.

with a black hole in the center

gobbling anything

that gets too close

-galaxy 

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. You can follow the poem's journey below.

April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All

Gravity

 

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them.

Much of my inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is gravity, and I used the Shadorma form, a five-line poem with a 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable pattern.

Pulling like

gravity toward

the night moon,

leaving tides

to wash away the footprints

you left on my heart.

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. You can follow the poem's journey below.

April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All