Review: Airman

Airman by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. It's been on my "to read" list for a while. Our hero, Conor Broekhart has been wrongly accused of a crime. He's sent to an Alcatraz-like prison where life is bleak and hope is lost. However, Conor like all good heroes is smart, daring, and resourceful. In addition to relying on his talents he receives help from the most unlikely places. This book is full of action and adventure. The only deterrent is see that would prevent our students from reading it is its length - a healthy 400+ pages. Once a reader starts this book though the pages will fly by. Highly recommended.

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A Mummified Mrs. Arnold

Student Council Members with Books for Donation

Our annual book fair occurred during the first week of December, but we are just now wrapping up all the loose ends and calling it a day.

This year we participated in Scholastic Book Fair's All for Books program.  The boys collected spare change, and then used those donated funds to buy books for the Maryland Book Bank.  All total we collected $255.88.  The student council members selected the books to purchase.

Additionally Scholastic will match our monetary donation with a donation in books from The Scholastic Possible Fund, which distributes books to children through organizations such as the Kids In Need Foundation, Reader to Reader, Inc., and the National Center for Families Learning.

As an additional incentive, the class that brought in the most spare change won the opportunity to "Mummify Mrs. Arnold," our lower school head.  The winning homeroom was a fifth grade class with $62.27 in donations.  This morning at our school wide assembly the boys were able to collect on their incentive.  I owe a huge thank you to our principal who was willing to go along with our incentive and was a very good sport about this.  Enjoy the video below!

Mrs. Arnold -- Mummified!

What a Fall!

I have been neglecting this blog for far too long.  It's been an incredibly busy fall, and I'd like to post a few highlights, and make my annual resolution to be more consistent in blogging in the new year. 

A visit with author C. Alexander London

We started our year with an unexpected author visit.  C. Alexander London spoke to our 3rd-5th grade boys about his books.  He was on a book tour and stopping by our local children's bookstore.  (We are soooo lucky to have an independent children's bookstore nearby.  It's heaven!!)  In conjunction with his bookstore visit he was interested in visiting a school, and we were very happy to host his visit.  The boys especially loved hearing about his military animal novels.  They are well written and very popular in our library.

The Great Wall

In October I had an opportunity to visit China.  (It was really my husband's opportunity, but I was invited along as a guest.)  Everyone in education knows that it's not kosher for teachers to take time off during the school year -- especially 7 school days in October.  My school generously allowed me the time off for this once in a lifetime trip.  We spent time in Shanghai and Beijing.  It is an incredible country.  It was very intimidating to be in a country where nothing is familiar - neither the spoken nor the written languages, most of the customs, and the food.  It also gave me a peek into what it's like to be immediately typed according to one's looks. 

Elementary School in Beijing

In addition to being a tourist, I was able to observe a middle/upper school in Shanghai, and then had the incredible opportunity to teach a group of 5th grade students in Beijing.  I taught this class in English, and it appeared that the students were following the lesson.  Our students begin taking Spanish in Kindergarten, but I can't imagine someone coming in and teaching a class to our 5th graders exclusively in Spanish and the students following along to the extent these Chinese students did.  They all sought me out after class to practice their English.  I could write post after post about this trip.

Shopping at the book fair

Once back from China, it was time to prepare for our annual book fair.  We used to host a book fair provided by the children's bookstore, and it was fabulous.  The owner selected books for our student population and there were none of the tchotchke type toys that I hate to see the boys spend their money on.  She stopped doing book fairs a few years ago (a sad day in this library!), and ever since we've been looking for good alternatives.  We went with Usborne Books for a few years.  Their non fiction is outstanding, but their popular fiction and picture book selection was lacking.  We have used Scholastic for the last few years.  The certainly make hosting a book fair easy, but their selection isn't always the best for a single sex school -- especially an all boy school.  Boys read, but you have to provide them with the right choices!!

I like to stick with my professional life when I'm writing these blog posts, but sometimes the personal informs the professional.  This fall my mother lost her battle with lung cancer.  It was quite advanced when it was discovered 3 years ago.  We all knew the day would come, and near the end saw it as a mixed blessing, but her passing leaves a big hole.