Waiting.... it's going to be a late night tonight.

Well, I finished preparing my presentation for IRA with 30 minutes to spare. Got myself to the right room early and found two Mississippi friends waiting there. The room held 280 and I made handouts for that many. My lovely assistant (Jo Prather) introduced me and gave out my one page handouts. The participants were attentive and no one left in the middle. Always a good sign, I think. I finished my prepared one-hour session in about 35 minutes, then asked for questions. There were many thoughtful ones, some clarifying ones, then we wrapped it up about 5 minutes early. I don't like to go over into someone else's time. A couple of people came up and asked more questions and one person wanted me to mentor her-long distance. That will be interesting.

Some other highlights of the conference were Debbie Silver-funny mom of five boys who has written a book called Fall down 7 times get up 8. I've got to get that book. Levar Burton was okay. Richard Allington was slow to warm up but fabulous once he got going. I'm on his team if there is a reading debate. I talked to him briefly about coming to MRA. Hope that works out. Today I heard the mayor of San Antonio-he has a bright political future. I would vote for him. His wife is a teacher. Then Mo Willem was HILARIOUS! Wish all my friends could have heard him. I learned to draw a character from his books and will share with students ASAP.

I went to several sessions that were really good. Got lots of ideas for apps to use with the ipads in summer school. Talked to the Lego rep and got a catalogue to order the robot kits for summer school.

My suitcase is full of books. And it wasn't over the weigh limit. I got one author's signature and was able to get another of her books for free by standing in a long line for a long time. I didn't get the office staff little goodies this time since it wasn't an official 'school' trip. I am going to donate some of my swag to the teacher/staff appreciation box, so some may get a free bag, book, or t-shirt.

Now I am waiting at the San Antonio airport. I have received four texts telling me the Houston to Jackson leg of the trip has changed. I may have a two hour layover or longer in Houston. Just hope I get home tonight and not in the morning. By the way this airport has free wi-fi. Great idea. Wish all airports had it.

Medieval Mysteries

It has been almost a month since I've posted. Sorry to my huge numbers of fans who have missed reading these pearls of insight. (Ha!)

I accidentally ran across four medieval mysteries at the library while looking for something else. The Queen's Man by Penway was the first book. I couldn't put them down. But there were only four of them. I haven't been able to find any others by that author.

Then I found or re-discovered the Owen Archer Mysteries by Candace Robb. I am fairly certain that I have read some of her earlier works. They are set in England in the 1300's and are similar to the mysteries of Ellis Peters who wrote Cadfael. I like learning some history and imagining what life was like before the discovery of the new world. The solution rests on the reasoning skills of the main character, not fingerprints and DNA.

Just got back from TESOL. Now it is just four days until Easter. I have several quilts that I want to begin but I really need to work on my presentation for IRA, get MRA speakers lined up, and send out a call for EEIS articles. WIDA testing begins in a week and two schools have surprisingly found students who might be ELLs, now that 3/4 of the year is over.

Also, can't wait to meet Molly (Guo Yong) as soon as she gets here to her new home.

Back to Kids' Books

I finished the Alex Rider kid spy series and then got busy reading Unglued for the women's book group at church. The Reading Teacher came and I got distracted by some interesting articles in it. Oh, yeah, somewhere in there I worked on the EEIS Newsletter which will be finished and emailed in the next week, I think.

Anyway, I needed an easy read to pass some time and found a kids book that had been sitting on the shelf for a while. Just finished reading it last night. Masterpiece was a clever story about a boy and a tiny beetle. I recommend it to kids who like fantasy with a little mystery.

Now I have started a kids book by John Grisham. Didn't know he was writing kids' books. So far I'm liking the book. It is about a small town thirteen year old who wants to be a lawyer, imagine that from John Grisham.

Ladies Book Group

I joined the Thursday night ladies book group at church. New activity for me. As much as I love to read, I have never been in a ladies book group. There were only five women including me last night. I didn't know what to expect and would have liked a few more details, like in which room they were meeting. Fortunately the building is small and I found them right away.

I bought the book, Unglued, and read the first two chapters. Turns out there was a workbook to go along with the video. The first two chapters were interesting. I hope it will be beneficial and help me with this season of life.

What may be the most beneficial is getting to know some women around my age at church. We have been going to the 'newcomer' Sunday school class and most of the members are at least twenty years younger. I like the class and it's good to have friends all different ages but sometimes it makes me feel ancient.

So, here's to trying something new in the new year!

Finished the year with a quilt finished

Finally finished the second t-shirt quilt. I worked on it off and on for a couple of years, I think. I decided on the sashing, border, and backing fabric and sewed the five rows. Then life, work, and I don't know what came along and I put it on hold. When I got back to it I couldn't remember in what order I was going to put the rows. So that caused 'quilters block', like writers block, I was frozen with indecision.

After finishing several small quilts I was determined to get this quilt done. I promised myself I would not start another small project until the t-shirt quilt was finished.

Yea! It is finished. Now I am going to put the borders on the summer block party quilt and pay someone else to quilt it. A little paralyzed trying to decide where to take it for finishing. Do I see a pattern in my problem with big projects? Hoping for some help or an intervention...

Recommending an author

Anthony Horowitz writes for pre-teens and teens. I have just finished the fourth book in the Gatekeeper series. The final book has not been published yet but I hope to read it when it comes out. The series should appeal to readers who like action-adventure with a little magic in the mix. I bought the first book in the bargain section of a book fair. Then checked the others out of the library. The library oddly shelved some of the series in the teen section and some in the children's section. Caused some difficulty as I looked for the books.

Horowitz also writes the Alex Rider series for the same age group. This series is spy thriller with a fourteen year old main character. It reminds me of the spy kids movies, really action packed.

This may be my last posting for 2012 so I thought I would get back to my original idea of writing about what I'm reading. I have gotten away from reading books on my nook-just too cheap to buy books when I can check them out of the library.

I have a stack of journals that I want to read during the break. More later if any are worth sharing.

Paper Chains and Eggshell Santas

Today the first and second graders made paper chains for the school Christmas tree. Oh my, they had never made a paper chain before. What a simple, fun activity with so many math connections and it was new to them.

My earliest Christmas memories were making paper chains for the Christmas tree. We had a cedar tree cut from a back pasture somewhere. All we needed to decorate the tree was colored construction paper and home-made flour and water paste. We used every color in the package for our chains.

Another Christmas tradition was making an eggshell Santa. Mom would blow out the eggy insides from several fresh eggs. (We had chickens until I was in third grade.) Then she would rinse the shells inside and out. After the shells dried we would make a red paper Santa hat for each egg. We drew on the face with crayons and added cotton ball whiskers and fur trim to the red hat. So cute and fun to make.

Sometimes we made popcorn strings and once we covered sweet gum balls with foil and added them to the tree.

I know we had some store bought ornaments but the ones we made are the ones I remember.

Yesterday we made and decorated 3-D paper trees. Tomorrow we will make wooden clothes peg reindeer. If we have time we will make cinnamon-applesauce gingerbread men. I hope the children will have good memories of this week in my class.