Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

Burrr and Beauty

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Okay, the post where I divulge that living without lights...
or heat...
or cold food...
is...
not easy.

Mr.  Belding's school is in CT.
CT is still without power, in a lot of places.
Mr. B's school is closed through the middle of next week.
Blessing.

Our...see what I did there...OUR families are incredibly supportive, and even though they've experience the same loss of power, showed up day after day to support their school.  Their classrooms, teachers, and principal.

RAMS.  You rock.

We shoveled snow.
Dry walled.
Roofed a little.
Worked with the National Guard to clear debris near downed lines.

Loved a lot.

Mr. B did something amazing.
Something he says any principal would do.
You decide:
  1. He called and got in contact with every teacher, para, or staff member from school.  Offered heat, places to find heat, and asked for help.
  2. Every person who agreed was given a list of name and cell numbers for each of the over 300 students in his school. (about 10 names and #'s per teacher/staff)
  3. They were asked to call each student, make sure they and their families were okay.  And assign school wide homework for each student.
  4. Their homework?  HAND write at a least one page about their experience living without.  Without school, or heat, or lights, etc.
  5. For every THOUGHTFUL, handwritten full page, he will award that student's grade an author point.
  6. Author points go towards that grade picking the Visiting Author in the spring.
  7. It's a big deal. :)
  8. Once the teachers had attempted everyone, they were to call Mr. B back and give him those names.
  9. We then set out to visit those homes to ensure that they were okay.
  10. By monday afternoon there were less than 30 families that remained unaccounted for.  
  11. We drove to, or near each of their homes and knocked on 20+ doors.
We found everyone.
:)

The students I met were ecstatic about the visit from Mr. B.
We brought cookies and flashlights and batteries.
Mr. B is that guy.

THAT guy.

Who can walk into a room and everyone, EVERYONE can feel his kindness.
I hope you have someone like that.

He would give his life for one his kids.
He proved that this week.

By Wednesday when we were still without power, I cried.
A lot.
Not about the power, but because kids had started to drop off what they'd written.

Get your tissues ready.

"Living without power has been finding out you're not alone." S.P

"I guess you never really appreciate what you have until you don't have it.  Or until you don't have anything else and what you do have, even you're annoying little brother, mean that much more." C. H.

"Do you hear that?  In the stillness?  All around you?  It's the love." E.M

"I've never loved something like that way I love reading.  Reading by the fireplace at night makes me think of Felicity and the American Girls." A.C

and my personal favorite:

"Mom 'cooks' the dinner.
Dad plays his guitar for us.
We laugh to the beat."
C.D

Yeah kid, Haiku is cool. :)

Here are a few stills about how we've been living.  In the dark, in the cold, and in love.






The Search for Wondla and Birthdays

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Today my nephew, Nicholas, turned 9!

He's rocking out in 3rd grade in Virginia.

His older sister, Natalie (yes, making them Nick and Nat), had her birthday in August.
Ironman and Devil/Angel
She's in 6th grade and 12 is such a weird age.
I wasn't sure what to send.
I sent her a thumb drive engraved with her name, and a metal water bottle engraved with her name and peace signs.

Nicky, he's different.  I'm behind and his gift will be lucky to make it there for Halloween...still love you kiddo.

However, he's just getting books, well not just.

Remember never ending story?  "ATREYU!"  VALCORE!
"Bastian, SAY MY NAME!"

Sorry, a little off track, but I LOVED that book and movie when I was younger.
Anyhoozle.
I really pride myself on my read aloud skills.
For my students they know my favorite author is ROALD DAHL, when I was little I wanted to BE him, except not racist and more available to children.

Fantastic Mr. Fox and Matilda were my LIFE.
But the BFG, the BFG is why I can do accents.

So, I'm sending him The BFG and Ralph S. Mouse, because Beverly Cleary...seriously?
BUT to make it special, I recorded my version of the BFG in MP3 and am sending him that to read along too.

Ello!  Me British and Irish accents is full bloom. <---apparently so is my pirate accent.

Whatevs.

As for the title of this post, I'll spare you gushing about Tony DiTerlizzi.
Suffice it to say, ridiculous.
Ridiculously awesome.
Between the Spiderwick Chronicles, Spider and the Fly, Kenny and the Dragon, and my personal favorite: JIMMY ZANGWOW'S OUT OF THIS WORLD MOON PIE ADVENTURE...he's amazing.

We live in the same small town in Western, MA, and every time I leave my abode, I pray I never run into him.

{I had one brush with literary note, and I BLEW IT, BIG TIME.
J.M Coetzee is my South African novelist love.
Between him and Nadine Gordimer, the world is a better place.
He arrived at UMASS Amherst to give a reading from Elizabeth Costello, and I attended!
Did I mention it was less then a week after he won the NOBEL PRIZE for LITERATURE!
OYE!
So.
After, I wanted to say hi and THANK YOU and have him sign my book.
Script: "I haven't read all of your books yet, but every single one I've read, I've read multiple times and I get something new from every time, you're amazing, and such an asset to the literary world."  Yay.
Real Life: "Most of what I've read, I liked."
What?!
The last thing I remember before running back to my dorm was my friend, Emera, grabbing me by the arm and yanking me away from my own embarrasment.}

{That story also reminds me, I managed to make a fool of myself in front of HOLLIE HOBBIE of TOOT AND PUDDLE fame...I'm such a goof}

Hopefully, I never see Tony in real life.
Safer for my own humility to admire from afar :).
He wrote the SEARCH FOR WONDLA!
I'm 28 and I.  LOVE.  THIS.  STORY!

I'm getting Natalie her own copy for Christmas because I think the character of Eva 9 will be interesting to a 6th and 1/2 grader :).

Imagination is a crazy thing.

Kids need more of it.
Tony has capsulated it.
Read it.
Tell me you love it 1/2 as much as I do.
Tell me you want an Otto :).

And that Rovender Kitt is your hero.

For that matter, you can tell me you like the Bone Cruncher and the Fleshlumpeater, too. ;)

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