Out of the Habit

Well. Missed ISTE. That was a bummer. Story of why is not interesting but I still feel badly about it, considering it was local to me and all. :(

I DID, however, get my Google Ed and Apple Teacher certifications so there is that. I am not a complete loser teacher. Everyone should totally should do it. I spent more time reviewing than was necessary for one already pretty familiar with the tools and considering it's open internet. Though ... I wasn't super excited about the wording of several of the questions. I feel like they were not as clear as they could have been. Is what it is. Anyway. Hopefully it's not breaking the TOU to display them together like this. Eventually I'll get them in the sidebar. Have to renew the domain name next month. Seems kind of silly considering I've posted what ... like four times in the past year? Maybe five. Hopefully eventually inspiration will strike again! :P It helped keep me on my toes.

I started listening to the Harry Potter #1 audiobook again to help me out of my reading slump and IG friends were right. I think it is helping! And if you are not on IG and didn't already see the sneak peak of the fabric I ordered for my mom to make something with ... my love for HP is only just behind Star Wars. Just. I hardly ever reread so it is so fun! Just what I needed!

Did anyone get anything interesting for Prime Day? I got a tech cords organizer and pre-ordered Bruce's Big Move and got Nanette's Baguette since I didn't already have it. Also because I got a Star Wars Kindle book I got a credit for 40% off another Kindle book so I'm deciding whether or not to preorder the new Wonder Woman YA coming out next month or getting a PD title. Decisions.

I have an Echo at home already. Didn't get one for school because they'd never let it on the network. :/

And to be honest I use it way more for music anyway. Still getting used to the talking to devices thing. I find it hard to talk to Alexa and Siri. I just got an Apple Watch, too. So how dumb is that.

Gasp! I have NOT gotten any of the Kohl's characters for school. Stuffies are highly discouraged in our district which is kind of sad (something about air quality ... who am I to judge as I am the one unwilling to wash or freeze them once a month or something like that). I totally used to have them. Clifford books? See him over there? That's where they are. Frog and Toad? See them over there? That's where the books are! I have gotten them for nieces and nephews, however. Knuffle Bunny remains elusive. Those of you still allowed to have them in your libraries ... I'm a little jealous of the pics but keep them coming because they are so cute! The one of MW walking in to Kohl's was hilarious, too, was it not?

Don't Keel Over But I'm Posting

Still around over on Instagram and FB some. Thanks for sticking around. This year has been ... well. Is what it is, right? There's always SUMMER READING. And next school year. This is a presentation I did with my friend at our district tech camp yesterday and today. If it can spark any ideas for any of you ... great! There are always things I'd go back and change now (plus I'm sure there are awesome books that I haven't seen yet plus awesome apps I've never tried) but at some point you have to stop and call it good.

We have iPads and Chromebooks. We have some paid apps. Almost all of my student examples recently got deleted in the great district iPad wipe of 2017. <insert grumpy face here> Lost some cute stuff. But a few were saved in easy to find places and are still around.

Be Googley

I never finished or posted this back in late October. So ... now. Trying desperately to get some creative juices flowing again. The struggle is real. Two posts in a day. Seriously. Is it 2014 again?


I  spent some time in a Google office in Austin. Mind blown. I spent the whole time texting my little brother (undergrad in computer science) and sort of wondering if I wished I was 20 years younger.


This is an interesting blog post. Go read it then come back.

I like this philosophy. Granted it's one view and who knows if it was really true. It SEEMED like it from the people we met that day. But who knows. Anyway. It actually sounds like a lot of educators that I know. Some of these sound similar to the "Seven Habits." When those are being actually LIVED and not just talked about (cause that is just eyeroll inducing and so irritating) they can make a difference. And how often do educators go the extra mile. Try new things. Try to do the RIGHT and BEST thing. Keep the child in mind. Be nice. Help new teachers. Help old teachers.

Don't get frustrated when the roof of your classroom leaks every time it rains. Even when it happens for over two years. Or when you don't get to go to a conference but someone else in your district does. Or you do get to go but you have to pay for it yourself and their campus does. Cause frustrated is not googley. Human but less than googley.

I actually thought about doing a library "theme" of being googley. Primary colors. Basic font. Tech icons. These precepts. I still really like my Star Wars, though. And part of me says the kids do, too.



Some of these are IG repeats. Some are not. None are great but I was busy taking it in! Plus not getting actual Googlers in frame cause that's against the rules. Tech poaching and all.


I used to have some old disks I was going to turn into like a pen holder. And there was a cool Etsy shop that made little notebooks with disks as covers that I always meant to order from. Procrastination at it's finest. "They 3D printed the save icon."


This leafy green color is one of my favorites. The lamp is super cool. This was like a little mini conference room that Googlers could use to hold virtual meetings.


Their breakroom. Do you ever wonder why school breakrooms are so boring and blah? SO boring and blah. Ours does not look like this. And we would not be allowed to paint it to look like this.


Collaborative spaces. Now as an introvert I don't like to use the word just to use the word. Big groups are exhausting. But hey ... I do like to have more than one brain to pick. I'm always asking others for ideas or on our district FB group. Or rambling here on this blog. And I try to share if I have an idea. Ideas which seem fewer and farther between anymore.


This pretty room was empty. Was it because we were walking by? How crazy to have such a pretty room and no one using it. They were all like "most of this was gotten from thrift stores." In my head I was like "Well I wonder if you have the same hoops to jump through if you don't want to have to foot the bill yourself as we do?" Not a fan of the figure out the magic vendor system. Takes asking at least three different people and filling out at least two different forms. I never get it right the first time.


Even there at Google they had a place where people could bring their gear and get help with stuff that wasn't working. No need to put in help desk tickets that might or might not be answered ...well, sometimes they are actually answered within a day or two. Other times it's weeks. You just never know.


Imagine having all these nice spare parts and dongles easy to get at. Again. Nothing you'll ever find at a school. Wouldn't it be awesome if it was?


Usually not one for the glitter but pretty.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Finally Saturday

And a Rainy Saturday it is.

I just got back from a Pilates mat class. And I tried a Reformer session on Thursday. Can't say I loved it but I didn't hate it like I hated the different coach yelling at me kickboxing class that made me stop going to my last gym so there's that. Fitness. It's a necessary evil. :P







THIS is my nemesis. I keep thinking "If I had the kids for longer than 15-30 minutes" or "If I had more help" or "If they could come more often then 4 mornings a week every three weeks we'd get in a better routine" or "If I wasn't also trying to get morning announcements ready and check in books and get cards cleared for all the morning classes" (I know I'm preaching to the choir here) this would get better. There's no magic pill here ... the Little Bits labeling suggestion drives me insane because I haven't found that to help/work at all. But I do really like the other ones and haven't tried them. And to be fair she works with older kids so maybe the Little Bits ... maybe I am expecting too much and shouldn't have tried with as young as I did. I don't know. They make cool stuff. But they make utter chaos and I'm left with mess and Little Bits are not like Legos where they can just use any piece. It matters so they do need to be kept tidy. (Pin keeps not working so I linked to it at the top)







Random non-library related share.







"Do you have any books about Hippo Crates?"



Need to let it go, I know. Or just laugh and not be irritated about it. But seriously. Assign Hippocrates and not make sure the kiddo has a clue how to say it? And NOT assign Sylvia Mendez or any of the other suggestions I sent that we DID have books for?





If I were so inclined ... maybe with book covers on the hearts?







Read this earlier about educational blogging. Well and I read the original post (but didn't sign up to participate). I hope eventually I'll get some good ideas going again. ;)

Long Dry Spell but Merry Christmas

The holiday book post never happened. Lots of posts never happened.

Does anyone have a post they'd love to SEE happen? I don't know. The last couple months between battling viruses and allergies and general total and complete energy sapping muscle soreness blahs ... any even remotely halfway decent ideas I had just went to a quick snap on IG. Haven't even gotten much reading in. I think I might need new glasses. READING glasses on top of my regular glasses. Does that mean bifocals? Not cool. Finally fessed up to that after not being able to properly see the directions on the antibiotics. Ridiculous! I do not feel like I could be old enough to need bifocals. :( BUT if you are still around after that rant THANK YOU!

If you have any questions or silly freebie bookmark requests send me a quick email and maybe over the break I can get some posts prewritten for the new year. I'll have a "reveal" sometime in February or March as we ordered some new tables that are so very different from what we've had for over a decade that people will probably flip out. And then like them after they see how flexible they are. If the walls hadn't changed the look of the place the tables will!


Seriously. If only I'd had this a few days ago it totally would have been up at school!


I can hear my 23 month old nephew singing "Jingle Bells" so I'm out of here. Merry Christmas. Happy Season's Readings. May the Force Be With You.

$10 Giveaway for TPT

Long time no writing! Oh well.

But now I get to give away a $10 credit to the TPT sale. That will be at the bottom of this post. Don't read the comments if you care about spoilers to either the Anne of Green Gables movie or the Gilmore Girls Year in the Life (which I actually did not watch the first go around ... though I'll date myself and say my first teaching job was at the high school "Dean" graduated from and it was not long after he left ... so students would come back from the restroom all aflutter when he'd come back to visit and be walking the halls). Comments on those two things are two of the three ways to enter. The third I will do a round up post on later this week ... fave holiday read alouds. So you'll still get to hear about those if you stay away from reading other people's comments!

Until then here are some things I've wishlisted lately for personal or library use! Quick because family is still around until tomorrow.

I want to learn how to do the brush lettering I see all over IG. Not Tombows but I got these to try.

Of course this I already had. Don't think at $100 it wasn't tempting for school (they are programmable/codable now ... they weren't for the first 6 months or so) but the paperwork to do a PO ... the price would go back up by then. No, I did not order myself a Force Band. THOUGH I WANTED TO!

And as much as I love Overdrive sometimes I don't finish them in time. I got the EARC a while back but am so far behind I'll never catch up there. Electronic is bad that way. If it's falling off of the stack I'll read it first. So for $5 today it was tempting!

And here are some pretty photos of books. You might see them again.

Oh and my favorite most favorite of all work pants (I have black, navy, gray, and maroon-ish brown) that still look nice but are comfy are on sale tonight. Use this link for an extra $15 off for both of us.

I'm pretty sure I set this to be open the rest of tonight and tomorrow til 12. Then I'll email the "winner" the code Monday morning. The sale is Monday and Tuesday, right? Don't remember the extra 10% code but I'm sure you'll see it around somewhere. Gets kind of ridiculous how it's plastered everywhere for 72 hours.

 I haven't made anything new in forever. Had a set of teacher librarian planner stickers (just on Avery labels so if you don't have a Cameo you're not stuck with scissors for hours) but never finished. An update to the shelf labels that has been 85% done for weeks. No new display signs or bookmarks. Those people who get it all done? I'm envious! But hey. I went to two movies and binged on GG this week. And finished some reading. So I did that. I hope you did things that made you happy as well!

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#IMWAYR Oct. 24

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!
Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

All awesome ones. 

My fave is probably We Found a Hat though Jedi Academy and Hotel Bruce are a close second. I NEED a Bruce "roar"ing t-shirt. It is a NEED and not just a want.

And I Will Not Eat You and The Obsidian Chamber behind that. And President Squid is classic Aaron Reynolds which means it can't be anything less than funny.

All of the pics and Jedi Academy are totally recommended for the elementary crowd!

Today our district took us on a bit of a field trip. We got to tour the Google offices in Austin and see a K-12 education furniture showroom. Fascinating day deserving of another post. That will come later!