Free Audiobooks start today!

Today's the day!  The start of AudioFile's SYNC 2020 free audiobooks!
I have participated in this for the past three years, downloading and listening to some amazing audiobooks - and all for free!

I never thought I would like audiobooks... I always enjoyed sitting down and reading a book and getting lost in the story. I thought listening to a book I would get distracted and my eyes and thoughts would wander since I wasn't focusing on the pages of a book.  And sometimes that does happen... but then I just rewind a bit =).

I have found that I really enjoy listening to certain types of books as audiobooks.  I also like to listen in the car driving to work, where I don't have to do too much thinking about where I am going because it is a drive I make (well used to make - and hopefully will again soon) 5 times a week.  It also helps me not develop road rage while stuck in traffic, but rather makes me see sitting in traffic as a gift - more time to listen to my book.  I also like to listen to audiobooks when I'm exercising on my elliptical machine at home.  I am not a fan of exercising, but have found I am much more motivated to do it if I know that I'm going to be listening to a good book for a half an hour while working up a sweat.

I'm so thankful to have these books to download each week from now until the end of July!  I hope you give a title or two, or more, a try and find something engaging to listen to!

Everywhere Book Fest!

There are a lot of negatives right now with being "quarantined" and asked to stay home.  There is not any place open to go and do something even if you wanted to!  But let's be thankful we live in a time where we can all still be connected in so many ways thanks to technology.  And let's be thankful that so many of the creative minds in the world have come together to offer up some amazing things to us during this time.

The Everywhere Book Fest encapsulates this.  Their mission:
"The Everywhere Book Fest is a virtual celebration of authors, books, and readers that brings the book festival experience to everyone!

On May 1-2, the book festival will open its virtual doors and unveil two free full days of live and pre-recorded sessions with your favorite picture book, middle grade, and young adult authors."

From their FAQ page:
Who is the intended audience for this festival?
The Everywhere Book Fest panels are perfect for readers of all ages, including kids, teens, families, teachers, and librarians! The few panels that contain content best for mature audiences will include a warning in the video description and onscreen.

How do I watch the festival panels?
All festival content is FREE to view! You can watch all the festival panels in your browser or through YouTube. We will post the links to each session on their festival schedule page. All video content will be archived after the festival and available to view on our YouTube channel!

You can find the schedule of who is going to be there and presenting by clicking here. And if you can't make it to the "live" session, thy will be archived for viewing later as mentioned above.

What I'm super excited about is that Jason Reynolds (author of Ghost, Long Way Down, All American Boys, etc) will be highlighted each day!  If you can't tell, I'm a huge fan... and you should be too!

At 11am EST - so 10am our time - on Friday May 1, he will be discussing "his respect for young readers, what it means to be honest as an artist, and opens up about meaningful events in his youth."

Then on Saturday, May 2 at 12pm EST, so 11am our time - he will be included in the Black Voices Matter panel where he and other Black authors will be discussing their "new fiction and non-fiction titles alike [that] shed insightful spotlights on African-American history and identity, as well as timely issues like racism, colorism, and microaggression."

Acclaimed graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang will give the opening keynote and Nic Stone author of Dear Martin and new book Clean Getaway will be the closing keynote on Saturday.  There are so many great authors (Jacqueline Woodson, Erin Entrada Kelly, Grace Lin, Marie Lu, Nathan Hale, Renee Watson, Sayantani DasGupta, and so many others) participating in this amazing event in various ways. And so many great sessions like, Putting the STORY in History: a historical-fiction panel; Draw Me Like One of Your Graphic Novels; Marvel: Heroes of Tomorrow; Black Voices Matter; Magic in Queer YA; and Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope, that you are sure to find at least one session that will interest you.

I hope you are able to "attend" one of these sessions... either on the day they are offered live, or visiting them after they have been archived on YouTube.

One thing I know is true... books and authors rarely let you down and always seem to find a way to make you think. In these times, YA and children's authors and illustrators have done an amazing job in offering content online to teach and or entertain us and I for one an so appreciative of what they have done and are doing.

Breakout Live!

Do you like Escape Rooms?  Breakout rooms are like Escape Rooms with an educational twist.  You may have played one in Ms. Krahn's (formerly Ms. Koltz's) classes before, but even if you haven't played before there is no time like the present!  BreakoutEDU has created Live - and free - Breakouts for you to participate in during our time out of the school building.  You can win some cool prizes just for playing. Each game is about 5-10 minutes in length, and you can watch previous episodes and play along with them too if you didn't get a chance to play it live.  They are held M-F at 1pm our time and you can access it here: https://www.breakoutedu.com/live

Here is info on this week's games (4/27-5/1):

Write. Right. Write.

Jason Reynolds, author and current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature from the Library of Congress has put together this amazing video series "Write. Right. Rite."

Each video includes a prompt to encourage you to use your imagination.  The most current video is below, but you can see all previous and new videos by visiting the LOC Write Right Rite webpage. 


One of the previous videos was about writing a letter from your hero, that would be their response to a letter you wrote.  If you want, you are encouraged to share your WRR responses online with #WriteRightRite and Jason Reynolds shared out one of the responses he got from a kid named Lewis, who imagined what his hero Samuel L. Jackson would say to him.  Samuel L. Jackson saw it and replied.  I thought that was pretty darn exciting!

Either way, sharing your writing or not, these are some really fun and creative exercises to stretch your brain and imagination.  Give it a shot if you want!

Hamilton Education Program - great opportunity!

Did you hear about this??  If you are musically inclined, or really bummed about the musical being cancelled this year, you should definitely think about doing this... looks fun!

Here are the details:

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and HAMILTON are thrilled to announce EduHam at Home, a free digital program for students and their families. 

Families can explore the world of HAMILTON and America’s founding era together and students are invited to create and perform their own narrative in the form of a song, rap, spoken word, or scene.

Students are invited to submit their creation and selected student performances will be shared globally through the HAMILTON app, social media (#HamAtHome), and the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s website.

This free program is open to K-12 students and their families (and will be of particular interest to students in grades 6-12). Learn more and register here. 

Upon registering, participants can explore, learn from, and enjoy a wealth of materials including:

• Exclusive video clips from HAMILTON performed by the cast 
• Interviews with Lin-Manuel Miranda, original cast members including Daveed Diggs and Phillipa Soo, and Ron Chernow
• A wide selection of primary sources centered on a diverse group of 45 people, 14 events, and 24 key documents from the era
• Expert advice on creating outstanding performance pieces
• Highlights from EduHam student performers

Earth Day

Earth Day is actually my birthday (happy birthday to me!) so I've always thought it was a special day! My previous school district always had a huge Earth Day celebration filled with special learning sessions in the morning by guest speakers from the community and then an afternoon of service learning where, as a school community, we would do some type of service activity like cleaning litter off the roads, or planting trees and doing some landscaping around the school building. It was one of the things I so loved about my last school.  So coming to work at Spring Harbor - an environmentally focused middle school - seemed like a great fit for me.  I'm sad that we can't all be together today to some environmental activities around Spring Harbor and its gardens, but you can always do something to help the Earth or learn more about it!

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day! (BTW - I'm not 50 yet!)

Some fun Earth Day activities: Today go to Google.com (or click here and maybe it still works) to learn about bees and play one of the Google Doodle games.

PBS Wisconsin has some great videos and information on Gaylord Nelson - the father of Earth Day and someone I did not know about Milly Zantow who is like, the mother of the recycling movement.  These are very short, yet interesting videos and also provide links to more information if you want it!

Travel and Leisure has 9 activities you can do from home to celebrate Earth Day.

And, I know this "Safer at Home" and not being able to go out and do things like "normal" is hard... but it has had a positive effect on our planet... I'm not saying we should all be stuck at home all of the time, but it's a good time to reflect on what we are doing to our planet and environment when we are living "normal" lives.  Maybe we need to create a new normal to help save our planet.

What I'm missing right now....

It's been a few weeks of us exploring what virtual learning is like... and you may find you like it or hate it.  As an introvert, I don't mind a quiet space alone with my new co-workers (my dogs Baxter and Dante pictured in this post) to do my work... at least I thought I wouldn't mind it.  Besides my new co-workers being demanding at times, I really miss socializing with my colleagues and my students at Spring Harbor Middle School.
I miss being able to get students a new Chromebook immediately when their's stopped working...
I miss being able to unpack and ready all the new book orders that are coming into school at this time of the year...
I miss my work space in the library, where my new co-workers (again, my dogs) can't find me and start demanding they be fed or be given a treat or let outside...
I miss students coming into the library to find books...
I miss having random conversations with students throughout the day...
I even miss you crazy kids coming in at recess and not doing what you were supposed to be doing.
I miss the way my job used to be...
and I'm sure you all miss the way school used to be. Because if I, an introvert, misses socializing, I'm sure all of you super social middle schoolers miss it very much as well.

I'm hoping to include items in this blog some of the great things available to use during our Safer at Home time... and to continue it once we are all back to being together in school as a way to continue to share out some of the awesome resources, books, etc that are out there for you to explore to follow your passions or find new ones.

I hope everyone is safe and happy... and I hope you are finding time to communicate with your teachers, friends, and family in a variety of ways.