University of Florida’s “Gators” are more than just a sports team. While visiting our daugher in Gainesville, we went to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, an amazing site! We saw dozens of real live alligators sunning themselves on the banks and in the brush. There were lots of beautiful birds, and my favorite– wild horses! [...]
Archive for December, 2010
Gators in Gainesville
Posted in My travels on December 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Shopping in St. Augustine
Posted in Great stuff on December 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
What a fun city in which to stroll and shop! Jessica and I enjoyed visiting many unique shops while in St. Augustine, FL. One of our favorites was appropriately called “Anchor” and is owned by a young shopkeeper and jeweler named Laurel Baker. We loved meeting her. I bought a great necklace that was a [...]
Poetry Friday: Fly with Poetry
Posted in Poetry Friday on December 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Several years ago, a friend shared the most interesting poetry book with me called Fly with Poetry: An ABC of Poetry written and illustrated by Avis Harley (Boyds Mills Press, 2000). It includes samples of 26 different kinds of poetry! Here’s one called a doublet. In a doublet, a word is changed, one letter at [...]
Visiting St. Augustine, FL
Posted in My travels on December 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In mid-November, Tom and I flew to Florida to visit our daughter, Jessica. What a wonderful time we had together! One day we drove to St. Augustine and visited the fort there. I remember being dragged there as a child! Why are vacations always so much more fun as an adult? We toured the fort [...]
Poetry Friday: Little Miss Muffett
Posted in Poetry Friday on December 17, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Little Miss Muffet Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; Along came a spider, Who sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away. What do all those crazy old words mean? A tuffet is a small stool to sit upon. Curds and whey are the lumps and liquid found [...]
New author/new friend at NCTE
Posted in Great stuff, My travels, tagged NCTE on December 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
One of my favorite things about going to NCTE is the opportunity to meet new authors and make new friends. This year I met Ranu Bhattacharyya who was there from Bangladesh where she teaches at an international school. She has taught all over the world and has such interesting stories to tell! Her new book, [...]
Book signing at NCTE
Posted in My travels, tagged NCTE on December 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I love getting to meet teachers at conferences like NCTE. Here are a few photos of people I met as we talked about teaching literacy and I signed books. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to say hello! Upcoming conferences I’ll be speaking at (and signing books) include: Nashville, TNÂ Winter Institute with Debbie [...]
A sneak peek at Math Work Stations!
Posted in math on December 10, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Stenhouse Publishers just posted the first chapter of Math Work Stations on their website, so I thought I’d share it with you all as well! Enjoy! The book will be available mid-January, but you can pre-order it now! Read the first chapter here!
Poetry Friday: The importance of nursery rhymes
Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged nursery rhymes on December 10, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Here’s some information to share with parents at conferences this year… Did you know that children who know 8 nursery rhymes by heart at age 4 will be among the best readers by the time they are 8? (Mem Fox in Reading Magic). This is because children who know nursery rhymes usually can play with [...]
NCTE presentation
Posted in My travels, tagged NCTE on December 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
At NCTE in Orlando I presented to several hundred teachers with my friends, Carol Varsalona and JoAnn Scott from West Babylon Schools (Long Island), NY. Several years ago I worked with their school system to help teachers set up literacy work stations and best utilize their teaching space. In our presentation, Carol shared her perspective [...]
