3.27 {Whatever Wednesday} NCAA Book Brackets

Posted on March 27, 2013 by David E.

Whatever Wednesday — a chance to post something I’ve seen that I’m diggin’. Though often a cool quote or poster, it might simply be a picture.

Enjoy!… and consider posting your own Whatever.

Your votes are in. Mr. Peterson and I have tallied up the results and found YOUR favorite books and series of the year. Remember, you each voted on two favorite books and one favorite series.

Here is a pic of me trying to get them all organized over the weekend…

And here is your 2013 NCAA BookBracket!

{See explanation following the picture.}

{You can click on the picture to enlarge it.}

We ranked each book by how many votes it received from AlphaTeam and Team Possible. The number of votes decided the book’s/series’ seed (or ranking). We assigned each book/series to a comparably seeded team in the NCAA Sweet 16.

So: If a team wins, the book it represents will move on. EXAMPLE: At 7:15 on Thursday, March 28, #3 Marquette will play #2 Miami. Bookwise, this means that A Monster Calls is playing Wonder. If Marquette wins, A Monster Calls will move on in the bracket to play the winner of Indiana (The One and Only Ivan) and Syracuse (Bud, Not Buddy). If Miami wins, Wonder moves on.

And so it will go until we make it to the championship book game on Monday, April 8th.

Check back on Tuesday for an updated BookBracket after all the weekend’s action.

Enjoy the tournament–and may the best book win!

3.25 It’s Monday! What are you reading? #CapturetheFlag #ForestHasaSong

Posted on March 26, 2013 by David E.

A new week, a new batch of books–both books finished and being read. Today is…

Ring-the-Bell Monday & It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Sharing what books we’ve read in the past week & the titles we are currently reading.}

{This was a fun read–a great mystery about THE stolen flag. By “THE” I mean the original flag about which Francis Scott Key wrote the words to our national anthem. You know… “Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight…” That one. What would YOU do if it was stolen and you believed it was in the same airport with you? Somewhere. Waiting for rescue. Hopefully you wouldn’t do what Anna, José, and Henry do. It’s just too dangerous…}

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[Check back throughout the day for updates of my students’ reading.]

Since last Monday, my A Class has read:

19 books

My B Class has read:

17 books

My C Class has read:

11 books

{a sequel!}

Description

A fast-paced mystery from the author of CAPTURE THE FLAG!

José, Anna, and Henry are junior members of the secret Silver Jaguar Society, sworn to protect the world’s most important artifacts. When they discover that the society’s treasured Jaguar Cup has been replaced with a counterfeit, the trio and their families rush to the rain forests of Costa Rica in search of the real chalice. But when the trail runs dry, new mysteries emerge: Who can they trust? Is there a traitor in their midst? With danger at every turn, it will take more than they realize for José and his friends to recover the cup before it falls into the wrong hands.

Last night (Tuesday night) I went to a book birthday for a new poetry book by a local author, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater.

It was great to see SO MANY people come out to support her—including colleagues and our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Development, Mr. Leaven. Check out this great signature in one of the books I purchased:

And a little photo op:

Visit Amy LV’s site, Poem Farm. Good stuff. And she’ll read some poems to you as well.

Before you see what the students are reading… what are you reading? Please leave a comment and let us know—and show the students that reading isn’t just a “school” thing.

(For every parent who leaves a comment with what you’re reading, I’ll give your child a BUSTED ticket…)

[Check back at the end of the day to see the cool spinning pictures of what my students are reading.]

Click the picture below for A Class SpinCam

Click the picture below for B Class SpinCam

Click the picture below for C Class SpinCam

[If anyone else is using SpinCam to show what your students are reading, I’d love to know about it and link to my Friday post. Thanks.]

Thanks,

David Etkin

3.22 {BookFlix Friday} When We Wuz Famous & The School for Good and Evil

Posted on March 22, 2013 by David E.

Today is

There are tons of great book trailers out in cyberland, and each Friday I will endeavor to bring a couple to you. Many will be new and recent books. Some trailers will preview a not-yet-released book. And others will look back a little further.

Lights…Camera…Action!

First—the BookFlix trailer from the morning announcement:

school-of-good-and-evil

Description

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed–Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ?

The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

3.21 {THIRSTday} Capture the Flag

Posted on March 21, 2013 by David E.

Today is Thursday THIRSTday: A beverage and a book.

The great Kate Messner’s CAPTURE THE FLAG (I have the NetGalley of the sequel), a pre-workout protein drink, and a sweet Duct Tape bookmark made by my sweet student Acaseya. :~}

3.20 {Whatever Wednesday} Ugandan Water Project 5K—You in?

Posted on March 20, 2013 by David E.

Whatever Wednesday — a chance to post something I’ve seen that I’m diggin’. Though often a cool quote or poster, it might simply be a picture.

Enjoy!… and consider posting your own Whatever.

I’m currently reading aloud A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. It’s a Battle book…
and it fit right in with world awareness for World Read Aloud Day… and I couldn’t read it and not share it… and the kids are hooked. While dealing largely with the plight of the Lost Boys of Sudan, it is also a book about the water crisis in Africa. It’s scaryeyeopeningbreathtakinghorizonexpanding. (Check out the blog page I set up.)

And then I see that my friend and his organization, Ugandan Water Project–an organization that helps provide clean, safe drinking water to African villlages–is doing a fundraiser run.

And I hate running, but I kind of want to do it.

[click to visit the site]

Does anyone want to join me? Sponsor me? It would be SO cool to have some students sign up and run along with their slow, “old” teacher in Rochester to raise money and awareness for this cause.

Here is a picture of my buddy James from the site and a couple cool videos so you can see part of what they’re all about. And hey–Let me know.

James Harrington UWP Director teaching in Kawanda

3.18 It’s Monday! What are you reading? #ZebraForest @AdinaGewirtz

Posted on March 18, 2013 by David E.

A new week, a new batch of books–both books finished and being read. Today is…

Ring-the-Bell Monday & It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Sharing what books we’ve read in the past week & the titles we are currently reading.}

Description

In an extraordinary debut novel, an escaped fugitive upends everything two siblings think they know about their family, their past, and themselves.

When eleven-year-old Annie first started lying to her social worker, she had been taught by an expert: Gran. “If you’re going to do something, make sure you do it with excellence,” Gran would say. That was when Gran was feeling talkative, and not brooding for days in her room — like she did after telling Annie and her little brother, Rew, the one thing they know about their father: that he was killed in a fight with an angry man who was sent away. Annie tells stories, too, as she and Rew laze under the birches and oaks of Zebra Forest — stories about their father the pirate, or pilot, or secret agent. But then something shocking happens to unravel all their stories: a rattling at the back door, an escapee from the prison holding them hostage in their own home, four lives that will never be the same. Driven by suspense and psychological intrigue, Zebra Forest deftly portrays an unfolding standoff of truth against family secrets — and offers an affecting look at two resourceful, imaginative kids as they react and adapt to the hand they’ve been dealt.
From ZEBRA FORESTWe called it the Zebra Forest because it looked like a zebra. Its trees were a mix of white birch and chocolate oak, and if you stood a little ways from it, like at our house looking across the back field that was our yard, you saw stripes, black and white, that went up into green. Gran never went out there except near dusk, when the shadows gathered. She didn’t like to be out in full sunlight usually, and told me once she didn’t like the lines the trees made. Gran was always saying stuff like that. Perfectly beautiful things — like a clean blue sky over the Zebra — made tears come to her eyes, and if I tried to get her to come outside with me, she’d duck her head and hurry upstairs to bed. But then it would be storming, lightning sizzling the tops of the trees, and she’d run round the house, cheerful, making us hot cocoa and frying up pancakes and warming us with old quilts. We had few rules in our house, but keeping out of the Zebra Forest in a storm was one of them.

{I saw this on Netgalley and it looked intriguing. It is coming out on April 9th. I liked the way the author used the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80 as a backdrop for this family drama. So much of this book is told in subtle conversations–both spoken and unspoken: the droop of a head; staring at knuckles; popping gum; long discussions about Treasure Island. Ms. Gewirtz deftly captures clever, real-life interactions between siblings and among three generations of family. Here is the author’s website.}

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[Check back throughout the day for updates of my students’ reading.]

Since last Monday, my A Class has read:

17 books

My B Class has read:

19 books

My C Class has read:

10 books

I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading this book–but things are subject to change.

Before you see what the students are reading… what are you reading? Please leave a comment and let us know—and show the students that reading isn’t just a “school” thing.

(For every parent who leaves a comment with what you’re reading, I’ll give your child a BUSTED ticket…)

[Check back at the end of the day to see the cool spinning pictures of what my students are reading.]

Click the picture below for A Class SpinCam

Click the picture below for B Class SpinCam

Click the picture below for C Class SpinCam

[If anyone else is using SpinCam to show what your students are reading, I’d love to know about it and link to my Friday post. Thanks.]

Thanks,

David Etkin

3.15 {BookFlix Friday} Michael Vey 2: Rise of the Elgen

Posted on March 15, 2013 by David E.

Today is

Lights…Camera…Action!

First—the BookFlix trailer from the morning announcement: Starters

Description

Michael must save his mother—and protect his powers—in the electric sequel to the #1 New York Timesbestselling Michael Vey, from Richard Paul Evans.

Michael was born with special electrical powers—and he’s not the only one. His friend Taylor has them too, and so do other kids around the world. With Michael’s friend Ostin, a techno-genius, they form the Electroclan, an alliance meant to protect them from a powerful group, the growing Order of Elgen, who are out to destroy them. The leader of the Elgen, Dr. Hatch, has kidnapped Michael’s mother, and time is running out.

After narrowly escaping an Elgen trap, Ostin’s discovery of bizarre “rat fires” in South America leads the gang to the jungles of Peru, where the Electroclan meets new, powerful foes and faces their greatest challenge yet as Michael learns the extent of the Elgen’s rise in power—and the truth of their plan to “restructure” the world.

3.14 {THIRSTday}

Posted on March 14, 2013 by David E.

Today is Thursday THIRSTday: A beverage and a book.

Protein drink with Greek yogurt in it and an ARC of Zebra Forest. Yummmmm—that’s TWO desserts!

3.13 {Whatever Wednesday} WRAD13 caught on camera…

Posted on March 13, 2013 by David E.

Whatever Wednesday — a chance to post something I’ve seen that I’m diggin’. Though often a cool quote or poster, it might simply be a picture.

Enjoy!… and consider posting your own Whatever.

A great video of our WRAD13 experience. The pictures and the student comments at the end say it all:

Full Image

3.11 It’s Monday! What are you reading? #Scarlet & Harlem Shake Vids

Posted on March 11, 2013 by David E.

A new week, a new batch of books–both books finished and being read. Today is…

Ring-the-Bell Monday & It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Sharing what books we’ve read in the past week & the titles we are currently reading.}

{OK–that’s a pretty decent trailer, but the book is MUCH better. Yeah, it’s a little romancy, but there’s tons of action. Fights. Werewolf-type creatures. Escapes. Spaceships. Mechanics. Droids. Computer chips. Amazing to see this re-envisioning of traditional fairy tale characters. I was anxious to see where it was headed–now I’m just anxious for the next book. I haven’t read anything like this in quite some time. I’ll just have to bide my time until Cress (Rapunzel) comes out and I can see how she joins into the story of Cinder… and Scarlet… and Wolf… and Queen Levana… and Thorne… and Kai.

If you’re interested in some short prequels, here is the link.}

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[Check back throughout the day for updates of my students’ reading.]

Since last Monday, my A Class has read:

12 books

My B Class has read:

15 books

My C Class has read:

7 books