Showing posts with label book lists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book lists. Show all posts

Monday, January 18, 2010

what just happened?

Nothing good ever comes from a week that starts off with an almost fight in your classroom. Never.
Tuesday, my car stopped working. The ignition switch stopped working, has to be replaced and won't be fixed until the middle of this week.
Wednesday was overwhelming because everyone had an opinion on my car, but none of them were the correct one. Shannon saved us by giving us a ride out to the school so we could try something. It didn't end up working, but it did reveal the real problem with the car.
Thursday was a faculty meeting with the addition of a budget of doom meeting. Salaries are getting cut, days off without pay and possible teacher cuts. Geez.
Friday was wrapped up the week with two girls quitting the step team, a long, awkward meeting at the end of a long day and no answer at the car place, which meant no car for the weekend.

In all negatives, there are positives:
+Carpooling with Jen will become more frequent, saving us both miles and gas. I also now have numbers of a few people who will help me get to school and back if I'm ever stranded again.
+Shannon helping us out so much! We couldn't have gotten through this week without her help!
+Lots of laughter, especially from 7th period. Nothing beats a kid waiting for everyone to get back to working, then drop a bomb like "So-n-so picks his zits and then eats them!" into the silence. I laughed so hard I almost cried. Good comedic timing, kid.
+Playing Rock Band and watching Doctor Who
+We are now more serious about looking for a new car. I'm really leaning towards the Ford Fusion or Focus, but it all depends on how it feels when I drive the car.
+I now know who to call if my car ever dies out in the country.

I would usually do the list of books I read this year, but I don't feel like it. I didn't get to 50, but David claims I read more pages than previous years. That may be true.

Yesterday I set up an Amazon wish list for my classroom. I've heard of other teachers doing this and with the school facing another $1.5 million to be cut, I figured it'd be a way I could help cover the supply cost and books for my classroom library (a success, btw). I put a link in the side bar and I'm putting on up on my digital gradebook and classroom website.

I finally uploaded pictures off of my camera AND a few videos from when we first got our Flip camera. They're up on my flickr account.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

challenge: 50 books in 52 weeks

Some of you already know that I keep track of the books I read. I keep lists of the books by seasons and I've done this for the past... 2 years? I think it's been 2 years. I got tired of forgetting all the books I've read, so I started recording it. This year, I decided to see if I could read 50 books.

Starting with the first book I read in 2007, ending with the last.
1.Days of War, Nights of Love: Crimethink
2. Birthday Letters: Ted Hughes
3. She Had Some Horses: Joy Harjo
4. Fight Club: Chuck Palahniuk
5. My Antonia: Willa Cather
6. The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkner
7. Into Thin Air: John Krakauer
8. The Mother Tongue: English & How it got that way: Bill Bryson
9. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: James Joyce
10. Little Children: Tom Perrotta
11. The Painted Drum: Louise Erdrich
12. Shalimar the Clown: Salman Rushdie
13. Seeing: Jose Saramago
14. Memories of My Melancholy Whores: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
15. A Walk in the Woods: Bill Bryson
16. A Lesson Before Dying: Ernest J. Gaines
17. Lord of the Flies: William Golding
18. Snow Falling on Cedars: David Guterson
19. Lamb: The Gospel According to Bif, Christ's Childhood Pal: Christopher Moore
20. The Namesake: Jhumpa Lahiri
21. Haunted: Chuck Palaniuk
22. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Ken Kesey
23. The Golden Compass: Philip Pullman
24. Jesus Land: Julia Scheeres
25. A Prayer for Owen Meany: John Irving
26. The Subtle Knife: Philip Pullman
27. Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury
28. The Amber Spyglass: Philip Pullman
29. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: J. K. Rowling
30. Geek Love: Katherine Dunn
31. Birds of America: Lorrie Moore
32. Sula: Toni Morrison
33. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain
34. Plainsong: Ken Haruf
35. Book of Ruth: Jane Hamilton
36. Going After Cacciato: Tim O'Brien
37. Slaughter-House Five: Kurt Vonnegut
38. Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen
39. 1984: George Orwell
40. Under the Banner of Heaven: John Krakauer
41. Love in the Time of Cholera: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
42. Death By Chick Lit: Lynn Harris
43. The Wedding: Dorothy West
44. Rant: Chuck Palahniuk
45. Blankets: Craig Thompson
46. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha: Roddy Doyle
47. The Scarlet Letter: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Only 3 short! Well, considering there were a few books that I started and never finished that I don't count on the list, I sort of got my challenge completed. And, now, there's 2008.