After my last post, I was contacted by another teacher at my former school and she extended an invitation for a summer job. There is an award that is given out once a year to a young adult/ adolescent level novel. This award is called the Heartland Award, and was started about 12 years ago by a professor at KU. Every summer, 20 individuals (teachers, librarians, etc...) are given a list of 30 books that have been recommended for this award. Our job is to read all 30, and then meet to narrow down the list to 10. Those 10 will then be read by teens all throughout the school year and at the end of the school year, the students vote and one book receives the award. So I'm on this committee to read - and I'll get paid to do so! - 30 books before August 22nd.
Therefore, my summer goals have been a bit thrown off - but here is how my list of "to-do's" is coming along:
1. Re-arrange the contents of my filing cabinets from school and recycle unncessary papers.
This I have done. It was a huge task, but very fulfilling! As you can see though, the contents of a classroom take up a lot of closet space (and this picture only represents half of the closet and a limited view of the top shelf!).
2. Read books:
- "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan ~ loved this book and this whole series really
- "I am the Messenger" by Markus Zuzak ~ got it from the library, but had to return it because of the 30 other books I have to read... I'll get back around to this one.
- "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith ~ gave up on it after 100 or so pages... so boring!
- "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary Schmidt ~ also loved this book. I recommended it to my mother. It's a good one!
- "Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet" by Jamie Ford ~ have this one checked out right now, but haven't started it.
- "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer ~ this one was just "okay." Nothing to write home about.
- "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau ~ not yet, but there is still summer left!
Here are some of the other books I have managed to read so far this summer though:
** For the Heartland Award **
"My Mother the Cheerleader" by Robert Sharenow
"Becoming Billie Holiday" by Carole Boston Weatherford
"Lizard Love" by Wendy Townsend
"All the Broken Pieces" by Ann Burg
"More than Friends: Poems from Him and Her" by Sara Holbrook and Allan Wolf
"Jumped" by Rita Williams-Garcia
"The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
"The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
"Revolution is Not a Dinner Party" by Ying Chang Compestine
"Hippie Chick" by Joseph Monninger
"The Book of Jude" by Kimberly Heuston
"Breathing" by Cheryl Renee Herbsman
"Handcuffs" by Bethany Griffin
"Thaw" by Monica M. Roe
"Rits" by Mariken Jongman
"Walkaway" by Alden Carter"
** Not for Heartland **
"Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
"Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
"My Last Skirt" by Lynda Durrant
"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
"Secret Society Girl" by Diana Peterfreund
"The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb
"The Scarlet Pimpernell" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
"Downtown Owl" by Chuck Klosterman
"The Stolen Child" by Keith Donohue
"The Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon
You can ask if you want to know what any of these are about or how much I enjoyed them individually.
3. See movies:
- "My Sister's Keeper" ~ no one to go with who has already read this book. It is even good enough to merit a theatre visit?
- "Harry Potter 6: The Half-Blood Prince" ~ going today... SOOOO excited! I re-read this book as well.
- "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" ~ I sort of gave up on this one.
We also saw "Public Enemies" with Johnny Depp (too violent, not enough plot or character development) and rented "The Cake Eaters" with Kristen Stewart (it was actually okay, a bit weird in times, but a cute story in the end). I also re-watched HP5 (Order of the Pheonix) in prep for the newest movie.
4. Perhaps try to re-finish my shoddy kitchen table.
I went to Home Depot looking for cast off gallons of paint and have just not found a color I like yet. I'll keep looking...
5. Take a couple of classes through the school district.
I took a class about how to incorporate the use of student-created videos into my curriculum and how to upload them onto various websites. Useless. I also got paid to play with Google Earth for 2.5 hours. It was awesome.
6. Cook interesting vegetarian dishes.
- Scalloped Potatoes in the crock pot earned 3 out of 5 stars. I changed the recipe - this was not a good plan.
- Lentil Vegetable Casserole earned -7 out of 10 stars. It was basically the most disgusting thing I've ever made. We kept trying to eat the leftovers in various other dishes, but there is nothing you can add or take away to make this any better.
- Campfire veggies (potatoes, onions, carrots & garlic in tinfoil packet over a camp fire) earned 4 out of 5 stars. Not too messy, great during camping. I may try this at home!
7. Apply in a couple more school districts in the New England area.
I filled in the application for the Boston public school system online. I also mailed my application to the Manchester, NH public schools and Ryan & I are going this weekend to interview for a job for Ryan. We're hopeful!
8. Make my own windchimes using random scraps from random places.
Um... yeah. I haven't done this. I don't know what I'm doing. I haven't put my mind to it either, to my own credit. Stay posted on that one...
Our very long road trip to the General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in Orlando, Florida was a lot of fun. We drove some 4,000 miles and saw plenty of cool sites. I touched a stingray (on purpose), bought a journal made out of recycled elephant poo, stood on the highest point in the US east of the Mississippi River and visited the Magic Kingdom. Not too shabby.
Tune in next time for more summery fun.
