Currently reading...EVERYTHING!

Now that I have finished my Masters of Arts in Teaching at SUNY Cortland, and local schools are currently on holiday break, I have had a significant amount of time on my hands. Sure, I have kept myself busy making sure I have all of my paperwork in for subbing, and trying to get my ducks in a row so that I can start my job at F-M High School in March, but mostly I have been catching up on sleep, playing our new Wii, and reading a TON!

Finally that pile of books I have accumulated in the "Must Read" pile are getting some much needed attention. I started with Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. If you read The Hunger Games- which you must- Catching Fire is the equally the you-won't-get-any-sleep-until-you-have-turned-the-very-last-page-suspense novel. Good stuff!

Next up, I finally got around to I Am The Messenger by Zusak. I had highly anticipated reading it, but it was well worth the wait! It is amazing to me that he also wrote The Book Thief, because the protagonists in each novel are so drastically different from each other. Very well-crafted.

Those of you who know me well, know that I am a sucker for a pre-sale book. I am constantly pre-ordering things from various online sources and ripping packages open in excitement when they arrive. Rarely, however, do I get to immediately open the book and begin to read. This was also the case with Dan Brown's (yea, I know- I'm a sucker for a conspiracy theory!) latest book- The Lost Symbol. I finally started it yesterday and I am already about halfway done.

I am excited tonight about meeting some friends out for dinner, but I just can't wait to get back home to put on my sweats and read my book!

Does this make me a bad person? ;)

Retro-blog on NCTE

Well it has been weeks since I returned from my first ever NCTE Convention, but I have been so busy getting myself organized with student teaching and finishing my MAT, that I haven't had time to really sit down and write about it.

My friend Joyce and I drove down early on Friday morning to try and make it to a luncheon where one of our favorite authors (Gene Yang) was going to speak. We wanted to make it earlier to support our friend Jen Kirchoff, but both of us were sick and we couldn't have left any earlier than we did. From the moment we arrived at the Philadelphia Convention Center we were awestruck. The immensity of the convention was not lost on these first time attendees. Just in time for the luncheon, we were able to see Gene Yang give an unbelievable presentation on graphic novels in our culture, and Joyce got her new book signed.

For the rest of the day on Friday, we tried to decipher the enormous book that referenced each workshop, lecture, session, and vendor that was available to us. I chose to attend a session on Social Justice, since it pertained to what we were going to present on Sunday. This session outlined several titles in Young Adult Literature that promote the teaching of multicultural perspectives, and I came away with several new ideas for classroom implementation.

I spent more time before bed on Friday night planning out which sessions I wanted to see on Saturday. Having my plan marked out, I went straight to my first session on Saturday morning (after grabbing a cup of java, of course). This session was of particular interest to me, because it was presented by teachers in the Fayetteville-Manlius school district, to which I had recently applied for an interim position. I was also interested because this session focused on analyzing film with critical theory, which is something I have always wanted to do. Seeing it in action, and experiencing the "light bulb" that often accompanies viewing new texts through a critical lens, really made me want to go home and scrap what I was doing in the classroom. I also had the opportunity, after the session, to meet some of the master teachers who had presented.

Saturday flew by, and I was on a mission to get as many books as I possibly could. I had several bags full of books, some purchased, some signed by authors, and some that were free.
FREE? FREE??? FREE!!
It was like Christmas for a little kid, seeing all of my fellow teachers line up at booths to meet and greet famous authors like Jay Asher, Walter Dean Myers, and John Green. It. Was. Awesome. As you can see by the picture above, my classroom library has grown tremendously thanks to my trip to Philly!

Saturday night we went to the Hard Rock with our friends from Cortland, but I was concerned about getting home early to prepare for the following morning's presentation. I spent all morning going over my part of the presentation, tweaking the website I had made for attendees to access my unit plan, and mentally preparing for one of the biggest moments of my soon-to-be-career. As an English teacher, I am supposed to hate cliches, but time really did fly by. Before I knew it, we were packed up (free books in tow) and headed back to the 'Cuse. Dr. Sarver did a great job introducing our topic, Joyce and Bri were on point as usual, and I didn't do so shabbily myself. Basically the experience has left us with the feeling that we can accomplish anything in this field, and we are ready to tackle our next obstacle- graduating and getting a job!

Case of the mondays...

On days like this, when the weather is less than stellar and my mood is blah, I make a list of things I am looking forward to. This is in no way related to the other list I have that dictates all of the things I need to clean in my apartment. Let's make lists to distract ourselves from other lists... this is healthy, right?

#1 NYC! In a few short weeks I will be headed to New York to shop and hang with ma dukes. I haven't been there in awhile, but going there always centers me. It's like being somewhere that big regenerates me, and puts the world into perspective.

#2 Philly! I love to travel, and although I have been to areas around Philly, I have never actually seen the city. The National Convention for NCTE is there, and I am a presenter. I hope to learn a lot from other teachers, authors, and teacher-educators. Plus I get to spend a weekend with Joyce, which is guaranteed to be fun and crazy.

#3 Graduation! This is bitersweet, but right now I could really use a paycheck (see previous blog). Class is my haven. Nothing beats a classroom of people who are as smart, or smarter, than me engaging in a juicy discussion. I miss this already, but I do really love being in the classroom. I'm ready to move on with the next stage of my life.

A bookshelf made of cinder blocks...

Recently our professor introduced me and my friends, as graduate students, to a retired teacher from a local district. Upon hearing that we were getting our Masters, the teacher remarked on the stereotype of a graduate student. He said, " Oh, you are grad students, which means you are so poor that you must have an array of furniture made out of cinder blocks." We all laughed... and laughed, but inside I was thinking how close that was to the truth. Of course, I don't have actual furniture made from cinder blocks, but I have been experiencing poverty in a variety of other ways.

Have you ever been so poor that you had to wait to turn on the heat until well after the first snowfall? Even when it is so cold in your house that you leap from the bathroom rugs into the warm shower to avoid having your bare feet touch the frigid floor? How about when said heat is turned on, it is set at a maximum temperature of 59 degrees? Yea, that is in Fahrenheit. As I sit here typing this blog, I think about days ahead when I will get my first job. Will I still need to sit in my own apartment wearing a winter hat for warmth, or have my nose so cold that I haven't noticed that it started to drip onto my laptop? I hope that, although a teacher's salary is not a wealth of riches by any means, I will someday be able to jack the heat without remorse or fear for the financial repercussions.

I have to say that despite the legitimate icicles forming on my eyelashes, I am thankful to finally be doing what I love to do. I have more books than dollars, and I'm ok with that. Being able to finally teach is worth vying for survival in the frozen tundra that is my little apartment.

Don't call it a comeback...

...I've been here for years.

No really, I have been blogging for years. I swear! Because it was always required for me, throughout my career as a graduate student, to blog on classroom sites, I have neglected to really commit myself to my own personal blog. I started out on wordpress, did some stuff with NING, but this here blog is my very own.

As I finish my student teaching experience and begin toward a career in teaching, I feel the need to reflect on some of the events that occur in my daily life. Plus I seem to never make the time to write anymore, so this will force me to practice what I preach, right?

Redmond, out.