Chloe and the Lion

Chloe and the Lion is published by Hyperion books. It is written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by  Adam Rex. The video below would be great to use as a jumping off point to discuss what authors do and what illustrators do. Chloe and the Lion is one of the Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice books for elementary students for the 2013-1014 school year. Doing a quick research report on lions would be a nice companion project to this book. I think I will have my students use the PebbleGo Database and find out more about lions. I created this worksheet to go with the information in the PebbleGo Database.

Ten Rules You Absolutely Must Not Break if You Want to Survive the School Bus by John Grandits

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If you are looking for a good book to read to your returning students, this is the one you need. Ten Rules You Absolutely Must Not Break if You Want to Survive the School Bus pits an older siblings advice against a younger sibling's first day experience. The younger breaks every one of the older sage's rules on the first day! And there is a great post on writing activities for this book here and it also has a listening guide for students to check off.  The author's website also has a foldable school bus to print out and make if you are looking for an activity to do with upper elementary students. It could also be adapted to use with younger students. John Grandits is a former Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice winner and this current selection is on the Young Reader's Choice list for elementary grades for the 2013-1014 school year. Also take time to view the book trailer. John Grandits visited Arrowhead several years ago and the students loved his concrete poems! The picture above came from here.

Lisa's Lingo: Rock Stars and the Rest

Lisa Parisi is a rock start to me. I have learned so much from the methods she uses in her classroom. But Lisa is not the sage on stage. She's more of a mentor rockstar! She takes time to teach those of us that need her experience. Take a look at Lisa's blog post about rock stars that has spurred a debate on Twitter. Some of the people in the heat of the debate are some of the people I learn from the most.  Lisa's Lingo: Rock Stars and the Rest.
I am far from a rock star. I often feel I have nothing to share but there are those in my school who look to me to help them because I share. I often stand in awe of those people in my PLN who are rock stars and when they share with me it is exhilarating. When I attended my first ISTE Conference I was flabbergasted. I almost didn't talk to anyone because I was in the presence of greatness. The sessions were wonderful and I learned so much. But then I attended my first EDUCON and my first EdCamp and it was different.  It was a conversation, everyone had something to share, the rockstars and even me! So my thought is that maybe unconferences like EDUCON and EdCamp are changing the way teachers learn from one another, maybe it is more about the conversation and less about the sage on the stage.