Saturday, March 28, 2015

{#sol15} Celebrate! 28/31


hosted by Two Writing Teachers

Discover. Play. Build.

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week.

Many of my celebrations this week made it into my Slice of Life posts. Slice of Life is one of my celebrations. It hasn't been nearly as difficult as I thought to post each day this month and truly, the best part may be reading and commenting on other people's posts. The posts have been thought-provoking, beautiful, emotional, and sometimes hilarious. It's a treat to visit the many blogs and enjoy the writing and life journeys of others.

Another treat was seeing the trailer of Meg Medina's new picture book, Mango, Abuela and Me, coming at the end of the summer. It looks so fun.

Tuesday was a day of thinking. It was the conclusion of some professional development that a team of teachers from my building attended throughout this year. We learned about Culturally Responsive Classroom Practices. We're hoping to implement some of the classroom practices that we learned in the coming year and are already trying to use some of them in our own spaces. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as we get the information to other staff members. I'm excited to see what we can do.

On Wednesday evening, creativity was the theme. I was able to go to a craft night and have a beading lesson. Ever since attending the American Indian Summer Institute in 2013, beading has been something on my bucket list. A young Mohican woman there was working on beadwork for a Powwow and it was beautiful. The artistry was stunning. Being able to learn how to string beads together was nice, but spending time with women and girls while we worked on different projects and talked was also very relaxing. I hope to be able to participate often.

Thursday was a busy day as I taught and then went to a presentation about Ethiopia. Having read Black Dove, White Raven within the past month had me wanting to learn more about this fascinating country. We learned a lot about the country and its people. Following the presentation, I made my way to our elementary school dance. Joining in the fun was a spirit lifter. Several teachers were out on the dance floor and we had a blast acting silly and dancing around with our students. This all made for a long day, but one filled with goodness.

Related to culturally responsive practices, a new resource appeared on my radar that will help me gather resources related to Native Nations of Wisconsin. It also helps others. Someone was just asking me yesterday how to get information to local elementary librarians about what resources to purchase and I was able to direct them to this resource. Win!

The week was filled with excitement and fun as our school celebrated our Spirit Week and that is a celebration in itself. Seeing everyone dressed in crazy ways and being silly together made for a lot of laughter and many smiles. Coming up, we have a short week and then my son comes home for a few days. Life is good.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing about Mango, Abuela and Me. I heard Meg Medina speak at NCTE, but didn't realize she had a new book coming out now. I will look forward to reading it.

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    1. I love her books so am really looking forward to it.

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  2. I think the beading lessons would be fascinating!
    I'm reading Black Dove White Raven now and I'm having trouble getting into it. I'm around 35% done, so maybe it will start grabbing me soon!

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  3. The Meg Medina book surely will be good, Crystal. I'm glad always to read your posts because you share so many books that I might not otherwise discover. Glad you had such a nice week. Each part sounds wonderful. I'm going to look for your review of Black Dove, White Raven, interested to see what you thought.

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  4. The beading experience sounds so rich. Wow. Sounds like a wonderful week!

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  5. Loved looking in on your week! Busy, but filled with fun and learning. A perfect combo.

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