New Books, New Me!

Aka, what is in my Junior Library Guild haul this month!

I love new books.  Luckily, the librarian at my school has come to realize this about me, and saves the monthly Junior Library Guild package for me to unbox every month.  It is like Christmas morning, except with more books!

So, what are the picks for high school readers this month?  Some really amazing and diverse reads! My favorite part about these monthly boxes is that the books always range in topic, genre, fiction/nonfiction, and reading level.  There is always something that will catch any reader's eye.

This month these three are my favorite picks, and the books I will be strategically dealing out to students who I think will enjoy them.

Pick one is A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White.  This book images the life of a newly drafted MLB player right out of high school.  Exciting in and of itself. However, the twist is that this young high schooler is also the first woman to be drafted in to MLB.  I'm feeling some  Mo'ne Davis and Pitch vibes from this.  First, the title is just simply beautiful language.  And second, what a great way for the young women in my class to imagine themselves in positions of greatness.  Cannot wait to put this book into one of my student's hands.  You can  find it for sale here:






The next read that looks amazing is Things I Should Have Known by Claire Lazebnik.  This book explores sibling relationships, living with a disability, building friendships, and life as a teen.  All topics I love reading about.  Plus, I'm super into the color scheme on the cover.  Love me some navy blue :)

You can find this read here:




Finally, my nonfiction pick.  I have always hated nonfiction, but I took this amazing class on  informational children's literature ( Hey Professor Moller!) and it is my new obsession.  I am living for the current trend in YA nonfiction, that explores great nonfiction topics in thrilling narrative format.  This next book looks like it is following that same trend, while also dealing with some serious topics.  

The Whydad explores piracy on the seven seas,  treasure hunting on shipwrecks, and the impact the slave trade had on modern society.


Discovering exciting new reads is always my favorite part of the day!

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Teacher Hair, Don't Care ( Except I do care about my students a lot a lot)

You know those mornings when your alarm goes off and you think to yourself, "how is it time to wake up already, I just laid down?!"

I've been having those a lot recently, and when I am tired I will do anything and everything to ensure I can stay in bed for just a few minutes longer...  Which mean's I had to figure out how to cut down on my morning prep time. (Read: less time on make-up and perfect hair...)

This has lead me to perfect three easy peasy go-to hair styles that take 2 minutes, but look like I just left a salon and had my hair professionally styled.  My favorite part about these looks?  They work the best with day old hair :)   Which means if I an strapped for time, I can forgo a hair washing and work with dry shampoo and a smile!

 (side note: if you ever run out of dry shampoo, baby power works just as well! As long as you keep it just at your roots, and you make sure to blend it in, you can't even tell it's there! I have dark brown hair, and it still works for me! Plus, its cheaper than actual dry shampoo #frugalteacher)

Here are my three go-to looks that you can create with things you already have in your home!

First, the always amazing, and super trendy sock bun.  This is been around for awhile now, but it has saved my on countless bad hair days, so I wanted to share it with all!  I have never bought one of the fancy hair donuts ( and honestly think they make the bun a little too perfect looking) so I also included a tutorial on how make your own sock donut!  These are not my videos, and  I am not in theme, but I used them to teach myself how to create this look!

How to make the bun thingy

Sock Bun Tutorial 

My next 2 minute teacher hair look requires simply only a cute headband! You put the headband in, and just tuck your hair all around it. So simple, and still super chic. 

Here are some of my favorite headbands to help with your look.  Plus, the best part is, you can you do this same look three days in a row with a different headband and it looks like you have a new do each day!

                   Find this look here                  Find This one here                         Find these here

My last two minute teacher look only requires some hair ties and bobby pins!  Throw your hair in a low pony, flip, repeat, tuck away the strays, and you're ready to sail out the door with coffee in hand!

 I've worn a sock bun twice this week, a head band once, and am rocking this last look for casual Friday.  ( I did my hair all nice on Monday, but that's about the only day I was peppy right out of bed)

Let me know what looks you love, and what your go to hair solutions are for those tired mornings in the comments! Look forward to getting some new ideas to switch up my looks!

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Words for Great Women

Happy Women's History Month!

To celebrate this month, I added some new decor to my classroom!

I loved these free African American History Month quote posters from Scholastic, and got inspired to make some of my own for this month.

Here is a picture of both sets of quotes in action in my ELA classroom.

Download them for FREE here on my TPT store. 

Be sure to let me know what you think and how you use them!

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Teaching Through the February/March Rut

👯💁🏻💃🏻💅🏻💆

All teachers know and fear the dark, long, dreary days between winter break and spring break. I am currently in a 6 week stretch before spring break with no days off, and no end in sight...

I feel it, and that means my students feel it too.  We know the pattern of each day, have been working on building the same skills all year, and we are used to each other.  No big surprises or twists in the plot line of each day.  This is just the nature of third quarter.  Made worse by a lack of sunshine, and cold weather.

This year, I am determined to get myself and my kiddos out of our learning rut, and excited about reading and writing again!

This means its time to break out all of the most creative activities.

My main move to get my students into the activity for the day is by making something that could be a worksheet, into something that is very definitely not a worksheet.  This means gallery walks, group stations, jigsaws, dry erase boards, writing on the windows, whatever it takes to make the same old task look new and shiny!

My sophomore ELA class has been working to build critical thinking skills through annotations.  But we are deep into the third book of the year, a book that has 30 chapters...  I decided it was time for a break from the normal annotating and summary writing.  Time to break out the emojis!

Today's task was to create a summary of a chapter using only emojis.  We then took turns displaying the summaries and guessing which chapter was being depicted.  This was a great way to review what had happened in our very long novel, but also allowed for a new way to practice an essential skill.

If you want to use this same idea, check out my FREE emoji summary worksheet here. 

Make sure to leave me a comment if you use it! I would love to see how others adapt the same resource.

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Great Reads for Women's History Month!

I have some amazing reading suggestions to empower young readers!  Both boys and girls :)

My new thing for all of my friends having babies is to send them a children's book that will show their little one just how amazing their mommy is.   I found some great books for my lawyer mommies, engineering mommies, and doctor mommies too!

In the spirit of Women's History Month, here are a few of my favorites, and an amazon link with a ton more of my suggestions!

Have any I should add to the list? Let me know in the comments!

The true story of Elizabeth Blackwell and her journey to become a doctor!

Ada explores her talent for learning and her passion for problem solving!

For little girls interested in law and government!

You can find these and a ton more suggestions here!

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Girl Power For Women's History Month

A few teachers and myself have started a lunch club based on the Shine Theory (article about the shine theory at work can be found here!) to help empower the young women we work with each day.

We started with a small group of girls from different grades, and different social circles, but made sure to pick young women who we knew would show up for us!  We sent out a fun, cute, formal invite to join us for lunch and conversation, and lured them there with the promise of free snacks!  

What started out as a monthly meeting, has now turned into a weekly must have!

The major event at each lunch is a simple brag session, where each girl must share one thing she is feeling about herself that week.  It can be as huge as a sports win, an aced test, or a cool scholarship, or as simple as having a great hair day, remembering your homework, or getting to class on time.  The key is, each girl must share, and each girl is given the space where the floor is all hers.  The most amazing thing to see, is that most time without prompting, all of the women in the room will ask for elaboration on the feel good moments, and give genuine encouragement.  It’s so uplifting to see!

The other key component is to make sure that this isn’t seen as an exclusive club.  It is open to everyone, but not all at once.  Each young lady who enjoyed her time, and plans to come back the next week is allowed to bring a friend. After you attend one meeting, you can bring a new friend each time, that friend can bring a friend, adding to the group each week!  This allows for growth and inclusion, but at a manageable rate :)

We also try to provide one activity for each lunch, but it is really student centered.  The girls set the agenda, and the teachers are just there to follow along!  We had some amazing weeks where the girls wrote a letter to a woman who they admired, talked about current events that affected them as women, and this week we are going to talk about books that helped in tough times.  

I wanted to share the bookmark for this weeks meeting to encourage other teachers to create something like this on their own.  Comment and let me know how it works for you.  My favorite part of my job is empowering my students, and giving them space to strengthen their voice and be heard.  Let me know your own ideas!  I would love to hear what you have to say :)

Teen Lit Bookmark

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