What are 10 Picture Books You Could Not Live Without?

What are the 10 picture books you could not live without in your classroom or library?  Once you have your list, please participate in the August 10 for 10 picture books event.  According to Cathy Mere @cathymere, "Each year participants share a variety of picture book lists.  Some bloggers share the ten books which are absolutely essential to them.  Other bloggers create lists around interesting topics.  We always enjoy the creativity used by picture book lovers as they share their favorites.  Narrowing a stack of picture books to ten is never easy."  

On August 10th, Cathy Mere will be hosting the 4th Annual August Picture Book 10 for 10.  Of course, who better to join the fun than the #nerdybookclub community?  They have already enlisted a few people and are hoping more will share their love of books.  They are anticipating many creative lists again this year, a few lists for secondary teachers, several “must have” titles, and books to fill your shelves.   Get ready!!  I'm getting my list ready!!

For more info on participating, please visit Nerdy Book Club August Picture Book 10 For 10 by Cathy Mere

Sad State of NC Government

What a week it has been in the NC education arena.  I am deeply saddened that instead of investing in the educational future of our children and the dedicated educators who teach them, our state leaders have chosen to deeply cut the funds set aside for that purpose.  To me, that is an area that should never be touched when it comes to cuts, but respected to the point where the state re-allocates the funds from other areas.  As an educator, I am saddened that teachers are not respected in the professional arena.  That is evident in the fact that the state assembly is cutting Master's pay for those that have taken that extra step to become a skilled master in the art of teaching.  As a parent, I am worried about the teachers who will be teaching my children.  I want those teachers to be highly qualified to teach by having as much education in the art of teaching as they can have.  But with no extra pay to possibly help pay for the student loan that enabled those professionals to gain that mastery, I fear that this will deter many fine teachers from striving to become better teachers by furthering their own education in the art of teaching.  As a school librarian, I have the honor of working with all of the educators in the school and I see what a difficult career choice this is for all of them.  But they all do this because they love to teach, not because they want to get rich.  And for this administration to not only NOT reinstate our yearly salary grades, but continue to find avenues to cut is demeaning.  Those positions that were cut (teacher assistants) are the positions that help keep our schools afloat by providing needed teacher and student support.  Teachers are teaching/supervising children for 7 1/2 hours a day then spend time after hours planning for their lessons for the next school day (yes, each elementary teacher has to plan English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies lessons daily).  All of this on a salary of $30,800 for beginning teachers.  No pay raises, no cost of living increases, plus most supplies are bought by the teachers for their classroom, especially if they are a beginning teacher.  As a school librarian, I have even bought books for my library out of my own pocket due to the lack of funds.  You do what you have to for the students because we want to see them succeed.  But we have families to support also.  So yes, I am very saddened at the turn of events in NC education.  I may not have the support of our government, but I have the support of my students, my colleagues, and my student's parents.  That is why I teach---I love what I do and I love our students.  And yes, WE ARE PROFESSIONALS!  Please NC, treat us as such!

Letting Go....

Twice this week I have felt pretty weepy at having to say goodbye to some of my material possessions.  First, I packed up some of my XL T-shirts.  I have recently lost around 25 lbs. and they are way too big to wear now.  Well, all of my Jimmy Buffett T's are XL and I almost cried having to give them away.  But I quickly reminded myself that I DID NOT want to be able to fit into them again, ever.  So I wouldn't back out of the donation, I took them to Goodwill immediately.  They are gone and surprisingly, I don't miss them (well, maybe my Fruitcakes and Carnival World T-shirts).  I have gone to Goodwill a couple of times to see if I could reunite with my old T's, but they are not to be found, which is for the best.  Out of sight, out of mind!

Then today, since my husband is out of town, I had the pleasure of dealing with 109 U-Pull It man (you know the jingle-I know you are singing it out loud right as I speak).  He came to haul off my husband's 1990 Ford Bronco II (he bought it in 1990 and met me in 1991 so I was pretty attached to the old "black bomb" also).  I gave him the paperwork my husband left for me (title, keys, and a list of all the things that were wrong with the truck-not that the list mattered since they were buying the truck for parts).  But making the list helped my husband with saying goodbye to the truck.  Since he was not here for the ceremonial moment, I videotaped the adventure.  And believe it or not, I got weepy.  Oh I tried to look cool behind my glasses, but having that old truck hauled off touched me also.  Because that was my history leaving as well.  We had a lot of fun in that truck (especially the time my back glass got shot out in Greensboro-a story for another time).  But I am reminded that we can't hold onto "things".  My memories are not enveloped in the "things" in my life, but the people that shared the "things" with me along the way.  I will miss my T-shirts (because I LOVE Jimmy Buffett and I will miss that old truck, but Jimmy's music is still here to make me feel good and so is my husband (bless his heart-ya'll know what I mean).  It's all good!