Thursday, February 28, 2013

Awesome Shirt of the Day

A great t-shirt for fans of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. (Greta says she got it at Barnes and Noble.) Upper learning students—if you haven't read this book you really should. It's amazing.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Skype with Laura Resau

Today our seventh graders Skyped with Laura Resau, author of Red Glass and The Queen of Water. Many of the students read her books in literature circles earlier this school year. Students read books relating to countries in Central and South America in language arts class and in geography class they researched the geographical and cultural questions that arose from the books. They then wrote research papers explaining how their geographical questions helped shape their understanding of the novels. (The other two books that students read were Before We were Free by Julia Alvarez and Red Midnight by Ben Mikaelsen.) Laura told about how she came to write both of her novels based on her own life experiences and her time spent teaching English in Oaxaca, Mexico. She answered a lot of questions about the writing and publishing process. Thank you, Laura Resau, for giving us your time today. 

Friday, February 15, 2013

Author Peter Lerangis

It was a privilege to host author Peter Lerangis today in Galloway Middle Learning. He spoke to our 5th and 6th graders about his new book, Colossus Rising. He was entertaining and very gracious, and took a lot of time to autograph books and be interviewed by Galloway 6th graders. Here they are holding up the orb (you have to read the book to understand this). Thank you to The Little Shop of Stories for sending him and to Ms. Pierce, Ms. Starkman, Mr. Boswell, and Ms. Eisenman for helping to coordinate his visit.

Free Hot Chocolate

Today we gave out hot chocolate and Valentine candy before school in the library. We gave out about 115 cups of hot chocolate. It was a cold morning and the end of a tough week at Galloway so it was nice way to start off the day. Next winter we will do it more often!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Author Peter Lerangis Coming to Galloway

On Friday, February 15 Galloway will welcome author Peter Lerangis, who will be speaking to 5th and 6th graders about his upcoming book called Colossus Rising. It's the first book in a new series called Seven Wonders. The book will be published on February 13, but the publisher sent us a few advance copies so teachers have been reading it to the kids to get them excited about the presentation. Here Ms. Starkman is reading chapter four to some of her sixth graders in the library. Thank you, Little Shop of Stories, for giving us the opportunity to meet Peter Lerangis.