Maria's Mélange

Join me each Tuesday as I write a "slice of life".... and stop by the Two Writing Teachers site to read what others have shared. Thanks Ruth and Stacy! To Whom It May Concern, I’d like to lodge a formal complaint and request your assistance in addressing a defective unit. Your manufacturing department appears to have missed one vital piece in assembly – the keystone of an otherwise flawless arch. Perhaps someone in your department can help me figure out exactly how to send the defective unit back into the shop for a quick repair? It seems to be the willpower reservoir. For some reason the human female known as Maria appears to have been assembled with a prohibitively small tank. Either that, or there is a leak in the line. You see, even the tiniest of tasks require small expenditures of that golden elixir known as willpower. When she tries to accomplish bigger goals, the tank runs dry before the finish line. Don’t even get me started on watching her try to ju

I am feeling a bit of shock and disbelief that July is almost over. Where, exactly, did the summer go? The best part of these weekly posts is that I can answer that question with a loud, resounding, "READING!". Perhaps I should have done more household organizing (yes, seriously). Perhaps more writing (I'm looking at you, WIP that I've not made nearly as much progress on as I had hoped.) Perhaps I could have done more yard work, or experimenting with simple recipes I could use throughout the year. Instead, I was lured by the siren song of the never ending TBR list. If you'd like to join in my insanity - head over to Teach Mentor Texts to peruse the weekly reading lists of my friends and colleagues. Science Fiction - If you follow me here or on Twitter, you know I'm trying to discover some new "classics" in science fiction that I can recommend. One thing that I'm still a bit disappointed with is the lack of true Middle Grade SciFi. I'v

Visit the Goodreads page for more information Beta – by Rachel Cohn Publisher - Disney Hyperion Expected Publication Date - October 16th  Elysia wasn’t born – she emerged. She is a clone. Created without souls, without feelings, clones are designed to serve the idle rich residents of an island paradise called Desmesne. Clones are property. They are bought and sold; human in form but not truly human. Elysia is a beta, the first of a new breed of clones emerged as teenagers instead of fully grown adults. Unlike the clones around her, Elysia has feelings -  intense at times - and begins to resent her complete lack of control over her life. She also has glimpses of the memories of her First, the young woman whose death enabled Elysia’s creation. Is she a Defect, doomed to be destroyed for her flaws? Are there others like her – clones who yearn to be free? What I think: This is a book about taking back your power, even when it has been ripped away from you. It’s a b

It's Tuesday, so it's time for another Slice of Life. Thanks to Two Writing Teachers for hosting this each week and giving us all a place to share our writing and comment on the writing of others.  Another segment of a scene. I'm still working on this one... I debated about putting this piece up, but then I decided I didn't want to skip a week. I'll try to have the scene finished next week.  “Cassandra and Meghan, we need to get going!” I stuck my head out the window, hollered, “Almost done, Aunt D!” and scooped up the last of my books and notepads. When I jammed them into my bag on top of my neatly folded clothing, careful not to disturb my careful packing, Cassie laughed at me. “Relax, Megs. We don’t really need to go yet. My mom is making us head out way too early, and we’ll get stuck sitting around for hours. I’m not even packed yet.” “God Cassie, get moving!” I tossed a pillow at her head. “If she decides to leave us home, I’ll kill you

Thanks to Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts for this wonderful weekly chance to share what I'm reading... and to find new books for my endless TBR list. I wrapped up #SummerThrowdown round one with a bunch of graphic novels. I'm also in preparation mode for several #ArcTours, so I read Enclave and Shatter Me . I have Legend on hold at my local library. While I'm on the topic, can someone explain to me how I didn't know until recently about the beauty of the "place hold" button my library's website? My books arrive, I get an email, and I can just go straight to the desk to grab the books I need. Sweet. ArcTour Preparation: Thanks to some amazing twitter peeps, I'll get to participate in a group read of a few upcoming titles. Reading the first books in these series was on my "to do" list, but prepping for the ARCs bumped them to the top of the stack. Both were amazing. Graphic Novels :  My "surprise" this week wa

Welcome back to Batty About Books - where Kathy ( @thebrainlair ) and I chat about a book we are reading each week. (Gotta love Google Docs!) This week we complete our journey with Obsidian Blade. Time travel paradox and a bit of alternate history timelines is always excellent fodder for deep discussions. As always -  * there are SPOILERS ahead. * My thoughts are in purple with Kathy's responses in blue. * Kathy's blog - The Brain Lair - hosts her thoughts with my responses. * Jump in with your thoughts in the comments! OBSIDIAN BLADE - Final Half Overall: Well, I’m glad I went back and reread the second half of the book. When I finished the book for the first time I was left feeling a bit bewildered and bereft. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, caused those feelings. My second read left me feeling a bit more sure about what I actually do and don’t know at this stage in the story. I slowed down, too, and I think that helped. The book definitely reads as

Time for another update on my SciFi Summer! Someone really needs to remind me not to wait a month to do my next post. Whew! Environmental disaster. Living on other planets. The long journey to a new home. Time travel.  All excellent fodder for stories. All fabulous ways to reveal more truths about who we are, right here on earth. Eye of the Storm - by Kate Messner (Check out some great reviews and summary at Goodreads ) Set in the "not too distant" future, Eye of the Storm captures a world where climate change has completely altered the landscape. Immense storms sweep through everywhere, altering life as we've known it. Jaden is sent to live with her father in StormSafe community to attend a cutting edge science camp when she uncovers secrets her father is hiding about his weather research. Environmental "near future" science fiction at its best, this book will appeal to readers who are fascinated with meteorology, climate science, and even mystery

Our first keynote at Confratute was about math instruction. Rachel McAnallen is a national treasure who completed her PhD at the age of 75 at the University of Connecticut. How inspiring! If you get her to visit your professional development or school, consider yourself lucky. I attend Rachel's keynotes every year. The first time I heard her speak it transformed the way I think about and teach math - and I've always loved the subject. Rachel does research on math anxiety in teachers, and the impact on instruction. Take a moment to check out her website - Zoid and Company . The blurb below is the summary of her keynote that I wrote for the Confratute newsletter.  Rachel McAnallen, known as Ms. Math to students and teachers around the world, helped kick off Confratute in style. According to Sally Reis, who introduced her, Rachel’s keynote addresses have marked a “turning point in the way we think about mathematics” to attendees for years. Rachel began her address by pointing

Visit Two Writing Teachers for more of the Slice of Life weekly challenge. Also - if you have a moment - check out my guest post for School Library Journal's Connect the Pop blog. " Harnessing Fandom to teach the Hero's Journey " Loving Star Wars and Harry Potter is good for education! As some of you know, I spent last week at a conference for gifted education (though the overall focus is on enrichment pedagogy, so it works for more than just gifted educators). I got my master's degree through UConn and ended up coming back every year for this conference. I also volunteer, and one of my big jobs is to attend the Keynote sessions and write summaries for the conference newsletter. Loving Teachers Write! I had started out this summer focusing on fiction writing, so it was a huge change to head back into a more journalistic style. I was also surprised to see how my note taking and writing changed over the course of a single week. My first few sessions I qui

 Visit Teach Mentor Texts for more wonderful book ideas!  It was a very busy week (not for reading). I was at an annual teaching conference in Connecticut. I volunteer at Confratute, so not only was I attending lots of sessions, but I was also working. One of my jobs was to create the summaries of the keynotes for the newsletter. That was my #TeachersWrite for the week. Journalism is tough! The Peter Reynolds books listed below were books he read to us during his keynote and classroom talk. He was incredibly inspiring! If you are looking for an adult read (and you aren't easily offended), Let's Pretend This Never Happened was a scream! Many of you commented on my live tweeting of many of those sessions. I'll be updating my blog with more information this week.   Until then, here are the "snips" from Goodreads to show my weekly update:

Inspired by my conference - Confratute - and some new tech tools. Using WordFoto app. Using Aviary app Accidental Brilliance (instagram)

Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts for hosting this each week. If I don't make it to your blog to check out your reading, I apologize.   I'm at a teaching conference this week (starting Sunday) which may prevent me from getting to a lot, and next week's post will be much shorter.  Summer Throwdown continues, and so does the extreme reading! I'm going to continue the image snippets this week, to make it easier to share. Comics! I was trying to finish up with some comics I'd borrowed from a friend. This week was devoted to the friendly neighborhood crime fighter - Peter Parker. Graphic Novels - Continuing my quest to read all the Babymouse (though I'm so sad I didn't win the Babymouse photo contest!) This week's extra special gem, though, was the Annie Sullivan GN. If you are at all interested in Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller - I HIGHLY recommend that book. I didn't know much about Annie's life and this was a powerful read. Historical F

This week marks my yearly voyage to Connecticut for Confratute - a conference celebrating enrichment learning and focused on gifted education. I am one of the volunteer workers, so I arrive mid day on Saturday to help prep the campus and rooms for the guests who'll be arriving later on Sunday. One of the reasons I do this each year is to have the added joy of catching up with friends I only see once a year. We stay in the dorms, which means that we "bunk up" - college style. The week will include a lot of activity. I'll attend keynote sessions (and write about them for our newsletter, which is one of my official "jobs" here), strands on education topics, and forums. All of that is fabulous - and I'll try to update my blog with many of the things that I learn - but I am also reminded each year of the joy of silly. Rock on the Star Wars! My roommates and I head out the first evening each year to Wal-Mart to pick up some things we absolutely must ha

Welcome to Friday, and my weekly chat with Kathy - aka The Brain Lair (@thebrainlair). This week we decided to stick with the science fiction genre and explore a much more recent novel our last one ( Fahrenheit 451 ). For those who are new to the game - there will be SPOILERS. Also, this blog hosts my thoughts (in purple) with Kathy's responses (in blue).  Head on over to The Brain Lair to read her thoughts with my responses.  Obsidian Blade part one Overall, I got pretty invested in the characters pretty quickly. The story is intriguing, and I kept having moments where I thought “I simply MUST know what is going on!” I did feel like the buildup took a long time. I’m halfway into the book now, and I’m just about to really move into the time travel / alternate world aspect of the book. That’s my only real complaint, I think. Perhaps if the book were longer, then it wouldn’t seem like 150 pages was a long time to get into the next chunk of the story. Kathy: I hadn’t noticed