Maria's Mélange

Teaching is my superpower - and it doesn't even require a cape! Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day.... Some days I feel like our nation doesn't really appreciate us. There are news stories about our greed and lack of intelligence. There are comments on EVERY news article telling teachers to "suck it up" and "just be thankful" we have jobs. We are told to "quit and find another job if you don't like it".... And yet. It's the day to day smiles on the faces of my students. It's the question, "Why weren't you here yesterday?" accompanied by the disappointed look in their eyes. They understand that I was at training - or was on a trip with my own child - but they missed me. It's the happy greeting when I see current and former parents at the grocery store or when I drop my child off for special events. It's the quick emails or unexpected blog posts from those former students. It's the

Happy Star Wars Day! Welcome to my little corner of book heaven. Here's what I read the last two weeks. Don't forget to visit the lovely hosts of this meme -  Teach Mentor Texts  and  Unleashing Readers . There are links to a LOT of posts there! The Epic Yarn idea is a cute one. They are board books, and each one represents the entire movie with a series of 12 images and a single word per page.  I'm feeling a little touchy about the representation of the ladies in my science fiction this week, so I thought that that particular aspect could have used some improvement. (More details later) On the whole, though, the word choices and scene choices are fabulous.   Darth Vader and Friends is another adorable offering from Jeffrey Brown. He wins extra bonus points with me for including Boushh. This is for kids (and adults, let's be honest) who already love Star Wars. The "in jokes" would go way over the heads of peopl