So glad to be participating in the Celebrate link up. Thank you, Ruth Ayres for this awesome Saturday tradition. 

I am celebrating. . .

1)  Back to school reading excitement!  I spent a nice chunk of my winter vacation reading. I attempted to do a #bookaday challenge,  but that was a little too ambitious for my life-with-small-children. I did read every day though, and I loved the consistency and immersion. I shouldn’t admit it, but it also was a good excuse to not fold laundry or clean up  (it helped take my mind of things like bats too!)  I went back to school on Thursday with a small pile of the young adult books I had read, and my students devoured the pile. I told them about my #bookaday challenge, and how even though I didn’t accomplish that goal, just trying it made me read more – which I loved!  On Friday I went to school with my new “to-read” pile, and most of those books were taken as well. It’s sometimes hard for me to give my new pretty books away for students to read first, but I do it anyway!

My “to-read” pile

2) Speaking of reading. . .  I finished this:

I have gotten so many ideas from this book for my teaching, and that is something to celebrate! I have already implemented many Wild Reading strategies in my classroom, and now my job is to go back through to all of my post-its and implement some more! I think Donalyn Miller should be celebrated daily. Her books and her confident attitude about what’s important has really given me the go-ahead that I need in my reader’s workshop. 

3) My best friend, K. I met her when I was 3 and she was 4. She lives far away now, but I got to spend (a little bit of) time with her during the holidays. Today her mom came over to drop off a Christmas present. A framed picture of us from back in the day eating our pudding pops. Do you remember pudding pops? They had a little figure 8 of ice on the bottom, and they were The. Best. Summer. Snack. Ever. What I’m celebrating, aside from that icy treat, is the fact that I have K. She may live far away, and our lives may be busy,  but we are each other’s childhood memories and our friendship has lasted over 3 decades.