Team Work

Have you ever heard of this band, 

Walk Off the Earth?

They take songs you know and they put their own creative spin on them. Usually about 5 or 6 people have to work together with perfect timing and focus to create something clever and interesting. Each one of them has a job to do. If one of them doesn't do their part, the whole thing is a bust. 

It's amazing what can be accomplished when people contribute their individual talents and strengths to a project, respecting each person's piece of the puzzle. 

Kind of like projects at school or being part of a family, everybody has something special to offer.

Work hard. Do your part. 

Be proud of what you can do well. 

Contribute to your team. They need you!

I hope you enjoy these videos. There are tons more. 

Look up Walk Off the Earth and appreciate the team work necessary to get this done.

If the World Were 100 People

If the World Were 100 People

This is all I've got for this week. Between the inauguration and the women's march and selling and buying a house, in addition to my regular life of teaching and grading and wifing and mommying, I just thought a little perspective might be good.

What are you reading? (tiny font size will not adjust)

In my family, we value reading. My wife and I read books and magazines. She pores over cookbooks because she is an amazing chef! I have been reading to my daughter, Eva, since before she was born. Even though she reads quite a bit, she still says, "I don't like to read."

Why do so many students dislike reading? What is the solution? How do we create lifelong readers? Tell me in the comments section. What do you read? What would make you like reading more?

Don't forget, students can earn extra credit in my class by writing original book reviews of books they have read for the blog.

Currently, these are the books Eva says she likes:
The Tiger Rising
A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary 
Down the Rabbit Hole
Cinder
Not One Damsel in Distress
Manga


Most recently, I have read:
The Storyteller 
The New Yorker Magazine
A Million Little Pieces


Ange prefers non-fiction:
A Walk in the Woods
Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast

What are you reading?

The Time of Your Life

Welcome to a new year. I hope you are all well and healthy.

Let me tell you what I have done over break. The day after school got out, my wife and I flew to Indiana to surprise some other family members for Christmas. The plan was very exciting. We had checked in with only a couple people to arrange for a place to stay and transportation. The rest of the big family would be gathering for the holidays over a few days at several different houses, and we were going to show up at each event and surprise everyone. We had been looking forward to it for weeks.

Unfortunately, I got sick the day we arrived. Like really sick. I was coughing and fevery, congested, and unable to stay awake. I went to lie down on Christmas Eve eve and, basically, I didn't get up for 5 days. After that, I mustered enough energy to visit another person's house, and I slept there all day. Then another house and more sleeping.

As I vacillated between sleep and wakefulness, I could hear people talking. I could smell food being cooked. I could enjoy my family from afar. I missed so much, but I also felt the love around me.

After 10 days in Indiana, most of which I slept through, we flew home. I went to the doctor after returning to Chico. I have the flu and am "on the brink of pneumonia," according to the medical professional. I continue to cough and sleep and blow squishy sea creatures out of my nose.

I don't even remember Christmas. The good news is I still have a week to recover.

I hope each of you reading this have had a wonderful break. I hope you have been warm and you've had enough to eat. I hope your time with family has been loving. I hope you've appreciated every moment. I hope you've had the time of your life.

(Ask me about having birthday cake with Billie Joe Armstrong when I was 19.)

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GUEST BLOGGERS

2 Truths and a Lie

1. One morning I was helping my dad with yard work and my cat, Precious, was relaxing by one of trees in the back yard. Once me and my dad were done, we went to go eat and we looked outside. My cat was attacking a gopher snake. She ended up not killing it because we took her inside. We picked up the snake with a towel and took it to the creek.

2. One day me and my family went to the ocean. Once we arrived, there were a lot of surfers in the water. After a while, we learned that they weren't surfing, they were on paddle boards. There was a shark in the water and they tried to remove it and take it to a new location.

3. My friend and I set up a raccoon trap and we let it stay set until morning. When we got back to the trap there was a fox in it and we were scared to release it. We got a big stick and went onto a tree and tried to open it like that, but that didn't work. We went back to his house and we got a rope. We tied it on and went back to the tree and started to pull. After about 10 seconds of pulling, the fox ran out.

Nicolas G.

Two truths and one lie

1. I have traveled all through the world. In fact my favorite hobby is to travel. Me and my family enjoy traveling every summer to different places we have never been to, whether it's the sandy beach or to the highest mountain peak on earth .
2. When I was very young, I  went downstairs while everyone in the house was sleeping. I had received a gold coin from the tooth fairy. I was very fond of this gold coin. I set it down, and I saw my favorite bird eat it. He was choking and died in front of me.
3. When I was 3, I fell down wooden stairs at my aunt's apartments. My aunt's keeper saw me fall down and rip my head open. She went to get my mother. My mom called my cousin to come and take me to the emergency room where I would later get stitches. My father later had to come to get us (thank god he didn't faint). I had to get six stitches in my head.

-Fatimah A.