Today was a great day for a walking field trip! Ms. Wright's fifth grade class and I walked from F.AVE to Little Shop of Stories in the Decatur Square for a book club! We met 4th and 5th grade students from Drew Charter School and from the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf to discuss our On the Same Page book, El Deafo, by Cece Bell. Almost all of Ms. Wright's students had read the book, so they were chosen to participate.

We started the book club by introducing ourselves, then listening to a short read aloud. During the entire book club, there were teachers from Atlanta Area School for the Deaf signing what was being said. After the read aloud, students broke up into small groups and discussed questions about friendship because so much of the book is centered around Cece trying to find a friend that won't treat her differently because of her hearing aid. All of the students then signed a friendship pledge and had a chance to ask each other some questions.

There was definitely some shyness in the groups because they were talking to kids they had never met. However, I saw some very sweet interactions. One of my favorites was when one of our students was sharing about an experience with one of his friends. One of the students from AASD, who had been very shy the whole time, asked him, using sign language, how old he was. Jaiden told him that he was 10, and the other boy grinned at him, and signed that he was 10 also. That is all he said, but you could tell that he identified with Jaiden's story.

I had a great time on the way home talking to a few kids about the experience. They wondered if kids still used the Phonic Ear device that Cece's teachers used (yes, they do). They wondered if people who were 100% deaf could still use hearing aids(we didn't think so, but we weren't sure). They shared their experiences with classmates or relatives that wore hearing aids, too. We discussed how some deaf people can still talk and how difficult it must be if you can't hear what you are saying. Another group of students taught me some signs that they had learned from the other students and teachers. Some of them are going to get a short signing presentation about the day together for our morning news show! The day provoked some really great conversation, and I'm sure all of the kids went home thinking about their day and the students that they had met. I know that I did!

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my job?

F.AVE has spoken! It was a hard fought battle, but we are down to two book series! The juggernauts, Harry Potter & Greg Heffley, are head to head! Students will vote through next week, then F.AVE will pick their favorite book series!

What to talk about first? Our media center is hopping these days!

This month, we are enjoying our On the Same Page book, El Deafo, by Cece Bell. Several classes are reading the book out loud using an ecopy of the book on their Activboard. My reading bowl and Newbery book club both borrowed copies from our collection provided by the Decatur Education Foundation and Little Shop of Stories. Those copies will be raffled off later in the month to students who can answer El Deafo trivia questions.

In the media center, we have an El Deafo station. Students can read one of several copies that live in the media center. Our circulated copies have a hold list in the double digits!

Next week, Ms. Wright's class is walking to Little Shop of Stories to have a joint book club with the Atlanta School of the Deaf. We will post our pictures and thoughts here afterwards!

So far, the consensus is that it is one of the best books kids have ever read!

We are also in the middle of our 2nd Annual World Series of Books! We started with 8 of our most popular book series: Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Goddess Girls, Nancy Drew, Heroes of Olympus, The Ranger's Apprentice, The Unwanteds, and Warriors. Students voted in the "wild card" round, and narrowed it down to our favorite four! We are currently in our Divisional Championship Round, and next week, we will see who is F.AVE's World Series Champion!

While all of this is going on, we are also working very hard during our media center lessons. Students are exploring our different CSD research tools: Nettrekker, Galileo, and World Book. Students are using Google Classroom to complete checklist assignments as they explore each research site. After they finish exploring a site, they write a reflection about what they have learned.

After we are done, students will create a presentation using Google Slides, make a screencast video tour of their favorite tool, or complete an IB Traits driven small research project. I can't wait to see what they have learned! An example of a checklist is below, along with flyers about each research site.