six: Rick Riordan
While no author will ever replace J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan is coming in at a close second. Not only have his books been on the NY Times Best Seller List for the past nine years (yes, years), they are highly engaging for my students. As an adult, I find humor in his writing style and despite not being the target demographic, still enjoy the stories.
He tends to publish two books a year (May and October), so I'm savoring this one:
It will be a few months before I can get my hands on the next one.
My oh my, the side hustle game is strong this month!
I'm finally done with the Hidden Oracle and Dark Prophecy work!
Snag the novel guide for The Dark Prophecy {here}
Snag the chronological order comprehension sort for The Dark Prophecy {here}
Snag the student question guide for The Dark Prophecy {here}
Snag the bundle for The Dark Prophecy {here}
Snag the mega bundle (The Hidden Oracle and The Dark Prophecy) {here}
Snag the student questions for The Hidden Oracle {here}
Snag the updated bundle for The Hidden Oracle {here}
Now...I wait for what's next.
I swear this is like Harry Potter all over again.
With my staycation in Arizona winding down, I'm not really sorry about not accomplishing all my summer goals in a timely manner.
B was supposed to be on a work trip to Texas when I planned this staycation (and birthday celebration for my bro's gf). However, that got cancelled but he insisted I still take my mini-trip (but without the pets).
So for the past week(ish), I've been shopping, napping, eating out, watching movies, and lounging about with my family. It's been lovely. We're spending my last full day here doing brunch at home to celebrate a birthday, then my mom and I will visit Marshall's and Joann's.
Next month, the hubs and I will be going on our island honeymoon and after a discussion he now realizes he does in fact need flip flops/sandals for the beach. Thus, the Marshall's trip.
My mom is also looking forward to launching her quilting Etsy shop later this year (stay tuned), so we've got some props to buy (for staging the quilt) and banner colors to look at (for the photography set). She's visited the postal store to look at her shipping options.
I've also {crafted} and continued to work on Teach Like a Pirate, although it's not a book I can just breeze through because I stop and jot down ideas about what I want to do next year in my classroom. (Again, the whole sparking ideas thing might just be the point of the book.)
I'll be driving back super early tomorrow morning to beat the heat.
The rest of the week is devoted to:
1) Picking up my mom's wedding album from Costco
2) Finalizing honeymoon details
3) Cleaning and painting our built ins
4) Two different planning meetings with friends. One is for her son's sixteenth birthday, the other is for a baby shower in Sept. I'm easily bribed with food.
5) A coworker's birthday BBQ
6) Finishing Teach Like a Pirate
7) Oil changes on both vehicles, plus a brake change for the truck
8) Cleaning out the Sunshine closet at work
9) Manning the library for 2 hours. Our principal has opened up the library for students to come visit on summer break. I sent out the message on class dojo because I'm hopeful some of my students will come with their younger siblings (my future students)
10) Perhaps getting around to fixing the format of this blog. Sadly, adventures in fifth is no longer relevant.
11) Following ITSE posts from a distance. Maybe one year I'll apply...
12) Posting the morning messages PPT on TpT
13) Continue to work on The Dark Prophecy
I'm exhausted just looking at this list.
As a birthday celebration for my favorite Seaweed Brain,
All my products related to Rick Riordan's novels are 20% off from the 17-19th! Shop {here} and snag resources for your small groups! With 61 different options, there's sure to be something that will meet your (upper elementary) classroom needs.
So I'm rather late to the game on this, but I decided to bundle all of my novel guides on TpT with the corresponding centers. As a teacher, I'd want to buy in bulk to save, so I should do that for my customers!
So the past several days have been spent creating these bundled packs, so I'm pleased to announce the round of products!
{The Lightning Thief} bundle contains 3 centers and my teacher guide.
{The Sea of Monsters} bundle contains 2 centers and my teacher guide.
{The Titan's Curse} bundle contains 2 centers and my teacher guide.
{The Battle of the Labyrinth} bundle contains 2 centers and my teacher guide.
{The Last Olympian} bundle
{The Olympians} bundle: All five previous bundles, all bundled. Includes the bonus products of movie comparison guides!
{The Lost Hero} bundle contains the chronological order sort and my teacher guide.
{The Son of Neptune} bundle contains the chronological order sort and teacher guide.
{The Mark of Athena} bundle contains the chronological order sort and the teacher guide.
{The House of Hades} bundle contains the chronological order sort and the teacher guide.
{The Blood of Olympus} bundle contains the teacher guide & chronological order sort.
{The Heroes of Olympus}: Previously five listed bundles. The bundling of the bundles!
{The Red Pyramid}: bundle contains the novel guide and chronological order sort for the first of Sadie and Carter's Egyptian adventures!
{The Throne of Fire}: round two for Carter and Sadie!
{The Serpent's Shadow}: the final (for now) adventure for the Kane siblings, nicely bundled for your convenience.
{The Kane Chronicles}: bundle of previous three bundles.
{The Sword of Summer} bundle contains the chronological order sort and the teacher guide.
Yikes, no wonder I'm exhausted! On the bright side, I'm much closer to my end of summer goal of 200 TpT products!
I've been working on The Hidden Oracle, which is the first in The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan.
(This is the UK cover. I like it much better than the US cover.)
Like all his other works, I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I got angry at plot twists.
However, it's hard to keep all the specific details of a book in my head so I take copious notes while reading. I turn these notes into novel guides and my newest is now available {here} on TpT. Coming in at over 40 pages, it looks like I'm going to need a big binder for all my novel guides for next year!
The accompanying chronological order sort will be available in the next few days!
I finished the Hidden Oracle.
With help, of course.
I have a lot of feelings about it. I also used a lot of curse words at the plot twists.
I very much enjoyed it, despite the profanity. Rick Riordan may be my second favorite author, but no one tops J.K. Rowlings. She's number one, always.
So, I feel like this:
I hope to have the novel guide and chronological order sort done by Friday, so stay tuned.
I finished my training today. It left me rejuvinated and excited for the future, which is a feeling I've been lacking. I'm not quite through processing my learning, so stay tuned for that as well.
My mama found a very pretty dress while out shopping with her sisters today for the wedding. She looks happy and that makes me happy.
My dear friend (and officiant) Marlene became a first time aunt today. Congrats to the growing Q family!
I finished the end of Gilmore Girls (again), so the combination of the book and the television show has left me in emotional shambles.
First:
Yes.
April brings:
1) Pep Rally (that happened Friday and I'm still exhausted...but more on that later)
2) Final graduate classes to hit masters +32 (well, it will end up being +34...and one starts tomorrow.)
3) Several different paid teacher workshops. They're two hours a piece, I might learn something, and they're paid, which helps with wedding expenses.
4) Standardized testing...on the computers. This starts Tuesday morning. I'm testing in the computer pod outside my classroom, but many of these amazing {things to do while actively monitoring testing} will still work. Personally I'm a fan of the making car noises in my head suggestion.
5) B's 30th birthday.
6) Engagement pictures.
7) Erin's bridal shower in California.
8) Reed, Owen, and Ty are all celebrating their first birthdays. Lily J turns 4 and Lily B turns 7. There are lots of cute kids in my life (thanks friends for procreating!).
9) Doctors' appointments. I'm seeing an ENT specialist on Saturday. I'm hoping for some answers because this sinus infection is going on a month. A month. It's awful and I hate being outside.
10) Teaching, or at least attempting to provide an educational environment free of temper tantrums, theft, and melt downs. They're all hormonal and it's a rather rough class at times.
11) Field trip to the Animal Grossology exhibit. We need to figure out chaperones...and do more paperwork.
12) I'm having a bit of a fangirl moment because Fisher, of this book I read last month:
Will apparently be at our school this month. There's a principal meeting and he's attending...and doing walk throughs. How exciting!
But, let's jump into what's happening this month.
Reading... Binny for Short. STILL. It's another YA book for Battle of the Books and the last one I'm trying to complete. Let's be real, I don't think I'll finish it.
Especially when Rick has Demigods and Magicians coming out April 5th and a new novel next month...
Playing... how long will this sinus infection go on? Three rounds of antibiotics and it's still here.
Watching... well, rewatching Arrow reruns on Netflix. I finished Once Upon a Time, so at least I'm consistent in that goal!
Trying... to
be positive. This continues to be a struggle at the present time.
Being a grown up really stinks sometimes.
Cooking... nothing. It's a soup kind of day.
Eating... toast.
Drinking..water. Lots and lots of water.
Calling... no one. I just tried the doctor and it's not their regular business hours.
Texting...my grade level. Mrs. H has her birthday tomorrow so we're coordinating who is bringing which surprises.
Pinning... end of the year activities. I've got some difficult students, but I've also got some great ones. I want to make their end of the day
Going... ignore grading for the day. I fully graded 2/4 assignments and got started on the other 2. I'll call it progress.
Loving...Etsy..and coupons!
Hating... allergies. Sinus infection. My face.
Discovering... that I know nothing about the new STEM kits we got and I have some research to do!
Thinking... about bed. My face hurts. There's a lot happening this week and maybe I need to rest up for it.
Feeling... like I can never catch up.
Hoping (for)...standardized testing to go off smoothly without a hitch.
Listening (to)...B play video games/listen to videos for his class.
Celebrating... progress. Not success, just progress in the general onward direction.
Smelling... nothing. Thank you allergies.
Thanking... B for being wonderful.
Considering... trying to find a job that lets me craft things, read books, plan weddings, and drink mimosas while wearing pajamas and/or yoga pants. Where is that job?
Starting... to
realize that I can't trust everyone I work with and that's a hard truth to swallow.
Finishing... this and crawling back into bed.
I posted this message on my facebook wall, but felt it warranted appearing here too.
I wanted to say thank you to those who have supported one of my small businesses ({Jamberry}, {TeacherspayTeachers}, and/or {Younique Products}).
Your support helps pay for books and supplies for my students. (Specifically glue sticks, thousands of post its, and everything Rick Riordan writes in mass quantities. You'd figure nine copies of the same book would be enough, but it's not enough.) You helped pay for Waffles's pet adoption fees, shots, obedience school, and toys. (So many toys). You're helping us pay for our wedding, because we're trying not to go in debt for this fabulous dinner party we're hosting. Your support helped us afford the new computer B needed for college (because his laptop was eight years old). Your support helps cover expenses because teachers took a pay cut this year and well, that sucked. I need to double check my courses, but I'm pretty sure I just finished Masters +32, that I may or may not receive a pay raise for...so small businesses help cover the difference.
Thank you for supporting me.
So many feelings, so many days until the sequel.
Rick, you did it again.
As I {previously shared}, I got through about half of my {September} goals...and that's okay.
Let's do some goal setting for October!
1) For the love of all things holy, I need to finish this dang book:
It's good, I'm just struggling to find time to read independently...without pets on my lap.
2) Purchase and start this highly anticipated book:
I thought it was Annabeth's brother, but alas, Magnus is her cousin. It's in the newest Scholastic book flyers that I distributed, so I'll be buying myself one. There were lots of other great books, so I might spend some of my points and stock up on new things for my students.
3) Work on our wedding website. We decided (okay, I decided) to make a free one to fill our out of state guests in on events. I've started one on the knot, I just have to finish it.
4) Buy a new computer. B's is....eight. Yes, eight. It's a third grader. It's time for a new one. We're visiting my family at the end of the month, so it's a perfect time to get my brother's feedback (since he works for Microsoft) and get a new one. It's not perfect timing (because it never is), but we've been putting this off for about a year. He needs it for school and I need it for work.
5) Make the second {DEN ambassador meeting} even more awesome than the first! I've already got a few more teachers interested in attending, which is great.
6) Attend a cultural event. We're actually going to Greek Fest tonight, so this one will be easily accomplished! One of the great things about Vegas is that there are lots of fun things like this.
7) Visit the {Bellagio gardens}. We went over the summer and enjoyed their underwater display, but I guess they've changed it again for fall. It's free to get in and there's a chocolate store nearby. If B doesn't want to go (or has class), I'm sure I can talk some of my gals into going...right?
8) Make something with apples. It might be an apple pie. It might be apple cinnamon sangria. Okay, it will probably be the sangria. A friend just sent me a video of a new recipe and it looks fairly easy.
9) Have a girls day. We're doing a Frankenstein Jamberry Wrap Swap on the 17th and playing with make up (always fun), but I want to do a happy hour with my bridesmaids (the ones that are here). I also want to do a happy hour with some of my lovely coworkers. Y'all down for that?
10) Catch up with old friends. It's been far too long since I've talked with some of them on the phone. There's been some childish antics with "friends" here, so I'm ready to cut my losses and focus on the amazing people that I do have in my life.
11) Start Battle of the Books! Mrs. H, the librarian, and I have been hyping this up to the fourth and fifth graders. We're collecting permission slips and getting ready to start our after school book lounge. We're offering the kids some guidance, but the Battle of the Books is totally up to them. We wanted to give them extra reading time in the library after school and offer structure, but it's up to them.
12) Catch up on grading (almost done), finish the next two regions for social studies (the West Region is part way done), and maybe even get ahead in terms of planning (a girl can dream).
13) Continue to be extra patient with my students. Some of them have a lot going on at home and act out in school because they're having trouble coping. This is totally understandable, it's just taking some additional patience on my end. Patience that I quickly feel I'm running out of. It's hard with 34 students. It's hard when some of them are able to focus for thirty seconds at a time and constantly shout out. It's hard to continue to be patient when I have ten different private hallway conversations with a student on a daily basis about class norms. But...it's necessary.
14) Figure out my school costume. We're doing a theme for fifth grade...and the theme is balls. We're not the most appropriate ones, I know. It's more of a joke for the adults. I'm thinking of being a disco ball or a bowling ball. Totally fine costume by itself, but then when the teachers realize that all of the fifth grade teachers have something to do with balls...hilarity will ensue. The kids won't get it. But it makes us giggle.
So apparently my "top ten" got a little over zealous and I now have 14 goals for the month. But...overplanning is how I live my life.
What will you accomplish this October?
My dear friend Rick is releasing his newest book, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (book 1, The Sword of Summer) on October 6th and I'm even being close to patient about it.
I'm not quite at this level, but close...
Captain A is with me!
(Disclaimer one: I don't actually know Rick Riordan, but I have nothing but the highest respect for the man. I love his books and he's easily my second favorite author, ever. Sorry Rick, no one tops JK Rowling, ever.)
In the spirit of my excitement, I'm pleased to announce I'm having a:
All 39 of my products that are related to any of Rick's books are 15% off from October 5-7th! That's right, anything related to Percabeth (Percy & Annabeth), Jason, or the Kane siblings will be on sale to celebrate the newest book's release.
Stock up {here}!
Folks, the struggle is real.
I'm trying to prioritize reading as a way to unwind nightly. The problem is portion control. One more chapter turns into finishing the book and having very little sleep the next day.
Internet memes reveal I'm not the only one with this problem. Folks, I've got a problem...and I'm not sure I want to fix it.
I'm currently working on Al Capone Does My Homework.
I've read the other two and this one does not disappoint.
Next up is Wonder, which I've heard amazing things about!
I stumbled on these gems at Target today and it took all my will power not to buy them.
I'm anxiously waiting this gem:
And am still wanting to find hard cover (not kindle) versions of these cross overs:
Sigh. So many books, so little time! I'm also pleased to announce that I'll be doing Battle of the Books again, so I'll want to read those eight books as well.
What are you eager to read?
(PS, I can register for books for my wedding, right?!)
