Three YA titles from New Imprint of Alloy Entertainment

Official Press Release about Alloy Entertainment's new imprint and the release of its first three books. 

Every Ugly Word by Aimee L. Salter

Every Ugly Word follows 17 year old Ashley who is relentlessly bullied at her high school and by her own mother, and is helplessly in love with her best friend, Matt, who is bullied by his father.

She seeks help by looking to her future self, “Older Me” who supports her through it all and teaches her to love herself. But is she really seeking “Older Me” or is she looking within herself for the answers?

When Ashley looks in the mirror she can see and talk to her future self. “Older Me” has been her support system through her relentless tormentor’s bullying, her unstable mother at home, and her forlorn love for her longtime best friend. But when Ashley discovers “Older Me’s” betrayal, she is targeted in the worst way and impends her last chance with Matt. She’s done with hearing every ugly word.

A digital ARC of Every Ugly Word is available for librarians through NetGalley. 

Author Aimee L. Salter

Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand

Everyone is exactly like me.

There is no one like me.

The rough fabric of my cotton nightgown chafes so I lie very still. They say my discomfort comes from being built like one accustomed to niceties. How is that fair when I myself have never experienced anything but copies of the real thing?

My entire life is an imitation.

I am an Imitation.

I’ve been here five years. Training. Preparing. Waiting.

And now I have a letter.

My assignment has begun.

I am a prisoner.

I am not Raven Rogen.

I am here to die.

Ven is an Imitation, a clone of a wealthy girl named Raven. Imitations only leave their home, Twig City, when they are needed by their Authentics- to replace them in any situation, to serve as organ donors, or, as in Ven's case, to become bait when her Authentic's life has been threatened. Ven must pretend to be Raven even as she experiences the sights, sounds, and feelings of the real world for the first time. But real life is more dangerous than she ever imagined. The attacks begin the second she replaces her Authentic, and Ven is quickly caught in a game of cat-and-mouse with her assailants.

Author Heather Hildenbrand

A digital ARC of Imitation is available to librarians through NetGalley. 

Rebel Wing by Tracy Banghart

There are two things in the world that Aris truly loves: flying in her wingjet above Atalanta, and Calix, the boy that she is about to be promised to after the selection.

Just before the selection happens, a mysterious military officer named Theo presents her with a job alternative in his sector she never thought possible: to fly.  But from all the information that Aris has ever known, women are not allowed in the Military sector of the Five Dominions. What could he possibly have in mind?

With the war between the Five Dominions and Safara becoming increasingly dire, Theo also shares with Aris that there will be an increase in military recruits assigned at the selection and Calix will likely be on that list – allowing Aris to truly consider the job offer.

She could save lives, maybe even Calix’s.

In a society where conflict has overtaken, relationships are tested through the most dangerous of situations: war. REBEL WING will test the limits of love and explore how far people will go for the ones they truly care about. But even with Aris stepping up, high up in the backbone of the Five Dominions reside the wards of each sector, those in charge, and they truly have all the power. 

Author Tracy Banghart

A digital ARC of Rebel Wing is available for librarians through NetGalley. 

The Five Stones Summer Reading Blog Tour: Collect all four and seek the fifth!

Source: Goodreads

Move over, Narnia. The journey to Ayda has begun.

The journey to Ayda begins when five children sneak out for a quick boat ride on a summer day. Engulfed in a curtain of dense, powerful fog, they are transported from the rocky Maine coast to the mysterious island of Ayda. Rescued by Seaborne, a machete-toting wayfarer of few words, the children suddenly find themselves at the center of a centuries-old battle between Dankar, the ruler of Exor, and three siblings that rule the other realms of Ayda. 

At stake are the four stones of power and the elusive Fifth Stone that connects them all. When 9-year-old Frankie is kidnapped by Dankar, her older sister Evelyn and the three Thompson brothers must learn to harness the powers of the daylights, ancient forces of earth, fire, water, and air, in order to navigate their way through the realms of Ayda, save her, and find a way home

THE FOG OF FORGETTING will appeal to a wide audience from middle grade to YA readers who love action, adventure, and intrigue. And although you’ll forget time while reading this novel, the story reminds us that family is one thing that can never be forgotten.

Starting TODAY, you can register to win one of the five necklaces mentioned in The Fog of Forgetting. Use the Rafflecopter form below the image to register. Giveaway ends at midnight, July 23rd. 

Please be sure to visit the author's website  for more information about the book. 

Exor necklace

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 7-7-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (IMWAYR) is a weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to encourage others to share the books they are reading each week. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers added the "From Picture Books to YA" element to Sheila's idea. Many thanks to these four women for creating a fun way to share our reading lists. Please be sure to visit their blogs and see what they've read over the past week. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 6-23-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (IMWAYR) is a weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to encourage others to share the books they are reading each week. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers added the "From Picture Books to YA" element to Sheila's idea. Many thanks to these four women for creating a fun way to share our reading lists. Please be sure to visit their blogs and see what they've read over the past week. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 4-21-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (IMWAYR) is a weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to encourage others to share the books they are reading each week. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers added the "From Picture Books to YA" element to Sheila's idea. Many thanks to these four women for creating a fun way to share our reading lists. Please be sure to visit their blogs and see what they've read over the past week. 

Librarians as Leaders in Interactive Educational Apps

One of the weekly Twitter chats I enjoy participating in when time permits is the #storyappchat on Sundays This chat has given me the chance to connect with app developers, authors and illustrators, and talented librarians. It's also provided me with the opportunity to learn about identifying quality educational apps for children and finding ways to use them as a supplemental tool in school libraries and classrooms.

In the most recent #storyappchat, hosted by Heather Shugar from the Diapered Daze and Knights blog (@DiaperedKnights on Twitter), we discussed how to bring more attention to interactive educational apps. If you go back through the entire chat archive which was curated by Brooks Jones (@brooks_jones), you will see that both authors/content creators and librarians are concerned with separating the "fluff" apps from those that truly provide an interactive learning experience while promoting literacy. Another concern is finding ways to reach out to educators and assisting them in using interactive educational apps to enhance the learning experience.

The Ninja Librarians Recon Team Week 5

It's Week 5 of The Ninja Librarians Recon Team as we continue working to promote Jen Swann Downey's brilliant book - The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand. For those of you who might not be familiar with the book, it (finally) came out four days ago. Yes, I called a middle grade book for children "brilliant" because there's an important lesson in the book: censorship. The motif of The Ninja Librarians is making sure mankind continues to progress through creative thinking by rescuing historical figures who are in danger for challenging the status quo. For more information about this motif, please read my original book review of The Ninja Librarians. 

In any case, a new week with The Ninja Librarians Recon Team means a new topic. Here are the questions for week 5: 

Which historical figure would you like to be an apprentice for?  What would you like to learn from them (or get from them, since clearly Marcus has no intention of learning gardening….)?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 4-14-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (IMWAYR) is a weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to encourage others to share the books they are reading each week. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki over at Unleashing Readers took Sheila's idea and added "From Picture Books to YA," spreading the IMWAYR concept to a much wider audience.  

Yes, I know I've been slacking off big time with IMWAYR lately. In my defense, I've been occupied with administering STAAR and preparing for the TLA conference. Now I'm ready to get back on track. 

When I wasn't administering the state test, working on my poster presentation, or preparing for a road trip with another librarian from my school district, I've been mostly reading professional development books to improve my library program. 

Tellagami Tutorial

Piggybacking on Dr. Subramaniam's presentation at TLA, which I shared in my previous blog post, I'm sharing an introductory tutorial that I created for the Tellagami app. My hope is that librarians will be more confident in experimenting with Tellagami and share it with teachers.

Dr. Mega Subramaniam's Presentation at 2014 TLA Conference

Dr. Mega Subramaniam (@mmsubram) from the University of Maryland presented to librarians at the TLA conference in San Antonio. Her session, titled "Shifting Sands of School Librarianship: Math Phobic to Math Enthusiast," provided a list of suggestions for school librarians who want to assist teachers in helping students improve in mathematics. As a person who is math challenged, I chose to attend this session in order to be able to better support my teachers.

"Learning hAPPens in the Library" with Lori Heaton

IT Specialist Lori Heaton
TLA 2014, San Antonio

This past week at the Texas Library Association conference, I attended a session titled “Learning hAPPens in Libraries,” intended for school librarians but I think some of what I learned could be tweaked for a public library. The presenter, Lori Heaton, is a former school librarian currently working as an Instructional Technology Specialist in Arlington ISD.

Spotted at 2014 Texas Library Association Conference

TLA Swag - Where do I to start?!

That's all the swag I picked up at the 2014 Texas Library Association annual conference in San Antonio over the past week. The two stacks of books are mostly ARCs that I can't wait to get my hands and eyes on. What you don't see in the bags are more books for teacher giveaways; posters, pencils and bookmarks for students; and teaching guides for about a dozen young adult and children's books.

The Ninja Librarians Recon Team Week 4

Now that the Texas Library Association annual conference is over, it's time to go back to my favorite middle grade book of 2014 - The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand by Jen Swann Downey. It's now four days away from the book's release, and I'm incredibly excited about finally getting a published copy of it.

TLA 2014 Conference Poster Session

I'm thrilled to be participating in my first ever poster session. It wasn't easy trying to decide what format to use for the presentation, which information to include or not include, and how to display this humongous poster that I've created. But I've finally got everything all wrapped up. Poster is printed and ready to go. As are my handouts and my little tabletop easel. All that's left to do is make sure the poster doesn't get damaged during the trip to San Antonio!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3-31-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

Edgy Presentation Slides & Other Nifty Stuff with ScrapPad for iPads

I've been getting tired of the same old look of presentation slides even though I try to use a variety of presentation programs and apps - HaikuDeck, PowerPoint, and Google Presentation. Since I'm not a graphic design artist by any means, I really needed to look for some creative "cheats" to solve my dilemma. My solution: the ScrapPad app  by Album tArt, LLC. Yes, this app's intended use is digital scrapbooking but I won't let that stop me!

Q & A with The Ninja Librarians author Jen Swann Downey

That's the official book cover for Jen Swann Downey's debut novel, The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand which is set for release on April 15th. I've been waiting for this release since December when I read the galley. The wait has been driving. me. nuts. 

Thankfully, I was invited to become a part of the Ninja Librarians Recon Team, and that's helped me deal with the very long wait for the book's release. As part of my recon assignment, I approached Jen about answering a few questions about the book. Be sure to read through to the end of the Q&A for a sneak peek at the first chapter of The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand.

Tweetroot -- Word Cloud App for Twitter

Tweetroot App Icon

As I was looking around for word cloud apps to add to my iPad a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this little cutie. Tweetroot (@TweetrootApp on Twitter) is a free iPad app that allows you to search Twitter by username, hashtag or mentions and create word clouds based on the result of your search. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3-17-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

Three E-book Publishing Apps for Parents and Teachers

I've been working on a project with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in the library over the past couple of weeks. We are trying to make and publish our own e-books based on Doreen Cronin's Diary series. We've read Diary of a Fly, Diary of a Worm, and Diary of a Spider. We've talked about point-of-view and compared how life must be to a fly, a worm, and a spider compared to our lives. Then classes voted on which animal they wanted to write a book, and whichever animal had the most votes won. That was the easy part....

Book Trailer for The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand by Jen Swann Downey

Back in December, I wrote a review for The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand by debut author Jen Swann Downey. When I shared my review on Twitter, I mentioned the author in my tweet. The tweet grabbed her attention, and Jen and I started communicating. At one point I asked whether she had considered making a book trailer. Meanwhile, I was secretly dying to make one myself because I loved the book that much. I tried not making one but I wasn't very successful. I made the first version of the book trailer, then shared it with Jen.

What started out as my own little pet project to share with my students to encourage them to read The Ninja Librarians unexpectedly turned into a collaborative project with the author herself. I know without a doubt that if anyone asked whether she deserves any credit for this book trailer, Jen would say, "No, it was all Monica." Because she's just that humble. In all honesty, Jen provided insight and a fresh set of eyes that made the book trailer even more appealing to young readers.

This has to be the coolest experience I've ever had as a librarian.

I'd also like to mention the music used in this book trailer. The song is "Restless Sea" by Indie rock band Windsor Drive. If you enjoy the music, you might want to check out the entire song on SoundCloud, then buy a copy of the song. I purchased it for $.99 on iTunes.

Without further ado, here's the book trailer for The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand.

The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand is set to be released April 15, 2014. You can follow Windor Drive on Twitter at @WindsorDrive . Jen Swann Downey is also on Twitter at @jenswanndowney. 

Why Flipping Instruction in Elementary Libraries Makes Sense

Librarians at the elementary level often have several classes a day that require a lesson, help with finding books, checking out, taking Accelerated Reader quizzes, etc. On top of that, librarians fulfill their roles as technologists, program administrators, student advocates, collection development experts, and so on. Librarians at the elementary level often feel overwhelmed with all these responsibilities. If anyone needs to be able to clone oneself, it would be an elementary school librarian.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3-3-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

As someone who grew up painfully shy, I love reading books that have strong, independent female characters. I happily found several books featuring such main characters in my selected readings over the past week. 

Book Review: Thirty Sunsets by Christine Hurley Deriso

Flux
Expected publication: July 2014

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult

Forrest Shepherd is a sixteen-year-old girl wrapping up the last few weeks of her sophomore year. She is smart and witty. She seems confident in her own skin. And she's majorly crushing on a senior guy who barely notices she's alive. But the biggest challenge in Forrest's life is her nemesis - her brother's high maintenance, cheerleader girlfriend, Olivia.

Before Olivia, Brian had big plans. He wanted to go to Vanderbilt and study medicine. After Olivia, Brian throws away his acceptance letter to Vanderbilt and settles for the local community college so he can stay close to Olivia. Being very protective of her brother and his future, Forrest absolutely rues the hold Olivia has over her brother, who has made it clear that if he is forced to choose, he would choose Olivia over his own family. Forrest and her mother struggle to hide their disgust for Olivia in order to maintain a relationship with Brian.

Sock Puppets App and Learning to Listen

Little eLit, a blog I frequent for ideas and inspiration, is devoted to exploring the use of new media in children's services at public libraries. In a February blog entry on Little eLit, librarian Allison Tran shared how she uses the Sock Puppets App at her public library to reinforce behavior guidelines for little ones during storytime.

As many school librarians know, getting students to settle down and focus is an ongoing issue for every grade level. While older students might need a gentle reminder or two, students in Pre-K and Kindergarten need something that really grabs their attention. I heeded Allison's example and used the Sock Puppets App to remind students in these grades to settle down quickly upon entering the library and to be respectful to the librarian (me) and other students.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2-24-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2-17-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

As often happens with me, I set out with a reading goal but get distracted by shiny, new discounts on e-books and read those instead of what I intended to read. This was the case over the past week with  two great young adult books,  The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor and Park, which I discuss in the Young Adult Section of this week's post.

Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Delacorte Press, May 13, 2014

We Were Liars is the story of a wealthy American family, headed by Harris and Tipper Sinclair. The story is narrated by Cadence ("Cady") Sinclair Eastman, Harris's first grandchild and daughter of Penelope Sinclair. It begins in Cadence's eighth summer at Beechwood, the family's private island in Massachusetts. It is the summer that Cady and her cousins meet Gat. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2-10-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

Taking a cue from fellow librarian Julee Murphy (@JuleeMurphy) over at Book Egg, I'm including books I've used for library lessons over the past week. Indeed I think these books should be included in every It's Monday! What are you reading?, even if it's the second, third, or umpteenth time reading the books because these great books are still worthy of reading, and of course, sharing.

My PLN: It's Not Just About Me

Like many school librarians, I publish a monthly library newsletter for teachers. In the newsletter, I share planned library activities for the month, promote digital and print resources, provide a list of books and websites related to subjects and topics teachers will cover in their classrooms during the course of the month, and so on. The purpose of the newsletter, of course, is to reach out to teachers, keep the lines of communication open, and remind them that I am ready to assist them in meeting the needs of our students.

In the past two monthly newsletters, I've added a section about Professional Learning Networks. I've shared the benefits of PLNs through social media as well as tips on how teachers can get started with building their own. I mentioned in the newsletter how PLNs help us develop as educators and provide opportunities to create new experiences and approaches to educating our students.

Book Review: My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz

My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Happy Life is a very sweet story about a young girl named Dani and her day-to-day life. Although Dani has dealt with the loss of her mother, nervousness about starting school, and loneliness after her best friend moves away, Dani still remembers her many happy days.

Innovative Librarianship Nominated for TASL MVP Award 2014

I received the best news via email from the Texas Association of School Librarians (TASL) today. My blog has been nominated for the 2014 TASL MVP (Media and Virtual Presence) Award. This nomination means a lot to me because I know there are so many great blogs created by school librarians out there. It feels nice to be part of a group of supportive and creative school librarians, many whom I learn from every day.

The award winner will be announced in April during the Texas Library Association's annual conference in San Antonio. As a poster session presenter, I will definitely be attending the conference and look forward to finding out who gets to take home the TLA MVP Award!

More information about the TLA conference and the TASL MVP Award is available from TLA.

You might also want to check out Nancy Jo Lambert's (@NancyJoLambert) beautiful Borchardt Library website which won the 2013 TLA MVP Award.

It's Monday! What are you reading? 2-3-2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week.  For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 1-20-14

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is weekly challenge begun by Sheila at Book Journey to blog about the books readers enjoy each week. I've enjoyed posts by several members of my PLN, and I'm excited to finally take the plunge into It's Monday! What Are You Reading? For some wonderful reading suggestions, please visit Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, who took Sheila's It's Monday! What are You Reading? challenge and gave it a kid lit twist.

Book Review: The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

The Mark of the Dragonfly is a coming of age story about a girl named Piper. Only thirteen years old, Piper lives in Scrap Town Sixteen as an orphaned "scrapper" after the recent death of her father and struggles to make a living by repairing broken machinery.

Promoting Literacy through World Book Talk with Brad Gustafson and Heather Cooper

World Book Talk (#worldbooktalk) is undoubtedly my favorite collaborative project that aims to connect the world while promoting literacy. Created by principal Brad Gustafson  and teacher Heather Cooper, World Book Talk, as the name implies, is a collection of book talks from people connected through the Internet and shared via Aurasma's augmented reality technology. 

Seeking Book Recommendations from my PLN

I admire Edie Crook's (@WESMediaCenter) quest to collect book recommendations from her PLN. As soon as I read Edie's tweet about the project, I suggested two books for her students, one which was also suggested by another fellow librarian, Julee Murphy (@JuleeMurphy).

The idea that librarians and teachers from all over the world are suggesting books for young readers excites me beyond description. Therefore I would also like to invite my PLN to add their book recommendations for students in Kindergarten through 5th Grade at my school.

If you are interested in suggesting books for my students, please fill out the Google Form below.

And just like Edie did, I'll post pictures of your recommended books in the hands of eager readers!

For more information about Edie's idea please visit her blog Search. Discover. Share. Don't forget to make a suggestion (or two) for her students!

A Simple Activity to Help Students Set Personal Goals

This activity was used with 3rd through 5th graders, but as a former secondary teacher, I think it could be used with middle school and high school students as well. It'd be a nice activity during an advisory period or used as part of a campus character development curriculum.

Augmented Reality in the Library

With augmented reality, I saw an opportunity to inspire upper elementary students to explore our selection of picture books, get creative, and use that creativity to encourage younger students to read. I asked fifth graders to choose one Caldecott book to read in order to participate in this project, but they were allowed to use a non-Caldecott book if they wanted.

Book Review: The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant by Joanne Wiebe

The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant by Joanna Wiebe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley, and a little bit of patience, I received an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Anne Merchant is a sixteen year old girl who has spent her entire life in one of the richest neighborhoods in the U.S., Atherton, CA. Unlike her extremely wealthy neighbors, Anne grew up in a modest environment, having lived in an apartment above her father's mortuary.

Behind the Scenes of My Nerdy Book Club Post

Yesterday my first ever guest post was published on the Nerdy Book Club (@nerdybookclub) website. It was about my experience as a parent with raising a reader, and it was written in celebration of my daughter's eleventh birthday. If you visit the blog and read the post, you'll see a picture of my daughter in front of a stack of books. That picture tells only a small part of the entire story.

Book Review: Maisy and the Missing Mice by Elizabeth Woodrum

Maisy and the Missing Mice by Elizabeth Woodrum (@ewoodrumauthor)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't had much luck finding interesting self-published books. I'm happy to say that Maisy and the Missing Mice has finally changed my experience with self-published books. I purchased the Kindle version of this book for $2.99 in order to preview it. However there are print copies of the book available for $5.85 through Amazon as well, and I will be purchasing a copy of this book for my school library collection.

2014 Reading Goal and TBR List

This year I'm trying something new with my reading goals, thanks to Goodreads. I've never really kept track of books that I've read but now that I have a Goodreads account, I thought it'd be fun to create a list of the books I want to read this year and create a reading goal. (After all, I need to model reading habits for my students, right?) 

 For the time being, my goal is to read 300 books in 2014. 

App Review: Annie's Picking Apples 2

I am so happy to have the chance to share a math app with you -- Annie's Picking Apples 2 from RealFunLearning (@realfunlearning) -- recommended by the developer for ages four and up. However, I think it could be used for kids as young as three, especially if they seem advanced and are able to easily grasp new concepts.